BROADWATER HUNDRED GREA t munden 



BROKHOLES or BROCKHOLDS was a small 

 manor, held of the manor of Great Munden " ; in 

 1550 it was said to be held in socage for a rent 

 of 36/. It owed suit of court to Great Munden." 

 A Geoffrey de Brokhole occurs in a Watton fine of 

 1258-9," but the earliest to be mentioned in Great 

 Munden is the Geoffrey de Brokhole who in 1327 

 represented Hertfordshire in Parliament." In 1338 

 one Thomas de Burnham was summoned to answer 

 an indictment 'that he took Alice, wife of Geoffrey 

 de Brokhole, and her goods at Munden Furnivall and 

 carried them away.' 7) Geoffrey seems to have been 

 succeeded by another Geoffrey Brokhole, who was 

 Sheriff of Essex and Herts, in 1385, and is mentioned 

 in 1397. n His widow Ellen died in 1419, leaving 

 as her heirs a daughter Joan, widow of Thomas 

 Aspall, and a grandson John Sumpter, son of her 

 second daughter Mary," between whom the manor 

 was divided. 



John Sumpter's moiety passed at his death in 1420 

 to his sisters Christine and Ellen,' 8 of whom the elder 

 died without issue." Ellen, who thus became possessed 

 of the half-manor, married James Bellewe or Bellers, 80 

 and later, about 1+39, Ralph Holt, 31 in whose family 

 the moiety descended. 



Joan, the widow of Thomas Aspall, to whom the 

 other half was apportioned, married Robert Arme- 

 burgh," and lived until 1443. Robert survived her 

 and continued to hold the half-manor, with remainder 

 to John Palmer, Joan sister of John Palmer, and 

 Philip Thornbury. 83 Before 1451 it had come to 

 Philip Thornbury, for in that year he and Reginald 

 Armeburgh made an arrangement with Ralph Holt, 

 to whom they owed £ I oo, 8 ' which seems to have been 

 the final step in the transfer of the estate to the latter. 

 Ralph Holt thus became possessed of the whole manor, 

 which descended in his family until 1543, when 

 Thomas Holt conveyed it to John Gardiner. 8i John 

 died in 1550, leaving 3. son Thomas, 86 after which 

 Brokholes descended in the Gardiner family until 

 1 742," when it was sold by John Gardiner to Francis 

 Welles. 88 Eventually it seems to have become merged 

 in the main manor. The moated farm-house called 

 Brockholds probably represents the manor-house. 



G4RNONS or HENRr-AT-DJNES, of which no 

 trace now remains, probably took its name from the 

 family who originally held it, lor a John Garnon 

 appears in a list of the tenants of Great Munden 

 manor in I 346." In 1 4 1 7 there is mention of Henry 

 atte Dane in Great Munden, 30 who seems to have 

 been succeeded by Robert atte Dane." In 1473 

 Garnons was merely called a tenement ; it was then 



in the possession of John Humberston." In 1516 

 John Humberston, perhaps the son of the last-named 

 John, conveyed Garnons, then called a manor, to 

 William Hamond and others. 9 ' Sixty years later 

 another William Hamond was holding it, 91 and sold 

 it about 1600 or later to Sir John Watts. 81 The 

 latter died seised of it in 1616, leaving a son John, 66 

 and it apparently remained in his family, for in 166; 

 Garnons was held by Richard Watts, 1 " who had 

 married Catherine Wcrden.' 6 His daughter Katharine, 

 to whom the manor descended, married Charles first 

 Earl of Dunmore, 35 who in 1709 conveyed it to 

 Sir John Werden, his wife's uncle."" 1 Sir John's heir 

 was his son John, who died without male heirs in 

 1758.' In that year Garnons was sold by William 

 and Caroline Louisa Kerr to Francis Fryer, J which 

 suggests that it had either been previously sold to the 

 Kerrs or that they were Sir John Werden's executors. 

 Next year Francis Fryer sold it to Robeit Ireland, 8 

 who died soon after, leaving a widow Anne and three 

 sons, the eldest of whom was William Ireland, upon 

 whom Garnons was settled after the death of his 

 mother.' After this settlement in 1786 there is no 

 further record of Garnons. 



In I 55 1 the buildings and lands of the dissolved 

 priory of ROWNEY were granied to Thomas Bill, 5 

 who is said to have devised them to his daughter 

 Margaret and her husband Michael Harris, 6 but if so 

 they cannot have held them long, for before 1566 

 they had been acquired by Richard Smythe. 7 In that 

 year he sold the chapel and lands for £20 to John 

 Ruse, who sold them for £z$ to Cyrus Ruse. In 

 1 569 the last-named complained that Richard Smythe 

 refused to give up the documents connected with the 

 lands. Richard Smythe replied that the bargain had 

 never been completed, and that Cyrus had entered 

 into the premises and destroyed his grass. s 



Later Rowney is said to have been sold to John 

 Fleming. 9 In 1641 Thomas and Richard Fleming 

 brought a suit against Henry Birchenhead, ' by whose 

 unconscionable practices they had been deprived of 

 the chantry house in Rowney and other property.' 10 

 In the following year, however, Thomas Fleming sold 

 Rowney to Henry Birchenhead, 11 in whose family it 

 descended for a while. It is said to have been con- 

 veyed to Thomas Jenner, whose daughter Anne 

 married Francis Browne," who possessed it in 1 700. ' 3 

 Their son Thomas Browne is said to have devised it 

 to Charles and Robert Jenner, of whom the latter 

 conveyed the whole to Thomas Marlborough, whose 

 second daughter Elizabeth possessed it in 1821. She 

 was married to James Cecil Graves of Baldock, and 



