Titchfield

In the Domesday survey of 1086, Titchfield is described as a berewick belonging to Meonstoke, held by the king as it had been held by King Edward before the Conquest. The survey records 33 households (16 villagers, 13 smallholders and 4 slaves), 15 ploughlands, 14 acres of meadow and two mills valued at £1. The hundred of Titchfield was already in existence at the time of the survey (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 220-233).

William Rufus granted the manor to Payn, ancestor of John de Gisors. John de Gisors later forfeited it through his adherence to the French king. King John granted rental income to Robert de Vipont (£15) and Oliver de Beauchamp (£5). In 1228 Henry III granted the manor to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, but Hubert returned it the following year in exchange for manors in Norfolk and Suffolk. In 1232 the king granted it to Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, to endow the Premonstratensian abbey being founded at Titchfield (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 220-233).

The abbey of St Mary, Titchfield, was founded in 1222 for White Canons brought from Halesowen. Under the abbey's tenure, Edward I granted free warren in 1294 and Henry VI confirmed its liberties. The abbot held an annual five-day fair. In 1424 an abbot received permission to enclose 60 acres of land, 10 acres of pasture and 50 acres of wood as a park. The abbey also held Quarr Abbey's farm, valued at £12 2s. 6d. at the Dissolution (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 220-233).

John Sampson, bishop of Thetford and last abbot, surrendered the abbey's possessions to the Crown in 1537. Thomas Wriothesley received the estates the same year and converted the monastic buildings into Place House, a mansion completed by 1542. He was created Earl of Southampton in 1547 and died in 1550. The second earl, Henry, entertained Edward VI and Elizabeth I at Place House. The third earl, also Henry, was attainted in 1601 for complicity in the Essex plot but was restored under James I. He died abroad in 1624. The fourth earl, Thomas, died in 1667 without male heirs (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 220-233).

The estate passed through the earl's daughter Elizabeth, who married Edward Noel, first Earl of Gainsborough. Their only son died without issue. The third Duke of Beaufort acquired both moieties in 1711. The fifth Duke of Beaufort sold the manor to Peter Delme in 1741. On failure of the male line in 1894, the estate passed to descendants of two co-heiresses: Elizabeth (wife of Rev. C. Delme Radcliffe) and Julia (wife of Captain James Arthur Murray, R.N.). At the time of the VCH publication, Colonel Emilius Charles Delme Radcliffe and George Delme Murray held the manor jointly (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 220-233).