Teversham : Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

Before 1066 two sokemen of Earl Aelfgar had 1½ hides at Teversham, and two men of Godwin 'Child' probably another hide, all of which passed after 1066 to Waleran son of Ranulf. By 1086 he or his son and successor John had also appropriated a third hide, bought before 1066 from Earl Aelfgar by the abbot of Ely. John's manor, at 3½ hides comprising half the vill, (fn. 1) did not pass with his barony to the Tanys: (fn. 2) it was held, probably from the early 12th century, with manors in Essex and Hampshire, by the grand serjeanty of serving as a marshal in the king's household. By 1166 Henry II had given Gillian, daughter of Robert Doisnel, heiress of that marshalcy, with her lands in marriage to William fitz Audelin, later his steward. After William died c. 1198, (fn. 3) Gillian's estates were claimed in 1199 by William of Warbleton and Ingram de Monceaux, as her coheirs, possibly collateral. About 1205 William divided those lands with Waleran de Monceaux, Ingram's successor and perhaps brother; each took half the Teversham manor. Warbleton as representing the senior line, and his successors as lords of WARBLETONS manor had lordship over Waleran's share, later DENGAINES manor. (fn. 4)

William of Warbleton's heir at his death in 1226 was Thomas of Warbleton. (fn. 5) Although c. 1235 the Warbleton part of Teversham, described as 3½ hides, was said to be held by a William of Warbleton, perhaps a younger son, supposedly of the honor of Richmond. (fn. 6) Thomas of Warbleton held it by the royal marshalcy serjeanty in 1260. (fn. 7) He probably died c. 1270. Under his successor another Thomas, son of William, of Warbleton (fn. 8) the Teversham manor was held by 1279 by another William of Warbleton, perhaps of a cadet line. (fn. 9) It was probably that William who in 1311 settled 180 a. there on the marriage of his son John Warbleton. John, a lord at Teversham in 1316, (fn. 10) who had substantial property there in 1327 (fn. 11) probably survived until 1349. (fn. 12) A Luke Warbleton had land at Teversham in 1366. (fn. 13) Richard Warbleton, recorded there 1394-1415, (fn. 14) was probably the Richard Warbleton of Teversham, who before 1415 had granted his Teversham lands to feoffees, including his kinsman William Cambridge or Warbleton, later alderman and mayor of London. Before his death in 1432 William settled those lands, reserving a remainder to himself, on the marriage of Richard's son Richard Warbleton, a London ironmonger, to whom William's son John Cambridge released Warbletons manor in 1434. The younger Richard Warbleton probably died in 1448, (fn. 15) having in 1439 granted the reversion of his lands in Teversham, Cherry Hinton, and Fen Ditton, including 300 a. of arable, to John Ansty the elder (d. 1456 × 1457), lord of Holmhall in Quy. (fn. 16)

John Ansty's son John, styled of Teversham since 1430, (fn. 17) at his death in 1460 left Warbletons and Bassingbourns manors, after his widow Joan's death, in tail male to his younger son Robert, already settled at Teversham, (fn. 18) who was still living in 1487. (fn. 19) Robert was possibly succeeded by Thomas Ansty of Teversham, mentioned in 1502. (fn. 20) In the 1510s Lionel Ansty, apparently a manorial lord, received quitrents there. (fn. 21) About 1550, however, it was alleged that Robert Ansty had left no sons, but only a daughter, Cecily. Her son John Mellersh then claimed Teversham manor against George Ansty, lord in 1552, who traced his title to the disputed lands, supposedly over 800 a., through Humphrey Docwra. (fn. 22) Apparently lord of Warbletons and Bassingbourns into the late 1560s, George Ansty, who conveyed those manors in 1559 (fn. 23) finally alienated them in 1570 to Edward Steward. (fn. 24)

When Steward died in 1596 his lands descended to his daughter Joan, who married Thomas Jermy (kt. 1603, d. 1618) of Brightwell (Suff.), with whom she settled Bassingbourns manor and over 200 a. in 1606. (fn. 25) About 1641 her Teversham lands were probably occupied by her second son Edward Jermy, buried there in 1644, whose issue were her heirs at law. (fn. 26) One of his daughters was buried at Teversham in 1663. (fn. 27) Before her death in 1649 Dame Joan Jermy had apparently settled a life interest in Teversham on her daughter Elizabeth (d. 1667), widow of Sir George Waldegrave, with remainder to John Barker, (fn. 28) her husband's kinsman. A baronet from 1652, Barker died in 1664. In 1676 his younger son Sir John, 4th Bt., newly of age, broke the entail on his Teversham estate. (fn. 29)

Those manors. called JERMY(N)S, belonged by 1693 to Thomas Watson, bishop of St. Davids. After he died in 1717, his Teversham lands descended to his brother William's unmarried daughter Mary (d. s.p. 1737) and then to her sister Joanna's son Thomas Watson Ward (d. 1750) of Wilbraham Temple. His widow Mary possibly possessed them into the 1770s. (fn. 30) Their son Thomas Watson Ward (II) mortgaged Warbletons and Bassingbourns in the early 1780s, (fn. 31) and finally sold his Teversham estate c. 1787 to William Loggan, an innkeeper of Shooter's Hill (Kent, later London). (fn. 32)

Loggan was dead by 1789, leaving as heirs his married daughters Mary Ware and Elizabeth Kerman. His widow Dinah retained a life interest in Teversham. In 1806-7, after a 20-year lawsuit, a Chancery decree provided that she should own it jointly with her husband's heirs at law. (fn. 33) Mary took over that estate by 1808 with her second husband John Pickett, (fn. 34) of Shoreditch (Mdx.), who then claimed paramount manorial rights for Warbletons over Dengaines manor. They also owned c. 45 a. of inclosures and 267 a. of fieldland. (fn. 35) Despite Pickett's objections Dengaines manor was effectively allowed in 1814 an equivalent in Cherry Hinton for half the manorial allotment for right of soil. (fn. 36) Under the award of 1815 Pickett and his wife were allotted c. 240 a. (fn. 37)

By 1823 that estate had passed to John Ware, presumably son of Mary's first marriage. By 1827 he shared it with another John Ware, possibly his son. Thomas Ware, the next owner by 1837, (fn. 38) of Hackney (Mdx.), was dead by 1874. His widow Elizabeth (fn. 39) apparently retained into the 1910s Ware's farm, covering in 1910 64 a., which by 1921 belonged to Lacon & Co., Cambridge brewers. (fn. 40) The Wares' other land, Hall, sometimes styled Manor, farm, c. 245 a., with Warbletons and Bassingbourns lordships, had been sold in 1875 to Thomas Coote (d. after 1904) of Fenstanton (Hunts.). (fn. 41) In 1906 Hall farm with the manorial rights were sold to Lewis Duke of Great Chishall (Herts.), who owned 252 a. in Teversham into the 1930s. (fn. 42)

About 1810 that part of John Pickett's estate called Bassingbourns included the ancient Teversham Hall. That house, possibly the one which in the 1660s contained 11 hearths, (fn. 43) had perhaps been rebuilt by Edward Steward, whose arms, quartering others, survived in its glass windows in 1744, when it was a farmhouse. Another freehold farmhouse was identified c. 1810 as Warbletons manor house. (fn. 44) The existing L-plan, two-storeyed house called Teversham Hall, standing south-east of the church, near what was probably the original centre of the village, was presumably erected c. 1837, when part of the old Hall was replaced with a new farmhouse and other buildings for the tenant. It is built of white brick and slated behind a corniced parapet. Its five-bayed south front has a projecting central pillared porch. (fn. 45)

The Monceaux share of the serjeanty fee, (fn. 46) later DENGAINES manor, passed, following Waleran de Monceaux's death, probably by the late 1210s, (fn. 47) to his son William, who died in 1243, holding land worth £10 in Teversham by knight service of Thomas of Warbleton. William's son and heir Waleran, then a minor in the king's ward, (fn. 48) had apparently, before 1279, given his Teversham manor in marriage with his daughter Alice to Sir Thomas Peverel. In 1280 Peverel sold that manor to Thomas, (fn. 49) whose father Ralph son of James of Balsham had held land at Teversham before 1243. Thomas, called variously of Balsham, of Teversham, and 'of the chamber', as chamberlain to Bishop Balsham of Ely, had a manor house at Teversham by 1275. In 1279 he held over 50 a. there, mostly recently purchased. (fn. 50) He died after 1285. (fn. 51) Another Thomas of the chamber, perhaps his grandson, when he married in 1311 settled his Teversham manor, including the reversion of the dower of his father Ralph's widow Agnes who had remarried. (fn. 52)

By 1316 the younger Thomas's manor had come to Parnel, widow of Richard Engaine (d. after 1310), whose family were already lords in Stow cum Quy. (fn. 53) Richard's son John, who had property at Teversham in 1327, (fn. 54) obtained in 1328 from Thomas's heir Margaret, wife of Simon Malory, a release of the reversion of Agnes's dower. (fn. 55) John D'Engaine, often described as of Teversham from c. 1340, who was active in local government, (fn. 56) died in 1363. (fn. 57) In 1350 he had settled the reversion of his Teversham manor, along with that in Stow, on William D'Engaine, also of Teversham, probably his younger son, and his wife Alice. (fn. 58) Thereafter Dengaines manor in Teversham descended in the Dengaine family with that in Stow (fn. 59) until its sale c. 1530 to Thomas Woodhouse. Sir Roger Townshend, who had bought the Dengaine estate from Woodhouse in 1537 gave it by exchange in 1538 to Gonville Hall (Cambridge), later Caius College. (fn. 60) The college, which still asserted its Teversham estate's manorial status at inclosure c. 1810-15, (fn. 61) retained that lordship in 1933. (fn. 62) From the 16th century to the mid 18th Dengaines farm had been reckoned to include c. 110-15 a. of arable. (fn. 63) At inclosure, when Caius College in 1810 claimed 138 a. of arable for it, besides 23 a. of old inclosures, it was allotted c. 148 a. of fieldland, Dengaines farm thereafter comprising c. 170 a. (fn. 64) The whole college estate, called Manor farm by the 1880s, (fn. 65) was occupied by the Foote family by 1904. (fn. 66) In 1952 the college sold the land to N. W. J. Foote, following whose retirement the 175-a. farm was again for sale in 1963. (fn. 67)

Manor Farm stands in the corner of a roughly rectangular moat; the once water-filled ditch which formerly bounded it was possibly the pond belonging to John D'Engaine in 1362. (fn. 68) The moat, with its spring, apparently rising by Long close, which in the 18th century covered almost 2½ a., (fn. 69) was still complete in 1815, part to the east being later filled in. (fn. 70) The twostoreyed house, largely brick-cased with tiled gabled roofs, incorporates a timber-framed, early 17th-century dwelling. In 1636 the 'mansion house' stood in the 20-a. Dengaines close. (fn. 71) Later, the homestall, garden and orchard, covering 2 a., lay centrally amidst almost 22 a. of old inclosed pasture. (fn. 72) Externally, no original features have survived the many alterations and additions made to the house in the 18th and early 19th centuries. (fn. 73)

In 1086 Count Alan, lord of Richmond, apparently possessed in demesne 1½ hides, previously belonging to two sokemen of Eddeva the fair, which were attached to his manor in Cherry Hinton, but had subinfeudated to Robert another hide at Teversham, once occupied by five other men of Eddeva. (fn. 74) The count's part was probably represented by the Teversham land later held of Hinton Upperhall manor. In 1249 Peter of Savoy, then lord of Richmond, had ceded his lordship over land in Teversham with his Hinton manor to the Cryoils, later Kyriels, with whom it remained later in the 13th century. (fn. 75) By 1235 the subinfeudated land in Teversham was held, as 1¼ hides, of the honor of Richmond by Warin Torchenesse (fl. 1240) and Ralph Matefrey. (fn. 76) Ralph's son Robert, his successor by 1253, was possibly dead by 1268. (fn. 77) A Robert Matfrey held in 1279 100 a. in Teversham under Robert de Romeley, who then held 200 a. of that honor. (fn. 78)

Tenure of land at Teversham under the honor of Richmond continued to be recorded in the 15th century. (fn. 79) but the tenants are not certainly identifiable. In 1810 land held of the Crown of that honor, mostly through two Hinton manors which extended into Teversham, yielded over £10 in quitrents, largely from John Pickett's BASSINGBOURNS manor. Then thought to be held of the honor of Richmond, and including Bassingbourns inclosures (12-14 a.) at the north-west end of the village, (fn. 80) the manor probably derived from part of the medieval Richmond fees. Land settled in 1434 with Warbletons had included a tenement called Bassingbourns or Cambridges, (fn. 81) possibly named from lands held in 1279 by Edmund of Bassingbourn, (fn. 82) and perhaps later owned by the Cambridge family. John of Cambridge, Teversham's largest taxpayer in 1327, had left a son, Thomas of Cambridge, who acquired in 1340 the reversion, after the deaths of William of Lavenham and his wife Joan, perhaps tenant in dower, of 140 a. there. (fn. 83) In the 1340s Thomas was allowed a private oratory at his Teversham manor house. (fn. 84)

Beorhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, killed in 991, had included property at Teversham among the lands that he bequeathed to the abbey of Ely, which probably received them after his widow Aelffaed died c. 1006. (fn. 85) In 1086 that bequest was represented by one hide held by that abbey, another acquired later having been seized by John son of Waleran. (fn. 86) The abbey's Teversham land was probably enfeoffed with lands in Fulbourn and Westley to the Valognes family. Agnes de Valognes was mesne lord over Teversham under the bishop of Ely before 1200, and her granddaughter Gunnore's husband Robert FitzWalter (d. 1235) in 1212, (fn. 87) as was Alexander Balliol in 1279 and c. 1302. (fn. 88)

William de Manners, heir of Eustace de Manners (fl. 1166), (fn. 89) was tenant in demesne at Teversham under Agnes before 1200. (fn. 90) By c. 1235 the Teversham Ely fee had been further subinfeudated to Robert de Manners, (fn. 91) who possibly survived until after 1270. (fn. 92) In 1279 it was held of William's successor, Sir Baldwin de Manners, as ½ and 1/18 knight's fee by Henry de Manners, who died after 1285. (fn. 93) He was succeeded by Philip de Manners, tenant in 1302-3 of ½ and 1/7knight's fee there. MANNERS manor, held, 1340-6, by Simon de Manners, (fn. 94) was by 1428 divided among six tenants, including John Ansty and a John Warbleton. (fn. 95)

Part at least of Manners manor was apparently incorporated in the reputed manor of ALLENS or Aleyns, possibly named after the Aleyn family, recorded in Teversham from the 13th century; (fn. 96) a John Aleyn of Teversham was active in local affairs in the 1380s. (fn. 97) In 1460 John Ansty (II), lord of Warbletons, devised Aleyns manor, as his father John had directed, to his own son John (d. 1477). John's son John Ansty (IV) died in 1501. (fn. 98) In 1509 his son Robert granted Aleyns and Manners manors with 300 a. in Teversham to feoffees, (fn. 99) probably for the newly founded Savoy hospital, London, to which Aleyns manor and Manners farm land belonged by 1535. (fn. 100)

Following the suppression of that hospital in 1553, its Teversham estate was granted the same year with other former Savoy lands, to the newly refounded St. Thomas's Hospital, London, controlled by the mayor and corporation of London. (fn. 101) In 1589 Manners and Allens lands in Teversham, once the Savoy's, supposedly comprised c. 125 a. in the open fields with c. 27 a. of closes, including Manners closes (7½ a.) somewhat east of Allens Farm. (fn. 102) That hospital, which in 1806 owned a farm along with Allens manor, (fn. 103) claimed in 1810, besides manorial rights in Teversham for Allens and Hinton Netherhall manors, a manor house and c. 162 a., including 29 a. of inclosed grass. (fn. 104) Though its claims to manorial status were not recognized at inclosure, (fn. 105) the hospital was allotted in 1815 c. 153 a. of fieldland. It retained its farm, 180 a. in all, (fn. 106) called St. Thomas's Hospital or Allens farm, throughout the 19th century. (fn. 107) The Arnold family, its tenants by 1910, had possibly bought the farm by the 1920s. In 1937 Allens farm was worked for G. P. Hawkins Ltd., bakers of Cambridge. (fn. 108) In 1953 George Hawkins put that 187-a. farm with its two-storeyed modern farmhouse and nursery gardens up for sale. (fn. 109) In 1589 Allens farmhouse had stood within 3½ a. of closes. (fn. 110) In 1815 the manor house and farmstead stood north-east of the green. (fn. 111)

From the 16th century Caius College owned other lands in Teversham, called WILLOWES. In 1502 Thomas Willows, a Cambridge glover, had devised his purchased lands, c. 79 a., in Teversham, Fen Ditton, Fulbourn, and Cherry Hinton, to Gonville Hall, for 99 years, to help maintain a fellow and bible clerk. (fn. 112) The Teversham portion, which, with other land in Fulbourn and Fen Ditton, became Willowes farm, was reckoned at various dates between 1502 and 1810 to contain, with a house and enclosed pasture, c. 65 a. of open-field land. (fn. 113) Some 45 a. allotted in 1815 to the college for its Willowes farm were newly leased to Robert Walker (d. c. 1822), who owned another 98 a. there. (fn. 114) In 1860 his grandson R. L. Walker of Teversham sold to Caius College c. 43 a. there, which were added to Willowes's farm, (fn. 115) let as 91 a. by 1873. (fn. 116) Other college purchases included in 1903 20 a. of Tunwell's, formerly Pomfrey's, farm, named from a family recorded at Teversham since 1686. (fn. 117)

In 1479 Edmund Teversham, a London grocer, granted his father Henry's lands at Teversham to feoffees, (fn. 118) apparently acting for the prior of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, who planned to endow a college of Austin canons at Cambridge with those 112 a. That scheme having failed, the Teversham land, which the next prior recovered from a feoffee in 1489, under a Chancery decree, after seven years, (fn. 119) was sold to feoffees for Chief Justice Sir William Hussey (d. 1495). His will of 1494 assigned it to endow a lectureship, to be held by fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge. (fn. 120) His son Sir John, having in 1512 procured a licence in mortmain, conveyed the estate, in all c. 95 a., to the college in 1517. (fn. 121) In 1810 Pembroke claimed c. 94 a. in Teversham, (fn. 122) for which in 1815 it was allotted c. 55 a. (fn. 123) It still owned c. 60 a. there in 1945, (fn. 124) later selling part in 1953 for road building, and part in the 1980s for housing. (fn. 125)

In 1810 Peterhouse, Cambridge, claimed 3 a. in Teversham, besides another 23½ a. for its Cherry Hinton rectory. (fn. 126) It was allotted altogether 21 a., which it still owned c. 1930, (fn. 127) attached by 1873 to its Cherry Hinton farm. (fn. 128)