10 Jul Lordship Title of Wilden ID1319
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In 1086 Herbert held this manor of the bishop, having as under-tenant his nephew Hugh, from whom it appears to have passed some time in the following century to the family of St. Remy. This family, which was of Norman extraction, also held land in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and other counties. In 1164–5 Robert de St. Remy paid 4 marks into the Exchequer for land held in the first-named county, and in 1175–6 and succeeding years owed £100 'pro foresta' on behalf of himself and his sons. It is not until 1204 that we find the name connected with Wilden. In that year, probably during the minority of William de St. Remy, who appears to have succeeded Robert here as elsewhere, the Sheriff of Bedford was ordered to pay 15 librates of the land lately belonging to Robert and Richard de St. Remy to James St. Clare. In 1206–7 another grant of Robert de St. Remy's lands was made to Peter de Manley 'to maintain himself in the king's service,' but a year later William de St. Remy appears to have entered into possession certainly of part of his ancestral property. He died c. 1224, in which year his widow Cecilia received an assignment of dower in Wilden, and also on payment of £10 received the wardship of her husband's daughters. Of these Agnes married Ralph Ridel, and Elena John de Pabenham (whose family has been traced in Pavenham, q.v.), the dual heirship leading to a temporary division of the property. With regard to the moiety which passed to Agnes, John Ridel her son is found holding in 1286–7, and again in 1302–3. He died without direct heirs in 1313, when by arrangement with Henry Tilly and Matilda (who represented Ralph Ridel's family) and John de Pabenham (whose claim rested on his relationship to Agnes de St. Remy) the former took lands in Huntingdonshire, whilst the latter acquired the Wilden property, thus reuniting the moieties. After its acquisition by the Pabenhams Wilden Manor follows the same descent as those manors held by that family in Pavenham and Carlton (q.v.). Its history diverges from that of Pavenham on the alienation of the latter in 1340 to Thomas de Pabenham. Like Carlton, Wilden Manor passed to Margery daughter of James de Pabenham, who some time before 1388 married William Huggeford, and so, by the marriage of their daughter Alice and Thomas Lucy, to the latter family. It was retained by the Lucys till 1569, when Sir Thomas Lucy alienated it to Thomas Rolt. For nearly 200 years the Rolts, who were a branch of the Milton-Ernest family, held Wilden Manor. Thomas Rolt died at Wilden in 1617, and was followed by John Rolt, probably his son, whose son Thomas received the freedom of the manor in 1630. One of his name made a settlement of the manor in 1664, and yet another Thomas Rolt, clerk, died at Wilden in 1695. It is difficult to state with certainty that he was lord of the manor. In his will, which was proved the same year, he leaves his real and personal estate to his wife Elizabeth, £100 to 'my relations at Milton Ernest,' 50s. to the poor of Wilden and minor bequests. Thomas Rolt, a later member of this family, made in 1727 a settlement of the manor, which he sold five years later to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough. She died in 1744, and it was purchased from her family by the Duke of Bedford, whose successors continued to hold the manor till about 1837, when it became the property of the family of Chalk, from whom it has passed within recent years to the Rev. Norman Ramsay, rector of Radclive, Bucks.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes