History and Antiquities of the Country of Hertford Icheton,

Lefstanchirche otherwise Layston Vol III pages 427 to 438

ALSIESWICHE, OTHERWISE ALSEWYK.

THIS Hamlet received its name from Alfleda, a Saxon owner hereof, part of which was given by the Conqueror to Ralph Bangiard, and part to Earl Eustace. It is thus recorded iu Domesday Survey :

Ralph Bangiard holds Alsieswiche, and William of him. It answered for six hides. There is land to seven ploughs. There are two in the demesne, and a third may be made. Four villanes have there three ploughs, and. a fourth may be made. There are eleven cottagers and seven bondmen. Meadow for one plough. Pasture for the cattle of the village. Pannage for ten hogs. Its whole value is seven pounds.; when received one hundred shillings ; in King Edward's time eight pounds. Almar, a vassal of Earl Guert's, held this Manor, and might sell it (p).

Geoffrey, the son of this Ralph Baingiard and Iuga his wife, succeeded to the possession of this Manor and Estate as heir to his father; upon whose death, it came to William Baingiard his heir. But he taking part with the Earl of Maine, and other conspirators against the King, lost his barony; however, his son Richard obtained it again, and gave the Chapelry of Alsewyk, which belonged to this estate, in perpetual alms to the Church of the Holy Trinity in London, in the presence of Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canter¬bury, and acknowledged before him, that it belonged to his Church of Lefstancherche, as built in the parish of the same Church(q). King Henry the Third, by his charter, dated February 8th, in the 11th year of his reign, confirmed this Estate to the said Canons, who held it till the time of the Dissolution, when it came to the Crown, " in which it remained until it was conveyed by King Henry the Eighth to Thomas Grey, Gent, who, I suppose, sold it to William Hamond, for I find that in Trinity Term, anno 1 Edward V. he levied a fine of a messuage and lands in Aleswyck in his own right.

"In the time of Queen Elizabeth, John Crouch, Citizen and Cloth worker of London, purchased it; from him it descended to John Crouch his son and heir, who married Anne, daughter of Henry Rolfe, of the parish of Kelvedon, in the County of Essex, by whom he -had issue John; he had issue John, and married Elizabeth, the daughter of George Pyke, Esquire, by whom he had issue a son called Pyke Crouch (r). It afterwards came into the possession of John Archer Houblon, of Hallingbury, in Essex, in which it now remains.

(P) Radulfus Baingiard et Willielmus de eo tenet Alsieswiche. Pro sex hidis et se defendebat. Terra est septem carucarum. In dominio sunt duae et tercia potest fieri. Ibi quatuor villani habent .tres carucas, et quarta potest fieri. Ibi undecim cotarii, et septem servi. Pratum unius Caracae, Pastura ad pecudes villae. Silva decem porcis. In totis valentiis valet septem libras; quando recepit centum solidos; tempore Regis Edwardi octo libras. Hoc Manerium tenuit Almanus homo Guert comitis, et vendere potuit. Lib. Domesday, No XXIV. fo. 138.

(q) Mon. Ang. tom. II. fo. 80. (r) Chauncy's Hist. Antiq. of Herts, p. 133.

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