Lolworth: Manor

Manor

Of the 9 hides ascribed to Lolworth in 1066 Saleva, a pensioner of King Edward, occupied 3½, the rest being divided between seven sokemen of the king (1½ hides), two of Eddeva (1 hide), and one of the abbot of Ely (1½ hides), all of whom were entitled to dispose freely of their land. By 1086 Picot the sheriff had given the whole vill, reassessed at 5 hides, to his man Robert, who also held 2 hides previously possessed by four of the seven king's sokemen and valued with Lolworth although assessed for tax under Childerley. (fn. 1) In the 1230s the manor was said to be held as 2 fees, one of the bishop of Ely, the other of Hamon Pecche, a coheir to the Peverel barony of Bourn, once Picot's. (fn. 2) In 1279 Hamon's successor Gilbert Pecche was mesne lord of one fee at Lolworth under the see of Ely, (fn. 3) but after 1284 (fn. 4) the manor was said to be held immediately of the bishop. (fn. 5)

From 1200 almost to 1400 LOLWORTH manor was held in demesne with Colvilles manor in Long Stanton, with which it was conveyed in 1202 from Alan de Feugeres to John son of William. (fn. 6) Held in fee c. 1235 by Philip of Stanton, (fn. 7) it was probably occupied between 1240 and 1250 by Amice of Stanton, perhaps Philip's father's widow. (fn. 8) Philip's grandson Philip de Colville held Lolworth in 1279, (fn. 9) and the latter's son Henry's widow Emma, as part of her jointure, between 1296 and 1344. (fn. 10) In 1346 the manor was held by feoffees for her grandson Henry de Colville. (fn. 11) After he died c. 1360 his probable heir Anne and her husband sold it in 1362 to Sir Robert Thorpe, (fn. 12) then chief justice of Common Pleas, appointed chancellor in 1371. (fn. 13)

When Thorpe died in 1372 (fn. 14) his heir was his brother Sir William's son, also Sir William, (fn. 15) who held Lolworth at his death in 1391. (fn. 16) Probably by 1392 Thorpe's feoffees had released it to feoffees for Sir William Castleacre, (fn. 17) lord there by 1400. (fn. 18) Castleacre's wife Elizabeth was apparently kin to Thorpe. Probably c. 1398 (fn. 19) Castleacre had charged Lolworth with paying £20 rent to John Herrys of Cambridge, to whom his feoffees released the manor, probably c. 1409, contrary to his will of 1404 giving it for pious purposes. Herrys was in possession in 1412, (fn. 20) and died after 1415. (fn. 21) In the late 1410s Lolworth was possessed by feoffees, mostly Londoners, who in 1420 with Castleacre's executors conveyed it to Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham. By 1424 he had settled it on the marriage of his nephew Henry Langley, thereafter of Rickling (Essex), (fn. 22) lord in 1428. (fn. 23) Henry Langley (d. 1458) settled Lolworth in 1456 upon the first marriage of his younger son Henry (fn. 24) (d. 1495). During the minority of the younger Henry's son Edward, Lolworth was occupied by Henry's widow Elizabeth, (fn. 25) wife by 1504 of Alexander Hampden, (fn. 26) with whom she possessed it until Edward took possession in 1509. (fn. 27) Shortly before he died in 1515 (fn. 28) he had granted it to Sir John Cutts for a rent charge, (fn. 29) still paid to Edward's descendants in the late 1580s. (fn. 30)

From Sir John, who by his death in 1521 had bought 280 a. more in Lolworth, (fn. 31) the manor descended in the male line with the Childerley estate until 1670. (fn. 32) The Cutts heir male Richard Cutts sold Lolworth in 1681 to Henry Edwards. (fn. 33) In 1685 the latter's son John conveyed it to trustees, (fn. 34) in whom it was vested by private Act in 1690 for sale to pay his debts. (fn. 35) It was sold in 1694 to Charles Smith of Isleworth (Mdx.). (fn. 36)

Smith died probably in 1738, leaving as heirs four daughters, who had equal interests in the undivided manor. Anne, who in 1739 married Legh Masters, M.P. (d. 1750), (fn. 37) and Jane, wife of a Mr. Perkin, both died childless, leaving their quarter shares to the son of their sister Rebecca (fn. 38) and her husband Paul Orchard. The son, Paul Orchard of Hartland Abbey (Devon), (fn. 39) died without issue in 1812, having devised his Cambridgeshire lands to Lewis William Buck, grandson of his sister Anne and George Buck. (fn. 40) Charles Smith's remaining daughter Elizabeth had married Henry Hawley (d. s.p. 1756) of Brentford (Mdx.). (fn. 41) Their share passed to Henry's brother James Hawley, M.D. (d. 1777), who in 1771 settled it upon his son Henry's marriage. (fn. 42) In 1785 Henry owned jointly with Paul Orchard all but 135 a. of the 1,000 a. then recorded in Lolworth. (fn. 43) Sir Henry Hawley (cr. Bt. 1795) still had a quarter of the manor in 1807, (fn. 44) but probably released his rights to L. W. Buck c. 1809. (fn. 45)

Buck and his son George Stucley Buck (later as George Stucley cr. Bt. 1859) jointly owned c. 870 a. in 1840. (fn. 46) In 1844 they sold their Lolworth estate to John Dodson of Swavesey, (fn. 47) who later that year was allotted 820 a., (fn. 48) which he still owned in 1856. After his death in 1865, that land passed to his sister Elizabeth and her husband Richard Daintree (d. 1888), the tenant since 1854. (fn. 49) In 1873 their Lolworth land, partly occupied by Elizabeth, was divided between their younger sons Richard (d. c. 1884) and John Osborn Daintree. (fn. 50) Richard took the land west of the way to Childerley, c. 505 a., later Redland and Yarmouth farms, which remained in his family until sold in 1923. (fn. 51) J. O. Daintree's share, Lolworth Grange farm to the east, 355 a., was bought c. 1903 by Jacob Frohock, the tenant since 1876, who sold it in 1917. Perhaps further sold thrice by 1938, it then also included much of the farmland west of the road. (fn. 52) T. B. Robinson owned and occupied Grange farm from 1946 to his retirement in 1970. (fn. 53)

The manor house was perhaps the scantily furnished house from which Sir John Cutts farmed some land in 1670. (fn. 54) It probably stood east of the church within an almost square moat c. 75 m. (230 ft.) long, of which only the south-eastern side survived to any depth in 1900. (fn. 55) The other sides, still visible in 1840, (fn. 56) were perhaps obscured by the building there from 1858 of Lolworth Grange, the substantial grey-brick house of the Daintrees and their successors, which remained the largest in the parish. (fn. 57)

By 1570 (fn. 58) Clare College, Cambridge, owned a farm, covering 108 a. in 1785, (fn. 59) for whose open-field land 90 a. were allotted at inclosure in 1844. (fn. 60) The college retained that farm, 108 a. in all, until its sale c. 1939. (fn. 61)