THE HUNDRED OF LEWKNOR
In the early 19th century Lewknor hundred had an area of 19,780 acres and a population of 5,416. (fn. 1) Throughout the greater part of its history its villages have been
principally engaged in agriculture, and until the 19th century open-field farming
was generally practised. Arthur Young, writing in 1809, described the country
at the foot of the Chilterns between Tetsworth and Stokenchurch as open field with
'exceedingly good soil', a brown, strong loam and moist bottom which gave good wheat
crops. (fn. 2) Sheep farming was extensively practised, since the hill slopes provided plenty
of rough grazing. The marginal character of some of the hill land probably accounts for
the early disappearance of several medieval hamlets such as Linley, Plumbridge, and
Studdridge.
THE HUNDRED OF LEWKNOR
The connexion of the area with the Anglo-Saxon kings and the Abbey of Abingdon
gives the early history of the hundred a special interest. Throughout the Middle Ages,
although the influence of the honor of Wallingford was predominant, many powerful
feudatories such as the Earls of Devon and Hereford and the lord of the honor of Peverel
had interests in the hundred. After the Reformation the villages were peopled by many
prosperous families of yeomen and gentry, such as the Belsons, Ellwoods, Fanes,
Hampdens, and Scropes, the last of which included the regicide Colonel Adrian Scrope. (fn. 3)
Several members of these families played a prominent part in the religious life of their
neighbourhood either as Roman Catholics or Protestant reformers.
There were no big houses apart from Wormsley, which is now in Buckinghamshire,
but many pleasant stone houses, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, have survived and there are a number of medieval churches of interest.
The hundred took its name from the village of Lewknor. The name means 'Leofeca's
slope', and the hill now called 'The Knapp', just south of the village, where remains of
an early Iron Age settlement and of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery have been found, (fn. 4) is a
likely site for early meetings of the hundred. It also lies near the Icknield Way, one of the
early lines of communication in the Chilterns. This hundred is one of the few hundreds
named in the Oxfordshire Domesday Book, and was one of the 4½ hundreds in the soke
of the royal manor of Benson: (fn. 5) the others were Binfield, Langtree, Pyrton, and the halfhundred of Ewelme. The grouping of hundreds in connexion with royal and episcopal
estates is found elsewhere, but this is the largest of all the groups in Oxfordshire until
the 13th century. It has been demonstrated that this system was itself descended from
a far older system, antedating the formation of hundreds and shires, by which royal
estates were the centre of a wide territory supplying them with food rents. (fn. 6)
From the 14th to the 19th century the hundred consisted of the parishes of Adwell;
Aston Rowant with its dependent hamlets of Chalford, Copcourt, Kingston Blount,
Linley, Stokenchurch, and Wormsley; Britwell Salome; Chinnor and its hamlets of
Henton and Wainhill; Emmington; Lewknor and its dependent townships and outlying
parts of Abbefeld, Ackhampstead, Nethercote, Plumbridge, Postcombe, Studdridge,
and Padnells or Padnal's fee in the parish of Rotherfield Greys; Sydenham; and Tythrop
in the parish of Kingsey. With the exception of the township of Cadmore End and of
the parish of Britwell Salome, which was not surveyed, all these places are mentioned in
the hundred rolls as in Lewknor hundred. (fn. 7) The Domesday hidage of the vills known to
be in the hundred at a later date comes to 131¼ hides. (fn. 8) Several of the vills are assessed at
5 hides or multiples of that unit, and doubtless represented original units, but the
divergence of the total from 100 hides presumably results from alterations in the original
composition of the hundred. Britwell Salome (6 hides), for instance, may well have been
transferred to the hundred of Lewknor in the 11th century when the original Britwell
estate (i.e. Britwell Salome and Britwell Prior), once probably all in Ewelme hundred,
was divided between two lords, Britwell Salome becoming eventually a fee of Wallingford
honor and Britwell Prior going to Christ Church, Canterbury. Again, one hide in Wormsley
granted to the lords of Lewknor between 1086 and 1106, was perhaps transferred at that
time from Pyrton hundred to Lewknor hundred. (fn. 9) The 3 hides of Ibstone also appear to
have been a late addition. Their connexion with the hundred may be sought in the fact
that Tovi, the pre-Conquest lord of Ibstone, which lay on either side of the Oxon.-Bucks.
border, can probably be identified with the Danish thegn 'Novitovi', whom the Abingdon chronicler says granted Lewknor and its members to Abingdon Abbey. (fn. 10) In later
records Plumbridge in Ibstone was an outlying part of Lewknor manor. Part of Wheatfield was surveyed under the hundred in 1279 as one of the fees of Wallingford honor,
but the village itself may have been once wholly in Pyrton. (fn. 11) Bolney (Harpsden), on the
other hand, which was one of the few places entered in Domesday Book as being in
Lewknor hundred does not appear in later lists, but was included in another Chiltern
hundred, Binfield. (fn. 12)
In the Middle Ages Lewknor and the other 3½ Chiltern hundreds usually, though not
invariably, followed the descent of Benson manor. (fn. 13) Until the end of the 12th century
the king seems to have kept them in his own hands, but in 1199 John gave Benson
manor and its appurtenances, which evidently included the 4½ Chiltern hundreds, to
Robert de Harcourt, (fn. 14) who held them until 1204. (fn. 15) They were given with Benson to
John de Harcourt in 1218, (fn. 16) but in the same year the manor was granted to Engelard
de Cygony, and in 1220 the sheriff was ordered to give him seisin of the 4½ hundreds. (fn. 17)
On Cygony's death between 1243 and 1244, (fn. 18) Henry III gave Benson and the 4½
hundreds to his own brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, on his marriage. (fn. 19)
The earl was already lord of Wallingford honor, of which many of the villages in the
hundred were members, and the connexion between the hundreds and Wallingford
honor, and its successor Ewelme honor, was maintained until the mid-19th century.
Although the 4½ Chiltern hundreds were not always mentioned specifically in grants of
the honor they apparently passed with it. They certainly passed to Edmund, Earl of
Cornwall, in 1272, and reverted to the Crown on his death in 1300. (fn. 20) In 1309 Edward II
granted them to Piers Gaveston whom he also created Earl of Cornwall. (fn. 21) After Gaveston's death in 1312 they were again in the king's hands until 1317 when he granted
Wallingford honor with its hundreds, views, knights' fees, and other appurtenances in
dower to Queen Isabella. (fn. 22) Although her estates were resumed in 1324, the queen again
acquired them when her party obtained the great seal in 1326, and held them until
Mortimer's fall and her own disgrace in 1330. (fn. 23) Edward III granted Wallingford honor
and its members in 1330 to his brother John de Eltham (d. 1336) to support him as Earl
of Cornwall. (fn. 24) In 1337 the honor of Wallingford was among the properties formerly annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall, which was settled on the Black Prince and on future
heirs to the kingdom with the limitation that they reverted to the Crown when there was
no heir. (fn. 25) After the death of the Black Prince in 1376 the duchy was therefore held by
his son Richard as heir to the throne and later as king; (fn. 26) by Henry V when he was Prince
of Wales (fn. 27) and later when king; and by Henry VI. (fn. 28) The Duchy of Cornwall and with it
the honor continued to be held by the various heirs to the throne in the second half of
the 15th century, but since most were under age the administration was generally in
the king's hands. (fn. 29) Henry VI's son Edward, born in 1453, was Duke of Cornwall, (fn. 30) but
in 1460 in the civil wars Richard, Duke of York, who died in the same year, was granted
the duchy as heir to the throne. The young Prince of Wales, later Edward V, held it
from 1471 to 1483; Edward, son of Richard III, from 1483 to 1484; Prince Arthur from
1486; and on his death in 1502 it went to his brother Henry, later Henry VIII. (fn. 31) In
1540, however, Henry VIII separated Wallingford honor from the Duchy of Cornwall
and united it to his newly created honor of Ewelme. (fn. 32) The 4½ Chiltern hundreds were
included in the new honor also and henceforth followed its descent. Until 1817 it seems
to have been usually in royal hands although James I is said to have granted it to the
queen as dowry and later to Prince Charles. (fn. 33) In 1817 the king sold the honor to Jacob
Bosanquet of Brosanbury (Herts.), who resold it in 1821 to George, 4th Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1842). (fn. 34) The steward of the honor stated in 1847 that the lord of the honor was
immediate lord of certain manors in the honor, and was considered 'Lord Paramount'
of other manors in it which were the property of the mesne lord. The several parishes
and tithings which owed suit to the courts leet were understood to be within the extent
of the honor. (fn. 35) The Macclesfields were still lords in 1847 when the last courts were held,
but a number of dues had not been paid for some years (fn. 36) and it was evidently difficult
to command attendance there.
Thirteenth-century and later medieval evidence shows that for administrative purposes the villages within the hundred fell into two main groups, those which as fees of
Wallingford honor attended the honor courts and those which attended the hundred
court. In 1220 the honor included Adwell; Aston Rowant with its townships of Copcourt, Stokenchurch, and Wormsley; Britwell Salome; Henton in Chinnor; Kingston
and Linley; Nethercote in Lewknor; and a Wheatfield fee (i.e. Lower Wheatfield). (fn. 37)
Since the lord of the honor had return of writs, pleas of vietnam, right to a gallows, and
the assizes of bread and ale as well as other royal rights, these members of the honor
were exempt from the jurisdiction of the hundred court at Lewknor. Their lords
attended the monthly honor court at Wallingford and the tithings went to one of the
six annual views of the honor held locally. (fn. 38) By 1296, however, if not before, the 4½
Chiltern hundreds were organized with Benson, Watlington, and other manors in the
bailiwick of Wallingford honor. (fn. 39)
The surviving court rolls of the honor preserve the distinction between the two
groups for annual view and the three-weekly hundred court. (fn. 40) In the 15th century these
courts were held for the hundred at Lewknor and were attended by Crowell, Emmington, Lewknor and its townships of Ackhampstead, Cadmore End, Plumbridge, Postcombe, and Studdridge, by Tythrop and by Wainhill, a township of Chinnor. Chinnor
itself with its member Sydenham attended a special view held by officers of the honor
at Chinnor, under an agreement which can be dated back to 1248 at least. (fn. 41)
There are records of eighteen hundred courts in 1412–13 for villages attending at
Lewknor. View of frankpledge was held annually in April or May: two tithingmen
from Lewknor and one each from each of the other tithings attended to pay cert
ranging from 2s. to 8s. From about 1535 the views for Lewknor and Pyrton hundred
were combined and held for a few years at Shirburn, but later on at Lewknor.
No records of a three-weekly court survive for the tithings in the villages which were
fees of the honor, although it is possible that the monthly honor court or the manorial
courts performed this function. (fn. 42) The view for the honor's fees in Lewknor hundred
was held in 1300 at Kingston, (fn. 43) but by the 15th century at Aston Rowant, save for
Britwell Salome which went to the view of the honor held at Chalgrove, which was
nearer and therefore more convenient. In 1431 one tithingman each from Adwell,
Britwell Salome, Henton, and Wheatfield attended; Aston and Stokenchurch were each
represented by two tithingmen; and there were three tithingmen from Kingston and
Linley, representing the three fees of Blounts, Verneys, and Narnetts. Cert money
ranging from 1s. to 4s. 4d. was paid. Chalford, originally an estate of the honor, does not
appear in any of the honor court records since it was granted in free alms to the Priory
of Wallingford in the early 12th century. The prior claimed in 1276 to have view by
warrant of Earl Richard, then lord of Wallingford honor. (fn. 44)
The above arrangement of the leet courts continued down to the 18th century when
Pyrton and Lewknor hundreds attended the same court leet at Lewknor, except for the
fees of the honor which attended at Aston Rowant or Chalgrove. By the late 18th century the courts met usually once a year in March or April, and by this time the chief
purpose of the annual courts leet was to appoint certain officers of the peace and others,
such as haywards, and to receive payment of quitrents and cert money. (fn. 45) There was a
Stokenchurch or Postcombe division (instead of Aston Rowant), a Chinnor division to
which Crowell, Emmington, Henton, and Tythrop had been transferred, and Lewknor
and Chalgrove divisions. Further changes were made in the 19th century: Padnal's fee,
for instance, was transferred from Lewknor to Ipsden division in 1842.
In the Middle Ages the office of steward of the honor was one of considerable importance and was often given to influential local men. Thomas Chaucer obtained thestewardship of the honor and of the 4½ Chiltern hundreds in 1399, and after him it was held in
survivorship by his daughter Alice and her husband William, Earl of Suffolk, and later
by her son John, Duke of Suffolk, and his wife; in 1489 it was granted to Sir William
Stonor and Sir Thomas Lovell. (fn. 46) In the 18th century lesser gentry held it, as, for example,
Richard Carter in 1725, Edward Simeon in 1749, and William Lowndes in 1793. (fn. 47)
The last steward of the honor was George Davenport. (fn. 48)
The bailiff of the 4½ hundreds was subordinate to the steward and administered the
hundreds with the bailiwick of Wallingford. As late as 1640 it was complained that the
bailiwicks were granted by patent to persons of great rank, whose representative had
little or no dependence on the sheriff. (fn. 49)
For ordinary administrative purposes another grouping existed. Since the 17th
century at least there was a south division and a north or east one, each with a chief
constable. The south division comprised the parishes of Adwell, Aston Rowant with
its hamlets, including Stokenchurch and Wormsley, Britwell Salome, and Lewknor.
The north or east division comprised the parishes of Chinnor, Crowell, Emmington,
Sydenham, and the village of Tythrop. The chief constables, who were responsible
for returns to quarter sessions, were drawn from the ranks of the yeomen or gentry,
such as the Hesters of Kingston Blount and the Newells of Adwell. (fn. 50)