Lordship Title of Shillington (Ramsey Abbey) or Pegsdon or Pekesden or Shillington Bury ID1266

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The origin of the manor of SHILLINGTON is to be sought in the land which formerly belonged to Ailwin, an alderman of Edgar, and which was purchased between 1016 and 1034 by Æthelric bishop of Dorchester. This land, then estimated at 3 carucates, the bishop subsequently bestowed upon the abbot of Ramsey, the gift being confirmed by Edward the Confessor and William I. At the time of the Domesday Survey the manor, held by the abbot of Ramsey, was assessed at 10 hides, and worth £12. The abbot continued to hold this manor as of his barony of Broughton, and received various grants in Shillington during the thirteenth century. Thus Ralph de Tyville, who in 1230 had recovered half a carucate of land there from Hugh Grandim, in 1265 granted it to the abbey, and about the same time Peter de Buel made a similar grant in Shillington, and the Testa de Nevill states that in the thirteenth century the abbot held altogether 27 hides in Shillington, Pegsdon, Barton, and Little Holwell, which were assessed at four knights' fees. In 1251 he received a charter of free warren, and in 1311 claimed view of frankpledge in his manor. The abbot was in the habit of leasing out the manor, of which the rent (together with Pegsdon) was estimated in 1336 at £113 6s. 8d., and in 1450 at £86 3s. 11d. The difference between these rents may be due to the fact that between the two dates mentioned certain lands acquired by the abbey in mortmain without licence had been forfeited to the crown and regranted to Thomas Fauconer. Shillington manor remained in the possession of the abbey till its dissolution, at which time its value was assessed at £88 2s. 10d. In 1540 Henry Bord was made bailiff, and Shillington then became part of the honour of Ampthill. It was conferred on the Princess Elizabeth in 1551, and later formed part of the dower of Anne wife of James I. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the site of the mansion-house of the manor was leased out by the crown, which reserved to itself the right of holding court leet and view of frankpledge in the manor. In 1594 George Rotherham held it on a twentyone years lease, and in 1625 the king leased the manor for ninty-nine years to Sir Henry Hobart and others, as trustees, who transferred it three years later to Anthony Chester, whose son Henry was holding in 1662. In 1711 (three years before the expiration of this lease), Roger Gillingham sold to John Borrett for £1,340 the annual rent of £78 6s. 2¾d. from the manor of Shillington, which rent had been purchased in 1678 of Dr. Peter Barwick. Nothing further has been found concerning this manor until in 1764 John Briscoe left by his will Shillington Bury to Henry earl of Essex for life with remainder to Margaret Arnold and Frances Skegness, daughters of Grey Longueville. Upon the death of the earl in 1800, the property came in moieties to Grey Arnold, the great-grandson of Margaret, and to Bridget Frances Anne, granddaughter of Frances Skegness. About the middle of the nineteenth century, Shillington Bury, till then the property of Miss Profit, was purchased by Mr. Hanscombe, whose son Mr. Wm. Hanscombe owns it at the present day.
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