Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/148

126 the purpose to observe, that the quantity of land (four hides) stated in Domesday Book, agrees with that assigned to Woodperry at a later period in the Rotuli Hundredorum ; there is also the indirect proof, that has been attributed to no other place. Forming a member of the honor of S. Walery, within which Stanton St. John was not included, it was holden in capite by Richard earl of Cornwall, and afterwards king of the Romans, by the service of one knight's fee, Roger d'Aumari being sometime his tenant. From Richard the honor descended to his son Edmund; and on the death of the latter without issue in 1300, his manors, &c., fell to the crown; when, in the very first year of his reign, Edward II. granted the whole earldom of Cornwall (Woodperry included) to Piers Gaveston. On the death of the latter, the property reverting, was immediately granted again in 1312, to a new favourite, Hugh Despencer the elder; on whose attainder, in 1326, it came again into the royal hands.

In 1330 Edward III. granted the honor of S. Walery, including Woodperry, to his next brother John de Eltham, whom he had previously advanced to the earldom of Cornwall. He too dying without issue, the same king in 1360 granted the manor of Wodepery to his faithful soldier John, or Sir John, Chandos. He also perished childless in the wars in France; and what became of the estate does not clearly appear, until at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it came by purchase into the hands of its present owners.

One purpose of the above notices has been to throw some little light upon the architectural history of the church. The fragments found present an extraordinary variety of dates; for, beginning with part of the arch of a Norman doorway, they terminate in a fragment of the square head- moulding of a door or window in a style apparently that of the 14th century, or possibly much later. If then the first-mentioned arch, joined with the fact of Richard's armorial bearings as earl of Poictou, (a lion rampant crowned,) and as king of the Romans, (the spread eagle,) being found depicted on the encaustic tiles, would afford a plausible conjecture as to the time the building was erected,—on the other hand, the style of the