Notes
Note N2028
Index
William was recorded in the 1525 Lay Subsidy return along with his brot her John. Their property assessments reveal them as both being moderate ly prosperous. William's rating indicates Yeoman status whilst his brot her John could be put in the husbandman class.
Two other contemporary Wakelys are linked to William in the tree, both t o some extent on christian name grounds; Robert and Thomas.
It is thought that William married a daughter and heiress of John Rocke tt who paid subsidy on three pounds in Axminster in 1525 and at Marshwo od.
Notes
Note N2030
Index
Surname; WAKELEG or WAKELEYE of Phillyholme, Hawkchurch, Dorset.
Forenames: RICHARD de
Date of Birth: Last quarter of 13th Century c1275 on
Place of Birth: Wakely, a small Hertfordshire Manor
Married (spouse): ALICE
Other information:
Richard is assumed to be the fore-father of all West Country Wakelys an d was probably born in the last quarter of the thirteenth century and t o have migrated from the Hertfordshire Manor of Wakely.
In 1327, the first year of the reign of Edward III, Richard de Wakeleg c ontributed two shillings and seven pence to the subsidy vote to the Kin g for that year. Richard was then one of forty-two heads of household i n the tithing of Vynlegh in the Parish of Hawkchurch who were all rich e nough to pay tax. Judging by contemporary evidence from the small port o f Bridport to the south, the total number of households including those o f the poor, might have been about one hundred and twenty so giving a po pulation for the tithing of about six hundred. Vynlegh, the name of Ric hard's tithing, later became corrupted to Fynle, and then Philly before a chieving its final form of Phillyholme. It is the same tithing where we f ind that the next recorded Wakely, and Wakelys still lived there for th ree hundred and fifty years after Richard.
Richard was the fourth largest of the forty-two taxpayers, and therefor e a man of note in his community. The subsidy in 1327 was assessed at t he rate of one twentieth of the value of a person's removable property. T his value was usually very much understated, and the property covered w as usually restricted to livestock and produce. Household goods, implem ents and the contents of the larder were not counted. So, with disposab le goods worth in excess of fifty-one shillings, Richard was well-off f or a farmer of the time.
The next surviving subsidy was in 1332 and Richard is found to be payin g less tax and to have dropped to ninth place in the league table. The t able itself had mysteriously shrunk to a little over half the size of f ive years before. It is interesting to note that Richard shared this ni nth place with a neighbour - Edith Davis - who was top in 1327. It is d ifficult to be sure but the basis in the later 1334 subsidy was totally c hanged because of serious corruption and underpayments in the subsidy o f 1332 - had Richard and Edith found ways of understating their wealth?
The only other source of information about Richard is his surname. In “ The First Wakelys and their times: 1300 - 1500” it is argued that he ca me from Wakeley in Hertfordshire. In documents relating to the 13th Cen tury the spelling of the village is Wakeleg. In the 14th Century it had c hanged to Wakeley and Richard's own name, by the 1332subsidy, was given a s 'de Wakeleye'. The continued use of the prefix 'de' is the main reaso n for thinking Richard was the first of his family to come to Dorset fr om Hertfordshire; the changes in spelling also suggest that the connect ion was maintained. The big move from one country area to another one h undred and fifty miles away was difficult but not as unusual as it migh t seem. At the start of the 14th Century the old manorial world was cha nging, the market in land was getting freer, and opportunist farmers we re willing to travel far in an effort to find better, more extensive la nds and prospects. Studies of wage levels indicate that Dorset was a pr osperous county. Hawkchurch where most of the land was held by the two d istant abbeys of Cerne and Abbotsbury, may have been in the van of the m ovement in which manorial demesne lands were being leased out by those a ble to afford them instead of being tilled or pastured by the Lord's vi lleins. Newcomers like Richard were a sign of the times and it is proba ble that he had at least one Hertfordshire neighbour whose name was Ali cia Totteriches - probably from Totteridge in South Hertfordshire - who p aid subsidy with him in 1327.
A later fourteenth century deed shows that Richard also had land in Axb ridge in Somerset before 1327 and that his wife was called Alice.
Notes
Note N2209
Index
Not confirmed - not baptised in Hartland or Morwenstow or surrounding parishes.