William I
Said
to have been born 1348
Date
of death N.K
I have started the first of the personal profiles with this particular William, due to the fact, that he was the first family member of a long line of predecessors who, I can establish a direct link with the successive generations. In my researches I did discover a great number of predecessors, but in none of the references was there sufficient information, to construct a family lineage. Prior to our subject There were quite a number of Williams, together with numerous Richards and Roberts and a few Johns.
In he is mentioned as being an escheater & taxatore the
post of taxatore did in later
years actually get combined, in the all in one title of escheater, a number of his predecessors, also held this
post. I could find no mention of his wife’s name,
he appears to have owned a great deal of
land in the Purbecks
and elsewhere in the locality when he
was appointed to his position his location as mentioned as being of Moreton, later this can be a little confusing since in
another document it was stated that he had been appointed into the same
position for East and West Morden which are two villages to the north east of
Wareham. There is at least one other village with the name of Morden in the
county
The duties of an escheater are a trifle vague, apparently his
main occupation was to sort out the
affairs of those who had died in testate,
and deal with any arguments regarding, inheritance among their
successors, this would I think this would have been quite a problem, due to the fact
that not many people in those days,
appeared not to have made wills. It
would appear that most inheritance problems, were sorted out at inquest PM’s,
where all the deceased assets were itemised, and put before a jury, one of
whose members would have been the escheater , It was from this source of reference that I managed to gain the fact that a number
of generations of the family had held this
post..
In addition to the duties I have just
mentioned the holders of this post, if there were no direct relatives they
would seize on behalf of the crown all of the assets. of
the deceased. There were also various taxes which had to be
paid by land owners. It there fore fell upon the duties, of the escheater
to check these assessments and arrange for the collection of the relevant tax.
If the landowner didn't
pay or went into arrears,
it fell upon the escheater along with the Sheriff, to seize on behalf of
the Crown as much property as was
necessary to cover the debts incurred.
Due to the foregoing, this is why at this
period there, is not much information, on land holdings but in later years the,
the full extent, of these has become
more apparent. There appears not to be,
much information on William in the records generally, other than when he was
appointed to the post that his father had held who was also William,. and was an escheater, what little there is on the records regarding
this William is truly enlightening and gives one an indication as to his true
character.
The
following account regards an incident, that occurred near his land at his land at Kimmeridge,
a reference to which I discovered in the Public Records Office. It was an
actual transcript of the original document therefore it was a trifle muddled,
however I did manage to write down, a rough account outlining the sequence of
events. My
interpretation of this
account, was later confirmed, in greater detail, in a publication by Rodney
Legg, the well known, Dorset Historian, in his
Book "Guide to Dorset Coast and
Shipwrecks"
Apparently some when in 1371 a ship named
the "Welfare" of Dartmouth was sailing around the Dorset coast
bound for London. but during
rough weather she was driven ashore,
upon hearing of this event, William and
several other land owners in the
area rushed to the scene, together with
Thomas the Abbot of Cerne Abbey and two of his monks who Happened to be in the locality at the
time, they also owned a large amount of land in the area.
It appears that, the abbot was the leader of
this bunch, claimed
that the foreshore was the property of the Abbey, therefore they had the right, to the ship and
its cargo, so instead of assisting the captain and crew at this, traumatic time,
the mob attacked them and stole the cargo.
By that time apparently, most of the inhabitants of the village, had
gathered, and between them they transported all of the goods from the
beach, and hid them in a barn.
The cargo from the ship consisted of a large
amount of luxury goods including bales of silk and other merchandise to the
estimated value of £2000. However they didn't getaway
with the crime and were later brought to trial at Sherborn assizes.
It was claimed that more than a hundred
people were involved. The main protagonists were
convicted . they
were, William Chaldecott, John Anderbode,
William wyat and his son, John Russell, John Swanland, and Thomas Gerrad. There appears to be no record of their
punishment. The most likely outcome would have been that they would have been
pardoned, this was the usual outcome of events of this nature, involving the gentry. A similar event took place involving one of Williams successors on this particular spot nearly two
centuries later, which I will cover later in this account.
William was also apparently involved in another
legal battle. This yet again concerned the Abbot of Cerne
Abbis, he owned a field that was adjacent, to another
which belonged to the Abbot so in order to reach this, the Abbots man crossed
Williams field and broke down hedges and fences, he seemed to
have had a bit of a fracas with the
Abbots man, and with the aid of his own man, confiscated four horses and a cart. For this he was hauled before a
court, this time the jury found in favour of William,
and was completely cleared, and it was said
that he had acted within his rights, so the horses and the cart were
duly awarded to him. I could trace the date of Williams
death. He was however succeeded by another William.
William II
B 1370
This William replaced his father as escheater . he must have led a
relatively dull life the only entries I have seen recorded, was in reference to
him sitting on juries and odd entries in the Lay Subsidy Roles. He was
succeeded by his son Richard .
Richard
B
1400
Richard appears to have broken the family
tradition of having
the first son and heir being William
but this does not appear to be
the case, he did have an older brother
named William but he apparently died at Quite an early age .
Richard was also was an escheater
, but in this field he appears to have spread his activities in this post
over a wider area both in Hampshire and
Dorset, it would appear that he had homes in both Wareham and Winchester, there is evidence in the record as having sat
on juries in both counties.
In 1442 he was elected the Member of
Parliament for Wareham,
after this however he still appears to have, carried out his
duties as an escheater, in both counties. It is likely he died sometime before 1454,
this is the date recorded, that his son Richard was appointed, as an escheater for Hampshire.
Richard II
B 1433
D 1462
In 1455, the year after he, was appointed to
the post of escheater, and like his father stood for
parliament, to represent and in 1455 and was elected as member for Wareham
, and also , still seemed to have carried on his job as escheater. It is believed that his wife was of the
heiress of the quarel family and in doing so
brought the house at Quarleston
into the Chaldecott family for a number
of generations.
At the time of his death he had two sons,
William age 14 and Richard 12. from this time on, a
different pattern began to develop, in respect to the families. history inheritance.
I therefore think that this would be an appropriate time in my account to compile a
summary of the land and property assets, of the family, as this will have a
great bearing on the rest of this
account. These are listed in chapter 4