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Arborfield (st. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Wokingham, hundred of Sonning, county of Berks, 5 miles (S. E.by S.) from Reading;… (Lewis…, 1830)

1589-1595 Chancery proceedings regarding the manors of Arborfield and Barkham involving a case with Edmond Standen vs Edward Combes and others including Thomas Bullock, William Bullock, Edward Bullock, Hugh Hare, Nicholas Meade and more. Record can be found in the Miscellaneous Unofficial Collections (Catalogue 14), among Transcripts and Copies relating to the Barkham area (1220-1992) Catalogue Ref.D/EX 1201-1300, specific Ref. D/EX 1211/33/1 Berkshire Record Office.

1594 Chancery proceedings continuing a case Ref. D/EX 1211/33/1 regarding the manors of Arborfield and Barkham involving a case with William Bullock vs Edward Combes and Nicholas Meade. Record can be found in the Miscellaneous Unofficial Collections (Catalogue 14), among Transcripts and Copies relating to the Barkham area (1220-1992) Catalogue Ref.D/EX 1201-1300, specific Ref. D/EX 1211/34/1/2 Berkshire Record Office.

Note: Information about the manors of Arborfield and Barkham which follows indicates the closeness of the properties involved and provides an interesting history. There is additional info on this topic available, however there is no mention of any person’s named Combes from the source from which these descriptions were derived.:

Arborfield Manor The manor of ARBORFIELD is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Survey, and at that date probably formed part of the manor of Sonning, held by the Bishop of Salisbury. Subinfeudation of Arborfield was apparently made later, for at the beginning of the 13th century Richard Bullock held a quarter and a twentieth part of a fee there of the bishop. (fn. 8) He was the successor, apparently, of Osmund Bullock, who was patron of the church towards the end of the 12th century. (fn. 9) Richard was succeeded by Gilbert Bullock, who was holding the manor in 1254, (fn. 10 and who or whose son Gilbert was living in the reign of Edward I. (fn. 11) Robert Bullock was lord in 1331, (fn. 12) and in 1341 settled the manor on his son Robert and the latter’s wife Joan Drokensford. (fn. 13) Robert Bullock, either the father or the son, was convicted of perjury and forfeited the estate, but was pardoned by the king in 1345. (fn. 14) Robert Bullock the younger died before 1365, when ‘Robert Bullock tertius’ made a grant of land in Arborfield. (fn. 15) A Robert Bullock was sheriff in 1384 (fn. 16) and 1391. (fn. 17) It would seem he died in 1405. (fn. 18) In 1407 Margaret widow of Robert Bullock and Margaret his daughter and heir, then wife of John Hertington, conveyed the manor to Laurence Dru, (fn. 19) from whom it descended to Thomas Dry of Seagry, Wiltshire, who in 1421 sold it to Thomas Bullock (fn. 20) and his wife Alice. (fn. 21) The manor continued in the hands of the Bullock family and descended to Thomas Bullock, (fn. 22) who by will of 1557, proved in 1558, left ornaments and vestments to Arborfield Church. His wife Agnes, by a provision of his will, was to have the upper parlour in the manor-house of Arborfield, the chamber over the same and ‘Jaks chamber’ and ‘2 butteres next the parlour, the old dyhouse for her kitchen.’ If she did not like Arborfield she was to have the farm of Barkham. (fn. 23) Richard son of Thomas, who died in 1570, desired that his body should be buried in the chancel of Arborfield Church next to the tomb of Robert Bullock. (fn. 24) He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who in 1589 sold Arborfield and Barkham to Edmund Standen. (fn. 25) From: ‘Parishes: Arborfield’, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp. 200-203. URL: British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43205

Barkham Manor “In the time of Edward the Confessor BARKHAM was in the tenure of Ælmer, who held it of the king. (fn. 14) The Domesday Survey records that William I held it in demesne and that it was assessed at 3 hides. It was possibly granted with Earley to the family of Earley, for the Testa de Nevill gives it as held of the fee of Henry de Earley. (fn. 15) The immediate tenants in the 13th century were a family of Barkham. John de Barkham held the fee under Henry de Earley. He forfeited about 1249, (fn. 16) but was apparently restored before 1253, when John, called son of Robert de Barkham, levied a fine of lands in Barkham. (fn. 17)

Before 1279 the manor had been acquired by Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, who in that year granted it to his servitor William de Nevill. (fn. 18) In 1316 the manor was held by John Botiller, (fn. 19) against whom in 1327 an action for waste was brought by Agnes daughter of Thomas de Nevill, who claimed that John held the manor for life of her inheritance. (fn. 20) She recovered seisin of 200 acres of wood, parcel of the manor. In 1330 Philip and Henry Botiller, sons of John, who had recovered the 200 acres of wood against Agnes de Nevill, (fn. 21) conveyed the manor to John Maltravers, jun. (fn. 22) He was summoned to Parliament as Lord Maltravers in 1330, and in the same Parliament was condemned to death for his responsibility in connexion with the death of Edmund Earl of Kent. (fn. 23) He escaped the sentence by flight to Flanders, and was restored on his return to England in 1345. During his forfeiture judgement was given in an assize of novel disseisin brought by Agnes de Nevill against John Maltravers and Philip and Henry Botiller, and by this judgement (given in 1334) she obtained possession of the manor. (fn. 24) By a subsequent settlement the manor was entailed on John Bullock (fn. 25) and his heirs, a life interest being reserved to a certain Agnes Ganefield, against whom a suit for dower was brought by Agnes widow of John Maltravers in 1368. (fn. 26) The manor came subsequently to the Bullocks of Arborfield. The name of Thomas Bullock appears in the Domesday of Inclosures of 1517 as owning 100 acres of land and a house in Barkham which had been occupied as a farm until 1514, from which time he had allowed the house to remain in disrepair. (fn. 27) In his will of 1557 he gave his wife the choice between certain rooms in the manor-house of Arborfield and the farm of Barkham ‘to inhabit there or not.’ He left to the church a pair of white satin vestments ‘with crosse redde velvett.’ (fn. 28) With Arborfield the manor was sold in 1589 to Edmund Standen, and was in the Standen family (fn. 29) (see Arborfield) as late as 1700, when Edward Standen suffered a recovery of it. (fn. 30) It is found soon afterwards in the possession of the Waterman family, who are said to have bought it from the Standens. (fn. 31) John Waterman presented to Barkham Church in 1739. (fn. 32)…” From: ‘Parishes: Barkham’, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp. 238-241. British History Online. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43211

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