Chesterton: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES

Chesterton was probably the centre to which royal dues from the hundred named after it were rendered. It was still a royal demesne manor in 1066 and 1086, when it was assessed at 30 hides. (fn. 1) It remained in the king's hands, paying aids and tallages until c. 1200. (fn. 2) Its customary tenants insisted on their rights as tenants of ancient demesne until the late 16th century. (fn. 3) In 1564 they had Domesday Book searched in an attempt to secure exemption from taxes. (fn. 4)

In 1194 Richard I assigned part of the manor, valued at £10 a year, perhaps half the vill, to Saher de Quincy, later earl of Winchester, (fn. 5) who at some date gave his rights in Chesterton to Barnwell priory. (fn. 6) King John, after acknowledging the priory's right to £10 in alms from Chesterton, in 1200 agreed, in return for 50 marks, to grant the whole of CHESTERTON manor to the priory instead in fee farm for £30 a year. (fn. 7) Although the manor was formally taken into his hands in 1208, during the Interdict, (fn. 88) and made to pay tallage, (fn. 9) the priory probably remained in actual possession, for it regularly paid the farm at the Exchequer. (fn. 10) In 1217 Earl Saher obtained a grant of the whole fee farm, pending the settlement of his claim to recover the manor. (fn. 11) He died in 1219, and in 1240 his son Earl Roger released to Barnwell all claims to 180 a. and £3 of rent in Chesterton. (fn. 12) Thereafter Barnwell retained possession of the manor until the Dissolution. Its demesne, 170 a. in 1279, (fn. 13) was enlarged in the early 14th century by the incorporation of land and rents held of the manor, including 66 a. acquired in 1313. (fn. 14) The king renounced his right to tallage the vill in 1241. Thereafter the prior took the tallage for himself, successfully upholding his claim against a visiting royal collector in 1268. (fn. 15) He also established in 1332, following attempts by Hugh Despenser in the 1320s to dispossess him, that the privileges granted by John implicitly included free warren. (fn. 16) Of the fee farm, adjusted in 1227 from £30 blanch to £31 by tale, (fn. 17) two thirds was granted c. 1267 to a king's knight, William of Hastingtoft, whose family retained it until after 1278. (fn. 18) Between 1300 and 1360 the fee farm was usually included in the dowers of successive queens, (fn. 19) and from 1377 to the 1440s was used, mostly in fractions, to support royal kinsmen, officials, and household servants. (fn. 20) About 1445 Henry VI granted it in reversion to the King's Hall, Cambridge, to which it was confirmed in 1460 and later. (fn. 21) The Hall received it until the Dissolution, being compensated when the Crown sold the manor free of all charges in 1540. (fn. 22)

The then purchaser was Thomas Brakyn of Cambridge, thrice mayor, and four times its M.P. (fn. 23) He had obtained in 1535 a 99-year lease of the whole manor from the priory at a nominal rent. (fn. 24) Brakyn, who died in 1545, and his son and heir Richard (fn. 25) partly recouped the cost by selling land. Alienations by Thomas, including the ferry, c. 1543-5 (fn. 26) were partly recovered in 1554. (fn. 27) In 1562 Richard compelled the lawyer Geoffrey Swayne to surrender the considerable leaseholds granted by the priory to his father William, and to sell to Brakyn his 100 a. of freehold and copyhold. (fn. 28) Richard had sold over 100 a. in 1556-7, (fn. 29) and in the 1560s and 1570s he split up and alienated most of the 664 a. of the manorial estate remaining in 1567. Several leases for 60 years then covering 250 a. of its 450 a. of arable (fn. 30) had by 1582 been extended for terms of 99 to 180 years, at nominal rents, for men holding up to 80 a. each, and comprised, besides closes, c. 290 a. of arable, while similar leases, mostly of closes, were made for terms of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 years. (fn. 31) The probable purpose of those leases was, as was implied in 1622, to avoid feudal incidents. (fn. 32) At inclosure c. 100 a. were still held under leases, three of 1588, of 500-2,000 years. (fn. 33)

In 1574 (fn. 34) and 1581-2 Richard Brakyn created a substantial estate, including 80-150 a. of arable, for his son Thomas, who in 1588, having granted more 500-1,000-year leases, (fn. 35) sold 180 a. to Francis Ventris, (fn. 36) and died in 1592. In 1597 his son and heir Richard disposed of his remaining freehold, with his reversionary interests, mostly for 1,000 years, to one John Williamson. (fn. 37)

The elder Richard Brakyn and Thomas had sold the lordship of the manor with an arable demesne, reduced perhaps by 386 a., in 1582 to John Steward, (fn. 38) apparently acting for his brother Edward Steward of Teversham. Edward died in possession of the manor in 1596. His daughter and heir Joan married by 1598 Thomas Jermy (fn. 39) (kt. 1603) of Brightwell (Suff.), (fn. 40) and John Steward released his interest in the manor to them in 1600. (fn. 41) After Sir Thomas Jermy's death in 1618, (fn. 42) Joan retained the manor until she died in 1649. (fn. 43) In 1633 she had settled its reversion on her younger son Edward Jermy and his wife Mary Spencer. (fn. 44) Edward died in 1644. (fn. 45) Mary and her second husband William Astwood possessed Chesterton jointly with Edward's daughters Joan and Elizabeth between 1649 and 1658, (fn. 46) and occupied a seven-hearth house there in the 1660s. (fn. 47) Joan, who in 1659 married John Rant, a Cambridge lawyer, died in 1663. (fn. 48) Rant retained a half share of the manor until his death in 1696. He left it to his eldest son John, (fn. 49) to whom Elizabeth left her half at her death, unmarried, in 1713. (fn. 50)

John Rant the younger died in 1719, when the whole manor passed to his only surviving son Thomas, (fn. 51) who died without issue in 1754, leaving it to Edward Benson, the son of his sister Mary by John Benson. (fn. 52) After Edward's death in 1801, the estate descended first to his son John (fn. 53) (d. s.p. 1813), then to his three spinster daughters, of whom Rebecca died in 1828, Elizabeth the youngest c. 1829, Mary the eldest in 1840, all unmarried and childless. (fn. 54) Mary's will left the Chesterton manorial estate, which after inclosure comprised 562 a., to her solicitor Christopher Pemberton in trust for her remote kinsman Henry Benson, (fn. 55) descended from Edward's younger brother Thomas. (fn. 56) Henry, then of Aberystwyth (Cardig.), took possession in 1861 and died in 1877. His eldest son, the Revd. Henry Benson (d. 1890) left Chesterton in trust for his widow Anne Elizabeth. (fn. 57) The Bensons occasionally exercised their manorial rights over common land. (fn. 58) In 1927 their trustees, headed by Edward Benson, sold the lordship to R. W. Edleston, a speculator in manorial rights, who extinguished the remaining manorial incidents in the 1930s. (fn. 59) The trustees had already in 1909 sold Manor farm, 363 a. north-west of the village, (fn. 60) to the county council, which sold off 56 a. to the southeast for university and sporting purposes, and retained the rest, let as smallholdings, into the 1960s. In 1962 and 1967 most of Manor farm, 205 a., was sold to the city council for development. In 1982 the last 28 a. of Kings Hedges farm north of the railway were sold to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. (fn. 61)

About 1405 Barnwell priory was alleged by the customary tenants to have let the hall, chamber, and other buildings on its manorial farmstead fall into ruin. (fn. 62) Richard Brakyn included the manor house in the property which he settled on his son Thomas, who still possessed it at his death in 1592. (fn. 63) The modern manor house, probably on the same site, and standing at inclosure amid 16 a. of closes north-west of the church, (fn. 64) was rebuilt in the late 17th century, presumably by the Rants, who possessed it from the 1710s, but usually let it to farmers. (fn. 65) Its main south-west range in red brick, refaced in the 19th century, was of five bays. A west wing was added after 1800. Inside it retained in 1950 an original staircase and fireplace. A twostoreyed 18th-century summer house then stood in its garden. (fn. 66) Mary Benson left the house in 1840 away from the estate to her physician Henry Headley and his daughters. (fn. 67) After passing through various hands it came by 1880 to the Bells, local corn merchants, who occupied it into the 1960s. After Mrs. R. Clark of that family died, it became derelict and was demolished in 1971 and 20 old people's bungalows were built on the site. (fn. 68) The timber-framed 'Old Manor House' of c. 1700 standing south-east of the churchyard (fn. 69) was until inclosure the farmhouse of the manor farm. It belonged to the Pye group by 1976. (fn. 70)

By the 1250s some land was held of Chesterton manor by the lords of Impington. (fn. 71) In 1279, and perhaps until 1300, Peter de Chauvent, then lord of Impington, held 30 a. in Chesterton of Simon de Lisle. (fn. 72) Philip of Stanton, lord of Impington c. 1235, gave his daughter Amice on her marriage to William of Boxworth 55 a. in Chesterton with lordship over another 14 a. of arable. In 1279 the widowed Amice held it of Simon de Lisle under Barnwell priory, (fn. 73) to which her son Henry of Boxworth gave 23s. of rent by 1302. (fn. 74) As BOXWORTH fee attached to the manor, that estate retained its identity, its tenants paying a different scale of rents, into the late 16th century. (fn. 75) The Colvilles, heirs to the Stantons, also had land in Chesterton by 1303. Sir Henry Colville, who inherited 26 a. in 1317, (fn. 76) sold land in 1330 to Sir Thomas Heslarton, (fn. 77) who in 1354 sold the reversion of 50 a. there. (fn. 78) An estate called ROWSES, attached to the priory's manor by 1582, (fn. 79) was perhaps derived from the 'manor of Rowncliff', so styled in 1505, when the Bell family settled it with more than 60 a. (fn. 80)

The manorial ferry, alienated by the Brakyns in 1582 with over 50 a. of grass, probably the Great Church crofts south-west of the village, (fn. 81) was acquired in 1590 by Edward Ellis, (fn. 82) also lessee of the rectory by 1590, who came to reside at Chesterton. (fn. 83) In 1595-6 he left the ferry and crofts to his son Robert (fn. 84) (d. s.p. 1612). The estate probably remained in the Ellis family until the 1650s. (fn. 85) By 1800 the FERRY estate was reckoned a manor. (fn. 86) The crofts were acquired with c. 38 a. of copyhold before the 1750s by the Green family of Cambridge, (fn. 87) later Green de Freville of Great Shelford, who retained them into the 19th century, being allotted over 33 a. at inclosure. (fn. 88) The land was sold for building in 1886. (fn. 89)

Another estate, styled a manor in 1449, was that owned in the 15th century by a branch of the Lovells of Barton Bendish (Norf.), (fn. 90) who held land at Chesterton by 1415, (fn. 91) and perhaps by 1365. (fn. 92) Thomas Lovell of Enfield (Mdx.) owned it at his death in 1520. (fn. 93) In 1553 William Cook acquired 140 a. from another Thomas Lovell. (fn. 94) The Cooks' estate was among those built up in the late 15th and 16th century by local families rising from the yeomanry. Henry Cook, of a family established at Chesterton by 1400, (fn. 95) and possibly worth £120 in 1522, (fn. 96) died in 1535 as lessee to Clare College and probably of the Barnwell priory demesne, having just bought 80 a. His lands descended to his son, the lawyer William Cook, (fn. 97) later a judge. (fn. 98) William, besides renting the demesne under the Brakyns, (fn. 99) also served them as steward of the manor from 1546, (fn. 100) and, although he removed to Milton, had bought at least 260 a. in Chesterton by his death in 1553, when he owned c. 330 a. there in all. (fn. 101) He left the reversion of his ancestral lands there, still occupied by his mother Agnes, to his younger son Henry, (fn. 102) who had 76 a. of copyhold in 1576. (fn. 103) Henry also inherited William's acquisitions when his elder brother Thomas died in 1577, (fn. 104) save for 138 a. which Thomas had sold in 1572 to Dr. Thomas Lorkyn. (fn. 105) Henry was selling his Chesterton land from 1580, (fn. 106) and had probably alienated all of it by 1615. (fn. 107)

The Batisfords, formerly Cambridge burgesses, were landowners at Chesterton from the mid 15th century. (fn. 108) John Batisford (d. 1508) owned c. 350 a. there, including the 165 a. long possessed in the 14th century by the Chastelet family. John's property descended to his son Edward (fn. 109) (d. 1545), whose son John (fn. 110) died in 1556, owning c. 180 a. there besides closes. His son, another John, (fn. 111) of age c. 1570, had by 1582 bought at least 40 a. more of the Barnwell demesne. (fn. 112) When he died in 1628, his Chesterton lands, including 180 a. of arable, passed to his son John's daughter Elizabeth, (fn. 113) who married Humphrey Wingfield. Although they were unsuccessfully claimed by John Valence in a suit, which lasted until c. 1650, (fn. 114) Wingfield died c. 1670 ordering his Chesterton lands, c. 200 a. of arable and 50 a. of grass closes, to be sold. They were bought in 1671 by John Rant, (fn. 115) lord of Chesterton manor, with which they descended thereafter. (fn. 116)

The land of the Parishes, recorded at Chesterton from the 1470s, (fn. 117) who were the village's leading yeomen in the late 16th century, and enjoyed the patronage of the lord lieutenant, Lord North, (fn. 118) formed the basis of the Wragg estate, the largest in Chesterton after 1800. Thomas Parish, who succeeded his father and namesake in 1541, (fn. 119) bought 70 a. of demesne between 1547 and 1581, (fn. 120) also holding 76 a. of copyhold by 1576. (fn. 121) He died in 1584. His elder son and heir Thomas (fn. 122) removed to London, and between 1590 and 1595 sold all his freehold, and probably his copyhold, mostly to the proverbially famous Cambridge carrier Thomas Hobson, (fn. 123) who had in 1590 also acquired c. 100 a., once part of the Cook estate. (fn. 124)

Hobson, who, probably by 1608, assigned much of his Chesterton lands to his son Thomas (d. v.p. 1627), (fn. 125) at his death in 1631 left those lands, including over 300 a. of freehold, to Thomas's younger son Charles (fn. 126) (d. 1654 × 1657). Charles's son and heir Thomas (fn. 127) sold 380 a. of freehold in 1665 and his remaining 207 a. in 1672, all to William Morden, a Cambridge bookseller, (fn. 128) also transferring to Morden his c. 80 a. of copyhold. Morden died in 1679, leaving as heir his son John (d. 1683), whose brother and heir Charles (fn. 129) died in 1689, devising his lands, including 97 a. of copyhold, to his wife Susannah. By 1690 she had married John Pepys of Cambridge, settling the land on their issue. (fn. 130) By 1721 that estate belonged to their son Samuel Symonds Pepys (d. 1738). His sister and heir Susannah married Jones Redman (fn. 131) (d. 1759), a Hertfordshire gentleman, who left 245 a. of freehold and 67 a. of copyhold arable to Margaret Butler. By 1764 she had married John Chettoe of Berkhampstead (Herts.), (fn. 132) who on her death in 1767 succeeded to her land under her will. By 1772 he was married to Elizabeth Mason, to whom he in turn left it when he died after 1788. Upon her death in 1798 it was sold in 1799 to William Wragg, long its tenant, (fn. 133) and already a landowner at Chesterton.

At his death in 1804 Wragg left the former Chettoe lands to his eldest son William (d. 1829), who devised them to his widow Mary for her life. She survived their only child, a daughter (d. 1834), (fn. 134) and at inclosure in 1838 was allotted 328 a. for the 287 a. that she claimed. (fn. 135) Other land had passed after 1804 to William's younger son John (d. 1823). John's son William (d. 1859), (fn. 136) also Mary's tenant at inclosure, then owned c. 155 a. (fn. 137) His widow Elizabeth (d. 1884) married the Cambridge lawyer T. H. Naylor, who until the late 1870s acted as patron of many village activities. William's son Capt. Francis William Wragg, of age in 1865, also inherited Mary Wragg's lands in 1866, (fn. 138) but died without issue in 1876, (fn. 139) leaving all his property to his widow Johanna Cornelia. In 1879 she married Theodore Thomas Gurney (d. 1918). (fn. 140) Being childless, Mrs. Wragg Gurney had already before she died in 1922 given almost all her Chesterton lands, 403 a. north-west of the village, to St. John's College, Cambridge, of which Gurney had been a fellow. (fn. 141) The college sold much of the land for building in the 1930s, the rest after 1945. (fn. 142)

The Wraggs' home, Chesterton Hall, (fn. 143) standing at the west end of the village and basically of the early 17th century, was probably built by the Hobsons: the younger Thomas Hobson apparently lived at Chesterton in 1627. (fn. 144) Of red brick, the original main south front has two storeys and three bays, with mullioned and transomed windows, including a central oriel, all their stone dressings being renewed, and above them round-gabled dormers. A north wing behind has an octagonal north-west stair tower. The house was considerably remodelled in the mid 19th century, probably by T.H. Naylor, (fn. 145) to provide a more ornate front to the west, including a new porch and another rectangular stair tower north of the back wing. It was further enlarged after 1900. In 1945 it was acquired from St. John's College by the city council, which converted it into flats. (fn. 146)

The RECTORY estate was appropriated in 1227 to the abbey of St. Andrew, Vercelli (Italy). (fn. 147) It was probably reckoned a manor from the mid 13th century, courts being held for its customary tenants by the 1250s. (fn. 148) In 1279, when there were 55 a. of rectorial demesne, the tenants held c. 140 a. (fn. 149) At inclosure in 1838 53 a. of arable was claimed and 40 a. allotted for copyhold of that manor. (fn. 150)

In 1239 the abbey had leased its demesne to Barnwell priory, still in possession c. 1250, (fn. 151) but perhaps took direct possession of the church c. 1255. (fn. 152) For the next 150 years the rectory was controlled by its proctors, called rectors. Invariably Lombards and usually canons of Vercelli, they were normally resident by the 1280s, often serving for periods of 10-15 years. (fn. 153) The last, Andrew de Alice, appointed in 1365, (fn. 154) served until after 1406. (fn. 155) In his old age, he was given shelter by Barnwell priory, (fn. 156) which occupied the rectory as lessee by 1398; the abbey sued to recover it in 1406, (fn. 157) and the priory was styled parton in 1408. (fn. 158)

The abbey's possession was precarious owing to distance and local hostility. (fn. 159) It was occasionally treated as an alien priory after 1337, even though formally denizened in 1348 and 1405. (fn. 160) Attempts were therefore made to cede Chesterton to all-English religious bodies, to Waterbeach abbey in 1298, (fn. 161) to Denny abbey in 1348, (fn. 162) and to William of Wykeham for New College, Oxford, in 1391-2. (fn. 163) From 1416 to c. 1440 the abbey's proctors usually leased the church to Italians, some laymen, who in turn underlet it to Englishmen, including in 1425 a London mercer. (fn. 164)

St. Andrew's abbey finally lost Chesterton rectory after the abbot was deposed by the pope in 1439. The King's Hall, Cambridge, induced Henry VI in 1440 to request the pope's consent to its transfer to themselves, and to grant the necessary licences in mortmain. Although the papal grant was nominally temporary, (fn. 165) Chesterton church was formally reappropriated to the Hall between 1442 and 1444. (fn. 166) Attempts by the abbey to recover it in 1480 and 1558 came to nothing. (fn. 167) The King's Hall was incorporated in 1546 into the newly founded Trinity College, Cambridge. (fn. 168) The college, which bought some land from Richard Brakyn in 1559, (fn. 169) retained the rectory into the late 20th century. (fn. 170) For its rectorial glebe, reckoned as 60 a. c. 1330 and 71 a. in 1563, (fn. 171) and 90 a. at inclosure in 1838, 84 a. were then allotted, lying north of the railway line. (fn. 172) After 1870 the college bought another 50 a. to the south allotted at inclosure to the Wiles family. (fn. 173) The whole area became the college's Science Park after 1970. (fn. 174) The great tithes had been commuted in 1840 for a tithe rent charge of £500. (fn. 175)

The mid 14th-century Chesterton Tower, standing in a 21/2;-a. close north of the church, which had been occupied by the rectory house (fundus) since the 1250s, (fn. 176) was presumably built as the proctors' residence. It is rectangular, and built of rubble, dressed originally in clunch. (fn. 177) The north-west front has at each end an octagonal turret, that to the north containing a staircase, the other being corbelled out at first-floor level, while a garderobe projected at the south corner. The ground floor retains two windows with chamfered heads, and inside has a deep fireplace. Its single room is covered in two bays with a ribbed stone vault, some of the bosses being foliated, others bearing human heads. The college still owned the building in the 19th century. In 1875, when the vicar was occupying the grounds as a paddock, the Tower was repaired for use for public meetings and the Sunday school, (fn. 178) and served c. 1920 as a parish hall. (fn. 179) In 1949 the Tower, then derelict, was thoroughly restored with help from the Ministry of Works, further work following in 1964 and 1980. (fn. 180) In 1963 Trinity College sold the surrounding land for development with 35 flats, built c. 1965, but retained the Tower itself, which between 1961 and 1970 was occupied by a sculptor, from 1975 as offices. (fn. 181)

From the Middle Ages Chesterton was a favoured place for colleges to buy land. Between 1270 and 1278 Walter of Merton, perhaps not finally resolved where to site his new college, (fn. 182) bought the estate of the formerly prosperous Cambridge family of Dunning, including 24 a. of arable in Chesterton with lordship over another 10 a., which they had held freely under Barnwell priory, in part since 1200. (fn. 183) That land remained with Merton College's manor of Merton Hall in Cambridge, being usually kept in hand by the college until the mid 15th century. (fn. 184) It was occupied by leaseholders, among them the Batisfords, from the 1520s until after 1600, when the college still owned 38 a. in the parish. (fn. 185) By 1800 the manor comprised, besides 9 a. in two closes called Dunnings, 69 a. of copyhold, (fn. 186) 35 a. of which were still unenfranchised at inclosure. (fn. 187)

St. John's hospital, Cambridge, was given 15 a. in all in Chesterton in the early 13th century, including 6 a. from the Dunnings c. 1230, (fn. 188) and another 11 a. in 1391. (fn. 189) After it was refounded as a college, St. John's sold 18 a. to William Cook in 1552, (fn. 190) but in 1553 it retained 54 a. in two farms, one of 47 a. called Harlestons, given by Sir John Mordaunt, occupied by the Parishes c. 1550. (fn. 191) At inclosure the college was allotted 56 a. in the north, (fn. 192) which it still partly owned in the 1980s. (fn. 193) Other land given in 1323 and 1392 to chantries at St. Clement's (7 a.) and Great St. Mary's (11 a.) (fn. 194) was sold by the Crown in 1548 and later incorporated into the Parishes' estate. (fn. 195)

Clare College was buying land at Chesterton by 1446. (fn. 196) It owned 112 a. by 1600, (fn. 197) as at inclosure in 1838. (fn. 198) Of the 125 a. then allotted to it, (fn. 199) 87 a. near Milton were acquired for the sewage farm by 1927, (fn. 200) and 22 a. off the Huntingdon road for housing by 1923. (fn. 201) Gonville Hall had also acquired at least 9 a. by 1500, (fn. 202) which were perhaps augmented by a bequest from William Batisford (d. 1503) of the reversion of his land in trust for a chantry. (fn. 203) Its successor, Caius College, owned 33 a. before inclosure, (fn. 204) and sold the 30 a. allotted to it beside the Milton boundary for development between 1950 and 1959. (fn. 205) In 1556-7 St. Catharine's College bought from Richard Brakyn some closes and 72 a. of arable. (fn. 206) In 1838 it held 66 a., including 16 a. of closes, (fn. 207) and emerged with 79 a. in all, mostly adjoining Impington. (fn. 208) All but 14 a. had been sold by 1986. (fn. 209) Brakyn had also in or after 1559 sold 80 a. to Trinity Hall, (fn. 210) which by 1600 owned more than 76 a., (fn. 211) and 137 a. by 1838, (fn. 212) for which c. 135 a. were allotted. (fn. 213) Some land was sold for building in the 1930s, the rest still belonging to the college in the 1980s. (fn. 214)