10 Jul Lordship Title of Kempston Hardwick ID1159
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The other moiety of Brucebury or Draytons Manor which was obtained in 1417 by Elizabeth the second daughter and co-heir of John Drayton was afterwards known as the manor of KEMPSTON HARDWICK, and was held by her and her husband Christopher Preston in 1430. After his death she married as her second husband John Wenlock, created Baron Wenlock in 1461, who was slain at Tewkesbury in 1471, when his possessions escheated to the Crown. Kempston was bestowed on Thomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln, afterwards Archbishop of York, who by his will in 1475 left it to his brother John, with reversion to the latter's son Thomas. After the archbishop's death in 1500 it passed to his nephew Thomas, who died seised of it in 1504, leaving a son Thomas, afterwards knighted, who in 1533 settled it on his son Thomas and his wife Alice. Thomas the son died in 1544 and was succeeded by his son Thomas, who was certified to be a lunatic in 1552 and his brother George declared his heir. The latter entered into possession on the death of his mother Alice in 1561, who had married as her second husband Ralph Astry. While still a minor George sold his right in the manor in 1559 to Thomas Hampton for £336, and the latter in 1564 conveyed it to James Feke of London for £400. Afterwards George desired to regain possession of Kempston, and pleaded that the sale to Hampton was illegal, as he was under age, £100 being offered in compensation to James Feke, who considered the sum inadequate and brought the case into Chancery. George Rotherham's title to the estate was established more firmly by the death of his grandfather Sir Thomas Rotherham in 1565, and in 1577 he alienated the manor to Humphrey Fitz William, who in 1580 obtained from James Feke, goldsmith, and James Feke, fishmonger, the renunciation of their pretensions to the manor. The Fitz Williams were already lords of Kempston Hastingsbury Manor (q.v.), and the two manors from this date have an identical descent, that of Kempston Hardwick being mentioned for the last time as a distinct holding in 1802, since when it has merged into the more important manor.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
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