Tottenham: Manors

MANORS.

Waltheof, son of Siward of Northumbria, held Tottenham, probably from 1065 when he became earl of Huntingdon on the banishment of Tostig. (fn. 1) In 1086, ten years after Waltheof's execution, Tottenham was held by his widow Countess Judith, daughter of William the Conqueror's sister Adelize. (fn. 2) Presumably it passed with Huntingdon through Maud, daughter of Waltheof and Judith, to her successive husbands Simon de St. Liz (d. c. 1111) and David of Scotland, each of whom received the earldom. David, who succeeded in 1124 as King David I, resigned Huntingdon in 1136 to his son Henry (d. 1152), who made a grant of lands in Tottenham. (fn. 3) Huntingdon had passed to Simon de St. Liz (II), born of Maud's first marriage and a supporter of King Stephen, by 1146, but in 1157 it was restored to Henry's son, King Malcolm IV (d. 1165). Further grants in Tottenham were made by Malcolm and by his brother and successor William the Lion, (fn. 4) who forfeited his English honors in 1174, when Huntingdon was vested in Simon de St. Liz (II)'s son and namesake. On the death of Simon de St. Liz (III) in 1184 the earldom was restored to William, who resigned it to his brother David in the following year. David, deprived c. 1215 but restored in 1218, was succeeded in 1219 by his son John the Scot, whereupon the manor of TOTTENHAM, with that of Kempston (Beds.), was assigned to his widow Maud, daughter of Hugh (II), earl of Chester (d. 1181). (fn. 5) John was created earl of Chester in 1232 and died without issue in 1237, when the two manors were granted to his widow Helen, as the customary dower of a countess of Huntingdon. (fn. 6) In 1238 they were granted again to Helen and to her second husband, Robert de Quincy. (fn. 7)

On the death of John's widow in 1253 the manor, as part of his honor of Huntingdon, passed to the descendants of his married sisters and coheirs. (fn. 8) Margaret, the eldest, had become the wife of Alan, lord of Galloway, and mother of Devorgild, wife of John de Balliol, while Isabel, the second, had married Robert de Bruce, lord of Annandale; both sisters, as great-granddaughters of David I, transmitted Scottish royal blood to their children. A third sister, Ada, had married Henry de Hastings. (fn. 9) In 1254 Tottenham was therefore divided into three, (fn. 10) probably by sharing out the tenants rather than dividing the land. (fn. 11) The three manors, all held in chief, thereafter descended separately until they were reunited by John Gedney in the early 15th century. (fn. 12)

One third of Earl John's Tottenham lands, which became the manor of BALLIOLS or DAUBENEYS, passed to Devorgild de Balliol, who in 1281 granted them to her son John. (fn. 13) They were forfeited after John's abdication as king of Scotland in 1296 and were leased out during pleasure in 1299, first to William Persone (fn. 14) and then to Edward I's nephew John of Brittany, later earl of Richmond, (fn. 15) who secured a grant for himself and his heirs in 1308. (fn. 16) When John died childless in 1334, (fn. 17) his Tottenham lands were bestowed for life on Sir William Daubeney, (fn. 18) who likewise secured a grant for his heirs three years later. (fn. 19) An exchange of Daubeney's share of Tottenham for the earl of Pembroke's share of Kempston, licensed in 1342, apparently was not put into effect, since Balliols was entailed by Daubeney in 1344. (fn. 20) When Sir William died in 1360 the manor passed to his son Giles Daubeney, (fn. 21) who in 1382 was licensed to convey it to the London draper John of Northampton, otherwise Comberton. (fn. 22) Two years later, after John of Northampton's forfeiture, it was granted for life to John Beauchamp of Holt, (fn. 23) later Lord Beauchamp of Kidderminster, on whose own forfeiture in 1388 it reverted to the Crown. (fn. 24) A grant to William Brightbrook and others in 1389 was cancelled later in the same year because of the claims of John of Northampton, (fn. 25) who had regained it by 1392 and who was succeeded by his son James in 1397. (fn. 26) On James's death in 1409 it passed to William Comberton, son of John Comberton and grandson of William, who had been John of Northampton's elder brother, (fn. 27) and in 1412 it was held during William's minority by Thomas Burton, a London grocer. (fn. 28) In 1421 Daubeneys was inherited by William's brother Richard Comberton (fn. 29) and by 1426 it had been conveyed to Richard Chippenham and others, who still held it in 1433. (fn. 30) Thereafter it was reunited with the other subdivisions of the manor which had been acquired by John Gedney, a London draper, who died seised of them in 1449. (fn. 31)

The manor of BRUCES arose from that part of Tottenham allotted in 1254 to Sir Robert de Bruce, son of Earl John's sister Isabel. It was vested in Sir Robert's son Richard, who died before his father, and on Sir Robert's own death in 1295 descended to another son and namesake. In 1304 it passed from the younger Robert to his son Robert de Bruce, earl of Carrick, who forfeited his English estates on becoming king of Scotland two years later. (fn. 32) Bruce's Tottenham lands were thereafter kept in hand for some time and farmed out for short fixed periods or during the king's pleasure; they were committed to Gertuch Honest at an unknown date, to Roger de Wateville in 1311, (fn. 33) to John of Elsfield in 1312, (fn. 34) to the royal clerk Adam de Herewinton in 1315, to David de Betoigne in 1317, (fn. 35) and, in the same year, to Walter of Shobdon, steward of the queen's household. (fn. 36) By 1335 a third of the estate had been granted to Richard Spigurnel, (fn. 37) from whom it passed to John de Mocking to become the manor of Mockings. (fn. 38) The rest of Bruces was granted, perhaps at the same time, to Sir Thomas Heath, who was lord by 1341 (fn. 39) and remained so until his death in 1374. (fn. 40) Edmund of Cheshunt, the king's falconer, received Bruces for life in 1374 and in fee two years later. (fn. 41) Courts were held for him, as Edmund Fauconer, until 1397, when he was succeeded by his son Robert, (fn. 42) who in 1398 conveyed the manor to John Walden and others. (fn. 43) John, brother of Roger Walden, archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1417 (fn. 44) and a year later the profits were granted to his wife Idony, who had been enfeoffed jointly with him (fn. 45) and who died in 1425. (fn. 46) Bruces afterwards was taken into the king's hands, since some of Walden's trustees had acted without licence, but in 1427 it was released to John Gedney, to whom it had been left in reversion. (fn. 47)

The third part of Earl John's estate passed to Sir Henry de Hastings, son of his sister Ada, and became the manor of HASTINGS or PEMBROKES. (fn. 48) Sir Henry was imprisoned with Simon de Montfort's supporters in 1266, when part of his Tottenham lands was assigned to his wife Joan, the rest having been given to John de Balliol. (fn. 49) Tottenham had been restored to Henry by 1268, when he pledged it as security to Balliol, and was assigned to Joan as her dower in 1269. (fn. 50) Thereafter it descended to Henry's son John, Lord Hastings, from whom Hugh de Kendale, received a grant for life in 1292, (fn. 51) to John's son and namesake in 1313, and to the younger John's six-year old son Laurence in 1325. Laurence, earl of Pembroke from 1339, died in 1348 and was succeeded by his infant son John, earl of Pembroke, (fn. 52) whose death in 1375 was followed by a grant of Pembrokes to his widow, Anne, as her dower. (fn. 53) It passed in 1384 to her eleven-year old son John (fn. 54) and on his death in 1389 to his kinsman Reynold, Lord Grey of Ruthin. (fn. 55) John's widow Philippa (d. 1401), who had married Richard Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, was granted the manor as her dower in 1397, after Grey had conveyed it in reversion to John Walden, his brother Roger, and others. (fn. 56) Pembrokes, like Bruces, was thereafter held by John Walden, (fn. 57) his widow Idony, and by trustees who had conveyed it to John Gedney by 1427. (fn. 58)

The third part of Bruces which became the manor of MOCKINGS was granted to Richard Spigurnel for life before 1335, when he received a further grant in tail. (fn. 59) In 1340 Spigurnel confirmed the conveyance of a third of a third of the manor of Tottenham to John de Mocking, of Somerset, and his wife Nichole, (fn. 60) who held it of the earldom of Pembroke. After the deaths of John in 1347 and Nichole in the following year the lands passed to their son Nicholas, who died in 1360 leaving his sisters Margaret, wife of Roger Shipbroke, and Idony, wife of Simon Benington, as coheirs. (fn. 61) The death of Idony in 1361 and of her son John of Abingdon in 1363 brought her moiety to the Shipbrokes, (fn. 62) who within a few months conveyed the whole estate to Helming Leget and his wife Margery, Nicholas Mocking's widow. (fn. 63) In 1397 it passed to Helming's son and namesake and in 1427 to his grandson Thomas, who mortgaged it to John Gedney. (fn. 64) The estate was first called the manor of Mockings in 1427, when Thomas's aunt Elizabeth Leget quitclaimed her rights to Gedney. (fn. 65)

From John Gedney's time the manor of Tottenham remained united, although it was normally described collectively as the manors of Pembrokes, Bruces, Daubeneys, and Mockings. All four parts were vested by Gedney in Thomas Staunton, mercer, and other trustees, who in 1459 were licensed to grant them to Gedney's widow Joan for life, with remainder to Richard Turnaunt, husband of her late daughter Elizabeth, and his wife Joan. (fn. 66) On Joan Gedney's death in 1462 (fn. 67) they passed to the Turnaunts, who again vested them in Thomas Staunton and others in 1464. (fn. 68) Turnaunt died seised of the manors in 1486, when they passed to his daughter Thomasine, grand-daughter of Joan Gedney and wife of Sir John Risley. (fn. 69) In 1507 a recovery was executed and the lands vested for life in Risley, with remainder to the bishop of Winchester and other feoffees on behalf of the king. (fn. 70) Risley, who survived Thomasine, died childless in 1511 or 1512, whereupon the lands passed to the Crown. (fn. 71)

The manors of Tottenham, with all Risley's property in Tottenham, Edmonton, and Enfield, were granted in tail to Sir William Compton in 1513. (fn. 72) On his death in 1528 they passed to his son Peter, a minor, (fn. 73) who in 1549 was succeeded by his posthumous son Henry, later Lord Compton (d. 1589). (fn. 74) Anne, Henry's second wife, presumably held Tottenham as her dower; she married Robert Sackville in 1592 and afterwards conveyed the manors to her stepson William, Lord Compton, later earl of Northampton, who sold or mortgaged them to Thomas Sutton and Thomas Wheeler. In 1604 Wheeler sold the manors to Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, who was succeeded by his son Robert Sackville in 1608. They descended to Richard, Robert's son and Anne's stepson, in 1609 and to Richard's brother Edward in 1624. (fn. 75) In the follow ing year they were sold, to pay Richard's debts, and in 1626 conveyed to trustees to the use of Hugh Hare, Lord Coleraine. (fn. 76)

From 1626 the four manors of Tottenham descended for over a century in the Hare family. In 1682 they passed from Hugh, Lord Coleraine, to his son Henry, chief author of the history of Tottenham, and in 1708 from Henry, Lord Coleraine, to his grandson and namesake, on whose death without legitimate issue in 1749 the peerage became extinct. The younger Henry, Lord Coleraine, by will of 1746, left all his lands in Middlesex to Henrietta Rose Peregrina Duplessis, a child born to him in Italy in 1745 by Rose Duplessis, the daughter of a French clergyman. (fn. 77) The younger Rose was recognized as lady of the manors from 1749 until 1755 (fn. 78) but was then debarred, as an alien, while Lord Coleraine's heirs at law remained excluded by his will. The manors therefore escheated to the Crown until in 1763, (fn. 79) partly through the interest of Chauncey Townsend, M.P., a private Act was passed authorizing their grant to the trustees of Rose, who had married his son James Townsend. (fn. 80) They passed in 1787 from James to his son Henry Hare Townsend, (fn. 81) who auctioned most of the lands in 1789 (fn. 82) and sold the lordships in 1792 to Thomas Smith of Gray's Inn. In 1805 they were conveyed by Smith to Sir William Curtis, Bt., M.P., of Cullands Grove (Southgate), a former lord mayor of London. (fn. 83) Thereafter they descended in the Curtis family, which also held the lordship of Edmonton. (fn. 84)

Tottenham had a manor-house, with a hall and other rooms, granges, fish-ponds, and garden, in 1254. (fn. 85) The 'Lordship House', so called in 1619 when it had already given its name to Lordship Lane, (fn. 86) was originally the manor-house of Bruces, retained in the hands of Joan Gedney in 1455-6. (fn. 87) It was reconstructed on or near its old site by Sir William Compton, (fn. 88) better known as builder of the mansion at Compton Wynyates (Warws.), (fn. 89) and had presumably been completed by c. 1516, when Queen Margaret of Scotland stayed there to be greeted by her brother, Henry VIII. (fn. 90) Nothing remains of Sir William's work at Tottenham except perhaps the red-brick, two-storey circular tower, of unknown purpose, which stands to the south-west of the house. The rest was rebuilt as a typical late Elizabethan country residence, (fn. 91) presumably after Norden had noted it in 1593 as Lord Compton's 'proper ancient house'. (fn. 92) Together with its outbuildings, including a dovecot, orchards, and gardens, the manor-house covered some 5 a. in 1585, when it remained in the lord's hand. (fn. 93) It was depicted, with the older tower, as a substantial building on the map made for the earl of Dorset in 1619, at which date the grounds comprised some 9 a.; to the north-west, mid-way between the mansion and the church, lay a tenement called the wash-house, which, with the manor-house itself, Lordsmead, and other nearby lands, formed a compact estate of 86 a. which had been leased for 21 years to Sir Thomas Penistone, Bt. (fn. 94) Bruce Castle, as the mansion was later called, presumably again served as the lord's residence when Lord Coleraine carried out alterations c. 1684. (fn. 95) Further building work was effected in the 18th century by both the Hare and Townsend families. (fn. 96) The mansion was bought in at the auction of Henry Hare Townsend's property in 1789 (fn. 97) but sold in 1792 to Thomas Smith, who lived at Grove House and finally separated Bruce Castle from the lordship by selling the estate to Ayton Lee. Bruce Castle passed from Ayton to his cousin Richard Lee, a London banker, and c. 1804 was bought by the politician and philanthropist John Eardley (later Eardley-Wilmot), who offered it with 46 a. at auction in 1813 and soon afterwards sold it to John Ede, a City merchant. Ede in 1827 sold the mansion with 15 a. to the Hill brothers for use as a school. (fn. 98) After the school's closure in 1891 Bruce Castle was bought by the local board, which opened the grounds as a public park in the following year. Tottenham U.D.C. installed its public health offices at Bruce Castle in 1903 and maintained a local museum there from 1906 until the First World War. It was then used for welfare offices until the return of the museum in 1927, followed by the installation of a collection on postal history. In 1969 Bruce Castle, which continued to house the postal and other exhibits, was officially reopened as the regimental museum of the Middlesex Regiment. (fn. 99)

Bruce Castle, (fn. 100) a three-storeyed building of red-brick with stone dressings, stands south-south-east of the parish church, at the corner of a timbered park and facing south to the junction of Bruce Grove with Lordship Lane. The original E-shaped Elizabethan mansion, greatly altered in plan and detail, is visible chiefly in the semi-octagonal bays at either end of the south front. The main porch, projecting from the middle of the front, is of two storeys, with stone pilasters, cornices, and rusticated quoins, and dates from shortly before 1686. It is surmounted by a wooden balustrade and a three-stage clock-tower with further balustrades, terminating in a cupola. The north front is of early-18th-century brick, with a pediment containing the Hare arms. The east side comprises one of two wings added later in the century by James Townsend, who also replaced the south gables with a parapet and renewed all the windows. Since the demolition of Townsend's west wing and of stables and coach-houses to the north by John Ede, Bruce Castle has enjoyed something close to its modern appearance (fn. 101) from the south; the plainer north front has a Victorian addition at the west end. The interior contains a late 17th-century staircase and an ornate fireplace of marble and carved wood, which was perhaps brought from Italy by the third Lord Coleraine.

The manor-house of Mockings, on the south side of Marsh (later Park) Lane, was retained by Joan Gedney in 1455-6 (fn. 102) but had been leased to Alice Marsh, widow, in 1585. (fn. 103) It was a comparatively modest building, with a moat and some 4 a. of grounds, in 1619, when it was leased with other demesne lands to John Burrough. (fn. 104) Mockings was a 'neat' dwelling, leased with farm buildings and 68 a. to Edwin Paine, when offered for sale in 1789. (fn. 105) It was bought by Thomas Smith and retained its moat and drawbridge in 1792, but was sold in 1803 to a Mr. Cooper, who demolished the house. The moat survived in 1840 (fn. 106) and was still partly visible, south-east of St. Paul's church, in the 1860s. (fn. 107)

The rectorial estate of Tottenham was held by the Augustinian canons of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, from the 12th century until the surrender of their house in 1532. Apart from the church itself, given by King David I of Scotland before the death of the first prior in 1147, (fn. 108) the canons received many small properties from the time of Otes of Tottenham, who in 1182 sold them 5 a, in Appeland and Langland and who soon afterwards gave them a further 2 a. in Langland. (fn. 109) The rectory was assessed at 30 marks in the mid 13th century (fn. 110) and at £14 in 1291. (fn. 111) In 1534, two years after the priory's surrender, all Holy Trinity's possessions in Edmonton and Tottenham were granted to Sir Thomas Audley. (fn. 112) They had returned to the Crown by 1538, when they were granted to William, Lord Howard, and his wife Margaret, (fn. 113) who exchanged them with the king in 1541. (fn. 114) In 1543 174 a. of wood, which had been leased out by Holy Trinity, were granted separately by the Crown. (fn. 115) Courts for Tottenham RECTORY manor were held for the king from 1541 until 1544 and thereafter for the chapter of St. Paul's, (fn. 116) who, by virtue of their manor of Bowes, were already landowners in the parish (fn. 117) and who were granted the rectory in 1544. (fn. 118) Thereafter the manor remained with St. Paul's for three centuries, except during the Interregnum when the lessee, Stephen Beale, was recorded as lord between 1651 and 1659. (fn. 119) When the tithes were commuted for £1,685 10s. in 1844, £885 was awarded to the chapter and their lessee. (fn. 120) Thirty years later manorial rights passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 121)

Both the land and the great tithes were normally leased out. A 40-year lease from 1525 was granted by Holy Trinity to Dr. Thomas Bentley and a 60-year lease from 1585 was granted by St. Paul's to Anthony Cole. (fn. 122) In 1622 the lease was left by Humphrey Westwood, a London goldsmith, to his son and namesake, (fn. 123) who held it in 1650 (fn. 124) shortly before the estate's sequestration and purchase, together with the lordship, by Stephen Beale. After the Restoration Beale was retained as lessee by St. Paul's, his son Joshua succeeding in 1667 (fn. 125) and receiving new 21-year leases in 1700 and 1707. (fn. 126) The Beales' interest passed to the Hobbys, through the marriage of Stephen's daughter Mary (d. 1708), and to the Jermyns, through the marriage of Margaret Maria Hobby (d. 1735); (fn. 127) leases were granted to the administrator of the estate of Stephen Jermyn, a lunatic, in 1788 and to his coheirs Harriet, wife of Henry Eyre, and Mary Udney, widow, in 1796. (fn. 128) Henry Piper Sperling, who bought the lease in 1797, conveyed the house and 26 a. to William Wright and later, in 1819, leased out the great tithes to Thomas Tuck. (fn. 129) In 1866 the bulk of the rectory estate, excluding the house and 30 a. adjoining it, was leased by St. Paul's to the Revd. John Sperling. In 1878 it comprised c. 125 a., of which 58 a. were in Tottenham, chiefly between the northern boundary and White Hart Lane, north of the rectory house, or between the lane and the Moselle, to the east. Other parts lay along the boundary, around Tile Kiln farm in Edmonton, and in the marshes of both parishes. At that date the Ecclesiastical Commissioners held a total of 208 a. in Tottenham, most of it in the extreme north-west and belonging to the manor of Bowes. (fn. 130) The freehold interest was finally sold in 1958. (fn. 131)

The parsonage house occupied a slight eminence on the south side of White Hart Lane, north-west of the church, from which it was separated by the Moselle stream. (fn. 132) It seems to have been a very large building in 1619 (fn. 133) and was noted by Bedwell, (fn. 134) but the story that it stood on the site of Pembrokes manor-house, itself mentioned in 1455-6, (fn. 135) was not recorded until the late 18th century. The house was then said to have been rebuilt in local brick by one Soames, (fn. 136) presumably a tenant of the Westwoods. Stephen Beale was assessed on 13 hearths when he occupied the parsonage in 1664. (fn. 137) It was called the Moated House in 1797 (fn. 138) and was praised as a handsome and well situated residence when held by Henry Sperling, who had filled in the moat by 1816. (fn. 139) Sperling's sale of the lease separated the house and grounds from the rest of the rectory estate. The chapter leased it in 1819 to William Wright, after whose death it was acquired by J. Rawlings of the Middle Temple. (fn. 140) When Rawlings was resident in 1843 the grounds were called Tottenham Park, (fn. 141) a name applied to the house itself in the 1860s during the occupation of Maj. William James Gillam, (fn. 142) who had a curious cottage, designed by Philip Webb, erected to remind him of one where he had lain wounded in the Crimean War. (fn. 143) The mansion, in good repair when auctioned in 1896, (fn. 144) was deserted by 1905 and pulled down before 1913, when the estate was offered for sale as building land. (fn. 145)

The so-called manor of DUCKETTS, once thought to have been Dovecotes, (fn. 146) derived its name from the Duckett (Duket) family, a London dynasty of the 12th and 13th centuries. James of Steventon conveyed rents and arable at Woodleigh to John Renger, clerk, in 1256-7 and later quitclaimed all his lands there to Laurence Duckett and his wife Maud. (fn. 147) Laurence, a London citizen and perhaps the gold-smith murdered in 1284, also acquired a house at Tottenham from Richard de la Piere c. 1260 (fn. 148) and witnessed several grants of land there to Holy Trinity priory. (fn. 149) In 1293 William le Brun quitclaimed his rights in a house and lands in Tottenham and Harringay, lately held by his kinsman and namesake, to Laurence, son of Laurence Duckett. (fn. 150) John, son of Laurence Duckett, leased all his late father's lands in Tottenham to William Furneys, pepperer of London, and his wife Cecily in 1314, (fn. 151) as well as 12 a. in Michley marsh to John de Denum in 1325 and 25 a. to John de Mocking, fishmonger, in 1326. (fn. 152) The inherited lands and the reversion of those in Michley were sold by John Duckett to Matthew Palmer in 1331. (fn. 153) By 1334 the estate, called the manor of Duckett, had been acquired from Palmer by the king's tent-maker John of Yaxley, (fn. 154) who also acquired John de Mocking's interest (fn. 155) and in 1345 conveyed it to Sir John Stanford, (fn. 156) a justice of the Common Pleas, (fn. 157) to whom Thomas Duckett quitclaimed his rights to the property in 1346. (fn. 158) From 1360 the estate was leased out by William of Brightley, (fn. 159) Sir John's cousin and heir, whose widow Joan in 1388 released all her dower rights there to John Doget otherwise Butterwick and his wife Alice, (fn. 160) who had acquired the lease. (fn. 161) From Doget, who himself leased out the manor in 1389, Ducketts descended to his heir William Rote, whose widow Elizabeth granted it to Richard Sturgeon, (fn. 162) holder of Duckettsland in 1455-6, (fn. 163) and others. Sturgeon, having built the chapel of St. Mary and St. Michael at St. Bartholomew's hospital, vested the estate in Nicholas Bayley, one of his executors, (fn. 164) who was to convey it to the hospital for the support of a chantry priest. The land was surrendered to St. Bartholomew's by Bayley and other trustees in 1464, (fn. 165) after the master had accused Bayley of felling the timber for his own profit. (fn. 166) In 1520 St. Bartholomew's leased out the house and most of the lands to John Watson, a London brewer, (fn. 167) and in 1535, after John Brereton had been made master, William Brereton became the lessee. Brereton's lease was forfeited on his attainder in 1536 and granted by the king to Thomas Heneage, (fn. 168) from whom it passed to Robert Heneage.

In 1547 the manor of Ducketts was separated from most of the hospital's lands, which went to the City of London, (fn. 169) and bought by Richard Cecil of Burghley, (fn. 170) who soon afterwards sold it to Sir Edward, later Lord, North. (fn. 171) In 1554, when Ducketts comprised 3 houses and 700 a., Lord North conveyed it to William Parker, a London draper, (fn. 172) whose son William conveyed it in 1576 to feoffees, from whom it passed in 1580 to John Dudley of Stoke Newington. (fn. 173) Sir Francis Popham (fn. 174) held Ducketts in 1619 (fn. 175) and sold it twenty years later to Sir Edmund Scott of Lambeth, (fn. 176) who was succeeded by his brother Sir Stephen Scott of Cheshunt (Herts.). In 1660 Stephen's son John sold the manor to Dr. Edmund Trench (d. 1689), (fn. 177) whose son Samuel died in possession in 1741. Most of the estate then passed to Samuel's daughter Sarah and her husband, John Berney of Bracon Hall (Norf.), while a smaller part, forming Grainger's farm, passed to the antiquary Richard Muilman Trench Chiswell, (fn. 178) grandson of Edmund Trench's niece Mary. A year after Chiswells' suicide in 1797 his portion was sold to Michael and John Phillips, whose family had been tenants for over twenty years and still owned Graingers in 1851. Meanwhile John Berney's share passed in 1800 to his widow and afterwards to Thomas Trench Berney, who sold it in 1840 to Alfred Jones. Berney's land covered c. 138 a. in 1821 and stretched from the farmhouse north-east to Lordship Lane, being bounded on the north-west by the Moselle and along the east by fields which had been detached to form Grainger's farm. (fn. 179) Most of Ducketts was bought in 1862 by Thomas Clark, who built twelve houses south of the farm-house but retained the rest until 1881.

The mansion- or farm-house of Ducketts stood on the east side of the later Wood Green High Road, north of the site of Turnpike Lane station. It included a gatehouse, a moat, and farm buildings in 1520 (fn. 180) and retained its moat until the 1860s, when the building was called Dovecote House. (fn. 181) Although it was normally occupied by lessees after it passed from the Ducketts, Alfred Jones lived there in the 1840s and Thomas Clark in the 1870s. The last occupant was recorded in 1881, shortly before most of the land was taken for the Noel Park estate. Grainger's farm-house, built between 1818 and 1844 (fn. 182) on the south side of Lordship Lane, survived until the 1890s. (fn. 183)

Nicholas Twyford repeatedly failed to do fealty at courts of Bruces manor between 1380 and 1383. It is not known whether Nicholas was the London gold-smith of that name who supported John of North-ampton nor if he was connected with a John Twyford who held of Daubeneys in the 1390s. (fn. 184) John Twyford held property in Tottenham worth 100s. a year in 1412 (fn. 185) and was in dispute with John Walden in 1414-15. (fn. 186) William Drayton held several parcels of the tenement called Twyford forty years later, when tenants of the so-called manor of TWYFORDS were listed with those of other subdivisions of Tottenham manor. (fn. 187) Sir John Elrington, treasurer of the king's household, (fn. 188) died in 1482-3 seised of Middlesex property including 3 houses and 80 a. in Tottenham, most of which passed to his eldest son Simon. The Tottenham lands, involved with others in disputes between Sir John's brother, widow, and children, presumably comprised part of Twyfords. (fn. 189) Richard Turnaunt named Twyfords along with his other manors in 1486 (fn. 190) but Simon Elrington's son Thomas died seised of the manor of Twyford and 380 a., held of Sir William Compton, in 1523, when he was succeeded by his 2-year old son and namesake. (fn. 191) It was later acquired by John Cayzer or Keyser, who in his will of 1556 empowered his brother Nicholas, a London vintner, to sell Twyfords and other property to meet bequests to his children. (fn. 192) The manor was normally called Twyfords or Martins from 1599, when John Boulton died seised of it. (fn. 193) John's son Simon left lands within the manor, near Hanger Lane, to his son Abraham in 1618. (fn. 194) In the following year it was held by Matthew de Questor, (fn. 195) who shared with his son and namesake the office of postmaster for foreign parts and who enfeoffed trustees in 1623 on his son's marriage to Mary Fitzherbert. (fn. 196) In 1624 the younger Matthew died (fn. 197) and in 1641 Twyfords was conveyed by Mary Lewyn, presumably his widow, and her husband William to Henry Browne. The estate included 3 houses in 1641, (fn. 198) after which date it ceased to be called a manor.