HALNAKER
HALNAKER (fn. 18) is alleged to have been given by King Eadwig to Bishop Brithelm in 956. (fn. 19) If such a grant was made, it was soon lost to the see, and the manor was held in the time of the Confessor by Alward and in 1086 by William under Earl Roger. The main portion was assessed at 9 hides, (fn. 20) but there was an additional hide, held by the same persons, surveyed separately; (fn. 21) there were appurtenant to the manor 3 burgesses in Chichester, where houses in St. Pancras were still held of this manor in the late 18th century. (fn. 22) The estates of this William (fn. 23) came into the king's hands and were granted in or before 1105 by Henry I to Robert de Haye, son of Rannulf the steward of Count Robert of Mortain. (fn. 24) They constituted the honor of Halnaker, held of the honor of Arundel as 12 knights' fees. (fn. 25) The honor passed by the marriage of Robert's daughter Cecily to Roger de St. John, (fn. 26) who died about 1130. His sons William and Robert were still living in 1187 and apparently held the honor jointly; (fn. 27) they left no issue and it passed through their sister Muriel, who had married Rainald d'Orival, (fn. 28) and her daughter Mabel, wife of Adam de Port of Basing (Hants), to the latter's son William, who took the name of St. John. His son Robert left a son John (fn. 29) who died in 1301, holding the manor of Halnaker of Sir Robert de Mohaut, one of the coheirs of the Earl of Arundel, by service of 4 knights' fees; the manor then contained 400 acres of arable, 20 acres of meadow, a windmill, and a pigeon-house; there were 21 freeholders and 14 customary tenants, each with a yardland containing 12 acres, and the total value was £38 12s. 8¼d.; the manors of Walberton, Barnham, and Woodcote in Westhampnett were members of Halnaker. (fn. 30) His son and heir John de St. John married Isabel de Courtenay and had two sons, William who died without issue (fn. 31) , and Hugh who succeeded his father in 1329. (fn. 32) Hugh de St. John died in 1337, holding Halnaker of Queen Isabelle, with whom Robert de Morley, heir of Robert de Mohaut, had exchanged the overlordship in 1335, (fn. 33) and leaving an infant son Edmund, aged 4. (fn. 34) Edmund died in 1347 while still a minor in the king's custody. The manor at this time was said to be held as 1½ fees, and to be charged with the render at Christmas of a pig and two trees to the hospital of St. James outside Chichester, and of a 'second best' pig and a tree to the hospital of 'Lodesdon', (fn. 35) in Westhampnett. (fn. 36)
Edmund St. John left a widow Elizabeth, who received one third of the manor in dower, (fn. 37) and two sisters his coheirs. The elder, Margaret, married John de St. Philibert, and in October 1347 they agreed to a division of the estates by which Halnaker passed to the younger sister Isabel, then wife of Henry de Burghersh. (fn. 38) Henry died in November 1349 and Isabel immediately married Sir Luke de Ponyngs. (fn. 39) On the death of Margaret St. Philibert and her young son in 1361 the whole St. John inheritance was reunited. (fn. 40) Sir Luke died in 1376 (fn. 41) and was followed by his eldest surviving son Sir Thomas, who succeeded his mother in 1393 and used, but apparently incorrectly, the title of Lord St. John. (fn. 42) Sir Thomas possibly moved to Basing (Hants), (fn. 43) the headquarters of the St. John barony, as he made over Halnaker to his son Hugh. (fn. 44) The latter, however, predeceased his father, dying in December 1426, when Halnaker reverted to Sir Thomas, (fn. 45) who, with his wife Maud, made a settlement of these estates in the following year (fn. 46) and died in 1429. (fn. 47) His widow Maud, who subsequently married Hugh Halsham, held the manor till her death in 1453, (fn. 48) when it passed under the settlement of 1427 to John Bonville, son of Joan, eldest of the three daughters of Hugh Ponyngs. (fn. 49) John died in 1495 and Katherine his widow held Halnaker until her death in 1498, (fn. 50) when it passed under settlement to their younger daughter Elizabeth and her husband Thomas West, Lord de la Warre. (fn. 51) At the time of the Dissolution Lord de la Warre tried to save Boxgrove Priory, (fn. 52) but failing to do so secured for himself the site and the manor of Boxgrove. (fn. 53) In 1540, however, he and his wife were induced to convey Halnaker and Boxgrove to the king in exchange for the suppressed abbey of Wherwell (Hants). (fn. 54)
Henry VIII made John Jenyns steward and bailiff of the manors of Boxgrove and Halnaker, with its members, and keeper of the house and parks in 1544, (fn. 55) but two years later gave these offices to Henry, Earl of Arundel, (fn. 56) to whom Queen Elizabeth in 1561 granted the manors. (fn. 57) Five years later the earl settled these and other manors on John, Lord Lumley, who had married his elder daughter Jane. (fn. 58) They seem, however, to have been in the hands of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who had married the earl's younger daughter Mary (died 1557), in 1570. (fn. 59) The duke was attainted and executed in 1572, and in 1587 Lord Lumley sold the two manors to John Morley, (fn. 60) of Saxham in Suffolk. (fn. 61) His son Sir John died in 1622 (fn. 62) and left a son Sir William Morley, K.B., who died in 1701, leaving no male issue. Sir William's daughter Mary married in 1704, in Halnaker chapel, James, Earl of Derby, and died at the age of 84 in 1752. As she had no surviving child she left Halnaker to her distant relative Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, bt., greatgrandson of Sir John Morley's eldest daughter. (fn. 63) Sir Thomas in 1765 sold the estate for £48,000 to Charles, Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny, (fn. 64) from whom it has descended to the present Duke of Richmond.
The PARK of Halnaker possibly originated in a grant of free warren made in 1253 to Robert de St. John for his demesnes at Halnaker, Goodwood, and elsewhere, outside the limits of the forest. (fn. 65) An inquiry as to the recent enlargement of the park by 60 acres was ordered in 1283, (fn. 66) and it was said to contain 150 acres in 1329, and to be 2 leagues round in 1337. (fn. 67) Hugh, elder son of Lord St. John, had licence in 1404 to inclose 300 acres of land and wood within the lordship of Halnaker and make a park, according to the metes begun by his father, (fn. 68) but possibly did not avail himself of it, as the licence was renewed to Thomas and Elizabeth West in 1517. (fn. 69) This may be the origin of Goodwood Park, which first appears in 1540, when it was part of the Halnaker estate, (fn. 70) as it was also in 1561. (fn. 71) In 1570 Halnaker Park was estimated to be 4 miles in compass and supported 800 deer. (fn. 72) It continued to descend with the manor, but Goodwood Park was sold in 1584 by Lord Lumley to Henry and Elizabeth Walrond, who transferred it in 1597 to Thomas Cesar; he conveyed it in 1599 to Thomas Bennett, who in 1609 sold it to Sir Edward Fraunceis. (fn. 73) The Earl of Northumberland in 1657 sold it, with 'the house lately erected therein', to John Caryll, (fn. 74) who conveyed the park and mansion house to Anthony Kempe in 1675, (fn. 75) and it subsequently came to the Comptons of East Lavant, from whom it was bought, about 1720, by the Duke of Richmond. (fn. 76)
from: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/
