FLITT HUNDRED 



HIGHAM GOBION 



GoBlON. Barry of 

 ten pieces argent and 

 gules luith a label azure 

 having five pendants. 



the Confessor by five sokemen, who could assign and 

 sell their land to whom they wished. By 1 1 58 the 

 manor had passed to Richard Gobion,* whose family 

 gave their name to the place, and held the manor 

 until 1300. In 1231 Katherine, widow of Richard 

 Gobion, successfully claimed her third of 3 carucates 

 in Higham as the dower settled 

 on her by him and his father 

 Richard/' Her opponent 

 Hugh Gobion, grandson of 

 Richard, was holding shortly 

 afterwards two knights' fees in 

 Higham, Streatley, Faldo, and 

 Sharpenhoe ; ' he died in 

 '*75>**"<1 was succeeded by 

 his son Richard, who in 1 279 

 was accused by his mother 

 Maud of failing to carry out 

 an agreement made between 

 them in 1277, whereby Maud 

 had handed over one-third 



of the manor, which she held as dower, in return 

 for ;^ 10 of silver paid annually during her life.' The 

 dispute was amicably settled in the same year, and 

 Maud was granted right of distraining if Richard 

 should fail to pay the rent.' In 1284-6 the holding 

 amounted to one and one-fifth part of a knight's fee.' 

 Richard died in 1 300," leaving two daughters, the elder 

 of whom, Hawlse, married Ralph Butler," to whom 

 she brought the manor as her inheritance, after the 

 death of her mother Margaret, in 1311." The next 

 year, 1 3 1 2, Ralph and Hawise made a settlement of 

 the manor," and on Ralph's death, in 1 342, Hawise 

 still surviving, the reversion of the manor was in- 

 herited by their grandson Ralph, his father Sir John 

 having died in 1339." In 1346 Hawise held I fee 

 in Higham," and their estate by that date had been 

 augmented by the acquisition of lands held in 1 303 

 and 1 3 1 6 by Thomas Paynel and Elizabeth his wife,'° 

 the other sister and co-heiress. Hawise died in 1 360, 

 and as her grandson Ralph had predeceased her in 

 1348, the manor was inherited by his brother Sir Ed- 

 ward." He died without issue in 141 2," when the 

 manor was inherited by his kinsman Sir Philip Butler, 

 of Woodhall in Watton, Hertfordshire, grandson of 

 Sir Edward's uncle Ralph. Sir Philip died a few years 

 later, in 1420, and his widow, Elizabeth, married as 

 her second husband Laurence Cheyne, who was hold- 



4*4*4* 



Butler. Gules a 

 Jesse cheeky argent and 

 sable between six crosslets 



* Liber Niger, i, 199 ; Red. Bk. of 

 Exch. i, 17, 320. William de Loedes 

 held the manor of Streatley with Shar- 

 penhoe of the same overlord at Domesday, 

 and was there succeeded by Richard de 

 Gobion, 



« Miitlimd, Bractot^s Note Bk.ase 518. 



' Cal. of Close, 1 227-3 1, p. ^02; Testa 

 de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 249. 



<• Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Edw. I, No. IJ. 



' De Banco R. 28, m. 59. 



8 Feet of F. Beds. 7 Edw. I, No. 4. 



' Feud. Aids, i, 7. 



1" Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. I, No. 49. 

 At this date the manor comprised a capital 

 messuage, with a garden worth 31. a year; 

 two dovecotes, worth nothing ; 360 acres 

 in demesne, worth 6d. per acre, total, 

 ^9 ; 24 acres of meadow, worth u. per 

 acre, total 241.; 6 acres of pasture, worth 

 •6d. an acre, total 3;. ; 21 acres of wood, 

 with underwood, which after two years 

 would be worth 6d. an acre, total loi. 6d. 

 The whole manor, with services of tenants 

 and villeins, was worth ^19 141. 2jrf. 



11 Feud. Aids, i, 14. 



" Feet of F. Div. Cos. 4 Edw. II, 

 No. 46. 



18 Ibid. Beds. 5 Edw. II, No. 17. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 16 Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), No. 28. 



1' Feud. Aids, i, 33. 



1° Ibid, i, 14, 22, 33. In 1285 part of 

 the Gobion lands in Higham had been held 

 of Ralph Paynel, who held of the king in 

 chief, and in 1302-3 the two sisters and 

 their husbands were returned as holding 

 jointly in Higham, Streatley and Faldo. 



W Waters, Chesters of Cbicheley, i, 139 ; 

 Close R. 46 Edw. Ill, m. 19. In 1372 

 Sir Edward granted a rent of ^20 from 

 the manor to Nicholas Bludeworth and 

 others for their life ... to the use of 

 John Bryan. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 Hen, IV, No. 

 16. 



19 Feud. Aids, i, 46. 

 ^ Chan. Inq, p,m. 6 Hen. VI, No. 



30. 



>1 Ct. R, in Bodl. Library. 



ing the manor in right of his wife in 1428," 

 Sir Philip's son and heir, Edward, died a minor in 

 the same year as his father, and was succeeded by his 

 brother Philip, aged fifteen, in 1429," This Philip, 

 who was holding the courts of the manor in 1450- 

 51," died in 1453, and was succeeded by his son 

 John," whose son Sir Philip 

 died seised of the manor in 

 1545," The latter's son and 

 heir. Sir John, settled the 

 manor on his son Sir Philip, 

 giving annuities to his other 

 sons, Thomas, Nicholas, and 

 William. Sir Philip died in 

 1606, and was succeeded by 

 his grandson Sir Robert," who 

 in 1 62 1 settled the manor on 

 his infant daughter Jane, aged 

 three years at her father's death 

 in 1622." By 1637 Jane was ""■• 

 married to John Bellasis, and 



in that year her guardian Godfrey Maidwell received 

 licence to alienate the manor on her behalf in order 

 to pay her father's and mother's debts." The manor 

 was therefore sold, in 1638, to 

 William Langley," who in 

 1641 was created a baronet. 

 He was accused before the 

 Parliamentary Committee in 

 1649 of having supplied horses 

 for his son under the earl of 

 Newcastle, but he denied being 

 a party to his son's action, 

 pleaded heavy losses in the ser- 

 vice of Parliament, and having 

 proved that he was acquitted 

 of this charge of delinquency 

 in 1645 by the county committee, a discharge was 

 granted him in 1652." He died in 1653, and was 

 succeeded in the title and estates by his son Roger,™ 

 who in 1657 sold the manor to Amabel countess of 

 Kent," from whom it has descended to the present 

 owner. Lord Lucas and Dingwall, the history of the 

 manor after its acquisition by the Greys being similar 

 to that of the manor of Wrest (q.v.). 



There was a vineyard attached to the manor, which 

 is mentioned for the first time in 1259," and which 

 in 1 300 was worth l zd?' There was also a mill in 



^ Chan, Inq. p.m. 6 Hen. VI, No, 30. 



2» Cussans, Herts, Hundred of Broad- 

 water, 169. 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 297, 

 No. 149. 



^ Ibid. (Ser. 2), vol, 402, No. 144. 



2» Cal. S.P. Dom. 1637-8, p, 19, 



"7 Recov. R. East. 14 Chas. I, rot. 5 ; 

 Feet of F. Beds. Mich. 14 Chas. I ; ibid. 

 Beds. East. 17 Chas. I, 



^ Cal. of Com. for Comp. p. 1945. 



" G. E. C. Baronetage, ii, 87. 



80 Feet of F. Beds. Mich. 1657. 



81 Harl. R. O. 38. «It happened at 

 Higham thatBartholomew,son of Geoffrey 

 Crampe, came by the vineyard of Lord 

 Hugh Gobion, in the town of Higham, 

 on the vigil of the Annunciation of tl^p 

 B.V.M., 44 Hen. Ill, and found a dead 

 child beside the house of the vineyard of 

 the age of 3 or 4 days, and a hue and cry 

 was raised. Nothing was known of the 

 father or mother, or where it was borni 

 And the coroner came and did his duty,' 



8' Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw, I, No. 49. 



Langlky. Paly ar- 

 gent and vert. 



145 



44 



