Bosham

Bosham sits at the head of Bosham Channel, one of the principal inlets of Chichester Harbour. The parish covers three miles north to south by two miles east to west, and includes 116 acres of tidal water and 609 acres of foreshore. The manor was the administrative centre of the Bosham Hundred, which encompassed Bosham itself along with Thorney, Chidham, Funtington, West Stoke, Fishbourne, and Appledram (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 182-188).

Before the Conquest, Earl Godwin held Bosham as a great lordship rated at 56 and a half hides. From here in 1064, Harold Godwinson set out on the voyage that ended in his capture by William of Normandy. The church and hall at Bosham are depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. After Hastings, William the Conqueror retained Bosham as the only Sussex estate in his own hands. The Domesday Book records eight mills, two fisheries, woodland yielding six swine, and 11 hawks in Chichester. The manor was appraised at 40 pounds but leased for 50 pounds of assayed money, equivalent to 65 pounds by tale (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, p. 183).

William fitz Aucher held the manor from the Crown at a fee farm rent of 42 pounds (57 pounds by tale). The manor reverted to the Crown under Henry I, who granted portions of the lordship to Battle Abbey. Between 1165 and 1167, the sheriffs of Sussex farmed the manor. By 1190, John Marshal answered for the rent, and his brother William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, held the manor from 1194 until his death in 1219. William Marshal was licensed to export 400 quarters of corn from Bosham in 1206 and obtained a grant of a weekly market in 1218 (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 183-184).

The manor passed through the Marshal heirs. Richard, the second son, held Bosham until Henry III, during a violent quarrel, ordered the destruction of Richard's houses, gardens, and park at Bosham in October 1233. After Richard's death in 1234, Margaret, widow of Earl Walter Marshal (the fourth son), was assigned Bosham as dower. The manor was valued at 97 pounds 3 shillings and 5 and three quarter pence after deducting the fee farm rent (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, p. 184).

Hugh Bigod the Justiciar acquired Bosham through the Marshal inheritance, as the son of Maud, eldest daughter of William Marshal, who had married Hugh Bigod. In 1262, it was confirmed that Bosham was ancient demesne of the Crown and that Hugh could tallage it, including Buckfold in Petworth. Hugh died in 1266. His son Roger Bigod succeeded to the earldom of Norfolk and the marshalcy in 1270. Roger led baronial opposition to Edward I. In 1301, he transferred all his estates to the king, receiving them back as tenant for life, with the 42 pound rent for Bosham excused. Roger died in 1306 holding the manor with Funtington hamlet, including two chief messuages and two watermills (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 184-185).

Thomas of Brotherton, Edward I's son, received the Bigod titles and estates. His son Edward was granted Bosham but died without issue. The manor passed through Edward's widow Beatrice de Braose and then to Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, Thomas of Brotherton's elder daughter. Margaret was raised to Duchess of Norfolk in 1398 and died in 1399. Her grandson Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, died in exile the same year. The Mowbray dukes held the manor through the fifteenth century. John Mowbray (d. 1476) married Elizabeth Talbot. Their only child Anne Mowbray was married at age five to Richard, Duke of York. Anne died in 1481. The Mowbray line ended with her (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 185-186).

The manor was divided between William, Lord Howard, created Duke of Norfolk in 1483, and William, Lord Berkeley, created Earl of Nottingham and Marquess Berkeley in 1489. After William Berkeley died without issue in 1492, his brother Maurice disputed the settlement and recovered the manor. The Berkeley earls held Bosham through their descendants until 1810. Frederick Augustus, 5th Earl of Berkeley, devised the manor to his second son Captain Maurice Fitzhardinge Berkeley. The lordship passed through the Fitzhardinge family to Edric Frederick, Lord Gifford, V.C., who died in 1911. Before 1937, the lordship was purchased by the Earl of Iveagh. The VCH, published in 1953, records the Earl of Iveagh as the present owner (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 186-187).

The Guinness family held the lordship through the Burhill Group until 2019, when it was sold to Franck Petitgas, a local Bosham resident and former trustee of the Chichester Harbour Trust. The manor now operates as The Manor of Bosham and The Hundred Limited (Company No. 12192174). The full title is the Hundred and Manor of Bosham and Chidham and Manor of Bosham Buckfold. The last Court of the Hundreds was held in 1914. The manor includes Bosham Quay, over 800 moorings, and foreshore and seabed rights in Chichester Harbour.