The history of the Barony of Patrixbourne in the County of Kent
The Domesday Book, originally known as the King's Roll or Winchester Roll, is a land register of England that records the results of nationwide enquiries in the 11th century in Latin. The unusual name of the book came about in the century after the survey. It referred to the fact that the land ownership relationships recorded in the Domesday Book were considered legally ‘final’.
www.wikipedia.org
The reference authority is Sanders, English Baronies, p135. It seems that the family of the 1086 lord Richard fitz William used the name Patrick as a surname, and not only is their English lordship named this way, but also they came from a place in France called LandePatry.
Based upon the latest edition of the 1166 cartae baronum, despite what Sanders says this barony was not included.
After Ingram's two son died without issue the barony was divided between two sisters who
married French loyalists, and the barony was lost to the Patricks and went to Geoffrey II de Say.
The former barons of Patrixbourne:
- Ingelran Patric - 1190
- Richard (Patric) fitz William 1060 - 1110
- William Patric - 1174
- William Patric - 1174
- William Patric 1090 - 1155
- Jean (Preaux) de Prattelis abt 1150 France - 1215
- Geoffrey (Say) de Say abt 1180 West Greenwich, Kent, England - 19 Aug 1230
- Geoffrey (Say) de Say abt 1281 England - bef 03 Mar 1322
- Geoffrey (Say) de Say 30 Apr 1305 England - 26 Jun 1359
- William (Say) de Say bef 1209 England - bef 12 Feb 1272
- William (Say) de Say 20 Nov 1253 England - bef 16 Sep 1295
- Andreas Stephan Wagner June 1966 -
In 2024, Baron Andreas Stephan Wagner became the legal successor and holder of the title of Baron of Patrixbourne, making him the 12th Baron of Patrixbourne. The hereditary title of Baron is enshrined in English law as an incorporeal hereditary title. The legal rights to the title were transferred by a Deed of Conveyance in accordance with the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
The Barony of Patrixbourne is listed in the Cartae Baronum ("Charters of the Barons"). It was a survey commissioned by the Treasury around the year 1166. In it, each baron had to state how many knights he enfeoffed. The survey was apparently intended to identify baronies from which the king could receive a larger 'servitium debitum' in the future.
Parishes: Patrixborne
The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9. Originally
published by W Bristow, Canterbury, 1800.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
Citation: BHO Chicago MLA
Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Patrixborne', in The History and Topographical Survey of the
County of Kent: Volume 9, (Canterbury, 1800) pp. 277-286. British History
Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol9/pp277-286 [accessed 23
May 2024].
PATRIXBORNE
IS situated the next parish southward from Bekesborne last-described. It is called in Domesday, Borne, which name it took from the bourn or stream which runs through it; and it was afterwards called Patrixborne, to distinguish it from the neighbouring parishes of Borne, situated on the same stream. There are two boroughs in this parish, viz. of Marten, alias Cheney, and of Patrixborne.
The PARISH is pleasantly situated in a fine healthy country; the bourn or stream of the Little Stour runs through this parish, close to it in the valley is the
village, with the church, court-lodge, and vicarage near together, the latter a neat genteel habitation; opposite to them is a house called Heart-hall, formerly belonging to the family of Sabine, or Savin, but now to Mr. Taylor, of Bifrons.
The upper, or north part of the village, is in the parish of Bekesborne, in which is a house, formerly the residence of the Coppins, now the property of Mr.
Milles, of Nackington; and further on, one formerly owned by the Pordages, and afterwards by Mr. Litheridge. Eastward this parish extends up the hill, over the high downs, to within one field of Ileden, and from the village southward, across the Dover road, to a wild hilly country, as far as Whitehill wood, part of which is within this parish. It is well cloathed with trees along the valley, where the soil is fertile, especially towards Hoath, for both hops and corn, but the hill parts round the outskirts, are in general poor chalky land, covered with stones.
There is no fair.
AT THE TIME of taking the survey of Domesday, in the year 1084, this parish was chiefly owned by Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in that survey;
In Brige hundred, Richard, son of William, holds of the bishop, Borne. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is eight carucates. In demesne there are three carucates, and forty-four villeins, with three borderers having ten carucates. There is a church, and one servant, and four mills of sixteen shillings and eight pence. A fishery of six-pence. Pasiure, of which the foreign tenants have plougbed six acres of land. Wood for the pannage of four hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth eighteen pounds, when be received it ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.
Four years after the taking of this survey, the bishop was disgraced, and this manor, among the rest of his possessions, escheated to the crown. After which it appears to have been divided into moieties, one of which, called afterwards THE MANOR OF PARTIXBORNE MERTON, was held by Margerie de Bornes, who carried it in marriage to John de Pratellis, or De Pratis, as he was sometimes written, a Norman, who soon after the year 1200, gave it to his new-erected priory of Beaulieu, or De Bello loco, in Normandy, to which it afterwards became an alien cell. (fn. 1) In which state this manor continued till the 11th year of king Henry IV. when it was, with the king's licence, alienated to the priory of the same order of Augustine canons of Merton, in Surry, whence it acquired the name of Patrixborne Merton; and with this priory it remained till the suppression of it by the act of the 31st of king Henry VIII. when this manor coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year, together with the rectory and advowson of the vicarage of Patrixborne, and all liberties, freewarren, &c. to Sir Thomas Cheney, to hold to him and his heirs male in capite, as of the castle of Rochester. After which, king Edward VI. by new letters patent, in his 4th year, regranted the whole of them, to hold to him and his heirs for ever. He was succeeded in it by his only son Henry Cheney, esq. afterwards lord Cheney;(fn. 2) and he soon afterwards alienated it to Sir Thomas Herbert, who in the 21st year of that reign sold it to Thomas Smith, who passed it away before the end of the same reign to William Partherich, and his grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of Bridge, alienated it in 1638 to Mr. afterwards Sir Arnold Braems, of that parish, the heirs of whose son Walter Braems, sold it in 1704 to
John Taylor, esq. of Bifrons, in this parish, in whose descendants it continued down to Edward Taylor, esq.' the present possessor of this manor, with the
rectory and advowson of the church of Patrixborne.
The OTHER MOIETY of the manor of Patrixborne, called afterwards THE MANOR OF PATRIXBORNE CHENEY, after the bishop's disgrace, came into the possession of the family of Say, in which it continued till Sir William de Say, in Henry III.'s reign, gave it to Sir Alexander de Cheney. He afterwards resided here, whence it gained the name of Patrixborne Cheney; but his son William having married Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Robert de Shurland, of Shurland, in Shepey, removed afterwards thither. After which it remained in his descendants down to Sir T. Cheney, K. G. of Shurland, who having obtained from Henry VIII. in his 31st year, a grant of the other moiety of the manor of Patrixborne, as above-mentioned, became possessed of the whole of this manor, which, notwithstanding, continued as two separate manors, in both which he was succeeded by his son Henry Cheney, (afterwards created lord Cheney, of Tuddington) who in the beginning of that reign alienated them to Sir Thomas Herbert. Since which they both remained in the same succession of ownership, as has already been mentioned before, in the description of the manor of Patrixborne Merton, down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of both these manors; which appear now to be united, as one court only is held for both
of them, stiled, the court leet and court baron of the manors of Patrixborne Merton and Cheney.
BIFRONS is a seat in this parish, situated at a small distance westward from the church, which was originally built by Mr. John Bargar, or Bargrave, whose ancestors were originally of the adjcining parish of Bridge. Robert Bargrave, of Bridge, died in 1600, leaving a numerous issue; of whom John, the eldest son, was the builder of Bifrons, and Isaac, the sixth, was dean of Canterbury, and ancestor of Isaac Bargrave, esq. of Eastry, where further mention will be made of him. They bore for their arms, Argent, on a pale, gules, a sword with the point upwards, the pomel, or, on a chief, azure, three bezants. His grandson John Bargrave, esq. sold it in 1662 to Sir Arthur Slingsby, knight and baronet, descended of a younger branch of the Slingsbys, of Scriven, in Yorkshire, and created a baronet at Brussells in 1657; his arms were, Gules, a chevron, between two leopards faces, in chief, and a bugle born, in base, argent. His son and heir Sir Charles Slingsby, bart. in 1677, alienated it to Mr. Thomas Baker, merchant, of London, (fn. 3) on whose death it came to Mr. William Whotton, gent. of London, and he in 1680 passed it away to Thomas Adrian, esq. who kept his shrievalty here in 1690. He alienated it in 1694 to John Taylor, esq. the son of Nathaniel Taylor, barrister at law, descended of a family at Wlitchurch, in Salop, whose arms were, Gules, three roses, argent, a chief chequy, argent and sable. He died in 1729, leaving four sons and four daughters. Of the former, Brook, the eldest, was LL.D. and F. R. S. a learned and ingenious gentleman, who, among other treatises, wrote one on perspective. He died in 1731, leaving
an only daughter Elizabeth, married to Sir William Young, bart. Herbert, in holy orders, of whom hereafter; Charles, a merchant at Moscow; and Bridges. Of the daughters, Mary died unmarried, at Bridge-place, in 1771, and Olive married John Bowtell, D. D. vicar of Patrixborne. The eldest son Dr. Brook Taylor succeeded his father in this seat, but dying without male issue in 1731, his next brother the Rev. Herbert Taylor became possessed of it, and resided here. He died in 1763, leaving by Mary, one of the daughters of Edward Wake, cler k, prebendary of Canterbury, and first-cousin to the archbishop, two sons, Herbert and Edward, the eldest of whom succeeded him in this seat, with his other estates in this county, but dying unmarried in 1767, his brother, the Rev. Edward Taylor, succeeded him in it, and afterwards rebuilt, nearly on the old scite, this seat of Bifrons, so called from its double front, and the builder of it, in commendation of his wife, placed this motto on the fore front: Diruta ædificat uxor bona, ædificata diruit mala. It was a handsome spacious house, the front of which had a very grand and venerable appearance. He died in 1798, leaving by Margaret his wife, daughter of Thomas Turner Payler, esq. of Ileden, who died at Brussells in 1780, four sons and three daughters, of whom Edward, the eldest, is a captain in the Romney fencible dragoons; Herbert is a captain likewise in the army, private secretary, and aid de camp to the duke of York; Brook is private secretary to the secretary of state for foreign affairs; and Bridges, the youngest, is a lieutenant in the navy. Of the daughters, the eldest, Mary Elizabeth married Edward-Wilbraham Bootle, esq. M. P. Charlotte married the Rev. Mr. Northey, and Margaret. Edward Taylor, esq. the esdest son, succeeded
on his father's death to this seat, and continues owner of it.
1086 Domesday
That the family of William Patric can be equated to the later English Patric family of Patrixbourne in Kent in the 12th century, was demonstrated by Loyd
(p.76). He showed that when the barony went to Enguerrand (or Ingram) Patric, and then to the husbands of his two sisters, these things appeared in records in both France and England. He wrote: Engueran succeeded, who completed the payment of relief for his father's land in Normandy in 1180, and in 1186 rendered account in Kent for the land of his brother's widow, which she had held in dower [Loyd cites, Pipe Roll 32 Hen. I I , p. 188.] and were therefore Patric lands. Engueran died between Michaelmas 1190 and 1191, [Loyd cites, Pipe Roll 2 Ric. I, p. 147; 3 Ric. I, p. 143.] when he was still in debt on this account; and in 1196 the balance was paid by Ralph Tesson and John de Préaux. [Loyd cites, Chancellor's Roll, 8 Ric. I, p. 283.]
Reference to Engueran's daughter Maud is made in the certification of a seal as ' sigillum proprium domine Matillis de Landa Patricii filie
Enguerrandi Patric militis prius Radulfi Tesson militis postea uxoris Willelmi de Milleio militis quod videlicet sigillum habebat in viduitate
sua.' [Loyd cites, Delisle, Château de St-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, preuves, p. 82.] This shows that the family came from La Lande-Patri; and the
assumption that John de Préaux married another daughter of Engueran is supported by the fact that he and Ralph Tesson, both adherents of Philip
Augustus, occur in a list of lands of the Normans as each holding 9 li . of land in Ryarsh, Kent.Research notes. It is considered likely, for example by Sanders and Keats-Rohan, that William is the father, or at least a close relative, of his near contemporary the English Domesday
baron of Patrixbourne Richard the son of William, whose father was evidently named William, and whose successors (relationship unknown) used the surname Patric.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrixbourne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_feudal_barony
The Barony of Patrixbourne is registered in the Official Manorial Title Register and with the Manorial Society of England and Wales
All of the information listed was www.officalmanorialtitleregister.co.uk & www.wikipedia.com made available.
Create Your Own Website With Webador