Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol11/pp104-107
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 07:54:16+00:00

Document:
In 1086 the hundred of Elstub comprised Enford, in which the tithings of East Chisenbury and Fifield were included, Netheravon with West Chisenbury, and Fittleton which probably included Haxton. (fn. 5) The compact block of land so formed was situated on the eastern edge of Salisbury Plain. It extended across two chalk bluffs divided by the valley of the Christchurch Avon through which ran one of the roads linking Devizes, Pewsey, and the vale between them with Salisbury. The hundred took its name from Elstub, a riverside meadow in Enford tithing, where much elder could still be seen in 1978. (fn. 6) When and how the prior of St. Swithun, Winchester, owner in 1255, acquired the hundred is unknown but in 1086 he already held the estate in which the hundred meeting-place lay. (fn. 7) The priors much enlarged Elstub hundred in the 13th century by adding to it their other estates scattered widely over the county in other hundreds. The 'ragged' hundred so created lacked geographical unity, its members being linked only by a common ownership. Little Hinton in the north of the county was withdrawn from Thornhill hundred in the earlier 13th century, (fn. 8) Patney in mid Wiltshire from Studfold c. 1248, (fn. 9) Stockton in the south from Branch before 1249, (fn. 10) East Overton tithing and Fyfield chapelry from Selkley in the early 13th century, (fn. 11) Alton Priors from Swanborough by 1281, (fn. 12) Wroughton tithing from Blackgrove by 1316, (fn. 13) and Ham from Kinwardstone by 1334. Although Westwood on the Somerset border was included in Elstub for taxation purposes in 1334, it was not finally transferred from Bradford hundred until the mid 16th century. (fn. 14) Rollestone on Salisbury Plain was transferred from Dole between 1428 and 1524 although it had no known connexion with St. Swithun's. (fn. 15) Bushton in Clyffe Pypard, another property belonging to St. Swithun's, was transferred to Elstub in the mid 16th century. (fn. 16) At the Dissolution the hundred passed to the Crown. Although it was not expressly mentioned in the grant of 1541 (fn. 17) which transferred much of the property of St. Swithun's to the new cathedral chapter of Winchester, Elstub hundred was apparently included in the endowment.
The liberties, including return of writs, taken by the earls of Leicester within Everleigh manor, where they had a prison in the mid 13th century, had by 1334 been extended over their other Wiltshire estates except Netheravon, Ablington in Figheldean, and Chitterne. Thus by 1334 Everleigh and Collingbourne Ducis had been withdrawn from Kinwardstone hundred, Compton tithing in Enford from Amesbury hundred, and Haxton tithing in Fittleton from Elstub hundred, to form the liberty of Everleigh. (fn. 23) No record exists to illustrate the administration of the liberty or the business of its courts. After the estates of the liberty became part of the duchy of Lancaster in the later 14th century and the earlier 15th the duchy seems, at least in the mid 16th century, to have exercised franchisal rights in Everleigh, to the court of which Haxton and Compton then still owed suit, and in Collingbourne Ducis where separate courts were held. (fn. 24) Although Compton had reverted to Amesbury hundred for certain administrative purposes by the end of the 14th century, it apparently continued to be considered part of the liberty. In the 17th century, however, it owed suit at the Amesbury hundred courts. Not until 1841 was it finally reckoned part of Elstub and Everleigh hundred. (fn. 25) In the 15th century the liberty, wrongly referred to in 1428 as a hundred, was generally treated as part of Elstub hundred for the purposes of central government but c. 1540 was still recognized as a separate entity. (fn. 26) Hundred and liberty were deemed to be merged by 1545, (fn. 27) and thereafter formed the hundred of Elstub and Everleigh.
2. V.C.H. Wilts. vii. 24 n.
4. Ibid. 3, 23 sqq.
5. Ibid. ii, p. 184.
6. P.N. Wilts. (E.P.N.S.), 327.
7. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (1), 230.
10. Ibid. 233; Crown Pleas, 1249 (W.R.S. xvi), pp. 187, 252.
11. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (1), 270.
12. Ibid. 234; Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 806.
13. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (1), 243; Feud. Aids, v. 202.
14. V.C.H. Wilts. iv. 299; Feud. Aids, v. 246; E 179/197/ 155; Taxation Lists (W.R.S. x), 4.
15. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (1), 254; Feud. Aids, v. 243; E 179/197/152.
16. V.C.H. Wilts. ix. 3.
17. L. & P. Hen. VIII, xvi, p. 417.
18. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (I), 230, 258.
19. B.L. Harl. Roll CC. 23; V.C.H. Hants, ii. 115.
20. C 66/708 m. 5.
22. D.L. 30/127/1902 ff. 1–3, 35; D.L. 30/127/1903 m. 2d.; E 317/Wilts. 37 m. 3.
23. Crown Pleas, 1249 (W.R.S. xvi), p. 197; Wilts. Inq. p.m. 1327–77 (Index Libr.), 15; V.C.H. Wilts. iv. 299; Levi Fox, 'Honor of Leic. 1066–1399', E.H.R. liv. 402. The earl of Leicester attempted to withdraw Compton from Amesbury as early as 1256: Close R. 1254–6, 439–40.
24. D.L. 30/127/1902 ff. 26, 31, 32V., 39; D.L. 30/127/ 1904.
25. E 179/196/51; Feud. Aids, v. 240; W.R.O. 192/24A; Land Tax; Census, 1841.
26. Feud. Aids, v. 233; L.& P. Hen. VIII, xiv (1), p. 301; W.R.O. 130/71, Ayer's quietus, c. 1540.
27. Taxation Lists (W.R.S. x), 3.
28. Rot. Chart.(Rec. Com.), 183; Cal. Chart. R. 1226–57, 145; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii (1), 230; V.C.H. Wilts. v. 56–8.
29. Crown Pleas, 1249 (W.R.S. xvi), p. 197.
30. Mun. D. & C. Winton., 13th- and 14th-cent. hund. ct. rolls; B.L. Harl. Rolls W. 3–31; V. 20–33; CC. 23.
31. Mun. D. & C. Winton., 13th- and 14th-cent. ct. rolls.
32. B.L. Harl. Roll V. 34.
33. Mun. D. & C. Winton., box 84, 17th-cent. hund. ct. rolls; Florence R. Goodman, Revd. Landlords and their Tenants (Winch, priv. print. 1930), 398. In 1651, however, W. Chisenbury, inexplicably, was reckoned part of Swanborough hund.: V.C.H. Wilts. x. 4.
34. B.L. Harl. Rolls W. 3–31; V. 20–33; Mun. D. & C. Winton., 13th- and 14th-cent. hund. ct. rolls and ct. rolls for Alton Priors; box 84, 17th-cent. hund. ct. rolls.

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