Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2015 | Page 47

In the confirmation to Quarr by Richard
de Redvers, circa 1156, the Manor is
described sicut in suo dominio habeat, i.e.,
he (Baldwin de Redvers) had it in his own
demesne. Accordingly it was free from suit
and service at the Lord’s Hundred Court,
and had a Court Leet of its own as well as a
Court Baron.
From A.D. 1131 the Manor was farmed by
the Abbot’s steward until 1525, after which
it was leased by the last Abbot William
Rippin to John Leigh.
King Charles I visited Arreton Manor
on several occasions. On September 1st,
1628, he reviewed the Scots Regiment of
Mercenaries stationed on the Island, and
on another occasion he knighted John
Leigh, the Crown Tenant of the Manor.

Arreton was one, if not the earliest, of the
endowments of the Convent of Quarr. At
the Dissolution it fell into the hands of the
Crown and remained in Royal hands until it
was granted by Charles I to trustees for the
payment of his debts to the City of London,
and was sold to two London merchants.
Sir Thomas Bennet, Lord Lieutenant of
the County of Cambridge, then bought
the Manor in 1629. It was on the death of
Sir Thomas that his son Sir Levinus sold
the Manor to Lord Culpepper, Governor of
the Isle of Wight. He left his estate to his
daughter Lady Katherine, who married Lord
Fairfax, “the coloniser of Virginia”, and thus
brought the Manor into the Fairfax family
who, together with the Martins, held the
Manor for 230 years.

“The King holds Arreton in
demesne. King Edward held it.
The land contains five carucates.
In the demesne there are three
carucates, ten velIiens, and twelve
borderers, with ten carucates.
There are seven slaves and a mill
at 10 shillings. The abbey of Lyra
holds the church with one virgate
of land and one acre of pasturage
and all the tithes, estimated I at 20
shillings. The whole Manor in King
Edward’s time worth ten pounds,
and afterwards and now eight
pounds. Yet it returned twelve
pounds of silver, of 20 to the ora.”

Extract from the
Domesday Book 1086

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