The second part of Semere was, in the Conqueror's time, held by Walter, under Robert Malet, lord of Eye, to which honour it was appendant for some time; and about the year 1200, Sir William Cheyny had it, as part of his barony of Horsford, from which time I meet with no accounts of it till 1370, when it belonged to Robert Bacon, who was outlawed for felony; he is said to hold it of Edmund Ufford le Cousyn, by knight's service, as of his barony of Horsford. It then contained two messuages, 120 acres of land, &c. and Joan was wife of the said Robert, who, in 1391, sued the King for it as her right, at her husband's death, in 1414; she had license granted her by the Bishop of Norwich, to have mass said to her in any decent place. These licenses were then usually granted to aged people that could not come to church, or to people of distinction that lived at a distance, in which case the priest always had a consecrated portable altar to officiate at. In 1455, Richard Bacon had it; in 1538, John Shelton and Anne his wife conveyed it by fine to Henry Whipple, in whom it was joined to the Earl's manor.
Mantelake's, or Manclerk's Manor
Was the third manor in Semere, and had its name from some of its former lords, though I meet with none of them of that name. In 1191, a fine was levied of it, Alan and William Walter (two brothers) being petents, and Roger de Dicclesburc tenant, whereby they released it to Roger and his sons, Ivo, Thomas, and John; this Robert enlarged it by purchasing many lands of Robert de Cokefield and Postalina, his wife, in Titshall, Dicclesburc, and Riveshall, in 1267. I know nothing more of it till the 15th century, and then Thomas Abbes held it of the Duke of Norfolk, as of his manor of Forncet. In 1514, Ric. Spooner held it of the King, by the service of 12s. per annum, and it was then valued at 10 marks. In 1544, Thomas, son and heir of John Cornwaleis, Knt. died seized. In 1556, Thomas Gawdye had it, and Thomas, his son the year following, who seem to be trustees only; for in 1598, Thomas Spooner, Gent. sold it to William Holmes and Thomas Edwards, and then it extended into Sethyng, Mundham, and Loddon; and in 1683, there were divers lands in Sethyng held of this manor, and soon after it was lost in the Earl's manor, to which it had some time been joined.
Diccles-Burc, or Burgh, may take its name from some remarkable Saxon that settled here, and raised a fortification, of some sort or other, to defend himself and his adherents against the insults of the Danes, for [Burg] originally signifies a fortified place, or a place of defence, and is pronounced differently in divers parts; in the south parts, bury, in others burgh and brough, and often berry and barrow. The reason we meet with so many places thus called, in all parts, may be this, because the Saxons were obliged to get together in bodies under their leaders, and to fortify themselves in the best manner they could, against the continual incursions of the Danes, and therefore in those times, wherever the head fortification of every district was, (if I may be allowed to call it by that name,) there they assembled in great numbers, and fixed their habitations, as well to guard their persons and goods, as their dead bodies, from the insults of these pagans, and in honour of their first leaders, that raised these fortifications, they generally called them after their names; thus Attleburgh, Dickleburgh, &c. seem to have had
