EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



Laurence Hastings, whose marriage to Eleanor Des- 

 peuser never took place, died in 1348 as Lord 

 Hastings and Earl of Pembroke.*' 



After the death, in April 1377, of Mary Countess 

 of Pembroke, Anstey Castle and Manor were said to 

 include a capital messuage, 410 acres of arable land, 

 2 2 acres of pasture, 24 acres of meadow, 30 acres of 

 wood and underwood, which, owing to the thick 

 shade of the trees, were of no value.** The increased 

 extent of the manor since 1 3 14 must be due to the 

 inclusion with it of Little Anstey (q.v.). At this 

 time, since none of the beneficiaries under the grant 

 of 1325 survived, Anstey escheated to the Crown 

 and was granted by Edward III in May and by 

 Richard II in November 1377 to Edmund Earl of 

 Cambridge and heirs male of his body.** At Edmund's 

 death in 1402 it passed to his son Edward.*^ In 

 141 5 Edward, who had incurred great expense in 

 the foundation of Fotheringhay College, received 

 licence from the king to mortgage Anstey and other 

 lands to Henry Bishop of Winchester and others.*' 

 Anstey passed at Edward's death in 1415** to his 

 nephew and heir Richard Duke of York.*' The 

 demesne lands were let in 1454-5 on a lease of 

 twenty years.*" On the forfeiture of the duke in 

 1459 the manor accrued to the Crown,*i but it was 

 restored before his death in 1460. By Edward IV 

 in 1461 *^ and by Richard III in 1484*' it was 

 granted to their mother Cicely Duchess of York to 

 hold for life. It was held similarly as dower land by 

 Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII,** and by Katherine 

 of Aragon,** Anne Boleyn *^ and Jane Seymour.*' The 

 last granted a lease of the site of the manor and the 

 demesne lands to Robert Ive, who surrendered it in 

 1540 and received a Crown lease of the same pro- 

 perty for twenty-one years at an annual rent of ^^ 10.** 

 In 1544 the site and capital 

 messuage of Anstey Manor, 

 together with lands and woods, 

 all in the tenure of Robert 

 Ive, were granted in fee to 

 John Cock and his wife Anne,*' 

 who in 1553 received a grant 

 of the manor and lordship.^" 

 John Cock, who was master of 

 requests to Edward VI, died 

 seised in 1 5 57 and left a son 

 and heir Henry.'^ His widow 

 Anne married George Pen- 

 ruddock, with whom she held 



Anstey. The site and demesne lands continued in 

 the tenure of lessees. ^2 The manor passed after 

 Anne's death, in accordance with her first husband's 



Cock. Quarterly ^Us 

 and argents 



ANSTEY 



will, to his son Henry ^^ Cock, cofferer of the royal 

 household, who was a knight in 1572."* He con- 

 veyed it in 1593 to Thomas West and others^* for 

 the purpose of settling the manor on himself, his wife 

 and his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Robert 

 West.*'' Sir Henry Cock died seised in 1 6 1 o, when 

 his heirs were Henry Lucy, son of his daughter 

 Frances and of Sir Edmund Lucy, and his daughter 

 Elizabeth, but by the terms of the settlement Anstey 

 was inherited by Elizabeth at her mother's death.^' 



Elizabeth Cock in 1 6 1 o was the wife of Sir Robert 

 Oxenbridge, by whom she had a daughter and heiress 

 Ursula.^* She afterwards married as her third hus- 

 band Richard Lucy,''" who suffered a recovery of 

 Anstey Manor in 1 6 1 7 '" and was created a baronet 

 in l6l8.'i In 1627, on the occasion of a marriage 

 between Ursula Oxenbridge and John Monson, son 

 and heir to Sir Thomas Monson, bart.,'^ the manor 

 was settled on Sir Richard Lucy for life, with 

 reversion to John Monson and his heirs.'' Later in 

 this year it was conveyed by Sir Richard Lucy and 

 his wife Elizabeth and by John Monson to John 

 Stone,'* who died seised in 1 640, leaving a son and 

 heir Richard.'* The latter was a knight in 1651, 

 when with his wife Elizabeth, John Stone, his son 

 and heir, and others he con- 

 veyed the manor to his father- 

 in-law Richard Bennett and 





■^i^>. 



Lytton of Kneb- 

 worth. Ermine a chief 

 indented a^ure ivith three 

 croions or therein. 



to Nicholas Francklyn,'^ pre- 

 sumably for the purposes of a 

 settlement. In 1666 John 

 Stone and his wife Katherine 

 conveyed it to Sir Roland 

 Lytton, kt.," of Knebworth, 

 who died in 1674.'* His 

 younger son Roland inherited 

 Anstey by virtue of a settle- 

 ment, by which he held it in 

 tail with remainder to his 

 eldest brother William Lytton 



of Knebworth. He was unmarried in 1696," and 

 at his death, after 1700,*" Anstey passed to his 

 brother William, who died in 1705,81 or to the 

 latter's heirs. It subsequently descended with Kneb- 

 worth*^ until 1795, when it was sold by Richard 

 Warburton Lytton to Samuel Robert Gaussen of 

 Brookman's Park in North Mimms, at whose death 

 in 1812 it passed to his son of the same name.*' 

 The latter died in 18 18, when his executors sold 

 Anstey to the Right Hon. Sir William Alexander, 

 lord chief baron of the Exchequer, who died in 

 1842, having devised it to his sister Isabella wife 

 of John Peter Hankey for life, with remainder to her 



« G.E.C. Complete Peerage, yi, 209. 



" Cussans, Hin. of Herts. Ed-winstree 

 Hund. 56. 



« Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 84 ; 1416-22, 

 p. 47 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 444. 



« Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. IV, no. 36. 



" Campb. Chart, x, 5 ; Cal. Pat. 1413 

 16, p. 350. 



■« Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. V, no. 45. 



'■^ Feud. Aids, 11,453. 



S" Mins. Accts. bdle. 870, no. 4. 



" Cal. Pat. 1452-61, p. 551. 



Mlbid. 146 1-7, P- 131- 



5S Ibid. 1476-85. P- 4-59- 



" Pari. R. vi, \6-ia. 



55 L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, IS5• 

 5« Ibid, vii, 352. 



59 



60 

 61 

 62 



[- no. I. 



63 

 64 

 65 

 66 

 67 

 200. 



Ibid, xii (2), 975. 



Ibid. XV, 613 (36). 



Ibid, xix (i), 1035 (97). 



Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. ii. 



Chan. Inq. p.m. (Sen 2), cxi, 82. 



Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. x8i. 



Ibid. bdle. 31, no. 68. 

 Visit, of Herts. (Harl. Soc), 5. 

 Feet of F. Herts. East. 35 Eliz. 

 Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 109. 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccxix, 



G.E.C. Baronetage, i, 39. 



Ibid. 113. 



Recov. R. Mich. 15 Jas. I, rot. ill. 



G.E.C. Baronetage, i, 113. 



13 



" Ibid. 39. 



^^ Chauncy, op. cit. 109. 



'4 Ibid. 



'* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxcv, 85. 



™ Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 1651. 



" Ibid. Herts. East. 1666. 



'8 Le Neve, Pedigrees of Knights (Harl. 

 Soc), 82. 



™ Ibid. 83. Le Neve describes him as 

 vir admodum vinolentus et somnolentus. 



8i> Chauncy, op. cit. 109. 



81 y.C.H. Herts. Families, 199. 



8' Recov. R. Trin. 20 & 21 Geo. II, 

 rot. 273 ; and see account of Knebworth, 

 V.C.H. Herts, iii, 116. 



83 Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Edwinstree 

 Hund. 58. 



