6o THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book VII. 



a Letter to the King, That, by reason of some late Accidents, 

 they hnjnbly entreated his Majesty either to stay at Royston, or 

 Theobalds, or to return to Newmarket, to which the Commons 

 Agreed. 



"June 25. The King was unwiUing to return to New- 

 market, but stayed at Royston!' — Whitelock's "Memorials," 

 pp. 254, 255. 



Chippenham Park (mentioned in the text, p. 51), lying 

 to the left of the exercise ground on the " Bury side " of 

 Newmarket, is well known to most freq^ienters of the head- 

 quarters of the Turf. The manor, which had belonged in the 

 reign of Edward the Confessor to Orgar the Sheriff, was 

 granted by William the Conqueror to Gefiforey de Man- 

 deville ; his son, William de Mandeville, gave it in the year 

 1 1 84 to the Templars, who, in the reign of Henry III., pro- 

 cured a charter for a market on Mondays, and a fair for two 

 days at Michaelmas, both of which were subsequently absorbed 

 by the rise of Newmarket in that town, and have been dis- 

 continued beyond the memory of man. After the abolition 

 of the order of Templars, this estate passed, with most of 

 their landed property, to the Hospitallers, who established an 

 infirmary at this place, and possessed the manor, until the 

 general desolation of religious houses by Henry VHL, when 

 it was granted in fee-farm, A.D. 1540, to Sir Edward North. 

 Sir Thomas Kevett died seised of this manor in 1582, 

 leaving no male issue. Alice, one of his daughters, married 

 Thomas Gerard, Esq. (son of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of 

 the Rolls), whose daughter, Elizabeth, brought it in marriage 

 to Sir William Russell, Treasurer of the Navy, created a 

 Baronet in 1628. When Charles I. was at Newmarket 

 for the last time in June, 1647, his Majesty went over to 

 Chippenham " to partake of the diversion of bowling " * at 

 the seat of Sir William Russell, who seems to have retained 

 his attachment to his royal master notwithstanding his son 

 Sir Francis was an active friend of the Parliament, and a 



* Cole MS., Brit. Mus. Quoted from a manuscript in the Library, 

 Cambridge University, R. lo, 17-8. 



