THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LXVI.—BEDFORDSHIRE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, AND HUNTINGDON- SHIRE :—THE LAND.
Pr HE titles of land in Bedfordshire in Domesday Survey are only 56; but the individual burgesses of Bedford, and the Prefecti, Bedelli, and Eleemosynarii Regis, extend the number of landowners holding of the King to 103. The under-tenants, as mesne lords, including all occupiers of lands who had agricultural tenantry under them, amount to 229. In the county of Cambridge the tenants-in-chief (including the King) are 45, and the undertenants 257. In Huntingdonshire the tenants-in-chief are 35; the under- tenants (including 19 milites, holding lands, and 8 homines) are 85. The bordarii in Bedfordshire amount to 1,132; in Cambridgeshire to 1,428; in Huntingdonshire to 490. The sochemanni in Bedford- Aire are 107; in Cambridgeshire, 213; in Huntingdonshire, 22. Besides these there are in Cambridgeshire 736 cotarii. The villani amount in Bedfordshire to 1,829; in Cambridgeshire to 1,902; and in Huntingdonshire to no less than 1,933—a very large number in proportion to the whole enumerated population (2,914). It must be remarked, however, that there are no slaves enumerated in Sir Henry Ellis's summary for this last county. In Bedfordshire the slaves enumerated are 474, out of an enumerated population of 8,875; in Cambridgeshire 548 out of an enumerated popula- tion of 5,204.
At the time of the Survey the principal landowners of the county of Bedford were Hugh de Beauchamp, who possessed 20 manors ; Nigel de Albingi, or Albini, who had 12 manors and 11 additional estates ; William Speck, or Espec, and Walter Giffard, who had 6 manors each ; Walter Flandrensis, or the Fleming, who had 5 manors; and Judith, Countess of Northumberland, who had 7. Two manors belonged to religious houses. The Barony of Bed- ford was given to Pain de Beauchamp, by William Rufus ; a younger branch of the family had a seat at Eaton-Socon. Their large property was divided among female heirs, and the greater part of their lands in Bedfordshirefell to the share of the Mowbrays. Nigel de Albini died in the third year of Stephen, and Roger, his eldest son, is said, by command of Henry I., to have taken the surname of Mowbray, and to have been the ancestor of the Dukes of Norfolk. The principal part of Nigel's estates in Bedfordshire went to a younger son, who had a castle at Cainhoe, in the parish of Cloghill, and passed bi a female heir to the St. Amends, who were considerable landowners in the county in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Dugdale, in his Baronage, says that "at the time of the Norman Conquest, Walter Bee, though he had a fair inheritance in Flanders, came over into this realm with Duke William, and of his gift had Eresby in comit. Lincoln., and divers other fair lordships." Sir Henry Ellis remarks on this, that "whether Walterus Flandrensis and Walter Bek were the same person remains to be ascertained." The lands held by Walter the Fleming in Bedfordshire and North- amptonshire had belonged to Levenot, a thane of King Edward the Confessor. According to the Messrs. Lysons, Valter was the ancestor of the Barons Wahul or Wodhul, who continued in the male line till about the year 1550. Agnes, only child of the last male heir, married Richard Chetwode, Esq., and died in 1575. The chief seat of the Wahuls was at Wodhul or Odell Castle, which passed with other estates to the Chetwodes. They had seats also at Shortgrove and Segenhoe. The Messrs. Lysons enumerite among the earliest extinct families which are known by records subse- quent to the Norman Survey to have possessed property in Bedford- shire the Barons Trally, Patshull, and Cautilupe, the families of Hoo, Firmband, Pabenham, Pavely, and Morteyne. The Trallys were not summoned to Parliament after the reign of King John, but the family was not extinct till about the year 1350. Their chief seat was at Yielden, anciently called Giveldune. The Pats- hulls, who had their seat at Bletsoe, were extinct in the male line about the year 1368 ; their Bedfordshire estates passed by a coheiress to the family of Beauchamp, and from them to the St. Johns, who had before inherited considerable estates by a female heir from the Pavelys. The Cantilupos became extinct in the year 1272, when their estates in this county devolved by a coheir to the Zouches, and passed from them by purchase, about the year 1480, to the Brays, an ancient family, who gave name to the village of Eaton- Bray. They were ennobled in the 21st year of Henry VIH., and became extinct in the principal branch, by the death of John, Lord Bray, without issue, in 1557. The noble family of Grey of Ruthin was settled at Wrest, in Bedfordshire, before the year 1324. Wrest is now possessed by the Countess Cowper (mother of the present Earl), Baroness Lucas, daughter and coheiress of the late Earl de Grey, who represented, through female heirs, the De Greys of Ruthin (Earls and Dukes of Kent). The Hoos are not mentioned in Domesday Book, but are said to have been settled at Luton-Hoo before the Conquest. Sir Thomas Hoo was created Lord Hoo and Hastings in 1447, and dying without male issue, his Bedfordshire estates went to his eldest daughter, who married Sir Geoffrey Boleyne. Paulinus Pevre, a man who from a mean origin was raised to the high station of Steward of the Household to Henry having amassed great wealth, became the founder of a family who had their chief seat at Toddington, and possessed considerable estates in Bedfordshire, which, after a succession of several genera- tions, passed by an heir female to the Broughtons. The Goat- wicks became possessed of a large landed property in this county about the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, principally by purchase from the Mowbrays. Their seat was at Willington, and they became Baronets in 16121, but the title and the family are extinct. Sarah, Duchess of Marl- borough, purchased most of their estates, and they are now by subsequent purchases in thefamilyof the Russells, Dukes of Bedford. The Charnocks settled at Halcot in Bedfordshire about the year 1500, and became baronets in 1661; their male line became ex- tinct in 1779, and the estates passed to the family of Harvey, of Chilton, in Buckinghamshire as heirs in the female line. Chief Baron Cockayne, who died in 1427, purchased an estate in Bed- fordshire. There is a village Cockayne-Hatley, but this family is also extinct, and is represented in the female line by the Custs. The Conquests were seated at Houghton-Conquest as early as the thirteenth century, but are now extinct.
The Messrs. Lysons, from whom we derive these particulars of the landed changes in Bedfordshire, quote a passage from quaint old Fuller, in the reign of Charles II., who, after giving from an ancient record a catalogue of the principal gentry of Bedfordshire in the reign of Henry VI., observes, "Hungry Time has made a glutton's meal of this catalogue of gentry, and has left but a little morsel for manners remaining ; so few of these are found ex- tant in this time, and fewer continuing in genteel equipage ; among whom I must not forget the family of Blundells, whereof Sir Edward Blundell behaved himself right valiantly in the important expedition to the Isle of Roe [Rhee]." The only family, say the Messrs. Lysons, in this catalogue that is not now [1806] extinct is that of Mordaunt, since ennobled, and no longer of the county. And the Mordaunts have since 1806 shared the fate of the other names in the catalogue ! The 1Vingates, of Harlington, are extinct in the male line, and their representatives in the female line in 1806, the Jennings, have now, we believe, experienced the same fate. The following families, settled since the time of Henry VI., are also extinct :—The Fitz-Jefferys, the Astreys, the Bechers, the Gerys, the Caters, and the Bron- falls. The Burgoynes, baronets, of Sutton Park, are about the oldest landed family still of importance in Bedfordshire, where they were settled as early as the end of the fifteenth century.
The Russells, of Woburn, who have attained the highest rank in the Peerage, date from the immediately succeeding period. The St. Johns (Lords St. John, of Bletshoe), now of Melchbourne Park, have been already referred to. Lord Ongley inherits his seat at Warden from Sir Samuel Ongley, a wealthy merchant who purchased it about 1690, but his family name is really Henley. The family of Pym, of the H.asells, obtained a place in the county in the middle of the eighteenth century by marriage with the heiress of the Kingsleys, of the flasells. Among other families now of position in the county may be mentioned Gilpin, of Hockliffe, Higgins, of Turvey Abbey (a London City family, who settled here towards the close of the eighteenth century); Pol- hill-Turner, of Ilowbury ; Crawley, of Stockwood (settled in the county soon after 1600, if not before) ; Whitbread, of Southill (Ion House, in Gravenhurst, was sold by William Whitbread, gentleman, in 1639) ; the Edwards, of Arlesey, Bury, &e. The Marquis of Bute has also considerable property in this county.
The following was the general distribution of the land of Cam- bridgeshire at the time of the Survey :-68 hides and 40 acres (or 8,140 acres) were vested in the Crown, besides 141 hides held by tenants immediately under the Crown ; 20 hides belonged to the See of Lincoln, and about 12 hides were held under that see; a small estate was attached to the See of Rochester; the Bishop of Winchester had 13i hides, and 2i hides were held under him ; this appears to have been private property, not attached to his see. 285 hides were vested in religious houses; the abbot and convent of Ely had 187 hides (12,440 acres) in their own possession, besides 19 hides held under them. The Abbot and convent of Ramsey had 52 hides ; the Abbey of Croyland 26 hides, and the Abbot of Thorney, Sze., smaller estates. The Church, therefore, had a very considerable share in the distribution of the lands. The greatest lay proprietors were Alan, Earl of Brittany ; Picot de Grentebrige, or Cambridge ; Hardwinus de Scalariis, or d'Echellers ; and Eustace, Earl of Boulogne. The Earl of Brittany had 78 hides in his own possession, and 90 hides were held under him, all of which had belonged to Editha, Edward the Confessor's Queen. Picot de Cambridge had 64 hides in possession and 87 held under him ; Hardwin d'Echalleres 36 bides and the fee of 38, and the Earl of Boulogne 25 hides and the fee of 5 others. In the next class of land- owners we find Countess Judith, Robert Gernon, Eudo Dapifer or the Steward, Aubrey de Vere, Roger de Montgomery Earl of Arundel, Wido de Rainbuedcourt, Geoffrey de Mandeville, William de Warren Earl of Surrey, Walter Giffard Earl of Buckinghamshire, John Fitz-Waleran, Hugh de Porth, and David Argentomago. The usual fate befell most of the families thus holding in Cambridgeshire. A small part of the vast property of the Earl of Brittany continued in his descendants in the male line, the Zouches, as late as the year 1400, and afterwards passed by female heirs to the families of Botetort, Burnell, Bader, and Carey. Most of the estates of Picot de Cambridge passed by female heirs to the fami- lies of Peverell and Pecche, the last of which became extinct in the male line about the end of the fourteenth century. Whaddou, the seat of the barony of D'Echallers or Scales, continued in the male descendants of Hardwin for several generations. In the reign of Elizabeth it was in the family of Moor, descended in the female line. The descendants of Aubrey de Vere retained some of the manors of their ancestors for several generations ; Great Abingdon and Castle Camps were not alienated until the sixteenth century. The Messrs. Lysons (to whom we are again indebted for the above summary of the Cambridgeshire landowners) proceed to mention among the families of which we have the earliest records in the period succeeding the Conquest the Bassingbourns and the Argen- tines. The Tiptofts (before this settled in the county) succeeded to the estates of the former, their chief seat being at the village of Bassingburn. The Argentine property became vested in the Nevilles, Lords Alington (who inherited with the estates the office of cupbearer at the coronation), and some of the manors were not sold until after the death of William, Lord Alington, the last heir male, in 1692.
Next in point of date come the families of Colville, Bustler, Freville, Trumpington, St. George, Delahay, EngaSme, Burgherst, Heslarton, Hobledod, Huntingfield, fIaselden, and Avenel]. All these have disappeared except the Colvilles, whose ancient seat, Newton, was sold in 1792, and who are nut now resident in the county. Towards the middle of the fourteenth century the ancestor of the Cottons, who had been settle I in the county for some gene- rations, obtained the Landws.de e.state by in trriage with the heiress of the Hastings family. In the early part of the fifteenth century we find the Pigotts at Abington and elsewhere. Their estates passed by a female heir to the Fosters (who assumed the name). Nearly con- temporary with them were the Peytons (now baronets) and the Chicheleys, the last of whom (Sir Thomas Chicheley, Master of the Ordnance to Charles H.), sold most of the Cambridgeshire property. At the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century the families of Cutts and Hind settled in the county. The estates of the latter passed to the Cottons, and those of the Cutts have been long alienated.
The monastic lands raised a new class of landholders, among whom were the families of Sir Edward North, Sir Richard Long, and Dr. Wendy (physician to Henry VIII.). The North estates have either passed to the Earls of Guildford, or have been surrendered to the Crown, or otherwise alienated. The Long estates passed to the Russells, and through the Earl of Orford to the Hills (the family of the Marquis of Downshire). The Wendy property has passed by female heirs to the Earl of Delawarr. In the reign of Elizabeth, and early in the seven- teenth century, the principal families that became established in the county were those of Dockwra, Burgoyne, Cage, and Willys (all extinct), the estates of the last of whom became vested in the Penton family. Towards the latter end of the seventeenth century Dr. Watson, Bishop of St. David's, Sir Thomas Sclater, and Sir George Downing became possessed of considerable estates in Cam- bridgeshire; the Watson property passed to the families of Ward and Serocold; the Sclater to those of Bacon, King, and Standley. The greater part of Sir George Downing's property constituted the endowment of Downing College, founded by the last baronet of the family, who died in 1749. About the beginning of the eigh- teenth century, Charles, Duke of Somerset, purchased large estates in Cambridgeshire, which he divided between his two daughters on their marriage, and they are now the property of his descendants, the Duke of Rutland and Earl of Aylesford. About the year 1720, Edward, Lord Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, purchased several estates, most of which belonged to the Chicheleys ; and the greater part of these estates passed to Chancellor Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, and (increased by subsequent purchases) now give the present Earl of Hardwicke, with Manners, Duke of Rutland, and Russell, Duke of Bedford, the chief political influence in the county. The families of Eaton, Townley, Adeane, and Childers have also had some influence during the present century.
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