10 Jul Lordship Title of Honydon or Camoys ID1138
Posted at 20:01h
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Previous Lords:
An estate in this parish known as HONYDON or CAMOYS MANOR was held of the barony of Eaton by knight service and suit of court. The first tenant of whom mention has been found was William de Kirkeby, whose widow Christine held here in 1302–3. His sister and co-heir Margaret, to whom this manor passed, married John Camoys, member of a well-known Sussex family, whose descendant Sir Thomas Camoys, kt., in 1389 made a settlement of this manor on Robert Braybrook, Bishop of London, and others. Sir Thomas died in 1421, when his grandson Hugh, son of Richard Camoys, succeeded to Honydon Manor, then worth £6, with 4s. 8d. rent of free tenants and tenants at will. Hugh died in 1426, whilst a minor, and his sisters—Margaret wife of Ralph Rademilde and Eleanor wife of Roger Lewknor—became his heirs. The manor thus became divided into moieties. Dealing first with that portion which passed to Margaret Rademilde, her husband Ralph, who outlived her, is found in possession of her share at his death in 1443. No mention of Honydon is found in the inquisition taken as to the property of Robert son of Ralph Rademilde, who died in 1456, leaving a son William. William Rademilde's name occurs as a commissioner of the peace for Sussex between the years 1476 and 1485; but there is no evidence that he held the Honydon property, whose history at this date becomes confused. In 1476 Robert and John Spence were farming Honydon—then apparently in the hands of the Crown—for 106s. 8d., and in 1483 a commission was sent to the 'tenaunts of the manoir' to accept J. Whitloke as their lord and to content unto him their dues. Camoys or Honydon Manor next appears as the property of Avery Michell, who in 1557 leased it for twenty-one years at a rent of £12 to Nicholas Fitz Hugh, who in 1570 brought an action against William Morgan, representing Avery. Nicholas complained that owing to his sickness whilst in Warwickshire there had been some delay in the payments of the rent, and his lease had been transferred to William Gery. In 1577 John Michell alienated Honydon to Oliver Lord St. John, who in the same year received the other moiety of the manor, whose history may here be conveniently traced. Eleanor Lewknor's moiety passed to her son Roger, whose two daughters each inherited one-fourth of the manor. Of these daughters one married Sir Arthur Poole. Lady Joanna Poole suffered a recovery of Honydon in 1557, and her fourth share appears to have passed to Thomas Foster and others, who in 1576 alienated it to Lord St. John. Catherine second daughter of Roger Lewknor married John Mill, and her son Lewknor Mill in 1577 also alienated her share to Oliver Lord St. John, who had now acquired the complete manor. He did not long retain it, however, but alienated it in 1580 to Thomas Anscell. About this time the manor was again broken up. Part passed to Oliver Luke of Begwary, as appears from an entry in his will in which he leaves to his wife Frances '10 acres of arable sometimes Camoyes late purchased of Thomas Anscell.' Francis Dillingham, who died in 1624, also owned parcel of the 'manor or farm' at that date, and in 1638 Richard Gery held a manor called Eaton or Camoys. Walter Reynolds held tenements in Honydon in 1639, and it is noteworthy that a family of the same name were landowners in this parish till the latter part of the last century. In 1731 the Duke of Bedford bought a farm in Honydon from James Grassineau for £1,500, and in 1777 another farm of 118 acres in the same hamlet from Foster and Rycroft. George Thompson was plaintiff and Ann Glassbrook deforciant in a fine levied of the manor of Honydon alias Camoys in 1784, whilst Lysons, writing some twenty years later, says that a manor adjoining Bushmead 'called Kingswood or Chamois Park' was then the property of James Dyson. At the present day there are several farms in Upper and Lower Honydon, but all traces of a manor (save the name) probably disappeared in the 17th century.
Other Information:
Manorial Counsel Limited has created a new legal right to bring the titles of this lordship back into use.
Listed in the Domesday Book:
No