10 Jul Lordship Title of Stanbridge ID1277
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The manor of STANBRIDGE, which was carved out of the demesne of the royal manor of Leighton, was held of the Crown by the serjeanty of taking care of two of the king's falcons and of paying £4 yearly to Newnham Priory. The former part of the serjeanty was commuted before 1258 for £3 paid into the Exchequer for the service of the chief falconer, but by 1439 this service was represented by the hundredth part of a knight's fee. The rent of £4 was paid yearly till the dissolution of Newnham in 1535, when it escheated to the Crown. The manor, which is not mentioned before 1166, was bestowed on Audufus de Gatesden, or Gaddesden, whose descendants continued to hold it till the 16th century. The relationship between the various members of this name who held Stanbridge during the 13th century has not been clearly established. William de Gatesden was lord of the manor in 1204, and in 1240 Peter is mentioned in connexion with half a virgate of land. In 1247 the manor was held by John de Gatesden, who died in 1258, leaving a daughter and heir Margaret, who married another John de Gatesden. He died in 1291 and the manor, which then comprised among other items a messuage, with garden, herbage, fishpond and dovecote worth 13s. 4d. annually, was valued at £16 8s. 9½d. and descended to his daughter and heir Joan. She carried it in marriage to Richard Chamberlain, who in 1314 settled it on his son John and his wife Joan sister and eventual heir of John Morteyn. On the death of Joan, John Chamberlain married as his second wife Aubrey, and in 1324 made a settlement of Stanbridge on his son Richard and Margaret his wife, who in 1330 claimed to hold by prescriptive right a view of frankpledge in the manor once a year. Richard, who was afterwards knighted, owed his brother Thomas a considerable sum of money, and as pledge of payment in 1353 mortgaged to him two-thirds of the manor with the reversion of that third which his father's widow Aubrey, then wife of Sir John Gatesden, held in dower. The mortgage was afterwards redeemed, and from 1373 until the end of the 16th century Stanbridge was held with the manor of Tilsworth (q.v.), which was inherited by Sir Richard Chamberlain on the death of his cousin John Morteyn without issue in 1373. The Fowler family, who held both manors in the latter part of the 16th century, seem to have alienated a great deal of their property, and Stanbridge was sold by Richard Fowler to John Iremonger in 1601. He died seised of it in 1613, leaving a son and heir John, on whose death in 1635 his son, another John, inherited the estate. He was succeeded by Humphrey Iremonger, who suffered for his Royalist convictions and died in 1659, leaving twelve children, of whom the eldest William died without issue in 1655 and left Stanbridge by will to his sisters Martha, Judith, Margaret and Frances, and brothers Thomas, Humphrey and John, who in 1678 combined to alienate their right in the manor to Ralph Baldwin. Thomas, Ralph's eldest son, was in possession of Stanbridge in 1747, but the reversion was vested in his brother William, who mortgaged it about that date. It is difficult to trace the history of the manor during the next fifty years, but it is said by Lysons to have descended by inheritance about 1767 to the Reverend John Pitman, who sold it in 1781 to Thomas Gurney, whose wife was lady of the manor at the beginning of the 19th century. The manorial rights were afterwards acquired by the Hanmers, lords of Leighton Buzzard Manor, but are no longer exercised.
Other Information:
Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes