When we clearly understand the way in which land in England was held in pre-reformation days, it will perhaps be possible to see whether the facts set forth in the deed of gift of the 15th May 1399 were consistent with the early history of the manor of Alstonefield; and whether John of Gaunt was shortly before his death in a legal position to comply with the request of Sir Edward Mundy.
As already stated Hawksyard was in Highe Frith, part of the manor of Alstonefield, and a manor was an estate in fee simple in a tract of land granted by the sovereign to a subject, usually a man of some consequence, in consideration of certain services.
He was the lord of the manor and he reserved for his own use such parts of the land as he required, which were called the demesne lands; other parts he granted out to his tenants, under varying conditions which included estates of inheritance, estates for life, for years and at will; the barren lands which remained in his hands were what was known as the commons and wastes of the manor or the foreign lands. The whole formed a manor or lordship which had its own courts and customs and enjoyed feudal privileges, which extended not only to the lands held by tenants but also to the commons and waste lands.
When many manors, perhaps extending into several counties, were held by one great baron or overlord they formed an honour which was held of the king in capite; this was quite different in character to the manor. It was a jurisdiction, vested in private hands, and not a territorial possession; the lords of the manors retaining their separate manorial organisation and rendering suit and service to their overlord.
Manors also formed part of the earldom or shire; for some time after the conquest an earl also had the title of count and from the counts the shires took the name of counties. The title however soon disappeared in England but we still retain countess, county and viscount.
When a great earldom honour or manor fell by forfeiture or escheat into the hands of the sovereign which constantly happened, it retained its distinct corporate existence and the whole apparatus of jurisdiction or tenure. Under its own title it either continued in the possession of the sovereign or was granted out again as a hereditary fief.
The manor of Alstonefield appears to have been included in different earldoms and different honours at different dates, prior to the time when it came into the hands of John of Gaunt and his first wife’s ancestors.
At the taking of the Domesday survey in 1086, Alstonefield manor was held as a knight’s fee by Robert count of Shrewsbury with William de Malbanc under him as lord of the manor. The Shrewsbury overlordship did not last long and Alstonefield, which seems to have been much in request, possibly owing to its grouse moor, was transferred to the honour of Chester under Hugh Lupus; to whom William had, three years after the conquest, given the earldom of Chester and William de Malbanc, of Wich Malbanc now Nantwich, held the position of lord marcher under Lupus, so that the lordship of Alstonefield formed part of the marchlands or boundaries of the honour of Chester on the east, over which William de Malbanc would have supreme control as lord of the marches.
That part of the manor which lay between Leek and the river Dove, including the site of Hawksyard, was chiefly forest and moorland; shortly after the conquest and for many centuries after, it was known as Malbanc Forest; but in 1220 the Malbanc barony devolved on three co-heiresses, who held Alstonefield in co-parcenary.
On the forfeiture of a third share by the eldest daughter, then countess of Warwick, it came into the possession of Hugh le Despencer, though how he got it is not clear, and this share included the tract of barren moorland known as Highe Frith of Malbanc Forest.