Moleyns' Lordship Alan Payne February 2024
The Battle of Montiel, 1369 in the Hundred Years´ War, from Jean Froissart's "Chronicles”
The nineteenth century Wiltshire historian Canon John Edward Jackson said that Henry Bigod de la Boxe sold Box manor to Sir John Moleyns in 1341.[1] It was a dramatic change after the Bigod tenure which had lasted some 250 years and their overlords, the Bohun line, came to an end in 1372. The Moleyns family held the lordship of Box for 80 years but their base was in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, a long way from Box and it was a difficult tenure after Sir John Moleyns.
Sir John Moleyns, 1304-59
Sir John Moleyns was a distant landlord, who held the manor as of Trowbridge Castle under the Duchy of Lancaster.[2] In other words, the Box manor was inherited along with Trowbridge Castle and both were ultimately part of the royal estate in the area. Moleyns has been described as a medieval robber baron [3] and ambitious and unscrupulous.[4] It was rumoured that he killed the cousin of his wife Gille Egidia de Mauduit, heiress from Somerford, Wiltshire to inherit more estates. But it is possible that, in part, his reputation comes from his use of traditional feudal methods of exploitation when society had moved on after the Black Death.
Sir John Moleyns was an adventurer and a newcomer, a feudal knight who spent much of his life on military adventures. His early foreign expeditions include Brittany in 1325, France 1329 and again 1330-31.[5] Thereafter he devoted much time at the royal court and in the service of the king acting as Surveyor of the Tower of London in 1336, and Surveyor of the castles on the Isle of Wight and Steward of the King’s Household in 1337. For his service he was granted numerous privileges, manors, and pardons. He is reputed to have committed his allegiance to William de Bohun, nephew of the invalid Humphrey de Bohun (Earl of Hereford and Essex). William and Sir John knew each other as comrades in campaigns against the Scots in 1334-1337.[6]
Thereafter, Sir John’s fortunes waivered. He spent time abroad with the king to support Edward III’s invasion of France in 1340 in the Hundred Year’s War.[7] But the two fell out and Sir John was imprisoned in 1340, accused of rebellion and his lands forfeited until 1345 when he was pardoned. The reconciliation did not last and he was accused of defrauding the Queen in 1356, outlawed and imprisoned in Nottingham and Cambridge Castles until his death in 1359.
Changes for Landlords
The Moleyn lordship of Box was different to the Bigod tenure. As an absentee landlord, we might surmise that Sir John required funds to finance his military service to the king. The immediate consequence of the high mortality rate after the Black Death was increased profit for landlords.[8] Heriot (inheritance payments) multiplied because new tenants took up the landholdings of the dead. But with insufficient labour to work the land, landlords experienced dramatic wage increases and the refusal of bondmen (peasants doing unpaid service) to work on the demesne at haymaking and harvest times.
The government moved swiftly to address the problems, introducing an Ordinance of Labourers in 1349, followed by a Stature of Labourers in 1351. These fixed the maximum wage rates for labourers and profits for craft workers by returning to the prices existing before the Black Death. The law was rigorously enforced with hefty fines and ruthless persecution - hundreds of prosecutions in the Chippenham Assize in 1349 for breaches of the statute by wool spinners, contract harvesters and servants.[9]
While relationships between the lord of the manor and residents deteriorated, the number of tenants also reduced. Many estates passed to underage children and some were vacated because guardians were not prepared to pay for wardship with the epidemic raging. We see this locally where the Black Prince was guardian for several minor sub-tenants on the same land including John Croke, his sub-tenant John Chaneu, and the sub-sub-tenant Sir Roger Norman.[10] The plague returned in 1361, 1369, 1374, 1378 and 1390, particularly virulent with infants who had little immunity from earlier epidemics.[11] Hazelbury was hit particularly hard by the recession. The marginal land which had been enclosed for farming in feudal times was simply left vacant (defectus causa pestilencie) and fell back to waste. It probably happened in fields called Innock at Hazelbury and Newlands at Ditteridge. The number of inhabitants declined until common farming was impossible and then they left.
When food prices started to fall in the 1390s, additional pressure arose on the income of the lords of the manor. The Croke family of Hazelbury concentrated their dairy interests on other locations including Wick Farm at Lacock, and Fowlswick Farm at Chippenham.[12] Hazelbury was also hit by the recession in stone building after 1348 and quarrying came to a complete halt. The stone masons were obliged to return to the land or to seek work elsewhere. The first recorded local building after the Black Death was Bewley Court, Lacock, rebuilt in the 1390s.[13]
Later Moleyns
After Sir John’s death in 1359, several generations of the Molyns family inherited Box in quick succession: Sir William (1359-80) was aged 28 when he inherited, Sir Richard (1380-84) aged just 4 years, and Sir William (1384-1425) aged 7 on inheritance. During the minority of Sir William, Box manor was controlled by Thomas Duke of Gloucester, brother of Richard II and husband of the Bohun heiress Eleanor.[14] When Thomas fell out with the king and died under arrest in 1397, the manor appears to have been forfeited briefly into the king’s estate.[15]
Sir William Moleyns re-established his personal control when he came of age in 1398, and consolidated his power base so that in 1425 the local estate included Somerford, Lee, Whiteley, Box, Trowbrigge, Funtell, Tyffebury and Gore.[16] On Sir William’s death in 1430, Box was left to his heiress, Eleanor, aged 4.[17] She was brought up in the family home at Stoke Poges and came to Wiltshire when she married Lord Robert Hungerford, brother of Baron Walter Hungerford of Farleigh. Robert Hungerford called himself Baron Moleyns in 1445 to pick up continuity but was not a blood relative. This was a period of private warfare between noble factions and possibly Robert had little direct involvement in Box. Robert was another military adventurer, who fought in the Wars of the Roses at Castillon in 1453 and was captured for his part in the Lancastrian opposition to Edward IV and beheaded for treason in 1464.[18] His eldest son, Thomas, died under arrest in 1469.
Box manor then passed through the Hastings family after Thomas’ daughter, Mary (1468-1533), inherited and married Sir Edward Hastings (1466-1506), Lord of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, in about 1478.[19] Edward Hastings had his power base in Leicestershire where he was appointed High Steward and Constable of Leicester Castle in 1485. On Edward’s death his son George Hastings (1486-1544), Earl of Huntingdon, inherited in 1506 and called himself Lord Hungerford and Lord Moleyns at times. George Hastings was a loyal royalist and fought in France for Henry VIII, attended at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
The absence of the lord of the manor from Box did not obviate his importance because his steward continued to be responsible for enforcing his rights. But it did make the chain of communication slower and it opened opportunities for residents to expand their influence through the manorial court.
Sir John Moleyns, 1304-59
Sir John Moleyns was a distant landlord, who held the manor as of Trowbridge Castle under the Duchy of Lancaster.[2] In other words, the Box manor was inherited along with Trowbridge Castle and both were ultimately part of the royal estate in the area. Moleyns has been described as a medieval robber baron [3] and ambitious and unscrupulous.[4] It was rumoured that he killed the cousin of his wife Gille Egidia de Mauduit, heiress from Somerford, Wiltshire to inherit more estates. But it is possible that, in part, his reputation comes from his use of traditional feudal methods of exploitation when society had moved on after the Black Death.
Sir John Moleyns was an adventurer and a newcomer, a feudal knight who spent much of his life on military adventures. His early foreign expeditions include Brittany in 1325, France 1329 and again 1330-31.[5] Thereafter he devoted much time at the royal court and in the service of the king acting as Surveyor of the Tower of London in 1336, and Surveyor of the castles on the Isle of Wight and Steward of the King’s Household in 1337. For his service he was granted numerous privileges, manors, and pardons. He is reputed to have committed his allegiance to William de Bohun, nephew of the invalid Humphrey de Bohun (Earl of Hereford and Essex). William and Sir John knew each other as comrades in campaigns against the Scots in 1334-1337.[6]
Thereafter, Sir John’s fortunes waivered. He spent time abroad with the king to support Edward III’s invasion of France in 1340 in the Hundred Year’s War.[7] But the two fell out and Sir John was imprisoned in 1340, accused of rebellion and his lands forfeited until 1345 when he was pardoned. The reconciliation did not last and he was accused of defrauding the Queen in 1356, outlawed and imprisoned in Nottingham and Cambridge Castles until his death in 1359.
Changes for Landlords
The Moleyn lordship of Box was different to the Bigod tenure. As an absentee landlord, we might surmise that Sir John required funds to finance his military service to the king. The immediate consequence of the high mortality rate after the Black Death was increased profit for landlords.[8] Heriot (inheritance payments) multiplied because new tenants took up the landholdings of the dead. But with insufficient labour to work the land, landlords experienced dramatic wage increases and the refusal of bondmen (peasants doing unpaid service) to work on the demesne at haymaking and harvest times.
The government moved swiftly to address the problems, introducing an Ordinance of Labourers in 1349, followed by a Stature of Labourers in 1351. These fixed the maximum wage rates for labourers and profits for craft workers by returning to the prices existing before the Black Death. The law was rigorously enforced with hefty fines and ruthless persecution - hundreds of prosecutions in the Chippenham Assize in 1349 for breaches of the statute by wool spinners, contract harvesters and servants.[9]
While relationships between the lord of the manor and residents deteriorated, the number of tenants also reduced. Many estates passed to underage children and some were vacated because guardians were not prepared to pay for wardship with the epidemic raging. We see this locally where the Black Prince was guardian for several minor sub-tenants on the same land including John Croke, his sub-tenant John Chaneu, and the sub-sub-tenant Sir Roger Norman.[10] The plague returned in 1361, 1369, 1374, 1378 and 1390, particularly virulent with infants who had little immunity from earlier epidemics.[11] Hazelbury was hit particularly hard by the recession. The marginal land which had been enclosed for farming in feudal times was simply left vacant (defectus causa pestilencie) and fell back to waste. It probably happened in fields called Innock at Hazelbury and Newlands at Ditteridge. The number of inhabitants declined until common farming was impossible and then they left.
When food prices started to fall in the 1390s, additional pressure arose on the income of the lords of the manor. The Croke family of Hazelbury concentrated their dairy interests on other locations including Wick Farm at Lacock, and Fowlswick Farm at Chippenham.[12] Hazelbury was also hit by the recession in stone building after 1348 and quarrying came to a complete halt. The stone masons were obliged to return to the land or to seek work elsewhere. The first recorded local building after the Black Death was Bewley Court, Lacock, rebuilt in the 1390s.[13]
Later Moleyns
After Sir John’s death in 1359, several generations of the Molyns family inherited Box in quick succession: Sir William (1359-80) was aged 28 when he inherited, Sir Richard (1380-84) aged just 4 years, and Sir William (1384-1425) aged 7 on inheritance. During the minority of Sir William, Box manor was controlled by Thomas Duke of Gloucester, brother of Richard II and husband of the Bohun heiress Eleanor.[14] When Thomas fell out with the king and died under arrest in 1397, the manor appears to have been forfeited briefly into the king’s estate.[15]
Sir William Moleyns re-established his personal control when he came of age in 1398, and consolidated his power base so that in 1425 the local estate included Somerford, Lee, Whiteley, Box, Trowbrigge, Funtell, Tyffebury and Gore.[16] On Sir William’s death in 1430, Box was left to his heiress, Eleanor, aged 4.[17] She was brought up in the family home at Stoke Poges and came to Wiltshire when she married Lord Robert Hungerford, brother of Baron Walter Hungerford of Farleigh. Robert Hungerford called himself Baron Moleyns in 1445 to pick up continuity but was not a blood relative. This was a period of private warfare between noble factions and possibly Robert had little direct involvement in Box. Robert was another military adventurer, who fought in the Wars of the Roses at Castillon in 1453 and was captured for his part in the Lancastrian opposition to Edward IV and beheaded for treason in 1464.[18] His eldest son, Thomas, died under arrest in 1469.
Box manor then passed through the Hastings family after Thomas’ daughter, Mary (1468-1533), inherited and married Sir Edward Hastings (1466-1506), Lord of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, in about 1478.[19] Edward Hastings had his power base in Leicestershire where he was appointed High Steward and Constable of Leicester Castle in 1485. On Edward’s death his son George Hastings (1486-1544), Earl of Huntingdon, inherited in 1506 and called himself Lord Hungerford and Lord Moleyns at times. George Hastings was a loyal royalist and fought in France for Henry VIII, attended at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
The absence of the lord of the manor from Box did not obviate his importance because his steward continued to be responsible for enforcing his rights. But it did make the chain of communication slower and it opened opportunities for residents to expand their influence through the manorial court.
References
[1] John Edward Jackson commenting in 1862 on John Aubrey, Wiltshire Topographical Collcetions published 1659-70, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, p.56
[2] John Aubrey, Topographical, Collections, edited by John Edward Jackson, 1862, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, p.56
[3] The Golden Falcon, Chapter VI, The Fair Wind, Ancestry. com, p.5
[4] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy at the Beginning of the Hundred Years War, 1998, Harlaxton Medieval Studies v.7, p.1
[5] Complete Peerage vol. 9, 1936, pp.36-9
[6] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy, p.8
[7] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy, p.9
[8] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, 1996, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, p.32
[9] Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol XXXIII, p.385
[10] GJ Kidston, A History of the Manor of Hazelbury, 1936, p.80
[11] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, p.2
[12] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, p.2
[13] Pamela M Slocombe, Medieval Houses in Wiltshire, 1992, Alan Sutton Publishing, p.9
[14] Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol IV, p.267
[15] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56
[16] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56
[17] The Golden Falcon, Chapter VI, The Fair Wind, p.5 and GenealogyForum.com Robert Hungerford
[18] John Hare, A Prospering Society: Wiltshire in the Later Middle Ages, 2011, University of Hertfordshire Press, p.35
[19] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56
[1] John Edward Jackson commenting in 1862 on John Aubrey, Wiltshire Topographical Collcetions published 1659-70, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, p.56
[2] John Aubrey, Topographical, Collections, edited by John Edward Jackson, 1862, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, p.56
[3] The Golden Falcon, Chapter VI, The Fair Wind, Ancestry. com, p.5
[4] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy at the Beginning of the Hundred Years War, 1998, Harlaxton Medieval Studies v.7, p.1
[5] Complete Peerage vol. 9, 1936, pp.36-9
[6] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy, p.8
[7] Andrew Ayton, Edward III and the English Aristocracy, p.9
[8] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, 1996, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, p.32
[9] Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol XXXIII, p.385
[10] GJ Kidston, A History of the Manor of Hazelbury, 1936, p.80
[11] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, p.2
[12] EB Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in Late Medieval England, p.2
[13] Pamela M Slocombe, Medieval Houses in Wiltshire, 1992, Alan Sutton Publishing, p.9
[14] Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol IV, p.267
[15] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56
[16] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56
[17] The Golden Falcon, Chapter VI, The Fair Wind, p.5 and GenealogyForum.com Robert Hungerford
[18] John Hare, A Prospering Society: Wiltshire in the Later Middle Ages, 2011, University of Hertfordshire Press, p.35
[19] John Aubrey, Wiltshire - Topographical Collections, edited Canon Jackson, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1862, p.56