AYLESBURY HUNDRED 



LEE 



LEE 



Legh, xiv cent. 



Lee (or The Lee) it a small parish, lying on the 

 northern slopes of the Chiltern Hills. It contains 

 502 acres' of land, which are divided into arable 

 and permanent pasture lands in nearly equal propor- 

 tions. There are about 14 acres of old woodlands 

 and about 16 acres of more recent plantings.' The 

 land lies mainly between 600 ft. and 700 ft. above 

 the Ordnance datum, the highest point rising to 

 730 ft.' The subsoil is chalk. 4 The parish is very 

 secluded, no highway or railway passing through it. 

 Several winding by-roads are the chief thorough- 

 fares ; one, starting out from the high road between 

 Wendover and Amersham, forms the northern parish 

 boundary from King's Ash to the hamlet of Lee 

 Gate ; King's Lane, in which are some remains of the 

 ancient earthwork known as Grim's Dike, also bounds 

 the parish on the west and south. The village of 

 Lee lies on another by-road, on three sides of a 

 village green, on which is a large glacier-borne sand- 

 stone rock dug up in the neighbourhood, and erected 

 on a pedestal by the present lord of the manor. The 

 village contains a small number of picturesque houses, 

 farms, and cottages. The nearest stations are Wen- 

 dover and Great Missenden, on the Metropolitan Ex- 

 tension Railway, which are 4 and 3 miles away 

 respectively. The official postal address for the village 

 is The-Lee. The population is mainly employed in 

 agriculture. Straw-plaiting was formerly a con- 

 siderable industry and is still carried on to a limited 

 extent. The manor house, which was restored and 

 enlarged in 1901, is the residence of the lord of the 

 manor, Mr. Arthur Lasenby Liberty. 



The manor of LEE is not mentioned 

 MdNOR in Domesday Book, but from later evidence 

 it seems probable that it was granted by 

 the Conqueror to Odo, Bishop of Kayeux, and fol- 

 lowed the same descent as Weston Turville,' being 

 held of the honour of Leicester, and later of the 

 Duchy of Lancaster.' In the 1 2th century it was 

 held by Ralph de Halton,' but it is not clear whether 

 he held it directly from the Earl of Leicester, or from 

 the Turvilles as mesne lords. He was succeeded by 

 Geoffrey de Turville, clerk,' the brother of William 

 de Turville, who was lord of Weston Turville * at the 

 close of the izth century. Geoffrey granted Lee to 

 Missenden Abbey in franlcalmoign, 10 and his grant 

 was confirmed by William de Turville " and Robert, 

 Earl of Leicester. Unfortunately the charters, though 

 they appear in the index of the Missenden Cartulary, 

 are missing in the text, but there are several papal 

 confirmations" of the grant. In 1535" Lee and 

 Brondes were enumerated amongst the temporalities 



of the monastery, and were valued at not. a year. 

 Brondes was presumably a freehold farm in the 

 neighbourhood of Lee. A reference in the Monastics 

 records that Ralph Marshall, admitted Abbot of 

 Missenden on 10 July 1356, was convicted of counter- 

 feiting and clipping the king's coin, namely, groats 

 and sterling, at his manor called ' Legh,' near Mis- 

 senden. "* After the dissolution of Missenden Abbey 

 the manor of Lee " remained in the possession of the 

 Crown till Edward VI granted it in I 547 " to Lord 

 Russell. Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, succeeded 

 him, and was probably holding it in 1583," when he 

 mortgaged certain land in Lee. How long he retained 

 the manor does not appear, but it is not mentioned in 

 the inquisitions taken on his lands at his death, and 

 at the death of his son." Its subsequent history is 

 very obscure, but it seems 

 probable that it passed into 

 the hands of the Plaistowe 

 family during the i/th cen- 

 tury. William Plaistowe ob- 

 tained a lease of the tithes in 

 Lee in 1635 " for ninety- 

 nine years. In 1641 " his 

 land there was assessed at 50;. 

 annual value, but it is not 

 certain that he also held the 

 manor. His family, however, 

 was obviously established in 

 Lee at this time, though on 

 another supposition the Plaistowes only obtained the 

 manor after the Civil War, during which many of 

 the Russell estates were sequestered. 



Before 1665 William Plaistowe had been succeeded 

 by Thomas Plaistowe, who may probably be identified 

 with the Thomas Plaistowe of the Lee, whose monu- 

 ment is in Lee Church. 10 He died in 1715 at the 

 age of eighty-seven. In a monument in Little Kimblc 

 Church he is called Thomas Plaistowe of Amersham," 

 and this suggests that he was the first of the family to 

 own the manor, and that their chief estate had pre- 

 viously been at Amersham. At Lee he was succeeded 

 by his youngest son William, who married Dorothy 

 the daughter of Richard Plaistowe of Small Deane." 

 He in turn was succeeded by his son Thomas, pre- 

 sumably the Thomas Plaistowe who died in 1785, 

 leaving an only daughter and heiress Elizabeth." 

 She is said to have advertised ** for a husband, and by 

 this means married an Irishman named Henry Deer- 

 ing. Mrs. Deering died in 1812," and her husband 

 held the manor for many yean after her death," 

 Before 1861, however, it reverted to the family of 

 Plaistowe, and in that year John Plaistowe was lord 



PLAISTOWC. Culit a 

 lion argent tetn-etn Hva 

 btndi or. 



1 OrJ. Surv. A proposal ii it pment 

 before the Buck* Count/ Council to en- 

 large the emitting pariih of Lee bjr adding 

 to it certain outlying portion! of the 

 pariihei of Great Miitendenand Wendorer. 



1 Inf. supplied bjr Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



OrJ. Sitrv, 



f.C.H. Buch. i, Geological Map. 



Cf. Weton Turrille. 



Marl. MS. 3688 | (P.R.O.) Rental, 

 and Sunr. (fen. er.), portf. 19, no. 1 3. 



7 Harl. MS. }688 ; Cal. of Papal Lreurt, 

 i434- 



Ibid. Harl. MS. 3688. 



Cf. Wetton Turville. 

 " Harl. MS. 3688. 



11 Ibid. 



" Ibid, j Col. ofPaftl Ltluri, T, 434. 

 u yalar Eetl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 146. 

 u * Dugdale, Man. vi, 547, note i. 

 M(P.R.O.) MUc. Bk.. (Aug. Off.), 



CCCCT, 19. 



Pit. I Edvr. VI, pt. I. 

 " Fret of F. Bucki. Ent. 15 Eli*. 

 '" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccii, no. 

 iSa. 



345 



> Feet of F. Buck*. Mich. 1 1 Chat. I. 



" (P.R.O.) Lay Subi. bdle. 80, no. 301. 



" Lipicomb, Hiit. of Bucki. ii, 358, 

 quoting monument in Lee Church. 



"Ibid.ii, 3 5 5. 



"Ibid, ii, 358, quoting monument In 

 Lee Church. 



Ibid. 



M Ibid.) Lyiont, Marna Brit, i, 594. 



14 Lipicomb, Hiit. ofButki. ii, 356. 



" Ibid. 



" Lyiont, Mafia Brit, i, 594; Lipicomb, 

 loc. cit. 



