1066 & all that!
The Norman Invasion of the IOW
The man who was responsible for organising the invasion of
England was Duke William’s cousin, William FitzOsbern, the Grand Seneschal
of Normandy.
Following the success of the invasion Duke William was
most anxious to reward his cousin in a suitable manner.
This he
did by creating him Earl of Hereford and bestowing on him a large
amount of land including the Isle of Wight, together with the title
of Lord of the Island.
His title as Lord of the Island gave him complete control of the
Island, and the power of life and death over its inhabitants.
Just as the King had rewarded him with the gift of the Isle of Wight,
so he now rewarded his own supporters by giving them land, and
this was done by ruthlessly dispossessing the existing English
landowners.
Legend has it that the Lord of the Island purchased three areas
of land on the island, one for each of his boys. The first
pioneered Cheverton Farm at Apse Heath between Sandown and Newport,
the second built the hamlet of Cheverton near Shorewell, and the
third farmed Cheverton Down, a nearby hill of 450 feet.
Cheverton
Farm,
Apse Heath between
Sandown
and
Newport.
1
For administration purposes the Island was divided into
seven large parishes, each one running from the north coast to
the south coast in strips with roughly parallel borders, this
arrangement having been made with the objective of providing each
parish with a share of agricultural land (for their corn and
cattle), downland (for their sheep) and water.
The original
seven parishes were as seen on the accompanying map to be Arreton,
Brading, Calbourne, Carisbrook, Freshwater, Newchurch and Shalfleet, but within a
short time the Arreton parish was split and three new parishes
were formed, namely Godshill, Niton and Whippingham.
Furthermore, the Isle of Wight was originally divided into
two Hundreds, the East Medine and the West Medine – east and west of
the Medine river.
This division was increased by the time of
the Domesday Survey to cope with the increased population and
there we find listed ‘sub’ Hundreds of Bowcombe, Calbourne and
‘Hemreswel’.
Legend has it that a Roger de Cheverton came over from
France in the Norman Conquest of 1066. He was one of those
supporters rewarded by William FitzOzbern. He had three sons, and he
gave each one a piece of land with the Manors of Ashey, Apse and
Wolverton, and the legend has it that it was from these three
sons that the present day Cheverton family arose.
Medieval History of the Name ‘Cheverton’ on the Isle
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of Wight
When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086
there was a hamlet on the present day road
between Newport and Shorewell with the name
Cevredone. In the year 1299 Cheverton Farm was
Chivetone, while a reference to Cheverton Down in
1635 shows it as Chiveston Downe.
The name goes
back to Norman times, and is therefore one of
our earliest English surnames.
Experts are uncertain whether Cheverton is
derived from the Old English Cedfa as is the case for Chevington in
Suffolk and Northumberland and for Chevithorne in Devonshire, or
whether it is compounded from the Old English Caefor (Chafer
Beetle!) common on the downs of the Isle of Wight and Dun (Down).
The spelling has changed over the years as shown in the Plate
No.4.
‘Ceafor’ occurs in an OE boundary mark (909AD) – ‘Ceafor
Leage’, and Ceafa’s or Cifa’s Farm (951AD).
When all ultimate origins
of the name became lost we see how ‘dun’ has become ‘ton’, and the
downs between Shorewell and Apse Heath became known as Cheverton
Down in 1635.
It is interesting to note that the name Chiverton
is a phonetic parallel of Wolveton (Wolverton) meaning Wulfweard’s Farm
or the farm of Wulfweard’s people (909AD, reflecting the Norse
influence upon the people of the Island.
With the advent of the Normans we soon find that they
adopted as a ‘surname’ that name that identified the land that
they farmed ie. Roger de Cheverton – men from Cheverton will sometimes
have been known as ‘of Cheverton’ - that Roger who farmed Ceafordun –
the Cheverton Downs.
As will be observed from certain medieval
records noted later, there was a very early identification of
certain geographical areas of those downs as East Cheverton, Little
Cheverton and Great Cheverton.
There are today Chivertons and
Chevertons on the Island of which Cheverton is the more common
spelling.
There was William de Cheverdun recorded in the records
of Quarr Abbey as having property at Cosham, Newport in 1230 1235, and a Nicholas de Cheverdone was mentioned in 1285.
It was
perhaps this same Nicholas who gave land to Barton Oratory in 1300,
and who, as Nicholas de Chiverdone, held lands at Presford for which
he paid one-penny rate in 1328.
In 1280 William de Chiverton was a
bailiff at Newport. In 1304 Gulfridius (Geoffrey) de Chiverdone was one
of the tenants of the Manor of Shorewell paying a rent of 12
shillings to John de Insula, but we will never trace our ancestry
3
back that far!
Originally the surname was with an ‘E’ although the spelling
often changed as families moved from place to place, or when new
parsons took over the registers. The poor folk of the 1600’s
could not read or write their names and it was probably not until
the 1700‘s that our ancestors knew whether they were CHIVs or
CHEVs!
Our name is clearly recognizable from the 13th Century
onwards, but it actually goes back to the Norman Conquest and is
in fact one of the earliest English surnames. As we have already
seen, the name seems to have been written Chiverton until the 16th
Century and then Cheverton or Chiverton indiscriminately.
By the
year 1400 men from the Island had already adopted the name as a
place name. Whether the first Cheverton came from the hamlet near
Shorewell or Apse Heath is debatable, but by the 16th Century
when Parish Registers were commenced, there were Cheverton
families at Freshwater, Shalfleet and Thorley, and possibly
elsewhere.
Indeed, in the early 1600’s at Freshwater the Rector
had to record the baptism of a number of ‘base born’ Chevertons!
Also, during the mid century, a John was variously given the name
of Chiferton or Cheferton (pronounced this way in the Isle of Wight
dialect). In Yarmouth in 1624 a George Cheverley was married, as
was Mary Chevett in Newport in 1681, but otherwise, at Thorley,
Shalfleet, Brading and Freshwater, the spelling was Chiverton or
Cheverton.
Maybe it was during the 15th Century that a John de
Cheverton moved from Shorewell to Freshwater.
To trace back beyond 1837 when compulsory registration of
births, deaths and marriages was first established in England can
be guesswork.
We are helped in that during the period 1700 1800 our Chevertons appear to have been people of some substance.
To go back to early times would however need a connection with
Royalty or the landed gentry of the Island, whereas the only
early connection of any note appears to have been Sir Richard
Cheverton 1616-1679.
By the year 1841 when the first name census was undertaken,
there were at least 30 CHEV families and no fewer than 25 CHIVs
on the Island. In the early l6OQs there were Chevertons at
Shalfleet, Thorley and Freshwater, but without continuity into
the 18th Century. By the 1800s there were many families in the
Newport area, but this was not true of the 1700s when the
Chevertons moved to Newchurch.
This was then the largest parish
on the island, and the little Norman Church served an area from
4
Ryde to Ventnor.
It is there, where perhaps the eastern Yar was
once tidal to the bottom of the shute, in the old burial ground
at the Church, that many of our Cheverton ancestors are laid to
rest.
Certainly in the 1700’s the Chevertons were farmers at
Ashey, Apse and Alvingham, remaining so at Alvingham until the
1890’s when up until recently an older generation could remember
the Cheverton farm wagons at harvest time.
Medieval History of ‘Cheverton’
In the following documents we see just how frequently
‘Cheverton’ land featured in the economic life of the medieval
rural economy.
It is clear that the name goes back to medieval
times when folk adopted their names from places or trades.
Note
also the considerable variations in spelling of the name
‘Cheverton’ typical of medieval writings.
As we work our way
through this document our attention is drawn to the terms by
which the two hamlets named ‘Cheverton’ in more recent times are
identified: Little Chiverton; Great Cheverton; East Cheverton, names which now
have passed into the mists of time and history.
Notes on the OE terminology contained in this
document:Metes – measurement.
Brok – Brook.
Virgate – A long slender and narrow piece of
land.
Carucates – a measure of land such as could be
tilled with one plough with its team of 8 oxen in
a year.
Seized – obtained legal possession of a feudal
holding or property.
Toft – the ground attached to a house often
denoting the whole holding including attached
arable land.
Suer – an obscure form of ‘sure’ implying the
legitimacy of the stated measurement of land –
ie. ‘furlong’.
Demesne – real estate held in tenure.
Seizin – to legally deliver the property in
question.
5
In c.1240 Robert de Schorewell granted to Richard le Someter “for
his homage and service all the Down of Chiverdon, belonging to
Robert’s free tenement of Schorewell, as the metes and boundes show.
Also 1 croft in the Brok which extends from the land which Richard
le Brok held as far as the ditch on the eastern side of the sheep
fold which the monks of Quarr made and on the north to the road
called Cumbway, and on the south as far as the land which Richard
le Brok held and the land which Wystan and Geoffrey Huberd held, also
a heath on the north side of the Cumbe Way, extending on the east
to the land which Richard le Noble and Herbert de Slocumbe held, and on
the west as far as the said croft, also of common pasture in
Slocumbe for 2 horses, 15 draught beasts and 100 sheep at a rent
of 6d. or a pair of gilt spurs.”
In 1266 Richard’s son, Nicholas le Sumeter, gave the Abbess of
Laycock, now Lord of North Shorwell, a transcript of this deed, prior
to granting her some of his grazing rights in Slocumbe (Lacock
Abbey Charters, 468-9).
Richard le Someter had granted to Nicholas,
son of Richard, in 1256 a messuage, virgate and 15 acres of land
in Bowcombe and Cheverdon (F.F. Hants., P.V.M. 40 Henry III). In
1547 Thomas Cheke, senior, gent of Merston, Arreton and Joan, his
wife, one of the granddaughters and co-heirs of Thomas Baker of
Watchingwell, devised 20 acres pasture, 2. acre wood and common for
60 sheep in North Shorwell to John Earlesman (of Westover, her father),
(F.F. Hants. Easter 1 Ed.VI).
In 1615 Richard Earlisman of
Westover, his second son and eventual heir, sold lands called
Brocke, Cheverton Down and Little Down (40a.) and Kingatts (20a.) all in
the parish of Shorwell to Barnabas Leigh of North Court, Shorwell. This
holding was subsequently united with Rowborough and sold by the
daughters and co-heirs, of John Leigh of North Court in 1804 to Rev.
Henry Worsley Holmes of Pidford, subsequently Sir Henry Worsley Holmes;
8th~Baronet (JER/SEL/53/1).
Great Cheverton
In 1255 John de Cheverdon, who called John de Kingston to
warranty, conveyed the half part of two parts of half a knight’s
fee in Cheverdon to Ralph de Gorges of Knighton, p. Newchurch, and
Eleanor, his wife (F.F. Hants., P.V.M. 40 Henry III) and in 1280
(Testa de Neville) John de Kingstone was holding half a fee in
Chyverdone of the Lady Ellen de Gorges.
In 1321 John de Chyverdon
conveyed to Richard de Wyf let a messuage and 2 carucates in
Chyverdon and North Shorwell, and in 1346 (fees) Richard Byflet (sic),
6
was holding a half of a knight’s fee in Chyverdone which had been
John de Chyverdones.
In 1431 Robert Dingley was seized of a quarter
of a knight’s fee in Cheverdon (Fees).
It would seem that the real owner in 1431 was John
Holcombe of Afton, as second husband of Agnes, widow of William
Ringbourne and daughter and co-heir of Sir William Sturmy of Liss Sturmy
in Hampshire, (see Rowridge in Carisbrooke).
Certainly Agnes’s
grandson, William Ringbourne died seized of land in Rowridge and
Cheverton in 1512 (Inq. p.m.), and Thomas Brune, his grandson,
succeeded. He died young and was succeeded by his first cousin,
John Brune of Rowner, who died in 1544.
His son, Sir John Brune of
Rowner, died in 1559 and his son, Henry Brune, renewed the lease of
the farm called Chiverton in the parish of Shorwell on 10 August
1577 for a further 40 years to John Lovybond of North Court, Shorwell
(Jantzen 88/1969).
In 1591 Henry Bruen, then of Adleshampstone,
Dorset, and Elizabeth, his wife, conveyed Cheverton Farm, then
composed of one messuage or ‘toft, barn, garden, orchard, 50
acres of arable land, 2 acres meadow, 200 acres pasture and 4
acres wood in Shorwell to John Earlisman of Westover in Calbourne,
gent’. (Moulton Mss., F.F. Hants. Mich. 33 & 34 Eliz).
In 1600 John Earlisman paid 6d. fee rent to John Meux of
Kingston for his land in Cheverton, late Henry Brewin.
John Earlisman
had already in 1586 leased Idlecombe in Carisbrooke, (60a.),
Gladhouselands (14a.), Kingatte (20a.), Little Chiverton (20a.), with
Cheverton Down, Little Downe and Brooke to his younger brother, Thomas
Earlisman of Idlecombe, Dorothy, his wife, and their two sons, John
and Thomas, for their lives, and when he died in 1600 he left
Great Cheverton to John, son of his younger brother, Thomas (Court
Roll Kingston 1600).
This John Earlisman, with Joan, his wife,
(see also under John Fleming’s land in Gatcombe) sold it to Barnabie
Leigh of North Court in 1618 (F.F. Hants., Mich. 18 Jas.I).
It
remained part of the North Court estate at least until 1842 (Tithe
Map).
On 23 March 1625/6 Alice Temes, widow, brought an action
against Edward Lovibond her nephew, claiming that he and his
father, Thomas Lovibond, had, by a forged letter, kept from her the
lease of a farm in the Isle of Wight called Cheverton with £7 a
year left to her by the will of her father, John Lovibond (Court bf
Requests, I.W.C.R.O., WhP/2/361).
In 1788 Cheverton Farm with 9
acres in East Cheverton, was leased to Thomas How, (JER/DL/4).
7
Little or East Cheverton
In about 1260 Giles de St. Stephen granted to Amice, Countess of
Devon, a messuage in the town of Shorwell, between the lands
formerly of Roger Brun and William Beaumont and 1 acre in Suere
Furlong, between the land of Simon de Northwood’s and her own demesne
land. Some time later Beatrice, his widow, granted to the abbey of
Lacock, to whom Amice had granted her manor of North Shorwell, her
rights to Sydewynes Furlong in North Shorwell which Sir Robert de Scorewell
had granted her for life.
In about 1295 the Abbess of Laycock leased to William Giles of
North Shorwell and Sarah, his wife, 7 acres of land lying together
in Sydewynes Furlong.
Later William Giles granted a tenement in North
Shorwell which he had of the gift of Beatrice, his mother, on the
east side of the Grenche, between the tenement of Robert atte Nasche
on the north, and Peter Brown on south, to Walter de Sidelinge
(IWCRO/CAR.D/45).
Sideling’s estate, as the manor of Buckland near
Lymington, passed to his two daughters, Margerie, wife of John
Durnford, and Amphisia, wife of Thomas Collynton, and then after the
death of all four without issue to Agnes, daughter of Emmot,
Walter’s sister.
It then passed to Henry Popham of Popham, esq.,
who died in 1418 holding the manor of Buckland jointly with
Margaret, his second wife, with remainders to John Popham, William
Mewes and Lewis Mewes, her sons, in tail. (P.R.O. C.138 33/36
Inq.p.m.), and then to the Long family, Margaret, late wife of John
Long, being seized of half the manor in 1483 (Inq. p.m. C.141
1/1).
It is not clear how it passed to Arthur Gunter, the owner
in 1560, but he also held land on the Island at Compton in
Freshwater, Compton Fields in Atherfield and Courtledge in Thorley in the
right of his mother. On 20 May 1564 Arthur Gunter of Racton, Sussex,
esq., appointed William Gunter of the Isle of Wight, gent., and John
Curle of the same, yeoman, as attorneys to deliver seizin to
Richard Kedden of Adderton of 20, acres of land in Shorwell, (Moulton
Mss. Jantzen 68/54) and eight days later he and Mary, his wife,
released the land to him (Jantzen 95/1970 and F.F. Hants. East. 8
Eliz).
Keddon must have sold the land to
Westover who leased a tenement at Cheverdon
husbandman, on 26 January 1580/1, at a rent of
court at Westover, (P.R.O..Ancient Deeds, Vol.
8
John Earlisman of
to Simon Arnwood,
lls, and suit of
5A 12503).
In
1615 John Earlisman’s brother and heir, Richard Earlisman, sold Little
Cheverton (20a) to Barnabie Leigh of North Court. A field called East
Cheverton on the east side of Cheverton Shute (13a.) marks the
approximate site of the holding.
Spelling of the place name ‘Cheverton’ near Shorewell
Ceverdone
Domesday Book 1086
De Chevredone
13th Century
De Cheverdone
1235 & 1340
(de) Cheveredone
1255
Cheverendone
De Cheverdon
1279
De Chevirdoin
13th Century
De Chivirdune
13th Century
De Chiverdon
13th Century
De Chiverdon
1281 & 1328
De Chiv’done
1283
De Chiverdone
1292 & 1302
Chiverdone
1302
Chiverdon
1302
Chyverdon
1297-90
Chyverdone
1346
De Chyverdon
1320,1327 & 1408
De Chyeverdone
1321
De Chiverdone
1346
Chiverdon
1383
Chyverdone
1413
The personal name (de) Chiverstone was dropped about 1415
Cheverdon
1431
Chevertone
1557
9