FLITT HUNDRED 



LUTON 



Napier. Argent a 

 saltire engrailed between 

 four cin^oiU gules. 



when it passed to his son, another Thomas, aged about 

 five.^' He died in 1565, when the property passed 

 to his son George,'^ who, at his death in 1600, left a 

 son Sir John Rotherham, knight, as heir," who in 

 161 o— 1 1 conveyed his manor 

 into the hands of trustees pre- 

 paratory to a sale to Sir Robert 

 Napier alias Sandy, which took 

 place in the same year." Sir 

 Robert Napier died in posses- 

 sion of this property in 1637, 

 when it passed to Robert 

 Napier his son by his third 

 wife Margaret Robinson.'' He 

 sat for Parliament, representing 

 Weymouth in 1628 and Peter- 

 borough in 1640. During 

 the troubles in the reign of 



Charles I he sided with the crown, and in 1644 

 the Committee of Sequestrations for Bedford reported 

 that Sir Robert Napier ' being a member of the House 

 of Commons did in August last depart from London 

 and Westminster and neglected the service of the 

 House till December' and that his estates were' 

 accordingly sequestered. He submitted and offered 

 to compound for his estates in 1646, but was not 

 finally discharged until 1647.™ His death took place 

 in 1660, when he was succeeded by a grandson Sir 

 Robert Napier, who died unmarried and under age in 

 1675.*' His heir male was his uncle John Napier, 

 who held the Luton estate till his death in 171 1, 

 when his son Theophilus came into possession.^ 

 The latter died in 1719 leaving no direct heir, and 

 Luton passed to his nephew John Napier, who dying 

 unmarried in 1 748, devised his Luton estate by will to 

 his aunt Frances Napier, from whom it passed to her 

 nephew Francis Heme of Middlesex.'^ In 1763-4 

 Francis Heme sold it to the earl of Bute." After 

 having resided at Luton nearly thirty years he died in 

 1792, and the property passed to his eldest son John, 

 created marquess of Bute in 1796. He died in 1 8 14, 

 when the whole of this property was conveyed into 

 the hands of trustees for John, his grandson, then a 

 minor,*' who, in 1 844, sold the Luton estate, which 

 then consisted of some 4,000 acres, to Mr. Ward of 



Clopton.°° He never came into residence, and in 

 1848 it was purchased from him by John Shaw 

 Leigh," who died in 1 871, when he was succeeded 

 by John Gerard Leigh, on whose death in 1878 his 

 widow, afterwards Madame de Falbe, succeeded to the 

 estate for her life. She died in 1899, when the 

 Luton estate passed to her husband's nephew Gerard 

 Leigh, a minor. He died within a fortnight of his 

 entry into possession, leaving an infant son, whose 

 trustees sold it in 1903 to Sir 

 Julius Wernher, in whose pos- 

 session it is at the present 

 day.«» 



It now remains to account 

 for the sixths of the ancient 

 Luton manor, which Joan de 

 Mohun, Sybil de Bohun and 

 Eleanor de Leyburne acquired 

 in 1 274 as three of the co-heirs 

 of Isabel de Clare. The por- 

 tion of Joan de Mohun passed 

 to her son John de Mohun, 

 whose son John, then aged ten, 

 succeeded him in 1279.°' In 

 1305 the latter was negotiating 

 a marriage between his son John and Christina, 

 daughter of John de Segrave, when her dower was 

 provided from rents in Luton manor,°° and the son of 

 this marriage, John de Mohun, in 1375, enfeoffed 

 Sir Neel Loryng of Chalgrave, one of the first 

 founders of the Garter, with his share of Luton 

 manor." 



On the death of Sir Neel Loryng (March 1385-6), 

 William Loryng, a clerk, obtained a licence in 1387 

 to alienate this property to the prior and convent of 

 Dunstable to celebrate services daily for the soul of 

 Sir Neel and others." 



The priory appears to have retained this property, 

 for at the Dissolution Dunstable owned in Luton 

 rents amounting in all to £16 i6s. id.,'' and in 

 1545 Henry Audely and John Maynard received a 

 grant of the lands in Luton which had belonged to 

 Dunstable Priory. 



From the fact that these names frequently occur as 

 trustees about this time, and that the greater part of 



Wernher, Baronet. 

 Gulei the head of a grap- 

 pling-iron argent set sal- 

 tire-ivise ittith tv)o six- 

 pointed molets or above a 

 mount vert in the foot. 



7* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), inrii. No. 

 92. In 1533 he made a settlement of 

 the manor on the occasion of his marriage 

 with Alice WeUefed. (Recov. R. Hil. 25 

 Hen. VIII, rot. 307.) 



76 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxli. No. 

 45. Tl Ibid. cdxTi, No. 82. 



78 Feet of F. Div. Cos. Hil. 8 Jas. I ; 

 Mem. R. L.T.R. 13 Jas. I, rot. 232. Sir 

 Robert Napier, created a baronet in the 

 same year, had already acquired Luton 

 Hoo manor (q.v.). 



79 Chan. Inq. pjn. (Ser. 2}, cccclxxxii. 

 No. 161. 



80 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. yiii, App. pt. i, 

 3 ; Cobbe, Hist, of Luton Church, 617. 



81 G.E.C. Baronetage,!, 80. 



8' Recov. R. Mich. 11 Anne, rot. 201. 

 Sir John Napier suffered a recovery of the 

 manor in 1677 (Recov. R. Mich. 29 Chas. 

 II, rot. 199), and again in 1694 (ibid. Trin. 

 6 Wm. and Mary, rot. 20+). In 1710 he 

 became an idiot and had a commission of 

 lunacy awarded against him. 



83 Add. MS. 9408 ; G.E.C. Baronetage, 

 i, 80. 



8* Close, 4 Geo. Ill, pt. 8, No. 10. 

 The price here given is ^f 94,700, which 



of course included the other manors which 

 had become absorbed in this property, but 

 the following entry occurs in the Gent. 

 Mag. 6 Oct. 1763. «The Earl of 

 Bute set out for Luton Hoo in Bedford- 

 shire to take possession of an estate which 

 his lordship has lately purchased for 

 £\ 1 1,000.' 



8' Recov. R. HiL $5 Geo. Ill, rot. 

 274. 



8« Gent. Mag. xiiii, 82. 



87 Cobbe, Hist, of Luton Church, 248, 

 The manor of Luton is thus described in 

 the inventory for sale of 1844. 'Called 

 in the ancient description the Manor of 

 Luton Brache, Luton Hoo, DoUowe, 

 Bayliffs, Aynels, Hallyard, and Wood- 

 croft ; with view of frankpledge, and 

 Court Baron.' The profits consisted of 

 rents for shops in the market-house of 

 Luton, tolls received on market days, 

 stallage of the fair, and statute days, 

 and tolls payable for sheep and pigs. To 

 which is added ' The rents have never been 

 strictly exacted, and at this time do not 

 exceed ;^30.' Quit -rents were worth 

 £11 izs. 3|(/., exclusive of reliefs and 

 quits due on death or alienation. 



•^53 



88 Information supplied by Mr. Crawley 

 and by Mr. Austin, deputy steward of the 

 Luton estate. 



S3 G. Maxwell Lyte, Dunster and its 

 Lords, 34. Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 £dw. I, 

 No. 13. Joan's share comprised 971^ 

 acres i rod of arable land in demesne, 

 5^ acres of meadow, 39 acres ij rods of 

 demesne let to farm, a wood, ^ix 131. yd, 

 rent with 1 ii. z^d, rent of customers,and 

 2^ virgates held by customers. 



" Cal, of Pat. 1301-7, p. 327. 



" Inq, a,q.d. file 386, No. 3. John 

 de Mohun is here said to transfer one- 

 fourth of the manor of Luton to Neel 

 Loryng, held by one-eighth of a knight's 

 fee. There is no capital messuage apper- 

 taining to the said fourth part of the 

 manor, but there are 203 acres of arable 

 land, worth per annum 505. 10^., z acres 

 of mowing meadow worth 45., 7 of pasture 

 worth 31. 6d, 1^ acres of wood (the under- 

 wood worth nothing beyond reprise of 

 inclosure), 1051. zo^. rent of assize 

 yearly from free tenants. 

 . 92 Fine R. ,go^ m, j, Cal, of Pat, 



1385-9. P- 3 H- 



98 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 243. 



45 



