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shillings for the two moieties of the manor of Fawkham,
which between them owed one and a half knights. As manors went in the
locality, Scotgrove was not of major importance, but Ash manors generally
appear to have been rather odd fish.
Scotgrove was described in the Book of Aid as the fourth part
of one fee which John de Gatewyk held in Ash at Scotegroue from
Roger Moubray, and he from the King. The earlier occasion to which Kentish
assessments for this aid refer back seems, in most instances, to have been
that of the aid raised by Edward I in 1305-6 for the knighting of his
eldest son, Edward of Carnarvon. Such was evidently the ease with
Scotgrove and the John de Gatewyk who at that time held the fee was no
doubt he whose subsequent death triggered off the family dispute over
gavelkind. By the time of Edward I’s aid, Mabel de Torpel |
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(Mabel's ?IPM 1276) had disappeared from the scene and
Scotgrove had apparently climbed one rung of the feudal ladder. John held
directly from the tenant in chief, Roger de Mowbray, descendant of the
Roger from whom Mabel had held her Ash fee.12
Whether or not William de Wauere was living at his Scotgrove
manor at the time of Edward III’s aid, or indeed ever had lived there,
Adam atte Welle was still officiating at the Scotgrove chantry. In July
1347, he was one of the executors who proved the will of John Pewcompe of
Ridley and was then described as chaplain of Scotgrove.13 It
may well be that he was the last to serve that office.
Black Death seems first to have hit the diocese of Rochester in
December 1348 and to have continued its dire toll for at least eleven
months |