of gilt spurs, to be paid every Midsummer day. In 1517, William Knevet, a younger son of the family, held the whole manor of Sir Tho. Knevet, and in 1562, it belonged to William Cocket, by purchase from Cressener, and in 1596, to Anthony Drury, in which family all the manors in this town were afterwards united. In 1497, Maud Willoughby was lady, but it was only a jointure: the manor assumed its name from its situation, to which it exactly answers; the plashes, or splashes, (as we now call them,) are swampy places where the water often stands, and according to this etymology, I find, that in the time of King Edward I. William, del Bernak held 10l. rent at Plasy's, and about that time Will. de Plasy, who assumed his name from the manor, of which he was head tenant, lived as farmer on the site of it, and gave it the name of Plassy Hall.
Bavent's Manor
Belonged to Sir Robert de Bautvent of Besethorp, in the time of King Henry III. who gave the moiety of the advowson of the rectory to Wymondham prior, as hath been observed: Picot de Bavent was his eldest son and heir, Sir Tho. de Bavent of Besthorp was lord after him, who divided it, by granting off that part, which Peter de Thelvetham sold to Robert de Tateshale, he was succeeded by Peter his son, who died in 1369, leaving it to be divided between Eleanor and Cecily, his daughters and heiresses; and soon after it came to John Warner of Besthorp, Esq. who had no issue; for in the pedigree of Henry Warner, Esq. of Womhill Hall in Mildenhall, Suffolk, it is thus recorded: " Anno Domini, 1374, Thomas Whetenhale, a younger son of Sir James Whetenhale, (of Cheshire,) Knt. being of great acquaintance with one John Warner, Esq. (of Besthorp) in the county of Norfolk, who had no issue of his own, nor any related to him of the name; the said John Warner bequested his estate unto the said Thomas Whetenhale, conditionally, that the said Thomas Whetenhale would adopt himself, whereupon the said Thomas Whetenhale came into Norfolk, and called himself Warner, who did bear for his coat armour, viz. Vert, a cross ingrailed arg. as being Whetenhale's paternal coat, and for the name of Warner adds the other coat, viz. quarterly, first, party per bend, indented arg. and sab.; secondly, a fleur-de-lis or.; third as second, fourth as first, which hath, together with the Whetenhales arms, been impaled and quartered many ages, by the Warners so adopted, and Sir Robert Warner, and Sir Edward Warner, two brothers, finding upon record, that certainly their names were anciently Whetenhale, and that the cross ingrailed, &c. was their paternal coat, resolved to continue it according to their ancient bearing." This Thomas left it to Henry Whetenhale, alias Warner, of Besthorp, who married Cecily, daughter of William Spaney or Spain, of the same, after whose death it came to Robert Warner of Besthorp, Esq. who married Margaret Barton of Besthorp, and died seized in 1488, leaving two sons; Oliver Whetenhale, alias Warner, their second son, was instituted vicar in 1445, and Henry Warner, their eldest son, married
