Collections towards the history and antiquities of the county of ..., Volume 2
By John DuncumbPARISH OF HOPE MANSELL.
HOPE MANSELL is bounded on the north by the parish of Westonunder-Penyard; on the west by Walford; on the south by Ruardean; on the east by the township of East Dean, in the County of Gloucester.
This parish is found variously written in ancient documents—as Hope Maloisel, Gloster. Abb. Reg. 1246—Hope Malersell—Maynshall Hope—Hope Meleshull—Hope Malcysell, Epis. Reg. 1457—and Hope Mansell.
The epithet of Hope, a Saxon word signifying a deep valley, accurately describes the position of this parish; and its latter designation is fancifully conjectured to be that of Mai Oisel: the Bird of ill omen. Its vicinity to the wooded Purlieus of the Forest of Dean, may account for the figurative addition.
When England was invaded by the Normans, this parish is supposed to have formed part of the desmesnes of Ralph Earl of Hereford, whose ancestor was displaced by the victors, and his estates bestowed on William FitzOsborn, a near relation of the King. He was succeeded in his Earldom by his youngest son Roger,* surnamed De Bretevil, on whose attainder in A.d. 1073, the honor of Monmouth, (to which Hope Maloysel was an appendage,) was given to Wihenoc or Wythenoc, a noble Norman, who founded a Priory of Benedictine Monks at Monmouth, and made it a cell to the Monastery of St. Florent, at Saumur, from whence he brought Monks to inhabit it. He
» Vol. I. p. 125.
gave them several advowsons with various lands and tithes, and died a Monk in the Monastery he had established.* He was succeeded by his nephew William Fitz-Baderon, whose ancestor was Lord of Monmouth and of this Manor at the time of the Domesday Survey—in which important Record it is thus noticed.
"William Fitz-Baderon holds Hope, Leuric, and Edeulf, held it as for two « manors- There are 4 hides of land taxable. Solomon holds these of William "F. B. In the lordship are two carucates, one villain, and one Borderer "with one carucate and a half. In the reign of King Edward it was worth "40 shillings, and it is of the same value now. The third part of this manor "belongs to the Church of St. Peter, at Gloucester. In the time of King "Edward the Sheriff certified to this statement."
1102. William I., who frequently resided at Gloucester, and celebrated his
Christmas there with great splendour, was a munificent benefactor to its abbey, in which he was lodged. His example was followed by those in attendance upon him, among whom William de Pomeria, a favorite Norman officer, who had obtained large possessions in Devonshire, gave to the monks of St. Peter at Gloucester his village of Bery (now Berry Pomeroy), which his brother Goselin afterwards regained by an exchange for the parish of Shelden, near Collumpton; in lieu of which, a portion of the manor of Hope Maloisel was given to the abbey, (Dug. Baron.} The Abbatial Records state that this arrangement was completed before 1104, by their celebrated abbot, Serlo, who had been chaplain to William, and who is described by the Monkish Historian, as a man "humble to the good, menacing and terrible to the proud :" though the names of the contracting parties are not preserved.
William Fitz-Baderon was living in 1119, and was succeeded by his son Baderon Fitz-William, who augmented the estates of the Priory. He was living in 1128, about which period he married Rohesia, daughter of Gilbert Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, sister of Richard Strongbow, the Conqueror of Ireland, and was father of Gilbert, James, Walter de Huntley (whose descendants still exist), and Robert. Gilbert de Monmouth died about A.d. 1190, and was succeeded by his son John, who served as Sheriff for Herefordshire in 1231, and died in 1247, having, between the years 1230 and 1240, made further donations to the Priory. By his first wife Cecily, daughter of William Walerand, he left four daughters; and by his second, Agnes de Musgros, he had issue William, who died vita patris; John, who succeeded to the Estates; Richard de Wyesham; and Walter.
John de Monmouth, junior, paid £100 for his relief, and had livery of his lands in 32 Henry III., A.d. 1248. He augmented the revenues of the Priory by further grants of lands, &c.
In 1256, being heavily in debt to the Crown, in consideration of the payment of which by Prince Edward, he conveyed to him his Town and Lordship of Monmouth with the consent of the King, who confirmed it by patent, A.d.
* Wakeman MSS.
1257. This John, Lord of Monmouth, married Maud, daughter of David Earl of Huntington, by whom he had two daughters, Joan and Albreda.—(Claus. Roll, 4:lst Hen. III.) He died in 1274, leaving Katherine his second wife surviving, who had her dower assigned in the next year out of his lands in Herefordshire. Hope Mansel passed, with the Lordship of Monmouth, to Prince Edward, who, on succeeding to the throne, gave it to his brother Edmund Earl of Lancaster, whose second son Henry was Lord of Monmouth, before he became Earl of Lancaster, on the attainder and execution of his eldest brother Thomas in 1321, and did homage and had livery of Monmouth and its appendages, A.d. 1326. His son Henry de Grosmont was the first Duke of Lancaster, and left two daughters — Matilda, married William Duke of Bavaria, and died without issue, seised of Monmouth.—(Inq. post, m., 36 Edw. III.} Her sister and co-heiress Blanch succeeded to these Estates, and married John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, jure uxoris, father of Henry IV., when they merged in the Crown, and were afterwards sold to various purchasers, retaining the privileges appertaining to Duchy Land.*
The Abbey of Gloucester held some part of the Baderon property by the tenure of Grand Serjeantry. In villata de Hope continent' duae hidae quas Abbas de Glocestre tenet de Walteri de Hunteley et Walt' de Hunteley de dno Johanne de Munemue et tenet dictus abbas per serjantiam de honore de Monemue, (Test, de Nev.,) and their estates were increased in this parish, by donations, privileges, and purchases. In A.d. 1246, Roger the Abbot, and Convent of Grace Dieu, sold to the Abbey of Gloucester, in fee, for 15 marks of silver, 18 acres of land in Hope Maloysell, in the tenure of Gilbert Lepiatte; and 18 acres, in the tenure of Gilbert and Julian his son.—(Glouc. Abb. Reg. B., No. 1091, M.S. Prin.) About this period, Thomas Dunn gave to the Abbey all his lands in Hope Maleysell, undertaking, if his wife should survive him, that she should be endowed to an equivalent by his heir out of other lands.— (Ibid. No. 1092, M.S. Prin.)
7th Edward I.—The Abbot of St. P., in Gloucester, was to have his wood 1279. (i. e. the fallage) in Hope Maloysell, infra forestam le Dene, provided it was without injury to the King, or of his forest.—(Pat. 9th Edw. I.; Esch. 9t/i Edw. /., No. 57.)
The Abbot of Gloucester had leave to cut wood in Birchwood and Hope 1324. Maloysell, without demand or view of the Foresters.—(Claiis. Rot. 17th Edw. II., M. 21-2).
12th Edw. III.—The Abbot and Convent of Gloucester having had all 1339. the wood of Hope Maloysell heretofore (they said) in the Purlieu, begged their right to be granted (189).—(Petic in Parlmt., llth Edw. III.)
At what period, and whether by purchase or Royal grant, the Abbot acquired the Lordship of the entire Manor is unknown, but in the return of Lords of Parishes and Townships ordered by the Parliament of Lincoln, 9th Edw. II., for the purpose of raising military levies, the Abbot of Gloucester is stated to be Lord of Hope Maloisel.
» Wakeman MSS.
b 2
i5«. This manor was annexed to the See of Gloucester at its erection, A.d.
1541, when, in a rental of this Bishoprick, it is thus estimated—
Hope Meleshull, Co. Heref. . . . £10. 13». 3d.
This manor with its appurtenances was granted, 32 Henry VIII., to George Baynham, Esq., of Westbury-on-Severn, for twenty-one years, at a yearly rent of £9. 15s. Qd.
1552. In 1552, Edward VI. granted by patent to Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester,
and to his successors for ever, for the maintenance of the said Bishoprick, the
Manors of Hope Maleshul, Dewchurch, and Kilpeck, late belonging to the
Monastery of St. Peter, in Gloucester; with the Parsonages and Churches of
Dewchurch, Kilpeck, Glasbury, Devynnock, Cowarne, and Ewias Harold.—
(Strype, Eccl. Mem. xiv. 35.)
Manors of Hope Maleshul, Dewchurch, and Kilpeck, late belonging to the
Monastery of St. Peter, in Gloucester; with the Parsonages and Churches of
Dewchurch, Kilpeck, Glasbury, Devynnock, Cowarne, and Ewias Harold.—
(Strype, Eccl. Mem. xiv. 35.)
1649. Jn 1649, Hope Mansel being seized by the Parliament, as part of the pos
sessions of the See of Gloucester, was purchased by Robert Thayer, esquire, of Cooper's Hill, in the parish of Brockworth, near Gloucester, an eminent antiquarian and a zealous Royalist, for £130. 16s. 3d. In 1652 the following were the principal persons holding lands in this parish :—
John Nourse, of Woston, esquire; Jeremie Hyett, gentleman; George Thayer, gentleman; John Keyse, of Weeton, the elder; John Keyse, the younger; John How, Richard Blast, Henry Mylls, William Gryndon, James Palmer, Myles Button, gentleman; John Streete, and Barbara Stratford, spinster.
At this date the customs of the manor were considered and set forth in a deed, attested by the Lord and the Copyholders.
The tenure is one of inheritance for one or more lives. Three years' chief rent, the usual fine for a renewal—the lord being also entitled to the best beast for a heriot, except from a tenement called Hallow, for which ten shillings only are demandable in lieu of a heriot; a widow is entitled to her free bench during her life, keeping herself unmarried, and not committing waste to the prejudice of the next heir, paying to the lord one penny for her admittance and her chief rent. The lord is entitled to a heriot on the decease of each widow, but no heriot is due for a forfeiture; and if a tenant commit treason, felony, or murder, then his estate falls to the next heir in blood of him that committeth the offence, and not to the lord.
Courts Baron are held, when the convenience of the suitors require them.
On the return of Charles II., this manor was restored to the Bishops of Gloucester, Mr. Thayer continuing as lessee until 1668, when a new Lease was granted to Mr. John Keyse, whose family had possessed lands in this parish in the 16th century. Mr. Keyse was succeeded, in 1692, by his eldest son Robert^ who dying s. p. in 1720, devised his property to his great-nephew Robert Keyse, a solicitor in Ross, whose only son John having predeceased him unmarried, he bequeathed the estates to John Holder, of Ross, attorneyat-law, who had married Mary, the only surviving child of Robert Keyse. Arms of Keyse, per chevron, gules and sable, 3 keys: 2 and 1 wards upwards. Mr. Holder having no family, left Hope Mansel, in 1801, to his nephew, John Holder, esquire, of Cubberly House, near Ross, who disposed of the manor to Thomas Nixon, esquire, of Bill Mill Lodge, in Weston, in 1805; and his Devisees sold their interest, in 1825, to Thomas Trusted, of Gatsford, in Brampton Abbots, gentleman, from whom it passed by purchase in a few months to John Partridge, esquire, of Bishop's Wood, in Walford, who disposed of it in 1840, to Thomas Holt, esquire, of Gloucester, the present Lord farmer. Arms of Holt — Gules, a chev. betw. 3 fleur de lis, arg. crest, a squirrel, ppr. cracking nuts. Motto: Perseverando. The parish, containing 1173 statute acres, of which about 500 acres are covered with wood, lies on old red sandstone, nearly surrounded by the mountain limestone, (which is raised in considerable quantities and prepared here for agricultural purposes), and abuts upon the coal measures of Dean Forest. The following plants have been found within its limits :— Dianthus Armiria (Deptford Pink), Rubus Idceus (Raspberry), Epilobium Angustifolium (Rose-bay, Willow Herb), Pyrola Minor (Lesser Winter Green), Veronica Buxbaumii (Buxbaum's Speedwell), Polypodium Dryopteris (Oaked Fern), Vacdnium Oxycoccus (the Cranberry).
Lands and woods in this parish were granted by license, from Edw. III. to Richard Talbot, to found the priory of Flanesford, within his desmesnes of Goodrich Castle, in 1346.
A private Act was obtained in 1807, for enclosing certain commonable and waste lands, once called the Abbot's Purlieu, and, since the Reformation, the Bishop's Purlieu, within this Manor and Parish.
The persons stated to be owners, or otherwise interested in these lands, were —
Trusted, John Addis, Mary Jones, Simon Woodhall, Eichard Addis, and George Martin.
The owners of estates exceeding 100 acres, 1854, were — Rev. John Herbert, M.A., Mr. George Jones, Mr. Thomas Bennett, Mr. Thomas Woodhall, and Thomas William Booker, Esq., M.P.
The population, in 1801, was returned as 92; in 1852 it was 189, at which period the inhabited houses were 36. The amount of poor-rates collected in 1852, was £68. 18s.; in 1837, it was £44. 4s. 6d. This parish is within the petty sessional division, polling-district, and poor-law union of Ross, from which town it is distant about five miles.
ECCLESIASTICAL ACCOUNT.
Hope Mansel is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £6. 5s., with glebe worth 13s. 4d. It paid nothing to the taxation of Pope Nicholas, but contributed forty shillings to that of Edw. I., in 1286,...
On the North Wall of the Chancel, on an ancient Mural Tablet.
"A famous spouse of Christ and God's child dear
"In heart prepared for her Lord sleeps here.
"Her waking soul with Christ on high doth reign,
"The dust her body shall restore again.
"All evils which do hang on us she's past,
"From sorrows freed, death was her gain at last.
"O greedy death, thou dost but few such find
"Amongst thy guests in body or in mind.
"Pleasant she was to all, to Saints most sweet,
"Not less belov'd than known so as was meet.
"Her husband's glory, a sweet prudent wife,
"Is fled, alas! 'tis sorrow for our life.
"So worldly joys do perish, great and small,
"To place our joys above God help us all.
"Kind reader thou dost run without delay
"Unto the grave! think on thy dying day."
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