A History of Alderton Manor, Once Owned by the Montagus of Lackham
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The Manor of Alderton in Wiltshire : Its owners and some historical connections by Tony Pratt 3rd edition 2013 (this online edition last updated February 13) The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition Acknowledgements I must express my very sincere thanks to the great number of people who have been so helpful and generous with their time: Gina Douglas, Librarian & Archivist to the Linnaean Society Dr. Kate Harris, Librarian & Archivist to the Marquis of Bath Dr. Lorna Haycock, lately Sandwell Librarian and Archivist at WANHS (join them today) Mr. James, Librarian at the Society of Antiquaries June, the Countess Badeni Dr. Peter Sherlock Mike Stone, lately Manager & Curator, Chippenham Heritage Centre & Museum Stella Vain and the Library staff at Wiltshire College, Lackham Keith Woodman Ron Cleevely And the Librarians and Archivists at Chippenham Library The National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London The British Library, London Wiltshire County Record Office and Local History Library, Trowbridge Thanks to you all. Finally I must thank my partner Lynne Thomson for her support, help and understanding, and for uncomplainingly listening to far too many cases of “guess what I’ve just found”! It must get tedious. The Family Trees were initially produced using WinGenea v1.7, an effective and, above all, simple shareware program . Tony Pratt, Chippenham, 2002 2 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition As always allows further and more detailed research, and new material becomes available; for example in 2010 a large number of documents relating to Alderton in the late medieval period came up for auction and the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre was able to buy a number of them and acquire copies of others. The information from some of these documents has been incorporated into this account, New information is shown in blue, as are hyperlinks. My ability to use the features available with online documents has also, thankfully, improved over time and this new version of the Alderton story utilises some of these to make it easier to use. Hyperlinks will now take you from the indexes to the relevant section, Appendix or figure, by clicking on the underlined link. At the end of each section, Appendix or figure there is a return link, clicking on this will return you to the relevant place in the document. All the illustrations in the account have been drawn by the author for this work. The blazons, where not credited, are by the author. The current versions of the family trees have been produced using MS Paint (version 6 build 760.1) Additional grateful thanks go to a number of people – Dr. Alex Moulton Members of the City of Bath Heraldry Society The staff of the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham the National Archives at Kew the Gloucestershire Record Office, Gloucester Tony Pratt, Chippenham 2013 3 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition Sections Early history The Mortimer and Poyntz families The Clifford family The Gore family Giles Gore Thomas Gore 1 Giles Gore II Richard Gore includes Sylvester Gore, Richard continues here Edward Gore Charles Gore Thomas Gore the Antiquarian Thomas Gore III & the Hedges family, The Montagu family James Montagu V George Montagu George Courtney Conway Montagu The Neeld family Henry Boldero Joseph Neeld continued 4 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition Sir John Neeld A W Neeld A D Neeld Capt Inigo Jones Appendices 1 Transcriptions 1.1 Agreement between John Dorney and William Gore 1581 1.2 A true copy of the Acknowledgement of Giles James made before the right honourable the Earl Marshall of England for uttering diverse scandalous and untrue speeches about Charles Gore in Lincolns Inn 1631 1.3 A copy of a protection from his Majesty to Charles Gore, Esq 1642 1.4 A true copy of a letter sent by Sir Edward Bayntun of Bremhill in the County of Wiltshire, Knight of the Noble Order of the Bath For his much Honoured Kinsman, Thomas Gore esq at his house in Alderton, Wiltes 1666 1.5 Letter from Alderton to the Church regarding the living of Alderton 1.6 Mr Thomas Gore for Mr. Tomlinson 1681 1.7 Will of Lewis Bretherton 1799 2 Land holdings at Alderton etc 2.1 Land of Charles Gore & Lydia White on their marriage 1621 2.2 Land of John Scrope belonging to Anna Gore at her marriage and held in 1665 at Aldrington 2.3 Land in Aldrington and Surrendell 1665 belonging to Charles Gore 2.4 Previous land owners 1665 2.5 Farms at Alderton in 1812 2.6 Farms at Alderton in 1825 2.7 Joseph Neeld’s Lands 1832 2.8 Results of a Parliamentary enquiry into land ownership set up in 1872. 5 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition 3 The Heraldry of the arms of Richard Gore and the Hall family of Bradford on Avon Illustrations No Title Page 1 a) Arms of the Mortimer b) Arms of the Poyntxz family 12 2 Arms of the Clifford family 18 3 The Arms of the Gore family 23 4 Pedigree of the Gore, Hedges and Montagu 28 families who owned Alderton 5 Early Gore pedigree 31 6 Arms of de Dauntesey 33 7 Descent from Giles and Elizabeth 37 8 Gore quartering Whitoksmead, arms of Thomas Gore 37 9 Arms of Rusell = lapwings 38 10 Arms of Keynell 38 11 Gore impaling Keynall 40 12 Arms of Giles Gor e II 41 13 Simplified Pedigree of the Hall family 42 14 Hall of Bradford after 1565 Visitation 46 15 Descendants of Gyles Gore & Edith Hall 49 16 Arms of Richard Gore 50 6 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition 17 Arms of Mary Ivy 51 18 Arms of Digges impaling Gore 53 19 Arms of Mary Stourton 54 20 Children of Sylvester and Christian 57 21 Arms of Edward Gore 59 22 Arms of Elizabeth Jennings 60 23 Children of Edward Gore and Elizabeth Jennings 63 24 Arms of William Gore, 1647 64 25 Arms of Jane Billingsey 65 26 Arms of Lydia White 68 27 Descendents of Charles and Lydia 74 28 Arms of Thomas Gore 78 29 Arms of Gore and Meredith 84 30 a) Meredith & Langton, b) Meredith & Buck 85 31 Arms of Eyre family 88 32 Gore and Hedges of Alderton 89 33 Arms of Montagu and Hedges 96 34 Arms of the Montagu family of Lackham 97 35 Last of the Montagu Lackham / Alderton line 98 7 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition 36 Arms of Joseph Neeld 107 37 Rundell / Neeld connection 111 38 Siblings of Joseph Neeld 123 39 Neeld ties to Baldero and Kearney 128 40 Arms of Sir John Neeld, Bart 137 41 Pub sign version of Neeld arms 138 42 Arms of Richard Gore 165 43 Element in arms of Richard Gore as shown by a) Jackson b) Gore 166 44 Arms of Gore impaling Hall 167 45 Heraldic element “weel” 167 46 The arms of Hall (after Visitation) 168 47 Arms of Hall (after Jackson) 169 48 a) “Eagle” as drawn by Jackson b) “Eagle” 170 tinctured as per Jackson 49 “Spindle” as seen on the Hall carving 171 All coats of arms and the heraldic devices are by the author, following published blazons. Although these arms are as accurate as I can make them, no claim can be made for the legitimacy of any of the Arms depicted. 8 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition Alderton The early history of Alderton is unclear; the area has been inhabited for a very long time, in common with most of Wiltshire. There is evidence for stone age occupation – the butt of a Neolithic stone axe was found near Drews Pond 1 and three undated flint implements 2 were found east of the village. Indications of a possible Iron Age settlement have been found 3 in the opposite direction, just north of the lane leading towards Hebden Leaze. There are other, undated, field-system features in the nearby areas that may relate to these pits. There is little Roman evidence, only two Romano-British finds are known 4; this lack probably indicates little activity during this period. Although few Saxon remains have been found, the area was important. Malmesbury housed one of the Royal Mints and Alderton was certainly a settlement in Saxon times - the church has Saxon pillars and doors 5. From the fact that the Church is dedicated to St Giles it is certain that its dedication was not earlier than the eighth century; St Giles was an Abbot of the 8th century. He is said to have been an Athenian noble named Gidius who visited France in 715 and stayed for two years with Caesarius, the Bishop of Arles. The story goes that he lived in retirement as a hermit and was “nourished by the milk of a hind in the forest”. The King of France hunted this hind, which took shelter at St Giles’ feet in the hermitage. The king afterwards 1 SMR ST88SW102, (Devizes Museum Day Book 1584) Neolithic is defined as being between 4000 and 2500 BC 2 ST88SW550 3 ST88SW616, “circular feature west of Alderton, an undated ring ditch visible on aerial photograph associated with possible settlement site” and also crop signs of four small ring pits 4 ST88SW303 an enamelled bronze plate brooch in the form of a hen, and part of a bronze fleur de lyes key handle Romano-British 43-410 CE 5 Thomson, James (undated, but before 1845) On the hagioscope and other parts of Alderton Church, original publication unknown, from a copy included in Thomson, James (1845) Alderton , which is a photocopy of Thomson’s notebook, Wiltshire Local History Library, W&SHC Chippenham, BRN 0429263 LUC 9 The Manor of Alderton 3rd edition built a monastery on the site and made Gidius abbot.