10 Jul Lordship Title of Polehanger ID1228
Posted at 20:02h
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The manor of POLEHANGER in this parish possibly originated in the grant of view of frankpledge, together with other manorial rights in Meppershall, to the prior of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by Henry III in 1258 and confirmed by Edward I in 1280. This charter was also confirmed later by Edward II and Edward III, and in 1291 the value of the prior's possessions in Stamford and Polehanger was £1 5s. manor was subinfeudated by the prior, and in 1335 was in the possession of Thomas, son of John de Meryng and his wife Idonia, in right of the latter, but it must shortly afterwards have been alienated to the Meppershalls, for in 1361 land described as 1 messuage, 18 acres was held by John de Meppershall of the prior of St. John of Jerusalem by the service of 3s. a year, and this property was held by the descendants of John de Meppershall (lords of the manor of Meppershall q.v.) of the prior of St. John of Jerusalem. Other land in Meppershall was held by the Butlers of the prior of St. John of Jerusalem, and by the marriage of Joan Meppershall and John Butler, these properties were united and were described in 1482 as the manor of Polehanger, held of the prior of St. John of Jerusalem. The manor then followed a like descent to that of Meppershall (q.v.) and continued in the hands of the Leventhorpes, until by some means it came into the possession of Richard Stringer and Anne his wife, uncle and aunt of Elizabeth Leventhorpe, after the death of the latter's father Thomas in 1621; Richard Stringer alienated it by fine in 1627 to William Parsell; the widow and daughters of the latter alienated it by fine to Robert Lovett in 1649. No further mention of the manor has been found until 1731, when it was in the possession of John Compton or Crompton, who conveyed it in the same year to George, Viscount Torrington and the Hon. Pattee Byng. Lysons, writing in 1805, states that Polehanger manor was then in the hands of Sir George Osborn, bart., from whom it has descended to Sir Algernon Kerr Butler Osborn, bart., one of the chief landowners in Meppershall parish. In the nineteenth century the manorial rights probably lapsed as there is no trace of them to-day, but the manor-house is doubtless represented by Polehanger Farm.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No