Held at:

Private Collection

Reference:

RS

Source:

Rentals of the manor of Ewyas Lacy [Transcription by Dewi Bowen Williams BA]

Title:

Land tenure in Michaelchurch Escley: Earl of Leicester’s land

Place name:

Michaelchurch Escley

Date:

1566

Description:

Private research aimed at identifying land holdings in Michaelchurch Escley described in a survey of the Rentals of the manor of Ewyas Lacy carried out for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester after being given a moiety of the manor by Queen Elizabeth I.

 

Land tenure in Michaelchurch Escley: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1566

 

Name of owner/ tenant

Welsh

Acres[1]

English

Acres

Rent

p.a.

Notes

 

 

 

 

 

David ap Howell

25

100

2s 1d

Freehold plus messuage

David ap Rees Mady [Maddy?]

22

88

22d

 

David ap Richard ap Howell ap Ievan

3

12

9d

One close of ‘bound’ land called Cae Llencarda

David Thomas, gent

41

164

3s 5d

Freehold plus messuage, late in the tenure of Rees David and Ievan Vaughan

David Thomas, gent.

24

88

2s 5d

Messuage with 2 acres ‘freebond land’ + 22 acres free, late of John Phillip Vaughan and Morgan John

Evan ap Adam

16

64

4s 1d

Customary land for 21 year term

Gruff Lewis

28

112

7s

At 3d per acre

Henry ap David ap Howell

21

84

5s

19 acres freebound + 2 acres freehold ‘in Michaelchurch and Craswell’

Henry ap Rees ap Jenkin

½

2

1d

 

Henry David

3 ½

14

10d

‘free bond land’

Henry Howell Glyn Bean

11

44

2s 9d

Customary land

Henry Howell Gwillym Bean

10

40

10d

Freehold

Howell ap Rees Mady

18

72

18d

 

Howell ap Richard Morgan

7

28

21d

 

Howell Gwillym ap Rees

12

48

12d

Freehold

Howell Phillip

5 ½

22

16d

 

James Benoyer

4 ½

18

4d

Freehold

James Price

6 ½

26

20d

‘free bond land’

John Baskerville

32

128

2s 8d

Freehold plus messuage

John Howell Gwillim ap Harry

6

24

16d

5 acres ‘freebound land’ +1 acre freehold

Morgan William

16

64

16d

 

Phillip David

7

28

21d

‘free bond land’

Phillip Harry

13 ½

54

22d

4 ½ acres at 3d; rest at 1d the acre

Phillip John William

3 ½

14

11d

 

Phillip Thomas Phillip

1 ½

6

4d

‘free bond land’

Rees ap Rees

½

2

1d

 

Rice Griffith

5

20

5d

Freehold

Roger Vaughan, knight

6

24

6d

Freehold and messuage

Sybil Vaughan, widow

39

156

3s 3d

Freehold plus messuage for life, then to Walter Vaughan

Thomas Gilbert gent

19

76

19d

Freehold plus messuage

Thomas Gilbert gent

22

88

22d

Messuage in Michaelchurch in tenure of Morgan William

Thomas Gilbert, gent

3

12

9d

Held by copy [‘Hallmote tenant’]

Thomas Gilbert, gent

[?22]

[?88]

22d

Two messuages & land [? possibly in Longtown]

Thomas Whitney

26

104

2s 2d

Freehold

William ap John Richard

4

16

10d

3 acres at 3d, one acre at 1d

William Cecil, gent.

8 ½

34

2s 1d

‘free bond land’

William David

3 ½

14

10d

‘free bond land’

William Harry Llwyd

5

20

15d

‘free bond land’

Total Customary/Copyhold

30

 

 

 

Total Free

471 ½

 

 

 

Total Tenanted

501 ½

 

 

 

 

Observations:

The lands identified exclude forests, commons and waste, and also exclude parts of Michaelchurch Escley that were within the moiety of the manor that had devolved to Lord Abergavenny. The survey reports one forest called Cefn Bach ‘lying in the townships of Creswell [Craswall] and Michael Church Escley containing by estimation 10 acres of land of Welsh measure [40 English acres] where is no woods and the pasture thereof used among the tenants [who] pay nothing for the pasture by privilege to them granted, as they do allege.’ Other forests are mentioned but do not fall within Michaelchurch. Of the commons mentioned, one falls within Michaelchurch, being ‘Cefn y Fagwyr [Cefn y Fagor, or Vagar Hill] containing [blank] acres lying in Michael Church Escley which is used freely by all the said tenants…’

 

As to the existence of a principal dwelling or manor house that might have been the forerunner of the present day Michaelchurch Court, limited light is shed by this survey. The manor [of Ewyas Lacy] is described as ‘a great circuit and very good ground … there is no manor house belonging to the same [the Earl of Leicester’s moiety including much of present day Michaelchurch] except a small house which was called the court house and now in great decay’, but this is probably the house in Longtown, near the castle, where the Ewyas Lacy manorial courts sat in times past. There are, however, a small number of ‘messuages’ [un-named dwelling houses with associated buildings] identified in Michaelchurch Escley that have extensive freehold land attached and were therefore probably substantial and important buildings; these belonged to the Gilbert, Howell, Baskerville, Vaughan, and Thomas families.

 

It is also interesting to note that there were only 300 tenants in the whole of this moiety of the Lordship of Ewyas Lacy at this time, most of whom were freeholders. It is also evident that the tenure of land, and the exact division of it between the two moieties of the Lordship, was far from precisely established.

 

Rents are noted as 1d per Welsh acre for free [freehold] land, and 3d per acre for ‘free bound’ land. ‘Customary’ land seems to have been let for 21 year terms at 3d per Welsh acre.



[1] The document states one Welsh acre equals four English acres in this survey, although definitions of two or three English acres to one Welsh can be found in other sources.


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Ref: rs_mic_0148