Vivian de Besford of Besford, Worcestershire ^{1 2}

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1220, Besford Manor, Besford, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR8, GB. ¹ The first recorded tenants under the Beauchamps were the Besfords. Vivian de Besford paid 20s. forest fine in 1175-6. In 1220-1 Vivian son of Osbert recovered seisin of 2 carucates of land in Besford against Walter de Nafford and Denise mother of Walter. Walter son of Vivian de Besford granted land in Besford to Abbot Gervaise of Pershore (1204-34). Helen, widow of Sir Walter de Besford, granted to Abbot Roger of Pershore (1234-50) the right to make assarts in Ramsen Wood in confirmation of an agreement made by her son Alexander in 1248-9. Alexander must have been dead before 1268, for William Beauchamp directed by his will of 5 January 1268 that the wardship and marriage of the heir of Alexander de Besford should be sold and the money laid out for the benefit of his own soul. This heir must have been Alexander's son, another Alexander. To the subsidy about 1280 Alexander de Besford paid 4s. 6d. in Besford. In 1316 he was holding a knight's fee in Besford, and in 1327 he headed contributors to the subsidy in Besford with a payment of 3s. Alexander son of Alexander de Besford was engaged in a suit against John de Bishopsdon in 1325 and 1328, and in the latter year dower in Besford was recovered against him and others by Parnel, widow of John Thornden. An order was issued in 1338 for the election of a verderer for the forest of Feckenham in the place of Alexander de Besford, who was so sick and broken by age that he could not perform the duties of his office. He must have died before 1341, when John de Besford and Joan his wife were holding the manor and made a grant of land to Alexander de Besford, probably their son, and Joan his wife. Joan, widow of Robert de Harley, released lands in Besford and elsewhere to Alexander de Besford in 1376-7, and in 1398-9 Alexander was dealing with land in Pershore. He died without male issue, leaving either two or three daughters: Margaret, who married firstly John Dicleston of Dixton in Alderton (co. Glouc.) and secondly Thomas de la Hay; Joan, who married Sir William Clopton; and perhaps Agnes, who married Thomas Throckmorton of Fladbury, but the third is somewhat doubtful, and Margaret and Joan seem to have divided the manor between them, Joan ultimately transferring her share to her elder sister for a rent of 30s. out of the manor. Beatrice, widow of Alexander de Besford, who held of the lord a toft in which the capital messuage of her manor used to stand, and two parts of the manor of Besford, died in 1403-4, when it was presented that the daughters and heirs of Alexander, Margery wife of John Dicleston and Joan wife of John (an error for William) Clopton, owed suit for the same. John Dicleston owed for relief and fealty for half a fee in Besford from 1408 to 1411. The estate shortly afterwards passed to Thomas de la Hay, who had married John's widow. After his wife's death on 24 August 1412, Thomas de la Hay continued to hold the manor. Her son, Thomas Dicleston, must have died before 1419, when her three daughters were found to be her co-heirs.

Vivian married de Nafford, daughter of Walter de Nafford and Unknown.^{1 2}