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THE NETHER BURGATE ESTATE
RIVERS AND LEKHULL OWNERSHIP
Owing to a series of early disputes about the title to the manor of N. Burgate and hundred of Fordingbridge, documents have survived in the collection recording the ownership of the estate from the twelfth century. A copy of a charter of Henry II shows that Burgate and Rockborne, which belonged to the king at the time of the Domesdey survey (V. C. H. Hants., i, 455b) were granted with other lands to Manser Bisset before 1175. His lands descended to the husbands of the daughters of John Bisset (d.1241) and in a copy of an extract from pleas of the crown, 1280, it is stated that Burgate was held by John de Ripariis and Rockborne by John de Wotton and Ela, his wife. A faded document without date apparently records an agreement for the partition of all the Bisset lands between John de Ripariis John de Wotton and Ela, his wife, and Hugh de Plessictis and Isabella, his wife.
Sir John de Ripariis, the son of John de Ripariis, quit claimed his title to his sister John, who made good her right against his son John, her nephew (361/3,4). John, the son of Joan de Ripariis and Sir William Tracy, upheld his title against John de Ripariis, 1340, and then quit claimed to his sister Margaret and Sir Thomas de Langley, her husband, 1341 (361/5,7). The Inquisition post mortem after the death of Sir Thomas de Langley on 22 Oct 1361 found that he had been holding the manor of H. Burgate and hundred of Fordingbridge as the inheritance of his wife. His daughter Margaret having died without issue, the manor and hundred escheated to the King. Edward III thereupon granted them to Sir Richard de Pembrugge for good service on 1 Oct 1366 (346/3) but as his son Henry did not long survive his death in 1375 (345) his heirs were the sons of his two sisters, Sir Richard Burley and Sir Thomas Barre. An inquisition held at Fordingbridge on 11 Apr 1390 declared that in 1378 Barre had surrendered his part of the manor and hundred to Burley in exchange for an annual rent of £20 6s. 8d., later reduced by 36s. 10d. by the grant of certain lands in Rerefordshire (365/1,5). The rent was stated to have been in arrear since Michaelmas 1387. The inquisition declared that after the death of Sir Richard Burley, Beatrice, his wife, and William, his brother, had released their claims to Sir Simon Burley, upon whose impeachment and forfeiture in 1388 the manor and hundred came to the king.
After consideration of claims, Richard II made a new grant to William Lekhull and Katherine, his wife, who claimed the manor and hundred as great-granddaughter of Sir John de Ripariis and Maud, his wife, to hold from Easter 1390. Their right was immediately contested by Beatrice, the widow of Sir Richard Burley (350, 346/8). Some attempt seems to have been made to prove that the Burleys had sold the manor to John, Duke of Lancaster. Beatrice also sued Sir Richard Arundell and Alice, his wife, who appear to have seized the manor in 1402. Katherine de Ripariis and John Halle, her second husband, complained to Parliament in 1402 that they had been dispossessed by Arundell and others, that they had suffered damage of £190 11s., and that they had lost £10 in money, bonds to the amount of £260 and their charters, court rolls and account rolls, while their servant, Richard, had been bound and thrown into the 'great river called Avene Rot. Parl., iii, 512. Proceedings of novel disseisin were brought against Arundell and others by Halle in 1403 (352) and Beatrice, later Beatrice de Roos, continued her fight against Halle in 1403-05 (385, 346/9). Halle apparently recovered possession and held till his death in 1433-4 (353). He was succeeded by his son, John Rivers alias Lekhull, who was said to have been murdered by two of his servants in 1439. William Bulkeley of Eaton (Cheshire) was named as the heir but John's brother Thomas, thought to have died in the wars in France, afterwards came home and claimed the estate (372/2). Bulkeley, who was Chief Justice of the King in Cheshire, was the son of John, son of Christian, sister of Edmund de Ripariis, father of Katherine.
Various arrangements were now entered into by Thomas Lekhull to determine succession to the property. A fine was levied in 1442 whereby the manor and hundred were to be held by Thomas for life, with remainder to Thomas Payn and Joan, his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Romsey and cousin of Thomas Lekhull (387). Another fine, with the additional remainder to William Bulkeley, was levied in 1443 (389). After the deaths of Thomas and Joan Payn, Lekhull conveyed the manor and hundred to be held by Bulkeley and others during his life, with remainder to Bulkeley (392). Thomas Lekhull died in 1455 (357) but the Bulkeley title to the estate was not yet secure. Between 1456 and 1460 William had had to deal with a claim by John Appleby, who was descended from Eleanor, daughter of Sir John de Ripariis and land (374, 394). William Bulkeley settled the manor and hundred upon his son in 1457 (396) and this was confirmed by various deeds between 1458 and 1465 (397-401). In 1468 Charles Bulkeley dealt with a claim by Sir John Barre, grandson of Sir Thomas Barre, to a rent charge out of the estate (377).
BULKELEY OWNERSHIP
An account of the origin of the Bulkeley family appears under Lord Bulkeley in Collins's Peerage (1812). The arms of the family and a pedigree of the descendants of William Bulkeley of Cheshire (wrongly called Bulkler) are given on p. 21 of William Berry's Hampshire Genealogies (1033). According to this Charles Bulkeley married the daughter and heir of Sir John Popham, a soldier in France under Henry V and the Duke of Bedford See Dictionary of National Biography but in A final concord of 1459 Bulkeley is stated to have married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Alice Herteshorn V.C.H. Hants., IV, 562, n.55. He subsequently married Eleanor, widow of Walter Abarowe of N. Charford. It is presumably due to the first marriage that documents relating to the Popham manors of Chinnor (Oxon) and South Charford occur in the collection. But it is not clear why the collection also includes a few late c.15th documents relating to the lands of the Tyrrell family in Essex and Hampshire, though there had been a marriage alliance between the Tyrell and Abarrowe families in the fourteenth century and later between the Tyrells and the Bruns, owners of the manors of Rowner and Fordingbridge. Up to 1583 the Bulkeleys retained the manors of Meagre (Hunts.) and Ravensdon (Beds.) (417), though some lands in the parish of Ravensden were exchanged in 1539 for lands in Burgate formerly belonging to the monastery of Maiden Bradley (Wilts.) (408). The family held the manor of Arneys in Fordingbridge and Cranborne (Dorset) from the end of the fifteenth century but little specific documentary evidence appears about it. Several groups of documents survive relating to large and small purchases during the period of the Bulkeley ownership of the estate. Notable among these are deeds relating to the manor of Milborne Stilcham (Dorset) bought by William Bulkeley in 1612 and sold in 1657.
The earlier Bulkeleys no doubt played their part in county affairs as the existence in the collection of the sixteenth century papers about local defence indicates. One of the most important figures in the family was John Bulkeley who died in 1662. He added largely to the family fortunes by successful marriages, first to Anne, daughter of Sir William Dodington of Breamore in 1638 (442), secondly to Elizabeth, daughter of William Sotwell of Greenham (Berks) and widow of Francis Trenchard of Cutteridge (Wilts.) about 1646 (1179), and thirdly to Penelope, daughter of Sir Thomas Trenchard, in 1652 (471). (A pedigree of the Hanham family in Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 231, however, shows Penelope, youngest daughter of Thomas Hanham of Wimborne Minster as married to John Bulkeley). The marriage to Elizabeth Trenchard, whose daughter Elizabeth seems to have died young, gave John Bulkeley an interest in the Sotwell lands in Hampshire, Berkshire, and probably also in a third part of the manor of Rodney Stoke (Son.). The second marriage of John Bulkeley's mother to Barnsbas Laigh of Rorth Court, Isle of Wight, added a number of Isle of right documents to the collection. The political career of John Bulkeley also began in the Isle of Wight. He was M.P. for Yarmouth in 1640 and for Hewtown in 1645. He also represented the county in 1654, 1656 and 1660 and sat for Lymington in 1661. He seems to have been active in raising money for the Parliament in 1645 E. King, Old Times Revisited. (1900). and a petition to the Committee of Lords and Commons for Indemnity (1307) suggests other activities. He obtained a pardon from Charles II (468) and continued to sit in Parliament until his death.
John Bulkeley's son, William, before 1679 married Martha, daughter and heiress of James Dewy of the Middle Temple, London (476). (A James Dewy, son and heir of James Dewy, of Christchurch, was M.P. for Dorset 1656-8 and for Ludgershall, 1659). It may have been through this marriage that property in Christchurch and the area came into the possession of the Bulkeleys (1172-7). The son of William and Martha Bulkeley, Sir Dewy Bulkeley, came into the estate as a minor. Some papers of his grandfather and guardian, James Dewy, are in the collection. Sir Dewy also made important marriages, first to Constance, daughter of Sir Samuel Eyre (496), and second to Anne, daughter of Walter Coventry of London (497). Sir Dowy Bulkeley was sheriff of Hampshire in 1705 and certain records of that office are in the collection, including ms. poll books for the county election.
After Sir Dewy's death in 1736, the estate descended to his son, James Coventry Bulkeley. He died in 1764 leaving his property to his sister Anne for life and after her death to his mother's relation, John Bulkeley Coventry, youngest son of William, 5th Earl of Coventry, on condition that he took the surname of Bulkeley. Certain miscellaneous documents connected with the Gloucestershire and Worcestershire estates of the Coventry family are in the collection.
COVENTRY OWNERSHIP
On the death of John Bulkeley Coventry Bulkeley in 1801, his nephew John Coventry, son of the 6th Earl of Coventry by his second wife Barbara St. John of Bletsoe came into the estate. It passed to his second son John on his death in 1829, and from him descended to his eldest son John, who died in 1897. Having a large family to provide for, he left his eldest son a third of the proceeds of the sale of the estate. He, however, bought in Burgate House and 100 acs. of land, which he and his wife held until 1939. The remainder of the estate was then sold by his eldest son and the house is now owned by Imperial Chemical Industries.
THE HUNDRED OF FORDINGBRIGE
As owners of the hundred of Fordingbridge, the Bulkeleys claimed the exercise of certain liberties. These are set out in several documents in the collection particularly in the exemplification of quo warranto proceedings in 1576 (416). According to this Bulkeley claimed to have the assize of bread and beer and other victuals, the scrutiny of weights and measures, the election and nomination of constables and other officers of the court of view of frankpledge, waifs and strays, Idllory, tumbrel and gallows, goods and chattels of outlaws and escaped felons, deodands and other forfeitures, the return of write and precepts of the Queen. Bulkeley claimed to nominate the bailiff of the hundred of Fordingbridge, who was accustomed to do within the hundred all that the bailiff of the sheriff of Hampshire should do. He claimed authority 'quam integre tam non integre' over those residing in the hamlets or tithings of Burgate, Ellingham, Ibbesley, Fordingbridge with Rockstead, Over Burgate with widgham, N. and S. Clarford and Hale, and also the tenants of King's College, Cambridge, of the rectory of Fordingbridge and other tenants late of the abbey of Beaulieu. In 1911 Mr. John Coventry still had the right of appointing the coroner for the hundred (V.C.H. Hants. IV 560). The constable of the parish was elected at the manor court of Burgate until 1878 Hannen, Fordingbridge 14.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE ESTATES OF THE BULKELEY AND COVENTRY FAMILIES
Manor and hundred of Fordingbridge court rolls, 1406-1552; manor of Burgate court rolls, 1418-1578; estreat rolls, 1458-1684; manor of Burgate and hundred of Fordingbridge court books, 1499-1782; Breamore court rolls, 1480-1506; Ellingham court rolls, 1343-46; Ringwood estreat roll, 1531-32; Rockford court roll, 1356-60; Burgate Manor accounts, 1369-1557; rentals and surveys of Burgate and Arneys manors and the hundred of Fordingbridge, 1514-1786; parliamentary survey of the hundred of Fordingbridge, 1652; court papers of the manors of Burgate, Arneys, Ford and the hundred of Fordingbridge, 1472-1740; inquisitions post mortem, letters patent and other legal documents concerning the establishment of the Bulkeley title (families recorded: de Ripariis (de Redvers), Bisset, Burley, Halle, de Penbrugge, Lekehull and others), 1286-1468; title deeds, marriage settlements and wardships (places recorded: Burgate, Rockbourne, Charford, Gorley, Ibsley, and others), 12th century-1801; commission to John Bulkeley as Keeper of Linwood bailiwick, 1660; early deeds, 13th century-1557; property sales and purchases (places recorded: Burgate, Fordingbridge, Ringwood, Breamore, Keyhaven, Sandyballs, manor of Folds, Godshill, manor of Sandhill, and others), 1383-1814; map of Whitsbury Farm, 1653; deeds for Whitsbury Farm, 1649-1714; Burgate leases, 1528-1776; Fordingbridge leases, 1652-1757; Arneys leases, 1605-1755; map of Avon at Christchurch, 18th century; settlements and leases, 1637-64; legal and administrative papers, 1520-1754; New Forest charters, 1217-1406; miscellaneous New Forest papers, 17th century-1707; Fordingbridge poor rate, 1733; receipt for fifteenth for Hale, N. and S. Charford and Seygvyll, 1512; taxation papers, 1525-90; defence papers and musters (Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and New Forest), 1554-79; Bulkeley family papers and accounts, 16th century-1753; Tyrell, Popham and Abarrowe family papers, 1402-1500; docuemnts and papers relating to places outside Hampshire.