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Although
the name of Dulcote has appeared in documents as early as the eleventh century,
it is not clear when settlement at Dulcote began.
No matter when it began, Dulcote's original
settlement would likely have been decided by Dulcote's natural resources
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plenty
of arable land |
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a
natural spring source |
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a
river which was easy to cross but which provided a source of power |
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a
hill which provided shelter, security and minerals for building and for fuel
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Dulcote, Somerset was
conferred upon Bishop Giso by King Edward Confessor May 1065. After England was
conquered in 1066 by William of Normandy, English estates were re-claimed by
William, and a manorial or feudal system of governance was established. William re-divided the counties, giving land to the clergy, his
favourite knights, and in some cases to original land-holders as well. In
the Wells area, there is evidence that even before 1066, small numbers of freemen had both land
and possessions.
In
1086, William of
Normandy acknowledged some of these individuals still in his favour in the Domesday Book.
Although William's plan was to leave Wells to the governance of the Bishop of
Wells, specific instruction was given to the Bishop to share this land with some
of his church officials and some of the king's knights as well in
exchange for their service to the Crown.
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click to enlarge
translation of the actual Wells
page
of the "Domesday Book"
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Further detail provided by the Domesday Book, in conjunction with the
findings of scholars of historical church records, indicate that in the
eleventh century Dulcote land was likely largely under the control of the
Church's Canons. Furthermore, both the population and wealth of the
canons' land were unimpressive. As part of a parcel of land
including Warminster, Binegar, Chilcote and Dulcote, the Canons' grant of
land consisted of a total population of 8 slaves, 16 villagers and 12
smallholders. The non-human inventory on the canons' lands was
outlined as: 2 packhorses, 12 cattle, 10 pigs, 100 sheep, 2 mills, and 6
ploughs.1
So Dulcote was part of a sparsely-populated, poorly-resourced portion of
the overall Wells Hundred.
From the above
description, one might safely conclude that Dulcote was not a typical
English manor. Its small size and predominant church ownership
indicates that Dulcote did not operate like other medieval manors
which were governed by a nobleman living in a manor house within the
community at the
centre of their estate's operation; a lord of the manor who ate, slept and socialized
with his community freemen and serfs.
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We can
try to capture a glimpse of how developed the Manor of Dulcote had become five
hundred years after the publication of the Domesday Book by interpreting
a snippet of detail about Dulcote in the works of John Leland. This man
was an
English scholar and antiquarian during the reign of Henry VIII. A
passionate scholar in history and geography, Leland was commissioned to create what
is basically a travelogue of England by Henry VIII. While admittedly Leland was no great writer and his descriptions of his journeys are sadly
lacking in adjectives, he did pass through Dulcote twice in about 1535.
His reflections of Dulcote are of an underdeveloped landscape and not of a significant
settlement . . .
| "From
Wells by south to Doultingcote (Dulcote) bridge of stone, under the
which Croscombe water runneth about a mile all by very ill rocky way.
Thence I passed about a mile more by like ground, and this far I
saw some store of elm wood." |
Despite
its small size and sparse population, Dulcote had more than one
landowner
from as early as the sixteenth century. However, there is no indication that
any landlord of the manor actually ever lived in Dulcote. Rather
the land was almost entirely leased out for the use of others and the
income of the landowners.
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From
the time of the Domesday Book onward, the Canons and the Bishop were
granted land in Dulcote. Furthermore, in 1353, more Dulcote land was
added for the use of the Church when the Warden and Vicars of the New Fabric of Wells
were granted messuages
and land in Dulcote held for life at the time by John de Welleslegh, John le
Carpenter, and Robert le Marler
Earliest records indicate that
Dulcote was paired with the small community of Chilcote (about 2
miles NE) under one lordship, a parcel of
737 acres of property commonly known as the "Manor of Chilcote and Dulcote".
This Somerset manor was granted
in fee by the Crown likely
in 1553 to Sir William Petre who served as Secretary of State for
Henry VIII and his three children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. A survey dated about 1595
acknowledged the transfer of this Crown grant to Sir William Dodington,
auditor of the Tower Mint. Ownership of the land was then transferred
to the Greville family in 1663 on the marriage of Sir William
Dodington's
great-granddaughter and only heir, Anne, to Robert Greville Lord Brooke of Warwick
Castle2.
The
Manor was held by the Lord Brooke estates until 1771, when
Lord Francis Brooke sold his title to Clement Tudway of
Wells3. Another family of distinction to be
in possession of Dulcote property was the Waldegrave family of Hever Castle,
Kent. First landlord on record was Sir Henry Waldegrave, second baron of
Hever Castle in a deed dated 1648. But this Dulcote possession
was possibly an inheritance from the Petre family, Sir Henry
Waldegrave being the grand nephew of Sir William Petre's
daughter-in-law Mary Waldegrave. Their Dulcote property was
part of a collection of estates, mostly farms, commonly known as the "Ten
Manors" which included (by 1726) the
16 (!) manors of Littleton, Wellesleigh, Woodford, Dulcote, Hawden,
Westbury, Raddington, Lindhowish, Harnoham, Yard, Ayley, Asholt,
Sheverton, Edstork, Purifitchett, and Eddington. One
lease for the west side paper mill describes the Waldegrave land as
a farm, located to the west of the mill.
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The Prebend of Dulcote
There
is an element of confusion about the "Church
of
Dulcote" or prebend of Dulcote. "Prebend" is a term referring to
a
tithing of land which served as income for a church
official ("prebendary") for his term of office.
The
confusion lies with Bishop Robert in the twelfth century. At a
Papal conference in 1158 and again in 1176, Bishop Robert acknowledged
the
"Church
of
Dulcote"
as a prebend in his jurisdiction4.
However, there is also record from this same Bishop of a prebend
of "Dultingcot
and Chellechot"5
during his term of office.
All
other documents of record, however, refer to Dulcote on its own as a
single prebend. In the sixteenth century, even with the existence
of a crown grant linking Dulcote with Chilcote under one landlord, the
prebend of Dulcote is still acknowledged on its own. A case in
point is in 1551, when
the court rolls record the crown's challenge of the conveyance of the manor of Fyngest
in Buckinghamshire by Edward Duke of Somerset to the William Thyne,
Prebendary of Dulcote.
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1
Tony Nott,
page 26. See Bibliography
2 See
Who
Owned the Manor of Dulcote? and
Who's
Who in Dulcote History? .
3 See Dulcote
Land and People: 1766 to 1832
and
Who's
Who in Dulcote History?
4
EEA X no. 46, app. 1; cf. Cal I 53 and EEA X no. 49. Papal confs. 22 Jan. 1158 and 15 June 1176 (PUE II nos. 101, 159).From: 'Prebendaries: Dultingcote', Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: volume 7: Bath and Wells (2001), p. 52.
5 HMC
Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells p33
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