BULWELL.
In Bullwell Godric had before the Conquest two car. of Land for a Mannor. (fn. 1) The
land was two car. There was one car. one vill. one bord. and two acres of meadow.
In the Confessours time it was valued at 12s. when William Peverell had it but at is.
He succeeded his father, Sir Charles, in title and estate, February 18, 1728-9, who married to his second wife in 1718, Elizabeth, daughter of William Frith, Esq. and Mary his wife, (grand-daughter of Richard Sclater, Esq.) by whom came the estate at
Nuthall. and the manors of Hayford and Harleigh. This lady died at Nuthall, April 20, 1738, and her jointure of 1200l. a year
devolved to Sir Charles, then at Westminster school.—Her only daughter Elizabeth, was married 1739, to Sir Robert Burdett,
of Foremark, in Derbyshire, Bart. John Sedley, one of Sir Charles's ancestors was Lord of the Manor of Southfleet, and also of
Mortimer, in the county of Kent. His son, William, was High Sheriff of Kent, first of Edward the fourth, 1461. John Sedley,
a descendant of the above William, was also High Sheriff of Kent, 9th Elizabeth, 1567; Sir William Sedley, eldest son and heir
of the first mentioned John, was created a Baronet, May 22, 1611, 9th James the first, he was founder of the Sedleian Lectures
of natural history at Oxford, 1621.—And he resided at the Friars at Ailesford, in Kent, the fair habitation (faith Dr. Holland, in
his additions to Cambden) of Sir William Sedley, painfully and expensively studious of the common good of his country, as
both his endowed house for the poor and the bridge there with the common voice do testify. He married Elizabeth daughter and
co-heir of Stephen Darrel, Esq. of Spelmander, in Kent, widow of Henry Lord Abergavenny. Sir John Sedley, son and heir of
Sir William of Southfleet, and St. Clairs, in Ightam and Ailesford, in Kent, married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Henry
Saville, and left issue three sons who succeeded to the title and estate, first, Sir William who died unmarried, second, Sir William
who also died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother, third, Sir Charles a famous poet, (called Apollo's Viceroy) in King
Charles the second's reign, who served in several Parliaments for New Romney, in Kent, and died in the beginning of Queen
Ann's reign, August 20, 1701, at the advanced age of 90. Queen Ann was pleased to create his son a Baronet by patent, July
10, 1702, by the title of Sir Charles Sedley, of Southfleet, in Kent. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Richard Newdigate, of
Arbury, in Warwickshire, Bart. He gave among other legacies 400l. to a school-master at Wymondham and Southfleet, and
100l. a-piece to Merton and Magdalen Colleges, in Oxford. The late Sir Charles was descended from the above family, which
was of great antiquity in the county of Kent, and were originally seated near Romney Marsh, where there are lands now known
by the name of Sedley's Marsh. They afterwards, in the reign of Edward the third, built a spacious mansion-house at Sedbury,
in Southfleet, in the said county, and according to Philpot, in his Villare Cantiarum, the arms of Sedley were in the old Hall
there, and the date 1337. Sir Charles dying without issue, male, the title became extinct.
(fn. 2) This came to the Crown, with the rest of William Peverells Lands.
(fn. 3) Stephen Cut held Bolewell in the time of King Henry the second, and delivered
it with a certain daughter to one Reymund de Burgarvell in custody; so that he should
find the said Stephen all necessaries; when Reymund died, the King seised it into his
own hand.
(fn. 4) Philip Mark the Sheriff said he held Bulewell, and the Advowson of the Church,
by demise from King John. And it is also said Henry Medicus (Leech) held the
Church which was of the Kings gift, but the Jury found not by whom the said Henry
had it; but when Philip Mark had the Township by demise from King John, valued at
100s. (fn. 5) the said Philip Mark had the Mannor of Melburne committed to him and the
Farm of Bullwellto sustain him as long as, &c. he had this Mannor, (fn. 6) 14 H. 3, for life.
(fn. 7) The men of Bulewellhad the Mannor of Bulewellto farm, during the Kings pleasure about, 7 H. 3. (fn. 8) They had likewise the Advowson of the Church. (fn. 9) They
had Common of Pasture in the Wood of Beskwood, (fn. 10) 12 H. 3, to the great Street.
(fn. 11) In Bulewell is one carucat and an half, which was wont to desend itself in the time
of William Peverell, by a horse with an halter; King John gave it to Roger Rascall,
but the Jury knew not by what service he held it.
(fn. 12) The King had the whole Town of Bulewell, with ten bovats in Hemdeshill, and received yearly for both 7l.
(fn. 13) About 10 E. 1, John le Charer, and Richard Morell held Bolewell, whereof
part was within the bounds of the Forest, and part without, as it was wont. (fn. 14) The
Forest Book mentions Snapefeild, within the Cattel of Bullwell and Hempshillwere wont to
pasture, in which some old essarts were made to belong to the Town of Bullwell. It is
got to be a kind of a Corporation, having the Perquisites of their own Courts, and the appointment of their own Stewards, and still pay their 7l. per annum, and keep themselves
Copy-holders to preserve their Customs and Commons in the Forest, as is thought.