Catalogue description THE LISLE ESTATE

Lisle of Kingston Lisle was a cadet branch of the Lisles of Cambridgeshire (later of Rougemont) and the estate came to the Berkeleys on the marriage of Thomas (IV) Lord Berkeley (d. 1417) to Margaret, daughter and, after the death of her brother in 1381, heir of Warin Lord Lisle (d. 1382). It then passed to Margaret's daughter Elizabeth, who married Richard Beauchamp, later earl of Warwick (d. 1439), and to her three daughters. In that context the number of charters concerning the estate that have remained at Berkeley is surprising.

The estate was built up primarily from a number of inheritances which accrued to it through marriage to heiresses, and as a result it was very scattered. Robert de Lisle of Cambridgeshire (d. 1262) married Alice, sister and heir of Warin FitzGerold and daughter of Henry FitzGerold (d. c. 1231). Alice granted to her younger son, Gerard, two manors of her inheritance, Kingston Lisle (Berks.) and Mundford (Norf.). Gerard (d. 1287) married a second Alice, daughter of Henry de Armenters, and niece and heir of Henry's elder brother John, who brought with her the manors of Kislingbury and Church Stowe (Northants.) and Burley (Rutland), and later Church Brampton (Northants.). Of these Kislingbury, Church Stowe and Church Brampton descended to her eldest son and his issue, while Burley went to her younger son John.

Gerard's son and heir Warin (d. 1322) increased the family estate by marriage to a third Alice, the only sister and heir of Henry Lord Tyeys (d. 1322). The Tyeys estate had itself; recently been enlarged by the acquisition of another inheritance, that of Foliot, since Tyeys's father Henry (d. 1307) was the grandson and heir of Samson Foliot (d. 1282 x 1284). The Foliot estate consisted of seven manors: Hardwell and Odstone (Berks.), Draycot Foliat and; Chilton Foliat (Wilts.), Fritwell and Noke (Oxon.) and Bracken (Yorks.). The Tyeys inheritance had initially been only the Cornish manors of Alverton and Tywarnhayle and the Oxfordshire manor of Shirburn, but after succeeding to the Foliot lands Henry le Tyeys (d. 1307) acquired lands in Wiltshire at Fresden, in Highworth, and Lydiard Tregoze, and his son also bought lands in Burbage, Leverton and Calcot, Puthall and Timbridge and Charlton by Hungerford (Wilts.) and in Bockhampton (Berks.). The fourth Henry was a Contrariant, executed after Boroughbridge, and he left a widow Margaret who married secondly Thomas de Monthermer (d. 1340) and eventually died in 1349 holding a third of the inheritance. Alice had died in 1347 when her eldest son, Gerard (II) de Lisle, was her heir.

The Cornish lands of the Tyeys inheritance appear to have prompted the marriage of Warin (II) (d. 1382), son and heir of Gerard (II), to Margaret, daughter and coheir of Sir William Pipard of Devon. She was coheir to the manors of Charleton, North Bovey, Langdon and Tetcott, with various other smaller holdings in Devon, and the manors of Wingrave (Bucks.), Nethercott (Wilts.) and Hintlesham (Suff.), but she and Warin also acquired a large proportion of her sister's purparty. The Lisles bought the manors of Beedon, Lambourn and Peasemore (Berks.) and holdings in Fulham (Middx.) but their inheritance, enlarged by marriage to three heiresses in four generations, itself fell to an heiress in 1382. The last Lisle, Warin (II), had a son and a daughter by Margaret Pipard, Gerard and Margaret, and both were married, Gerard in 1373 (aged thirteen) to Amy, daughter of Michael de la Pole, first earl of Suffolk, and Margaret (aged seven) in 1367 to Thomas, son and heir apparent of Maurice (IV) Lord Berkeley. [GCR 1369-74, 557; Smyth ii. 2-3.] Gerard died without issue after Jan. 1380 and probably before Nov. 1381 when his father came to an agreement with Thomas de Berkeley (then Lord Berkeley) allowing Margaret to inherit all his lands. [GEC viii. 53; below, BCM/B/7/3/30 [SC 559].]

Besides nearly four hundred charters, information on the Lisle inheritance is derived from the Berkeley estate valors of 1385 and 1389, five account rolls of the manor of Kingston Lisle from the 1380, the early 14th-century charter roll concerning the Foliot and Tyeys lands, a 15th-century calendared charter roll of Berkshire lands, and especially the Great Cartulary of the 15th century, in addition to the inquisitions post mortem of the Lisles, Tyeys and various widows, and other material in the Public Record Office.