A HISTORY OF SURREY 



GRANDISON. Paly 



argent and azure a bend 

 gules with three eagles or 

 thereon. 



Robert de Meleburn, and in that year they confirmed 

 a lease of the manor of Sheen (as Emma's moiety was 

 always called) to John Maunsel, treasurer of York and 

 reeve of Beverley, for fourteen years. 183 In 1264 

 Emma conveyed all her lands held in chief in Sheen 

 to the king, for him to grant to Gilbert de Clare, 

 Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, which was accor- 

 dingly done. 184 A few years 

 later the manor of Sheen came 

 into the possession of Hugh 

 de Windsor, who granted it 

 in 1272 to Robert Burnell, 

 Bishop of Bath and Wells, 185 

 the gift being confirmed by 

 Henry III. The bishop then 

 enfeoffed Otto de Grandison 

 of the manor in tail - male, 

 with reversion to himself in 

 case of Otto's death with- 

 out issue, but Edward I took 

 it into his own hands be- 

 cause he was given to under- 

 stand that Hugh de Windsor had enfeoffed the 

 bishop while he was of unsound mind. Afterwards, 

 however, the king inspected the confirmation of 

 Henry III, and on reflection that no right in the 

 manor could accrue to him he restored it to Otto de 

 Grandison, 186 who was a specially trusted servant 

 and friend of the king's, and granted him free 

 warren in his demesne lands there in I279- 187 On 

 setting out for his second expedition to Palestine, 

 before the fall of Acre (1291), Grandison appears 

 to have delivered the manor to the custody of Burnell, 

 who died holding it in I2g2. 188 Otto de Grandison 

 survived the bishop, and in 1 299 the king gave a 

 curious order that no person, 

 with the sole exception of the 

 king's son, should enter, stay, 

 or lodge in Otto's manor of 

 Sheen, or put his baggage or 

 goods there, against his will 

 or the will of the keeper of 

 the manor, as it appeared 

 that great damage had been 

 done by people lodging in the 

 houses there. 169 Otto seems 

 to have conveyed the manor 

 to the king, probably about 

 1305, for Letters Patent, &c., 

 are dated there from that year onwards, and in 1316 

 Sheen is called the king's manor. 190 



The other property in Sheen, which descended to 

 John Belet's daughter Alice, was held by her husband 

 John de Vautort by the grand serjeanty of being one 

 of the king's cup-bearers. He died seised of the vill 



THE KING OF ENG- 

 LAND. Gules three leo- 

 pardi or. 



of Sheen about 1301, and was succeeded by a son 

 John, 191 who appears as John de Vautort of Sheen in 

 I3I3. 1 " This John was deprived of his lands there 

 by Hugh le Despenser the elder, who granted them to 

 Edward II ; and the petition to Edward III for their 

 restoration by Richard de Vautort, brother and heir of 

 John, in 1329, was apparently without avail. 193 They 

 were evidently added to the Crown manor, which 

 has remained in royal hands from about 1305 until 

 the present day, although granted out at various 

 times by successive kings. In I 3 1 5 it was described as 

 the king's manor of Sheen, and Edward II made it an 

 occasional place of residence, as his father had done 

 towards the close of his reign. "" Edward III granted 

 the manor in 1331 to his mother, the dowager Queen 

 Isabella, for her life. 196 She died in I358, l96 and in 

 1 3 59 William of Wykeham, at that time an influential 

 favourite with the king, 197 was given the custody of 

 the manor. 198 Two years later Ralph Thurbarn was 

 made keeper. In 1377 John de Swanton, who had 

 previously been granted the 

 custody of the warren of Sheen, 

 was appointed to the keeper- 

 ship of the manor for life. 

 He held the office during the 

 greater part of the reign o* 

 Richard II, but gave it up to 

 his son Thomas in 1 3 go. 199 

 Edward IV, soon after his ac- 

 cession, made William Nor- 

 burgh custodian of the manor 

 of Sheen for life.' 00 In 1466 

 the king granted the manor for 

 life to his queen Elizabeth 



Woodville, together with the park, warren, and all 

 appurtenances, 101 and she conceded the office of cus- 

 todian to William Norburgh in 1468, allowing him 

 to hold it himself or by deputy.* 01 A few months 

 after the accession of Richard III, however, Henry 

 Davy obtained from the king a grant of the keeper- 

 ship of the manor for life. This grant included 

 the custody of the garden, warren, and park belong- 

 ing to the palace, and it is interesting to notice 

 that the several offices were worth fid. a day for 

 the manor, \d. a day for the garden, 3^. a day for 

 the warren, and zd. a day for the park, with another 

 zd. for the maintenance of the palings of the 

 park. 10 * The custody of the manor was again trans- 

 ferred on the accession of Henry VII, who granted 

 it for life to Robert Skerne in I485. 104 The manor 

 itself was still the right of Queen Elizabeth, the 

 widow of Edward IV, but in 1487 Henry VII held 

 a council at Sheen, and declared that she had for- 

 feited her property by deserting his cause before he 

 became king. After that time she retired into the 



ELIZABETH WOOD- 

 VILLE. Argent a fessi 

 and a quarter gules. 



188 Cal. Pat. 1247-58, p. 615 5 Feet of 

 F. Sum 42 Hen. Ill, no. 18. 



1 * t Cal. Chart. R. 1257-1300, p. 50. 



185 Feet ofF. Mich. 56 Hen. III.no. 23. 

 In 1279 a quitclaim was made to the 

 bishop by Ralph de Berners and his wife 

 Christine (Feet of F. Surr. 7 Edw. I, no. 

 35), the latter being probably the daughter 

 of Hugh de Windsor ; see descent of West 

 Horsley. 



lse Cal. Close, 1272-9, p. 520; Cal. 

 Pat. 1272-81, p. 357. 



187 Cal. Chart. R. 1257-1300, p. 221. 



188 Chan. Inq. p.m. 21 Edw. I, no. 

 50. 



189 Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p. 418. 



190 Ibid. 1313-17, p. 514. Otto was 

 lord of Grandison (hodie Granson) in 

 NeuchateU He withdrew there in his 

 later life, and was not in England after 

 1307, though he lived till April 1328. 

 He seems to have surrendered English 

 lands into the custody at least of his old 

 master and friend Edward I ; C. L. Kings- 

 ford in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. 1909. 



191 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. I, no 35. 

 1M Ca/. Pat. 1313-17, p. 4. 



198 Ibid. 1327-30, p. 433. 

 194 Ibid. temp. Edw. I and Edw. II, 

 passim. 



542 



195 Ibid. 1330-4, p. 195. 

 ""Strickland, Lives of the Queens of 

 England, i, 539. 



19 ' Diet. Nat. Biog. Ixiii, 226. 

 l *Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 



"5- 



199 Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 236. 



soo lbid. 1461-7, pp. 53, 1 86. 



301 Ibid. p. 525. 



^Mins. Accts. bdle. 1094, no. 5 (20 

 Edw. VI). 



Ms Ibid. Duchy of Lane. bdle. 41, no. 

 799- 



* Pat. 1 Hen. VII, pt. i, m. 34. 



