Family and Education

s. and h. of Thomas Hampton^† of Stoke Charity m. by 1373, Thomasina, 1s. John^†.

Offices Held

Bp. Wykeham’s bailiff of the liberty of Oxon. and Berks. bef. Dec. 1404.1

Biography

Hampton’s grandfather and father had both served as knights of the shire for their native county, Hampshire. He himself inherited Stoke Charity some time between 1370 and 1384, and he also possessed the Hampshire manor of Burcot in East Stratton, apparently in right of his wife. Stoke Charity was held of the bishops of Winchester by service of two knights’ fees, and other facts about John point to his close connexion with the then bishop, William of Wykeham, and the officers of the episcopal estates. Notable among the latter were Thomas Warrener, Wykeham’s kinsman and bailiff of the Soke and liberty of Winchester from before 1365 to about 1404, and Thomas Lavington, rector of Meon Stoke. From 1386 Hampton was a co-feoffee with Warrener of property in Hyde Street, Winchester, and together, six years later, they were party to the grant of a reversionary interest in lands in Lomer and elsewhere to Hyde abbey, a Benedictine house which Warrener served as steward. Hampton also joined in a grant of land in Micheldever to the same abbey. He witnessed several conveyances relating to Wykeham’s endowment of Winchester college and is known to have dined with the bishop’s household twice in July 1393. Whether or not he was employed as Wykeham’s bailiff of the liberty of Oxfordshire and Berkshire as early as 1394, the date of his only Parliament, is not known, but it seems clear that he was connected with Wykeham at that time, quite likely in some such official capacity.2

The date of Hampton’s death is not recorded, but it was most probably his son and namesake who was holding Stoke Charity in 1428 and who attended no fewer than 17 parliamentary elections for Hampshire between 1414 and 1450. John junior continued the family tradition by representing the county in the Commons in 1432.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. E368/177 fines m. 92d.
• 2. Procs. Hants Field Club, iii. 10; CCR, 1389-92, p. 294; 1392-6, pp. 112, 117; Winchester Coll. muns. 1, 1320, 12158, 13193, 19859-60, 19901, 19905; CPR, 1391-6, pp. 75, 169; VCH Hants, iii. 250-1, 400, 448; Stowe 846 f. 89d; C143/413/6, 418/23.
• 3. Feudal Aids, ii. 348.