The Township and Manor of Great Tosson
The division of Tosson into two vills, or townships, Great Tosson (Magna Tossen)and Little Tosson (Parva Tossen), was already established in the 12th century, when they first figure in medieval documents as ‘Thosse and the other Tosse’ (altere Tosse) (NC, 117; cf. NCH XV (1940), 396-7). Later another part of Great Tosson Township, to the north west of the village, was distinguished as Allerdene (Alriburne), where the Hospital of St. Leonard was situated. Great and Little Tosson even figure separately in official documents associated with royal governmental functions, like the Lay Subsidy Roll of 1296, rather than being grouped together as a single administrative vill (Fraser 1968, 165 no. 387, 171 no. 397).
Great Tosson and Little Tosson, along with neighbouring Caistron, Flotterton and Trewhitt, originally formed part of the barony of Greystoke, in Cumberland, which was granted to Forne, son of Sigulf, a Yorshireman, by Henry I (Winchester 1987, 16). These passed in free marriage to Edgar, son of Gospatric II, earl of Dunbar. Subsequently, at some stage before 1204, most of the Coquetdale vills were acquired by the manor of Hepple (NCH XV (1940), 396-7).
Based on an Anglo-Saxon estate, or thanage, this lordship had hitherto comprised just Hepple, Bickerton, Fallowlees and Warton in Coquetdale and Hurworth in the wapentake of Sadberge in Teesdale (NCH XV (1940), 380; Lomas 1996, 20). The resultant combined territory, though now elevated to the status of a barony, was still relatively small, comprising a slice of the Coquet valley sandwiched between the royal manor of Rothbury to the east and the extensive Umfraville holdings to the west - the liberty of Redesdale and Ten Towns of Coquetdale. Its extent can be gauged from the return made for barony in the feudal survey carried out by Henry III in 1242, (published in the Public Record Office compilation, The Book of Fees, (II, 1120, 1127-8; Selected Sources and Surveys no. 1).
The barony, or manor as it is often termed, subsequently had a complex history (NCH XV (1940), 382-5). On the death of the lord of Hepple, William son of William son of thegn Waldef (Waltheof), in c. 1200, the barony was itself divided between three co-heiresses: Matilda, who married Richard de Chartenay, Agnes, who married Roger de Butement, and Elizabeth, who was married first to William Bardulf, without issue, then in 1207 to Yvo Taillebois and finally to Nicholas de Farendon.
Nicholas and Elizabeth answered for the whole barony in the feudal aid of 1242, presumabably by virtue of Elizabeth’s seniority amongst the three heiresses, but Matilda de Chartenay and Roger de Butement each held a third of the barony from the couple. Elizabeth’s share was inherited by her son by her second marriage, Robert Taillebois, and subsequently passed down that line. Her grandson, also called Robert, was recorded as holding ‘Hephale Maner, Tossam Villa’ in 1279.
The Butement family are last mentioned holding land in the Hepple barony during the mid 13th century and at some stage not long thereafter the lordship was evidently divided between the Tailbois and Chartenay lineages. Certainly, by 1293, the barony was held in moieties by Luke Tailbois and Richard Chartenay, who granted his interest to his brother Robert de Hepple in 1295. The Chartenay portion subsequently passed to the Ogle family some time after 1332 as a result of the marriage of Robert Ogle to Joan, the only child and heiress of Robert de Hepple II (NCH XV (1940), 383).
During the 14th century the tenure of each vill was still divided between two seigneurial lineages, the Tailbois on the one hand and the de Hepple Chartenays and their successors the Ogles on the other, as was the case during the later 13th century. Thus, Henry Tailbois was recorded as possessing 200 acres of land etc., in Tossam Magna in 1337, whilst Henry Tailbois and his wife, Alianora, held part of the village of Tosson, with lands there in 1368. Similarly, Robert de Hepple II still had a substantial interest in Great and Little Tosson, plus the Hospital of St Leonard of ‘Aliriburne’, in 1332, whilst Robert de Ogle is subsequently recorded holding land at Great Tosson in 1362 (Dixon 1903, 324-5).
This division of the township ceased in 1386 when Sir Walter de Tailbois came to an agreement with Robert Ogle whereby the latter took over the entire manor of Hepple whilst Walter acquired the whole manor of Hurworth in Sadberge, Teesdale, with the result that tenure of Great Tosson was henceforth concentrated in the hands of the Ogles (NCH XV (1940), 384). Robert Ogle senior, is recorded as having substantial holdings in the vill of Great Tosson in 1437, and it may be this consolidation of holdings which provides the context for, and made worthwhile, the significant investment represented by the construction of the tower house, which probably occurred during the 15th century (in all likelihood post 1415). In the Feodary’s Book for 1568, Great Tosson and Little Tosson were returned amongst the possessions of Cuthbert Lord Ogle (Dixon 1903, 325).
Not all land or property in the vill was held directly by the principal baronial lords. Some was probably held by other lords or by freeholders like John of Eslington who held 20 acres in Great Tosson in 1242 (Selected Sources and Surveys no. 1). Similarly, in 1354, the Inquisition Post Mortem for Robert de Maners, lord of the Etal, in north Northumberland, found he also held divers lands in ‘Hethpole, Tossan, and Alnwyk’.
There was a rent charge of twenty six shillings laid on his property in Great Tosson for a certain chaplain, which Dixon (1903, 324) suggested might explain why the farm at the east end of the village belonged to the living of Ancroft parish in the 19th century; if one of the Manners had presented this property to the Church of Ancroft at some stage. However Mackenzie (1825, 80), followed by the County History (NCH XV (1940), 396), simply states the farm was bought by the ecclesiastical commissioners, with Queen Anne’s Bounty, to augment the living of Ancroft chapelry.
