Unpublished IPMs: Margery, widow of Stephen le Scrope, lord Scrope of Masham, Lincolnshire, 1422
Posted by: mholford 10 years ago
This ex officio Exchequer IPM into the Lincolnshire lands of Margery le Scrope, widow of Stephen, lord Scrope of Masham, could have appeared in CIPM xxii beside IPMs 112-17, which include three later inquisitions into her lands in the same county. It is filed in E 149/126/10 immediately before the Exchequer copies of those later IPMs, but was presumably not included in vol. xxii because it dated from Henry V's reign, and therefore ought to have been printed in vol. xxi. In our on-line edition of the calendars it will be inserted in vol. xxii as number 111A, so that it can be read in conjunction with the later Lincolnshire inquisitions (xxii.112-14).
Margery's representatives seem to have been reluctant to part with information about her holdings. The present inquisition, held in July 1422, mentions only the manor of Barnoldby le Beck. A second ex officio enquiry in December 1422 disclosed that she also held one third of the manor of Carlton le Scroop. A third inquisition in February 1423, pursuant to a writ of diem clausit extremum, admitted to a further five burgages in Grimsby and four messuages in nearby vills. It took a fourth inquisition in November 1423, pursuant to a melius inquirendo, to reveal her estate in the lands.
The present IPM contains an extent of the manor of Barnoldby le Beck, which lies just inland from Grimsby. It may not be entirely reliable - the extent was repeated in the third IPM (xxii.113) with lower annual values for some of the manor's constituent parts - and is certainly brief, but nevertheless provides some snippets of interesting information concerning the estate's agricultural and social structure. The statement that only half the demesne arable could be sown each year shows that Barnoldby's open fields operated a 2-field rotation, while the reference to demesne lands and assize rents only, and no other tenements or tenants, suggests that the manor had only free tenants.
In vol. xxii Margery is called Margaret, but in the present IPM her name appears clearly as Margeria, not Margareta.
As can be seen in the photograph, the IPM is indented and still has its three seal tags, strips of parchment cut from its lower edge to which the twelve jurors seals were attached. This is slightly unusual for an Exchequer IPM, but no doubt reflects the fact that the Exchequer received the originals, not copies, of ex officio IPMs. The jurors' seals are missing, but the wax has left red stains on the parchment.
The same jury, with just one new member, convened again 5 weeks later, also in Grimsby, to sit on the IPM of another widow, Hawise Hilton, wife of sir Godfrey Hilton (xxi.931).
MARGERY, WIDOW OF STEPHEN LE SCROP, LORD SCROP OF MASHAM
111A [Writ not required.]
LINCOLNSHIRE. Inquisition ex officio [indented]. Grimsby. 19 July 1422. [Denton].
Jurors: William Walesby of Barnoldby le Beck; Robert Jacob of the same; John Holdernesse of the same; John Warde of Beelsby; Robert Cooke of the same; William Lauranson of Cuxwold; Richard Smyth of East Ravendale; William Maltby of Swinhope; William Daniyot of Fulstowmarsh; John de Asby of Waltham; Richard Barne of the same; and John de Asby of Brigsley.
She held in dower, among other lands and tenements of her late husband Stephen le Scrop, lord Scrop of Masham, the manor of Barnoldby le Beck, extending into Barnoldby, Waltham, Waithe, Holton le Clay; Brigsley, Ashby, Grimsby, reversion to the right heirs of Stephen [interlineated: issuing of his body], namely their son Henry le Scrop, who was convicted of insurrection against Henry V at Southampton by his own admission. To the manor belong its site, annual value nil, 180 a. arable, of which 90 acres and no more can be sown each year, annual value 6d. per acre in the years when it is sown, 10 a. meadow, annual value 6d. per acre, a watermill, annual value 10s., £16 assize rents payable at Midsummer, Michaelmas, Christmas and Easter by equal portions, and the profits of the court there, annual value nil beyond the steward's fee and expenses.
She died on 30 May last. [Heir not named.]
E149/126/10 m. 1