Friern Barnet: Manors

MANORS.

The manor of WHETSTONE or FRIERN BARNET was held in 1336 by the knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. (fn. 1) It was probably among the lands between Barnet and London taken from the abbey of St. Albans by William I, (fn. 2) who may have given it to the bishop of London. Lands in Barnet were held in fee of the bishop in 1196, when John Picot released those to which he had a hereditary claim. (fn. 3) John or his ancestor was the Picot the Lombard whose lands had been granted by 1199 to the Hospitallers by Bishops Gilbert Foliot (d. 1187) and Richard Fitzneal (d. 1198) and the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 4)

In 1338 the manor was a member of the bailiwick of Gings. (fn. 5) On the dissolution of the Hospitallers in England in 1540 (fn. 6) it passed to the Crown and in 1544 it was granted in exchange to the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 7) The chapter sold the demesne lands in 1800 (fn. 8) and the lordship later passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 9) Perquisites of court, royalties, and rents of assize and copyhold lands were excluded from leases of the demesne after 1519 and collected by the farmer as bailiff. (fn. 10) The rights were sequestrated during the Interregnum and in 1649 were sold to Richard Utber, draper of London, (fn. 11) whose arbitrary fines were resisted by copyholders in 1659. (fn. 12)

There was no manor-house in 1551, when Richard Clark was required to build a mansion within three years on a site chosen by the chapter. It was to contain a hall, parlour, and chambers, (fn. 13) and was eventually built by his son William (d. 1586). (fn. 14) Described as the Friary or Friern House in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (fn. 15) but never as the manor-house, it has been confused with Manor or Manor House Farm (later called the Manor House). It stood west of Friern Barnet Lane and south of St. James's church, with which it was connected by an avenue in 1783, when the extensive grounds were bounded to the west by ponds and Blackett's brook. (fn. 16) The house contained seventeen hearths in 1664, when it was unoccupied. (fn. 17) In 1797 the main east front of five bays with two wings was in an early-18th-century style but the core of an older house survived with piecemeal additions, (fn. 18) probably including a hall of c. 1660. (fn. 19) When occupied in 1797 by John Bacon, the house contained family portraits and a bust of Handel by Roubiliac. (fn. 20) It was always leased out with the demesne but sometimes was sub-let: in 1593 it was inhabited by Sir John Popham (d. 1607), Chief Justice of the King's Bench, (fn. 21) and in 1671-3 by Sir John Cropley. (fn. 22) Dr. King, said to have received Queen Anne there, (fn. 23) was still resident in 1728. (fn. 24) Bacon's seat had probably been demolished by 1828 (fn. 25) but 23 a. south of Friary Road were renamed Friary park, where a house was built by Edmund William Richardson by 1871. (fn. 26) In 1909 the land was bought from his executors by Sydney Simmons and Middlesex C.C. as a public park. (fn. 27)

The manor of HALLIWICK was first mentioned between 1278 and 1285 (fn. 28) and from 1810 to 1815 was incorrectly described as the manor of Colney Hatch. (fn. 29) Jurors were ignorant of the title in 1402. (fn. 30) Halliwick in 1537 was thought to be held of the honor of Boulogne by knight service and a pair of gilt spurs on coronation day. (fn. 31) The copyholds that existed between 1409 and 1600 (fn. 32) had disappeared by 1810, when the tenure was revived for wastelands bordering the roads. (fn. 33) Often called a reputed manor in the 17th and 18th centuries, (fn. 34) its status was challenged c. 1835 because it had no demesne, copyhold tenure, services, or tenants. (fn. 35) In 1837 the lord took legal advice about his right to exploit the waste himself. (fn. 36) The manor extended along the south side of Friern Barnet Road from the Finchley boundary to Betstile and into Edmonton c. 1810, when it consisted of c. 350 a. (fn. 37) The lord still held c. 240 a. in 1801, (fn. 38) when the remainder was parcelled in freehold estates. (fn. 39)

The manor probably gave its name to the family of John de Halliwick, who sued Henry de Audley for a virgate in Little Barnet in 1234. (fn. 40) Audley appointed Henry de Halewyc as his attorney and called to warranty Walter de Morton, (fn. 41) from whom he had acquired his right by 1226. (fn. 42) Morton called to warranty John de Neville and Margery de Rivers, to whom John de Halewyc quitclaimed the lands in 1237. (fn. 43) The king had confirmed Audley's title in 1226 and on the same day (fn. 44) granted the lands to the earl of Chester, (fn. 45) apparently without effect. They descended in 1246 to Audley's son James, who gave them to Alice, wife of Robert de Beauchamp, before his death in 1272, when seisin was granted to his son James, from whom Alice recovered them in 1273. (fn. 46) By 1285 she had granted the lands to her son James and his heirs. (fn. 47)

Halliwick was held by Richard of Hackney (d. 1342-3), (fn. 48) draper of London, whose daughter Isabel and her husband William Olney settled it on their heirs. (fn. 49) William died before 1375 (fn. 50) and in 1377 it was settled on Isabel (d. 1400) and her second husband John Wade for life, with remainder to her children by Olney. Isabel's heir was her son John Olney but Wade's trustees conveyed the manor to the judge John Cockayn (d. 1438), (fn. 51) who held it in 1409 (fn. 52) and to whom John Durham quitclaimed his right as kinsman of John Olney's daughter Isabel in 1415. (fn. 53) In 1439 the manor was granted in remainder to Joan, granddaughter of John Cockayn, (fn. 54) and in 1455 Joan and her husband Robert Burley alienated it to John Wetwang. (fn. 55) In the years 1535-8 it was claimed by William Markham and Frances his wife, daughter of Humphrey Cockayn, apparently without success. (fn. 56)

Thomas Slade in 1530 settled Halliwick on his son Francis (d. 1537), (fn. 57) whose five daughters partitioned the manor. (fn. 58) Elizabeth and her husband Humphrey Cholmley sold their moiety in 1548 to Thomas Perse, (fn. 59) who in 1565 sold a moiety of the manor c. 250 a. to Rose Trott of London, widow (d. 1573). (fn. 60) In 1570 another daughter Wiburga, wife of Richard Wymark, conveyed her share to Rose Trott, (fn. 61) who presumably bought out the other coheirs. Rose left the manor to her son John (d. 1602), (fn. 62) from whom it descended to her greatgrandson the childless William Trott (d. c. 1657). On William's marriage in 1645 to Sarah, widow of the second Lawrence Campe, the manor was conveyed to Sir John Reade, Bt. (d. 1694), and others to her use. In 1650 the reversion was settled on the heirs of Trott's body, with remainders to his wife's daughters and her son the third Lawrence Campe. A mortgage of Trott's life interest in 1647 was redeemed by Reade, who in 1652 was to retain the manor on Trott's death. (fn. 63) Alienations (fn. 64) had reduced the lands to 202 a. by the period 1657-62, when Reade bought out all the other claims. (fn. 65) In 1673 he was assessed for poor-rate more highly than anyone else in the parish. (fn. 66) The manor descended to his son and then to his grandson Sir John (d. 1712), who left four sisters as coheirs. (fn. 67) It was assigned to Anne and her husband Robert Middleton of Chirk (Denb.), (fn. 68) who in 1721 sold it and c. 180 a. to John Nicholl the elder (d. 1731). (fn. 69) In 1731 Nicholl settled the manor on his son John Nicholl (d. 1747) and the heirs of his body. (fn. 70) In 1747 it passed to Margaret Nicholl, later marchioness of Carnarvon, and on her death in 1768 to her husband James Brydges, later duke of Chandos (d. 1789), and then to her stepdaughter Anna Elizabeth, who married Earl Temple, later duke of Buckingham and Chandos. Earl Temple sold 115 a. of the demesne to George Curtis in 1801 (fn. 71) and retained 83 a., which were sold in 1848 to George Knights Smith. (fn. 72)

Leases of the manor were held before 1567 by Robert Hayne (fn. 73) and in 1600 by Robert Sanny of Colney Hatch, yeoman, (fn. 74) of a family prominent in the parish from the 15th century (fn. 75) and the third largest copyholder of Whetstone manor in 1588, (fn. 76) who left it to his son. The manor was normally leased out from the late 17th century. (fn. 77)

Rose Trott's house in 1573 had formerly been three tenements. (fn. 78) The manor-house was new in 1602, when John Trott left it to his son and namesake. (fn. 79) It was sold with c. 88 a. by John Trott the younger in 1628 (fn. 80) and thereafter descended as a separate estate. (fn. 81)

The reputed manor of SARNERS BARNET, said in 1316 to be held by the bishop of London with Finchley and Harringay for ¼ knight's fee, (fn. 82) was probably the subinfeudated manor of Whetstone. In 1297 × 1302, however, a jury of Ossulstone hundred declared that Finchley alone was held for ¼ knight's fee. (fn. 83) The name Sarners Barnet was applied to the church in 1341 (fn. 84) and probably also to the parish.