10 Jul Lordship Title of Houghton Grange ID1143
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The manor of HOUGHTON GRANGE has its origin in the land in Houghton granted to Chicksands Priory by Pain Malherbe, and confirmed (in the early years of the 13th century) by William de Beauchamp. Another of the Malherbe family, one Geoffrey, later increased the priory's possessions in Houghton by 1 virgate of land and 6s. rent, receiving in return 10 marks of silver. In 1285 Edward I granted the monks right of free warren in their demesne lands in Houghton, which right they claimed in 1330. They held their property of the barony of Bedford by service of one-tenth of a knight's fee. At the Dissolution the value of the temporalities of the priory in Houghton was £13 10s. 6½d. Some time before the dissolution of the priory the monks leased the property to James Done, who before his death (circa 1546) appointed William Wilbon as his executor and as guardian of his children, entrusting him with the custody of the manor, whose lease had not yet expired. William Wilbon did not enjoy peaceful seisin of the manor, however, and both he and his son, who succeeded him, were troubled by vexatious suits concerning it. On the expiration of the original lease the property, as monastic lands, reverted to the Crown, and was granted by Elizabeth in 1559 to Sir Humphrey Ratclyffe and Edward his son for their lives, with reversion to Richard Conquest in 1595. A further temporary grant of it was made in 1624 to Henry Hobart, who two years later sold it to Thomas Foscall, while the same year the reversion was granted yet again by the Crown to Henry and Thomas Garway. In 1764 it was in the hands of Robert Lord Granville, but it cannot be traced further.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
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