WESTON CORBETT
The parish of Weston Corbett, covering only 513
acres, is immediately north-east of Herriard and northwest of Weston Patrick. It now forms a part of the
parish of St. Lawrence Weston Patrick and consists of
a stretch of meadow and arable land sandwiched between the south-eastern boundary of Herriard Park and
the main road which forms the north-western boundary
of Weston Patrick, and continues north-east to Upton
Grey. This road, running between Weston Corbett
and Weston Patrick, separates the two villages, Weston
Patrick with its church, schools, and picturesque
cottages lying on the south side of the road, while
Weston House, the two farms, and the two cottages
comprised in Weston Corbett, lie on the north side,
and seem to be part of Weston Patrick. There is no
church or school in the village, which is thus dependent on Weston Patrick.
Weston House lies east of the narrow lane that leads
north uphill from the main road, while on the opposite side are the one or two cottages of the village and
the Manor Farm. North of the farm the lane curves
downhill to the west, and then turning sharply north
and north-west goes off in two branches across the
west of the parish towards Tunworth.
The soil of the parish is chalk with a subsoil of chalk
producing crops of wheat, barley, and roots. The
actual proportion of the arable land, pasture, and
woodland in the parish is difficult to gauge since the
return for Weston Patrick and Weston Corbett is
made together, as 695¾ acres of arable land, with
299¼ acres of permanent grass, and 457 acres of
woodland. Certainly little of the woodland is in
Weston Corbett since, except for a thin belt of copse
running along about half a mile of the western
boundary, an extension of Herriard Park, there are
no woods in the parish.
MANOR
WESTON CORBETT is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but in
1224 it was held of the crown by
Thomas Corbett from whom the manor derived its
name. (fn. 1)
Thomas Corbett, who belonged to the great
house of the lords of Caus, had evidently granted his
land of Weston to Robert son of Madoc for life, and
in 1224 recovered seisin of it,
but Henry III commanded
that a dowry of lands in Weston should be assigned to the
wife of Robert, son of Madoc,
'for the love he bore her, in
that she had been foster-mother
to his niece, the daughter of
Llewellyn Prince of Wales.' (fn. 2)
Corbett. Or a corbeau sable.
How Weston Corbett passed
from the Corbetts is not
known, but at some time
during the fourteenth century
it became the property of another great family
connected with the Welsh Marches, that of De
Breuse, lords of Gower.
William de Breuse, who died about 1325, held
the manor. (fn. 3) He appears to
have alienated this property
temporarily to John de Laudimor, who in 1304 held demesne lands in Weston Corbett, and was granted free
warren there by Edward I, (fn. 4)
and in 1316 was described as
holding the vill of Weston
Corbett of the king. (fn. 5)
De Breuse. Azure crusilly and a lion or.
On the death of William
de Breuse the manor descended
in moieties to his daughter
Olive, wife of John de Mowbray, and his grandson
John de Bohun, son of his daughter Joan. (fn. 6)
John de Mowbray, whose wardship and marriage
had been granted to William de Breuse in order that
he might marry his daughter, had the misfortune to
become embroiled in a dispute with the Despensers,
whereby he incurred the wrath of Edward II. He
was captured after the battle of Boroughbridge,
1322, and hanged, 'the royal spite being so hot that
burial was grudgingly granted to his corpse.' (fn. 7) Olive
and her son John were imprisoned in the Tower,
her late husband's lands being confiscated, and she
herself having to yield up much of her own inheritance. (fn. 8)
An inquisition taken upon her death in 1336
shows that Richard de Peshale, her second husband,
held half the manor of Weston Corbett as his wife's
inheritance, and that upon her death it fell into the
king's hands. (fn. 9) An order followed forbidding further
meddling with the moiety, as the king learnt that
Richard de Peshale held of Olive's inheritance, and
that a daughter, born of the marriage, was living. (fn. 10)
However, her son by her first husband became her
heir, since John de Mowbray, (fn. 11) the younger, held half
the manor in the following year, (fn. 12) and afterwards
parted with it to the other co-heir of William de
Breuse, John de Bohun of Midhurst, who thus
became sole lord of the manor. (fn. 13) John de Bohun
died in 1367 (fn. 14) and left a son aged five years,
of whom the wardship was granted to Thomas de
Burton. (fn. 15)
This son, Sir John de Bohun, died in 1433, and
his heir also was a minor. (fn. 16)
The manor passed from the Bohuns with the
marriage of Mary daughter and heiress of Sir John
Bohun of Midhurst to Sir David Owen, a natural son
of Owen Tudor. (fn. 17) John Owen of Wootton, his
descendant, sold the manor in 1558 to James Altham,
alderman of London, (fn. 18) who sold it almost immediately
to John Elliot, a mercer of London. (fn. 19) A slightly
different account of the descent appears in a petition
filed in Chancery between 1558 and 1579 by John
Grene for waste committed by John Harte and
Humphrey Ockley. (fn. 20) According to statements therein
made, it seems that John Owen leased the moiety of
the manor to John Harte and Thomasina his wife for
a term of years, and sold the reversion to Mr. Elliot
of London, who sold it afterwards to Mr. Alton
(Altham) of London. By Alton the reversion was
sold to William Cufande, who sold it to John Grene.
This account of the order of the sales is incorrect, as
it was Altham who sold it to Elliot, and the whole
manor, not the moiety, was sold; but the truth of
the sale to Cufande is attested by a fine of 1559,
which seems to indicate a sale of the manor (it is
here described as the manor, not as a moiety) by
John Elliot to Simon and William Cufande. (fn. 21)
From another Chancery proceeding it appears that
Henry Owen tried to claim the manor. According
to his own account he was the son of John Owen by
Isabel Catesby, and was under age when his father
died in 1558. His mother then married John
Prestall, described as a hopelessly dishonourable
person, who obtained the young heir's property by
false pretences, and even wished him to murder his
mother. (fn. 22) He could have had, however, no claim,
since his father had sold the manor.
There is proof of the sale to Grene in that John
Grene held property in Weston Corbett (described as
land, not as the manor) before his death, which
occurred about or before 1587. (fn. 23) To his widow Agnes
he left this land, with reversion in tail male to his
cousin, John Grene of Basingstoke, and final remainder
to his nephew John Grene. The widowed Agnes
remarried, taking as second husband George Norton,
whose right to the property was contested by John
Grene, the nephew, on the grounds that in remarrying, Agnes had failed to fulfil certain conditions under
which alone she could hold the property. (fn. 24)
The name of Norton is connected with the manor
during the next century, as in 1678 Richard Norton
of Southwick sold it to Sir Thomas Higgons for
£1,645. (fn. 25) George Higgons,
his eldest son, sold the manor
in 1700 to Gilbert Serle, a
merchant of Leghorn. (fn. 26) Peter
Serle held the manor in
1738, (fn. 27) and the name of his
son, (fn. 28) Peter Serle, occurs in
1784. (fn. 29) To this latter Peter
Serle, Wentworth Serle, his
younger brother, sold his interest in the property in 1793. (fn. 30)
By his will, proved 1827,
Peter Serle bequeathed his
manor to the son of his sister
Sukey, Sir William Oglander, who sold it to George
Purefoy Jervoise. (fn. 31) In 1847 the niece of George
Purefoy Jervoise, Mrs. Eliza Fitz Gerald, succeeded
to the property, and in 1848 or 1849 exchanged
it for other land with her first cousin, Francis
Jervoise Ellis Jervoise, whose grandson, Mr. F. H. T.
Jervoise, is the present lord of the manor. (fn. 32)
Higgons. Vert three cranes' heads razed argent.
The church was in ruins at the end of the sixteenth century, since which date there has been no
church in the parish. The earliest mention of a
church of Weston Corbett occurs in 1305, when John
de Laudimor was patron. (fn. 33) The advowson afterwards
passed to the lords of the manor. John de Bohun,
father and son, both held the presentation.
The right having lapsed, Lady Ann Roos presented
between 1447 and 1486. (fn. 34) Later, Richard More, of
the king's household, presented. (fn. 35) The lords of the
manor were again patrons in the reigns of Philip and
Mary and Elizabeth, John Altham and John Elliot
both holding the advowson. (fn. 36)
In or about 1586 Elizabeth, on the petition of Sir
James Crofte, granted the 'free chapel of Weston
Corbett, now ruined and profaned,' to Edward Wymarke, to be held in common socage and by payment
of rent. (fn. 37) There is no further mention of the
church.
The tithes were also given to Edward Wymarke,
but in 1678 were sold with the manor by Richard
Norton to Sir Thomas Higgons. (fn. 38) The tithes were
subsequently held by the Serles and Sir William
Oglander, (fn. 39) and are still owned by the lord of the
manor.