Harrow, including Pinner : Manors

MANORS. (fn. 1)

In 767 Offa, King of Mercia 757–96, granted 30 hides (manentes) between Harrow and the Lidding to Abbot Stidberht in exchange for land in Wycombe (Bucks.). An extra 6 hides and a dwellinghouse east of the brook were added as a gift. (fn. 2) Although the charter was confirmed in 801 by Pilheard, an under-king of Cenwulf, King of Mercia 796–821, and although Cenwulf exempted the land from royal taxes and services, (fn. 3) the property had returned to the royal house by 824. At the Council of Clovesho, Cwenthryth, Abbess of Southminster (Kent) and daughter of Cenwulf, agreed to surrender 100 hides in Harrow, Herefrething Land, (fn. 4) Wembley, and Yeading in reparation for her father's spoliation of archiepiscopal property. Beornwulf, King of Mercia 823–5, agreed to free (liberabat) all of the property which had not been freed in 801, and Cwenthryth was instructed to deliver her landbooks to the archbishop, although she failed to hand over three hides and the books for 47 hides. In 825 the second Council of Clovesho ratified her reconciliation with Archbishop Wulfred, which was bought with the landbooks, 4 more hides at Harrow and 30 hides in Kent. (fn. 5) Wulfred gave the Harrow lands to his kinsman, Werhard, a priest, for life. Werhard in 845 exchanged one hide at Roxeth, formerly belonging to Greenford township, with Werenberht the thegn, (fn. 6) and devised the land to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. Harrow was held by King Harold's brother, Earl Leofwine, in 1066, but Canterbury regained it after the Conquest. When the Canterbury lands were divided by Lanfranc between the archbishop and Christ Church, Harrow and Hayes were allotted to the former. (fn. 7)

Except sede vacante, when it was administered by the Crown, (fn. 8) HARROW manor was held by the archbishops until Cranmer was forced to exchange it with Henry VIII on 30 December 1545. Six days later, the king sold it to Sir Edward (later Lord) North (d. 1564), Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations. (fn. 9) Dudley (d. 1666), the 3rd baron, who, according to Camden, 'consumed the greatest part of his estate in the gallantries of King James's court', (fn. 10) sold Harrow manor in 1630 to Edmund Phillips and George and Rowland Pitt. (fn. 11) In 1636, after Phillips's death, Rowland Pitt quitclaimed his interest to George Pitt (d. c. 1653) (fn. 12) and his heirs. (fn. 13) George Pitt's son, Edmund, was dead by 1666 and the manor descended to Edmund's daughter, Alice, and her successive husbands, Edward Palmer (fn. 14) and Sir James Rushout, Bt. (d. 1698). (fn. 15) In spite of an attempted sale in 1764 (fn. 16) it remained with the Rushouts, who acquired the barony of Northwick in 1797, until the 3rd baron, Sir George Rushout-Bowles, died in 1887. (fn. 17) His relict, Lady Elizabeth Augusta, sold some of the estate (fn. 18) but on her death in 1912 the bulk passed to her grandson, Capt. E. G. Spencer-Churchill. He sold the remaining land in the 1920s (fn. 19) but retained the manorial rights until his death in 1964, (fn. 20) when they passed to his executors. (fn. 21)

Until the creation of Rectory manor, which is discussed below, (fn. 22) 'Harrow manor' described both manorial rights over the whole area and the chief demesne farm in the centre of the parish. To distinguish it from the Rectory estate at Harrow-on-theHill, the demesne was, from the 14th century, called SUDBURY manor or SUDBURY COURT. (fn. 23) Its descent followed that of Harrow manor. Sudbury manor in the Middle Ages comprised about 620 a. and a grange, which may have been the archbishop's original residence since it included a chapel. (fn. 24) It was leased out from the late 14th century and afterwards divided into several farms, of which Sudbury Court Farm remained the most important. (fn. 25) Although there were traces of an earlier building, (fn. 26) the farm-house which stood on the north side of Sudbury Court Road until its demolition in 1957 dated from the late 16th or early 17th century, with additions made in the 18th century, 1842, and 1888. (fn. 27)

A second demesne farm, WOODHALL manor, consisting of a grange and 312 a. in north Pinner, (fn. 28) existed by 1236. (fn. 29) It descended with Harrow manor until 1630 when the manorial rights (fn. 30) were combined with those of Harrow and Sudbury and sold to Edmund Phillips and the Pitt brothers, while the demesne farm was sold to William Pennifather (d. 1658), Sheriff of London and lord of Northolt manor. (fn. 31) In 1637 Pennifather conveyed Woodhall to William Wilkinson. It passed to Wilkinson's grandson, Henry Neville, but in 1754 Margaret Conyers and her nephew Cosmo Neville were ejected by the heir of Anthony Collins, sole surviving trustee of a settlement made by Wilkinson in 1655. Under this settlement Woodhall was sold in 1760 to John Lawes, who six years later alienated it to John Drummond. In 1795 the estate was held in trust for Drummond's grandson, George, (fn. 32) who was in possession in 1817. (fn. 33) In 1864 it was held by A. W. Tooke, of Pinner Hill. (fn. 34) Although the land was sold for modern housing, the farm-house, built in the early 19th century on the site of a 16th- or 17th-century predecessor and containing a Tudor fireplace, still stood to the west of Woodhall Drive in 1968. (fn. 35)

Although there was a small settlement at Headstone by the early 14th century, most of the land was probably still held by the de la Hegge or de la Haye family who had an estate there in the 13th century. (fn. 36) During the 1330s it passed to Robert Wodehouse, Treasurer of the Exchequer and Archdeacon of Richmond, (fn. 37) who in 1338 owed suit of court as tenant of the archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 38) In 1344 Wodehouse (d. 1346), (fn. 39) granted a messuage, three carucates of land, 20 a. of meadow, 5 a. of wood, and 24s. rent in Harrow to the archbishop in mortmain. (fn. 40) By 1348 this was described as the manor of HEADSTONE, 'de novo perquisitum'. (fn. 41) Headstone manor, a grange and 235 a., descended with Harrow manor until 1630 (fn. 42) when its manorial rights were detached and sold with Harrow and Sudbury manors. Headstone Farm was bought by Simon Rewse, the lessee. In 1647 it was sequestered by the Middlesex Committee for Compounding but in 1649 the order was discharged and the estate was sold to William Williams. He sold it in 1671 to Sir William Bucknall, in whose family it remained at least until 1823. (fn. 43) At inclosure the estate comprised a block of 388 a. between the Weald and Pinner. (fn. 44) By 1854 it was divided equally between Frederick Harrison and William Bush Cooper. Portions were alienated during the 19th century and in 1874 the rest of Harrison's portion, then consisting of the manor-house and 189 a., was conveyed to Edward Christopher York (d. 1885). York's executors sold some land in 1899 but the house and 148 a. were conveyed to his son, Edward, in 1922. Edward York sold the house and 63 a. in 1925 to Hendon R.D.C. for recreational uses. (fn. 45) The house, known until after the Second World War as Moat Farm, was occupied by the head groundsman in 1968. (fn. 46)

Headstone manor-house, a 'well-built site' in 1397, (fn. 47) replaced Sudbury as the archbishop's main Middlesex residence. By 1367 there was a chapel, (fn. 48) which was removed during rebuilding in 1488–9. (fn. 49) The house, which still stood within its moat in 1968, is largely timber-framed. At the centre a two-storied medieval wing survives, its steeply pitched gableend facing north-east. It contains an original roof of three bays with collar purlin, crown-posts, and heavy arch-braced tie-beams. The date 1501 is marked out in bricks at the rear of the house but most of the structure was rebuilt late in the 16th century. The single-storied south-east block, the socalled chapel, is of this date, but it may occupy the site of one bay of the original open hall. Much of the house was faced with red brick in the 18th century and it is possible that the south-east block was truncated at this period. The north wing and the tall clustered shafts of the chimney date from the 17th century. South-west of the house is a timberframed and weather-boarded barn of ten bays, dating from c. 1600. (fn. 50)

The last of the demesne estates, (fn. 51) PINNER PARK, was never a manor in the same sense as Sudbury, Woodhall, and Headstone. (fn. 52) First mentioned in 1273–4, it was a wooded area of approximately 250 a., enclosed by a bank and double ditch. (fn. 53) A house was built there by 1560 and the park transformed into a farm soon afterwards. (fn. 54) It descended with Harrow manor until 1630 when it was sold to Thomas Hutchinson (d. 1656) of London and his son, John. (fn. 55) John Hutchinson was in possession in 1674, (fn. 56) but Pinner Park had left the family before its purchase in 1731 by St. Thomas's Hospital. (fn. 57) The hospital leased out the estate as a farm until 1931, when 250 a. were sold to the local authority. (fn. 58) A small portion was conveyed to the R.S.P.C.A. in 1936 but the rest was from 1937 leased to the Hall family, (fn. 59) formerly tenant-farmers of Headstone. (fn. 60) The brick farm-house and extensive out-buildings of brick and timber date mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

ROXETH manor originated in freehold land held by the Roxeth family. (fn. 61) Hamo and Hugh Roxeth (de Rokeseie) were mentioned in 1233–40 (fn. 62) but the estate was united in the hands of John Roxeth by 1319. (fn. 63) After William Roxeth was outlawed, the estate (166 a. and 45s. rent), escheated to the archbishop, who in 1371 granted it in tail to Sir Nicholas Brembre, Mayor of London and lord of Northolt manor. (fn. 64) After Brembre's attainder in 1388 an apparently unsuccessful action for novel disseisin was brought against his widow, Idony, by John Dereham and his wife Joan, who was William Roxeth's sister. (fn. 65) The property had reverted to the archbishop before 1430 when he leased it out on the same terms as his demesne estates. (fn. 66) Roxeth, by 1514 called a manor, (fn. 67) probably passed in 1546, when it consisted of 67 a. of inclosed and 130 selions of openfield land, (fn. 68) to Sir Edward North, who still leased it out in 1553. (fn. 69) In 1630 it was sold with Pinner Park to the Hutchinsons (fn. 70) and in 1678 John Hutchinson sold the manor of Roxeth Place (151 a.) to Thomas Smith and Robert Nichols. (fn. 71) After Chancery litigation it was conveyed in 1727 by devisees under the will of Thomas Nichols (d. 1705) to Thomas Brian, headmaster of Harrow School. The descent thereafter is obscure. In 1764 Brian Taylor alienated the estate to Percival Hart (d. 1773), distiller of Brentford, (fn. 72) whose widow held one-third in dower in 1795, when the remainder was held jointly by Emma, wife of David Garrick, (fn. 73) and Mary, relict of Charles Vaughan Blunt, presumably Hart's daughters. (fn. 74) In 1817 Mary Blunt had 150 a. in Roxeth, mostly in the open fields, together with a large building at the southern end of Northolt Road. (fn. 75) It was marked more prominently than were the buildings and rickyard held by her trustees in 1852. (fn. 76) The manor-house itself, with most of the estate, apparently lay elsewhere. In 1805 George Watlington claimed for the manor of Roxeth, including 110 a. of inclosed and 136 a. of open-field freehold. (fn. 77) The greater part was probably 113 a. of inclosed and 53 a. of open-field land in Roxeth, owned in 1817 by Henry Greenhill and in 1852 by Richard Chapman. The property included a square-moated site, well back from the road, west of the junction of Northolt Road and Roxeth Hill. Described in 1852 as 'homestall and ponds', it was almost certainly the site of the medieval Roxeth Place, (fn. 78) which had disappeared by 1547. (fn. 79) In 1873, when Chapman still owned 159 a., the site was in the grounds of his house, the Grange. (fn. 80)

Harrow was in many ways a classic manor, with a central demesne surrounded by customary land and fringed, at least on the east, by freehold estates. In the north-east, on the boundary with Stanmore, was BENTLEY PRIORY, an Augustinian house dependent upon the priory of St. Gregory, Canterbury, a foundation of Lanfranc. Bentley was probably founded in the early 13th century, (fn. 81) almost certainly by an archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 82) The estate, described as one plough-land (fn. 83) and leased out by 1502, (fn. 84) was in 1535 valued at £4 10s. a year. (fn. 85) From c. 1510 there was apparently no prior or chaplain (fn. 86) and Bentley was probably little more than a source of income for St. Gregory's. (fn. 87) When St. Gregory's was dissolved in 1536, its property was granted to Archbishop Cranmer in exchange for land at Wimbledon and elsewhere, (fn. 88) but in 1542 he was forced to give these lands back to the king. (fn. 89) In 1546 the buildings and lands of the former Bentley priory were granted to Henry Needham and William Sacheverell, (fn. 90) who in the same year conveyed them to Elizabeth Colte. (fn. 91) The estate remained with the Colte family until between 1629 and c. 1642, when it passed to Henry Coghill. (fn. 92) It was left in 1734 by Thomas Coghill to his nephew Thomas Whittewrong, from whom it passed in 1761 to John Bennet. (fn. 93) In the following year Bennet sold an interest in Bentley to William Waller and in 1764 a subsidiary interest in land in Harrow, Little Stanmore, Pinner, and Edgware to John and Samuel Rudge. (fn. 94) Waller bought further interests in that part lying in Great Stanmore and Harrow in 1775, (fn. 95) and soon alienated his whole estate to James Duberly, who in turn sold it to John James Hamilton, Marquess of Abercorn (d. 1818), in 1788. (fn. 96) The estate, heavily mortgaged, was sold in 1857 to John Kelk (later Sir John Kelk, Bt.), a builder and railway engineer. (fn. 97) In 1882 Bentley Priory was acquired by Frederick Gordon, who unprofitably turned it into a residential hotel. After Gordon's death it became a private boarding school for girls, which was closed in 1924. In 1926 a syndicate bought about 240 a., part of which was used for building. The county council bought about 90 a., including the park, for inclusion in the green belt. A leasehold interest in this part was acquired by Harrow U.D.C. in 1936. The house with 40 a., was sold to the Air Ministry, which used it from 1936 as the administrative headquarters for Fighter Command, later Strike Command. (fn. 98) In 1943 Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command, 1936– 40) was created Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory. (fn. 99)

The medieval priory probably stood near the site of Priory House, a 16th-century timbered farmhouse near Clamp Hill. (fn. 100) Further north, on higher ground, James Duberly built a house, which was altered and enlarged c. 1788–99 by Sir John Soane. (fn. 101) Lysons in 1795 thought it 'a noble mansion, in which convenience is united with magnificence' but in 1816 Brewer considered it 'an irregular range of brick building, destitute of architectural beauty, and of rather a gloomy character'. Its present appearance owes more to the 19th century, when a high clocktower was added and the exterior was remodelled in the 'Italian' style; internally, however, a staircase and several rooms by Soane have survived. (fn. 102)

The manor of UXENDON, first so named in 1373, (fn. 103) consisted of a collection of interests and property on the eastern borders of Harrow parish. In 1357 Simon Francis, mercer of London, died seised of considerable property in Middlesex, including tenements in Harrow held of the Archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 104) The estate passed to his son, Thomas (d. 1368) and to Alice, Thomas's widow, for life, with reversion to his sister, another Alice, wife of Sir Thomas Travers. In 1376 Sir Thomas's brother, Richard Travers, clerk, quitclaimed the reversionary interest to Sir Nicholas Brembre, (fn. 105) but the property was held in dower by Maud, Simon Francis's widow, from 1357 until her death in 1384. In 1385 Brembre acquired 2 hides in Preston from John Legge, a head tenant who had granted them to the Francis family, possibly on lease. (fn. 106) Another Preston family, the Dickets, granted their land in 1352 to Thomas Barnebieu, chaplain, who enfeoffed John Maselyn with it. The title passed to Maselyn's cousin, a clerk of the same name, who quitclaimed his interest to Brembre in 1384. (fn. 107) In that year Brembre settled much Middlesex property, including Uxendon manor, upon himself for life, with reversion to the grantors and to the heirs of Thomas Bere, parson of St. Michael Paternoster. After Brembre's attainder the manor, then worth £6 13s. 4d., was occupied by Thomas Goodlake in Bere's name, (fn. 108) but it escheated to the Crown and in 1394 was sold to Goodlake, (fn. 109) a London citizen who had other property in the district. (fn. 110) Although John Hadley died seised of an interest in 1410, (fn. 111) the capital interest descended to Goodlake's daughter, Thomasine (d. 1429), who married Sir John Boys (Boyce or Bosco) (d. 1447). (fn. 112) John Legge surrendered a hide in 1416 and John Weald surrendered ½ hide in Preston (called Bugbeards) in 1422 to the use of Sir John and Thomasine, (fn. 113) and the Boyses' copyhold land was described as 1½ hide in Preston and 1 hide in Uxendon until 1459. (fn. 114) John Boys's estate in Harrow and Kingsbury was worth £5 in 1412, (fn. 115) but although the family held the freehold of Uxendon manor, (fn. 116) there is no description of it before 1516. The freehold then comprised a carucate formerly belonging to Richard Uxendon, three hides and three virgates formerly belonging to Richard atte Oke, (fn. 117) and a virgate formerly belonging to Adam Aylward. The copyhold was ½ hide formerly Michael Uxendon's, ½ hide formerly Alice Uxendon's, a hide 'late John Lyon', (fn. 118) and two hides formerly John Preston's. The total property was estimated at about 1,000 a. (fn. 119) All these people, save Lyon, had held land in Preston and Uxendon in the 13th and 14th centuries. (fn. 120)

On Thomas Boys's death in 1516, all the property passed to his daughter, Mabel, the wife of Richard Bellamy. (fn. 121) The estate, although heavily mortgaged, remained with the Bellamys, until another Richard Bellamy conveyed his remaining interests to Joan Mudge and William Mascall in 1603. (fn. 122) Mascall quitclaimed to Joan Mudge in the same year and by 1608 Uxendon manor was in the hands of her sonin-law, Richard Page. (fn. 123) The Preston property, 80 a. around Preston or Preston Dicket manor-house, (fn. 124) was in 1603 delivered to Stanwardine Passey, one of Bellamy's creditors, but in 1609 it was acquired by Richard Page. (fn. 125) Part was held by Edward Halsey in 1770 (fn. 126) and the rest was sold to the Bocket family before 1799. (fn. 127) At inclosure Martha Bocket and Mary Halsey had a farm-house and 72 a. of freehold at Preston. (fn. 128) By 1629 the Kenton portion of Uxendon manor had been alienated to Robert and Thomas Walter and merged in their other Kenton estate. (fn. 129) This passed to the Grahams at the beginning of the 18th century (fn. 130) but in 1797, (fn. 131) 1802, and 1803 their estate, 70 a. of inclosed meadow and 90 a. of common-field land, was broken up and sold. (fn. 132)

The Uxendon part of the estate, however, remained intact in the hands of the Page family and in 1817 consisted of 413 a. of inclosed land and 202 a. allotted in lieu of open-field land, north of Forty Lane and west of Blind Lane and Preston Road. (fn. 133) On the death of Richard Page in 1803 Uxendon manor passed to his brother Francis, who died unmarried in 1810, leaving his brothers William and Henry as his heirs. Henry Page married in 1813, when he and William entered into a conveyance for uses with Francis Fladgate, a solicitor. Fladgate died in 1821, followed three years later by William Page, who had never married, leaving Henry Page in possession. There is no evidence that Henry Page left any heir, but Henry Young of Essex Street, a junior partner of Fladgate, apparently obtained a deed of bargain and sale by fraud from Henry Page, who was of weak intellect and frequently drunk, in 1825. Page confirmed the deed in his will and when he died in 1829 Young entered into Uxendon, which he enjoyed until his death in 1869. He left instructions that the estates were to be sold for the benefit of his wife and children. (fn. 134) By 1914 the house was being used by the Lancaster Shooting Club. (fn. 135) It fell into decay and in 1933 the railway line from Wembley Park to Stanmore was built across the site. (fn. 136)

WEMBLEY manor originated in the estate in Wembley, Tokyngton, and Alperton which was acquired by the priory of Kilburn from the Huscarl and Tokyngton families. (fn. 137) William Huscarl, who paid £2 15s. annual rent for his lands to the archbishop in 1236, (fn. 138) granted 94 a. to the priory of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, in 1236 (fn. 139) and 133 a. and £2 0s. 10d. rents to Kilburn in 1243. (fn. 140) A dispute between Kilburn and St. Helen's in 1249 suggests that the latter's Harrow property passed to Kilburn. (fn. 141) The most important grant to Kilburn, however, was probably that made by Ralph Tokyngton in 1246–7. (fn. 142) A Ralph Tokyngton (de Tockint'), who held 1¹/6 knight's fee in Hayes, Southall, and Tokyngton c. 1171, (fn. 143) may have descended from one of the three knights who held 6 hides in Harrow in 1086. (fn. 144) Godfrey Tokyngton in 1210–12 held ¼ knight's fee, (fn. 145) which appears to have passed to Ralph by 1230. (fn. 146) In 1334 the Prioress of Kilburn did homage for 1 hide and 1 carucate of arable and 4 a. of meadow (fn. 147) which were held by fealty, suit of court, service, and £3 8s. rent. (fn. 148) After the Dissolution, however, Wembley was said to have been held by the priory in chief by service of 1/20 knight's fee and rent. (fn. 149) The total value of Kilburn's property in Wembley and Tokyngton in 1535 was £8 10s. 6d., made up of the farm of the manor, rents, profits from woods, and perquisites of court. (fn. 150) In 1542 the annual value of the manor of Wembley was given as £7 7s. (fn. 151)

Kilburn Priory was dissolved in 1536 (fn. 152) and in 1542 all its former lands in Wembley and Tokyngton were granted to Richard Andrews of Hailes (Glos.) and Leonard Chamberlain of Woodstock (Oxon.). They regranted the property in the same year to Richard Page, whose family had leased it from before the Dissolution. (fn. 153) Richard Page, the lessee of Sudbury Court, was licensed in 1547 to lease Wembley manor to Thomas Page, his son. (fn. 154) The manor was usually held in the Page family by the eldest son of the lessee of Sudbury Court. (fn. 155) Dairy Farm and 134 a. stretching southwards to the Brent, bounded on the east by the Harrow road and on the west by Alperton common fields, were sold by Richard Page in 1803 to Samuel Hoare. (fn. 156) In 1852 they were owned by Henry Hoare. (fn. 157) In 1910, when it was offered for sale as building land, Dairy Farm was called the Curtis estate. (fn. 158) The rest of Wembley manor was sold to John Gray. (fn. 159) The estate, which at inclosure consisted of 327 a. between Wembley and Forty greens, (fn. 160) passed to his son, the Revd. Edward Gray, who sold part of it to the Metropolitan Railway Co. in 1881. The remaining 280 a. were sold by his executors to Sir Edward Watkin in 1889. (fn. 161) In 1905 James Page, who stated that he was the heir of Henry Page, claimed the Wembley Park estate from the Metropolitan Railway and the Tower Co. Ltd., but the companies based their title on the sale to John Gray and the case was dismissed. (fn. 162)

The head of the Page family of Wembley seems to have lived in Wembley House, south of Wembley Green, first mentioned in 1510 (fn. 163) and occupied in 1781 by Richard Page and later by John Gray. (fn. 164) The farm-house or Dairy in 1547 stood north of Wembley Green and south of the brook, (fn. 165) but it was later built to the east of Wembley House. (fn. 166) In 1810 John Gray built the White House, a mansion with two wings, a stucco front and Doric portico, (fn. 167) at Wembley Park. The house was used as a nunnery from 1905 until its demolition in 1908. (fn. 168)

TOKYNGTON or OAKINGTON manor (fn. 169) originated in a freehold estate built up by the Barnville family from the end of the 13th century. (fn. 170) In 1317 John Barnville received rents, nearly 100 a. and the advowson of Tokyngton chapel from Richard the Fair (le Blound). (fn. 171) Most of the estate was in Tokyngton, where it seems to have been interspersed with the Kilburn lands and Freren. (fn. 172) Part of it may originally have lain in Kingsbury and it was the only estate within Harrow parish of which the Archbishop of Canterbury was not overlord. In 1272 the overlordship of Edgware and Kingsbury manor was said to extend to Tokyngton (fn. 173) and from 1426 the estate appears in Kingsbury rentals as 100 a. of free land held from Edgware manor for 1d. rent a year. (fn. 174) When the Barnvilles leased Kilburn's Tokyngton property in the late 14th century, they apparently tried to create a single estate and it was only after prolonged litigation that Kilburn retained its lands in 1401. (fn. 175) In 1456 the Barnvilles tried to extend their estate by leasing the demesne of Kingsbury manor. (fn. 176) John Barnville was dead by 1482, when the Tokyngton estate was held by his daughter, Elizabeth, and her first husband Sir Thomas Frowyk, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. (fn. 177)

Frowyk died in 1506 (fn. 178) and Elizabeth had remarried by 1508 (fn. 179) when she and her second husband, Thomas Jakes, conveyed an interest, possibly a reversion or mortgage, in over 2,300 a. in Middlesex, including Tokyngton manor and the advowson of Tokyngton chapel, to Richard Bellamy and others. After Elizabeth's death in 1515 (fn. 180) the property was held by Frideswide (d. 1528), her daughter by her first husband, and by her husband, Sir Thomas Cheyney. (fn. 181) Cheyney was still holding one freehold (fn. 182) and one copyhold virgate in Wembley in 1553 (fn. 183) but the bulk of the Tokyngton estate, consisting of a messuage, 210 a. and £3 rent, was the subject of a fine between the Cheyneys and Richard Stanerton and William Hale in 1522. (fn. 184) By 1528, however, Richard Bellamy was in possession. (fn. 185) Tokyngton was among the Bellamy property searched in the 1580s (fn. 186) and in 1588 it was mortgaged to William Gerard. (fn. 187) Philip Gerard, to whom it was again mortgaged in 1592, (fn. 188) effected a recovery in 1602 (fn. 189) but by 1609 the manor was in the hands of the Pages. (fn. 190) In 1800 it was conveyed by Richard Page to Robert Tubbs, (fn. 191) who at inclosure in 1817 owned a compact 300 a. in the south-east corner of the parish. (fn. 192) By 1835 it had passed to Joseph Neeld, (fn. 193) who devised it by will proved 1856 to his brother John (later Sir John). The Neeld family retained Tokyngton manor, under the name of Oakington Park or Sherren's Farm, until the break-up of the estate in the 20th century. The Great Central Railway line was built through it in 1906 and in 1913 Sir Audley D. Neeld agreed with Wembley U.D.C. to develop the estate on garden city lines. In 1938 he conveyed 21 a., including the manor-house, to Wembley Borough Council for use as open space. (fn. 194)

The house of William Barnville was mentioned in 1400, (fn. 195) but the later manor-house dated from c. 1500, when it was leased to the wealthy John Lamb, (fn. 196) and was extended c. 1600. From the 16th century it was usually leased as a farm (fn. 197) and although a single building is marked in 1759, (fn. 198) farm buildings had been added by 1817. (fn. 199) The farm later became a park, when Col. Sir Patrick Wellesley Talbot was tenant, (fn. 200) and lodges were built near Wembley Hill Road and Harrow Road. (fn. 201) The estate reverted to farm-land at the end of the 19th century (fn. 202) and the buildings grew very dilapidated. (fn. 203) A proposal that the manor-house should become a public library was rejected, and in 1939 it was demolished. (fn. 204)

There was one sub-manor held from Rectory manor. This was FLAMBARDS or FLAMBERTS manor, so-called in 1486, (fn. 205) which originated in an estate of about 320 a. in Harrow, Northolt, and Greenford in the hands of the Flambard family by 1353. (fn. 206) After the death of Elizabeth Flambard in 1394, it passed to her daughter, Eleanor, the wife of Walter Tyrell. (fn. 207) The estate, which as 'the manor of Harrow' was disputed among the Tyrell family c. 1429, (fn. 208) was conveyed by Sir Thomas Tyrell and his wife, Anne, to Henry Frowyk, Thomas Charlton, and John Sturgeon in 1447–8. (fn. 209) Charlton and Sturgeon were both related by marriage to the Frowyks, to whom they seem to have quitclaimed their interest. (fn. 210) From the early 14th century various branches of the Frowyks had held property in Harrow, (fn. 211) where the family may have had more than one estate. Part descended from Sir Thomas Frowyk (d. 1506) to his daughter, Frideswide (d. 1519) and her husband, Sir Thomas Cheyney, (fn. 212) but most was inherited by the elder brother of Sir Thomas Frowyk, Henry Frowyk of Gunnersbury, (fn. 213) who died, seised of Flambards, in 1505. (fn. 214) Henry's son Thomas was dead by 1522 and the property descended to his sisters, Margaret, wife of Michael Fisher, and Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Spilman of Narborough (Norf.), Justice of the King's Bench. (fn. 215) John Spilman, grandson of the judge, conveyed Flambards in fee farm in 1573 (fn. 216) to William Gerard, who seems to have been living there, probably as a lessee, by 1566. (fn. 217) Gerard paid an annual rent of £30 to John Spilman and his descendants. In 1656 John Spilman (d. 1663) sold the fee-farm rent to John Bernard and Daniel Waldo. (fn. 218) Elizabeth (d. 1766), only child of Charles Gerard (d. 1701), married Warwick Lake in 1709 and Miles Stapledon seven years later. In 1767 representatives of the Lake and Stapledon families sold Flambards to Francis Herne, whose heirs were his sisters, Mary, who seems to have lived at Flambards, (fn. 219) and Ann, the first wife of Richard Page. The property passed to Page's son, another Richard, by the will of Mary Herne c. 1787. (fn. 220) Richard Page sold some of his land in Roxeth and Northolt in 1803 (fn. 221) to Samuel Hoare, who at inclosure in 1817 (fn. 222) held 204 a. in Roxeth, including two farms. In 1852 the property was divided between Samuel and Hannah Hoare and the farms took the names of the lessees, Joseph Baker (fn. 223) and George Atkins. (fn. 224) The devisees of Richard Page (d. 1803), in accordance with his will, sold the house and 90 a. around it in 1804 to George Heming. In 1807 Heming conveyed his Flambards estate, as part of an exchange involving Greenhill Farm, to Lord Northwick, who merged it with his neighbouring lands. (fn. 225) Northwick sold the house and 50 a. in 1825 to Gen. Alexander Murray Macgregor, (fn. 226) who mortgaged the property which in 1831 was bought by the Revd. W. W. Phelps, then a master at Harrow School. The property remained with the Phelps family until 1885 when it was purchased by Harrow Park Trust. (fn. 227)

The core of the Flambards estate consisted of free and copyhold land held from both Harrow and Rectory manor, on either side of the border between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Sudbury. (fn. 228) The estate reached its greatest extent under the Frowyks. When Henry Frowyk died in 1505 seised of the manor of Flambards, it consisted of a messuage, a windmill, 1,240 a. and £5 rent in Harrow, Sudbury, Pinner, Roxeth, Wembley, Greenhill, Great Greenford, and Northolt. (fn. 229) Except for the Wembley lands, which were held of Tokyngton manor, (fn. 230) the property, worth £10, was held of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Frowyk was also seised of a messuage, 113 a., and 10s. rent in Kenton, worth £3 and held of the archbishop, which may have been the other family estate. All his property seems to have passed to the Spilmans, (fn. 231) but the Gerards reorganized it (fn. 232) and in 1609, after the death of William Gerard, Flambards manor was described as three messuages, 610 a. and £3 rent in Harrow, Northolt, and Greenford, worth £4 a year. (fn. 233) Other property, Frere Place and Freemantels, comprised 233 a. in the three parishes, and Woodridings consisted of 158 a. in Pinner. From the 17th century Flambards manor was usually described as 16 messuages, a windmill, 800 a., and £2 rent in Harrow, Pinner, Greenford, and Northolt. (fn. 234) By 1807 it had shrunk to 90 a. on the borders of Sudbury and Harrow-on-the-Hill. (fn. 235)

Fourteenth-century brasses in St. Mary's church (fn. 236) suggest that the Flambards lived in Harrow. The Tyrells, an Essex family, (fn. 237) and the Frowyks, of London and South Mimms, seem to have leased out the property, (fn. 238) but at least one member of the Spilman family wanted to be buried in St. Mary's church (fn. 239) and Sir Gilbert Gerard stated in 1639 that the ancient manor-house of Flambards had been 'formerly the seat of persons of great worth and quality'. (fn. 240) The house, which was in Harrow-on-theHill, east of London Road, (fn. 241) was supplied with piped water in 1580. (fn. 242) Sir Gilbert spent £3,000 in 1619–39 in 're-edifying and beautifying' it and planting elms as shelter. (fn. 243) In 1664 Flambards, with 25 hearths, was the largest house in Harrow parish. (fn. 244) A new mansion, further north, was begun by Richard Page and finished on a larger scale by Lord Northwick. This was named Harrow Park (fn. 245) from its setting in landscaped grounds, (fn. 246) and became the Northwicks' principal Harrow residence. (fn. 247) In 1826 its purchaser, Gen. Macgregor, was said to be the greatest personage in Harrow and to have the finest house. (fn. 248) Although documents as early as 1736 record the original Flambards as occupying the site of 'the late manor-house', (fn. 249) it is clearly marked in 1806 as 'the Mansion House', with the new house to the north marked as 'The Park'. (fn. 250) Gerard's mansion, which may well have degenerated into farm buildings, (fn. 251) seems to have been pulled down and replaced by other houses between 1867 and 1896. (fn. 252)

The manor of PINNER, mentioned in 1486 and 1500, was probably FEMALES or FEARNALS manor, mentioned in 1573, an estate which the rentals describe as a freehold hide in Pinner. In 1486 it was held by Richard Barnet, (fn. 253) who was holding land in Pinner in 1477–8. (fn. 254) Barnet was the greatgrandson of Richard Frowyk (fn. 255) and the estate may have originated in Frowyk lands, as did Brackenbury manor in Harefield. (fn. 256) In 1486 Thomas Rigby was among those seised of the property to the use of Richard Barnet. In 1500 Rigby's son, George, quitclaimed his interest to John Morton and others. (fn. 257) In the same year John Morton entered into a fine with William Draycote, clerk, and William Hyde whereby Pinner and Brackenbury manors and considerable property elsewhere in Middlesex were conveyed to Morton and his wife for life with remainder to Hyde's heirs. (fn. 258) The death of a Morton, (fn. 259) who held 'divers lands and tenements freely for rent', is recorded in 1530–1. (fn. 260) His son William of Morton (Ches.) disputed the title to a messuage, lands and tenements called Females worth £5 a year, with Robert Boreman of Chipping Wycombe (Bucks.), who alleged that Morton had sold the property to Thomas Boreman, his father. (fn. 261) Boreman presumably won, for in 1553 he held one freehold hide, 'formerly John Morton's', for £1 8s. 3½d. (fn. 262) In 1547 the property was described as a freehold house in West End and 56 a. on the borders of Ruislip. (fn. 263) In 1569 Boreman conveyed the manor or farm called Females in Pinner to John Page of Wembley. (fn. 264) It was held by Richard Page c. 1600 (fn. 265) and in 1629 (fn. 266) but by c. 1642 it had been broken up and sold to nine people, including two members of the Street family. (fn. 267) In 1707 John Street of West End held a close of meadow called Females and 57 selions in the open fields. (fn. 268)

A copyhold virgate called Aldridges, also in West End, held by Robert Boreman in 1535–6 (fn. 269) and 1553, (fn. 270) apparently followed the same descent, being held in 1573–4 by John Page (fn. 271) and in 1629 by a branch of the Streets. (fn. 272) About 1642 they were called the Streets of West End (fn. 273) and the estate formed out of part of Females manor and Aldridges was probably the mainly freehold estate held by them at inclosure. (fn. 274) It then consisted of a farm-house and dwellinghouse in West End, 21 a. of old inclosures, and 2 a. of open-field land. The messuage, 'new-built' in 1747 and 'the farm called Aldridges' in 1795, (fn. 275) was enfranchised in 1872 as the 'tenement called Alfridges. . . now called West End Cottage'. (fn. 276) The map accompanying the enfranchisement marks West End House and a smaller building nearby. It had passed to William Dickson by 1872. As West House it passed to Harrow U.D.C. in 1948 and the estate became part of Pinner Memorial Park. (fn. 277) The central part of the house was demolished in the early 1950s, when one wall was found to be timberframed. (fn. 278) Two mid-19th-century wings survived in 1969.

The most obscure of the so-called manors was MARLPITS, named after a family which owned land in Harrow in the 14th century. (fn. 279) The estate, in Hatch End, the Weald, Pinner, and Uxendon, was acquired by the Boyses of Uxendon and so descended to the Bellamys. (fn. 280) The Uxendon portion had apparently become detached by 1547, when it was held by John Page. (fn. 281) The Pinner part, a close called Marlpits, was held in 1547 by Hugh Wright (fn. 282) and in 1553 by William Winter, (fn. 283) who sold it to John Edlin of the Weald. (fn. 284) By c. 1600 it was in the hands of Richard Edlin of the Marsh and thereafter it descended with Pinner Place. (fn. 285) In 1805 'a meadow called Marlpit Wood' was part of this estate. (fn. 286) The bulk of the estate lay in the Weald, around Hatch End, and this was conveyed by the Bellamys before c. 1600 to John Edlin, (fn. 287) who had been William Bellamy's tenant in 1566. (fn. 288) When William Edlin, John's heir, died seised of the manor of Marlpits in 1606, it comprised 56 a., 32 selions and 5 furlongs in Broad Field and Hampet Field, the Lea, Galportes garden, and several closes, including Cannons and Marlpits. (fn. 289) Most of this property, which was held from Harrow manor for £1 9s. 6d. rent, remained with the Edlins of Northchurch (Herts.) at least until c. 1642. (fn. 290) This branch, described as of Weald and later of Northchurch, had also held a ½-hide head tenement called Blackwell's at Headstone or Wolff's Green, and 19 a. of freehold called East Field since 1553. (fn. 291) Most of their lands, and probably some of those still held c. 1642 by the Edlins of Parkgate, passed to the Waldo family. (fn. 292) Marlpits manor was the object of a recovery involving Israel Wollaston and Samuel Waldo in 1752, (fn. 293) and a Waldo paid £1 9s. 6d. quit-rent in 1770, (fn. 294) the same amount as John Edlin paid c. 1600. (fn. 295) Although Marlpits manor was freehold it was intermingled with copyhold lands, all of which were remodelled to form Waldo's Farm. When this was sold in 1817 it included fields called Marlpits, Lye Field, and Broad Field. (fn. 296) As part of the farm, Marlpits was sold by Charles Waldo in 1790 to Daniel Dancer. It passed in 1794 to Henry and Mary Sayer and in 1817 to Daniel Wilshin. (fn. 297)