3 - The Crondall Customary
by Tim Childerhouse

We find in the Crondall Customary of 1567 -
"Freeholder - John White Knight holds free of the Lord by charter, divers lands and tenements, with appurtenances in Aldershot, and pays therefor, yearly at the aforesaid feasts, by equal portions 19s 8d; suit of court and relief. The same John, holds in like manner divers other lands and tenements and possessions of the late monastery of Waverley, lately dissolved and pays yearly therefor to the Dean and Chapter 4s 4d suit of court and relief."

John White and his predecessors made their fortunes in the wool trade, and we can follow the family line. Often they were troublesome but, most of the time they were great benefactors. We start with Alwin White[1] under Kingsclere Hundred in Doomesday book. "Alwin held this land before 1066 under Wigot for protection; now he holds it under Miles, and it was delivered to Wigot, by Humphrey Visdeloup, in exchange for Broadwater, as he himself states, but the Hundred knows nothing of it". Alwin had wrongly claimed eight acres and the Normans did not let him retain it. They move eastwards, through Hampshire, to Basingstoke and on to Yateley where, in the 1287 Rental, the John Whites were fined for misdemeanours, but we find two other Whites standing security for John, and other Whites in Yateley. Here they held large sections of land (presumably meadowland) for sheep grazing; they are already the largest landowner in the parish and very rich. By 1400 we find a Robert White[2], living in Sandwich, becoming three times Mayor of that town.

By 1400 the whole of the English wool export trade was in the hands of the Merchants of Staple, established at Calais. This high post, on the English side of the Channel, soon led to him being elected Mayor of the Staple (Steple), perhaps the most influential post of the Middle Ages. As the Norman aristocracy declined so the middle class merchants ascended to power. By now, Robert White owned land from Dorset to Kent. This wealthy man retired to Farnham in about 1440. and, when he died, he willed much to the poor of that town. In 1441 he acquired Swanborough Manor to which the family moved in 1470. and his descendant, Richard White, became Lord of the Manor owning a continuous stretch of land bounded by Upon Grey, Eversley, Kingsley, and including Alice Holt Forest,

In the course of time Robert and John White, lords of the Manor of Aldershot, acquired the Manors of Frimley, Tongham, Flexford, Ash, Formans, Long Sutton and additional land in Aldershot. We find a few years later, John White buying Chantries and Colleges in Surrey, Hampshire and London; all as a result of Henry VIII's further dissolutions.

Cont....

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1. From the Domesday survey - "Alwin Wit (White) continued to hold one and a half ploughlands which he had held of Wigot, for protection (possibly Wigot of Wallingford, butler and kinsman of King Edward).    (back) (top)
2. From the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (www.lds.org)
   Robert White was born in 1370 in Yatley. He died 18th May 1464 in Farnham Surrey. He was married in 1421 to Alecia Alice from Swanborne, Hampshire. Parents were John White.    (back) (top)