Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/333

 THE ALIEN I'lIIOUY UF ANDWEEL. 257 topographical work called '' Sketches of Ilampshii-e,'" ]>y the late John Duthy, Esq., in the notice of Abbotstone, one of tlic Lordships of the de Ports, in whose descendants it continued to be vested until the beginning of the present century, it is stated that " Adam de Port did, in the year 1 1 72, become implicated in the treasonable machinations, which were carried on against Henry II. by his eldest son, and liis Queen, Eleanor ; and not choosing to surrender himself to answer the accusations which w^re preferred against him, withdrew from the kingdom." The authority on which this statement rests is not given, but a very curious document is printed by Mr. Duthy, relating to an agreement between Richard Toclive, ^ Bishop Elect of Winchester, and Adam de Port, about the fief of Abbotstone, which was held of the See, by which it appears that Adam had applied to the Bishop elect for his consent to mortgage the fief to certain Jews, for the sum of forty marcs, for a term of eight years, desirous, as Mr. Duthy suggests, of raising money to defray the expenses of his exile. The Bishop refused to allow the lands of the Church to be put into the power of Jews, and undertook himself to advance the sum required, for seven years, on condition that he should receive all the rents and profits of the estate, and that the mortgagor should, notwith- standing, furnish two armed soldiers, being the service due to the lord for that fief. Dugdale says of him that " being accused for the death of King Henry II., he w^as thereupon adjudged to forfeit all his lands." Now this forfeiture continued in the reign of King John, for " that King did in the eighth of his reign, give of those lands so escheated (sic), the manor of Bezew^ick to Alan Basset, to hold in fee farm, for the rent of fifteen pounds per anmmi." ^ In proof, more- over, that he w^as still in exile, we have the following memoranda extracted from the Rotuli de Oblatis., a.d. 1201. iii'"' Joli'is. " Wiltsir : Ric. fil. Will'mi dat iii marcas pro eodem ; tenet feed : i milit' de feodo Ade de Port fugati." " Rad. fil. Rog. dat iii m' pro eodem ; tenet feod. i milit. xii'' parte minus." " Rad. de Arguges dat ii m' pro eodem ; tenet feod : dimid : milit' de feodo ejusdem Ado, et non plus ut dicitur." If then Adam de Port, the husband of the Countess Sybilla, was the person banished and deprived of his lands for his plotting machinations against Henry II., and for his I Elected A.D. 1171. Consecrated 11 70 - See Dugdaie's Bai'onagc, vol. i. p. 401.