The de Retlyng, also spelt de Ritling & de Ratling, family took their name from the Manor of Ratling which they had held since 1093 when Godfrey de Retlyng is recorded as holding a knight’s fee of the Archbishop as part of the Manor of Wingham. However, the Richard de Retlyng holding Esol should not to be confused with Sir Richard de Retlyn(g) of Retlyng/Ratling Manor, a close relative but not directly connected to the following events.
Richard de Retlyng the Elder was a trusted servant of the Crown and served Edward II and Edward III from the 1320’s until his death around 1349. In 1323 Richard de Retlyng the Elder was appointed by King Edward II to pursue and arrest Malcolm Musard, a vassel of Hugh Despenser, a powerful land-owner and over-lord in the Welsh Marches and a favorite of the King who made many enemies including Queen Isabella, Edward II’s wife. Musard was often outlawed for serious crimes, including murder, but then pardoned because of his connections.
In March of the following year the King awarded Richard the Elder the pesage of wools [pesage-a fee or toll paid for the weighing of merchandise] in the port of Suthampton, which would have given Richard a large annual income.
Richard de Retlyng the Elder put some of this money to good use in November of 1326 when he and Johanna, his wife, bought 2 messuages and 90 acres land with appurtinences and what appears to be manorial land giving 70/- in monetary rent, and other rent of 2 cocks, 20 hens, and 200 eggs from William de Plumton’, a Yorkshire knight, and Alice, his wife, of Nonynton’. Alice was the sole heiress of Sir Henry Beaufuiz [Beaufitz, Beaufiz] who had held land in the Abbey of St. Alban’s manor of Essewelle and had controlled Esol during the minority of John Colky as has been described in “The Knight’s Fee of Essewelle: Wischards, Hotots, and Colkyns at the Manors of Esol and Freydevill’ in Nonington”.
These were presumably Alice’s father’s Esewele property with some additional acquisitions. These appear to have been a part of the knight’s fee for Esol and Freydevill’ along with the Esole manor house. The 70/- cash rent and the other rent of 2 cocks, 20 hens, and 200 eggs appear to be manorial rents payable by land holders within Esole manorial boundaries.
Richard the Elder continued to prosper in the service of the Crown after the death of Edward II in 1327. In 1332 Edward III King granted Raleigh Castle and the land and property attached to it to him at an annual rent of £ 16 10/-, but unfortunately for Richard the tenure was a short one.
The 1346 Roll for Feudal Aids for Eastry Hundred records Richard de Retlyng the Elder’s son, also Richard [the Younger], as holding part of the knight’s fee for Hertangre, in Barfreston, and a quarter of the knight’s fee for Essewelle. Richard the Elder died in 1349, possibly a victim of the Black Death and his Post Mortem Inquiry of 1350 records his holdings in Kent as being in Staple; Nonyngton [part of the Knight’s Fee for the Manor of Essewelle and also 2 messuages, 90 acres of land and various rents]; Kyngeston (Kingston); Berfraiston [part of the Knight’s Fee for the Manor of Hartangre in Barfreston] and Godwyneston juxta Wyngeham [Goodnestone-next-Wingham].
Richard de Retlyng appears to have sold the house and land at Esole soon after the 1346 Roll as the1349 manorial rent rolls of the Abbot of St. Alban’s, the Lord of the Manor of Esole, record that Sir John de Beauchamp held at Esole:-‘one messuage [now called Beauchamps-my note] with dovecot, 60a arable, 12a pasture at a total annual manorial rental of 52 s.6d payable to the Abbot of St. Alban’s’.
