EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



BARKWAY 



lohn fifteenth Earl of Oxford, in March 1531-2.'" 

 Elizabeth died 6 November 15 37-" John son and 

 heir of the last-named earl had livery of Newsells 

 and the other estates of his father in 1540.'^ His 

 son Edvs^ard, the seventeenth earl, through whose 

 extravagance was dispersed a considerable portion of 

 the Oxford estate,^' sold Newsells Manor to Henry 

 Prannell, alderman and vintner of London, in 1 579.'^ 

 Prannell bequeathed two-thirds of the manor to his 

 wife Anne with remainder to his son Henry.'* In 

 1597 the latter made a settlement in favour of the 

 heirs of his wife Frances daughter of Thomas 

 (Howard) Viscount Bindon, 'at the importunity of 

 her great friends,' thus disinheriting his sisters Joan 

 wife of Robert Brooke and Mary wife of John 

 Clarke.'^ With Brooke he had recently been in 

 dispute as to the lease of a windmill and meadow 

 called ' Rookey Meade ' in Barkway.*' His widow 

 married Edward Earl of Hertford '' and later Ludovic 

 (Stuart) Duke of Richmond and Lennox. Mary 

 Clarke and the daughters of Joan Brooke attempted 

 to recover their reversionary interest in the manor, 

 proving in the Court of Wards a later settlement by 

 which Henry Prannell had limited the title of his wife 

 to a life interest.'' After the death of the Duchess 

 of Richmond in 1639 i"" Lord Maltravers, who had 

 married Elizabeth sister of Ludovic Duke of Rich- 

 mond and was son of Thomas (Howard) Earl of 

 Arundel and Surrey, entered upon Newsells ' by 

 some gift of the Duchess.' ^ His son Thomas Earl 

 of Arundel, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, was in 

 possession on 13 September 1652.^ Apparently in 

 1653 the manor was in the possession of Robert 

 Slingsby,' son of Sir Guildford 

 Slingsby,kt. InMarch 1660-1 

 he was created a baronet and 

 became comptroller of the 

 navy.* He is said to have 

 married a daughter of Robert 

 Brooke ^ and to have pur- 

 chased the rights vested in the 

 heir of Mary Clarke.' He was 

 a Royalist, and in compound- 

 ing for his estates in 1652 

 had stated that the Earl of 

 Arundel detained from him 

 two manors in Barkway.^ His 

 second wife Elizabeth Rad- 

 clyffe survived him,' and is said to have sold the 

 manorial rights of Newsells to Edward Chester, 



Chester. Ermine a 

 chief sable ivith a griffon 

 passant argent therein^ 



eldest son of Sir Edward Chester, the lord of Nut- 

 hampstead.' 



Newsells Park and demesne lands were purchased 

 late in the 1 7th century by William Newland, who 

 transferred them to his son Thomas. '° They were 

 subsequently purchased by Rear-Admiral Sir John 

 Jennings," who served under Rooke at Gibraltar 

 and was for many years Admiral of the White.i^ 

 His son George Jennings reunited Newsells Park 

 with the manorial rights by acquiring the latter 

 from Edward Chester, grandson of the former pur- 

 chaser." George Jennings was succeeded by his 

 daughter Hester Elizabeth wife of John (Peachey), 

 second Lord Selsey." She died 19 April 1837, and 



Jennings. Argent m 

 Jesse gules between three 

 plummets sable. 



Peachey, Axure a 

 lion ermine ivith a forked 

 tail and a quarter argent 

 ivith a pierced molet gules 

 therein. 



her only surviving son, Henry John third Lord 

 Selsey, died childless in the year following. The 

 estate was inherited by his sister the Hon. Caroline 

 Mary wife of the Rev. Leveson Vernon-Harcourt. 

 She also died without issue in 1 871 and the pro- 

 perty passed under the terms of Lady Selsey's will to 

 Hugh Rose Lord Strathnairn, the eldest surviving 

 son of Dame Frances Rose, legatee of the contingent 

 remainder. In 1859 his sister Frances Dowager 

 Countess of Morton, to whom the reversion after 

 the death of Lord Strathnairn and his brothers (they 

 having no issue) belonged, broke the entail and after- 

 wards by her will .\eft the Newsells estate in trust for 

 sale, an option to purchase being reserved to her 

 second son George Henry Douglas. This he exer- 

 cised in 1886, the year after the death of Field-Marshal 

 Lord Strathnairn.!^ In 1897 the manors were bought 

 from him by Mr. Alexander Crossman of Orgreave 

 Hall, Lichfield, who afterwards sold the estate of 

 Newsells, Nuthampstead, Berwick, Hedleys and 



'» Ct. of Wards D. box 144, no. 1, i. 



" G.E.C. loc. cit. 



'3 Ct. of Wards Misc. Bks. dlxxviii, 

 fol. 378 ; cf. Feet of F. Div. Co. East. 

 2 Edw. VI. 



'' Camden, Elizabeth (ed. 171 7), 94. 



*" Feet of F. Herts. East. 21 Eliz. ; 

 Pat. 21 Elii. pt. V. A settlement had 

 been made upon the earl's marriage with 

 Anne daughter of Lord Burghley (Recov, 

 R. Hil. 14 Eliz. rot. 704). 

 ''* Pat. 32 Eliz. pt. xxi, m. 27. 



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

 168 ; cf. Recov. R. East. 24 Eliz. rot. 

 46 ; Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 398, 

 no. 148. 



s' Ct. of Req. bdle. 33, no. 71. 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccxliii, 168. 



55 Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 398, 

 no. 148 ; cf. Feet of F. Herts. Trin. 17 

 Jas. I. 



™ Diet. Nat. Biog. 



' Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), idle. 398, 

 no. 148. 



^ Cal. Com. for Comp. 1890. 



^ Ct. Bk. in possession of Messrs. 

 Crossman and Prichard. 



* Pat. 13 Chas. II, pt. iii, no. 7. 



* Foster, Torks. Pedigrees. She is styled 

 * Elizabeth.' Two of the daughters of 

 Robert and Joan Brooke were Frances 

 and Katherine (Chan. Proc. [Ser. 2], 

 bdle. 398, no. 148). 



* Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 102. 

 In 1682 the Duke of Norfolk made 

 settlement of the manor (Com. Pleas 

 D. Enr. Trin. 34 Chas. II, m. 2), but 

 there is no further evidence of any 

 claim put forward by the heirs of Lord 

 Maltravers. 



' Cal. Com. for Comp. 1890. 

 » G.E.C. Baronetage, iii, 177. 



29 



^ Chauncy, loc. cit. 



10 Ibid. 



^^ Clutterbuck, Hist. andAntiq. of Herts. 

 iii, 365 ; cf. Exch. Dep. Mich. 25 

 Geo. II, no. 3. 



i» Diet. Nat. Biog. 



^^ Clutterbuck, op. cit. iii, 363 ; cf, 

 Recov. R. Trin. 7 Geo. II, rot. 239 ; 13 

 Geo. II, rot. 1 15. 



1^ G.E.C, Complete Peerage, vii, 109 ; 

 cf. Feet of F. Herts. Hil. 29 Geo. HI. 

 In 1786 a quitclaim of a moiety of the 

 manor was made by Richard Vachell and 

 his wife Margaret to William Chamber- 

 layne with warranty against Margaret's 

 heirs (ibid. Trin. 26 Geo. III). It has 

 not been ascertained what their interest 

 in the manor was. 



^* Abstract of title communicated by 

 Messrs. Crossman and Prichard. 



