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Despenser Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'despenser'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 92 records (displaying 81 to 90): 

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London and Middlesex Feet of Fines (1198-1485)
Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in London and Middlesex.

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London and Middlesex Feet of Fines
 (1198-1485)
Landowners and tenants in Lincolnshire (1345-1485)
Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.

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Landowners and tenants in Lincolnshire
 (1345-1485)
Landowners and tenants in Rutland (1345-1485)
Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.

DESPENSER. Cost: £6.00. Add to basket

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Landowners and tenants in Rutland
 (1345-1485)
Landowners and tenants in Wiltshire (1345-1485)
Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.

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Landowners and tenants in Wiltshire
 (1345-1485)
Landowners and tenants in Yorkshire (1345-1485)
Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.

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Landowners and tenants in Yorkshire
 (1345-1485)
Early records of Wells cathedral, in Somerset (1001-1500)
Three early registers of the dean and chapter of Wells - the Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III), and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) - were edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners and published in 1907. These three books comprise, with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land dating back as early as the 8th century, well before the development of hereditary surnames in England; acts of the dean and chapter; and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

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Early records of Wells cathedral, in Somerset
 (1001-1500)
Kent Charters (1200-1500)
A large accumulation of documents preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, formerly constituted the antiquarian collections of Anthony a Wood, Roger Dodsworth, Ralph Thoresby, Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Thomas Tanner bishop of St Asaph, Dr Richard Rawlinson, Richard Furney archdeacon of Surrey, and Richard Gough. A calendar of these was prepared by William H. Turner and published in 1878 under the title 'Calendar of Charters and Rolls preserved in the Bodleian Library'. The word 'charters' is here used in a very general sense, including virtually any manuscript or copy of a manuscript, but the bulk of the contents consists of mediaeval deeds of conveyance. Turner's calendar deals with each briefly, naming the principal parties and the nature of the deed, but hardly ever lists the witnesses. Many of these charters were undated (dating of deeds did not become standard until around 1350) or so damaged or defective ('mutilated' is Turner's usual description) as no longer to display a legible date. However, he contrived, from the style of the script and/or the nature of the contents, to estimate dates in such cases. Some such as these remain undated; they are mostly from 1200 to 1500, but may be earlier or later.

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Kent Charters
 (1200-1500)
Yorkshire Testators and Legatees (1484-1508)
Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses. This publication in 1869 by the Surtees Society as Testamenta Eboracensia iv is an edition by James Raine of selected wills from the period. Some additional material is included from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the York Dean and Chapter archives.

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Yorkshire Testators and Legatees
 (1484-1508)
Recipients of grants of land by the Crown; and other grantors and grantees (1427-1516)
Grants of land by the Crown were enrolled on the Charter Rolls: but this series of records was also used by other magnates and religious houses as a way of having their own deeds inspected, confirmed and registered. It will be seen from this that some of the material described in these inspeximuses dates back to a considerably earlier period. In addition, there is an appendix of fragments of charter roll material from 1215 and 1286 to 1288. The royal grants enrolled relate not only to land, but also to various privileges that were part of the royal prerogative. Most of the material is from England, the remainder relating to Ireland, Wales and possessions in France, but virtually nothing from Scotland, which was an independent kingdom at this period.

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Recipients of grants of land by the Crown; and other grantors and grantees
 (1427-1516)
Hastings family deeds (1100-1600)
John Harley of the Historical Manuscripts Commission was invited by Reginald Rawdon Hastings to examine his family's extensive archives at the Manor House, Ashby de la Zouche, in Leicestershire. Harley produced a detailed calendar, of which is the first volume, published in 1928, Hastings himself having since died, and Harley having been killed at Gallipoli. This volume covers four categories of the records: the Ancient Deeds; Manorial and other Documents; Accounts and Inventories; and Miscellaneous Papers. Most, but not all, of the material is mediaeval. About half of the deeds relate to the family property in Leicestershire; then there are sections for Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, London, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, &c. The manorial section includes a partitions of the estates of the Earls of Leicester and Wilton about 1204 and 1277; manor court rolls are mentioned, but not extracted. Choicer items from the family accounts and inventories are copied in extenso for 1596 and 1607, and thereafter summarised. Most of the later material is merely dipped into for curiosities.

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Hastings family deeds
 (1100-1600)
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