Chilworth Manor
before the middle of the thirteenth century, and remained in that family until the end of the succeeding century, after which no trace of their retaining any title to Chilworth is found, and it seems probable that their rights had lapsed.
Agnes Peverel was holding lands in Chilworth as early as 1230, when a dispute concerning the boundary between her estate and that of the abbot of Hyde in North Stoneham was settled by a perambulation. She still held the same, for half a knight's fee, in 1270, and her son Thomas, who died in 1306, left Chilworth to his grandson and heir, William Peverel.
William's property in Chilworth is described in the inquisition taken at his death in 1337 as a manor, which descended to his son Henry. He died in 1363, and two years later Chilworth Manor was sold by his son Thomas to Thomas Tyrell, knt., of Essex, who prior to the year 1372 conveyed it to John Daccombe, in whose family the manor remained for the next century. It was held by Thomas Daccombe in 1477, and sixty years later it was purchased from his son John by John Dowse, who, dying in 1558, left it to his youngest son Thomas, in tail-male. During the latter half of the sixteenth century Thomas and Richard Dowse, grandsons of John Dowse, succeeded in recovering a sum of £300 from John Daccombe, which they claimed under the agreement made between John Daccombe and John Dowse at the date of the sale of the manor.
Richard, who in 1602 succeeded to the Chilworth estate on the death of his father, shortly afterwards, conveyed the estate to John More, serjeant-at-law, who died in 1620. His son and heir survived him only a few months, and Chilworth passed to a younger daughter, Anne wife of Edward Hooper, of Hurn Court, and from them to their son Sir Edward Hooper, who held the manor in 1676, the entail having been barred in 1671. Before 1714, however, the manor, with the advowson, had passed to Gilbert Serle,
probably by purchase, although the exact date of the transfer cannot be found. The Serles continued as lords of the manor for the next century. Peter Serle, who succeeded his father Peter in 1782, was a philanthropist who endowed many charities in the parish of Chilworth and the surrounding districts, and rebuilt the church in 1812.
In 1825 he conveyed the Chilworth estate to John Fleming, who was to enter into possession on Peter's decease, subject to the payment of a jointure of £600 to Charlotte Malazena Serle. Mr. Fleming obtained the manor in 1827, and it is now in the possession of his grandson, Mr. John E. A. Willis-Fleming.
The overlordship of the manor passed from the crown to the Bohuns, earls of Hereford and Essex,