The Manor

The Manor of Little Gatcombe is an English manorial lordship in the Parish of Wymering, Hampshire, now within the city of Portsmouth. The manor has been documented since the thirteenth century. The lordship is an incorporeal hereditament: a form of intangible property recognised in English law, distinct from the land itself and from any buildings upon it.

A manor in the English legal sense is not a house. It is a unit of feudal administration, typically comprising a defined area of land, the rights attached to it, and the lordship over it. The lordship may be separated from the land and held independently, as it is here. Manorial lordships are registrable and may be conveyed by deed.

Origin

Little Gatcombe was carved from the parent manor of Gatcombe as a distinct holding by the mid-fifteenth century. The earliest recorded lords held the manor from the King in chief by grand serjeanty, owing armed military service at Portchester Castle in time of war. The name derives from Old English, meaning "goat valley".

Documented Descent

The Victoria County History of Hampshire records a descent of twenty-eight lords across approximately five hundred and fifty years, from the earliest serjeanty holders of the thirteenth century to Admiral Sir Roger Curtis in the early nineteenth century.

Date	Event
c. 1230s	Fulk de Wymeringes holds by Portchester Castle serjeanty. Armed service for 8 days in wartime.
d. 1291	Sir William de Esturs. Suit at Portchester Castle court every 3 weeks; one armed man with lance, helmet, shield.
d. 1293-1307	Geoffrey Lisle, then Baldwin de Lisle.
d. 1337	John de Lisle of Gatcombe. Held from King in chief by grand serjeanty for defence of Portchester Castle.
d. 1349	John de Lisle. Died in the year of the Black Death.
d. 1369	John de Lisle. Died without male heir. Manor passed by marriage to John Bramshott.
d. c. 1433	William Bramshott. Knight of the Shire, MP, High Sheriff of Hampshire.
d. 1468	Baldwin Bramshott. First recorded use of "Little Gatcombe" as distinct name.
d. 1479	John Bramshott. Lands divided between two daughters.
1501-1510	Edmund Dudley. Speaker of the House of Commons and Henry VII's chief financial enforcer. Beheaded Tower Hill, 17 August 1510. Father of the 1st Duke of Northumberland.
d. 1545	William Erneley. Manor probably granted after Dudley's attainder. JP, MP.
1613	Richard Erneley sold to William Marshe. 120 acres in Portsea and Wymering.
1691	William Chafin and Mary sold to Thomas Brounker.
from 1714	Captain Matthew Teate, then Matthew Brady (by 1744).
c. 1778	Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, 1st Baronet, GCB. Hero of the Great Siege of Gibraltar. Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth.
1794	Manor lands sold to the Crown for Hilsea Barracks.
1816	Admiral Curtis dies at Gatcombe House. Baronetcy passes to his son Sir Lucius Curtis, 2nd Baronet.
1869	Death of Sir Lucius Curtis, 2nd Baronet, Admiral of the Fleet.
1898	Sir Arthur Curtis, 3rd Baronet, disappears on Klondike expedition in northern Canada. Presumed dead by court order.
1908	Victoria County History of Hampshire published. Manorial descent formally documented.
1954	Death of Sir Roger Curtis, 4th Baronet.
1972	Gatcombe House Grade II listed. The building has been in separate ownership since the Crown acquisition of 1794.
2026	Morgan Sheldon succeeds to the Manor of Little Gatcombe.

Primary source: Victoria County History of Hampshire, Vol. 3 (1908), pp. 165-170.

Legal Status

The lordship of the Manor of Little Gatcombe is held as a private incorporeal hereditament. It does not confer a peerage, does not carry a seat in the House of Lords, and does not grant ownership of any land or buildings. The lordship is a title, not a property. Gatcombe House, the Grade II listed building historically associated with the manor, is in separate ownership and use.

The Current Holder

The lordship of Little Gatcombe is held by Morgan Sheldon.