26 Oct Lordship Title of Higham or Higham Gobion ID13800
Posted at 10:22h
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The manor was of considerable value at the date of the Survey, for it was assessed at 8 hides, and was worth £8. It had been held in the time of Edward the Confessor by five sokemen, who could assign and sell their land to whom they wished. By 1158 the manor had passed to Richard Gobion, whose family gave their name to the place, and held the manor until 1300. In 1231 Katherine, widow of Richard Gobion, successfully claimed her third of 3 carucates in Higham as the dower settled on her by him and his father Richard. Her opponent Hugh Gobion, grandson of Richard, was holding shortly afterwards two knights' fees in Higham, Streatley, Faldo, and Sharpenhoe; he died in 1275, and was succeeded by his son Richard, who in 1279 was accused by his mother Maud of failing to carry out an agreement made between them in 1277, whereby Maud had handed over one-third of the manor, which she held as dower, in return for £10 of silver paid annually during her life. The dispute was amicably settled in the same year, and Maud was granted right of distraining if Richard should fail to pay the rent. In 1284–6 the holding amounted to one and one-fifth part of a knight's fee. Richard died in 1300, leaving two daughters, the elder of whom, Hawise, married Ralph Butler, to whom she brought the manor as her inheritance, after the death of her mother Margaret, in 1311. The next year, 1312, Ralph and Hawise made a settlement of the manor, and on Ralph's death, in 1342, Hawise still surviving, the reversion of the manor was inherited by their grandson Ralph, his father Sir John having died in 1339. In 1346 Hawise held 1 fee in Higham, and their estate by that date had been augmented by the acquisition of lands held in 1303 and 1316 by Thomas Paynel and Elizabeth his wife, the other sister and co-heiress. Hawise died in 1360, and as her grandson Ralph had predeceased her in 1348, the manor was inherited by his brother Sir Edward. He died without issue in 1412, when the manor was inherited by his kinsman Sir Philip Butler, of Woodhall in Watton, Hertfordshire, grandson of Sir Edward's uncle Ralph. Sir Philip died a few years later, in 1420, and his widow, Elizabeth, married as her second husband Laurence Cheyne, who was holding the manor in right of his wife in 1428. Sir Philip's son and heir, Edward, died a minor in the same year as his father, and was succeeded by his brother Philip, aged fifteen, in 1429. This Philip, who was holding the courts of the manor in 1450–51, died in 1453, and was succeeded by his son John, whose son Sir Philip died seised of the manor in 1545. The latter's son and heir, Sir John, settled the manor on his son Sir Philip, giving annuities to his other sons, Thomas, Nicholas, and William. Sir Philip died in 1606, and was succeeded by his grandson Sir Robert, who in 1621 settled the manor on his infant daughter Jane, aged three years at her father's death in 1622. By 1637 Jane was married to John Bellasis, and in that year her guardian Godfrey Maidwell received licence to alienate the manor on her behalf in order to pay her father's and mother's debts. The manor was therefore sold, in 1638, to William Langley, who in 1641 was created a baronet. He was accused before the Parliamentary Committee in 1649 of having supplied horses for his son under the earl of Newcastle, but he denied being a party to his son's action, pleaded heavy losses in the service of Parliament, and having proved that he was acquitted of this charge of delinquency in 1645 by the county committee, a discharge was granted him in 1652. He died in 1653, and was succeeded in the title and estates by his son Roger, who in 1657 sold the manor to Amabel countess of Kent, from whom it has descended to the present owner, Lord Lucas and Dingwall, the history of the manor after its acquisition by the Greys being similar to that of the manor of Wrest (q.v.).
Other Information:
Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes