A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



formerly by Walter de Holecot, parson, and Elena 

 widow of Hugh de Tivill, were leased to the abbey 

 by Ralph for ten years, or until the abbey should 

 have received ten crops.' 



The manor remained in the possession of the abbey 

 until the Dissolution, when it was taken into the 

 hands of the king." The hamlet of Gravenhurst was 

 leased out in 1 3 1 8 by the abbey to Sir William de 

 Herle and others," and in 1452 the whole manor 

 was let for £2^ 5/. 3i</." 



At the court held at the manor in the following 

 year it was deemed that ' the water running under 

 the Waterend from the Redie by the Mone to the 

 Millway was the Lord's, and no one was to fish in 

 it.' " In I 535 the abbey's possessions in Gravenhurst 

 were worth ;£i2," and in 1 540 the rent of the manor 

 was £i <^s. ifd}'' In 1542 the manor of Gravenhurst 

 was granted by the crown to Sir Henry Grey of 

 Wrest and his wife Ann, together with tenements 

 called the Copyland in Gravenhurst about 1 8 acres in 

 extent, in the tenure of William Maister, and the 

 tenement called the Shrine, about 40 acres, also in 

 the tenure of William Maister, both of which had 

 formerly belonged to Ramsey Abbey." The manor 

 remained in the Grey family, whose descendant. Lord 

 Lucas, holds it at the present day." It followed from 

 1 542 the same descent as that of the manor of Wrest 

 in Silsoe in the parish of Flitton (q.v.). 



Ramsey Abbey also owned in Upper Gravenhurst 

 a capital messuage which was known after the Disso- 

 lution as the manor of SCHEPEHOO. It is first men- 

 tioned in 1 2 1 2 as lying near land which belonged to 

 Joscelin de Stivecle." This family evidently held 

 this capital messuage from the abbey, for a few years 

 later, Walter, Joscelin's son, was holding one-third 

 of a hide from the abbey." Joscelin's widow Aline 

 married James Wake, and on her death in I 254 her 

 dower in Gravenhurst was inherited by Barnabas, son 

 of Walter, who was then seventeen years old.'" 

 Barnabas died without leaving children, and the mes- 

 suage passed to his sister Alice, who had married 

 William le Coynte. William and Alice in 1 260 

 bestowed 36 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, and 

 26a'. of rent upon the abbey of Ramsey, for which gift 

 William and Alice and her heirs were to receive the 

 prayers of the church. One acre of this land lay in 

 the great culture called Schepehoobrade and pasture 

 was also granted in the land which extended to the 

 door of the capital messuage of Schephoo belonging to 

 William and Alice and their heirs." 



Alice's mother Joan, after the death of Walter de 

 Stivecle, had married as her second husband William 

 le Waleis, and in 1262 William le Coynte and Alice 

 granted to Joan, her husband, and their issue, together 

 with other lands, one third of the messuage of Schepe- 

 hoo,*' and between 1262 and 1267 the abbey of Ram- 



sey leased to William le Waleis and Joan those lands 

 which it had of the gift of William le Coynte and 

 Alice." Soon after this Joan granted 6 acres of land 

 to the abbey," and there is no further mention of 

 Schepehoo until the Dissolution, when it was granted 

 under the name of the manor of Schepehoo to Sir 

 Henry Grey of Wrest, when he received the manor 

 of Upper Gravenhurst. It was held by the Greys 

 jointly with the Manor of Upper Gravenhurst until 

 161 3, when Henry, earl of Kent, alienated the manor 

 to William Whitbread and William Milward as trustees 

 for the parish of Upper Gravenhurst." Since then 

 the estate has belonged to the parish, and it is now 

 comprised in the Town Farm Charity. 



There is mention of another manor in Upper 

 Gravenhurst, but its legal status is very problematical. 

 In 1375 William de Risceby the elder was granted 

 for his life a rent issuing from lands, demised in fee- 

 farm by Ramsey Abbey to William le Waleis and 

 Joan in Great Gravenhurst,'^ and in 1377 this same 

 William de Risceby was stated to be holding for life 

 the manor of LA HTDE in Great Gravenhurst, which 

 belonged to Agatha, the wife of Henry Barker of 

 Hitchin. After the death of William this manor 

 was to pass, according to agreement, to Gerard Bray- 

 brook and his heirs." The manor, however, appar- 

 ently continued in the possession of the Risceby 

 family, for in the reign of Henry VI, John Risceby, 

 probably a son of William, left it to his wife Alice, 

 who had married as her second husband John 

 Cavendish. John Cavendish bought the reversion of 

 the manor, but notwithstanding this, the feoffees, John 

 Meppershall, William Snowe, and others, granted the 

 reversion of the manor to Lord Grey de Ruthyn.*' 

 There is no further trace of the manor, but it is likely 

 that theGreys retained it,holdingit in conjunction with 

 their other manors, into which it was probably absorbed. 



The Inclosure Act for the parishes of Upper and 

 Lower Gravenhurst, passed in 1820, has not been 

 printed." 



The church of ST. GILES has a 

 CHURCH modem chancel and north vestry with 

 organ chamber, nave 33 ft. 10 in. by 

 1 8 ft. 2 in. with modern south porch and a west 

 tower 10 ft. square inside. Before the late repairs 

 there was a brick chancel and south porch of no 

 interest. The oldest part of the church is the nave, 

 the walls of which, together with the north doorway 

 and voussoirs of the chancel arch, belong to the 

 second quarter of the tv/elfth century. The tower is 

 a late fifteenth-century addition, and for the rest the 

 architectural history of the church has been obliter- 

 ated, though it is probable that the walls of the nave 

 were heightened when the present low-pitched fif- 

 teenth-century roof was put on. The modern chancel 

 is embattled, and has tracery windows of fifteenth- 



» Add. Chart. 33052, 33053 ; Anct. 

 Deeds (P.R.O.), A. 104. 



1° FtuJ. Aids, i, 22; Mins. Accts. bdle. 

 741, No. 2. 



" Anct. Deed J (P.R.O.), A. 139. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, No. i. The 

 wood and underwood sold out of the 

 manor came to ^^4 1 31. 4^., and Walter 

 West had the use of the fish-pond for the 

 annual rent of ^^i. 



"Ct. R. ptfo. 153, No. 27. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), iv, 272. 



" Dugdale, Mon. ii, 590. 



" Orig. R. L.T.R. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. i, 

 rot. 45 i Pat. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. 4, m. 12. 



'? Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 134, 

 No. 194; Chan. Proc. Eliz. K.k. 5, No. 

 44 ; Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 43 Eliz.; 

 Rccov. R. Trin. 43 Eliz. rot. 92 ; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 349, No. 172; Feet 

 of F. Beds. Mich. 22 Jas. I ; Recov. R. 

 Mich. 22 Jas. I, rot. 203 ; Feet of F.Beds. 

 East. 1651; Ibid. Hil. 1653 ; Ibid. East. 

 1653 ; Recov. R. Trin. 12 Geo. Ill, rot. 

 247; Ibid. Trin. 45 Geo. Ill, rot. 41. 



" Feet of F. Beds. 14 John, No. 8. 



1' Cartul. Mon. Ramesei. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii, 212, 213. 



"' Chan. Inq. file 15, No. 7. 



1 Feet of F. Beds. 44 Hen. Ill, No. 2; 



334 



Cartul. Mon. Ramesei. (Rolls Sen), ii, 246. 

 The other acres lay in fields called Amicle, 

 la Hyde, Disenesacres, Elmfurlong, Mabel- 

 acre, Hecham, Dune, and Sevenacres plot. 



"' Feet of F. Beds. 46 Hen. Ill, No. 

 17- 



"8 Cartul. Mon. Ramesei. (Rolls Ser.), 

 •>. 249- ^ Add. Chart. 33051. 



« Feet of F. Beds. Hil. 1 1 Jas. I. 



'^ Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), A. 103. 



» Feet of F. Beds. 51 Edw. Ill, No. 2: 

 Harl. Chart. 45, F. 62. 



»8 Early Chan. Proc. bdle, 20, No. 20. 



^ Local and Priv. Acts, i Geo. IV, 

 cap. 64. 



