Manor of Bubwith cum Harlethorpe

At Domesday, Gilbert Tison held the manors of Bubwith, Foggathorpe and Gunby, plus six carucates in Spaldington, two carucates in Gribthorpe, and seven bovates in Willitoft as soke of his manor of Wressel. He also held the manor of Averham, in Nottinghamshire.

Gilbert Tison has been repeated described by several authors as the Great Standard Bearer of England under King William,  but Clay (Early Yorkshire Charters, XII) says that this description must be discarded, as the only evidence for this title is a single charter which Clay has revealed to be an obvious forgery.

At some time between Domesday and the Lindsey Survey of 1115-1118 Gilbert Tison lost his tenancy-in-chief over all his Domesday lands.  Clear evidence is lacking, but it has been suggested by Stapleton that he probably lost it due to siding with Robert earl of Northumberland in his rebellion of 1095.

The tenancy-in-chief of all of Gilbert Tison's manors in the East Riding and Nottinghamshire, Swinton in the West Riding, and South Ferriby in Lincolnshire came to Nigel d'Aubigny, becoming a part of the Mowbray fee through Nigel's son, Roger de Mowbray, although Gilbert Tison's heirs general or descendents held under-tenancies in almost all of these. Gilbert Tison had died definitely before 1130, with some slight evidence that he died no later than 1124.

Gilbert's heir was Adam Tison, and in a notification to Roger, Archbishop of York, dated between 1154 and 1163, of the gift to Nostell priory of land in Swinton, we learn that Adam's daughter was Avice and her husband is Henry Hose.  Adam Tison had probably died by 1159 as from this year payments for the lands in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire were being made by Adam's son and heir, William.

Between 1138 and 1143, William Tison confirmed to St. Peter's York (the Dean and Chapter of York Minster) the gift of a moiety (half) of the church of Bubwith, which was founded in his fee, together with 1 carucate of land there. In 1166 William held 15 knights' fees of Roger de Mowbray,  and he was dead before Michaelmas 1180, leaving four daughters as heiresses, by his wife, Alice.

One of William Tison's daughters, whose forename is not known, married Robert Constable I of Flamborough, and it is through this marriage that the manors of Bubwith cum Harlthorpe and Holme on Spaldingmoor, among others, came to the Constable family of Flamborough.

The manors remained with the Constable family, until they came to William Constable in the early seventeenth century.

During the 1630s William Constable fell into considerable debt, and was forced to sell off or raise capital from his estates. A life-interest in the manors of Holme and Bubwith cum Harlthorpe were sold in 1633 to Sir Marmaduke Langdale. However, with the outbreak of the English Civil War, with William Constable becoming a Colonel in the Parliamentary army, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale a General in the Royalist army, the manors became something of a political football.

With the help of the Scots, the Parliamentary army won at Marston Moor on the 2nd  July 1644, gaining York and the north of England. The following year, in recognition of the services of Constable, the House of Lords' Journal records the following:

Order for 1000l. to Sir W. Constable, out of the Rents due to the Crown and Sir M. Langdale, from the Manor of Holme, in Spalding Moor.
"The House, taking Notice of the great and faithful Services done by Sir William Constable, a Member of the House of Commons, Lieutenant General of the Horse under the Command of the Lord Fairofax, in the Service of the Parliament, in the East Riding of the County of Yorke, and elsewhere, since the Beginning of this War, as also of the great Losses sustained by him, and of the great Arrears of Pay due unto him; and upon Information that these is a Yearly Fee Farm Rent of One Hundred and Thirteen Pounds payable to the Crown, out of the Manor of Holme, in Spalding-Moore, in the County of Yorke, which Manor belongs to the said Sir William Constable; as also that there is a Yearly Rent or Sum of Three Hundred Pounds, payable out of the said Manor, unto Sir Marmaduke Langdale: It is Ordered, That the said Sir William Constable shall have and receive; upon Accompt, the Sum of One Thousand Pounds, out of the said several Rents of One Hundred and Thirteen Pounds, and Three Hundred Pounds per Annum, payable out of the said Manor of Holme, as aforesaid; and this shall be a sufficient Warrant to the said Sir William Constable, and to all and every other Person or Persons whom the same shall concern."

From 1648, following further Parliamentary victories, Constable sat on the Army Council which eventually led to the King's treason trial, and sat as a commissioner of the High Court of Justice during the trial itself, and signed the King's death warrant. After the King had been executed on the 30th January, 1649, Constable served on the Council of State, and one year later he petitioned Parliament for the return of Manors he had sold in the 1630s where the purchasers had fought on the Royalist side. On the 4th January 1650 the House of Commons Journal had the following entry:

Resolved, Upon the Question, by the Parliament, That the Inheritance of the Manor of Holme, with the Appurtenances, the Inheritance of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, wherein Sir Wm. Constable Boronet hath an Estate for Life, and the Lady Constable an Estate for Life, in Remainder, in Part thereof, for her Jointure, be settled upon the said Sir Wm. Constable, and his Heirs; reserving the Fee-farm Rent of One hundred and Thirteen Pounds Four Shillings and Five-pence to the State, in Consideration of Seven hundred and Fifty Pounds, Part of One thousand Pounds granted to him by Ordinance of Parliament, of the Second Day of April 1645, out of the said Manor; as also of the Sum of One thousand Pounds yet arrear unto him the said Sir Wm. being Part of One thousand Nine hundred and Eighty-four Pounds, of his Arrears for Pay charged, by Ordinance of Parliament, upon the Lands of Wm. Middleton Esquire, in North Duffield, he being a Papist in Arms; and in full discharge of the aforesaid Sum, and all Arrears; and that Mr. Stephens do bring in a Bill to that Purpose.

In May, 1650 Constable regained his manors of Holme and Bubwith cum Harlthorpe when Parliament passed An Act to settle the Inheritance, and the present Rents, belonging to Sir Marmaduke Langdale, of the Manor of Holme in Spalding Moore in the County of York, upon Sir Wm. Constable, and his Heirs. William Constable died on the 15th June, 1655.

Langdale distinguished himself during the Civil War, fighting at both Marston Moor and Naseby. In 1648 Langdale was guarding the road into Preston when his forces suffered a surprise attack by Cromwell's forces, resulting in the 3-day Battle of Preston. The Royalists were eventually overwhelmed, but Langdale managed to escape the field, only to be captured in Nottingham a few days later. In October 1648 he managed to escape and make his way to the Continent, joining Charles II's Court-in-Exile. In July 1651, Langdale was stripped of all his remaining lands and manors by an Act of Parliament aimed at punishing Royalist delinquents, An Act for the sale of several Lands and Estates forfeited to the Commonwealth for Treason.

However, following the Restoration, The General Pardon granted by Charles II, specifically excluded the lands and manors etc. of  William Constable. Langdale was made Baron Langdale, and regained his lands and manors, including Holme and Bubwith cum Harlthorpe.

With the death of the 5th Lord Langdale in 1777,  the Bubwith cum Harlthorpe and Holme manors passed to his daughter Mary, the wife of Charles Philip, 16th Baron Stourton, and then continued with the Stourton family throughout the 19th century.

Only a few rentals survive, but fortunately there is a large volume of presentments and pains as part of the Holme Hall Papers, in the British Library, Manuscripts Department, under reference Add. Ms. 40137.

Manorial Documents
Rental (with Holme)
1537-1541
British Library, Manuscript Collections
Add Ms 40136
Rental (with Holme)
1579
British Library, Manuscript Collections
Add Ms 41168 fol 8.
Rental (freehold)
1611-1657
Hull University Archives
DDHA/3/2
Rental (freehold)
1666
Hull University Archives
DDHA/3/3
Rental
1671
British Library, Manuscript Collections
Add Ms 40132 fol 107.
Rental (freehold)
1671
Hull University Archives
DDHA/3/3
Presentments and Pains (with Holme)
1615-1821
British Library, Manuscript Collections
Add Ms 40137
Proclamation and charge to jury
1702-1714
Hull University Archives
DDEV/7/1


DDHA/3/2: Bubwith Free Rents pre-1666
undated, but pre-1666, as it is endorsed -
"this is an old rental delivered to me by Mr. Brabbs in 1666"

Tenant
Occupier
Rent £ s. d.
John Aske
and now in the occ of Will Idle
£0-02-00
Wm
the heirs of, in occ of Kat: Hotham
£0-10-00
Tho Gibson

£0-06-00
Wm Cloudesley

£0-00-06
Tho Briart

£0-00-06
Wm Squire

£0-00-06
Will Idle

£0-00-09
Robert Skipwith
now in occ of Katherine Blanshard
£3-04-00
Nicholas Blyth

£4-08-00
Jo: Ask
now in occ of Will Westoby
£0-05-06
Rich Westoby

£0-02-00
Rich Ripley
now in occ of Rob Ask of Harlethorpe
£1-00-00
Rich Blanshard
in occ of Thos Barker
£2-00-00
Hugh Langdale
in occ of Will Coates
£0-01-00
John Richardson
in occ of Will Idle
£0-02-00
Bulmer
the heirs of Bulmer's land, in occ of Jo: Grisdell
£0-01-00
Tho Blanshard
in occ of Rich Carney for the Windmill Hill
£0-04-00



DDHA/3/3: Bubwith and Harlethorpe Rental, 24 Oct 1671

Mr Adams
Mr Buxton
Richard Corney
Christopher Gunby
George Hesle
Edward Savadge
Mr Christopher Adams
Henry Byard
Dean & Chapter
Christopher Gunby
Henry Hotham
Christopher Skelton
Thomas Arthropp
John Cloudesley
Wm Green esq.
Mary Gunby
Boaz Howbourne
William Westabie
Andrew Barker
Francis Coates
John Grisdale
John Hawley
Henry Idle
John Craike