Fulbourn: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

The largest of the five manors recorded in 1086 was that, then assessed at five hides, in which Count Alan had succeeded Godwin 'Child', a man of Eddeva the fair. Then held in demesne by Alan, (fn. 1) it probably remained a demesne manor of his successors as lords of the honor of Richmond until his nephew Earl Alan (d. 1146) (fn. 2) gave it in marriage with his daughter Constance to the Breton Alan, viscount of Rohan. (fn. 3) It then belonged to succeeding viscounts (fn. 4) until taken into the king's hands in the 1190s. (fn. 5) Its possession and profits were assigned to successive royal keepers (fn. 6) until in 1230, following peace with Brittany, Alan, then viscount of Rohan, granted his Cambridgeshire lands to Roger la Zouche. (fn. 7) The Zouches (fn. 8) and their successors continued to hold ZOUCHES manor of the honor of Richmond into the 15th century in socage, rendering two gilt spurs yearly (fn. 9) into the 15th century. (fn. 10) After 1500 the tenure was reckoned as knight service. (fn. 11)

Roger la Zouche died in 1238 and his son and heir Alan, (fn. 12) lord in the 1260s, (fn. 13) in 1270. In the 1270s that manor was held under Alan's son and heir Roger (d. 1285) (fn. 14) by his younger brother Alan. (fn. 15) Roger's son Alan, (fn. 16) in possession by 1299, (fn. 17) who died in 1314, settled its reversion on his second cousin William Mortimer, (fn. 18) later lord la Zouche, (fn. 19) a lord at Fulbourn in 1316. (fn. 20) He died in 1337 and his son and heir Alan la Zouche, (fn. 21) who was granted free warren at Fulbourn in 1344, in 1346. (fn. 22) Alan's widow Eleanor, shortly remarried to Sir Nicholas d'Amory, held his Fulbourn manors as part of her jointure until she died in 1360, whereupon Alan's son Hugh bought out Amory's interest. (fn. 23) That Hugh, lord la Zouche (d. s.p. 1399), settled the reversion of his lands on his aunt Joyce's granddaughter Joyce and her husband Hugh Burnell, lord Burnell. Zouche's widow Joan retained a life interest in Fulbourn Zouches, (fn. 24) which her second husband Sir John Pelham enjoyed in 1412. (fn. 25)

Although Joyce died childless, Lord Burnell retained, and added to, her Fulbourn manors. (fn. 26) Before his death without issue in 1420, he settled their reversion on Joan Beauchamp, lady Bergavenny (fn. 27) (d. 1435), who devised all her Cambridgeshire lands to her grandsons John and Thomas Ormond. (fn. 28) John (d. s.p. 1477) possessed Fulbourn probably by 1436, certainly by 1439. (fn. 29) Following John's attainder in 1461, (fn. 30) Edward IV granted Fulbourn in 1462 to Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex, and his wife Isabel, (fn. 31) who retained their manors there until their respective deaths in 1483 and 1485. (fn. 32) It was restored after 1485, at latest by 1495, (fn. 33) to Thomas, by then earl of Ormond, who died in 1515. (fn. 34) His daughter Anne St. Leger, widow, shortly resigned her joint interest in Fulbourn to her sister Margaret's son Sir Thomas Boleyn, later earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. (fn. 35) In 1538 he sold a Fulbourn estate including 120 a. of arable to Sir Roger Cholmeley, lord of Holmhall in Quy. (fn. 36) At Boleyn's death in 1539 his heir was his surviving daughter Mary (fn. 37) (d. 1542), (fn. 38) whom her unacknowledged husband William Stafford induced to settle the reversion of much property, including in 1542 her four Fulbourn manors, upon himself and his heirs. (fn. 39) He and Mary had already in 1541, however, conveyed the demesne farmland and pasture rights of those manors to Catherine, Mary's daughter by her first marriage to Henry Carey, and her husband Francis Knollys, (fn. 40) who in 1554 alienated all their Fulbourn estate to Thomas Docwra, lord of the fifth Fulbourn manor, Dunmows. (fn. 41) Stafford had retained only the lordships and possibly the manor house; an adjoining close was still called Staffords c. 1806. (fn. 42) In 1546 he ceded those manorial rights to the Crown to pay certain debts. (fn. 43)

The lordships of Zouches and the three other manors combined with it remained with the Crown (fn. 44) until their sale in 1625 to two Scots speculators, Edward and Thomas Ramsay, for a fee farm of £40 2s. 6d. (fn. 45) The Ramsays, in whose name courts were held until 1627, shortly sold the manorial rights to Thomas Tyrell, lord in 1628, (fn. 46) who already owned part of the substantial Fulbourn estate built up since the 15th century by the Woods.

Alexander Wood, of a local yeoman family, (fn. 47) had by his death in 1479 assembled a 310-a. estate, mostly freehold of Zouches manor, to which his son John, (fn. 48) said c. 1500 to have the 'rule and governance' of the township, (fn. 49) had added another 190 a. when he died in 1520. (fn. 50) That land soon passed to his younger son Nicholas (d. 1528), whose then infant son Edward Wood (fn. 51) became from 1559 lessee under the Docwras of their demesne farms (fn. 52) and also by the 1590s, like his grandfather, of All Saints impropriate rectory. (fn. 53) Edward also retained on lease until 1585 120 a. sold in 1558 to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. (fn. 54) (In 1914 that college sold the 74 a. allotted to it at inclosure to the Townleys, then lords.) (fn. 55)

Edward Wood died in 1599 leaving his Fulbourn mansion and remaining lands to his son John (fn. 56) (kt. 1603), (fn. 57) who apparently sold them upon moving to Yorkshire in 1608. (fn. 58) Thomas Tyrell, probably the purchaser, owned 60 a. copyhold of Zouches by 1613 (fn. 59) and later also several closes once owned by Wood, though no open-field land, (fn. 60) besides the Woods' former mansion, which Tyrell's son and namesake probably occupied in the early 1620s. (fn. 61)

Thomas Tyrell the elder died in 1643, leaving a third of his Fulbourn estate to his grandson Thomas Tyrell, just under age, the rest to his widow Joan absolutely. (fn. 62) The grandson was dead without issue by 1647 when Joan devised their whole Fulbourn estate to his sister Susan and her husband Michael Dalton (d. 1653). Their son Tyrell Dalton, (fn. 63) a zealous Tory, occupied their manor house between the 1660s and his death in 1682. (fn. 64) In 1693 his son Tyrell Dalton also held the Dunmows manorial farm at lease under the Docwras. (fn. 65) In 1706 the land that he owned at Fulbourn comprised only the manor house with 80 a. of grass closes, then settled on his wife Dorothy for life, (fn. 66) but he remained lord until he died in 1730. Dorothy died in 1732 and their daughter Eleanor in 1737. (fn. 67) Between 1730 and 1742 the courts were held in the name of John Perkins, then rector of St. Vigor's. (fn. 68) William Greaves, commissary of Cambridge University, reckoned lord from 1743, was later said to have acquired the lordship from a sister of Tyrell Dalton. (fn. 69)

Greaves, who took the additional name of Beaupré Bell after the former owners of a large estate at Upwell (I. Ely) which he acquired by marriage, (fn. 70) bought over 130 a. in Fulbourn (fn. 71) and acquired Dunmows manor farm c. 1786. (fn. 72) At his death in 1787 he left his lands to his nephew Richard Greaves Townley of Belfield Hall (Lancs.). (fn. 73) Owning before inclosure c. 220 a. of closes and 204 a. of several heath, but only 228 a. of arable, (fn. 74) Townley emerged with c. 705 a. altogether. (fn. 75) Dying in 1823 he was succeeded by his son and namesake, (fn. 76) who served as M.P. for Cambridgeshire 1831-41 and 1847-52 (fn. 77) and died in 1855. (fn. 78) His son Charles Watson Townley, who owned 797 a. at Fulbourn in 1873 (fn. 79) and acquired Shardelowes farm c. 1887, (fn. 80) was Lord Lieutenant of the county from 1874 (fn. 81) to his death in 1893. The estate descended to his eldest surviving son, (fn. 82) the Revd. Charles Francis Townley, who owned 1,530 a. in the parish in 1910 (fn. 83) and died in 1930. His son and successor Charles Evelyn Townley (fn. 84) died, aged 96, in 1983. (fn. 85) The Townleys' remaining Fulbourn lands passed to his widow Mrs. Marjorie Townley, who occupied part of the manor house in 1990, and their surviving son Richard Templer Townley. (fn. 86)

Zouches manor house, in which its lords were licensed to have an oratory in the mid 14th century, (fn. 87) was still being kept in repair as part of a farmstead c. 1460. (fn. 88) Its site was probably vacant by 1481. (fn. 89) The existing house styled since the 18th century Zouches old manor house, which stands north of Hall and Staffords closes, (fn. 90) is of 16th-century origin. (fn. 91) It has five bays in a single range, and is mostly built of clunch dressed in limestone, but at the south-east end has a timber-framed upper floor with an oriel window under its end gable. The side walls have mullioned windows, partly renewed, under dripmoulds. Similar single-light windows in the north-west gable wall support a double chimney. In its upper part a pedimented aedicule contains, as in 1747, the arms of Bell, possibly as used by Dr. John Bell, rector of St. Vigor's 1561-92. (fn. 92) Another original chimney in a short cross wing at the south end is of red brick. That house, not attached to the lordship in 1625, (fn. 93) was possibly the dwelling with 12-13 hearths occupied by Ellen Farmer in the 1660s: (fn. 94) it was owned with 95 a. of copyhold by William Farmer (d. 1712), whose widow's second husband, the rector John Perkins, sold it after her death to William Greaves in 1746. Part had been demolished by 1800. (fn. 95)

The present Fulbourn Manor, the seat of the Townleys since the early 19th century, (fn. 96) standing south-east of the churchyard, probably derives from the mansion house occupied by Edward Wood in 1599. Then said to stand between Monks Barn and Hay Street, it had chambers on two floors and a gallery. (fn. 97) When rebuilt in 1909, the house was found to contain massive red brick chimneys, some once external, and traces of a two-storeyed house. Some 17thcentury oak panelling, reused and copied during that rebuilding, was also discovered along with a carved Jacobean mantlepiece. (fn. 98) About 1670 Tyrell Dalton had 14 hearths in his Fulbourn home. (fn. 99) The earliest part of the existing house (fn. 100) is probably the five-bayed block near the western end, whose central bay projecting southeastwards may have been a porch. About 1700 or soon after that part received a modillioned cornice under its pitched roof, while a slightly lower block of nine bays was added to the southeast. The surviving red brick stable was also then built north of the house. That was probably the work of William Greaves, said to have made the house a 'more elegant place'. (fn. 101) He may have installed a panelled room on the south-east front. He set up in the entrance yard the statue in Roman attire of William III on a low pedestal with a patriotic inscription, (fn. 102) around which village children later danced at the anniversary of William's accession. (fn. 103) After inclosure in 1808 the earlier garden of 8-9 a., whose external walls are said to incorporate stonework from the demol ished All Saints church, (fn. 104) was extended into a park of 83 a. stretching south-eastwards. (fn. 105) About 1909 the Manor was remodelled for C. F. Townley to designs by his relation Dudley Newman. The garden front largely retained its former appearance, although it was extended to the north-east by a wing with new domestic offices and to the south-west by a taller block containing a library and billiard room, the latter demolished after 1930. The entrance front was refaced to include massively mullioned stone bay windows and its centre heightened to take a new staircase, and much of the interior was refitted in Tudor style. (fn. 106) From the 1950s the house was divided into up to five dwellings. (fn. 107)

Ealdorman Beorhtnoth was later believed to have repaid the abbot of Ely's hospitality to his warband in 991 by promising Ely nine Cambridgeshire estates, one at Fulbourn, if he fell in battle. (fn. 108) Under his will Fulbourn passed to the abbey after his widow Aelfflaed's death. (fn. 109) In 1066 and 1086 Ely held in demesne 4½ hides there. (fn. 110) That manor was probably part of the lands, enfeoffed before 1135, that were in 1166 held of the bishop of Ely as 2 knights' fees by Eustace de Manners. (fn. 111) MANNERS fee continued to be held of the see of Ely by knight service into the 15th century. (fn. 112) In the 1270s Alexander de Balliol was named as mesne tenant over that fee. (fn. 113)

Eustace was probably ancestor of the Mannerses of Carbrooke (Norf.), with which his Fulbourn fee descended. William de Manners, its lord c. 1190, (fn. 114) was succeeded by Walter de Manners, recorded in Cambridgeshire in 1202. He or a namesake (fn. 115) held that manor c. 1235. (fn. 116) By 1256 that Walter was succeeded by William de Manners, (fn. 117) lord at Fulbourn in 1260, (fn. 118) killed as a rebel in 1265. The king allowed his son Baldwin to inherit his lands in 1266. (fn. 119) Sir Baldwin (kt. by 1280) (fn. 120) owned the Fulbourn manor, upon which he was granted free warren in 1291, (fn. 121) until his death without issue in 1320. (fn. 122) In 1311 he had granted its reversion to Sir John Botetourt (d. 1324), (fn. 123) who in 1323 sold it to Sir William Mortimer, later lord la Zouche. (fn. 124) Manners fee descended thereafter, except possibly c. 1400, with Zouches manor. (fn. 125)

COLVILLES manor derived from an estate assembled by 1086 from three hides once held by King Edward's thegn Sigar, two by a man of Earl Aelfgar, and one, claimed by Count Alan, by three men of Eddeva. By 1086 it had descended from Waleran son of Ranulf to his son John. (fn. 126) After John died c. 1105, it passed with his daughter Maud to Hasculf de Tany of Essex (d. 1130 × 1141), (fn. 127) and long remained a demesne manor of that barony, being held of the Crown in chief as ½ knight's fee throughout the Middle Ages. (fn. 128) Hasculf's son and heir Graelent died in 1180 (fn. 129) and his son Hasculf in 1193. His son Gilbert de Tany, lord at Fulbourn in 1199, (fn. 130) died without issue in 1221, whereupon his lands were divided between three coheirs. (fn. 131) Fulbourn was assigned by 1230 to Nicholas de Beauchamp (fn. 132) (d. 1242). (fn. 133) His son Roger, then under age, by 1255 in royal service, (fn. 134) received free warren there in 1260 and saw the manor plundered by the Montfortian rebels c. 1266. (fn. 135) Still lord in 1279, he was succeeded in 1281 by his son John. (fn. 136) In 1308 John settled it on the marriage of his son Nicholas, (fn. 137) in possession into the mid 1330s. (fn. 138) In 1335 Nicholas granted it to William Ward of Sawston. (fn. 139)

Ward died without surviving issue in 1357, having since 1339 held that manor jointly with his wife Elizabeth (d. s.p. 1375). In 1353 they had settled its reversion upon John (d. v.p.) son of John (d. 1361) de Lisle of Kent. It descended to the younger John's sister Alice, wife of Sir John Colville of Newton (I. Ely). (fn. 140) Colville died in 1394. His son and heir Sir John (fn. 141) sold the manor in 1397 to Andrew Newport, (fn. 142) the Ricardian sheriff of Cambridgeshire. (fn. 143) Newport may also have acquired from Hugh, lord la Zouche, the reversion of Manners fee, separately enfeoffed by Hugh before 1399: (fn. 144) in 1401 Shardelowes manor was said to be held of Newport by knight service as of Manners fee. (fn. 145) Newport lost his lands soon after Richard II's deposition, conveying Colvilles to feoffees in 1401. (fn. 146) Both manors were probably held soon after by Lord Burnell, (fn. 147) who in 1417 included Colvilles and Manners in his settlement upon Joan Beauchamp with Zouches manor, (fn. 148) with which they passed thereafter. (fn. 149)

Colvilles manor house, where Gilbert de Tany had a manorial chapel by 1200, (fn. 150) stood within a moat. Its manorial farmstead, still kept in repair in the 1460s, (fn. 151) was apparently the one mainly used by the Zouches demesne farmer in 1515. (fn. 152)

By 1086 four hides possessed in 1066 by 26 sokemen of King Edward were in the hands of Picot the sheriff. (fn. 153) That royal land was probably the origin of two manors. Part may have come to Barking Abbey (Essex), which by 1256 had a Fulbourn estate, (fn. 154) comprising in 1279 no demesne but only lordship over 4 free yardlands, yielding only assize rents. (fn. 155) The abbess retained that manor until its dissolution in 1539. (fn. 156) It was nominally owned by the Crown c. 1600. (fn. 157)

Lordship over the remaining royal tenants probably passed in the 12th century to the Marshals, later earls of Pembroke. (fn. 158) That Fulbourn manor was held into the early 14th century, initially in demesne, with Barrow manor (Suff.), another Marshal fee. (fn. 159) Earl William Marshal was overlord at Fulbourn in the late 1210s. (fn. 160) When his inheritance was divided among coheirs after 1245, (fn. 161) the tenancy-inchief over that manor, reckoned as ½ knight's fee, was assigned to Maud, widow of Hugh Bigod, son of Hugh, earl of Norfolk. (fn. 162) It was usually ascribed until after 1400 to succeeding earls Marshal and of Norfolk, (fn. 163) although occasionally in error to the Valence and Hastings earls of Pembroke, under whom a mesne lordship of unknown origin was also ascribed to the Bardolfs, lords of Wormegay (Norf.). (fn. 164)

Before 1200 another Fulbourn manor, later called SHARDELOWES, was possessed by Bertram son of Thomas of a London family, lord of Barrow, (fn. 165) who was succeeded by his son Thomas of Barrow (fl. to 1220). (fn. 166) Thomas left as coheirs two daughters, of whom Maud had by 1229 married Hamon Passelewe, (fn. 167) who held 4 hides at Fulbourn geld-free of the Earl Marshal c. 1235. (fn. 168) He died in 1252. (fn. 169) Maud, who survived until 1270, (fn. 170) gave to Anglesey priory ½ yardland at Fulbourn, (fn. 171) which it retained, with other acquisitions, until its suppression. (fn. 172) After 1267 Maud Passelewe assigned Barrow to her daughter Catherine and her husband William Giffard of Weston sub Edge (Glos.), reserving a life interest in that manor. (fn. 173) Giffard was probably lord there by 1275: (fn. 174) in 1279 he held over 4 yardlands, mostly of the Richmond fee, effectively his demesne. (fn. 175) He died 1300 × 1303. (fn. 176) In 1319-20 Catherine and his younger son Hugh Giffard, rector of Barrow, probably released their lordship in Fulbourn, subinfeudated since the 1280s, to Bartholomew Baddlesmere (fn. 177) (ex. 1322). The Baddlesmeres and their eventual heirs, the Vere earls of Oxford, (fn. 178) asserted into the 1370s a mesne lordship over that manor. (fn. 179)

In 1283 Hugh Giffard finally alienated his 120 a. at Fulbourn with his free tenants' services to Thomas 'of the Chamber' of Balsham or Teversham, once his bailiff there. (fn. 180) In 1287 Thomas sold that estate as two carucates to Master Robert of Fileby, (fn. 181) who in 1304 sold 80 a. to William de la Down, (fn. 182) a lord at Fulbourn in 1316. (fn. 183) In 1326 Down sold 200 a. with the tenants' rents to the lawyer John Shardelowe for an annuity. (fn. 184)

Shardelowe (kt. by 1337) (fn. 185) a justice of the Common Pleas after 1332, died in 1344 (fn. 186) when his heir was his son Edmund's son John. His Fulbourn estate passed, however, for life to the judge's younger sons, first to John (d. s.p. 1359), then to Sir Thomas Shardelowe, (fn. 187) frequently M.P. for Cambridgeshire 1358-68, (fn. 188) who was dead by 1377. (fn. 189) Shardelowes manor passed by 1378 to the judge's grandson, Sir John Shardelowe, (fn. 190) who dwelt there in 1387 when his manor house was captured and plundered by Sir John Pelham. (fn. 191) When Shardelowe died in 1391 the title to Fulbourn, held for life by his widow Margaret, passed to his son Robert (kt. by 1397). (fn. 192) Sir Robert died in 1399, leaving as heir an infant son John, (fn. 193) of age in 1420, (fn. 194) knighted c. 1430. (fn. 195) He died in 1432 without issue. His heir Thomas Brewes, grandson of Sir Robert's sister Joan, (fn. 196) in 1433 sold Shardelowes manor to Joan, lady Bergavenny. (fn. 197) It passed with her other Fulbourn manors to John Ormond. (fn. 198) In 1442 the supposed heir male John Shardelowe settled a life interest in it on Henry Fillongley, lord of Dunmows. (fn. 199) Thereafter Shardelowes followed the descent of the other three manors. (fn. 200)

Shardelowes manor house, a seat of that family from the 1350s, (fn. 201) probably stood within the 12-a. close south-east of the village where Old Shardelowes farmhouse stood in 1806. (fn. 202) The surviving house includes a 15th-century hall into which a floor was inserted c. 1600, when the parlour cross wing was rebuilt and brick chimney stacks put up; a kitchen wing was soon after added behind. (fn. 203) After inclosure that farmhouse was replaced by New Shardelowes Farm, which stands 1¼ mile to the south-east, and sold c. 1850. (fn. 204)

The remaining original manor, later called DUNMOWS, derived from 2½ hides held in 1066 by Aelfgar the Staller and by 1086 by one William of Geoffrey de Mandeville. (fn. 205) It continued into the 14th century to be held as ½ knight's fee of the Mandevilles and their successors the Bohuns, earls of Hereford and Essex. (fn. 206) After 1400 its overlordship was included in the moiety of their lands assigned to the earls of Stafford. (fn. 207)

By the late 12th century that manor was held with one at Great Dunmow (Essex) (fn. 208) by the Dunmow family. Gilbert of Dunmow, recorded in Cambridgeshire in 1180, (fn. 209) may be the Gilbert of Dunmow, son of Warin, who had a manor at Fulbourn, 1199-1208. (fn. 210) William son of Warin of Dunmow, the Bohun tenant at Fulbourn c. 1235, (fn. 211) was succeeded between 1254 and 1260 by his eldest son Gilbert of Dunmow, (fn. 212) who held the manor at least until c. 1290 (fn. 213) and possibly until 1303. (fn. 214) By 1316, and probably by 1309, the Dunmows' lands, including those at Fulbourn, passed to John Olive, (fn. 215) probably succeeded by 1330 by his son and namesake, (fn. 216) still lord in 1346, (fn. 217) but dead by the early 1350s. (fn. 218) His son William Olive died in 1361, leaving a son, also William, and daughter Alice, both successively dead under age by 1366. The next heir, their aunt Alice's son John Boys, just of age, (fn. 219) in 1369 sold the Fulbourn manor to William Fulbourn, clerk, (fn. 220) an official of the Black Prince. (fn. 221)

That clerk came of a long established local family and was probably related to William Fulbourn, the vill's wealthiest taxpayer in 1327, (fn. 222) perhaps the baron of the Exchequer (d. 1329). (fn. 223) A lay namesake was recorded there from 1340. (fn. 224) At his death in 1391 William the clerk devised his Fulbourn lands, augmented with 100 a. just bought from the Francis family, to William, probably his illegitimate son by a local woman Alice Whiting, (fn. 225) who shortly took the name of Fulbourn. (fn. 226) That William retained Dunmows manor until he died after 1441. (fn. 227) His heir, his son John, (fn. 228) had by 1448, possibly by 1444, released Dunmows to Henry Fillongley of Fillongley (Warws.). (fn. 229) Fillongley, a Lancastrian adherent, possibly killed in 1460, (fn. 230) had devised successive remainders of Dunmows manor in tail to his nephews George and John Francis, (both d. s.p.), with a further remainder to Fillongley's sister Mary's son Thomas Froxmer (d. 1498). In the 1490s, however, John Francis's widow Joyce and her second husband Thomas Shornley, and before 1510 William Cheyney of Fen Ditton and then his son Lawrence occupied the manor, excluding Froxmer and later his daughters and coheirs. In 1512 Lawrence Cheyney conveyed it to Alan Percy, clerk, and others. (fn. 231) Percy retained it, later apparently in his own right, (fn. 232) until c. 1532 when he sold it to Thomas Docwra of Putteridge in Offley (Herts.). (fn. 233)

In 1554 Docwra also acquired from Francis Knollys the demesne farms, supposedly 800 a., of the other four manors. (fn. 234) After his death, aged 84, in 1602, his Fulbourn estate formally descended to his eldest son Thomas (d. 1621) and grandson Periam Docwra (d. 1642). In 1593, however, the elder Thomas had endowed his younger son Ralph, settled at Fulbourn since 1582, and Ralph's issue with a 60-year lease of all that land at a low rent. (fn. 235) That holding passed from Ralph (d. 1628) to his son James (d. 1652) and grandson James (d. 1672). (fn. 236) Even after 1653 they retained a substantial estate at Fulbourn, (fn. 237) of which the last James's widow Anne left 70 a. in 1700 to help maintain the Cambridge Quaker congregation which he had once supported. The Quakers retained Quakers' Charity farm, 56 a. after inclosure, until 1949. (fn. 238)

Dunmows lordship and the four demesne farms descended to Periam Docwra's son Thomas who owned 524 a. of arable in 1682. In 1693 he sold that estate, including Dunmows manor with 247 a. and Shardelowes farm, 298 a., to Thomas Watson, bishop of St. Davids, (fn. 239) who also acquired the impropriate rectory of All Saints, called by 1540 MONKS BARN, from its tithe barn south of the churchyard. It then, as c. 1800, consisted only of the All Saints great tithes without any fieldland. (fn. 240)

From the late 13th century that rectory had been held under the original Breton appropriator by Sawtry abbey (Hunts.) for a yearly farm of 60, later 80 marks, (fn. 241) paid from 1344 onwards, (fn. 242) except for 1360-70, (fn. 243) to various royal assignees, among them two Cambridge colleges: the King's Hall received 50 marks from 1351 (fn. 244) and God's House, later Christ's, 10 marks from 1442. (fn. 245) After Sawtry was suppressed in 1536, (fn. 246) those tithes were granted in 1537 to Sir Richard Williams or Cromwell, (fn. 247) who ignored the colleges' claims. (fn. 248) At his death in 1544 he left that rectory to his brother Walter's son James Cromwell, (fn. 249) who in 1569 sold it to Richard Killingworth and his son John, of Pampisford. (fn. 250) John died in 1617, leaving Monks Barn to his son Giles (fn. 251) (d. 1635). Under Giles's will it was to be sold when his widow Elizabeth died. (fn. 252)

When Bishop Watson died intestate in 1717 his Cambridgeshire lands descended to his elderly brother William, upon whose death in 1721 the Fulbourn property was divided in 1722, amid much dispute, between two of his daughters. Mary, still unmarried when she died in 1737, received Dunmows nominal manor with its 'hall house' and c. 240 a. of farmland, half arable. They passed to her nephew Thomas Watson Ward of Wilbraham Temple (d. 1750), whose son and namesake sold them in 1780 to William Greaves, (fn. 253) after which they formed part of the later Townley estate. Mary's sister Abigail and her new husband Walter Serocold had taken Monks Barn with the impropriate tithes and Shardelowes farm, which c. 1805 had 305 a. of farmland. (fn. 254) Abigail died without issue in 1734 and her husband left their share in 1747 to his uncle Thomas's son Walter Serocold, (fn. 255) vicar of All Saints, Fulbourn, from 1756. (fn. 256) Upon his death in 1789 all his estates passed to his four daughters and their husbands, (fn. 257) who accordingly received at inclosure the 431½ a. allotted for their impropriation (fn. 258) and 396 a. for Shardelowes farm. (fn. 259) After Anne, the eldest daughter, and her husband, the Revd. William Pearce, had bought out the other coheirs c. 1814, (fn. 260) those lands descended with the Pearce Serocolds' Cherry Hinton estate until Shardelowes and Caudle Corner farms, 778 a. and 49 a., were sold in 1885. Their purchase by C. E. Townley (fn. 261) made the lords once again the largest owners in the parish. Monks Barn's eponymous tithe barn, acquired by R. G. Townley by exchange at inclosure, (fn. 262) had been removed in 1809. (fn. 263)

About 1420 William Fulbourn's manor house included a chapel chamber. (fn. 264) In 1806 the Dunmows hall house was said to have once stood within a 1-a. round moat ½ mile east of the village, close to Hall yard and the 24-a. Hall croft and Kitchen meadow. The moat, wooded by 1800, was then called Hall orchard. A large house there with 'many good rooms', perhaps the local seat of the Docwras, had been removed soon after 1750 to the 20-a. Wrights close southeast of Fulbourn Manor. It was apparently rebuilt on that site c. 1803 as the existing Hall Farm, (fn. 265) whose brick casing covers a timberframed house of c. 1700, including some reused early 17th-century panelling. (fn. 266)

John Ansty, lord of Holmhall in Quy and steward of Zouches manor by 1435, (fn. 267) probably acquired an estate in Fulbourn, (fn. 268) which descended to his son and grandson, both named John, and passed with a lease of Barking abbey's manor from his great-grandson John Ansty to the latter's son Robert. (fn. 269) In 1509 Robert sold over 300 a. in Fulbourn with Aleyns manor in Teversham to feoffees for the newly founded Savoy Hospital, (fn. 270) whose Fulbourn lands, following its suppression in 1553, were granted in trust for St. Thomas's Hospital, London. (fn. 271) The 'Savoy' lands at Fulbourn, 253 a. of farmland before, (fn. 272) and 378 a. after, inclosure, (fn. 273) remained as Fulbourn Valley farm with that hospital until their sale in 1919 to the county council. (fn. 274)

Another considerable corporate property derived from one built up from the 1390s by William Newport (fn. 275) (d. after 1430) and his son John (fl. 1449). (fn. 276) Totalling over 140 a., it passed after 1460 to the Wrights (fn. 277) and c. 1480 to John Ormsby (fn. 278) of Maldon (Essex), (fn. 279) and from him in 1500 to feoffees for Queens' College (Cambridge). (fn. 280) That Fulbourn farm, long called Ormsbys, and covering in 1573, besides a 40-a. block of closes, 220 a. of arable, (fn. 281) for which c. 250 a. were allotted at inclosure, (fn. 282) remained with the college until sold to its tenant in 1948. (fn. 283) The former Queens' College farmhouse, recorded in 1460, (fn. 284) stands north of Church Lane. Dating from the 14th or 15th century, it is timberframed under a rendered brick casing, and retains internally the structure of a three-bayed hall with a wing to the rear; much of its crownpost roof survives. (fn. 285) Other Cambridge colleges with land in Fulbourn from the 16th century (fn. 286) included by 1515 Peterhouse which had 120 a. before, and 47 a. after, inclosure, which it still owned in 1990; (fn. 287) that land was once worked from an early 15th-century farmhouse on Balsham Road, whose open hall, with another crownpost roof, was altered c. 1600 by adding one bay and a jettied cross wing and inserting a floor throughout. (fn. 288) Gonville Hall, later Caius, and St. Catharine's colleges had by 1515 smaller holdings, probably then as c. 1800, of under 15 a. each. (fn. 289)