10 Jul Lordship Title of Ronhale or Ravensden Grange ID1247
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Other lands of the Beauchamp fief in Ravensden were bestowed on Warden Abbey, who held them as RONHALE or RAVENSDEN MANOR or GRANGE of the honour of Bedford. Among the donors were the Engayne and Rous families and Simon clerk of Ravensden, and the abbey's possessions were confirmed by Philippa and by Simon de Beauchamp. In 1252 the abbey received a grant of free warren in the woods belonging to their grange of Ravensden. This estate, estimated at 8 virgates 3 acres in 1257, was assessed with Biddenham in 1291 at £6 8s., but in 1535 Ravensden alone was valued at £14 19s. The abbey surrendered to the Crown in 1537, and the following year the reversion of Ravensden Grange, then held on lease by William More of Ravensden, yeoman, was granted to John and Joan Gostwick. The Gostwicks leased the manor to John Rawlyns of Ravensden, yeoman, on whose death in 1599 the remainder of the lease descended by will to his son and heir Stephen and the latter's children. Stephen obtained possession of bonds worth £1,000, and refused to restore them to his mother Agnes or to allow her to enter the Grange. In 1615, on the death of Sir William Gostwick, bart., the Grange was among the property left by him, and although it is not mentioned again under its distinctive title of the Grange until 1776, it descended with the rest of the family lands to Sir William Gostwick, the last baronet, and passed from the Duchess of Marlborough to the Duke of Bedford in 1774. In 1776 it was divided into two parts, one-third being held by Henry Southhouse, and it was probably his widow, Mrs. Sarah Southhouse, who owned the property at the beginning of the 19th century. The other part, described as a moiety in 1804, was then held by Edward William Scrimshire Green, who was succeeded by Andrew Pellett Green in possession in 1818. The history of this property during the 19th century is obscure, but it may have been purchased, as a whole, by the Sunderland family, who have resided at Ravensden Grange, a modern dwelling, since the middle of the 19th century. The Rev. Thomas S. J. Sunderland lived here in 1854 and Mrs. Sunderland in 1864 and 1877. At the present day the Grange is occupied by Lieut.-Col. Sunderland, one of the principal landowners in the parish. The site of the Grange owned by the Gostwicks can still be traced about half a mile north of the present building.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No