Hendon: Manors

MANORS.

In 957 King Edwy is said to have granted 9 hides at Lotheresleage and Tunworth to his thegn Lyfing. (fn. 1) Tunworth was in Kingsbury but the other estate was probably the 6 measures of land (mansas) in Hendon said to have been granted in 959 by King Edgar and Dunstan, as bishop of London, to the abbey of Westminster. (fn. 2) The estate seems to have consisted of that part of the parish which lay north and west of a line from Burnt Oak to Highwood Hill. (fn. 3) The grant of 959 also mentioned land called Blechenham, which lay south of the river Brent. (fn. 4) According to a charter of St. Dunstan, said to date from 963-75, (fn. 5) the archbishop purchased a total of 20 hides in Hendon for the abbey. A forged charter, claiming to originate from Edward the Confessor in 1066, confirmed grants of land in Hendon to Westminster by earlier kings; (fn. 6) Blechenham and Lotheresleage were mentioned, with another district of unknown location called Codenhlaewe. None of the names was recorded in Domesday, when the manor of HENDON, held by the abbot, was assessed at 20 hides, 10 of which were in demesne. (fn. 7)

A late-11th-century grant of the manor in fee farm by Abbot Gilbert Crispin to Gunter and his heir (fn. 8) was confirmed c. 1136, after the succession of Gunter's son Gilbert. (fn. 9) In 1224 Abbot Richard of Barking, attempting to recover the lands alienated by his predecessors, was involved in a law-suit with Gilbert of Hendon, the tenant of the manor and possibly a descendant of the earlier Gilbert, concerning a house and 3 carucates in Hendon. (fn. 10) In 1226 the land was granted to Gilbert for life (fn. 11) and the abbot was to receive rent and free hospitality at Hendon for two days and a part of a third every year. Gilbert had an interest in the manor in 1228 (fn. 12) but by 1268 it had passed into the hands of Geoffrey le Rous. (fn. 13) In 1312 the abbot took the manor into his own hands, granting Richard le Rous the manor of Hodford and £100 in exchange. (fn. 14) Thereafter Hendon manor was retained by the abbey until the Dissolution, although it was leased in 1422 (fn. 15) and 1505. (fn. 16)

In 1541 the king granted the manor to Thomas Thirlby, bishop of Westminster. (fn. 17) With the suppression of the bishopric it reverted to the Crown but was granted in 1550 first to Thomas, Lord Wentworth, (fn. 18) and afterwards to Sir William Herbert, (fn. 19) created earl of Pembroke in 1551. (fn. 20) Pembroke settled it in 1569 on his second son Sir Edward (d. 1595), (fn. 21) from whom it passed to Edward's eldest son William Herbert (d. 1656), created Lord Powis in 1629. (fn. 22) The manor, settled on Powis's eldest son Percy, (fn. 23) a recusant and royalist, (fn. 24) was sequestrated in 1650 and conveyed by Parliamentary trustees to Charles Whitmore of Balmes House, Shoreditch, two years later; (fn. 25) in 1654 Rhys Vaughan was holding manorial courts. (fn. 26) Percy Herbert, Lord Powis, regained possession at the Restoration and died in 1667. (fn. 27) His son William, who succeeded him, was made earl of Powis in 1674 and marquess of Powis in 1687, but fled the country in 1688 and forfeited his estates in the following year. (fn. 28) From 1690 until 1692 courts were held in the name of his brother-in-law Henry Somerset, duke of Beaufort, and others. (fn. 29) In 1692 and again in 1694 William Herbert, Viscount Montgomery, eldest son of Lord Powis, vainly petitioned to be admitted to the manor on the grounds that it had been settled on him. (fn. 30) Hendon was granted in 1696 to William Zuylestein, earl of Rochford, to be held at a small rent, (fn. 31) but the grant did not take effect because of a settlement on the marchioness of Powis before her husband's attainder. (fn. 32) The exiled marquess, who received a dukedom from James II, was succeeded in 1696 by his eldest son, who was outlawed in that year but for whom courts were being held in 1698. (fn. 33) Lord Powis was committed to the Tower from 1715 until 1722, when his marquessate was restored, (fn. 34) and mortgaged the manor in 1721. (fn. 35) As the result of a further mortgage, (fn. 36) to Guy's hospital, Southwark, courts were held for the hospital from 1727, (fn. 37) although by 1733 they were again being held in the name of Lord Powis. (fn. 38) He died, still in debt, in 1745, having vested the manor in trustees; (fn. 39) in 1747 it was in the hands of John Hitchings. (fn. 40) Lord Powis's only son William died unmarried in 1748, devising his estates to a distant relative Henry Arthur Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who was then created earl of Powis. (fn. 41)

In 1754 the earl was empowered to sell the manor and estate (fn. 42) and in 1757 the lordship was purchased by James Clutterbuck, (fn. 43) who conveyed it in 1765 to his friend David Garrick, the actor. (fn. 44) Garrick died in 1779, leaving the manor in trust for his nephew Carrington Garrick, (fn. 45) later vicar of Hendon, on whose death in 1787 it was again put up for sale. (fn. 46) It was in the hands of Charles Pratt, Earl Camden, and Albany Wallis in 1790 (fn. 47) and was purchased later in that year by John Bond, (fn. 48) who died in 1801. Bond's executors (fn. 49) unsuccessfully attempted to sell the manor in 1802, (fn. 50) after which it passed into the hands of his mortgagee, Richard Lowndes, who held it under a direction of the Court of Chancery in 1816. (fn. 51) It was finally sold in 1825 to Samuel Dendy, who was succeeded in 1845 by his son Arthur Hyde Dendy. In 1889 it was held by Arthur Dendy's widow, Eliza, (fn. 52) on whose death it was conveyed to Sir John Carteret Hyde Seale, Bt., Mrs. Russell Simpson, and Major H. Dendy, who were joint lords in 1923. (fn. 53)

In 1754 the manor was conterminous with the parish (fn. 54) and two years later the demesne lands totalled 1,226 a., (fn. 55) in two large blocks. (fn. 56) They were divided at auction in that year and several new estates were thereby formed. (fn. 57)

The abbots of Westminster also held the rectory estate, which was managed separately. The rectory was valued at £20 in 1291 (fn. 58) and was leased to John Lamb, the farmer of Frith manor, in 1487. (fn. 59) It was worth £34 6s. 8d. in 1535, when it included lands near Silk stream and Colin Deep Lane and between Parson Street and Dollis brook, together with a park of 21 a. (fn. 60) At the Dissolution it passed to the Herbert family but by c. 1640 it was in the hands of the Crown and called the manor of HENDON PLACE. (fn. 61) It was then a compact block of lands bordered by Parson Street, Finchley Lane, and Dollis brook, together with some fields in Finchley, and contained 132 a. William Nicholl died seised of the property in 1645, by which date it had ceased to be called a manor, (fn. 62) and Paul Nicholl was in possession in 1664. (fn. 63) In 1721 it was conveyed, with the house called Hendon Place, to John Edwards, a London merchant. (fn. 64) He devised it to his daughter Susanna, wife of William Sneyd of Bishton (Staffs.), who conveyed it in 1730 to Thomas Snow, a London goldsmith (fn. 65) later resident at Littleberries. In 1808 George Snow of Langton (Dors.) sold the estate to James Ware, who conveyed it in 1811 to John Carbonell, from whom it was bought in 1824 by the Lord Chief Justice Sir Charles Abbott, (fn. 66) later Lord Tenterden of Hendon (d. 1832). (fn. 67) The Hendon Place estate, 75 a. in 1828, (fn. 68) was sold by Lord Tenterden's son in 1862 (fn. 69) and afterwards divided for building. (fn. 70) The rectorial tithes, retained by the Herberts, were worth £200 in 1690 (fn. 71) and £679 by 1755, the year before their sale to eleven purchasers. (fn. 72)

The abbot of Westminster owned a house in Hendon in 1285. (fn. 73) Soon after the manor came under the direct management of the abbey, a new country house was built in Parson Street; it was known at first as the parsonage but was later called Hendon Place. The house, which was finished in 1326, was built by Westminster workmen (fn. 74) and in 1540 contained a chapel on the ground floor. (fn. 75) Cardinal Wolsey stayed there on his way to the north of England in 1530 (fn. 76) and Queen Elizabeth I was a visitor in 1566, 1571, and 1576, when the Herberts were in possession, and again in 1594, when Sir John Fortescue was the tenant. (fn. 77) In 1593 the building was called Hendon House and styled the manor-house. (fn. 78) It was described as pleasantly situated on a slope and large enough to entertain the king c. 1640 (fn. 79) and had 23 hearths in 1664. (fn. 80) It was leased by the Nicholls in the late 17th century to the earl of Northampton, and then to John Aislabie (1670-1742), Chancellor of the Exchequer, (fn. 81) who spent large sums on both house and grounds and on a bridge to connect them with Finchley. Thomas Snow built a new Palladian mansion, (fn. 82) pedimented and with wings; (fn. 83) by 1816, when the house was unoccupied, a large ballroom had been added. (fn. 84) Alterations were made by John Abbott, Lord Tenterden of Hendon (d. 1870), in the 19th century, when the house became known as Tenterden Hall. (fn. 85) After serving as a school, it was demolished in 1936. (fn. 86)

John Bond, lord of the manor after Garrick's death, lived from 1792 to 1797 (fn. 87) in a house at Golders Hill, which was known from 1796 as the Manor House. (fn. 88) It seems to have been the building occupied from 1753 to 1763 (fn. 89) by Jeremiah Dyson, (fn. 90) although his house has sometimes erroneously been identified as Golders Hill House, a later building on the opposite side of North End Road. The Manor House, an unpretentious stuccoed building, was considerably enlarged in the late 18th century, perhaps by John Bond, (fn. 91) but after its sale in 1797 to Robert Ward, the occupier in 1833, (fn. 92) it ceased to be the residence of a lord of the manor. It became the administrative and residential quarters of the Manor House hospital in 1917 and was demolished in 1962. (fn. 93)

The nucleus of the manor later known as HODFORD and COWHOUSE was a house and a carucate granted by Henry of Wymondley and Mabel his wife to Nicholas de Lisle and his wife Emme in 1278. (fn. 94) After Nicholas's death Emme conveyed the lands to Edward I, who in 1295 granted them to the abbey of Westminster for the soul of Queen Eleanor. (fn. 95) The estate was called the manor of Hodford in 1296, when royal officers were ordered not to take goods there belonging to the abbey. (fn. 96) In 1312 the abbot and Richard le Rous exchanged their respective manors of Hodford and Hendon, Richard becoming lord of Hodford. (fn. 97) The manor was held of Hendon manor and in 1321 a rent of 1d. was paid for it. (fn. 98) Richard le Rous and his wife Maud conveyed the manor in 1317 to Henry le Scrope, (fn. 99) lawyer and adherent of Edward II. Henry was already in possession of an estate at Blechenham, which he held of Westminster in 1312 by a quit rent, (fn. 100) and had acquired property from Thomas of Blechenham in 1315. (fn. 101) His lands in the south of the parish thereafter formed part of the Hodford estate. Henry le Scrope died in 1336, (fn. 102) leaving the manor to his wife Margaret, who later married Hugh Mortimer and died in 1358. (fn. 103) It then passed to her son Sir Richard le Scrope (?1327-1403), later Lord Scrope of Bolton and Lord Chancellor. (fn. 104) In 1399 Scrope granted the manor, then called Hodford and Cowhouse, to the king, (fn. 105) who immediately regranted it to the abbey of Westminster. (fn. 106) In 1542 it was granted to the chapter of the new cathedral of Westminster, (fn. 107) in 1556 to the restored monastery, (fn. 108) and in 1560 to the newly-founded collegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster, (fn. 109) whose chapter conveyed the estate to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1855. (fn. 110) When the lord of Hendon was attempting to assert rights over the estate in 1870, it was claimed that its manorial status had lapsed after the Civil War. (fn. 111) The Church Commissioners sold the leaseholds of most of their houses in Hendon during the 1950s. (fn. 112)

The Hodford and Cowhouse estate consisted of a compact block of lands stretching from the Hampstead border to a point north of Golders Green Underground station and from Cricklewood to Golders Hill. (fn. 113) Westminster leased it out at all periods, although until the late 17th century it remained in direct control of the woodlands called Hodford wood and Beecham grove. (fn. 114) The estate totalled 434 a. in 1855 (fn. 115) and was split into three farms known in 1889 as Hodford (or Golders) Green, Cowhouse (or Avenue), (fn. 116) and Westcroft farms. There is no record of a manor-house, although one was formerly thought to have stood on or near the site of the 18th-century Golders Hill House. (fn. 117) A chapel on the abbot of Westminster's manor of Hodford existed in 1321, when services were licensed by the bishop of London, but was not subsequently recorded. (fn. 118)

The third medieval manor in Hendon owned by Westminster was that of FRITH and NEWHALL. It was first mentioned by name as a manor in 1500 (fn. 119) but the estate probably included lands in Hendon granted to the abbey c. 1222-46 by Walter del Frith and Ernald, son of Roger del Frith. (fn. 120) Gilbert of Hendon made another grant to the abbey c. 1226-8 of 2 crofts formerly held by Viel, stretching from the lands of Ernald del Frith to the river Brent. (fn. 121) A rent was paid to Westminster for Newhall in 1374. (fn. 122) From 1500 until the Dissolution, the manor of Frith and Newhall was farmed by John Lamb. (fn. 123) It was granted in 1541 to the see of Westminster (fn. 124) and, on its suppression, to Thomas Thirlby, who became bishop of Norwich. (fn. 125) He conveyed it to his brother Thomas, of East Dereham (Norf.), who, on his death c. 1566 settled it on his eldest son Henry. (fn. 126) Henry Thirlby sold it c. 1585 to Richard Wickes of Hampstead, (fn. 127) by whom it was conveyed in 1608 to William Peacock. (fn. 128) In 1613 Robert Smythe and others conveyed it to Francis Townley (fn. 129) and in 1711 it was in the possession of James Walker of Stratford-le-Bow. (fn. 130) It was held in 1737 by Thomas, son of James Walker, and Sir John Lade, Bt., (fn. 131) to whom a share had been conveyed in 1719 by Barbara, widow of Michael Grigg of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. (fn. 132) Sir John died in 1740, leaving his estates to a great-nephew John Inskip, who took the name Lade but was not created a baronet until 1758. (fn. 133) He died in 1759 and was succeeded by his son and namesake, (fn. 134) who, deeply in debt, conveyed the estate to Sir Charles Blake and others, (fn. 135) perhaps as trustees for T. G. Fentham, who was owner in 1810. (fn. 136) Manorial rights soon afterwards lapsed.

The lands of Frith and Newhall lay in the northwest of the parish adjoining the Finchley border, bounded on one side by Dollis brook; they consisted in 1754 of Dollis, Frith, and Partingdale farms, containing 69 a., 153 a., and 54 a., respectively, and of another 100 a. (fn. 137) The estate was split up after 1809; (fn. 138) in 1828 Partingdale farm was held by R. Franks, Frith farm by Thomas Fentham, and Dollis farm by Sir Charles Flower of Belmont, Mill Hill. (fn. 139) In 1893 Frith Manor farm, as it was then called, was in the hands of John Heal and T. M. Merriman, who conveyed it to Frank Head. (fn. 140) Frith Manor House, near the junction of Frith Lane, Partingdale Lane, and Lullington Garth, was built in 1790, (fn. 141) when the adjoining Frith farm-house was converted into offices and servants' rooms. (fn. 142) The manor-house, a stuccoed building with wings, was said to contain a 16th-century stone fireplace and linen-fold panelling brought from elsewhere. (fn. 143) In 1889 it was occupied by Magwitch Davidson. (fn. 144) It was sold in 1951 to Maj.-Gen. Robb and gutted by fire in 1957. (fn. 145)

The nucleus of the manor of CLITTERHOUSE was a house and one carucate held by John de Langton in 1321 (fn. 146) and by his younger son Robert in 1335. (fn. 147) Robert's son and namesake held it in 1361, when it was called the manor of Hendon, and successfully defended his tenure against Ralph de Langton, his uncle. (fn. 148) In 1371 Robert de Langton conveyed it to Adam de Walton and his daughter Joan, (fn. 149) who married Robert Derby of Liverpool. The estate was conveyed to Joan and Robert in 1382 (fn. 150) and by them to Richard of Foxton, clerk, and Walter Norman, chandler, (fn. 151) who in 1383 granted it to Hugh Winkburn and Isabel his wife. (fn. 152) Isabel afterwards married Henry Lynch and granted it in 1403 to John Winkburn, her son, Thomas Ardynton, John Carter, and others. (fn. 153) John Winkburn quitclaimed his interest to Ardynton and Carter in 1408, (fn. 154) the others already having done so, (fn. 155) and after Ardynton's death in the same year John Carter granted the estate to William Loveney and other feoffees. (fn. 156) They granted it in 1428 to Robert Warner, citizen of London, (fn. 157) who conveyed it in 1429 to Thomas Pynchon, Henry Frowyk, and others, (fn. 158) from whom the manor was acquired in 1439 by St. Bartholomew's hospital. (fn. 159) The hospital's property in Hendon was augmented in 1446 by two near-by estates granted by Henry Frowyk and William Cleeve, master of the king's works. (fn. 160) The first, called Vynces, lay north of the Clitterhouse estate and the second, Rockholts, lay south of the road to Childs Hill. The manor was held of Westminster abbey (fn. 161) and was retained by St. Bartholomew's in 1547, when the hospital was vested in the Corporation of London. (fn. 162) Manorial rights had lapsed by 1771. (fn. 163) The estate, diminished by the encroachments of the Midland Railway's Cricklewood carriage-sidings in 1868, (fn. 164) remained the property of St. Bartholomew's hospital until 1921, when it was sold to the War Department; (fn. 165) it was later split up among private developers.

In 1584 the estate was managed as one farm, called Clitterhouse, consisting of 118 a. of arable and pasture and 80 a. of wood, in a compact block in the south-west of the parish by Edgware Road near Cricklewood. (fn. 166) It remained intact until the mid 19th century. The farm-house, near the modern Hendon football club grounds in Claremont Road, was shown in 1715 (fn. 167) as a large timber-framed building of two storeys, with three gables and a jettied first storey. It occupied one side of a courtyard, on the other sides of which were weatherboarded barns of the standard Middlesex type, with steeply pitched roofs, and stables. Alterations were carried out after 1794 (fn. 168) and by 1838 another farmhouse had been built on the site. (fn. 169) The 19th-century building had been converted into flats by 1974. (fn. 170)

The priory of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, owned an estate at Hendon in the Middle Ages. Its later name, the manor of RENTERS, may derive from a house and a carucate held in 1309 by John of Islington of Geoffrey le Renter and Joan, widow of John le Renter. (fn. 171) Geoffrey le Renter held a freehold estate of that size in 1321, along with Bourncroft, (fn. 172) perhaps identifiable with Bone Croft, which in 1754 lay a short distance north of Renters farm-house. (fn. 173) In 1359 the abbot of Westminster licensed Hugh de la Mare, chaplain, to alienate to the convent of St. Bartholomew a house and lands in Hendon, together with property in Great Stanmore, to be held of the abbot at a small annual rent. (fn. 174) The priory's Hendon estate consisted c. 1538 of 15 fields, crofts, and meadows, and some woodland, north of the Clitterhouse estate. (fn. 175) The manor, called Renters or Romers, was granted by the king in 1543, along with the manor of Edgware Boys, to Sir John Williams and Antony Stringer. (fn. 176) They in turn granted it in 1548, together with a barn, 30 a. of arable land, 40 a. of meadow, 60 a. of pasture, and 26 a. of wood, to Sir Roger Cholmley, the judge, (fn. 177) who in 1565 left it to his servant and clerk Jasper Cholmley. (fn. 178) In 1682 the manor was alienated by William Cholmley of Teddington, Jasper's descendant, to Jerome Newbolt, great-grandfather of J. M. Newbolt, prebendary of Winchester, who held it in 1795. (fn. 179) Manorial rights had already been extinguished and in 1796 Newbolt's estate, no longer described as a manor, consisted of 12 fields. (fn. 180)

The estate was tenanted in 1795 by P. Rundell, a London goldsmith, and after his death in 1827 by his great-nephew Joseph Neeld, (fn. 181) a solicitor, who had married the eldest daughter of John Bond (fn. 182) and had bought houses and land in Brent Street and Burroughs Lane from Joseph Crosse Crooke in 1809. (fn. 183) In 1874 Joseph's son Sir John Neeld, Bt., owned 668 a. in Middlesex (fn. 184) and by the beginning of the 20th century he had acquired a large block of land in Hendon stretching south from the Burroughs to Park Road and including part of the old Renters property. His land was developed for housing by Sir Audley Dallas Neeld, Bt., grandson of Joseph Neeld, who succeeded in 1900, and several of the streets in the neighbourhood were named after members of the family. (fn. 185) No trace remains of the farm-house called Renters, which in 1828 occupied a site near the point where Shire Hall Lane crossed the Brent, (fn. 186) on the site of the present Brent Cross road junction.