Reprint from Transactions of The Hunter ArchÆological Society.

HAWKSYARD.

By T. WALTER HALL, Hon. M.A. (Sheffield), F.R.Hist.S.

Place-names, obvious in their meaning but suggesting a remote origin and a forgotten past, attract the historian, if not the philologist.

Hawksyard is one of these; its import is Hawksland but its history lies hidden in the records of past centuries; it excites our curiosity and quickens our imagination.

We instinctively recall scenes of English sport in bygone days; of kings and nobles, knights and ladies, riding across the unfenced country; over moorland and waste, through fen and ford, with hooded falcon and stooping hawk, enjoying what was for nearly a thousand years the national sport of England.

Such a scene was brought to mind by the perusal of two musty parchments with imposing seals and faded script, quarried from the lower strata of time-worn muniments, in the office of Colonel Brooke Taylor of Bakewell.

The earlier of these deeds takes us back to the death of John of Gaunt and the resignation of Richard II in the closing year of the 14th century; the later one was sealed and delivered in the less tragic days of Queen Elizabeth.

They both relate to Hawksyard, situate in that part of The Moorlands of Staffordshire known in the middle ages as Highe Frith of Malbanc Forest; south of Buxton and east of the church at Newtown near Longnor.

The deed of John of Gaunt bears date the 15th May 1399, in bold Arabic numerals; it is written in a jargon intended to be Latin and measures 15 × 8½ inches; its round pendent seal of green wax has a diameter of three and a half inches and is nearly an inch thick. The parchment is dark in colour, coarse in texture and much crinkled; the writing is not uniform in character, parts being in a flowing hand suggesting a date long subsequent to the Plantagenets. The deed begins with the word Conventum, meaning a covenant or agreement under seal; but, from the concluding paragraph, it was evidently intended to operate as a deed of gift or grant in fee simple of the lands called Hawksyard.

The following is a transcript with the contractions indicated but not extended:—

It is not easy to give a true interpretation of this unconventional deed; the operative part, which should be clear and precise, being vague and inconclusive. The following is what may be accepted as a free translation conveying a general idea of the purport and effect of the deed:—

If this deed correctly records the facts, we must infer that John of Gaunt owned lands in north Staffordshire between Longnor and Leek; and that they probably formed part of the lands belonging to the duchy of Lancaster. We learn that his friend Sir Edward Mundy of Markeaton, twenty miles away to the south-east, invited the duke to visit him there; a hawking party being arranged on the 10th May 1399 by Sir Edward for the entertainment of his royal guest; one of the highest points of The Moorlands, known as Lady Edge, nearly 1500 feet above the sea, where grouse were always to be found, was selected as the trysting place. The party would ride from Markeaton across the open country to Lady Edge, and they appear to have had good sport. Probably John of Gaunt and his friends from Markeaton watched the hawking from the top of Lady Edge and the undulating land which lies between Lady Edge and Hawksyard, the quarry being taken within a distance of half a mile to the north-east. So pleased was the duke, that he honoured the place where the hawks took their quarry by giving it the name of Hawksyard otherwise Hawksearth; a place which before then was unnamed. The deed also states that before the duke left Markeaton, Sir Edward asked him as a personal favour to give Hawksyard to Sir Edward and that the duke promised to consider the request. Apparently Sir Edward returned with the duke to Lancaster, as a few days later the duke is stated to have sealed and subscribed this deed at Lancaster Castle and delivered it into the hands of Sir Edward on the 15th May 1399. The metes and bounds are fully set forth in the deed, which also records that the boundaries were marked out on the land in the 1st year of Henry IV.

The second deed bears date the 24th October 1568 written in the same bold Arabic numerals as in the earlier deed; but the later deed is in English and measures 16 × 12 inches, it has two round seals of yellow wax, each of a diameter of one and a half inches; the impression on these seals does not appear to be armorial but they both bear the same form of cross; the parchment and make-up are in all respects similar to the deed of 1399 and the signatures of Vincent Mundy and his son are written in the same hand as the deed, which was not unusual in the 16th century.

The following is an abstract of the grant from Vincent Mundy and his son Edward to John Weston.

In this deed there is an evident desire on the part of the draftsman to strengthen and even to extend the rights and privileges appurtenant to the Hawksyard estate, which then included a house of considerable importance, occupied by Ralph Bradbury and Maud his wife. Towards the end of the deed a belated attempt at a recital of the earlier John of Gaunt deed is added, with extracts giving the full description of the boundaries; and this earlier deed is treated as the root of title to Hawksyard.

The question and the only question we have to consider is whether these two deeds give us a true account of the origin and early history of the place-name Hawksyard? At first sight it would appear that they do; but unfortunately there is much in the earlier deed to arouse suspicion. It is not that the story of John of Gaunt’s visit to Highe Frith is improbable, on the contrary he rebuilt and occupied Tutbury Castle twenty miles away; nor is there any reason to think that in those days Sir Edward Mundy would hesitate to ask the duke for a few acres of rough moorland waste, as a memento of a red-letter day in the history of the Mundy family. Perhaps such a request, under the circumstances, constituted true politeness in the middle ages; or he may have wished to commemorate the day by building a house on the land to bear the name Hawksyard; but, however probable these surmises may be, there are many things in this alleged deed of gift which suggest a date much later than the reign of Richard II and cast a doubt as to its bona fides.

In the first place it is obvious that the date 15th May 1399 cannot be correct, as John of Gaunt died in January or February 1398; further the deed states that the duke visited Highe Frith on the 10th May 1399, which was impossible; and it is perhaps equally surprising to find that a deed, dated in the reign of Richard II, should refer to the first year of Henry IV, whose reign had not then begun and might never have occurred.

These impossible dates require explanation, but our difficulties do not end with dates; the writing in the John of Gaunt deed is not characteristic of the period, it is not uniform throughout, the body of the deed being written in characters of the rugged native script, the names of the witnesses being added in a flowing Italian hand of the Elizabethan period. Attention should also be called to the fact, that of the five witnesses in whose presence the duke is said to have affixed his seal, not one of them was above the rank of gentleman. The seal is impressed with a hunting horn, suggestive of forest heraldry, but the royal arms of the son of Edward III do not appear on this seal; and, if the hunting horn is in its proper heraldic position, the point of the shield is at the top.

As above stated, the form of the deed is unusual and follows no precedent; many words are more suggestive of the classics than the customary usage of diplomatics in the 14th century. Equitem takes the place of the more conventional militem; nuncupatur is used instead of vocat and coram instead of testibus. Each of the first four witnesses is described as gent and the last as attorney, while Derby is written once in English; further, the exact legal effect of the deed seems to be intentionally vague; it is headed conventum, meaning a covenant, but in the subsequent deed of 1568 it is referred to as a grant. The full description of the land in the later deed, with all its boundaries and appurtenant rights, suggests that the Elizabethan draftsman had some doubt as to the true facts; these details being apparently exploited with some ulterior intent.

In comparing the size make-up and general appearance of the two deeds, it is impossible not to see in them a strong resemblance; they are both typical of the time of Elizabeth, the deed of 1399 is too large and too coarse for a charter of that date. The fact that one is in Latin and the other in English makes the comparison less easy; but in both we find similar parchment ink and seals; the script is much the same in both deeds, each having the dates written in the same bold Arabic numerals; and the later recites the earlier deed.

It would not be difficult to find other points of resemblance between these deeds; and it is impossible to compare them without coming to the conclusion that they were prepared at the same time by the same person, with the definite object of making a good title to the Hawksyard property, on the sale to John Weston.

This forces us to the conclusion that the John of Gaunt deed is not altogether trustworthy; and we have to consider whether or not the information it contains, with regard to the origin of the place-name Hawksyard, can be relied on; or if we must treat its whole contents as pure fiction and entirely discredit all it tells us of the hawking party in Highe Frith.

There must be some explanation of this extraordinary deed; and it may yet be possible to find a solution of the problem. Here is the deed! How can we account for it? How much of what it tells us may we accept as truth? To what extent is its story supported by extraneous evidence?

The points as to which we require information are; whether John of Gaunt was in a position to give and grant lands in the Highe Frith to Sir Edward Mundy or had he only the rights of an overlord? Why did he hesitate before complying with Sir Edward’s request? Was he in doubt as to whether the land were his to give or whether he held as tenant in capite? Did he execute a deed of gift or did the gift rest on a verbal promise, Sir Edward taking possession of the lands and converting them to his own use? Did the lawyer of 1568, who carried through the sale to Weston, act ex fide bona and endeavour, according to his lights and the practice of his time, to put the title to Hawksyard in order, for the mutual benefit of both vendor and purchaser?

For answers to these questions we must return to the days of John of Gaunt.

In 1398 Richard II, seeing that his uncle John of Gaunt was in failing health and that John’s son, Henry Bolingbroke earl of Hereford, might press his claim to the throne of England in case of Richard’s death without issue, took advantage of a quarrel between Bolingbroke and the duke of Norfolk, in which each accused the other of treason, to banish them both from the realm.

The loss of his son fell heavily on John of Gaunt, who died at the end of January or the beginning of February 1398; and it is important to bear in mind that the year 1399 began on the 25th March and not the 1st January.

Richard, being free for a time from the menace of the House of Lancaster, seized the whole of the Lancastrian estates in the absence of the banished heir and crossed to Ireland to complete his conquests and strengthen his hold on that country.

During Richard’s absence in Ireland the banished Henry, hearing the news of his father’s death and the confiscation of the Lancastrian estates, landed on the Yorkshire coast with a few trusted friends and three thousand men-at-arms.

He was at once joined by the great barons of the north and with an army, which increased as it advanced, he ultimately reached London; where he was well received by the people, who were tired of Richard and looked to Henry as their future king.

On hearing the news of Henry’s return Richard, after much delay through rough weather, recrossed the Irish Channel to Milford Haven, only to find that both his friends and his armies in England had melted away and that his kingdom was lost.

He was forced by Henry and his supporters to resign his crown and, in Westminster Hall on the 29th September 1399, his resignation was received with shouts of applause; on the following day his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, son and heir of John of Gaunt, was proclaimed King of England as Henry IV.

On Henry’s accession he regained the estates of the duchy of Lancaster, which however remained in his hands as crown property.

The above events and the dates on which they occurred are of importance in considering the two Hawksyard deeds; and if we are to understand how and why they came into existence, we must also trace the early history of Highe Frith and learn something of the conditions then prevailing as to the holding and devolution of landed estates in England; more especially with regard to earldoms honours and manors, which formed the basis of the feudal system.

When we clearly understand the way in which land in England was held in pre-reformation days, it will perhaps be possible to see whether the facts set forth in the deed of gift of the 15th May 1399 were consistent with the early history of the manor of Alstonefield; and whether John of Gaunt was shortly before his death in a legal position to comply with the request of Sir Edward Mundy.

As already stated Hawksyard was in Highe Frith, part of the manor of Alstonefield, and a manor was an estate in fee simple in a tract of land granted by the sovereign to a subject, usually a man of some consequence, in consideration of certain services.

He was the lord of the manor and he reserved for his own use such parts of the land as he required, which were called the demesne lands; other parts he granted out to his tenants, under varying conditions which included estates of inheritance, estates for life, for years and at will; the barren lands which remained in his hands were what was known as the commons and wastes of the manor or the foreign lands. The whole formed a manor or lordship which had its own courts and customs and enjoyed feudal privileges, which extended not only to the lands held by tenants but also to the commons and waste lands.

When many manors, perhaps extending into several counties, were held by one great baron or overlord they formed an honour which was held of the king in capite; this was quite different in character to the manor. It was a jurisdiction, vested in private hands, and not a territorial possession; the lords of the manors retaining their separate manorial organisation and rendering suit and service to their overlord.

Manors also formed part of the earldom or shire; for some time after the conquest an earl also had the title of count and from the counts the shires took the name of counties. The title however soon disappeared in England but we still retain countess, county and viscount.

When a great earldom honour or manor fell by forfeiture or escheat into the hands of the sovereign which constantly happened, it retained its distinct corporate existence and the whole apparatus of jurisdiction or tenure. Under its own title it either continued in the possession of the sovereign or was granted out again as a hereditary fief.

The manor of Alstonefield appears to have been included in different earldoms and different honours at different dates, prior to the time when it came into the hands of John of Gaunt and his first wife’s ancestors.

At the taking of the Domesday survey in 1086, Alstonefield manor was held as a knight’s fee by Robert count of Shrewsbury with William de Malbanc under him as lord of the manor. The Shrewsbury overlordship did not last long and Alstonefield, which seems to have been much in request, possibly owing to its grouse moor, was transferred to the honour of Chester under Hugh Lupus; to whom William had, three years after the conquest, given the earldom of Chester and William de Malbanc, of Wich Malbanc now Nantwich, held the position of lord marcher under Lupus, so that the lordship of Alstonefield formed part of the marchlands or boundaries of the honour of Chester on the east, over which William de Malbanc would have supreme control as lord of the marches.

That part of the manor which lay between Leek and the river Dove, including the site of Hawksyard, was chiefly forest and moorland; shortly after the conquest and for many centuries after, it was known as Malbanc Forest; but in 1220 the Malbanc barony devolved on three co-heiresses, who held Alstonefield in co-parcenary.

On the forfeiture of a third share by the eldest daughter, then countess of Warwick, it came into the possession of Hugh le Despencer, though how he got it is not clear, and this share included the tract of barren moorland known as Highe Frith of Malbanc Forest.

In 1297, on the death of Edmund earl of Lancaster, the King’s Escheator held an inquisition at Tutbury for the county of Lancaster, to ascertain what knight’s fees were due to the earl; the jury found inter alia that Hugh le Despencer held one knight’s fee in the manor of Altonesfelt (Alstonefield) worth yearly in homages etc. £10. “Nomina Villarum” 1316 gives Hugh le Despencer and Nicholas de Audeleye as owners of Alstonefield, a vill in the liberty of the earl of Lancaster, who had the return of all writs.

In 1322 the estates of le Despencer were forfeited to the crown and subsequently bestowed by Edward III on Henry earl of Lancaster, grandfather of Blanche the wife of John of Gaunt.

It may be helpful here to recall how John of Gaunt was created duke of Lancaster and became possessed of the Lancastrian estates, extending into Cheshire, Staffordshire and other counties.

The first earl of Lancaster was Edmund called Crouchback second son of Henry III; in addition to his Lancastrian estates, his father bestowed on him the earldoms of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Salisbury and Chester.

These passed on his death in 1296 to his eldest son Thomas earl of Lancaster, who was beheaded at Pontefract in 1322 when his estates were forfeited to the crown.[A] His widow was allowed to retain the Salisbury estate; and the other four earldoms were bestowed on his brother Henry earl of Lancaster, to whom one third share of Alstonefield manor was also given, so that he possessed not only the Lancastrian estates but also the earldoms of Derby (including the honour of Tutbury), Leicester, Lincoln, Chester and the territorial interest of a third of the manor of Alstonefield, including Malbanc Forest; of which Highe Frith was waste of the manor.

Henry earl of Lancaster was succeeded by his son Henry, afterwards first duke of Lancaster, who had no son; of his two daughters, Maud married William of Bavaria and Blanche married John of Gaunt. Maud died without issue, whereupon the whole of the Lancastrian estates devolved on Blanche; and, in right of his wife, on her husband John of Gaunt, who was in 1362 created duke of Lancaster.

It will be remembered that the seal attached to the deed of gift of the 15th May 1399 bears a hunting horn; and in order to find some explanation of this seal it may be necessary to glance for a moment at the history of the honour of Tutbury, which as we have seen was included in the earldom of Derby and passed to John of Gaunt with that earldom.

About the end of the 13th century, the important office of escheator and coroner throughout the whole honour of Tutbury within the county of Stafford, was claimed by Walter Agard who demanded to hold office by right of inheritance; but he was unable to produce any written evidence in support of his claim; and in lieu of charters or writings, he produced a white hunting horn garnished with silver-gilt in the middle and at both ends, to which was affixed a girdle of black silk adorned with buckles of silver, on which was placed the insignia of Edmund earl of Lancaster; this horn was offered and accepted as the charter and evidence of title to the office of escheator and coroner, to which he made claim.

It is not necessary to follow the devolution of the Tutbury Horn from Walter Agard; but in the 17th century, on the marriage of an heiress of Agard, it passed to the Stanhopes, who sold it with its offices in 1753 to Samuel Foxlow of Staveley Hall, from him it ultimately passed to Henry Marwood Greaves of Banner Cross, Sheffield, and Ford Hall, Derbyshire, who once only exercised the right of appointment; and on his death in 1859 his eldest son William Henry Greaves, who had assumed the surname of Greaves-Bagshawe in 1853, succeeded to the horn by inheritance, and appointed the next succeeding coroner. We shall have to consider whether the pendent seal of the alleged deed of gift can in any way be accounted for by the fact, that the honour of Tutbury was part of the duchy of Lancaster prior to John of Gaunt’s death.

Let us now turn to the other party to the deed of gift, Sir Edward Mundy.

In Burke’s “Commoners of England” 1836, it is suggested that the Mundy family derived its name from Mondaye Abbey in the dukedom of Normandy; and it may be, that Sir Edward Mundy or his father fought with John of Gaunt in the wars with France and Spain.

It seems probable, from what we find in the earlier deed, that the duke and Sir Edward were close personal friends; and it may possibly have been through the influence of John of Gaunt, that Sir Edward Mundy or his father settled near Derby. However that may be, we are told that Sir Edward entertained the duke at Markeaton and returned with him to Lancaster Castle.

Vincent Mundy of Markeaton was a justice of the peace for the county of Derby in 1558 and his son Edward died in 1607.

Burke also tells us that “from old deeds in existence it appears that the family held lands in the year 1399”; it may be and seems highly probable that he was referring to the deed of gift and the grant above described, to which he presumably had access and gave credence.

On the other hand the two Lysons, in their work on Derbyshire, say that the Mundys did not buy the Markeaton property until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Perhaps at that date they added to their original holding?

We now have some idea of how matters stood in 1399 and 1568; we are therefore in a better position to consider whether the deeds of Richard II and Elizabeth can be relied on as giving the origin and early history of the place-name Hawksyard.

Assuming for the moment that the two deeds were prepared at the same time and by the same hand, it is necessary to consider the position as it presented itself to the attorney, who in 1568 was instructed to carry out the sale of Hawksyard to John Weston. He possibly may have acted for both vendor and purchaser and been anxious to do his best for both his clients. He would, on receiving his instructions, ask the vendor for his title deeds; the answer would presumably be that there were no such deeds; but it was probably well known in the vendor’s family and possibly also to John Weston, that Hawksyard had been given to Sir Edward Mundy by John of Gaunt shortly before his death, after enjoying a day’s hawking in Highe Frith, the tradition of which would hang round The Moorlands for centuries; perhaps letters or diaries would be produced with sufficient detail to satisfy the purchaser of the truth of the tradition.

The attorney would perhaps be in doubt, whether this traditional gift was a grant of the fee simple or a mere sporting right over certain waste lands belonging to the manor of Alstonefield, part of the duchy; which right would be what is known as a right of common in gross. The vendors were doubtless in actual possession and their ancestors had held it for nearly two hundred years; under circumstances such as these the Courts of Common Law, in the absence of the tradition, would have assumed a lost grant, made prior to the reign of Richard I, which is supposed to be equivalent to immemorial user; but the family tradition as to John of Gaunt fixes the lost grant in the reign of Richard II, which would not support a claim by immemorial user. Under these circumstances and in the absence of any title deeds, the attorney seems to have taken upon himself the responsibility of creating a root of title, based on the tradition and possibly what he considered satisfactory recorded evidence; in doing this he exercised neither artfulness nor skill. He hesitated whether to make it an agreement or a grant, he neglected to use the 14th century common form of such a document, he blundered sadly in the dates, and he referred in the deed, which he dated in the reign of Richard II, to a reign which had not then begun. There would be a difficulty as to the witnesses, and it may be that those named were taken from some deed of 1399 to which he had access, notwithstanding the fact that these five witnesses were not suitable or likely witnesses for the sealing by John of Gaunt; there was also the difficulty of the seal, and as probably no seal of John of Gaunt was available, a forest seal, perhaps of the honour of Tutbury, was used; Alstonefield manor being within that honour, and the deed of the 15th May 1399 was the result; which did well enough to hand to the purchaser, as the root of title to Hawksyard, along with his conveyance from Vincent Mundy and his son. Even if the parties to the transaction knew of what was being done they would doubtless be well pleased to have the John of Gaunt tradition put on record; and the enterprising attorney would probably be thanked and well paid for his trouble and resource. There does not appear to have been any fraudulent intention to improperly acquire any land or other benefit, though such a counterfeit in these days would be fraught with risk to all parties concerned; but in the time of Elizabeth, the law of real property rested less on statute and more on the unwritten law; which was interpreted and applied loosely and without supervision.[B] The effect of this ex post facto apograph was twofold and benefited both sides. The vendors put on permanent record their treasured family tradition and the purchaser got a root of title, which might be of value to him in case of re-sale. It would be interesting to know why the Mundys barred the entail and sold Hawksyard, with its sporting tradition; it may have been that the chancellor of the duchy had, at a then recent date, raised the question as to whether the Mundy family originally had an estate in fee simple or a right of common in gross; and that they as owners thought they would act wisely in selling to a purchaser for value.

Whatever the reason may have been for the sale of Hawksyard in 1568, it passed by the deed of Elizabeth from the Mundy family to John Weston of Mackworth, and is now held and enjoyed under prescriptive right, which makes its past history of little consequence, so far as the present owner, Mr Robert Shirley of Waterhouse Farm, near Longnor, is concerned.

His numerous deeds and papers relating to Hawksyard include an abstract of title beginning in the 14th year of Elizabeth (10th July 1572), when John Weston and Katherine his wife sold Hawksyard to Ralph Bradbury who, as appears from the grant to John Weston, was in 1568 the tenant of Hawksyard; so that John Weston owned the property for less than four years and then sold it to his tenant Ralph Bradbury, who in May 1573 settled it on his younger son Otwell.

Forty-two years later, on the 11th May 1615, Otwell Bradbury and Ralph his son and heir sold Hawksyard to Henry Cock for £400. For many years the estate remained in the possession of the Cock family, who sold it to Ralph Wood of Leek Abbey, the Cistercian monastery Dieu-la-Cresse, and on the 5th April 1800 Hawksyard passed into the possession of John Shirley of Rewlach, the great grandfather of the present owner.

In 1850 some closes, part of Hawksyard, lying on the west side of the road leading from Newtown to Warslow, were exchanged for adjacent closes, part of the late Sir John Harpur Crewe’s estates. With this exception, the Hawksyard estate seems to follow the boundaries set forth in the deed of 1399, and Harrison’s Intake, Low Meadow, Rye Meadow, Kiln Croft and Spout Field of that date still exist and appear in the description of the lands in the 19th century title deeds. On the front of the house are two dates, one above the other, the lower one is “H C 1620” and the upper one is “H C 1784”; both these dates occur during the ownership of the Cock family, and the initials “H C” probably indicate Henry Cock.

Hawksyard of to-day is a substantial farmstead of eighty acres, with a good house and farm buildings occupied by Mr Shirley’s son Edwin Leslie Shirley; it is bounded on every side by lands of Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe of Calke Abbey and Warslow Hall, but it has never formed part of the encircling Harpur estate, which we may assume was crown property; and the grant to the Harpurs of these surrounding lands may have given rise to a discussion as to the Hawksyard title, and possibly suggested to the Mundys the desirability of the sale to Weston. If the surrounding lands were granted by the crown, leaving Hawksyard an isolated and independent holding, there seems to have been a recognition of the Mundy title and a strong vindication of the Hawksyard tradition.

Of the places referred to in the deeds, Boothesley (now spelt Boosley) Grange still stands; Bank or Over Boothesley is now Bank House and the “pearle of water” is Boosley Brook. Highe Frith and Malbanc Forest are not on the ordnance map and are almost forgotten in the district; but Lady Edge is still in daily use, and the existence to-day of these medieval place-names seems to strengthen the probability of the story of John of Gaunt’s visit to the Highe Frith.

If ramblers on foot and on wheels, when passing the east end of the church and the adjoining school of Newtown, will stop for a moment to glance down on Hawksyard, two fields to the east and up to Lady Edge half a mile to the south-west; it will not be difficult to reconstruct the scene of the hawking, when

“Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster”