Manor of Siston

Manor of Siston is the ancient manor in Siston in South Gloucestershire, England.

Descent of the manor

Berkeley of Dursley The Domesday Book of 1086 records Siston at an annual value of 8 marks, assessed at 5 hides, amongst the lands of the Norman magnate Roger de Berkeley I (d. 1093), held in-chief from the King.Domesday Bk.i.168ai. Roger's possessions and influence, centered on the royal demesne of Berkeley Castle, Dursley, ranged from Gloucester in the north to Bristol in the south, the Cotswolds to the east and the Bristol Channel to the west.

Dr Neil Stacy has reconstructed the early history of Siston as follows:Stacy, p. 12..

In 1127 Siston was occupied by a certain "Matron" Racendis, possibly the widow of Roger II (d. 1127) de Berkeley.John of Worcester, 174–75. She attempted to bequeath it to Glastonbury Abbey, which held neighbouring Pucklechurch, seemingly to deprive her nephew William of control of it,Pipe Roll 31 Henry I, p. 133. who was administering her son's inheritance during her lifetime. She stated that she held the manor freely with no other claim upon it. The Abbot sent knights and monks to Siston to visit Racendis on her death bed to remind her of her promise, only to find monks already in attendance from another Abbey, also claiming her body and property. Following a public hearing and the payment of 40 marks by Henry of Blois, Abbot of Glastonbury, to Racendis, probably to go to the other claimant house as compensation, the manor subsequently was recognised as being held from Glastonbury, still however tenanted by the Berkeleys. This position was perhaps formalised by a charter (now lost)Hearne, p. 379.. from King Henry I (1100–1135), uncle to Abbot Henry. A further charter of confirmation was granted by King Stephen (1135–1154) in January 1138 describing Siston as rightfully held by Glastonbury, as its ancient possession.Stacy, p. 11. Stephen was the brother of Abbot Henry, both being sons of the Count of Blois, by Adela, fourth daughter of William I. The proof offered of an ancient holding may have been a charter forged in the scriptorium of Glastonbury, as Dr. Stacy suggests.Stacy, op. cit. p. 13. However, in 1153 Roger III de Berkeley, possibly the son of Racendis, claiming it his property by inheritance, attempted to dispose of Siston in marriage settlement on a daughter of Robert FitzHarding, betrothed to his son and heir. Robert FitzHarding was a wealthy merchant of Bristol and a financier of Duke Henry of Aquitaine (future King Henry II, 1154–1189, rival of Stephen). This double marriage contract, binding the son and heir of each man to marry a daughter of the other, was signed at the house of Robert FitzHarding in Bristol in the presence of Duke Henry and 16 witnesses. It was an attempt to restore good relations between Roger de Berkeley and Robert FitzHarding.Jeayes, pp. 4–5. FitzHarding, earlier in 1153, had been given Berkeley Castle by Duke Henry and became 1st. Baron Berkeley, leaving Roger de Berkeley with a truncated lordship centred on Dursley.Stacy, pp. 13–14. Glastonbury appealed to Duke Henry, who abruptly ordered the Earl of Gloucester to restore Siston to Glastonbury. The Earl of Gloucester effected a compromise whereby The Dursley Berkeleys would continue to hold Siston, but paying knight's service for it to the Abbey as overlords. Professor Crouch, writing in 2000, stated: "in the past 10 years the manor of Siston has become a very significant place in the understanding of what was happening in King Stephen's reign, largely due to the documentation that the contest for its possession generated"Crouch, Prof. The Reign of King Stephen, 1135–1154. Harlow, 2000. pp. 290–91 Appendix II: What Happened at Siston 1138–53. In 1218 Siston was handed over by Glastonbury with other temporalities to the Bishop of Bath & Wells, and continued to be held in chief by that see until dissolution. The knight's service seems to have lapsed by the middle of the 13th century.Stacy, N. Correspondence.

Walerand of Whaddon, Wiltshire

Siston eventually passed by marriage to Robert Walerand (d. 1272), Justiciar to Henry III, one of the four chief ministers of the Crown, eldest son of William Walerand of Whaddon, Wiltshire, and Isabel, daughter of Roger de Berkeley of Dursley, by her second marriage.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Walerand. By 1242/3 Walerand had succeeded to his patrimony of Whaddon, part of the Domesday barony of Walerand the Huntsman, whose descendants had often held the New Forest and Forest of Clarendon in fee. In 1245, on the death of the last Marshal Earl of Pembroke, he was made custodian of his lands in west Wales, including Pembroke Castle. From 1246 to 1250 he was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and keeper of Gloucester Castle. In 1253 he held the stewardship of the New Forest and in 1255 was made keeper of the Forest of Dean and Constable of St Briavel's Castle. In 1259 he became keeper of Bristol Castle. Walerand gained huge land holdings throughout the kingdom largely acquired as forfeited lands of Hugh de Nevill after Evesham in 1265 and is recorded as holding on his death, among many other manors:Calendar Inq. p. m. 1 Ed. I, V. 2 (1906).

Clearly the escheator of Gloucestershire was in error about Siston still being held from the Berkeleys, a mistake his successors were to make on at least two further occasions, when it was stated to be held in chief from the King, royal orders then being procured to halt the "intermeddling". Walerand, who seemingly had such a vast choice of residences, was apparently in residence at Siston, before and after all these grants were made. In 1256 he was given by eight breeding bream fish by the King to establish a vivarium or larder pond at Siston."bremias matrices" 13 March 1256. Cal.Cl.Rolls, H III vol 9 (1931). This is an amusing detail, surely trinkets given arising from some promise in an after dinner discussion between the King and Walerand, then his steward, about the latest trends in fish breeding. ("I'll send you some and you can see for yourself!" is perhaps how the conversation ended). At the time these fish were received at Siston Walerand was employed on important business, raising money for Henry's second son, Edmund to take up the crown of Sicily, offered by the Pope in 1254. His forceful exactions were one of the causes of the rebellion of Simon de Montfort and the Barons' War, ended at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. In 1265, possibly as a personal reward for his assistance at Evesham, the King gave an order to his Forester in Melkesham, Wilts (15 m. to SW.) to let Walerand have 5 live buck and 5 live doe fallow deer for the establishment of his park at Siston.Close Rolls Nov. 1265. This was possibly the nucleus of the 1,000 strong herd there in 1607 referred to in the Cecil Papers.

The park had been augmented with the permission of Walter, Bishop of Bath & Wells from former Abbey lands at Pucklechurch, at the yearly rent of 1d.Calendar of MSS of Dean & Chapter of Wells. Vol. 1 (1907) Liber Albus I ff.81100. Inspeximus April 1268 by Edw. Dean of Wells to a grant made by Walter, late Bishop of Bath and Wells "to Robert , for his homage & service, of the wood in Pucklechurch next the grantee's park of Siston, to increase the said park, to hold to him & his heirs of the B[isho]p. at a yearly rent of 1d." R I f.84d. Walerand married in 1257 Maud Russell daughter of Sir Ralph Russell of Kingston Russell, Dorset, who had inherited the Newmarch estates, including Dyrham (3 m. E. of Siston), from his wife Isabel, whose wardship and marriage his father Sir John Russell (d. c. 1224)Sir John Russell, Governor of Corfe Castle 1220 & Constable of Shirborne, near the caput of the Newmarch estates at North Cadbury, Dorset. He purchased the wardship of both heiresses, and sold the second to John de Bottrell, who retained Cadbury. Dyrham and N. Cadbury had been acquired by Henry, father of James, Baron Newmarch, on marriage to the daughter and heiress of Winebald de Ballon. had purchased on the death without male heir of her father James, Baron Newmarch. This marriage, to the daughter of his neighbour at Dyrham, is surely further evidence as to Walerand's actual residence at Siston. Maud brought Dyrham to Walerand as her Marriage Settlement, thus unifying the two manors briefly (in anticipation of the Denys's), but as Walerand died sine prole Dyrham reverted to the RussellsCalendar Inq. p. m. 1 Ed I Vol. 2 (1906). and Siston passed to his heir, nephew Sir Alan Plokenet.

Plokenet of Herefordshire Sir Alan Plokenet (d. 1298), was the son of Walerand's sister Alice (Walerand's intended heir, nephew Robert Walerand, (born 1256) (son of his elder brother William and Isabel de Kilpeck) was deemed an "idiot" legally incapable of inheritance). The Plokenet family was from Plouquenet, Brittany. Sir Alan's main lands were in Herefordshire, and he was buried at Dore Abbey, south west of Hereford, which he had endowed.

Alan's son Alan II inherited Siston as evidenced by the lawsuit of novel disseisin brought against him in 1320 by Sir Nicholas de Kingston his retainer, who claimed he had been unjustly deprived of his "free tenement of Siston"Aug.1320. K.B.27/246m.136d. Latin text given in Saul, N. Appendix 1. Clearly Plokenet himself was not in residence at Siston, unlike Walerand. Alan II d.s.p. 1325 and the property seems to have passed to Alan I's sister Joan (d. 1327) who had married Sir Henry (Edward?) de Bohun. The union was sine prole. Eleanor de Bohun, daughter of the Earl of Hereford and wife of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond (created 1328) certainly inherited the manor of Kilpeck, Hereford, from an Alan Plokenet, apparently at the request of Queen Isabella, so may have received Siston also.

Corbet of Caus, Shropshire

How Siston manor came to the Corbets is not clear, but Sir Peter Corbet, grandfather of Margaret, was seized of it when he died in 1362. It is however known that their Tenancies-in-Chief of Alveston ( north west of Siston) and Earthcott, Gloucestershire which holdings were to determine the devolution of Siston, had arisen on the marriage of Sir Peter Corbet (d. 1362) to Elizabeth FitzWarin, daughter of Walter FitzWarin (d. 1363) of Alveston. The marriage is likely to have arisen due to the two families anciently being neighbouring Marcher Lords in Shropshire and the Marches.Alveston had been a hunting seat of Earl Harold pre-Conquest and appears in Domesday as "Terra Regis" (land of the king). Wm. Rufus had a hunting seat there and it remained a royal possession until it was granted by Henry III to Fulk FitzWarin, of the Marcher Lord family of Shropshire, neighbours of the Corbets. Henry had deprived Fulk of a prized manor in Salop. and offered Alveston in exchange. The event is recorded in the contemporaneous "Romance of Fulk FitWarin" (see Brandin, Louis. Fouke FitzWarin, in: Les Classiques Francaises du Moyen Age. Paris, 1930.) Henry gave several fallow deer on several occasions for stocking Fulk's park at Alveston, as he had done for Waleraund's at Siston. Siston seems to have been the residence of Peter Corbet in Gloucestershire as Alveston and Earthcott were occupied by the de Gloucester family, holding from FitzWarin, when granted to Peter Corbet. Unlike Alveston and Earthcott, Siston was not held in-chief from the king, but from the Abbey of Bath and Wells.