EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



ALBURY 



Bishopric of London. 

 Gules two sivords of St. 

 Paul crossed saltircwise. 



now blocked, has a flat four-centred arch, and there 

 is a similar arch in the partition inside. Two other 

 doorways have flat Tudor arches of oak, similar to 

 the one at the hall. 



In the reign of Edward the Confessor 

 MANORS the manor of ALBURT was held of 

 Archbishop Stigand by Siward." After 

 the Conquest it was acquired by the Bishop of 

 London ^^ and became part of 

 the barony of Stortford be- 

 longing to the Bishops of 

 London, of whom it was held 

 by knight service.^' At the 

 end of the 13 th century the 

 bishop claimed that his tenants 

 in Albury and his other vills 

 in the hundred of Edwinstree 

 should be quit of suit of hun- 

 dred court as they had always 

 been accustomed.'* The last 

 record of any rights of over- 

 lordship found is in 1522.*' 



In 1086 a certain Ralf was 

 tenant in fee of Albury Manor.'* It afterwards 

 passed to the Baards. In 1 1 66 William Baard held 

 two knights' fees of the Bishop of London,'' which 

 probably represent the manor of Albury, for at the 

 beginning of the 13th century Simon Baard held 

 two knights' fees which are located in Albury.'^ 

 In 1294 Albury was held by Robert Baard,'' who in 

 1316 settled the reversion of the manor on Geoffrey 

 de la Lee and Denise his wife for their lives, with 

 successive remainders to their sons Thomas, John and 

 Robert.^" The manor had descended to Geoffrey and 

 Denise before March 1319—20, when Geoffrey de la 

 Lee received a grant of free warren.^' There is no 

 evidence that Thomas de la Lee ever held Albury, 

 but by 1336 the manor had descended to John de 

 la Lee, to whom Peter, vicar of Albury, and John de 

 Vataille released the right of common in the park 

 of Albury which his father Geoffrey de la Lee had 

 granted them.^^ John de la Lee received a grant of 

 free warren in Albury and Braughing in 1366 with 

 licence to inclose and impark 300 acres of land there. ^' 

 He died seised of the manor in 1370, at which date 

 there was a windmill on the manor worth \os?'^ 

 His son and successor Walter ^* had one son Thomas, 

 who died without issue before his father. On Walter's 

 death in 1395 his heirs were his three sisters, Mar- 

 gery, who married Robert Newport, Joan the wife 

 of John Barley, and Alice the wife of Sir Thomas 

 Morewell.28 



In 1396 Sir Thomas Morewell and Alice his wife 



conveyed their share to the vicar of Albury and 

 others, evidently in trust for John Barley and Joan 



De LA Lii. Argent 

 a cross axure ivith Jive 

 Uopards^ heads or thereon. 



Barley. Barryivavy 

 table and ermine. 



his wife, who held a court of the manor the same 

 year.^' Joan died in 1419 and her husband in 

 1420,2^ and Albury passed to their son John Barley.^' 

 He died seised of the manor in February 1445-6, 

 when it descended to his son Henry Barley,^" who 

 held it until his death in January 1475-6.^' His 

 son William Barley, who succeeded him, was con- 

 cerned in Perkin Warbeck's conspiracy and forfeited 

 his lands for high treason in 1495.^^ The bill of 

 attainder was reversed in 1498 and the lands restored 

 in 1503,'^ and Barley died seised of Albury in 

 March 1521-2.'* It descended to his son and heir 

 Henry Barley, ^^ and on his death in 1529 to his 

 son William Barley,^^ who died before 1563,^' when 

 the manor was held by his daughter Dorothy and 

 her husband Thomas Leventhorpe.^' Dorothy died 

 in 1574'' and her husband in 1588.*" Their only 

 son Thomas died without issue in I 594 *' and Albury 

 was divided among his four sisters.*" In 1594 

 Richard Frank, husband of Anne, one of the heirs, 

 became possessed of half the 

 manor by acquiring the share 

 of Francis Hubberd and Eliza- 

 beth, another of the heirs,** 

 and in 1597 John Brograve, 

 father of Simeon Brograve, 

 husband of Dorothy the third 

 heir, bought the quarter of 

 the manor which was held by 

 John Longmer and Helen his 

 wife, the fourth heir.** On 

 John's death in 161 3 this 

 quarter descended to Simeon,*^ 

 who thus with his wife Dorothy 



became possessed of the other half of the manor. 

 The manor remained in these two families during 

 the 17th century. 



Brograve. Argent 

 three leopards gules. 



" r.CH. Herts, i, 306A. 



'= Ibid. 



13 See Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 541 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 431 ; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 44 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 37 ; 

 15 Edw. IV, no. 37 ; (Ser. 2), xxxviii, 24- 



" Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 

 290. 



1° Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxviii, 24, 



'« V.C.H. Herts, i, 306A. 



" Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 186. 



" Ibid, ii, 541. 



1' Lay Subs. R. bdle. 120, no. 8 ; see 

 Feud, Aids, ii, 431. 



™ Feet of F. Herts. 9 Edw. II, no. 



" Cal. Chart. R. 1300-26, p. 417. 



" Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 147 

 (quoting charter penes Sir T. Brograve). 



-3 Chart. R. 39 & 40 Edw. Ill, m. 7, 

 20, 21. 



2* Chan. Inq. p.m. 44 Edw. Ill (ist 

 nos.), no. 37. 



''' Ibid. ; see Close, 50 Edw. Ill, pt. 

 ii, m. 13, 12, 9. 



25 See Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 

 147 ; Berry, Herts. Gen. 74 ; Morant, 

 Hist, and Antiq. of Essex, i, 393. 



2' Chauncy, loc. cit. 



^ Ibid. 151 (from brass in church). 



'9 See Feud. Aids, ii, 446. 



3" Chan. Inq. p.m. 24 Hen. VI, no. 29. 



" Ibid. 15 Edw. IV, no. 37. 



" Pari. R. vi, 504a. 



5 



'' Ibid. 554a. 



'* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxviii, 24. 



3s Ibid. 36 Ibid. Ii, 5. 



3^ He levied a fine of the manor in 

 1558 (Feet of F. Herts. East. 4 & 5 Phil, 

 and Mary). 



38 Ibid. East. 5 Eliz. ; see l^isit. of 

 Herts. (Harl. Soc), 150. 



35 M. I. 



■>" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxix, 133. 



•" His will is dated 1594. See New- 

 court, Repertorium, i, 791. 



" Fisit. of Herts, loc. cit. 



« Feet of F. Herts. Mich. 36 & 37 

 Eliz. 



" Ibid. Mich. 39 & 40 Eliz. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccxxxv, 8. 



