FLITT HUNDRED 



PULLOXHILL 



Elizabeth the matter was again the cause of a quarrel. 

 It was then said that Edward VI had granted the 

 manor to Robert Brocas of Horton, and that Thomas 

 Kent had conveyed his interest to John Robbins, the 

 father of John Robbins now pleading. John Robbins 

 was to purchase the reversion in fee of the lease of 

 the manor from Robert Brocas for ;^26o, which was 

 paid, whereupon Bernard Brocas, son and heir of 

 Robert, refused to assure the reversion to John 

 Robbins.'^ 



The manor is next found in the hands of Richard 

 Page, who conveyed it to William Briers in 1623 ; " 

 a moiety passed to Briers Crofts, heiress of Sir William 

 Briers, on the death of the latter in 1653,** while the 

 other moiety was retained by Arabella, widow of 

 Sir William, as her dower. The manor then followed 

 a descent identical with that of the manors of Pulloxhill 

 and Greenfield, and was probably sold to the duke of 

 Kent between 1 7 10 and 1 716 by John Coppin. 

 The manorial rights are vested at the present day in 

 Lord Lucas and Dingwall, a descendant of the duke 

 of Kent. 



In the thirteenth century William de Faldho held 

 land in Pulloxhill under the lordship of Aimery of 

 St. Amand, to whom the barony of Cainhoe had 

 passed by intermarriage with the de Albinis. This 

 holding is described as i hide when it is first men- 

 tioned in 1286," and the same property was probably 

 included in the knight's fee held by him jointly with 

 William Pyrot c. 1 240.** Matilda, one of the heirs 

 of Faldho, married Walter de la Haye, who held the 

 property until his death in 1295, when, in the absence 

 of any claim on the part of his heirs, some unnamed 

 heirs of William de Faldho entered into the property *° 

 and held it in 1302." William son of William de 

 Keynes of Faldho died seised of it in 1336, when it 

 passed to his aunts, Christina, Emma, Margery, and 

 Alice.** Robert de Wodemancote, the husband of 

 Emma, and Simon Drye held in 1346 the hide which 

 the hein of William de Faldho formerly held.™ After 

 this date there is no further mention of the holding, 

 which was probably absorbed in one of the manors in 

 Pulloxhill. 



The prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem 

 also held land in Pulloxhill of Aimery of St. Amand. 

 In 1284 William de Bray, Richard Wiscard, and 

 Robert son of Sampson were holding i hide from the 

 prior,"' and in 1286 the prior claimed view of frank- 

 pledge over his nine tenants in Pulloxhill." In 1302 

 and in 1 346 the prior and his tenants were still hold- 

 ing 1 hide." In 1 540, when Sir Richard Longe was 

 granted the lordship of Shyngay, he was also given the 

 possession of the Knights Hospitallers in many places, 

 and acquired their land in PuUoihilJ ; " after which 

 no further trace of the holding can be found. 



There was a capital messuage and farm in Pulloxhill 

 which in the reign of Elizabeth was the subject of a 

 dispute between Reginald Callopp and Henry Steven 

 and Thomas Kinge.'* The former claimed the capital 

 messuage and farm called Pulloxhill in Flitton and 

 Pulloxhill by royal grant ; probably he gained his 

 cause, as on his death in 1590 he left lands in Pullox- 



hill to his sons Reginald and Thomas." The latter 

 probably conveyed the land to John Page, who settled 

 the capital messuage and farm on his son Richard 

 on the occasion of his marriage with Frances, daughter 

 of Robert Mudge, in 1594.* Richard in 1623 con- 

 veyed a messuage, dovecote, garden, and orchard, &c., 

 to William Beamont ; " and John Page, the father, 

 died the next year seised of the capital messuage and 

 farm in Pulloxhill in which Robert Beamont lately 

 lived.'' There is no further trace of this capital 

 messuage and farm. 



The church of ST. JAMES has a 

 CHURCH chancel 30 ft. by 1 8 ft. 3 in., a nave 

 5 5 ft. by 25 ft. 4in. with a western 

 gallery, and a western tower which is used as a porch. 

 It is recorded that the church was dedicated in 1 2 1 9 

 by Robert of Lismore, but as the greater part of the 

 old building, after falling into a ruinous condition, was 

 taken down in 1 846 and rebuilt, it only remains to 

 us to deplore the loss of what might have been a 

 valuable dated example of thirteenth-century work. 

 Previous to the rebuilding, the nave had entirely 

 disappeared, the chancel and a ruined west tower 

 alone remaining. The whole of the present nave is 

 therefore modern, up to and including the chancel 

 arch, and the same may be said of the tower, which 

 was rebuilt at the same time, partly with the old 

 materials ; the old chancel also lost some ten feet of 

 its west end at the time. As it stands to-day, the 

 chancel has a three-light east window with tracery, of 

 mid-fourteenth-century detail, flanked by two plain 

 niches which have been partly filled up and appear to 

 have been included in the 'restoration.' In the 

 north wall is a fifteenth-century window of two 

 trefoiled lights under a four-centred head, and in the 

 south wall are two similar windows of three lights. 

 The second of these has had its two western lights 

 blocked by the shortening of the chancel, and from 

 the inside appears as a single-light window. 



There are also traces in the external masonry on both 

 sides of the chancel of windows of an earlier date. 

 The chancel arch is modern, of two chamfered orders 

 with fourteenth-century detail. On either side of the 

 nave are three two-light windows with flowing tracery 

 of fourteenth-century style, and there are also two 

 small square-headed single-light windows, one to the 

 gallery and one to the vestry beneath, which appear 

 to be sixteenth-century work re-used. 



The tower is of three stages with an embattled 

 parapet and angle buttresses, and has in the ground 

 stage a circular west window of fourteenth-century 

 detail, and below it a west doorway which is the 

 main entrance to the church. 



Against the north wall of the chancel is a monu- 

 ment to Sir William Briers, 1653, and his two wives 

 Anne (Duckett) and Arabella (Crofts), set up by the 

 last named ; there is also a brass to Dame Anne 

 Briers, 163 1. On the south wall of the chancel is 

 another brass to George Fitzroy, 1608, and Anne 

 his wife. Partly covered by the organ is a third 

 brass with the kneeling figure of an armed man of 

 seventeenth-century style, the rest of the plate and 



81 Chan. Proc (Ser. 2), bdle.156, No. 10. 

 s» FcEt of F. Beds. Hil. 21 Jas. I. 

 M Recov. R. Hil. 1656, rot. 32. 

 ^ Ann.Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 325. 

 85 Testa dc Ne-vlll (Rec. Com.), 250*. 

 S6 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 40. 

 «1 Feud. Aids, i, 13. 



88 Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 £dw. II (ist 

 Nos.), No. 37, 



89 Ftud. Aids, i, 3 3. 9» Ibid, i, 7. 

 91 Plac. dc Quo iVar. (Rec. Com.), 6. 

 ^^ Feud. Aids, i, 13, 32. 



93 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 613 (i). 

 9* Chan. Pro'c.Eliz. C. c. 18, No. 22. 



379 



95 Blaydes, Beds. N.andQ. iii, 28. 



96 Com. Pleas D. Enr. Mich. 36 & 

 37 Eliz. ; Chan, Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 

 408, No. 131. 



9/ Feet of F. Beds. Hil. 21 Jas. I. 

 98 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 438, 

 No. 131, 



