or Baniard's-Hall===
Was the principal manor in this town, and belonged to Torn a Dane in the Confessor's time, and at the Conqueror's survey, Gaoserid or Godefride held it under Ralf Bainard; there belonged to it two villeins, two bordars or copyholders, 4 servants to manage the demeans, which then contained two carucates, besides 15 acres of meadow, and wood that would maintain 20 swine, 190 sheep, and one hive of bees; at the first survey it was worth 5l. a year, and at the second 10l. 12s. There were at the first survey, 18 freemen, reduced to 12 at the second, and they were worth 28s. in yearly rents paid to the manor; the whole town was four miles and one furlong long, and two miles and 15 perches broad, and paid 9d. to the geld.
As this manor, for the most part, passed with the manor of Merton, till Tho. de Grey, Esq. the present lord of Merton, sold it with the moiety of the advowson, to the Buxtons, who joined it to their other manors here, I need only refer you to the account of Merton at vol. ii. p. 298.
Robert Baynard gave two parts of the tithes of this manor, to the monks of Lewes; Fulk Bainard held it at one fee of Robert FitzWalter, as of his manor of Hemenhale, and confirmed his father's grant to the monks of Lewes. John Prior of Lewes, released 60 acres in Merton, and one messuage to Fulk, and he released to the prior, and confirmed the advowsons of Merton and East-Riston, and the two parts of the tithes of Hadeston demeans; he paid 28s. every 20 weeks, for castle-guard to Baynard castle, for Merton, and this manor, and had assise of bread and ale and weyf belonging to it.
In 1371, Sir Roger Grey of Merton, Knt. ordered his feoffees (see vol. ii. p. 302) to sell this manor to raise portions for his two daughters; and accordingly, they, jointly with the consent of Sir Thomas Grey, parson of Wethersfield, in 1389, sold it for 200 marks, to Tho. Duke of Gloucester and his heirs, Thomas Archbishop of York, Robert Bishop of London, Ric. Earl of Arundel, Thomas Earl of Warwick, and others, his feoffees; and in 1303, the said Duke of Gloucester obtained a royal license, to settle an annuity of 10 marks a year, on the abbey of Walden, but the settlement was never completed. In 1398, Ric. II. granted it to Edmund de Langley Duke of York, as part of the possessions of the Duke of Gloucester, attainted; it afterwards belonged to John Stukley in right of his wife Phillippa, daughter and heiress of John Mohun Lord of Dunster, widow of Edmund Plantagenet
