SLHS: Bishopton Pre-Mediaeval History

Ownership of Bishopton from the archive of British History: Warwickshire..

“Bishopton, as the name shows, was held from early times by the Bishops of Worcester.

Land Granted

Bishop Leofsine granted a hide and 15 acres of meadow here to his servant Godric for his life in 1016. In 1086 it is presumably included in the 12 hides of Stratford, but Bishop Sampson c. 1112 enfeoffed Frethric de Bishopsdon of it, to hold of him as a knight's fee. This Frethric was the first of a family who continued as tenants here under the bishops until the reign of Henry VI. A Frethric de Bishopsdon was holding 3 hides in 1182 as was his son William, in Bishopton, in 1208; and William's grandson Sir Thomas held 2 hides in Bishopton and a hide in Shottery by military service in 1252. Sir Thomas was followed by his son Sir William, who as lord of the manor owed the service of a knight's fee to the bishop in 1271.

John de Bishopsdon

Sir John de Bishopsdon, son and heir of Sir William, obtained a grant of free warren here in 1319 and in 1337 settled the manor on himself and his wife Beatrice in tail male. Beatrice survived him and married John de Peyto, who died in 1373 holding the manor of Bishopton of the Bishop of Worcester in her right. The male line came to an end with the death of Sir William de Bishopsdon, greatgrandson of John and Beatrice, in 1447. He left two daughters, Elizabeth, married to Thomas Palmer, and Philippa, who inherited Bishopton and married Sir William Catesby. On their son William's attainder in 1487 his lands were forfeited to the Crown and were granted in the same year to Sir John Risley in tail male.

George Catesby

In 1495, however, George Catesby was restored by Act of Parliament to his father's estates and his son Richard Catesby appears as lord of the manor of Bishopton in 1543. Richard's grandson Sir William Catesby in 1583 sold the manor to William Askew of Lapworth for £260. Askew sold it again to Andrew Archer of Tanworth, whose son Sir Simon Archer sold it in 1648 to John and Thomas Green, yeomen, of Bishopton. Thomas died c. 1662–3 and Susannah, his widow, in 1674.  By 1738 the manor had passed to Joshua Smith, described as the last surviving devisee of the will of Thomas Greene of the parish of St. Thomas, county Devon. He died in 1770, having bequeathed it by his will to his kinsman Allyn Simmons, who took the additional surname of Smith and had been succeeded by his son Joshua Smith Simmons Smith by 1785.

John Freer

The latter died in 1839 and two years later his surviving trustee, Charles Hamden Turner, sold the manor to John Branston Freer, who was in possession of it in 1856.

===000===

Catesby

In 1447, after the death of the last Sir William Bishopsdon, there were 11 tenants on the manor, 5 of whom were villeins, holding altogether about 17 virgates, besides other tenements. The demesne, which comprised nearly 7 virgates, was divided among 9 of the tenants, of whom 4 were villeins, including one who held the site of the manor with the dovecote. The tenants of the demesne paid their rents in corn twice a year, a custom which still persisted in 1543.  The total annual value of the manor was £10 18s., besides 9 quarters of wheat and 9 quarters of barley. The manorial structure disintegrated in Elizabeth's reign when Sir William Catesby, besides his grant of the manor to Askew, 'sold to sundry persons the particular Tenements within this Lordship'.

Dr John Hall

Shakespeare's son-in-law Dr. John Hall possessed an estate of 4 yardlands in Bishopton which may be identified with the 4 yardlands or 107 acres in Old Stratford purchased by the poet from John Combe in 1602, and which Shakespeare bequeathed with his other lands to his daughter, Susanna Hall. Dr. Hall became involved in a long dispute with the parish officers over the rating of this property, from which it is clear that though the old measure of the virgate or yardland had survived—there were in 1634, as in the 15th century, 17½ yardlands in Bishopton—it had become merely a unit of assessment for church and poor rates.

Bushwood

In Lapworth parish, some 12 miles away, was the Bishop's Wood of the manor of Old Stratford. No doubt it was originally a part of Lapworth, which, down to the time of Canute, also belonged to Worcester.

John de Coutances

Dugdale supposes that in the reign of Henry I Bishop Sampson granted it to Frethric de Bishopsdon, since in 1197 another Frethric and William his son quitclaimed to Bishop John de Coutances all their rights in it and in the house in Lapworth which Stigand the Forester had occupied and the house in the wood held by Ralph the son of Stigand. The Bishopsdons, however, who acquired a manor in Lapworth in 1320, continued to hold Bushwood, of the chief manor of Stratford. Sir John de Bishopsdon obtained a grant of free warren in Bushwood in 1319, and in 1339, with his wife Beatrice, settled upon his sons Roger and John certain rents and timber in the manor of Bushwood. (fn. 92) In 1374 Thomas son and heir of Roger de Bishopsdon made a grant of the reversion of the manor of Bushwood and other lands which Beatrice de Bishopsdon, presumably his grandmother, held for her life.

Gunpowder Plotter

When Sir William Catesby granted away Bishopton he retained Bushwood, with his manor of Lapworth. In 1590 he was holding the manor of Bushwood Hall of the Earl of Warwick by the service of a knight's fee, and the Hall, of which some remains are incorporated in the present farmhouse, was probably the birthplace of his son, the Gunpowder Plot conspirator. With Lapworth also, Bushwood came to the Holts of Aston, who were holding it of the Earl of Middlesex in 1730. Sir Charles Holt is mentioned as lord of the manor in 1776.

Cloptons

In 988 Oswald, Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York, granted 3½ messuages in Clopton to his servant Eadric for three lives. (fn. 97) Apart from a reference to it as a hamlet of Bishopton in 1316, (fn. 98) this is the only evidence of any interest that the church of Worcester had in Clopton, which by the time of Edward the Confessor was held freely by Odo and Aileva and in 1086 by William, of Robert de Stafford. It is rated in Domesday at 5 hides. Robert's greatgreat-grandson Hervey de Stafford held Clopton as a knight's fee in the Honor of Stafford in 1211; and the Robert de Clopton, knight, who occurs in 1221 was probably his tenant. Shortly afterwards it came into the hands of the Montforts of Beaudesert, of which manor it was held in 1496. In 1250 Robert de Stafford son of Hervey was accused of having entered by force into the manor of Clopton, of which Peter de Montfort had the custody. Peter, who died in 1265, granted the manor together with 'The Grove' at a rent of 10s. in fee to James de Clopton.

From https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol3/pp258-266

● These items have aspects that uniquely contribute to national or world history.

To return to Master Page click on ‘Bishopton’ above.