Perivale: Manor

MANOR.

In 1086 3½ hides in Greenford, which in the time of King Edward had belonged to Ansgar the Staller, were held of Geoffrey de Mandeville. (fn. 1) A further half hide in Greenford was held in free alms of the king by Elveve, the wife of Wateman of London. This estate had been held in King Edward's time by Levric, the man of Earl Leofwine. (fn. 2) Part at least of these estates seems to have been situated in Perivale parish, although the subsequent descent of the holdings is obscure. Several holdings seem to have been consolidated during the 12th and 13th centuries to form the estate known in the early 14th century as the manor of LITTLE GREENFORD or CORNHILL. Lands in Perivale which together may have formed the basis of the manor were acquired by the Hinton family during the early 13th century and held by it of the honor of Mandeville until at least 1245. (fn. 3) The Hinton estate appears to have passed to the Ruislip family of Northolt in the late 13th century. Early in 1307 the brothers Hugh and Simon Ruislip conveyed the property, then called the manor of Greenford, with appurtenances in Ealing and Harrow, to Walter de Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. (fn. 4) Langton was imprisoned in July 1307 and his estates confiscated by Edward II. (fn. 5) Although he petitioned the king on his release in 1309, Langton was not restored to his estates. (fn. 6) The king retained the manor of Little Greenford until 1313, when he granted it to Henry Beaumont (d. 1341). (fn. 7) Henry Beaumont was succeded by his son John who died in 1342. The manor then comprised a ruinous messuage, 120 a. of arable, 5 a. of underwood, and a windmill, held of the honor of Mandeville. (fn. 8) Members of the Beaumont family continued to hold the manor (fn. 9) until 1386 when Sir John Beaumont quitclaimed it to Thomas Charlton of Folkingham (Lincs.). (fn. 10) At some time after Charlton's death in 1410 Little Greenford passed to Thomas and Henry Frowyk, two London mercers, and others. In 1429 they conveyed the manor to another Thomas Charlton, who was possibly a nephew of the first Thomas. (fn. 11) By 1435 the manor was in the possession of one William Hall, who in that year conveyed it to William Eastfield (d. 1438), another mercer, and twice Mayor of London. (fn. 12) The descent of the manor during the remainder of the 15th century is obscure, but the right of presentation to the rectory, which seems always to have been included in grants of the manor, was exercised by John Middleton (1453), John Bohun (1472, 1473), and Henry Collet (1490). (fn. 13) On his death in 1516, Little Greenford was in the possession of Sir Robert Southwell. (fn. 14) He was succeeded by Sir Humphrey Browne (d. 1562), a judge of the Common Pleas, who owned the manor at least from 1521 to 1559. (fn. 15) In 1566 Roger Townsend, who was probably Browne's grandson, sold what was then called the manor of Perivale or Little Greenford to Henry Millett, who also held land in Greenford parish. (fn. 16) Subsequently the manor descended in the Millett family, and by the female line to the families of Lane and Harrison. (fn. 17) In 1767 John Harrison sold the manor, which then comprised the whole parish with the exception of Manor Farm, to Richard Lateward (d. 1777). (fn. 18) He devised the property to his greatnephew John Schrieber, who assumed the name of Lateward, and held the manor until his death in 1814. John Lateward (Schrieber) was succeeded by his son Richard who died in 1815. The manor of Little Greenford then descended to Richard Lateward's daughter, Sophia Jane (d. 1890), and then by the female line to the Croft-Murray family, descendants of Sophia Jane Lateward by her first husband, Sir Thomas Croft. (fn. 19) The manor remained in the hands of the Croft-Murray family until the 1920s when the estate was broken up and sold for building purposes.

There appear to have been two manor sites within the boundaries of the ancient parish. Nothing is known of the partially moated site on the lower slope of Horsenden Hill immediately north of the Paddington Canal. (fn. 20) The site may be identifiable with a capital messuage which was ruinous in 1342. (fn. 21) A further site west of the church on land which in 1963 formed part of Ealing Golf Course was still partially moated in the early 20th century. (fn. 22) A manor-house, possibly of Tudor date, was still standing on this site in 1746. (fn. 23) In the late 18th century the house was said to be a three-story structure of red brick. It seems to have been demolished about 1780. (fn. 24)