Lordship Title of Odell ID13835

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Walter the Fleming owned a manor in Odell at Domesday which was assessed at 5 hides 12/3 virgates, and which included a mill worth 36s. 8d. and 200 eels. It was worth 100s. as opposed to £8 when acquired. The descent of this manor is the same as that of the barony of Wahull (q.v.) till 1632. In 1236 Saher de Wahull received a charter of free warren. John de Wahull, lord of the manor in 1278, had in demesne 180 acres of arable land, meadows and pasture, one park, an ancient inclosure of 100 acres, two water-mills and a several fishery from the head of the Odell mill-ponds to that of Felmersham. He owned 4½ virgates in villeinage, and the servi on his estate were not allowed to give their daughters in marriage nor sell their male foals without their lord's consent. He had twenty-seven free tenants, who held by various rents, such as a rose, an arrow, capons, wax, a pair of gloves, they in their turn having tenants under them. There were also twenty-six cotarii on the estate who held chiefly by money rents, though in one instance William Prikeavant held his cottage by the service of a hooded falcon, and Walter le Sergeant, who was also free tenant of half a virgate as park-keeper, held his cottage by the service of twelve arrows. In 1304 the value of this manor was stated to be £17 11s. 6d. An excellent and detailed account of the estate is preserved bearing date 1368, that is nearly one hundred years later than that given above. The extent then included a dwelling-house within the site of the manor worth nothing beyond reprises, the herbage in the garden was worth 40d., the dove-house 6s. 8d., the fish-pond 40d., a water gate 10s., a fishery in the waters of the Ouse 10s., a market every Thursday 26s. 8d. and pleas and perquisites of court 20s. The demesne included 2 carucates of land worth £4, pasture in the park of the manor worth 13s. 10d., 13 acres of meadow worth 39s., and 60 acres of wood, worth nothing at the time of the inquisition, as the underwood had been cut the preceding year. Odell Manor was valued at £20 in 1403, whilst eight years later it had diminished to £10. A few years later, in 1421, the capital messuage of the manor was declared to be worth nothing, 'because the houses are very ruinous,' a garden was worth 2s. 4d., the water-mill 26s. 8d., 12 acres 3 roods of meadow were worth 31s. 10½d. The estate also included 140 acres of arable land (of which 71 were suitable for yearly sowing) worth 23s. 8d., 35 acres of wood, 40 acres of pasture, a fishery worth 6s. 8d., rent of free tenants 20s. 2d., 1 lb. of pepper and 1 lb. of cummin, rent of customary tenants 41s., perquisites of court and view of frankpledge 2s. 9d. When various services due from the lord of the manor to the king were deducted it was only worth 43s. 4½d. In 1632 Sir Richard Chetwood and Dorothy his wife conveyed the manors of Great and Little Odell by fine to Roger Nicholls and Thomas Tirrell, preliminary to a sale to William Alston which took place the following year. William Alston, who was of the Inner Temple, was made keeper of the writs in the King's Bench, a post according to Cooper 'of considerable profit and honour, being conferred only on the nobility or some other eminent persons.' The same authority states that he was a pious and charitable man, giving to the church of Odell a large chalice of silver-gilt, and completing a peal of five musical bells. He died unmarried in 1638, when his brother Thomas, also of the Inner Temple, succeeded to the Odell property. He was created a baronet in 1642, in which year he was sheriff for the county. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Rowland St. John and sister of three successive Lords St. John of Bletsoe, he had two sons—Thomas, who predeceased him, and Rowland, who together with his father made a settlement of the manor in 1674. Sir Thomas Alston died in 1678, when Rowland acquired the Odell property. He died in 1697, and was succeeded by his son Sir Thomas Alston, bart., who sat for Bedford borough in 1698, and on whose death unmarried in 1714 Odell passed to his brother Rowland. He died in 1759, aged eighty, when his son Thomas succeeded to the baronetcy and family estates. He, who sat as member for the county in 1747 and for Bedford borough in 1760, died in 1774, having devised his property by will to his natural son Thomas Alston, who with his son Justinian made a settlement of the manor in 1803, and again in 1814. Justinian Alston succeeded his father in 1823, and was followed by his son Crewe Alston, on whose death in 1901 the castle and manor passed to his son Rowland Crewe Alston, the present owner.
Other Information:
Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes

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