General Notes

From "Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society", Vol I,Colchester, pp 251-273, The History of the Barrington Family,@www.southfrm.demon.co.uk/Genealogy/Barr.html:

Sir John had two sons, John and Edmund, the latter possessed the Manorsof Gravely, Letchworth and Cheresfield together with the parkership ofthe park at Weston near Baldock, and other lands there, all inHertfordshire, and which had been the property of his mother Margaret andsettled after her death on her younger children. By a deed dated the 26of May in the twelfth year of King Richard the second, it appears, that arecovery had been suffered for these estates after Sir John's death, andan engagement made, that his widow should hold them for her life, andhave them in fee simple, in case her son Edmund died before her withoutissue: but if she died first, then that he and his heirs should havethem. This second event must have taken place, as Edmund certainlypossessed them and held a court for them at Graveley on the Monday afterEaster in the eleventh year of King Henry the Fourth.
   On Sir John's death his son John Barrington succeeded to the estates.He seems to have been the first of the family who spelt the name with a Gin it. He had from King Edward the Third in the 49th year of his reign,letters patent confirming to him all his grants, that his ancestors hadreceived from Kings Henry the First, Stephen, Henry the Second, and Henrythe Third, of the office of woodward and forester of Hatfield, as heldoriginally under William de Montfichet and also of all the lands heldunder the Crown in Hatfield, Writtle, and elsewhere, reserving to theKing an annual rent of seventeen shillings. This patent is not now to befound.
   John Barrington married Alice one of the daughters and (after herbrother's death) coheirs of Thomas Battail son of Sir John Battail ofOngar Park, Knight and of his wife Elizabeth the dole daughter and heirof Sir Thomas Enfield of High Laver. There is a deed dated July 26th inthe 16th year of King Edward the Third, from Thomas Enfield son of thelate Sir John Enfield, Knight, by which he released to his brotherRichard Enfield all his right in and claim to, lands and tenements withall things belonging to them in Hatfield Regis, Matching, White Rothingand Rothing Abbess. (On the back of the deed, Mr Micklefield has writtena memorandum in part illegible, stating that his father-in-law ThomasBarrington had all the lands and tenements therein named in right of hismother Alice, who was heir to her grandfather Thomas Enfield and hisbrother Richard. John Battail the brother of Alice went on a pilgrimageto Jerusalem and before leaving England made his will, respecting whichthe following account is found,


John Fitz Thomas de Battail, beinge to goe in pilgrimage to Jerusalem,made his last will and testament in writinge indented, bearing date onFriday next before the Feast of St Matthew the Apostle 21st yeare ofRichard the second. Reciteinge that of his free will hee had given andgranted, and by his deed of Feoffmt confirmed to Sir Alexander de WaldenKt, John de Boys of Tolleshunt, Thomas Lampet, John Barrington, RobertRohele and othrs, all his Lands, tenemts, rents and services as well ofhis free tenants as of vilains, with wards, maniages, heirots, releifes,escheats, and all theire appurtnts in the villa of high Lanfare, littleLanfare, Maude lyn Lanfare, Matchinge, Hatfield Regis, White Rothinge,Abbesse Rothinge and Herlaw in the county of Essex. To have and to holdto them their heires, or assignes for ever, as more fully appears in thesaid deed of Feoffmt bearing date at High Laver on Thursday next beforethe feast of the Purification of our lady then last past, and he humbleprayed his said Feoffees that if he should dye before his return intoEngland, they would please to pforme his last will and testamentthereunder written.--
   First he willed that his goods and chattles movable should be sold inthe best manner they might, and that the money raised should pay andaccomplish all the points the last will of the sayd Thomas his father.And moreover pay all the debts wch the sayd Thomas, my mother his wife,and myself ow to any p~son, and to make due satisfaction of any thingthat may have been taken away without reasonable cause, and be madeappeare to the sayd Feoffees. Item, to pay to the Abbot and Convent ofWalden for the glasse of one window in theire Abbey to have him in theirememorie x markes. Item, to pay to the Abbot and Convent of Waltham topray form him Cs. Item, to pay to two honest Chaplains for sayinge divineservice in the Church of Matchinge for the Soules of his Father, Motherand himself, and for all Christns for three years continually, after hisdecease, to either of them yearly viij marks. Item, to John Crabbe hisservant xls, and to John Kependene to pray for him cs, and furtherrequested his sayd Feoffees, that if they should have knowledge orreports of his death, they should ordain that 1,000 masses should be saydfor his Soule and all Christn Soules in all haste that could be. And gaveThomas Clarke, Vicar of Matching xls and to Godfrey Coterill xs for histravell. And if his movable goods should not be sufficient of value topay and fulfil his last will; then he requested his Feoffess to retainein their hands all the said lands and tenemts, untill such time as theprofits and revenue thereof his will be performed. Item, if John Swaffinhis servant remain in England alice after his decease, and that theFeoffees should have p~fect knowledge that he had well and dutyfullyserved, then his will was that the said Feoffees should grant unto himxxs yearly rent for his life to be taken out of his rent calledChamberlaine fee in the parish of Maudlin Laver; and if Margaret hissister before his return into England were marryed to John de Boys, thenhe besought his Feoffees that in case he Dyed before his return theywould grant to the said John and Margaret and to the heires of theirebodyes ingendered, the manors called Matchinge Barnis, and Brent Hall.And for the default of such issue that the said two manors be equallyparted betweene Alice and the said margaret his two sisters, to have andto hold to them and to their heires and assignes for ever and that allother the lands, Tenemts, rents and services, wherein the sayd Feoffessare infeoffed after his will should be entirely p~formed, should beequally parted between his sayd two sisters, to have and to hold to themand their heires and assignes for ever in fee simple. Yetnothwithstanding if he should return into England in safety and demandrefeoffmt of the sayd Feoffees of the all the lands and Tenemts whereinthey were by him infeofed, then he willed that John de Boys, ThomasLampet, &c., shuld kepe in their hands all the lands and Tenemts rentsand services which he had in Essex, and profits and revenues thereof tillcc marks of the assignmt of his father to the sayd Margaret for hermarriage and xxli of his own gift to her for her Chambre be fully payed.Item he prayed the said John de Boys, Thomas Lampet &c., that they wouldplease to take the administration of his goods and fulfill and p~formehis last will taking their reasonable charges for the sd administration.


   There is not anything to shew whether John Battail did return toEngland or not, but after his death a dispute arose between JohnBarrington, who had married Alice, and John de Boys, who had marriedMargaret, the two sisters above-named, as to the respective shares oftheir wives in the testator's property, and after a long controversy itwas agreed that the settlement of all the matters in debate between themshould be left to the arbitration of the Countess of Hereford, Essex andNorthampton; John Barrington gave a bond of £200 to the Countess Gerardde Braybroke and William Marney, only to be enforced in the event of hisnot abiding by any award the Ladyship might give. A similar bond wasgiven by John de Boys. And on the 26th of January in the 19th year ofKing Henry the Fourth the Countess published and award in which shestated,


That she already settled in London the partition of the manors of Otes,and the lands and tenements called the Wantons land, Piershall andAungre. But that she could not then stay longer in London to make a fullaward as to the manors of Matching Barnis and Brenthall, and also of someother things, the said John Barrington and John de Boys had promised toappear before her at Falkbourne, at a reasonable time, that she mighthear the rest of the matters in debate between them.


At which place on their appearance the Countess did award, with theadvice of Sir William Thiring and others, the justices of the CommonBench, and of Freres Thomas Palmer, and William Devenere, Masters inDivinity,


That Thomas Lampet and others the Feoffess of the said manors of MatchingBarnis and Brenthall should (after the said John Barrington and John deBoys and their wives had released by fine to the said Feoffees, all theright which they and their wives had in the said manors) in feoff thesaid John de Boys and Margaret his wife in the same. To have and to holdto them and the heirs of their bodies; and if they die without issue,that then the said manors be equally parted, and one moiety of the sameremain to the heirs of the said margaret in fee simple, and the othermoiety to Alice the wife of John Barrington, which said fine was to belevied before the feast of Candlemas as was comprised in the otherindenture made in London. And touching the 200 marks and the £20 devisedby the said Thomas to John de Boys for the marriage of the said margaret,the said Lady did award that the said John and Margaret shold not haveclaim to the same. And the said Lady did award that all debts which hadbeen paid by the said Feoffees for the said John Battail or Thomas hisfather, shold be demonstrated to her and her counsel in the presence ofJohn Barrington before Candlemas and that all payments of the same debtswhich should seem to the said Lady and her counsel to have not reasonablyand rightly paid, upon reasonable proof thereof made by the said John,should be disallowed. And that all the rest of the profits taken out ofthe said manor of Oates, and the lands and tenements called Wantonlands,Piershall, and Aungre, and the manors of Matching Barnis, and Brenthall,beyond the right payment of the debts and performance of devises of thesaid John Fitz Thomas should be parted in manner ensuring, that arisingfrom Oates, Wantonn lands, Piershall, and Aungre equally between the saidJohn Barrington and John de Boys. And those from Matching Barnis andBrenthall to John de Boys. And also for making a final and everlastingagreement between the said parties, the said Lady did award that theyshould make acquittance each to other, and to the Executors andAdministrators of the said John Fitz Thomas, and of his father, touchingall actions personal and all other matter soever relating to the saidwill.


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