FLITT HUNDRED 



Beauchamp, Lard St. 

 Amand. Gules a fesse 

 beHoeen six martlets or 

 tvith a border argent. 



not remain long in the latter's possession, for it was 

 acquired EynHenry, earl of Kent, in 1574." Before 

 this purchase, it had appar- 

 ently been held of the earl of 

 Kent as of his manor of 



I Nether Gravenhurst by knight 

 service." The manor was held 

 by the earls of Kent jointly 

 with their other manors of 

 Gravenhurst. The last men- 



' tion of the manor occurs in 

 1623, when Charles, earl of 

 Kent, died seised of it," after 

 this date it was probably 

 merged in one of the larger 

 manors. 



One of the numerous small 

 holdings in Eye in Lower Gravenhurst probably de- 

 veloped into what was known afterwards as the 

 MANOR OF ION, and in the seventeenth century 

 Hi ION HO USE. In 1 3 3 2 Robert de Kirkby of Eye 

 granted to Nicholas, son of Roger de Aspley and Alice 

 his wife, a messuage in Eye," and it may have been 

 this messuage which was left in 1508 by Richard 

 Beauchamp, Lord St. Amand, to his illegitimate son 

 Anthony,'' who was holding it under the name of Ion 

 manor in 1 531." In l6lz Henry Whitehead died 

 seised of land in Eye,*" and Lysons states that Ion House 

 was sold in 1639 by William Whitehead to William 

 Allen.'* Elizabeth, daughter of William Allen, 

 married in 1665 John Sabine," who was created a 

 baronet in 1672, and sold the property in that year 

 to Morgan Hinde, of whose family it was purchased 

 in 1724. by the duke of Kent.^ Ion House is now 



LOWER 

 GRAVENHURST 



a farm, and has remained in the Grey family. Lord 

 ' Lucas and Dingwall being the present owner. 



In February, 1637-8, there was some trouble in 

 collecting ship-money in Lower Gravenhurst, two men 

 refusing to make a tax upon the town ; their resistance, 

 however, does not seem to 

 have been very prolonged as 

 the sheriff was of opinion that 

 if the calling of their names 

 was forborne, they would con- 

 form to reason without troub- 

 ling the council." 



The church of 

 CHURCH OUR LJOr has 

 an aisleless chan- 

 cel and nave without structural 

 division and of the same inter- 

 nal width, 19 ft., the chancel 

 being 16 ft. 6 in. long, and 

 the nave 32 ft. At the west 



is a tower 10 ft. 8 in. by 9 ft. 4 in. within the 

 walls. The church is fortunately dated by docu- 

 mentary evidence, having been built by Sir Robert 

 de Bilhemore, who died in or before the year 

 1 36 1." The tower is a late fourteenth-century 

 addition. The chancel has an east window of three 

 lights, and two-light windows on the north and 

 south, all of the original work. At the west of 

 the chancel is a fifteenth-century screen with remains 

 of colouring, especially on the lower panels, where the 

 positions of the nave altars may be seen. On the 

 north side of its central opening is fixed a wrought- 

 iron hour-glass stand which formerly stood on the old 

 pulpit. On the north of the east window is an em- 



S A B I N z. Baronet. 

 Argent a scallop sable 

 and a chief sable with 

 tvjo pierced molets argent 

 therein. 



Lower Gravenhurst Church : Interior, looking East 



M Feet of F. Beds. Hil. 1 6 Eliz. 

 25 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), vol. 34.9, 

 No. 172. 



a« Ibid. (Ser. 2), vol. 476, No. 144. 

 W Anct D. (P.R.O.), B. 3875. 



28 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, i. 



»9 Harl. Chart. 55, F. 38. 



80 Blaydes, Beds. N. and Q. iii, 302. 



8^ Lysons, Mag. Brit, i, 89. 



^^ Blaydes, Beds. N. andQ. ii, 1 10. 



337 



" Lysons, Mag, Brit, i, 89. 



" Cal.S.P. Dom. 1637-8, p. 271. 



'* Line. Epis. Reg. Buckingham; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. i, file 156, 

 No. 23. 



43 



