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Around 1150, therefore, the estates and manors comprising what we now know of as Hungerford were:
- The Manor of Hungerford – under the lordship of Robert de Beaumont (2nd),
- The Manor of Hungerford Engleford - under the ownership of the earl of Lincoln,
- The Manor of Eddington - under Robert de Beaumont 2nd
- The church and some estate lands in the parish of Hungerford - owned by the Abbey of Bec, and
- The fee of Sanden – a rural estate which lay all around the town of Hungerford, but which later became identified with the town and
borough - also in the hands of Robert de Beaumont (2nd).
- One should also remember the manors of Hopgrass cum Charlton (Charnham Street) and Leverton.
In 1168 Robert de Beaumont (2nd) died, and his son (Robert de Beaumont (3rd, 1168-1190) inherited the estates. For a short period, between 1174-1177 his lands were confiscated
when he took the wrong side in the dispute between Henry II and his son Prince Henry, but they were restored in 1177.
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When
Robert de Beaumont (3rd) died in 1190 his son Robert de Beaumont (4th) inherited the estates.
In 1170 the townsmen were referred to as "burgesses", and in 1241 Hungerford was named as a borough, and was represented at the Assizes by a bailiff and 12 jurors. The market
was mentioned in a court case dated 1248.
There is strong circumstantial evidence that by this date the "new" model town existed, with its north-south main street, and burgage plots along each side. By this time some
Hungerford Engleford properties lay within the town, and some of its lands lay within the fee of Sanden. Similarly, some of the Bec properties were intermixed with the lands and property of the town, but
each retained their own lord and their own manorial courts.
The "new" model town appears to have been laid out on land in Sanden fee. The new town developer must have been lord of the manor of Hungerford, and one must presume that this
redevelopment came about because it was in the lord's interest, by an increase in the market tolls and other revenues. As well as lying on the north-south route between Oxford and Salisbury, Hungerford
lay on the east-west route between Newbury and Marlborough. There was also an old market road from Hungerford to Newbury on the south side of the river Kennet.
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As early as 1174 the townsmen of Hungerford had referred to themselves as burgesses, which suggests that a form of burgage
tenure had already been established. Burgage tenure meant that a householder might own his dwelling as freehold and not as previously by copyhold, i.e. dependent on the lord's manorial court. Under
burgage tenure he would be free to sell or lease the property as and when he chose, and paying only a fixed nominal rent ("quit rent") which released him from all other services to his feudal lord.
Burgage tenure was a feature of the new "model" town, and was an indication of freehold rights within the manor of Hungerford. Annual quit rents were set at the rate of 8d per annum for a full (width) burgage, of two rods (about 11 yards) and pro rata for smaller (or larger) properties, e.g. 4d for a half-burgage, 2d for a quarter-burgage. This unchanging quit rent helps historians identify the various properties and their owners and occupiers over the centuries.
We have suggested above that the new "model" town was in existence by 1248. For such an ambitious scheme to succeed, it must have occurred at a time when the manors of
Hungerford town and Hungerford Engleford were held by the same lord, who must at the same time have been holder of the Sanden Fee. All three areas were involved in the re-development.
The three possible periods were under the lordship of Robert de Beaumont (2nd), Robert de Beaumont, or Simon de Montfort. All these were Earls of Leicester; they enjoyed
enormous power; they spent large periods of their life overseas; were strong-willed, ambitious men; and the careers of both men were affected by quarrels with their respective monarch.
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Robert de Beaumont (2nd) had inherited his father's lands and title (2nd Earl of Leicester) under a guardian on the latter's
death in 1118. When he was aged 16 years in 1120 he took control of his estates, and we know that between 1120-1140 he spent much time organising his estates in Leicestershire.. Between 1133-64 he was
much involved in church patronage. It was in 1147 that the Priory of St Frideswide exchanged the church of Beaumont for the manor of Hidden and the vill of Eddington. Robert 2nd died in 1168. It was in
1170 that the townsmen referred to themselves as "burgesses" implying burgage tenure of property.
Robert de Beaumont (3rd Earl of Leicester) had his lands confiscated in 1173-4, but restored to him in 1177. He went on pilgrimage to Palestine in 1189, and died the
next year. It is possible that he could have planned and developed the new town between 1177 and 1189. However, it should be noted that there is no surviving evidence that Robert ever held Sanden Fee.
Robert died childless, and the Hungerford estate passed to his sister Amicia, who was married to Simon de Montfort III. In due course the estates passed via Simon de
Montfort IV (5th earl of Leicester). In 1207 King John was confiscated the Leicester estates with the aim of preventing them getting into French hands, but in 1215 passed them to Ranulph de Meschines
(4th Earl of Chester). They eventually passed to Amauri de Montfort of Normandy, who resigned his English estates to his younger brother Simon de Montfort V (born 1208) who became 6th Earl of Leicester
in 1230. Robert de Beaumont 3rd had been great-uncle of Simon de Montfort.
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Simon came to England in 1229 (aged 21), and
found that all his Leicester estates were in the hands of the Earl of Chester. He petitioned King Henry III for their restoration – which he achieved in 1231. He married the king's sister, Eleanor,
in 1238, and was soon made Earl of Leicester. As Earl of Leicester, he would have owned the vill of Hungerford, and the fee of Sanden. The church, however, had been granted by Robert de Beaumont to the
Abbey of Bec.
In 1232, the king gave letters of protection to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Hungerford, and
also to the leprous sisters of St. Lawrence's church in Hungerford. These were probably at Simon de Montfort's persuasion.
Simon de Montfort's main power bases were at Leicester and Kenilworth. However, Hungerford seems to have become an administrative centre for Simon's activities and lands in
the surrounding area, the King directing in 1248 and 1259 that large sums of money should be paid to Simon at Hungerford.
Furthermore, in 1247-49 he developed nearby Balteley Wood into a deer park (which later became Hungerford Park). He removed all common rights of herbage and pannage in
Balteley Wood, and there is much evidence that de Montfort took a personal interest in the development of the park. King Henry III himself made gifts of deer to his sister Eleanor for Simon's deer park
in 1248 and 1249.
A further agreement removed the rights of the Abbey of Bec over a certain area away from the town, in exchange for which the abbey estate acquired certain rents arising from a
property including a tenement of Jordan de Mareyse and a cotsetlam of land with the house of John Ginegome. These various rents were to be held by the Abbey "free from all secular services, disputes and
exactions". This is the key to the abbey's estates in Hungerford being exempt from quit rent. The renunciation of common rights in Balteley may be the origin of their corresponding exclusion from
the rights of common enjoyed by later free-suitors of Hungerford.
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There is much to support the suggestion that the
development of the "new" model town of Hungerford coincided with the development of the deer park in Balteley Wood (i.e. c.1247-49). Simon de Montfort appears to have pushed both projects forward.
In 1265 Simon de Montfort V, 6th Earl of Leicester, was killed in the Battle of Evesham, fighting Kind Henry III's forces. His lands reverted to the Crown. and were soon
passed to Henry III's younger son Edmund "Crouchback", who became 1st Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester in 1265.
When Edmund died in 1296, his son Thomas became 2nd Earl of Lancaster. He was executed by Edward II in 1322, and his brother Henry, known as Henry Plantagenet, inherited as
3rd Earl of Lancaster.
Henry Plantagenet died in 1345, and his son Henry of Grosmont inherited - Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. Henry of Grosmont was made one of the Founding Knights of the Order
of the Garter in 1348 - and further rewarded by the kind in 1351 when he was made 1st Duke of Lancaster. He is now always known as "Henry of Lancaster".
Henry of Lancaster had earlier married Isabel de Beaumont in 1330. When he died, possibly of the plague, in 1361, Henry and Isabel left no sons, but two daughters - Maud and
Blanche.
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Maud inherited the huge Lancastrian estates, but she herself died childless the following year, on 10th April
1362. The Lancastrian estates passed to her sister Blanche, who was married to Edward III's fourth son, John of Gaunt, who was thus, at the age of 22 years, created 2nd Duke of Lancaster. It is said to
have been John of Gaunt who granted so many rights and privileges to the inhabitants of Hungerford.
The manors of Hungerford and Hungerford Engleford were separate, each having its own territory, its own lord, and its own manorial court. Both manors acknowledged the Crown as
overlord; both properties would have been included in town surveys, and the inhabitants of both had commoners' rights in certain lands in Sanden Fee (though the areas of common may differ).
In 1420 the Manor of Hungerford Engleford passed from the Belet to the Darrell family (of Littlecote).
In 1429 they sold it to Sir Walter Hungerford – at which time it comprised 11 messuages in Hungerford, one in Charnham Street, with 84 acres..
Sir Walter Hungerford had served under Henry V in France in 1415, and fought at Agincourt. Henry awarded him Knight of the Garter. On Henry's death in 1421, Sir Walter
Hungerford was an executor of his will. Towards the end of Hungerford's life, in 1446, Henry VI granted Sir Walter Hungerford "the lordship of the manor of Hungerford, the town and borough, and our Park
in Hungerford, the Fee of Sanden, for fealty and twenty marks yearly".
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The manors of both Hungerford and Hungerford
Engleford were again held by the same lord, one manor a seignorial, and the other a royal demesne. Separate audits and accounts were presented annually, and separate courts were kept in respect of each.
When Sir Walter Hungerford died in 1449, the manors were inherited by his son Robert, 2nd Baron Hungerford, and when he died in 1459 by his son - another Robert, 3rd Baron
Hungerford. The 3rd Baron was an active Lancastrian in the Wars of the Roses, and his forfeited estates were given by the Crown to Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Robert was killed at the Battle of Hexham
in 1464. During the Wars of the Roses there were various exchanges of land and estate ownership.
The accession of Henry VII in 1485 brought the pro-Lancastrian family of Hungerford back into favour and power, and the manor of Hungerford Engleford remained with them,
whilst the manor of Hungerford remained with the Duchy of Lancaster until its eventual purchase by the inhabitants of the borough in the feoffment of 1617. Follow this link for more on the Origins of the Town and Manor of Hungerford.
Even then, the manor of Hungerford Engleford continued much as before. Being a separate manor, rather like Charlton/ Hopgrass or Eddington-cum-Hidden, they paid their own quit
rent to their own lord, and not to the Town and Borough of Hungerford. However, unlike Charlton/Hopgrass or Eddington-cum-Hidden, they seem to have possessed Commoners' rights as townsmen.
Thus Hungerford Engleford properties do not appear on town quit rent rolls, but their residents may appear in Commoners' lists. A survey of tenants in
1580/81 lists the locations of the Hungerford Engleford properties and the names of their tenants. The manor house was located on the site of later 121 High Street, and it remained "Manor House" until
the manor was sold and broken up in 1743. Most of the Hungerford Engleford properties lie on the east side of the High Street, possibly reflecting the origin in land east of the present town, adjacent to
the parish of Kintbury. There are some Hungerford Engleford properties at the eastern end of Church Street, and there are some lands in Sanden Fee.
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In addition to the manor of Hungerford, and the manor of Hungerford Engleford, some properties in Hungerford originally belonged
to the Chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary (=St. Mary), the Chantry of the Holy Trinity, the Abbey of Goring and the Dean & Canons of Windsor (DCW).
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