BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



LANGFORD 



Dean and Chapter 

 or Westminster. The 

 shield of the Confessor 

 ivith a chief or and there- 

 in between two Tudor 

 roses a pale wth the royal 

 arms of France quartered 

 with England, 



the fourteenth century, alienated by fine land held 

 of the Wahulls in Langford to Henry le Scrope." 

 The latter already held other property in Langford 

 of the same overlord, together with land in Holme 

 held of the de Moubrays and Latimers." Margaret, 

 Henry le Scrope's widow, married Hugh Mortimer, 

 and in 1358 Langford is mentioned as part of her 

 dower."™ In 1398 Richard le Scrope, son of the 

 above Henry, granted all his lands in Holme and 

 Langford to Richard II, who 

 immediately transferred them 

 to the abbey and convent of 

 Westminster," who continued 

 to hold the manor until the 

 dissolution of the monasteries, 

 when it was transferred to the 

 Dean and Chapter of St. Peter, 

 Westminster. The manorial 

 courts were held in their 

 name, but their usual practice 

 was to lease the manor for 

 long periods. Thus in 1 5 7 1 it 

 was let on a ninety-nine years' 

 lease to Paul Luke, whose in- 

 terest in 1642 was transferred 

 forj^l 5,000 to Lady Camden," 

 and she in her turn sold the residue of the lease 

 to Sir Erasmus de la Fontaine.^' 



Confiscated under the Commonwealth legislation 

 abolishing deaneries and chapters, the manor of 

 Holme with Langford was leased by the Commis- 

 sioners to John and James Noel," but returned to the 

 Dean and Chapter at the Restoration, and before 

 1677 Sir Erasmus de la Fontaine had resumed his 

 interrupted lease, and at that date he obtained a re- 

 newal till 1698.** This manor is still in the posses- 

 sion of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. 



The origin of the manor of LJNGFORD REC- 

 TORT was a grant made by Simon de WahuU, son 

 of Walter the Fleming and Sybil his wife, of the 

 church of Langford, together with land, a mill and 

 all rights of sac and soc, toll and theam, to the prior 

 of the Knights Hospitallers,'* which grant was con- 

 firmed by King Stephen and others.*' In 1276 the 

 prior claimed view of frankpledge twice yearly in 

 this manor,'' and in an extent of the property of the 

 Hospitallers taken in 1338, the value of the church 

 of Langford, with rents and services, was estimated at 

 20 marks yearly.'' 



At the time of the Dissolution Langford Rectory 

 manor, then valued at £6,^ became the property of 

 the crown, and for a short time appears to have 

 been granted to the master of the college of Fother- 

 inghay, which, though surrendered to the crown in 

 1539, was allowed to retain its property till the 

 second year of Edward VI.'' Elizabeth granted the 



18 Chan. Inq. p.in. lo Edw. Ill, No. 

 47 ; Westm. MSS. bdle. 5. 



" Feet of F. Beds. 9 Edw. 11, m. 17, 

 18 ; 10 Edw. II, m. 10. 



"O Chan. Inq. p.m. 32 Edw. Ill, No. 22. 



21 Chart. R. 21-23 Ric. II, m. 7-4, 

 No. 7 ; Westm. MSS. bdle. 5. 



22 Westm. MSS. bdle. 5, 6. 



23 Ibid. 



^* Close, 1652, p. 56-14. 

 25 Westm. MSS. bdle. 5, 6. The 



expiration ai the lease was the signal for 

 prolonged litigation between John de la 

 Fontaine and the Dean and Chapter, who 

 claimed that de la Fontaine, having ac- 



Hawkins, Lord 

 Brampton. Ermine a 

 saltire azure and thereon 



Jive fieurs-de-iis or be- 

 tween the scales of justice 

 in the chief and a hind 

 lying on a mount in the 



foot. 



manor to John Winch in 1574,°' and in 161 6 

 Humphrey Winch obtained a renewal of the grant.^' 

 In 161 8 he alienated this manor to Daniel New- 

 man," whose family still retained it in 1790.'° 

 Lysons, writing early in the nineteenth century, says 

 that by the marriage of Anne 

 daughter of Daniel Newman 

 of Canterbury,'' to Sir John 

 Fagg, the latter had acquired 

 Langford Rectory manor." It 

 was the property of the late Lord 

 Brampton who died in 1907. 



At the time of the Domes- 

 day Survey Walter the Fleming 

 possessed two mills in Lang- 

 ford worth z6s. 8i/.'' In 1368 

 these two mills were in ruins, 

 and worth nothing for want 

 of repair '' ; they are men- 

 tioned as part of the extent 

 of the manor in 1628.*° 



A third mill, expressly de- 

 scribed as new, was granted 



by Simon de Wahull as part of the endowment of 

 Langford Rectory,*' and a corn-mill still stands by the 

 banks of the Ivel, near the church. Langford manor 

 also possessed the right of free fishery in the waters of 

 the Ivel." 



The church of ST. ANDREW con- 

 CHURCH sists of a chancel 33 ft. by 17 ft. with 

 north vestry and organ chamber, nave 

 19 ft. by 57 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles 

 I o ft. wide, and a tower over the south porch 1 1 ft. 

 by I o ft., all measurements being internal. 



The nave, aisles, and tower all belong to a rebuild- 

 ing begun about 1320, while the chancel, which 

 leans considerably to the south in plan, and has very 

 thick walls, is evidently of earlier date, though re- 

 modelled in the fifteenth century, and having no 

 doorways or windows of an older time than this. The 

 order of rebuilding in the nave seems to have been 

 first the south aisle, then the north aisle and the 

 chancel arch, and lastly the tower. 



It was also intended at this time to rebuild the 

 chancel, making it wider than at present, as is shown 

 by the width of the chancel arch, for which the west 

 end of the south wall of the chancel has been cut 

 away. As already noted, this was not carried out, 

 but new windows and doorways were inserted in the 

 fifteenth century, and the east wall was probably re- 

 built. The windows and doorway of the chancel 

 have been restored in modern times, and buttresses 

 added at the eastern angles, while a new vestry has 

 been built on the north side, and the space between 

 the north aisle and the vestry closed in quite recently 

 to form an organ chamber. The old walling is 



quired a great estate of freehold land 

 lying intermixed with their leasehold, had 

 retained part of the latter. 



26 Cott. MSS. Nero, E. vi. 27 ibij. 



2S Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 5, 

 II, 59. 



29 L. B. Larking, Knights Hospitallers in 

 Engl. 



s" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 40;. 



51 Pat. I Edw. VI, pt. I i V.Cn. 

 NorthantSy ii, 98. 



52 Pat. 17 Eliz. pt. 'o. 

 " Ibid. 13 Jas. I, pt. 15. 



84 Feet of F. Beds, Mich. 15 Jas. L 



85 Ibid. East. 30 Geo. III. Elizabeth 



Newman conveyed the manor to Thomas 

 Randolph and others. 



85 The Newmans, originally a Bedford- 

 shire family [Harl. Soc. Puhl. xix, 126), 

 appear to have migrated to Kent in the 

 seventeenth century (Berry, Kent Geneal. 

 314)- 



5? Lysons, M.ag, Brit, i, 103 ; Add. 

 MSS. 9408. 



88 V.C.H. Beds, i, 250*. 



8' Chan. Inq. p.m. 41 Edw. Ill, No. 62, 



■"> Recov. R. Mich. 4 Chas. I, rot. 87. 



■" Cott. MSS. Nero, E. vi. 



''2 Chan. Inq. p.m. 41 Edw. Ill, No, 

 62 i Feet of F. Beds. East. 3 Geo. I. 



