10 Jul Lordship Title of Leighton Buzzard alias Grovebury or Grovebury or Leighton Buzzard with Members ID1173
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The manor of LEIGHTON, later known as GROVEBURY, appears at Domesday as part of the ancient demesne of the Crown. It was the largest of the royal manors in Bedfordshire, and consisted in 1086 of 47 hides. Seventeen of these had been added by Ralph Tallebosc, whereof ten had been held by Wensi the Chamberlain and seven by Starcher, a thegn of King Edward. The manor was retained by the Crown during the ensuing century, and Henry I granted a yearly rent of £56 from its issues to the abbey of Fontévrault, a Benedictine house in Normandy. In 1164 Henry II made a grant of the manor itself to the abbey. Fontévrault had at the time of this grant no cell in England, but after the suppression of Amesbury Priory, Wiltshire (an independent Benedictine house) (c. 1174–80), on account of the evil lives of the prioress and nuns, Fontévrault established a cell there. In consequence of this foundation Leighton is found described in confirmatory charters as appurtenant to Amesbury, but in the reign of Richard I a cell of Fontévrault was founded at Leighton itself, known as La Grove or Grovebury, to which this manor became attached. The Abbess of Fontévrault obtained a confirmation of the grant from King John in 1200 and from the pope in the following year, and in the reign of Henry III a survey of the manor was taken. The rents were £60 a year 'Henepanes,' or henpennies, 'Cynepanes,' and Peter's Pence £6, the farm of the forest £8, and the wood was worth a great deal yearly because of pannage. The whole demesne, which included 2 carucates of land at Clipston and 2½ at Reach, called the manors of Clipston and Reach, worth £8 and £13 respectively, could support 8 carthorses, 20 farm-horses, 60 oxen, 80 cows, 200 lesser animals, 4,000 sheep and 200 pigs. In 1286 the abbess had to prove her right to the liberties of view of frankpledge, waif and stray and other manorial rights, and based her claim on John's charter, which was confirmed by Edward I and afterwards by Edward III. The manor was worth £82 6s. 8d. in 1291. The manor was given by the abbess to Mary of Woodstock, daughter of Edward I, a nun at Amesbury, to hold for her life, and she was in possession in 1316 and in 1324. Its history during the reign of Edward III is similar to that of all property belonging to foreign religious houses, and it was often in the possession of the Crown on account of the wars with France. The custody of the manor was obtained in 1338 by Matilda de Burgh Countess of Ulster to hold to the value of £77 15s. a year during the continuation of the war. In 1344, during a temporary truce, the abbess managed to obtain a confirmation of her lands in England, but was unable to regain possession, for the pope in 1349 wrote to Edward requesting him to allow the abbess to re-enter the house of 'La Grave,' of which she had been despoiled. In 1363 she paid £200 to the king for licence to alienate the manor to John Bele alias Fletcher and Joan his wife for the term of their lives. After John's death Joan married Walter Galoys, and, left a widow again, took to husband John Worship, to whom in 1390 licence was given to cross into France in order to treat with the Abbess of Fontévrault for the acquisition of the manor, and in 1391 the royal licence was obtained for John Worship and Joan to hold Grovebury for their lives. The priory was dissolved with the other alien religious houses in 1414, and the manor and house of Grovebury were granted to Sir John Philip, by whom they were settled on himself and his wife Alice daughter of Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet, and on their issue. Sir John died in 1415 without issue, and his widow Alice married William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk. In 1444 she and her husband, with the consent of William Philip, brother and heir of her first husband, granted the reversion of Grovebury to Eton College, and in 1446 a further alienation took place, whereby Eton entered into possession at once for the rest of the life of Alice, to whom a yearly rent was paid. Alice's title to alienate the manor was contested by the king on the ground that it had been settled on her and her issue only by Sir John Philip. The trustees of the manor in 1429 had conveyed the reversion to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, whose son Henry exchanged it with Henry VI for the reversion of the Channel Isles. As a debt of 2,800 marks, however, was due to Alice on the part of the Crown, she obtained a grant of the manor in 1472 to herself and her heirs, and on her death in 1475 it passed to her son John Duke of Suffolk, who with his wife Elizabeth, sister of Edward IV, alienated it in 1480 to the Dean and Canons of St. George at Windsor, with whom it remained until after the middle of the 19th century. The dean and canons farmed out the premises, and a lease of ninety-nine years was obtained in 1566 by Robert Christmas, by whom it was surrendered and the premises granted in 1576 for the remainder of the term to Francis Barnham and George Barnes, aldermen of London. Their interest was doubtless transferred to Christopher, afterwards Sir Christopher, Hoddesden, who was lessee in 1587. He, who was sheriff for the county in 1591–2, was continually involved in disputes with his tenants over rights of warren on the Heath and accused them of encroaching on his demesne lands. On his death in 1610 his daughter and heir Ursula wife of Sir John Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, son of the first baronet of that name, inherited his right in the lease. Their son, Sir Thomas Leigh, bart., who held a court baron here on 21 May ('Le Triming Day') 1635, was created Lord Leigh in 1643. He espoused the royal cause, and suffered heavily for his adherence to Charles. Leighton Buzzard was farmed out to Sir Samuel Luke in 1644 for one year at a rent of £460 to the State and £60 to the dean and canons, but one-fifth of the rents of the estate were ordered to be paid to Lady Leigh. His case was before the Committee for Compounding during the years 1648 to 1653, and the estates at Leighton paid £135 in 1655 on the assessment of the Decimation Tax. At the abolition of deans and chapters in 1649 the estate was sold by the trustees to William Haveningham and others. It then comprised, among other items, land called Turneyes Ground, pasture called Chappell's Groundes and Windmill Hill and a close called Olive Ground. But the dean and chapter recovered possession of their lands at the Restoration, and Lord Leigh put forward his claim to a renewal of the lease, the reversion of which he had sold in 1654 to Richard Mead and Colonel Okey, one of the regicides. On the attainder of Okey in 1660 the reversion escheated to the Crown, by whom it was granted to the Duke of York, who transferred it to Lord Leigh. The claim was contested by Richard Mead, but Lord Leigh was successful, and the manor continued to be held at lease by the Leigh family during the 18th and first part of the 19th centuries. The leasehold interest was purchased of the Leighs some time after 1831 by Colonel H. Hanmer, K.H., M.P., who also acquired the freehold interest of the Dean and Canons of St. George in 1863. On his death without issue in 1868 the manor passed to his nephew Sir W. E. Hanmer, bart., in whose descendants it remained until within recent years it was purchased by Mr. J. T. Mills of Stock Grove, Soulsbury, Bucks., who holds courts leet and baron for the manor twice a year in Whitsun week and on the last Thursday in October.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes