A Dowry, Fee tail & Muniments of Tatton

Page 3 of 5 / Press for 4                             

ANCIENT TATTON LAND - MUNIMENTS-part 2 of 3.

Baron Hamon de Massey, Roger de Tatton & Cicely de Massey: c.1230 - Tatton muniments, a dowry, a marriage, fee tail and Tatton pedigree.

As the custom of the time, an heir of Baron Hamon de Massey 3rd would have received land & property from their parents or cousins as gifts by way of charters (grants of land), early in their life to guarantee an income & to ensure they were properly suited for marriage. The second son to the heir, Robert had been given the charter for Bowden and most of the daughters mentioned are receiving land grants. Most are also being married off at some point in time & taking with them a moiety of land by way of a dowry. It seems that Sibil is fond of her niece Cicely, daughter of her brother John & so has ensured she is well cared for in life by providing half of the land in (Norden Northenden, see pg2), a generous offering from her aunt. A gift of this kind would of course be a dowry towards a marriage. It was important for any daughter to have their own wealth when marrying, even though their future spouse would technically own all the wealth & property they received from their spouse once they were married. It was important also to marry an equal in life or someone of the same station in life. Cicely, had received a dowry for half of Northenden from her aunt Sibil, a daughter of the 3rd baron, which would have included Kenworthy, which came with a water Mill. We know by c.1230 it was held by the Tattons & we also know that the Tattons would have enforced their feudal area of control where the Mill was built & exercising the right of the lord of the manor to maintain his authority over the surrounding land nearby. This means that the land held by Cicely in a bond of marriage would have passed to the Tattons, which would confirm how the Tattons came to be holding this land in c.1230. Title, position and wealth were highly important in attracting a suiter, so, who would Cicely have been suited to? We know that Hamon de Kenworthy received a land grant by fee tail for Kenworthy & hence adopted the name for his surname in title and would have been born c.1230-1235. His birth name is Hamon, so that might fit in nicely with Cicely and all the Barons being called Hamon, particularly in the sense that Cicely's grandfather is the 3^rd Baron de Massey. However, Hamon’s first son, born circa.1250-1255 is called Roger! At this time and through most generations until modern times, the first born would normally be named after the grandfather, although not always. In Hamon’s case however, the land at this time is held by the Tattons, so we should be looking for a Tatton named Roger around the early 1230’s for Hamon’s father. A search in the Tatton records shows there are 3 muniments with Roger de Tatton for this time period. These are: TW/1. Mentions a Quitclaim by Margaret, daughter of Roger de Tatton. TW/2. Mentions a grant by Robert de Tatton to Roger, son of William, son of Roger de Tatton. And TW/3. Mentions a Quitclaim by Roger, son of William, son of Roger de Tatton, to Robert de Tatton. There are no dates mentioned, however, but we know that all 3 are all within the timescale of the life of Hamon’s son Roger de Kenworthy, who happens to be a witness to each of these articles. Roger was born c.1250-1255 & is noted for his public service between the dates of 1276-1353. This means we can now show from the historical records the following order of descent of Tatton. Thanks to the antiquarians Leycester, Ormerod & Helsby plus the records held with British History on line, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and muniments held within the Tatton archives.

1)      Alan de Tatton. Mentioned in 1186. Held the seat of Tatton by the order of the Knights of St. John, (see above). He was appointed prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in 1190, spending most of his time with the Hospitallers. He was raised to the bishopric of Bangor in 1195, but died in 1196.

2)      Alanus filius de Tatton, son of Alan de Tatton. During Henry 3^rd 1216-1272. Alanus filius de Tatton assumed the surname of Tatton & was Lord of all Tatton in c.1230. He gave the land of Bruchel in Tatton to William de Massey (Henry 3rd 1216-) (Orm. Vol 1 p440).

3)      Quenild de Tatton. Mentioned in the grant in 1286 below as father of William de Tatton. **Probably so named after the Manor of Quenington, a village & Manor in the Cotswolds. A 13th century gatehouse is the only surviving building from a preceptory (manor/estate) of the Knights Hospitallers. It was founded in 1144-62 by Walter, the first Prior of the Order in England (1142-1162). It was dissolved in 1540. It was one of the earliest Hospitallers Preceptories, built after the first crusade 1095-1291.

4)      William de Tatton, Mentioned in the grant c.1286 below, father of William FitzRobert de Tatton. ** See below

5)      William fitzRobert de Tatton, – mentioned in 1286 with his father and grandfather above. **Grant of a parcel of land to Richard Massey.

6)      Robert de Tatton, Lord of Wythenshaw & living in Kenworthy 1297. Mentioned as the son of William FitZRobert de Tatton in the pedigree of the Tattons of Wythenshaw. Ormerod, vol 3 p609. He also occurs as a witness to a charter of lands in Northenden c.1290 and by another charter at Wythenshaw as a grantee of lands in 1297, then taking up residence in Kenworthy. vol 3 p604.

At this point, we have 3 more heirs not mentioned above; one named William de Tatton & two named Roger de Tatton in the records TW/2 & TW/3 from which we can assume by the importance of the muniments with which they are involved, belong to a younger brother of a direct descendent. For example, TW/2. Grant by Robert de Tatton to Roger de Tatton, Son of William, son of Roger de Tatton. c.1276? Fittingly, it is the elder of the two Roger de Tattons in the TW/2 grant who fits perfectly.            GL

Hamon de Kenworthy of Kenworthy - First Lord of Kenworthy. 

Ormerod (vol 3 p604/5). He states; "The earliest Barons of Dunham had a paramount interest in Tatton, which makes it still more probable that some part of the original Tatton estate lay in Northenden", and; "The names also of the early lords of Tatton point conclusively to the origin of the later family of Kenworthy and Wythenshaw." and; "Alan de Tatton, lord of Tatton c.1230 held land in a place called "Northsake". So, the Tattons already held the land here & would have agreed a charter for Kenworthy, which is clear from the records confirming a long pedigree for the family of Kenworthy for about 300 years, the first being Hamon c 1230. The pedigree for the line of Tatton dating from 1185 with Alan de Tatton 1st is shown here, with page 4 also including the pedigree of  Kenworthy from c.1230. The first lord of Wythenshaw mentioned was Robert de Tatton 1st in 1297 (living in Kenworthy). So, we have the first lord of Kenworthy, Hamon de Kenworthy 1st.  Hamon is the first Kenworthy as he adopted his surname from the name of his fiefdom, which at this time of feudalism was charter proof of entitlement to his holding, his new domain. This was a common practice for manorial lords at this time. There are many records of this family with a pedigree, including Hamon de Kenworthy of Kenworthy, named in a Bond 1313 (living in 1313 - Bond to William de Baguley, lord of Baguley, born c.1260 - Knighted by Edw 1st), Roger (son of Hamon), John (son of Roger), William, James, Nicholas, John (son of Nicholas).  GL