We have Court Rolls dating back to 1356 for the Manor of Waldringfield Hilton and from 1561 for the Manor of Waldringfield Rivershall. These refer to Manors rather than to Waldringfield or Lesser Waldringfield as in the Domesday book. They clearly overlapped the current parish but may have had diffent boundaries. As we saw in the Domesday Book records holding and ownership of land spread over the locality rather than fitting neatly into today’s village.
The 1356 Court Roll refers to first court of William Lampet held at Waldryngfield on Friday next after the feast of St Hillary in the 29th year of the reign of King Edward the third after the conquest. It mentions:
Edmund Wat on a common plea by John Gerard, Augustus Austyn for the same by William Pye. Simon [Genew], John Seweyn/Sekeyn, Robert Koc native tenants, William Pye, John Gerard, John [Oslok], John [Lawn], Richard Herman, Robert del Clyff * and Hugh le Lytel made fealty to the lord. It was ordered to the said Augustus Austyn (and) Edmund Wat to make fealty.
*It is tempting to think that “del Clyf” is a locative name of Robert who lived by our only cliff but that may be fanciful.
Because it is the first court all the men made their fealty to the Lord, Edmund Wat and Augustus Austyn didn’t go and John Gerard & William Pye gave their excuse, but they must later make their fealty. Note on attending Court in 14CSo that is a list of the inhabintants of Waldringfield though it doesn’t specify Hilton or Rivershall.
From it we know that the Lord of Manor was William Lampet and that the names of the “native” tenants were Augustus Austyn, Edmund Wat, Simon [Genew], John Seweyn/Sekeyn and Robert Koc. Possibly William Pye, John Gerard, John [Oslok], John [Lawn], Richard Herman, Robert dil Clyf and Hugh le Lytel were of Norman descent. Assuming that all heads of household are mentioned then there are at least twelve of them indicating a village population of perhaps thirty at that time. We don’t have records for Rivershall so perhaps a similar number of people would have lived in the Rivershall part which would give a population of around sixty. Would all men be mentioned or just landholders? Were “natives” Freemen? We should note, however, that 1356 is just after the Pestilence of 1349 where up to 50% of the population perished. {Medieval Suffolk 1200 to 1300 by Mark Bailey} Perhaps then, in 1348 the village had a population of around a hundred which would mean that there were more buildings.This would be consistent with the rise in prosperity over the 12-13C.
Mark Bailey’s reading of the 1367 Rivershall Court Rolls in the later, post Plague, 14C tells us that there is no mention of trades apart from one reference to fishing. All recorded landholdings were less than 14 acres of mixed farming with rable fields growing mainly barley, rye and a little wheat. There was hardly any mention of woodland. The Lord also grew hemp (for rope). Many residents had small flocks of sheep, there were also horses and cows with much livestock transgression recorded in the courts with fines for ‘damage on the heath’. There were also payments recorded to trim the heath [scapulatio] and for additional g
razing for animals.
There were three free holdings, yielding total 7s. 6d. rent pa, and eleven unfree (‘bond’, ‘customary’) holdings, total 28s. 3½d. rent pa. This makes a total of over thirteen tenants for Rivershall.
e.g. Roger and Juliana Tidy hold 1 messuage + 10 acres, paying 4s. 8½d. pa, 2 hens, 5 eggs, 30 works, 12 harvest works, 3 harvest boonworks, 13 ploughworks, 2 horse carriage works
We can add to the above information the mention of remains of “Rivers Hall” on recent Ordanance Survey maps at the location of Manor House {} and infer that this was the Manor of Rivers Hall. We also have mention John Rivers who made his will in 1593 and many mentions of the Rivers family.
On the 1805 Ordanance Survey map we have “Chilton Hall” marked on the site of the present day Church Farm cottages. The current buildings are old enough to have been there at that time and the extra “C” seems likely to have been a simple error so we can reasonably suppose that this was the centre of the Manor of Hilton. Coppinger s Manors states that in 1305 Sir Robert Hilton, Knt., was patron of the living at Waldringfield.
Just to confuse things there actually is a Manor called Chilton in another part of Suffolk mentioned in Coppinger s Manors .
