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Huntington. The manor of English Huntington included the remainder of the latter parish and the parish of Kington.

As regards situation, it may be described as high land, ranging on the north from 470 feet above the sea-level to 1,150 feet; and falling at its south-western extremity, adjoining Wye, to 240 feet; with two principal valleys watered by the streams called Arrow and Weythell Brook, which falls into the former a little to the east of Kington. The Wye forms but a small portion of its boundary on the south-west. The red soil of the old red sandstone prevails on the southern side of Arrow, and the grayish brown soil of the underlying Ludlow rocks occupies the rest of the manor. Weythell Brook, passing by the lime rocks of old Radnor, through the manor of Burlinjobb into Kington, flows slowly through what was a large morass extending almost to the town of Kington, still known as Hertmore, which has been gradually raised and converted into meadow-land by the silting of mud and gravel and drainage; in earlier times. yielding, in its higher portions, an abundance of coarse herbage often flooded, and therefore selected by the lord as his meadow-land. In the early part of the present century a large portion of the high land was unenclosed; and the hills known as Hergest Ridge, Bradnor, and Rushock, in Kington parish still remain open

common.

It would have been desirable to have traced the descent of the manor, with some particularity, to its successive owners, until it fell into the hands of the crown, if the task had not been already sufficiently performed by Mr. Parry, who was aided by the late Sir S. Rush Meyrick in his History of Kington, a work which was favourably reviewed in one of the early Nos. of the Arch. Cambr.

As the object of the present paper is to throw some light on the social condition of the inhabitants, the revenue and management of the manor from the time of Henry III to that of Henry VIII, the history of its suc

cessive owners needs only a passing mention, for Dugdale's Baronage will supply what is wanting to those who cannot refer to Mr. Parry's work.

The descent of the manor, as part of the lordship of Brecknock, is traced by Mr. Parry from Bernard Newmarch to the family of De Braose. It is certain, however, that William de Braose, who married Eve, daughter to Walter Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, was possessed of Huntington; and that on his death, in 1230, the manors of Hay, Eardisley,' and Huntington, fell, after the death of his widow, to the lot of his daughter, Alienor, the wife of Humphrey de Bohun, jun., son of Humphrey Earl of Hereford. Thereafter Huntington continued in the possession of the family of De Bohun until the death of Humphrey Earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, in January 1373, when it was allotted, as part of her share, to his eldest daughter, Eleanor, who married Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards Duke of Gloucester. Their only child, Anne, married successively Thomas and Edmund Earls of Stafford; and in 7th Henry IV, William Bourchier, Earl of Ewe. By the issue of her second marriage her possessions passed into the family of Stafford, Earl and Dukes of Buckingham; and on the attainder of Edward, the last duke, in 1521, were forfeited to the crown.

Whilst it was in the possession of the De Bohun family, Huntington appears to have formed part of the honor of Brecknock. It was held of the crown in capite by baron's tenure, which involved the tenant's attendance by himself, or a substitute, on the king in war, and his personal attendance at court on the three great festivals of the year, and on summons to the king's great councils. At the proffer of services taken at Tweedmouth, 4th Edward I, Humphrey Earl of Hereford offered the service of five knights' fees by five

Humphrey de Bohun and Aleanore his wife, by a fine levied in 36 Henry III, granted the manor of Irdesle to Walter de Baskerville, who by the same fine declared two parts of the manor of Brunley to be the right of the said Alianore. (Close Rolls, 36 Henry III, m. 16.)

As lords marchers

knights, with ten covered horses.1 they exercised a civil and criminal jurisdiction within the honor of Brecknock. It would seem that their justices held occasional sessions at Huntington, as in 1415 a charge is made in the reeve's account for the expenses of John Bussell, John del Brigge, and Hugh ap Ivor, justices of the lord and lady of the manor, at a session there.

The inquisition taken in 1267, on the death of Humphrey de Bohun, jun., as to the lands to which he was entitled in right of his wife Alienor, returns the burgess rents of Kington at £1: 2: 0, and of Huntington at 198. The other rents of Kington, Bauerton, New Kington, Moseley, and Chicwardine, amounted to £10: 16:1; those of Huntington to 14s. 7d., and of Brilley to £7; forming a total which varies but little, though different in detail, from the rental given in the inquisition on the death of his son, Earl of Hereford and Essex, in 1299.

Fortunately the inquisition of 1299 gives the names of the free tenants and an account of the tenure on which they held their lands. There were forty-seven free tenants in Huntington, whose rents amounted to £8: 13:5. Some held their lands by a military tenure, others paid in addition a fixed rent, and all were liable to attend the lord's court at Huntington thrice in the year. Of these, Eustace Whitney, who was probably lord of the manor of Whitney, held a messuage and two hundred acres of land by the service of one foot soldier with a bow and arrow, at the Castle of Huntington, in time of war, for forty days at his own expense. Philip ap Howell held a messuage and two hides of land of the lord of the adjoining manor of Lenhales, and was liable to find a man with a bow and arrow, at the Castle, for fifteen days. He also held lands in Kynton and Huntyton, for which he paid a fixed rent. Nicholas Lupus, Hugo de Heergest, Philip de Bauerton, John de la Sale,

1 Madox, Bar. Angl., p. 221.

2 See pleadings in a suit instituted by Roger de Mortimer and Lucy his wife in this court. (Madox, Bar. Angl., 155.)

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