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1. The inheritance of Thurstan Basset

This month Scott Waugh, Professor of Medieval History at UCLA, a member of the project's International Advisory Committee, examines the consequences of the partition of a small seigneurial inheritance and the attempts to ensure the rights of the Crown and of landowners and parceners at a time of weakened royal authority.

⁋1At the beginning of Henry III’s reign, Thurstan Basset held a small estate consisting of 6 knights’ fees and several portions of a fee of the honor of Wallingford. The principal lands were the manors of Letcombe Basset in Berkshire (2 knights’ fees), Hawridge Mauduit (2 knights’ fees) and Marsworth (1/2 knight’s fee) in Buckinghamshire, and Thurleigh (1/2 knight’s fee) in Bedfordshire, along with smaller holdings in Berkshire and Bedfordshire. ¹ At the time of Domesday, these lands had been held by Robert d’Oilly, and during the reign of Henry I they, along with the manor of Chaddleworth, Berkshire, came into the hands of a branch of the Basset family, who had been sub-tenants on some of the d’Oilly lands. Richard, son of Thurstan son of Ralph Basset, a royal justice, held the property in 1158, when he lost an effort to recover Chaddleworth from Abingdon Abbey, which had acquired it from Ralph just before he died around 1130. ² A Thurstan Basset held the rest of the estate by 1166, when he was listed as responsible for the fees in the Cartae Baronum for Wallingford. ³ Thurstan may have had a son, Richard, for a Richard Basset and his son Thurstan owed 60 marks to the king for forest fines in Buckinghamshire in 1176–77. ⁴ Thereafter, Thurstan Basset rendered fines and scutage for the 6 fees to Richard and John. He also became embroiled in various legal suits related to the lands. ⁵ Furthermore, in 1180–81, Thurstan agreed to pay off Ralph Pyrot’s Jewish debts of 25 marks and, in 1210, £38 of Richard Burden’s fine of 100 marks for having the land of his brother Peter. ⁶ Thurstan must have been fairly prosperous for he paid off his debts to the crown promptly.

⁋2Thurstan died in January 1223. His property was then divided among his 6 daughters and heirs, each of whom paid a fine to the king to receive her portion of Thurstan’s estate, as revealed in the fine roll for 29 January (CFR 1222–23, no. 55 below). According to the fine, all of the daughters were married: Isabel to Robert Mauduit (who had died in 1222) ⁷ , Joanna to Robert de Burneby, Egelina to Richard Burdun, Alice to John le Brun, Matilda to Bartholomew de Packington, and Laurencia to Ralph de Wedon. The last two husbands are not named in the entry, which simply notes that Matilda and Laurencia married without the king’s licence after Thurstan died. The next month, they and their husbands offered fines for their “reasonable” portions (CFR 1222–23, nos. 72, 73). The level of their fines perhaps incorporates an additional levy for marrying without the king’s licence: Matilda and Laurencia owed 40 marks and a palfrey apiece, whereas Joanna, Egelina, and Alice owed 30 marks and a palfrey each, while Isabel was fined only 20 marks, even though according to English custom, estates were to be divided equally among co-heiresses if there were no direct male heir. ⁸ Isabel’s lower fine may reflect the fact that on 27 January her son, William Mauduit, the royal chamberlain, made a fine with the king for 30 marks to have the manor of Letcombe Basset, which Thurstan had granted to him. The king ordered the sheriff to deliver the manor to William (CFR 1222–23, no. 50). Having heard of Thurstan’s death, William evidently used his advantageous position to get his grant from Thurstan approved quickly so that he could safely get possession of the chief manor of the estate, while Bartholomew de Packington and Ralph de Wedon seized the opportunity to marry two heiresses. Packington and Wedon were also well-positioned. Bartholomew appears to have been an associate of Mauduit, for in April 1230 he had received royal protection for going overseas with William Mauduit. It was perhaps through William’s influence that Bartholomew was able to secure and marry Matilda before she became a ward of the king. ⁹ Ralph was a local knight in Buckinghamshire, who served on grand assizes in the early thirteenth century and witnessed numerous charters of Missenden Abbey, at least one of them alongside Thurstan Basset. ¹⁰

⁋3Like many holdings, Thurstan Basset’s was subject to family forces that could dramatically change its destiny. Not only was it parceled out into six shares, but the coheirs squabbled among themselves leading to further changes. In 1229, all of the coheirs banded together to claim the advowson in Oakley, Bedfordshire, against the Prior of Caldwell, to whom Thurstan had quitclaimed it. ¹¹ The following year, however, four of the coheirs – Robert de Burneby and Joanna, John le Brun and Alice, Richard Burdun and Egelina, and Ralph de Wedon and Laurencia – brought a suit against William Mauduit for four parts of the manor of Letcombe Basset as their rightful inheritance. ¹² William responded that they had no claim, since Thurstan had granted the manor to William by his charter for the service of 2 knights. The plaintiffs countered that Thurstan had suffered a paralytic stroke before making the grant, so that he was enfeebled and his memory failed him. Thurstan never improved and steadily deteriorated. William claimed on the contrary that Thurstan was of sound mind and fit memory when the charter was drafted on 24 June and that on the following 29 September Thurstan married off his daughter and travelled with her to a monastery. ¹³ Bracton later cited this case to illustrate actions to inquire into a donor’s condition at the time of a gift; whether a donor was of good memory and sound mind and whether, if paralyzed, a donor moved from place to place and ratified the gift. ¹⁴ The outcome of the case is not known, but the Mauduits aggressively pursued Letcombe. In November 1236, for example, Bartholomew de Packington and his wife Matilda acknowledged a half carucate of land in Clapham and Oakley, Bedfordshire, to be the right of William Mauduit, who granted it to Bartholomew and Matilda and Matilda’s heirs, receiving in return from them, 15 acres of land, 12 acres of meadow, and 12 acres of wood in Hawridge, Buckinghamshire. Bartholomew and Matilda also quitclaimed for themselves and their heirs to William and his heirs all their right in the manor of Letcombe Basset, which had been in dispute between them. William may have bought out other co-parcenors as well, for around 1236, William granted the manor of Letcombe Basset with his daughter Isabel in marriage to William de Beauchamp, who accounted for 2 knight’s fees in Letcombe in 1236. That year four of the other coheirs accounted for 2 knights’ fees in Marsworth and William responded for half a fee in Hawridge. Similar adjustments were made in other properties, which thenceforth descended independently of one another.

⁋4The fine therefore demonstrates on the one hand the determination of the minority government while Henry III was underage to preserve the king’s seignurial rights over lands held of the crown as well as to protect the customary rights of landholders and their heirs. The fine also represents a pivotal moment in the history of a small Anglo-Norman estate. Partitioned according to the fine of 1223, Thurstan Basset’s property fragmented into smaller pieces that were absorbed into neighbouring patrimonies and thereafter followed very different paths.

1.1. C 60/18 Fine Roll 7 Henry III (28 October 1222–27 October 1223), membrane 9

1.1.1. 55

⁋1 Honour of Wallingford. To the keeper of the honour of Wallingford. Isabella who was the wife of Robert Mauduit, who is one of the heirs of Thurstan Basset, has made fine with the king by 20 m. to be rendered at two terms, namely 10 m. at Easter in the seventh year and 10 m. at Michaelmas next in the same year, for having the reasonable portion that falls to her of the lands formerly of Thurstan, her father. Robert de Burnebu and Joanna, his wife, sister of Isabella, who is one of the heirs of Thurstan, have made fine with the king by 30 m. and a palfrey, to be rendered at the same terms, for having the reasonable portion that falls to the same Joanna of the lands formerly of Thurstan, her father. Richard Burdun and Egelina, his wife, sister of Isabella, who is one of the heirs of Thurstan, have made fine with the king by 30 m. and a palfrey, to be rendered to the king at the same terms, for having the reasonable portion that falls to the same Egelina of the lands formerly of Thurstan, her father. John le Brun and Alice, his wife, sister of Isabella, who is one of the heirs of Thurstan, have made fine with the king by 30 m. and a palfrey, to be rendered to the king at the same terms, for having the reasonable portion that falls to the same Alice of the lands formerly of Thurstan, her father. Order that, having accepted security from Isabella, Robert and Joanna, Richard and Egelina, John and Alice for rendering the aforesaid fine to the king at the aforesaid terms, he is to cause them to have full seisin without delay of their reasonable portions that fall to Isabella, Joanna, Egelina and Alice of the lands formerly of Thurstan, their father, in his bailiwick. He is to take into the king’s hand, and keep safely until the king commands otherwise, the rest of the lands formerly of Thurstan, which fall to Matilda and Laurencia, daughters of Thurstan, who married after Thurstan’s death without the assent and will of the king. Witness [Hubert de Burgh, justiciar of England] as above. By the same and the king’s council.