2000 series: Waddon, Dorset
The Waddon Manors and the Dorset Domesday

How Robin Bush's research rewrote a little part of the history books

As part of the background to the Time Team excavations at Waddon, Robin Bush undertook research into the history of the three settlements that lie along the lane running east from Portesham village and known today as Waddon, Little Waddon and Friar Waddon. A small collection of deeds and leases was made available from Wiltshire Record Office by its owner, Charles Chaffyn-Grove of Waddon Manor. These were used alongside comprehensive research in advance of the shoot on Public Record Office calendars to correct the identifications of the two Domesday estates recorded at Waddon as given in all reference books.

In this article, Robin explains how he used the available sources to trace the medieval history of the Waddons – and in the process demonstrated that one of the two Waddon manors mentioned in the Domesday Book has been wrongly identified. Robin doesn't pretend that this makes for easy reading, and much of the terminology and references will only be properly understood by people who are familiar with the sort of documentation used in researching local history during this period. We have reprinted it here, however, as an indication of the sort of research that often accompanies Time Team investigations but is rarely given more than a brief mention in the programme itself.

Robin Bush writes:

There was not room in the Time Team programme on Waddon to explain the three early settlements along the road below the ridge: Friars Waddon, West Waddon (the one the programme concentrated on) and Little Waddon. Hitherto it had always been thought that the two Domesday hamlets were Friars Waddon and Little Waddon, whereas I managed to prove that they were in fact Friars Waddon and West Waddon. Further, West Waddon was shown to represent the medieval manor known as Waddon Cray; and we discovered a 12th-century deed associating the property with Alexander Crei.

Friar Waddon can and has always been identified with the Domesday estate held by three thegns in 1066 and by the Normandy monastery of St Mary Montevilliers to which it had been granted by Hugh Fitz Grip (VCH Dorset, iii, p.83). The Inspeximus of a charter survives by which Hugh's wife, Hadwidis, daughter of Nicholas Baschelville, with the advice and consent of her husband, gave her manor of Waddon to Montevilliers (Dorset Field Club, , pp.115-16). By 1206 this manor of Waddon, 'the land of the Abbess of Musterviler', was in the hands of King John, who in that year granted it to William de Witefeld (Rot Litt Claus, i, pp 74b, 80b; Rot Litt Pat p 67b). Witefeld was still holding it in 1212 'of the fee of Mustervilers', when it was called Brodewaddon (Book of Fees, p 93).

In 1242, Henry III confirmed a grant of the manor to Netley Abbey, Hants (allegedly by gift of Margaret, abbess of Montevilliers), and Waddon also appears in his charter to Netley in 1251 and among the Netley manors over which free warren was granted in the latter year (Cal Patent Rolls, 1232-47, p333; Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, ii, p 480; Cartae Antiquae, Pipe Roll Soc NS xxxiii, pp.30-32; Cal Charter Rolls, i, p 354). Netley Abbey retained the manor, again called Broad Waddon in 1274-5 and 1285 (Rotuli Hundredorum, i, p102; Feudal Aids, ii, p.7) but referred to as Waddon Monks in 1299 (Cal Patent Rolls, 1292-1301, p 468), until its dissolution. It was first mentioned under its present name, 'Frerene Waddon', in 1383 (Cal Close Rolls, 1381-85, p 423). The manor was granted to Sir William Paulet, later marquess of Winchester, in 1536 (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, xi, p.155).

The second Domesday manor of Waddon, held by Alward in 1066, clearly passed with Friar Waddon to Hugh FitzGrip after the Conquest. According to Domesday, Hugh exchanged it for another unidentified manor, held by the count of Mortain, with Brictuin, the Domesday tenant (VCH Dorset, iii, p.111; Domesday Book: Dorset, ed. Caroline & Frank Thorn, 56/36 and notes). This Waddon has apparently always been identified with Little Waddon, although the Thorns also equated Little Waddon with Waddon Krey (identified below with West Waddon).

It seems clear, however, that Little Waddon, also known as Pitchers Waddon, remained part of Portesham manor even though it possessed its own two-field open arable field system. The tenants of Little Waddon were presented at a Portesham manor court in 1557? (SDNQ, , p 268) and 17th-century leases make it clear that tenements there had formerly been copyholds of Portesham manor (Wilts R O 865/105, 865/115).

The alternative identification is with the manor and hamlet known for most of its existence as West Waddon and centred on the substantial house now known as Waddon Manor. The earliest post-Conquest reference traced to date shows it as being held in 1212 by Dionisia de Waddon for a fifth of a knight's fee under Roger de Mortimer (Book of Fees, p 93). This Dionisia can probably be identified with Dionisia wife of Alexander Crei mentioned in an undated 13th century deed by which their son, Richard Crei, settled one virgate of land at West Waddon on Richard's daughter, Dionisia, on her marriage to Philip Walensi (Wilts R O 865/97). The deed also explains why the manor was occasionally known as Waddon Cray.

By 1235-36, Waddon Cray had passed to John de Baiocis, who held it under Ralph de Mortimer (Book of Fees, p 426). Baiocis apparently died in 1248/9 and was succeeded by his brother Stephen, who left two daughters. The marriage of these daughters was granted to Elias de Rabeyne (Hutchins History of Dorset, 3rd edn, pp 840-1) and in 1285 Henry de Piddle was stated to hold Waddon for one fifth of a fee of Mortain of Elias de Rabeyne (Feudal Aids, ii, p.7). In 1288, dower was granted to Piddle's widow, Joan, including a third of the chief messuage of West Waddon and other property there (Cal Close Rolls, 1279-86, p 504).

By 1303, Nicholas Martyn held Waddon Krey for one eighth of a fee under Edmund de Mortimer (Feudal Aids, ii, p.34) and thereafter the manor descended through the Martyn family with Athelhampton (Cal Inq p m, xvii, p 460; Cal Close Rolls, 1396-99, p 456; Feudal Aids, ii, pp 77, 105; vi, 427; Wilts R O 865/98). As West Waddon, the manor was held by William Neuburgh (died 1491) of Cicely, Duchess of York, whose son Roger Neuburgh received a quitclaim of it from William Martyn in 1493 (Cal Inq p m, Henry VII, i, no.747; Cal Close Rolls, 1485-1500, p197). Roger Neuburgh, then described as of East Lulworth, conveyed the manor to John Gerard (Wilts R O 865/92) in whose family it descended until the Gerard estate was partitioned in 1651 between the daughters of Thomas Gerard of Trent and their husbands. Waddon, known regularly from the 16th century as Gerards Waddon, was allotted to Elizabeth, wife of Bullen Reymes, subsequently passing by inheritance to the Chaffyns and later the Chaffyn-Grove family, who still hold the property (Wilts R O, 865/94).

There was a further estate at West Waddon held by 1274-75 by the Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England, which the Prior claimed in 1278 had been given to the Hospitallers by Henry III, when he was summoned to justify having subtracted suit for West Waddon to the hundred court of Uggescombe (Rotuli Hundredorum, i, p102; Placita de Quo Warranto). Following the Dissolution, Queen Mary I restored these lands at West Waddon to the prior in 1558 but, after the accession of Elizabeth I, they evidently reverted to the Crown and in 1572 were conveyed to Elizabeth's favourite, Christopher Hatton (Cal Patent Rolls, 1557-58, p 317; 1569-72, p 485). Shortly afterwards, again in 1572, the premises, described as a messuage, 28 acres of arable and 2 acres of meadow in West Waddon, were purchased by Thomas Gerard and merged with the main West Waddon estate (Wilts R O 865/111). No early estate maps survive among the Chaffyn-Grove archive to enable this small property to be located.

The above evidence suggests strongly that the identification of the smaller Domesday estate of Waddon needs to be amended from Little Waddon to West Waddon.

This is a version of an article written for Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries as a direct result of the Time Team visit, edited for publication here by Steve Platt. Most of the sources are Public Record Office Calendars, those in Latin being published by the old record Commission in the early 19th century. The abbreviated references given in the text are as follows:

Rot Litt Claus – Close Rolls
Rot Litt Pat – Patent Rolls
Cal Inq p m – Calendars of Inquisitions Post Mortem (After Death Inquests)
Rotuli Hundredorum – Hundred Rolls
Placita de Quo Warranto – Pleas of Quo Warranto ('by what warrant')
Cartae Antiquae – Ancient Charters
Cal – Calendar
VCH – Victoria County History
SDNQ

– Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries
Wilts R O – Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge

Apart from sources particular to Dorset, you would need to visit a major reference or university library to find most of these. All sources are printed apart from the Wiltshire Record Office.

NB There are a small number of incomplete references above, which Robin needs to revisit in order to complete, but had not done so at the time of writing.

Back to the Waddon page

Back to the Time Team Past programmes page

Back to the 2000 series page