10 Jul Lordship Title of Beenhams ID1375
Posted at 20:03h
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The manor of BEENHAMS, which presumably took its name from the family of Beenham, who held land both in Beenham parish and Waltham St. Lawrence in the 13th century, was held of the Bishop of Winchesters as of his manor of Waltham St. Lawrence. In 1260–1 John Beenham and his wife Isabel granted a messuage and carucate of land in Beenham to Henry de la Stane for life, and the latter acknowledged that a messuage and carucate in Southlake and Waltham were the right of John and Isabel. Adam Beenham and Gilbert Beenham, said to be the son and grandson respectively of John, succeeded him, Gilbert being in seisin in 1404. In 1347 William Edenson, Bishop of Winchester, obtained a pardon for acquiring the rent of 15s. 4½d. in Southlake and Waltham St. Lawrence in mortmain from a Gilbert Beenham. In 1404 the bishop obtained the annulment of a fine as to the tenements in Southlake and Waltham St. Lawrence levied by John Beenham, on the ground that, being part of the manor of Waltham St. Lawrence, they were ancient demesne of the Crown. The Beenhams' tenement is not mentioned again till 1556, when Richard Warde held the manor, where he had been settled certainly since 1539. He died seised of Beenhams in 1577–8, and it passed to his son and heir Richard, who sold it shortly afterwards to Richard Barnard. Before 1592–3, however, the manor had passed to John Evelyn, who sold it in that year to Ralph Newbury. The latter sold it in 1607 to John Balthazer, from whom it passed to his daughter Anne, the wife of William Bell of Waltham St. Lawrence. In 1637 Bell and his wife and their son Balthazer sold the manor of Beenhams, with other lands in the parish, purchased by William Bell, to Thomas Foote, citizen and grocer of London, who later served the offices of sheriff and alderman, and was lord mayor in 1649–50. He was member for the City in Cromwell's Parliaments and was knighted by him in 1657. After the Protector's death he sat in the council of state, in the early months of 1659–60, and was created a baronet by Charles II in 1660. He lived to a great age, being about ninety-six at the time of his death in 1687. Beenhams passed to his daughter and co-heir Mary, the wife of Arthur Onslow. By a special creation in 1674 Onslow succeeded to the baronetcy of his father-in-law, but only survived him a year. His window sold Beenhams in 1703 to Samuel Grave, and in 1752 it had passed into the hands of three heirs, who may possibly have been his daughters, Elizabeth Kell, a widow, Joanna the wife of Jeremiah Pepiatt, and Sophia the wife of Basil Herne. In 1761 these co-heirs sold this property to Francis Wightwick, who left a contingent reversion to Pembroke College, Oxford. By the death of his nephew Francis Wightwick in 1843 the estate reverted to the college.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No