22 Nov Lordship Title of Marston ID14012
Posted at 08:25h
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In 1086 Erfast was holding in Marston a manor of 8 hides and 1 virgate valued at £7. The next tenant of the Albini family that can be found is Robert de Wotton, who held it in 1282–3, together with his wife Constance. This Constance appears to have married for her second husband John de Morteyn. In 1284 the same Constance de Morteyn held one and a half knights' fees in Marston. By 1308 John de Morteyn was holding the manor, and he was still holding eight years later. Another John, probably the son of the last, was seised of it in 1328, and continued to hold for nearly twenty years. In 1350 his son Edmund was lord of Marston. In 1366 Sir John de Morteyn had succeeded to the property, upon the death of Edmund in that year. The manor was at this date worth £20. In 1380–1 Sir John died, leaving his wife Elizabeth the profits of the manor. Previous to his death, however, he had enfeoffed Sir Thomas Reynes, but the latter granted the property to Elizabeth for life, with remainder to Sir John de Morteyn with reversion in default to Richard Reynes and the heirs male of his body. John de Morteyn died without issue. Richard Reynes died in 1420, eight years before Elizabeth de Morteyn. Upon her death, therefore, Thomas the son of Richard Reynes, who had died in 1420, inherited the property. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who was lord of Marston in 1451, and he again by John Reynes, whose daughter Elizabeth married Richard Decons. The latter died in 1521, and Thomas his son inherited the manor and held it till his death in 1550. The manor was then inherited by his son and namesake, who died ten years later. By the marriage of Elizabeth co-heir of Thomas Decons with Thomas Snagge in 1562 the property passed into the hands of the latter's family. He died seised of it in 1594, when his son Sir Thomas inherited the property. The latter was M.P. for Bedfordshire in 1586 and sheriff of the county in 1607. Sir Thomas held the manor for thirty-two years, and on his death in 1626 it passed to his eldest son Thomas, who died in 1642. The latter's eldest son Thomas was then seised of the manor till 1675. He was the second member of the family to be made sheriff of the county, a post which he held in 1665. He died in 1675, and his sons Thomas and Edward successively inherited. The latter was succeeded by his only son Edward in 1715, who suffered a recovery of the manor in 1723, and made good his claim to it in 1737. He died two years later. His father had been Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1705 and his grandfather in 1678. Lysons says that at about this date the Snagges sold to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and that she left the property to her grandson the Hon. John Spencer. The statement is confirmed by the fact that John, who had become Earl Spencer, suffered a recovery of the manor in 1779. The Spencers continued to hold till 1811, after which the manor passed to the Alington family, being bought from Mr. Julius Alington of Little Barford in 1873 by the Duke of Bedford.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No