The will of John Soper of the parish of Kingsclere, Hampshire
. . . . . 4 Apr 1538. HRO Ref.1538 13 103

- To wife Margaret, 80 sheep, 20(+) lambs, 2 horses, 2 oxen, 2 bullocks & 2 cows, 5 quarters wheat & 5 barley (& all she brought with her on marrying)
- To son Richard, all the residue of the estate
- To son Thomas, the bed 'whche my maydens lyse in', 40 sheep, a cow & bullock 1 qtr wheat, 2 qtr barley
- To son Symond, the bed behind the street door, 40 sheep, a cow & bullock 1 qtr wheat, 2 qtr barley
- To several other children, a lamb [or possibly god children? - "bequethe to every one of my goodchyldren"]
- To Richard's children, 2 sheep each

- To be buried within Hannington Church, by my wife Annys
- To an honest priest (�2?) to sing at Hannington, for myself, my wife, friends and parents
- To Church of Kingsclere, his parish church, 4 sheep, & for 'thyngys forgotton' 20 pence
- To Church of St Margaret, where I was born, 14 pence
- To Church of Ash, 1 sheep
- To Church of Hannington 3 shillings, 4 pence
- To Chapel of Oakley, 2 sheep
- To Church of Dene, 1 sheep

To Bothome Bygges 30 sheep
To Thomas Bygges, Richard Bygges, John Bygges (& possibly a 2nd John Bygges), a ewe & lamb each
To Thomas Bygges children, a lamb each
To children of Robert Warham 'of Hybworght', one lamb each
To all servants? in my house 1 lamb

Richard Ayliff, of Skyers to oversee the will & to get 2 todds of wole [56lbs of wool, worth about 20 shillings : source]. [Skyers Farm at Ramsdale was 4 miles E of Kingsclere]
The will witnessed by Richard Ayliff and Roland (Fferone?), parson of Hannington (who possibly wrote the will).
Richard Soper is the executor of the will, getting the whole residue of the estate.

The original transcript of the will

Queries
- When did John die? The date should be with the original copy of will
- Which farm, near Hannington, was this family living in? They likely farmed many hundred sheep . . . . Seems quite likely to be Freemantle Farm, as 30 years later, a William Soper was renting Freemantle Farm, Hannington, when he married, 1558 [see air map below]. (At the time of this will a Wareham owned this Farm, see below)
- Who were John's parents? It might be read, that his parents were also buried inside Hannington church '...... a prest.. to syng for me and annys my wyffe and my father and my mother and all my frendes within the churche off hanyngton'. Hannington's Chancel may date from the 15th century, so perhaps contributers received family vaults?
- What relation was Richard Ayliff? Landlord?/Neighbor? : 40 years later a William Soper of Freemantle m. Ann Ayliffe 1579 (at Wootton St Lawrence). Ann's parents were Thomas & Ann, her brother Richard : Richard & Ridiard Ayliffe held land in Ewhurste, 1575 : a William Soper farmed at Freemantle in 1593, his landlord was Richard Ayliffe of Skres (W, St L) some Ayliffe notes
- What were the surnames of his two wives; Margaret & Annys (deceased)?
- Where is John's birthplace of St Margarets?, 3 options;
1. The church of a nearby village, 3 Hampshire possibilities
. . a) East Woodhay, 8 NW of Kingsclere. The church 'dedicated to St. Martin or St. Margaret'
. . . . [can't find any another reference of a St Margaret's being there] genuki.org.uk
. . b) Wellow, St Margarets, built 1215 at Romsey midway between Salisbury, Winchester & Southampton
. . c) South Wonston, St Margarets, 14m SW of Kingsclere. Sopers were recorded 5m N, near Whitchurch, in this period.
2. A lost local church? (not a chapel). Perhaps the Manor of Freemantle (now Freemantle Farm) had a church? The nearby royal hunting lodges of Tidgrove had a chapel & it's replacement, Freemantle (now Freemantle Park Farm), had a second chapel added in 1256, but it seems the King's houses were pulled down within 20 years. [Or perhaps the lost chapel of North Oakley? see 'Notes' below]
3. A place called St Margaret? The payment is listed the same way as other towns, so this seems quite possible. The payment is in cash rather than animals, perhaps because it was not local. Six alternatives, but all are far off.
. . St Margaret, Richmond-on-Thames, 45m E
. . St Margaret, Bedfordshire, nr Luton, 50m NE
. . St Margarets, Hertfordshire, Nr Ware, R.Lee, 65m NE
. . St Margaret, Cliffe, Kent, 115m SE
. . St Margarets, Herefordshire, 130m SW
. . St Margarets, Suffolk, between Norwich & Ipswich, NE
- Who was Robert Warham of Hybworght? - Hybworght is Ibworth. Local historian, Robert Legg, believes Robert may be the brother of Archbishop William Warham (1450-1532) born Malshanger, Church Oakley, [link]. The tomb of their parents, Robert and Elizabeth Warham, is at Oakley Church [link] : By 1532, Freemantle Farm had passed from Archbishop William Warham to his nephew & heir, William Warham. ; from Manors of Kingsclere : In 1575, two Robert Warhams were recorded as small landholders living at Kingsclere.
- Who were the Bygges family? There were at least 7 mentioned in the will. Perhaps they were farm workers or neighbors. Bigg, Biggs & Bigges surnames recorded locally (Baggs surname was in the area, but apparently not connected)
- Who was Roland Ferone, parson of Hannington? (who possibly wrote the will) The 'ff' in Fferone is a capital 'f'. The Fearons became a great clerical family, in the area, much later. (However 'ff' sometimes substituted the sound 'Gh', and a Robert Heron was taking tithes, (church taxes), in the neighboring parsonage of Wolverton, 37 years later.
- Why such a large sum to Hannington Church? : Possibly simply because a Hannington Priest wrote was the will? Presumably Soper was illiterate & it's humorous to suspect the priest of Hannington writing that an 'honest' priest would get �2 to sing at Hannington Church, (however 'honest' might mean worthy, or virtuous). G Kitchin, in 'Manor of Manydown' [pub.1895] raises the interesting point that not all the incumbents of Hannington were priests. If Ferone could not take mass for Soper, then he would have to pay a priest to do it for him. It would also require wealth & influence for John & his wife to be buried inside the small church. Especially, because his tithes would not go to Hannington parish church, but to the the neighboring parish church of Kingsclere. This may account for the large sum, but why pay the priest, not the church? The singing would be requiem masses.

Notes
- Some of North Oakley was enclosed in 1575, but there were still some 350 acres in the open fields (Shared by land owners who ploughed their allocated furlong strips). Sheep were herded on open downland during the day and folded overnight on the fallow open fields
- North Oakley Chapel, 'now disappeared' [written abt.1900], its site is marked by Church Hanger, a little north of Warren Bottom Copse : from a Victoria History of England : Seems the site is still not known in modern times [a 'hanger' is a small wood on a steep slope]
- It's odd that no land is mentioned. In particular nothing for the younger sons who get livestock. Robert Legg, suggests that land is often not mentioned. Younger sons might be settled with smallholdings before a will & the elder gets the remainder.
- Hannington and Kingsclere were separate parishes, John's parish church was Kingsclere, so his obligations were to this church. This he recognized with his gift of 4 sheep and 20 pence for 'thynges forgotten', this last clause would be hedging his bet, for tithes he might have failed to pay when he died
- Hannington parish was split by Kingsclere parish. If the will was Freemantle Farm, it is in Kingsclere parish, despite being on the other side of Hannington : Map from North Hampshire Tithe Project
- A sheep cost about 1 or 2s [in 14th / 15thC, "a carpenter earned �s a day, a sheep cost 1s" source : around 1410 "a carpenter earnt abt 2s a week & sheep 2s" source]
- Hannington was on an ancient East/West droving route, along the ridgeway. Sheep farmers might become comparatively well traveled, if accompanying flocks. The 'Welsh Drive' brought London bound cattle to a November fair at Blackwater, 21 miles to the east.
- Definitions; ff = a word starting with f : j = last digit duplicated (so iiijth=4th) : wetter = wether, a castrated ram : so ovys were therefore presumably female sheep : new = ewe, a mothering sheep : 'tod of wool' = a carriable bundle of 28lbs, worth about 10s : l=� : s=shilling : d = pence : �1=20s : 1s=12d

The Area Now (Aug'08)
- Freemantle Farm House seems to have been continuously expanded to a large size, but a single story building seems to be at it's base
- North Oakley has now only around 4 old buildings & a couple of new ones. North Oakley Farm's farmer grows cereal on shallow soil over chalk. He believes the area was formally more wooded, planted partly to build naval vessels & has no knowledge of a church once being there. Two manor houses next to each other there, 1 for North Oakley & 1 for adjoining area.
-To the north of N.Oakley is more open high downland that might once have been sheep pasture
-The extended crossroad slightly to the West of current North Oakley and the unneeded footpaths in the countyside to the west of that (at Warren Bottom Wood, where the lost church once was) might indicate the village was once there?

Map of the area, with places listed above from an 1810 OS map	Air photo, Hannington to North Oakley (to Freemantle Farm, at bottom right)

Britain in 1538
- Henry VIII was 47. Some 2 years earlier, the dissolution of monasteries began. The King sold huge amounts of confiscated monastic land to nobles, in turn, much cheap land became available to commoners. In 1538, shrines were destroyed & pilgrim travel stopped, leading to excommunication by the Pope. In 1537 & 8, a bible in English was commissioned & ordered to be publicly available in every church. Images in churches were discouraged. After 1539, and this brief Protestant swing, Henry returned to conservative Catholicism (without Rome). The bible could be read only by upper classes, in private. Nuns & monks had been forced out of 850 monastic houses by 1540.

- Jane Seymour died in child birth [baby became Edward VI] in 1537. A temporary peace in mainland Catholic Europe, threatened England, prompting Henry to try an anti-Catholic marriage alliance with European Protestants. He picked Anne of Cleves, by mail order. A 1539 marriage was followed by a quick divorce, when the need for an alliance faded.

- Population was increasing more than 10% each decade. The countryside depopulated, as large farms replaced subsistence farming & common land was enclosed. Acts in 1534-6 against enclosures & a sheep-owning maximum set at 2,400. An attempt also made to cap increasing meat prices. In 1531 & 6 Thomas Cromwell tackled vagrancy & the destitute poor (reportedly up to 20% of the population), by introducing a Poor Law. After 3 years residency, parishes were to look after their 'impotent poor' and find work for their unemployed. Able-bodied begging was outlawed. From 1838 priests had to keep parish records of baptisms, marriages & deaths.

- Despite the huge inflow of confiscated church wealth in this, the last decade of Henry's reign, he left the country with large debts & debased coinage*, creating serious inflation. (*Henry called 'old copper nose' as his face on his later 'silver' coins wore to the base metal)

Back to Sopers in Hampshire