Jordan Oliver Justice & Sheriff of Somerset & Dorset

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁷¹
The manor in Wambrook may have been held in 1086 by one of two knights, William and Walter, entered in Domesday under Chardstock [V.C.H. Dors. iii. 72]. It had been subinfeudated by the mid 12th century when the fee of Nicholas Oliver of Wambrook was quitclaimed to the bishop by Baldwin, earl of Exeter [Sarum Chart. and Doc. (Rolls Ser.), 20-1]. Jordan Oliver was holding one fee under the bishop of Salisbury in 1166 and the manor evidently continued in the Oliver family as a second Jordan Oliver was holding lands in Wambrook in the early 13th century [Red Bk. Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i. 236; Univ. of Nott., MiD 2137/2, 3; MiD 3849/1.]. The latter may probably be identified with Sir Jordan Oliver of Dorset, husband of Sibyl de Aumale, who was evidently succeeded by Jordan Oliver (III), a justice in eyre and sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1239-40, who probably lived in the parish [Cur. Reg. R. iii, pp. 29, 260; iv, pp. 19, 65, 155; S. W. Rawlins, Sheriffs of Som. 9]. The latter was probably followed by his son Walter Oliver (fl. 1240-83) [Bk. of Fees, ii. 1378; Cal. Close, 1279-88, 246]. The manor had passed by 1280 to an heiress, Sibyl Oliver, wife of Humphrey de Beauchamp of Ryme (Dors.), from whom she was divorced between 1287 and 1290 [Feet of Fines, Dors. 1195-1327, ed. E. A. and G. S. Fry, 188, 192-3; Feud. Aids, ii. 7; C.P. 40/67 rot. 39; C.P. 40/86 rot. 38d.; C.P. 40/100 rot. 31]. By 1292 Sibyl had carried the manor to her second husband John de Aldham and in the following year Cecily, widow of John Beauchamp, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, whose husband had acted as trustee for his brother Humphrey, unsuccessfully claimed dower in the estate [C.P. 40/92 rot. 181; C.P. 40/100 rot. 31; Feet of Fines, Dors. 1195-1327, 188, 21]. In 1306 Sibyl Oliver granted the advowson and the reversion of the manor to John de Hertrugge and Nichole his wife, with a reservation for life to Sibyl's son William, and John and Nichole secured a quitclaim of the manor from Humphrey de Beauchamp two years later [Feet of Fines, Dors. 1195-1327, 234-5; C.P. 40/161 rot. 82; Univ. of Nott., MiD 2141].

A P Baggs and R J E Bush, 'Parishes: Wambrook', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 4, ed. R W Dunning (London, 1978), pp. 222-231