Stoughton

Before the Norman Conquest, Earl Godwin held Stoughton of the king. By 1086, the Domesday survey recorded the manor under Earl Roger de Montgomery, who held it in demesne as part of his great rape of Arundel. The assessment stood at 36 hides, though it gelded for only 15, with one and a half hides belonging to the church and an additional hide with woodland lying in the rape of William de Braose. Fifteen houses in Chichester also belonged to the manor.

In the early twelfth century, Savaric fitz-Cane held Stoughton in fee together with Racton and Up Marden. Before 1121, Savaric granted the church of Stoughton to Lewes Priory, a grant confirmed by Bishop Seffrid II around 1200. The overlordship of Stoughton descended with the honour of Arundel; when Hugh d'Aubigny died in 1243, his estates were divided in 1244 among four coheirs. The FitzAlan share of the overlordship was attached to their manor of Westbourne.

By 1252, Hugh le Bigod, brother of Earl Roger Bigod, held Stoughton as a member of the great manor of Bosham. In 1307, his son Roger, Earl of Norfolk, died holding the manor; under a fine made in 1279, the lands reverted to the Crown. In 1317, the manor was held "during the king's pleasure" by Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, and Edmund of Woodstock, the king's brothers.

By 1432, John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, died seised of Stoughton as a member of Bosham. In 1476, Elizabeth, widow of the last Mowbray duke, conveyed the reversion to Queen Elizabeth (wife of Edward IV) and other trustees as part of a marriage settlement. The Mowbray estates were divided between the Berkeley and Howard families. Bosham went to the Berkeleys, but Stoughton passed to the Howards.

In 1541, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, exchanged Stoughton with the king. The manor remained in Crown hands until 1557, when Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, purchased it out of the Exchequer, to be held in chief as of the honour of Petworth. In 1588, Lord Lumley conveyed Stoughton to Richard Lewknor, after which it descended with the manor of West Dean.

The manor came in time to Lord Selsey, who bequeathed it to his daughter, the wife of the Honourable Vernon Harcourt. She died without issue, and under her will the manor passed to Lord Clanricarde. Clanricarde sold the reversion to Frederick Bower of West Dean, who became lord of the manor about 1870. Manorial rights appear to have lapsed not long after this date.