A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



John of Jerusalem, and the brethren of the order 

 granted a lease for ninety-nine years of the manor 

 of Hampton Court with 

 all appurtenances to Thomas 

 Wolsey, Archbishop of 

 York, and his assigns, at a 

 rent of 50 a year, the 

 lease to take effect from 

 24 June 1514."" The 

 prior and brethren were to 

 allow ^4 1 3*. 4//. yearly to 

 the archbishop for a priest 

 to perform divine service in 

 the chapel of the manor, 

 and also four loads of wood 

 and timber from St. John's 

 Wood yearly for the re- 

 pair and maintenance of 

 the weir. 



WOLEY. Saili a 

 trots engrailed argent 

 ivith a lion passant gules 

 between four leopards* 

 heads azure thereon and 

 a chief or with a rose 

 gules between two Cor- 

 nish choughs therein. 



By the terms of the lease Wolsey was to build, 

 rebuild or alter as he chose, and at the expiration 

 of the term was to leave a thousand couple of 

 'conys' in the warren, 'or else for every couple 

 that shall want 4</.' 



The exact date, or the exact manner in which 

 Wolsey, probably actuated by signs of the king's 

 jealousy and displeasure, surrendered the manor 

 and the splendid house he had built to Henry VIII 

 is not known. 109 It became the king's property 

 before the rest of the cardinal's lands were es- 

 cheated to the Crown after his attainder in I jzg. 110 



A letter from Jehan le Sauche, the Austrian 

 Ambassador, to ' Madame ' (Elizabeth of Austria), 

 is now in the Vienna archives, and speaks of the 

 gift having been made as early as June 1525.'" 

 Stowe and Cavendish both say that the king made 

 an exchange of Richmond for Hampton Court 

 with the cardinal. 1 " Lord Herbert of Cherbury 

 stated that Wolsey only finished the palace in 

 1525, and exchanged it with the king for Rich- 

 mond in 1526."* 



Wolsey himself, in writing to the king as early 

 as 1521, dates his letter from ' Your house of 

 Hampton Court," 14 but as late as 1528, in writing 

 to others, continued to speak of it as ' my manor 

 of Hampton Court.' '" 



In 1527 Laurence Stubbs, Wolsey's paymaster 



of the works, wrote to him, ' your buildings at 

 York Place, Hampton Court, Oxford, &c., go 

 forward.' '" In a letter from Fitzwilliam to 

 Wolsey in 1528 he said, 'The King will be glad 

 to be at your manor of Hampton Court on Satur- 

 day next as I told him you could not conveni- 

 ently remove by that day, he wished to be at your 

 house on Saturday or Monday at furthest, where 

 he will spend three or four days before his repair 

 to Greenwich.' 1 " In 1527, however, it was 

 generally considered to be the king's property. 

 Dodieu (the French Ambassador's secretary) wrote 

 of it as 'a handsome house built by Wolsey, and 

 presented by him to the king,' " 8 but Wolsey cer- 

 tainly continued to live there, to receive private 

 visits there, 1 " and probably to bear all the expense 

 of the upkeep, and continued building m until the 

 time of his disgrace in I529- 1 ' 1 



The idea has usually been accepted that on the 

 suppression of the order of St. John in England in 

 1539 the reversion of the lease of Hampton Court 

 escheated to the Crown with the other property of 

 the Order," 1 but this was not the case. In 1531 

 the king made an exchange with Sir William 

 Weston, then prior, of ' the Manor of Hampton 

 or Hampton Courte, Middlesex, for the advowson 

 of the prebend of Blewbery in Salisbury Cathedral, 

 lands at Stansgate, Essex and a messuage in 

 Chancery Lane in the suburb of London.' m 



Sir William Paulet,Chris- 

 topher Hales, Attorney- 

 General, Baldwin Malet, 

 and Thomas Cromwell were 

 appointed as trustees, to 

 receive the manor 'to the 

 King's use.' 



From that date, 5 June 

 1531, Hampton Court be- 

 came the property of the 

 Crown or the State, and 

 has so continued to the pre- 

 sent day, with one short 

 interval, duNng the Com- 

 monwealth, 1 " when the fee 

 of the manor and honour 



was sold to Mr. John Phelps of London, gentle- 

 man, for 750.'" Buihey Park and its appur- 



THI KING OF ENG- 

 LAND. Azure three Jteun 

 de Us or, for FRANCI, 

 quartered 'with Gules 

 three leopards or for 

 ENGLAND. 



108 Cott. MSS. Claudius, E. vi, fol. 

 137 (the original lease) ; Close, 6 

 Hen. VIII, pt. i, no. 38. The lease is 

 printed in full in Law, Hist. Hampton 

 Court Palace, i, App. B. 



108 The legend is that Henry with 

 some anger asked the cardinal ' why he 

 had built so magnificent a house for 

 himself at Hampton Court ?' Wolsey 

 is supposed to have made the ready 

 answer, 'To show how noble a palace 

 a subject may offer to his sovereign,' 

 but there is no historic warrant for the 

 story, which is given in all the o!d 

 guide books, &c. Vide Law, Hist. 

 Hampton Court Palace, \, 99. 



110 In the inquisitions taken after 

 Wolsey'i attainder there is no mention 

 of Hampton Court. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 

 2), lii, no. 35*, I02//; Ix, no. 62; 

 Uxvii, no. 26 ; Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 

 2), file 1220, no. 12*. 



111 Cal.S.P. Spanish, iii (i), 209. 



Annals, 526 (ed. 1616); Harl. 

 MSS. no. 428 ; Cavendish, Life of 

 ffolsey (ed. Singer), i, 226. 



119 MS. Coll. by Mr. Shaw, an 

 architect (1827) ; penes Mrs. Edwin 

 Lascelles. 



n< L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii (i), 1192, 

 7 Mar. 1521. 



115 Ibid, iv (2), 275*. Letter to 

 Jermingham, 16 Jan. 1528. 



116 Ibid. iv(2), 1369. 

 1" Ibid, iv (2), 4766. 



118 Ibid, iv (2), 3105, (60). Cromwell 

 ays that the king purchased Hampton 

 Court. This may refer to the later 

 transaction with the Knights Hospital- 

 lers. Vide infra ; ibid, x, 513. 



119 Ibid, iv, 4332, 4391. Letter 

 from Warham, Archbp. of Canter- 

 bury. 



326 



" Chapter House AccU. j L. and P. 

 Hen. VIII, iv(l), 1369. 



> Ibid, iv (3), 5754. 



1M Porter, Knights oj Malta, 340 ; 

 Stat. 32 Hen. VIII, cap. 24. 



L. and P. Hen. VIII, v, 133, 285, 

 627, App. no. 12 ; Stat. 23 Hen. VIII, 

 cap. 26. 



114 The questions in Parliament, the 

 way in which the sale was carried out, 

 &c., will be referred to more fully in 

 the history of the palace, p. 354. 



lai It was repurchased for 750. 

 The exact sum for which it was sold 

 does not appear. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1654, 

 pp. 1 80, 223. Warrant for purchase, 

 p. 452 ; 10 Aug. 1654. Phelps was 

 clerk to the House of Commons, he was 

 included as one of the regicides on the 

 accession of Charle II, and was ob- 

 liged to leave the country ; Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. 



