INTEGRATION

Having now acquired the Lordship of the Manor of Purse Caundle, what could one do about it? Not having through successive legislation the same legal powers and/or rights as those Lords of 100 or more years ago there was not immediately a lot to gain from it. Some Lords, though, are lucky enough to have retained for example such rights as the holding of markets, or mineral rights, from which they could derive some income. In the case of Purse Caundle all this has yet to be determined.

There is similarly, in a converse way, no obligations, except perhaps the ephemeral noblesse oblige, - that is to say, what can one do for others?

All previous Lords of Purse Caundle seem, without exception, to have been absentee Lords. As has been explained in another Blog Posting, none of the owners or residents of the manor house down through the ages has ever been Lord of the Manor. That honour has been held by others at some distance, having stewards to hold the Manor Courts and administer the Manorial estate.

However, several of those owning and resident in the manor house have volunteered this noblesse oblige, as seen in my Purse Caundle History.

So what could yet another absentee manorial Lord do in an endeavour to emulate them, but without their somewhat formidable financial resourses? One naturally has to act with caution, and not immediately obtain the reputation of an interfering interloper. We (my wife and I) started by attending Sunday morning church once a month, and gradually getting to know the rector and some of the villagers. We have also manged to attend most of the St Peter-tide gatherings and Harvest lunches. Having qualified to go onto the Church Electoral Roll I started attending the Annual Parochial Church Meetings, and noticed that resident parishioners were conspicuous by their absence. At the Easter 2006 Annual Meeting, because of the lack of members, I voluntered my services for the Parochial Church Council, and have been a member since.

It was noticed that the seat in the War Memorial alcove was in a somewhat dangerous condition, so with the co-operation of the Purse Caundle Parish Council a new seat was jointly funded. A donation had earlier been made to the cost of new prayer books in the church.

I early started researching for, and the collecting of details of the history of Purse Caundle. It was soon discovered that although small in size, it had a long and full history as interesting as anywhere else much larger. This is now being gradually uploaded onto other(s) of my blogs for free access and downloading. Two items of note are my discoveries of (1) the previously broken, hidden and unrecorded headstone in the churchyard; and (2) the unrecorded misplaced mass- or scratch-dial on the outer north wall of the church nave.
Although in theory the property of the Lord of the Manor, the records of Manor Courts Leet and Courts Baron are normally kept for safe-keeping at such repositories as County Record Offices. It was noticed at the Wiltshire & Swindon Record Office that a few late 17th century Purse Caundle manor court records were in a deteriorating condition, that I made a donation to allow for their conservation.
In the meanwhile some current and ex-village residents have already kindly allowed me to question them about the more recent past of Purse Caundle. I was lucky enough to be able to meet the late John Waltham, but regretfully not the late 100+ year old Mr Osmund.
Current ventures being undertaken include metal-detecting; and determining the Manor/village/parish boundary, including that of the stretch bordering on Somerset. Some boundary markers have already been noted.

As a hopeful incentive for readers to go to the blogs each month the rector now kindly includes in the monthly Newsletter a snippet of Purse Caundle history.

As a major gesture of goodwill, and a hopeful endeavour to encourage further informtion to be forthcoming, I have now initiated a Purse Caundle History Day, for Saturday, 27th June 2009, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. centred in St Peter's church by kind permission of the rector, where there will be a multi-visual Exhibition. The Somerset & Dorset Family History Society have also expressed a wish to attend. It is hoped residents could be willing to arrange other allied events in the village at the same time. Further details will be announced as soon as known.

WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE AND WHEN?

My ancestry in east Hampshire as far back (c.1660) as I have been able to determine has unsurprisingly been mainly populated with Agricultural Labourers, though one or two had for a while substantial land holdings. But large numbers of progeny meant nobody was financially able to actually extricate themselves from the furrow. My paternal grandfather (who I never knew, but that is another story) broke the chain by joining the Royal Navy.

Being village dwellers my ancestors were naturally subject to their local Lord of the Manor, who in their case was the Bishop of Winchester. The power and obligations of Lords of the Manor through the ages can easily be found on many sites of the Internet, as well as in my various Purse Caundle History posts.

It was sometime early in 2004 that whilst surfing the net I found that anyone could become a Lord of the Manor. This could be either through inheritance or by purchase. Being unashamedly keen to raise the status of the Knight Family, as well as attempting to follow the precept that if you cannot beat them, then join them, I actively sought the possibility of obtaining one. Especially now that I was already an armiger, i.e. a person entitled to bear heraldic arms - see separate post.

This is where one can become unstuck. There are, or at least were, a few concerns that purport to sell Lordships, but are likely to be fraudulent or at least spurious. Even some reputable auction houses can be somewhat slack and not be able to provide a reliable provenance for their Lordships. One's best course is to contact The Manorial Society of Great Britain who have a periodic selection of Lordships for sale/auction. The Society's address is: 104 Kennington Road, London SE11 6RE; or its website http://www.msgb.co.uk/ Prices depend on location, what privileges and documentation (if any) are included, and the general known history of the individual Lordship. Having made one's choice, it is then essential to employ a solicitor versed in the appropriate law.

At the time I decided to try my luck, December 2003, the Manorial Auctioneers in its extensive Catalogue only had one suitable Dorset Lordship - Purse Caundle - which was not as expensive as some, and apparently had a history going back to before Domesday. When I paid a visit to the village I liked what I saw, and thus went ahead, with eventual completion in November 2004 of my wife and I becoming joint-Lords of the Manor. The rest -as they say - is history, as this and other of my blogs will show.
After completion, on receipt of various associated documents from my solicitor, I learned that the Lordship of Purse Caundle had been put on the market through Manorial Auctioneers by the vendor in June 1999. According to an acknowledgement letter to the vendor from Manorial Auctioneers, "the present occupiers of Purse Caundle Manor, whom we will approach to see if they are interested." In the event they were apparently not, as the Lordship was repeatedly advertised in Manorial Auctioneers' catalogues of August 1999, February 2000, and the one of late 2003 from which I started negotiations for purchase.
And something I have I have only just found out (February 2009) through surfing the internet for Purse Caundle references, it must also have been this latter catalogue which prompted the Dorset Echo newspapers to publish an article about the three Dorset Lordships then being advertised. The article's writer commented: "But the real snip is the lord of the manor title for Purse Caundle".





2004