Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/176

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. JULY, 1919.

number of thirty householders of the said Duche- men Aliens, and who shall be allowed from time to time to be mete for their profession in Cristen religion, that they shall have and enjoy any benefice, commoditie or things which hereafter in these premises are specified, that is to say, that the said Maior [&c.] may receive and permit to be inhabiting within our towne of Maidston aforesaid the said Michaell Orly [and others above-named] and the residue of the said thirty householders, Duchemen Alyens, with their servants and families being Duche people or English, and that the said Maior f&c.] may demise, grant or let to ferine for a term of 21 years or under, to any of the said Duchmen Aliens, any of the said messuages, dwelling houses, tene- ments or shops, within the said towne, in as ample manner as they may lawfullie do unto any of our liege subjects. And further the said Michael Orly, Anthony de Scieter, Ferdinand Dotteny and* the rest of the said Duchen Aliens, with their servants not excedinc: the uombre of twelve in eche of theier households and famylies, not exceeding the number of thirtie householdes ; for the only exerciseing of the faculty of weaving, making and working of mockadott, Chamletts, Grograine Chamletts, Russells, Diapers, Damaske and lyning clothes, sackclothe, Flanders woollen cloth, arras and tapissarie, featherbedtycks, Spanish lether, Flanders potts, paving tyles and brike, brasiers, white and brown paper, corselets, and all other kinds of armor and gonne powder, or of any other arts, may lawfully and safely inhabit within the said towne of Maideston, and any of the wares by them there to be wrought, to sell in gross only and not by retail. Dated 4 November, 1567.

E. WYNDHI.M HULME.

THE DE MINERS FAMILY. (See ante, pp. 16, 72, 101.)

THE name of this family of landowners, taken from Les Minieres (Dept. Eure), Normandy, occurs as early as before 1104, in the following connexion.

Henry of Elmbridge, with consent of his wife Heloise and their heirs, and of his lord, Gilbert de Miners, sold to Hugh Purchas all the land held from (the manor of) Foxcote next the fields of Coberley (i.e, Little Cubberley, co. Glos.), which Roger Crocton, and his son Robert, with his wife, gave to him. The actual charter gives Roger's name as Corzon = Curzon. With it went the render of a pound of cummin to the lord of Foxcote, annually, on the feast of St. Oswald (cf. ' Hist, et Cart. S. Petri, Glos.,' i. 70).

Another grant, c. 1150, by Alexander of Elmbridge, the son, mentions that his father had received this land in marriage with Heselyn, Alexander's mother, so it is clear that her name was Curzon. That was in Abbot Serlo's time (1072-1104). This land

is identified, 170 years later, in Kirby's ' Quest,' in the following manner :

"Foxcote is held by William Curzon (Cresson for three portions of a fee from the Templars (i.e. of Quenington), and these, from the heirs of De Miners, and their heirs, themselves, from the Bishop of Worcester ; and the Bishop, from the King ; by Barony."

The De Miners, therefore, were tenants some time before 1104 (when Abbot Serlo died) of the Bishop of Worcester. The neighbour- ing Colesbourne was held of the Bishop at the same date by Walter Fitz Roger, ancestor of the De Bohuns. But as in 1086 one Morin held Foxcote, and it consisted of 3 hides, it is clear that the De Miners had succeeded, as lords there, to Morin. The Rev. Charles Taylor (' Domesday Survey of Glouc.,' p. 155) conjectures that Morin was connected with Walter Fitz Roger. To this I venture to add that Gilbert de Miners was presumably a close connexion, and probably a cousin. We find him answering for the Pleas of Milo of Gloucester and Pain Fitz John in 1130 (P.R.); and we have seen him claiming, as late as 1127, in the King's Court, the manor of Coin St. Andrew (Roger), which had be- longed to Roger de Gloucester, son of Durand, the Sheriff, who died of a wound in the head received at the siege of Falaise.

In 1166 we find a second Gilbert de Miners holding 1 fee of the Bishop, still according to the old feoffment. but denying th part of it. It is evidently the same that his father, or grandfather, had held in Henry I.'s reign.

We may here note other connexions, particularly with Roger de Gloucester's property.

In 1114 the King confirmed to the monks of Gloucester, for some manor-land at Westbury-on-Severn which the late Roger de Gloucester had given them, certain other land at Hatherley and at Sandhurst. (Cf. Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc., vol. xli.) This manor without a name at Westbury had belonged to Durand, Roger's father.

It is noteworthy that we find Henry II. granting a manor at the same Westbury to Roger de Miners for the service of one soar-hawk or xxs. rent per an. (Cf. P.Q.W., a. 15 Edw. I., n. 17). Moreover, in 1175/6 (P.R., a. 22) William de Miners is found to be the custodian of the manor of Hatherley with the daughter of Roger de Troilli, of the fee of Richard de Clare.

Before 1158 Gilbert de Miners confirmed the grant by his homager, Roger Parvus (Little), of 8 acres of land at Brookthorpe and Whaddon to St. Peter's, Glos. being