MILVERTON (fn. 1)
Acreage: 1,273.
The old parish of Milverton lies east of Warwick
and north-west of Leamington Spa. The River Avon
forms its northern and western boundaries, and the
Leam its southern, part of the eastern having originally
been the Binsbrook, (fn. 2) now built over but commemorated
by Brook Street in Leamington. Until about 1840 it
seems to have been little affected by the growth of
Leamington, but by 1880 the district between Rugby
Road on the north and Warwick New Road and Milverton Hill on the south had been built over, (fn. 3) and
since then there has been considerable development to
the north of Rugby Road. In 1894 the parish was
divided into the two civil parishes of Old and New
Milverton; the latter, being within the borough of
Leamington, was absorbed into the newly constituted
civil parish of Leamington in 1902. (fn. 4)
In the south-west corner of the parish was the hamlet
of Edmondscote, or Emscote, (fn. 5) which was depopulated
by inclosure in the 15th century, and by the middle of
the 17th century contained only the manor-house. (fn. 6)
This was a stone building, apparently medieval in
origin, retaining in 1835 'a pointed arch towards the
court' and in the back kitchen 'remains of a gothic
window'; there was an oak staircase up to a wide gallery,
and one room, panelled in oak, had over the fire-place
'an Ancient Fancy Piece of Painting'. (fn. 7) It stood slightly
to the south-west of the present Milverton Station, on
the Leamington—Coventry branch of the L.N.W. (later
L.M.S.) Railway. A short distance west of it was the
old bridge over the Avon, 'an irregular narrow building
of 7 or 8 arches, some round and others pointed'. (fn. 8)
Emscote Bridge was in a dangerous state in 1625 (fn. 9) and,
after the usual disputes as to responsibility for its
repair, was largely rebuilt in 1629, (fn. 10) but by 1650 was
again in need of repairs. (fn. 11) By 1830 it had been condemned as unsafe and next year the existing Portobello
Bridge, some 20 yards lower down the stream, replaced
it, at a cost of £9,000. (fn. 12)
North of the bridge an island, formed by canalization
of part of the course of the Avon, is the site of the
Rock Mills, where in 1792 a cotton-spinning factory
was established by Benjamin Smart, a Leamington
Quaker who had bought the manor-house and mill from
the Bests. For a while it employed nearly a hundred
persons, but it was not a financial success, and by 1830
it had been converted into flour mills. (fn. 13) This was
probably the site of the mill of Milverton valued at
50s. in the Domesday Survey, (fn. 14) and of the mill which
John de Astley held of Sir Andrew de Astley in 1279. (fn. 15)
In 1560 the estate of Alvred Trussell in Milverton
included a water-mill and a fulling-mill, (fn. 16) and ten
years later his son was dealing with a water-mill and
fishing rights in the Avon. (fn. 17) There was also a mill on
the Leam, to which Thomas Hugford had leave to
divert the stream in 1430. (fn. 18) This was presumably
one of the two mills attached to Emscote Manor in
1621, (fn. 19) and may have been the water-mill called
Averyes mill, in the tenure of William Ord, in
1630. (fn. 20) In 1705 the joint manors of Emscote and
Milverton included a water corn-mill and fullingmill. (fn. 21)
In 1805 an Act (fn. 22) was passed for the inclosing of
certain open fields, common meadows and pastures,
and waste in Milverton, the hamlet of Emscote being
expressly excluded. The map attached to the Award
of 1808 shows that the land to the west of the Old
Milverton Road had already been inclosed, as well as
much in the south round Conery Farm, later 'called the
Cunnery from formerly swarming with rabbits' (fn. 23) and
now Gunnery Farm, a 17th-century timber-framed
house with traces of an earlier stone building. The
largest allotments were made to Elizabeth Baldwyn,
formerly widow of Benjamin Palmer (227 acres), the
Earl of Upper Ossory (as trustee of the Earl of Warwick) (186 acres), and Bertie Greathead of Guy's
Cliffe (162 acres).
Dr. Thomas in 1730 noted under Milverton that
'Their Wake follows St. James', (fn. 24) and it continued to
be held, in the form of a small fair, on the Monday
after St. James's Day, 25 July, until about the end of the
19th century.
Manors
In 1086 MILVERTON, which had
formerly been held by Lewin and was
rated at 1¾ hides, was in the hands of the
Count of Meulan. It included a mill worth 50s. and
30 acres of meadow. (fn. 25) The overlordship was afterwards divided between the earls of Warwick and
Leicester. Part of the Warwick share was held with
Astley and Morton as 1½ knight's fees by Thomas de
Estley, or Astley, in 1235 and 1242, (fn. 26) and by Nicholas
de Astley in 1316. (fn. 27) Thomas de Astley conveyed his
land here, with other property, in 1337 to the chantry (fn. 28)
which in 1343 he converted into the college of Astley, (fn. 29)
and it formed the endowment of the prebend of
Milverton in the college.
When the elder Geoffrey de Clinton was on his
death-bed he told his son Geoffrey to restore to his
man Ermenfrid de Ponte 2 virgates of land in Milverton, which Geoffrey accordingly did. (fn. 30) This may
perhaps have been the estate in Milverton which was
said in 1221 to have been pledged to Jews and had then
been for the past seven years in the hands of William
de Cantilupe, being valued at £7. (fn. 31) It may also be
identical with 'an escheat at Milverton' of which
Richard Trussell had the homage and Margery his
mother's sister had the rent in dower at the time of
Richard's death at Evesham in 1265. (fn. 32) Richard's
brother William Trussell was one of the three lords of
Milverton in 1279 and held of Andrew de Astley as
1/9 knight's fee, Andrew holding of the Earl of Warwick. (fn. 33)
William was returned as lord of the vill in 1316, (fn. 34)
and in 1382 Sir Alvred Trussell settled the manor on
himself in tail male. (fn. 35) His descendant Thomas Trussell
died in 1516 seised of property described as 10 messuages
and 20 virgates of land, leaving a grandson Alvred (fn. 36) at
whose death in 1560 the estate is called 'tenements', (fn. 37)
but in 1573 Alvred's son John Trussell conveyed 'the
manor' of Milverton to Adam Palmer, (fn. 38) who had
married his sister Dorothy. (fn. 39) Their (? great-grandson)
Henry Palmer married Anne Greswolde, (fn. 40) and after
the deaths of Benjamin Palmer (1734) and his widow,
who married Baldwin of Aqualet (Staffs.), the manor
passed to Henry Greswold Lewis and Mrs. Wilson, and
in 1835 was sold by Mr. Wilson for £36,000 to the
Hon. Charles Bertie Percy of Guy's Cliffe, (fn. 41) in which
estate it was merged, the manorial rights, if any existed,
lapsing.
Roger, Earl of Warwick, when he founded his
collegiate church of St. Mary at Warwick in 1123
included in its endowments ½ hide of land in Milverton
and the tithes of all his fee there. (fn. 42) In 1279 Ralph de
Hengham, who was returned as one of the three lords
of Milverton, was apparently mesne lord between the
Earl of Warwick and the college, of which the 2
virgates that he held formed a prebend. (fn. 43) This
arrangement was probably purely temporary and
personal to Ralph. When the college was suppressed
in 1547 it was receiving 12s. rents, of which 8s. were
paid by the Beaufoes of Emscote. (fn. 44)
The portion of the Count of Meulan's estate which
descended to the Earls of Leicester lay mostly in
EMSCOTE. After the death of Robert 'fitzPernel',
the last Earl of Leicester of this line, the overlordship
passed to his sister Margaret, wife of Sayer de Quincy,
Earl of Winchester, (fn. 45) and a half fee in Emscote and
Milverton was held by their son Earl Roger at his
death in 1264. (fn. 46) He left three daughters and coheirs,
the younger of whom, Elena, married Alan la Zouche and
was in possession of the half fee in 1279, (fn. 47) as was Alan
la Zouche in 1313, (fn. 48) and Robert de Holand, in right
of his wife Maud, daughter and coheir of Alan, (fn. 49) in
1328. (fn. 50) Their granddaughter Maud, widow of John,
Lord Lovel of Titchmarsh, died seised of the half fee
in 1423, (fn. 51) as did her son Sir William in 1455. (fn. 52) The
last Lord Lovel was attainted and forfeited his estates
in 1495, but the manor was still held of the honor
of Winchester in 1504. (fn. 53)
Walter Spigurnel of Emscote gave to the monks of
Combe Abbey common of pasture of his fee of Milverton near Blackdown (fn. 54) in Lillington (q.v.). He had
evidently acquired this estate by marriage, as in 1210
he and his wife Celestria claimed against Robert de
Milverton 2 virgates in Milverton, as having belonged
to her father Henry; (fn. 55) and in 1224 they granted
meadow in Emscote to Walter de Edlegh, to be held of
the heirs of Celestria. (fn. 56) Moreover, in 1231, when they
claimed the advowson of the church of Milverton
against the prior of Kenilworth, to whom Walter
remitted his claim in the following year, (fn. 57) it was on the
ground that Celestria's father Henry had presented his
brother Godfrey to the living in the time of Henry II. (fn. 58)
This Henry may possibly have been the Henry de
Edelmescote who was dealing with land in Emscote in
1202. (fn. 59) Walter was presumably succeeded by James,
as in 1247 Richard le Espigurnel as guardian of John,
son of James le Espigurnel who held of the Earl of
Winchester in Emscote, was claiming sole fishing rights
in part of the River Leam. The jury found that the
Earl and Countess of Warwick had the right to fish there
in person and that their men might take fish for their
use on one or two days before their arrival at Warwick. (fn. 60)
This John Spigurnel was one of the three lords of
Milverton in 1279, and also lord of Emscote, holding
in each case from Elena la Zouche, and also had the
fishing rights in the Leam between the Avon and
Binsbrook. (fn. 61) A later John Spigurnel in 1325 settled
an estate in Emscote and Milverton, defined as 6
messuages, 4 carucates of land, and 100s. rents, on
himself and his wife Maud, (fn. 62) and probably died not
long afterwards, as Maud Spigurnel is said to have held
1/6 knight's fee here in 1336. (fn. 63) The family seems to have
died out soon after this, possibly ending in an heiress
married to John de Charleton of Middlesex, as he and
his son Thomas in 1374 confirmed to John, son of
William Rivel of Buckby (Northants.), lands in Emscote
and Milverton, with the reversion of others held in
dower by Joan, widow of James Spigurnel. (fn. 64) William
Rivel left a daughter Joan who married Geoffrey de
Edmundescote, (fn. 65) also called Reynolds, and their son
Richard took his mother's name of Rivel and in 1408
conveyed the manor to Robert
Hugford and Joyce his wife, (fn. 66)
whose daughter Margery Richard married. (fn. 67) Later in the year
Robert Hugford, who was controller of the household of the
Earl of Warwick, (fn. 68) received a
grant of free warren in Emscote
and Milverton. (fn. 69) His son
Thomas in 1430 gave land near
Warwick to the earl in exchange
for the right to divert the water
of the Leam to his mill. (fn. 70) In
1438 Thomas was called lord
of Emscote when he and his wife Margaret had an
indult to possess a portable altar. (fn. 71) His son John died in
1485, leaving as coheirs three daughters: Joan who
married Henry Beaufoe, Alice, wife of Richard Cotes,
and Anne who married Gerard Danett and had a
daughter Elizabeth who died childless. (fn. 72) Richard Cotes
died in 1504, leaving a son John, who in 1512 conveyed
his share to John Beaufoe (son of Joan Hugford). (fn. 73)
Gerard Danett, having had issue by Anne, held 'by
the courtesy of England' tenements in Emscote which
reverted on his death in 1520 to John, son of John
Beaufoe, a minor in ward to Sir Edward Ferrers. (fn. 74)
John Beaufoe was, therefore, seised of the manor when
he died in January 1530, leaving a widow Ursula and
four sons, of whom John, the eldest, was 7 years old. (fn. 75)
The estate, known from 1583
onwards as the manors of Emscote and Milverton, descended
in the family until the death of
Sir Henry Beaufoy in 1678. (fn. 76)
His eventual heir was his sister
Martha who married Sir Samuel
Garth, M.D., physician to
Queen Anne. Their daughter
Mary Beaufoy Garth married
William Boyle, a grandson of the
first Earl of Orrery, and had a
daughter Harriet Anne, wife of
the Rev. William Dee Best, (fn. 77) who in 1776 made a
conveyance of the manors and church to George, Earl
Brooke and Warwick. (fn. 78)
Hugford. Vert a cheveron between three bucks' heads or with three molets gules on the cheveron.
Beaufoy. Ermine a bend azure with three cinquefoils or thereon.
Dr. Thomas in 1730 states that the Earl of Stamford
'claims a royalty (i.e. a manorial lordship) but has little
or no estate' in Milverton. (fn. 79) The Earls of Stamford
(who from 1796 to 1883 were also Earls of Warrington) (fn. 80) appear as lords of the manor of Milverton
between 1729 and 1832, (fn. 81) and the only manorial lord
mentioned in the Inclosure Award of 1808 was George
Harry, Earl of Stamford and Warrington, whose
allotment was the insignificant amount of 1 acre, 39
perches. As the earls were descended from Henry,
Lord Grey of Groby, who was nephew of Henry
Grey, Marquess of Dorset and later Duke of Suffolk
(attainted in 1555), to whom Astley College with its
estate in Milverton was granted in 1545 (fn. 82) it might be
supposed that this lordship derived from the prebend
of Milverton; but it is definitely stated in the Award
that this manor was 'parcel of his Honour of Winchester'. So, apparently, the claim was to the overlordship, by descent from Margaret, eldest daughter and
coheir of Roger de Quincy. It does not seem to have
been advanced before the 18th century and apparently
faded out in the 19th, leaving as its chief memorial the
'Stamford and Warrington Arms', now Milverton
Coffee House, in Rugby Road.
Churches
The old church of ST. JAMES,
on the crest of a hill which slopes west
and north to the Avon, was a small
building, apparently mainly of the 13th century, with
chancel, nave with north aisle, and west tower. (fn. 83) By
the end of the 18th century the greater part of the tower
had been removed and replaced by a timber-framed
tower with a pyramidal cap, and it is probable that the
whole edifice was in poor condition. It was pulled
down and completely rebuilt on the same site in 1879–80 from designs by John Gibson (fn. 84) at the cost of Lord
Charles and Lady Ann Bertie Percy. The present
building consists of chancel, north organ-chamber and
vestry, north aisle, south porch, and west tower. The
walls are of coursed rubble outside and ashlar inside,
with windows and doorways in late-13th-century style.
The north arcade is of three pointed arches. The upper
story of the tower has an arcade of four pointed arches
on each face.
There are three bells, (fn. 85) two of 1863, and the third
inscribed sancta katerina ora pro nobis, with shields
bearing the marks of Henry Jordan.
The communion plate includes a silver Elizabethan
cup with strap-work ornament and the date 1570.
The registers begin in 1742.
The church of ST. MARK, in Rugby Road, New
Milverton, was built and endowed in 1879 by the
Rev. E. Carus-Wilson and E. Carus-Wilson, esq. in
memory of their sister Lady (Trevor) Wheler. It was
designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in red brick with
stone dressings, in 14th-century style. It consists of
chancel with north chapel, transepts, clearstoried nave,
north and south aisles, south porch, and a large west
tower with battlements and pinnacles.
Milverton Episcopal Chapel, (fn. 86) built in 1835 on part
of the Earl of Warwick's Emscote estate, and pulled
down in 1882, was a remarkable building 'of Grecian
architecture' designed by Mr. Jackson of Leamington
and had some unusual features, such as the placing of
the pulpit behind the altar.
Advowson
Although, as mentioned above, in
1231 Walter Spigurnel claimed the
advowson of Milverton Church from
the Prior of Kenilworth, to whom he remitted it in
1232, it was in fact a chapel of Leek Wootton, with
which it had been given to the priory. It had been
appropriated to the priory before 1279, (fn. 87) at which
time there were 15 acres of glebe, but no vicarage was
ordained. In 1371 and 1384 the chapel was served by
the vicar of Leck Wootton. (fn. 88) Just before the Dissolution, in March 1538, a lease of the rectory for 60 years
was made to Richard Newport at a rent of £8 6s. 8d.
on condition of his paying the chaplain's stipend of
£5 6s. 8d. (fn. 89) His son John Newport married Dorothy,
sister of Sir Christopher Hatton, on whose death their
son William took the name of Hatton. (fn. 90) This Sir
William Hatton had the rectory and the advowson of
the vicarage of Milverton in 1590 (fn. 91) and conveyed
them in 1593 to Thomas Beaufoe. (fn. 92) They then
descended with the manor of Emscote (see above),
being conveyed to Earl Brooke and Warwick in 1776. (fn. 93)
From the Earl of Warwick the advowson was bought
in 1878 by Lady Ann Caroline Bertie Percy; and is
now in the hands of Mrs. Heber-Percy. (fn. 94)
The living of New Milverton is in the gift of trustees.
Charities
Thomas Thompson. It is recorded
on a tablet in the Church that he gave
£100, two-thirds of the interest to be
distributed among the poor of Tachbrook and one
third among the poor of this parish. The income
applicable for the poor of this parish amounts to 17s. 8d.
Lampet's Charity. By a declaration of trust dated
15 March 1894 a sum of £72 4s. 5d. was invested, the
income to be paid to the vicar and churchwardens of
Milverton for the benefit of the deserving poor of the
parish. The annual income amounts to £1 16s. 4d.
Herbert William Hutchings Green by will dated
8 November 1932 bequeathed to the vicar and churchwardens £100 for the benefit of the parish so long as
certain specified graves are kept in good order.