A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



King's C o l l e g k, 

 Cambridge. Sable three 

 lilies argent and a chief 

 party azure viith afleur 

 de Hi or and gules vjith 

 a leopard or. 



for in 1522 Farley was again crown property.*" 

 Lysons offers a supposition, based on no ascertainable 

 authority, and not corroborated by its subsequent 

 history, that King's College had conveyed Farley to 

 St. Albans in exchange for 

 other lands.^"' St. Albans cer- 

 tainly appears to have tried to 

 enforce some claim on Farley, 

 which lay adjacent to its own 

 manor of Dallow, for in 1505 

 George Rotherham (whose son 

 is found later as lessee of the 

 manor) wrote to Pierre Caurel, 

 master of the hospital of Sant- 

 ingfeld, warning him that the 

 abbot of St. Albans had en- 

 tered upon his lands at Farley 

 and dispossessed the tenants. 

 The master in reply desired 

 Rotherham to sue the abbot, 

 as the place had belonged to Santingfeld from time 

 immemorial.*'" 



George Rotherham, as appears in a manuscript 

 of 1554, had the manors on a 92 years' lease 

 from the crown, dating from 1522, but before it 

 expired his son George received a grant in fee of 

 Farley and Whiperley from 

 Queen Elizabeth in 1554.'°' 

 George Rotherham held these 

 manors at his death in 1594, 

 when his son George succeeded 

 him,"* being followed on his 

 death in 1632 by his son 

 George."' In 1698 and also 

 in 1707 Thomas Rotherham, 

 probably a grandson of the last- 

 named George, still held this 

 estate,'"' which by 1783 had 

 passed to John Sharpe Palmer."" 

 He transferred it to the marquess of Bute, who held 

 it in 1815."" Lord Bute sold it some time previous 

 to 1855 to Mr. Crawley, whose family holds it at the 

 present day."' 



The manor of FENNELS GROVE, which derives 

 its name from the Fitz Neel family, to whom it be- 

 longed in the thirteenth century, was held of Hugh 

 Mortimer of his moiety of Luton manor (q.v.) by 

 service of 6d. per annum"" until 1370, when it fell 

 into the king's hands, and was subsequently held in 

 chief. The first mention that has been found of the 

 Fitz Neels holding in Luton occurs in 1283, when 



Rotherham. Vert 

 three harts tripping or. 



Robert Fitz Neel granted lands there to Roger 

 Taylard.*" In 1 329 Roger de Gildesburgh acknow- 

 ledged the right of Robert Fitz Neel, probably a son 

 of the above Robert, to a messuage, seven score acres of 

 land, 6 acres of meadow, 30 acres of wood, and the 

 moiety of a water-mill.'" On the death of the latter 

 in 1332 his daughter Grace, wife of John de Nowers, 

 became his heir.'" Her son John in 1370 conveyed 

 Fennels Grove to Edward III,'" who in 1378 granted 

 to Henry Downham for life ' the house and place of 

 "Fyneslesgrove" in Luton."" In 1 399 Fennels Grove, 

 still crown property, was valued at 6oj.,"' but in 1416 

 was granted with many other manors by Henry V to 

 his brother John, duke of Bedford,"' on whose death 

 in 1435 the property returned to Henry VI as heir- 

 general of his uncle."' In 1462 Edward IV made a 

 lease of the manor of Luton Fennels Grove — ^here 

 definitely so-called for the first time,"' and it seems 

 to have been subsequently granted to John Lord 

 Wenlock, for it appears both in the earlier will of 

 Thomas Rotherham and the release of Thomas Lawley, 

 Lord Wenlock's heir-general, in 1477."° It thus 

 became absorbed in Luton manor (q.v.), and subse- 

 quent to 1 6 1 1 no mention has been found of it as a 

 separate manor."' 



GREJTHJMPSTEAD, later known as FAL- 

 CONER'S HALL, was another property held of 

 Luton manor. In 1803 the ovnier still paid a quit- 

 rent of £\ 2s. "j^d. to Luton manor,*" but if, as its 

 name implies, it at one time formed part of the Great- 

 hampstead Someries manor, payment was probably 

 made on account of a former dependence on the manor 

 of Woodcroft, at that time absorbed in Luton. Its 

 history — which has been almost entirely compiled 

 from papers in the possession of Mr. F. Crawley — 

 begins in 1564, when, described as a messuage, farm, 

 and dove-house, it was sold by Richard Laurence to Wil- 

 liam Crawley, whose grandson Thomas Crawley sold it 

 in 1662 to John Miller, from whose grandson John it 

 had passed before 1 705 to Richard Fielden, at which 

 date Hannah, widow of Richard Fielden, was acting 

 as his executrix. Richard Fielden, son of the above, 

 left it to his daughter Sara Jobson in 1725 ' because 

 that his son Richard had intermarried with a woman 

 of mean parentage and doubtful reputation without 

 his consent, and that he had since paid considerable sums 

 of money for him as shown in his Book of Accompts.' 

 Finally in 1752 Greathampstead Farm was sold by 

 Stafford Jobson to John Crawley."^ Lysons says that 

 ' a reputed manor of that name is now a field belonging 

 to a farm called Falconer's Hall, which is the property 



«™ L.T.R. Orig. R. pt 5, rot. 94. 



SOI Lysons, Mag, Brit, i, no. 



"«» Hist, MSS. Cam, Var, Rep, (1903), ii, 

 329. In 1487 one of the matters brought 

 before the Roman Court by the archdeacon 

 on behalf of the abbey was the difficulty 

 of obtaining tithes from the lands of the 

 lordship of Farley (in the hands of the 

 laity) ; Reg, Abbat, John Whethamstede ; 

 (Rolls Ser.), ii, 289. 



«" L.T.R. Orig. R. pt. 5, rot. 94. In 

 1548 Sir Thomas Palmer had received 

 a grant of this lordship ; Pat. i Edw. VI, 

 pt. 6, m. 40. It is to be borne in mind 

 that the Rotherhams of Farley are dis- 

 tinct from the Rotherhams of Someries 

 in Luton ; cf. Harl, Soc, Publ, xix, 49. 



«i" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxi, 

 No. 90. In 1570, and again in 1590, 

 George Rotherham conveyed these manors 

 into the hands of trustees : Pat. 1 z £liz. 



pt. 9, m. 22 ; 32 Eliz. pt. 5, m. 10 ; Feet 

 of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 12 & 13 Eliz.; Beds. 

 Mich. 32 Eliz. 



*" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccclxiv, 

 No. 98 ; Fine R. g Chas. I, pt. 3, No. 

 39; Cravjley Papers, No. 180. 



^ Crawley Papers, No. 1 80 ; Feet of 

 F. Beds. East. 1 1 Will. Ill ; Cobbe, Hist, 

 of Luton Church, 626. 



"W Recov. R. Mich. 24 Geo. Ill, rot. 

 352. Farley and Whiperley are here 

 treated as a single manor. 



sosibid. 55 Geo. III. 



'™ Davis, Hist, of Luton, 24. Informa- 

 tion supplied by Mr. Austin. 



«» Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), No. 75. 



»" Feet of F. Div. Cos. j i Edw. I, No. 

 53. ^^ Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, No. 30. 



"' Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), No. 75 ; 23 Edw. Ill, No. 85. 



-^S8 



^* Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A. 387. 

 si'Cfl/.o/Paf. 1377-81, p. 184. 

 ="6 Chan. Inq. Misc. file 270, 



No. 



^^ Chart. R. 3 & 4 Hen. V, No. 1. 



^^ Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, Nos. 7-1 1. 

 It is here described as 'lands and tene- 

 ments called Fenells in Esthyde in parish 

 of Luton." Its extent included 171 acres 

 of land worth 7IJ. ^d. (cf. 176 acres in 

 1329 ut supra), ids, id, from land and 

 meadow called Barland, 331. 4^. from a 

 moiety of a water-mill, 161. id, rent from 

 customary tenants, and 141. rent of assize. 



>19 Cal, of Pat. 1461-7, p. 121. 



^ Close, 15 Edw. IV, m. 26 

 Edw. IV, m. 19. 



*" Feet of F. Div. Cos. Hil. 8 Jas. I, 

 Fennels Wood still exists as a place-name, 



»-» Add. MSS. 9408. 



'^ Crawley Papers. 



17 



