Canon Court: parliamentary survey of entire estate (1649)

Post date: Mar 13, 2020 12:15:43 PM

At Medway archives, reference CCRc/E4, is a survey of Canon Court (referred to as Cannon Court). The survey is undated but believed to be from 1649. Another copy (not inspected) is apparently held in the Lambeth Palace library, reference COMM/12A - Copies of surveys. The handwriting is difficult and the presentation is poor. It is in English rather than Latin but editorial liberties have been taken with the transcription (e.g. captalisation and spelling). Overall it does not seem very professionally executed and a second hand has made a number of insertions.

The Parliamentary Surveys were initiated by Oliver Cromwell to evaluate lands (including Crown and Ecclesiastical lands) which he had confiscated. The assessments were carried out by a team of surveyors during the period 1647 to 1650. The objective was to identify all landholders in each manor; determine how much land each held and how much rent they paid. The surveyors then made a valuation of what each holding was worth, so that the manor could be put up for sale. The money thus generated was to be used to pay Cromwell's Model Army. The original owners were generally restored in 1660 [based on Wikipedia].

As background Hasted (writing late 18th century) describes the manor as follows:

CANONS-COURT is a manor here, which acquired that name from its being part of the possessions of the prior and canons of Leeds.

This place, in the reign of king Henry III. was in the tenure of Gilbert de Watringbury, who then held it as one 4th part of a knight's see, of Simon Fitz Adam, and gave it in pure and perpetual alms to that priory; which gift was confirmed by Bartholomew, his son.

It continued part of the possessions of the priory of Leeds till the dissolution of it, in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it was, together with all its revenues, surrendered into the king's hands, who by his dotation charter, under his great seal, in his 33d year, settled it on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, where the inheritance of it still remains.

Mr. Robert Scoles was lessee of this manor, as well as the parsonage, in 1649, and resided here, and his son, Jaiper Scoles, esq. died lessee of both. Since which the family of Style have been for many years tenants to the dean and chapter for both. Sir Charles Style, bart. is the present lessee.

There is a court baron held for this manor.

Transcription follows:

The Manor of Cannon Court in the parish of Wateringbury, with the parsonage of Wateringbury.

The quit rent³ belonging to the Manor of Wateringbury £. s. d.

payable at Michaelmas only 0. 10. 11.

The rent hens are five and rent cocks one

payable to the Lord of the Manor at (?)Candlemas

value is shilling a hen and 6 p cock 0. 5. 6.

The Court Baron belonging to the said manor .........

......................................................................... 0. 6. 0.

Capital

All that fair messuage called Court Lodge or the Manor House

of Cannon Court, the site thereof consisting of

Hall 2 Parlours

A Kitchen a Buttery

A Cellar and a Brewhouse

(?)10 Chambers one Barn

one garden one Orchard and

Yard ?????????in the whole by estimation 1. 2. 0.

(?) Per annum 10. 0. 0.

Cannon Court

All ???????????????? of arable land adjoining to the aforesaid site and abutting the the land of Sir Thomas Styles Baronet towards the east Cannon Heath and a lane these leading therefrom to Wateringbury towards the west which ????????????as follows:

Barnfield, adjoining the Manor House ???? by estimation 2. 1. 0.

(?) Per annum 0. 16. 0.

Fallowfields are divided into 3 parcels containing in the whole

by estimation 6. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 2. 0. 0.

BroomyCroft⁴ adjoining to the former, Cout by est. 3. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 1. 0. 0.

Great Robins divided into two parcels, Cout together 10. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 5. 10. 0.

Great Robins, divided as the former, Cout in the whole 12. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 4. 0. 0.

Broomfield with a little croft adjoining, abutting to Canon Heath

and on certain woodlands ????? to the ?????towards the west.

Cout by estimation 10. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 2. 10. 0.

Daredge Lane Croft and abutting on (?) Skince Lane towards

the east, the land of ?????? of the heirs of William Underwood

toward the ???? c????? by est. 5. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 1. 5. 0.

Clarkenden abutting on Clarkenden Springs towards the north

and the land of (?)Sir Robert Twisden Baronet towards the south

cout by est. 1. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 0. 6. 8.

Lawrence ????? abutting on the lands of the heirs of William Underood

towards the north and the lands of Sir Roger Twisden towards the south

& Cannon Lane towards the east. Cout 10. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 4. 10. 0.

Due other ????? ???? of land abutting on the land of ?????????

towards the E & S, the land of William Underwood towards the north,

& Cannon Lane towards the east. Cout 0. 1. 0.

(?) Per annum 0. 2. 0.

Byrors How abutting on the land of William Underwood towards the

north and east, Cannon Lane towards the west , & ??oft Lane towards

the south. Cout by est 0. 0. 4.

(?) Per annum 0. 0. 4.

One other ?? of land abutting on the lands of William Underwood , E. W. & N

and ??oft Lane towards the south. Cout by est. 0. 0. 2.

(?) Per annum 0. 0. 2.

Browining abutting on Mill Lane towards the east, the lands of ??????

& the Church green² towards the west. Cout ? 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 4. 0. 0.

Acres gate now divided into 3 ???abutting on the lands of the heirs

of Mr. Hook? & Mr. Henry Wood¹ towards the east & Mill Lane towards the

west. Cout by est 10. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 4. 0. 0.

Wateringbury Rectory

Tithes (?) Per annum 60. 0. 0.

Received rent 13. 16. 0.

6 capons or 0. 12. 0.

Improved rent 87. 10. 7.

Tenant Robert Scoles January 10th A.D, 1639 for 21 years

Rent apportioned

to the Manor of Cannon Court the sum of 5. 6. 0.

So that the Lord mannor is worth over and above the ????? and now

apportioned (?) rent 36. 2. 7.

The Parsonage⁵ is worth upon improvement 51. 8. 0.

Woodland in Wateringbury

???? ??? 2 pieces of land abutting on the demesne (?) lands of the

manor of Cannon Court towards the N & W, and ??? towards the East,

the lands of William Moyse towards the south, together with all ??? &

??? of pasture, woods & underwoods, herbage, pasturages, comodities

& advantage thereunto belonging ??? together by estimation 1. 15. 0.

Two other pieces of woodland abutting on the on the ???? towards

the north & east the lands of William Minins towards the south.

Cout. by est. 6. 0. 0.

(?) Per annum 1. 1. 0.

One piece of wood ground abutting on the ????towards the north and the

lands of Sir Robert Twisdon towards the south. Cout 2. 0. 0.

0. 7. 0.

Three pieces of woodland lying together and abutting on the lands of

William Underwood towards the north the land of Sir Robert Twisdon

towards the south & east and a lane leading to the Church towards

the west . Cout by est. 20. 0. 0.

3. 10. 0.

One other piece of woodland abutting on the land of William Codd

towards the east and certain lands of the manor towards the west

Coutaining by est. 8 (?) 0. 0.

1. 8. 0.

Three other pieces of woodland lying together and abutting on the

lane leading to the croft ????? towards the north and on the ????

towards the south, the lands of Henry Wood¹ towards the east and

the said Mill Lane towards the west, Cout 10. 0. 0.

1. 15. 0.

Received rent 2. 0. 0. ]

Improved rent 7. 16. 0.]

woods to be left at the expiration of the leaf 25. 0. 0.

timber

???? estimated 5. 0. 0.

Quitt rent 0. 16. 0.

A court baron may be held hereat the will of the lord.

The relief ??? the quitt rent³

The vicarage is worth (?) Per annum 30. 0. 0.

The yearly value of all ???? rents, perquisites & royalties 17. 9. 9.

The full improved value of all the leaseholds (?) Per annum 95. 6. 6.

Total of both (?) Per annum 112. 16. 3.

Notes:

1. Henry Wood, owner of The Wardens, a Wateringbury native who made his money as a haberdasher in London, and funded two local charities. His tomb in Wateringbury churchyard is listed. But he died in 1630 some 19 years before this survey.

2. Church Green, probably a reference to the land where The Beck now stands. The term was used in the early (mid-19th century) censuses.

3. Quit rent. Per Wikipedia "Under feudal law, the payment of quit rent freed the tenant of a holding from the obligation to perform such other services as were obligatory under feudal tenure, or freed the occupier of the land from the burden of having others use their own distinct rights that affected the land (e.g. hunting rights which would have hindered farming)."

4. Broomycroft - presumeably Broomscroft.

5. Parsonage -presumably the predecessor to The White House which was rebuilt in 1731.