The Ancient Feudal Manor and Lordship
of Winterborne St. Martin (Dorsetshire)
The family of fitz Pain
| Robert fitz Pain was Sheriff of Dorset and Somerset between 1247 and 1250. The Manor (one among many in an estate that covered much of the County of Dorset and beyond) passed from Alaured de Lincoln IV to Margery (or Margaret) his eldest sister and the last of the family. Most of her land holding including the Manor of Winterborne St Martin passed on her death to her husband Robert Fitz-Pain. His cousin, William de Goviz also held land at Rew in the Manor of Winterborne St Martin, the Manors of Turners Puddle and Crichel and elsewhere throughout the county of Dorset. |
In 1268, King Henry III granted "our beloved and faithful friend" Robert Fitz-Pain a charter to hold a market and fair. This continued until very recent years. The fair was noted by Daniel Defoe in 1720 and the writer has fond memories. The title of baron was conferred on Robert fitz Payn twenty one years after the death of Alured de Lincoln IV. An inquisition in 1285 confirmed the title of baron ("tenet in capite baronie de domino rege") to coincide with the festival of the Purification Saint Mary. This is further confirmation that the fitz Grip and de Lincoln barony was not passed on to the fitz Payn family. |
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The limited research of de Sergiana claims the title of Baron of Winterborne St Martin was passed on to Robert Fitz Pain and continued in the lines of his family. That his research progresses no further than this is curious. However, from Hutchins, we learn that the son of Robert Fitz-Pain, also Robert, is referred to as "the last Baron of Fitz Pain". He was the last in this family when he died in 1355 holding the manor and without issue At this time, the Crown took the first steps under the new King, Edward I, to reduce the powers of landowning interests in the Church. Lay proprietors of Church benefices (advowsons or endowments) often considered them as a piece of property giving power to the holder and it was consequently a valuable asset that could be bought and sold. The Statutes of Mortmain of 1279 and 1290 forbade all men to give land to the "dead hand" of a religious body without royal licence. With some ingenuity, this practical restraint placed on large scale religious endowments was the likely cause that led to the particular form adopted by the pious donors of the thirteenth century for the expression of devotional feelings. Instead of erecting fresh monasteries, they endowed chapels attached to existing churches with priests to sing masses for their souls, the souls of their family and all the faithful departed. |
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As the practice of endowing such memorial chapels or chantries spread, the ranks of the beneficed clergy became further reinforced by the chantry priests found in all churches of any size officiating side by side with the parish priests. The conventional churches of the monasteries such as St Martin's in this manor lent themselves readily to this development, which occurred here in 1367. The popular nature of it as a means of religious expression is evidenced by its growth during the centuries that proceeded and which in turn led to its abolition, as further restrictions were put in place. By the end of the 13th century, King Edward I summoned an assembly of clergy, barons, manorial lords and leading towns in order to obtain grants of money for war purposes. Dorchester, Bridport and Lyme Regis were represented in the 'Model Parliament' of 1295 and in all subsequent parliaments until the 19th century. In 1303 Robert fitz Payn (the son) married Isobelle (Ella) de Clifford, the twelfth daughter of King Edward I and for this he received one knights fee in Worth (later to become Worth Matravers). Two years later he was appointed Governor of Corfe Castle at the eastern end of his Dorset Estate. In 1321 he settled the Manor and advowsons of Worth and Okeford on himself and Ella for life. By the same instruction he also settled the manors and advowsons of Wodeton, Frome Whitfield and Marshwood. ("..dominus Robert fitz Payn quad Isabella de Payn tenet pro termino vite") This is confirmed in an inquisition of 1316. Ella died in 1360 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. |
Purbeck Robert Fitz Pain (filieus Pagani) features throughout the records of Bishops of Salisbury, Simon de Gandavo known as Simon of Ghent (1297 - 1315) and Roger Martival (1315-1330) where he is referred to as a knight in the earlier years. He also features in the records of the Great Cartulary of Glastonbury at this time as a witness to numerous Royal Charters. It is clear from these records that he would have known well the next man who would become the Lord of the Manor of Winterbourne St Martin as in 1327 he is shown as a co-signatory to a royal charter with John de Maltravers. |
marbleBetween 1298 and 1329 Robert Fitz Pain attended the ordination, installation and presentation of many priests as far a field as the Presbytery at Potterne near Devizes, the Bishopric at Ramsbury in Berkshire and at Sonning, Leucombe (East Chelborough) and also in London. It is clear he was the patron of many churches and holder of accompanying advowsons throughout the Salisbury diocese. 1299 saw the resignation of Gilbert de Popham, parish priest of Winterborne St Martin. In London on the 15th March 1299 Robert Fitz Pain attended the presentation of Henry de Ratoner the new priest of Winterborne St Martin who was installed there in the following month. In June 1322 after the retirement of de Ratoner he installed William de Saminato. In the following year he was made Lord of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire. During this time, Bishop Simon was critical of the many foreign rectors given church appointments in Dorset as they could not speak English. He was also critical of the slackness of the clergy. He denounced the pasturing of animals in churchyards "where bodies of the faithful rest". One can only speculate what he would say of this today. Advowsons gave great power. The first advowsons to be detached from Manors were those on Royal Grant as was to be the case with Winterborne St Martin. De Prerogativa Regis of uncertain date but probably 1324, provided that if the Crown granted a manor to a subject and an advowson had previously been enjoyed with it, the grant did not include the advowson unless it was expressly mentioned . In 1325 the Bishop refused to recognise Robert Fitz Pain's patronage of the church at Worth Maltravers and Swanage. However he appealed to the Crown and later that year he recovered his patronage. Today, under the Patronage (Benefices) Measures 1986 advowsons may no longer be sold and have no value. In the various Bishops Registers, the contemporary records of the time, the Manors previously referred to as Wootton and Okeford are in 1325 now described as Wootton Fitz Pain and Okeford Fitz Pain. Robert Fitz Pain is described as Lord of Okeford Fitz Pain. Okeford Fitz Pain was previously in the hands of the de Lincoln family when it was known as Okeford Alured. This clearly indicates the seat of the Barony and Hutchins confirms this. Robert experienced the continuing erosion of his powers that had been brought about by the earlier inquisition of de Lincoln assets, the Statutes of Mortmain and De Prerogativa Regis. In 1337, he released forever of his rights over the Manor of Turnworth to the abbot of Ford and all demands of the Manor of Okeford Fitzpain. This was a significant event because this was the seat of his barony. At this time, the Abbot of Abbotsbury, from whom the manor of Martinstown was still held, was not without his problems. In a memorandum written by Walter de Rodeneye, the Sheriff of Dorset in July 1339, notes that although the Abbot was required by writ of King Edward III to take prisoners from the Abbot of Glastonbury, he shut the gates and refused to take them. For this, the King issued a further writ through the Chancery Court against the Abbot. Robert Fitz Pain's patronage of St Martin's Church ceased in 1348. He held the advowson from the King in chief, by knight's service. According to Hutchins, it was sold to John de Tydelengton, the lord of the nearby manor of Stottingway, which was also held from the Abbot of Abbotsbury. Shortly afterwards the advowson came into the hands of John de Kempsey "being in the hands of King Edward III". John de Kempsey held the advowson until 1351 when it passed to his heirs. |
It was appropriated to the new Abbot of Abbotsbury, Henry Tolre in 1354 Both Hutchins and the Church records refer to Robert Fitz Pain as the Patron of Winterborne St Martin and Lord of the Manor. There is no doubt he was a man of considerable yet waning influence and Winterbourne St Martin, as Hutchins records in the case of Allured de Lincoln, was a part of his barony the seat being at Okeford Fitzpain. This was the time of the outbreak of the Great Plague. It seems that the plague and its variants were endemic in this country from Saxon times until the end of the seventeenth century. Though the epidemic of bubonic plague or Black Death in 1348 was by far the most serious of these epidemics, most of these outbreaks went unrecorded and it is not until the latter half of the seventeenth century that direct evidence of its occurrence in rural areas is to be found. Dorset had the doubtful distinction of being the first county of England to be struck down by the disease |
The Grey Friars' Chronicle reported the catastrophe:
Evidence of the severity of the plague is found in the records of Salisbury Cathedral. Whereas before 1348 usually one priest was replaced by death each month, during the seven months from October 1348 to August 1349, the period of greatest severity, the figure totalled 130. Although mortality was more severe among the clergy than among laymen, probably between a third and a half of the population died of the plague. 
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this website contains many good local links |
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There were also other outbreaks between 1350 and 1400 and some much later visitations were probably caused by the same form of disease. It is not hard to imagine some of the innumerable consequences of this great reduction in population, a reduction which, it has been suggested was not made good until about 1500. The plague caused shrinkage of arable land, not only because there were fewer to feed but also because there were fewer to farm. As a result many of the old open fields were left uncultivated. This in turn led to newly surplus land being enclosed and used for purposes that required less human labour, such as sheep grazing. At the same time many of the smaller settlements merged to make better use of the remaining open fields. In short a proportion of the open field arable land and a certain number of small villages must have disappeared almost entirely, and it is no coincidence that the abandonment of many medieval villages has been attributed to the period between 1350 and 1500. The same applies to the existing communications system. Where communities disappeared so also did the roads that served them. The manorial system received an enormous jolt and never really recovered. Manorial Lords had to accept that it was better to let their villains commute their labour services for money rent rather than put up with labour services being reluctantly and carelessly performed. There was widespread distress and decline in Dorset and by 1435-36 the county was unable to bear its normal share of the burden of national taxation |
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Within the manor of Winterborne St Martin, settlements at Rew (shown as Orchard on some maps) and Ashton were lost. Within the Winterborne Valley a further four, at Herringston, Farringdon Came and Cripton (just to the south of the West Stafford bypass). Within five miles of the manor a further thirteen villages and settlements ceased to exist. Two further villages in Dorset within the former fitz Pain fiefdom disappeared with the ravages of the disease.The settlement of greatest note to disappear was at Maiden Castle The writer is also aware of a Saxon settlement to the south of Eweleaze in the Manor that was finally erased in the jaws of an earth mover in preparatory works for oil exploration equipment in the 1980s |
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