10 Jul Lordship Title of Husborne Crawley (Dunstable Priory) or Crawley ID1149
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No tenant is mentioned at Crawley in Domesday. Philip de Saunvill granted the church, which was attached to the manor, to Dunstable Priory circa 1170, and in the middle of the 13th century this manor was held in two moieties, one by Nicholas de Tingry and the other by David de Flitwick, descended from the Saunvills. The moiety held by the latter will be treated below. In 1248 Nicholas de Tingry released his demesne lands in Crawley and Husborne, except one mill and half a virgate of land, to the Prior of Dunstable, who in the same year received homage, and who later built a new grange, two new sheepfolds, and a cowhouse on his property there. In 1269 the prior suffered from the oppression of the bailiff of the Countess of Albemarle, who maintained that the prior had obtained his estate in Husborne Crawley without licence, and had not paid homage due on his ingress to the manor. Twelve ploughing oxen of the prior at Crawley were seized as penalty and detained for twelve weeks. Peace was afterwards made with the countess on payment of 5 marks and 20s. for the custody of the animals. The prior's estate in Husborne Crawley comprised 2½ hides in 1276, and ten years later he was summoned to prove by what warrant he claimed a view of frankpledge in Husborne Crawley. He replied that half of the vill was held by him for a quarter part of a knight's fee, and that his view at Flitwick was attended by the tenants on his Husborne Crawley property. In 1341 the priory was granted an exemplification of the charters by which this and other properties had been acquired. The Flitwick moiety had been held by David de Flitwick in the first half of the 13th century, and on his death in 1247 it had passed to another David de Flitwick, thence to Bartholomew de Flitwick, who held 2½ hides in Husborne Crawley in 1276. The heirs of Bartholomew held in 1302–3, and in 1331 this estate, extended as a messuage and a carucate of land in Husborne, was restored to David de Flitwick, a member of the same family, after having been in the king's hands for a year and a day for the felony of his brother Bartholomew. He was still seised in 1346, but circa 1358 he conveyed this moiety to the Prior of Dunstable. Thus the Prior of Dunstable was seised of the whole manor from this date until the Dissolution. In 1535 the priory manor of Husborne Crawley was held with the rectory on a forty-one years' lease by William Markham, and was valued at £22 a year. The manor was rated at £196 15s. 5d. for Christopher Smith, a possible purchaser in 1550, but the sale was not effected. Before 1597 it was acquired with the advowson by John Thompson, on whose death it passed to his son Robert. He had been a lunatic for five years, and later in the year another inquisition was made to discover the full extent of his property and his heir. Robert died in 1633, leaving the manor of Husborne Crawley to his son Sir John Thompson, kt., who had married in 1607 Judith daughter of Oliver St. John. Their son St. John Thompson obtained licence 'to go beyond seas for three years to study languages' in 1638, and succeeded his father in the property before 1660, when he made a settlement of the Husborne Crawley estates. They descended before 1684 to his son St. John Thompson, by whom the manor was conveyed in 1691 to John Lowe. In 1709 Francis Lowe suffered a recovery of Husborne Crawley Manor, which twelve years later was purchased from him by the Duke of Bedford for £2,750. It has since remained in his family, and at the present day is held by Herbrand Duke of Bedford. The manor-house and rectory of Husborne Crawley were not sold with the manor, but were retained by St. John Thompson till his death in 1710, and were then left to his daughters Catherine and Ursula, to be sold to defray expenses, the remainder to pass to his son St. John. The property was purchased by Edmund Williamson, who died at the manor-house in 1737. He was succeeded by his eldest son Talbot, who continued his father's policy of buying up all the surrounding farms and pieces of land, and died in 1752, leaving the Husborne Crawley estate to his widow for life, with reversion to the children of his brother Edmund. She lived until 1792, and Edmund Williamson, nephew of her husband, sold the estate and rectory two years afterwards to the Duke of Bedford for £9,444. The latter pulled down the old house, of which the site is now uncertain, and the wall of the garden, of which interesting details are found in the Williamson Account Book.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes