BRAUGHING HUNDRED 



of Newhall (q.v.) from the Abbot of Waltham Holy 

 Cross in 1344 and 1365. He, or his son Nicholas, 

 was alive in 1380, when letters of protection for 

 him were revoked because he had not gone to Calais 

 to join in the defence of that town as he k{d pur- 

 posed. 74 In 1 387 'Nicholas Blake the younger' was 



grantee in a conveyan 



e of lands in Ware. 76 



The holding of the Blakes came before 1479 into 

 the possession of Thomas Braughing, when it was 

 held by him of the lord of Ware Manor as the ' manor 

 called Blakes.' He in that year made a settlement 

 on his son Thomas and his wife Joan ; Thomas the 

 younger died seised of the manor in 1496. 7a John 

 son of Thomas was holding in 1 5 19 77 and Richard 

 Braughing and Elizabeth his wife in 152Z. 78 The 

 latter conveyed it to John Yeolyn and others, pro- 

 bably trustees, for in 1560 Simon Clare and John 

 Clare levied a fine of the manor. 79 The next year 

 Simon Clare and Agnes his wife conveyed it to 

 Sir Thomas Venables of Kinderton, co. Chester. 80 

 After his death Anne Brooks, the mother of his son 

 Thomas, married Ralph Davenport, 81 and held the 

 manor with reversion to Thomas, who was attainted 

 in 158Q. 8 * His lands, however, seem to have been 

 restored to him, for he was carrying on transactions 

 with the Crown concerning the reversion in 1583. 8a 

 After Anne's death, however, the profits were taken 

 by Thomas Harris, to whom Venables released all 

 right in IS97' 84 Harris conveyed Blakesware to 

 John Goodman. 85 Goodman, sen., with John Good- 

 man, jun., levied a fine (Hilary 1616-17) with 

 Katherine Tirrel, widow, 86 who two years afterwards 

 joined with John Goodman and Grace Goodman, 

 widow, in a conveyance to Moses Tryon. 87 Tryon 

 with Elizabeth his wife conveyed to George Hanger 

 in i6zo— i. 87i It was acquired from George and 

 John Hanger in 1635 by John King, D.D., canon of 

 Christ Church, Oxford, whose son John King sold it 

 in 1655 to Heneage Featherstone, created a baronet 

 in 1660. By Featherstone it was conveyed in 1664 

 to Sir Thomas Leventhorpe, who rebuilt the house, 

 and afterwards in 1678 sold the estate to Sir Thomas 

 Clutterbuck, kt., 98 English consul at Leghorn and after- 

 wards commissioner for victualling the Mediterranean 

 fleet, for which he was knighted. He died in February 

 1682—3, and was buried in Ware Church. After his 

 death the estate was conveyed to John Plumer, Sheriff 

 of Hertfordshire in 1689, from which date it descended 

 with Gilston (q.v.) to Sir Henry George Ward, who 

 wld it in 1850 to Martin Hadsley Gosselin of Ware 

 Priory. 89 After his death in 1868 the estate was 

 held by his widow until her death in 1892, when it 

 devolved on her eldest son Sir Martin Le Marchant 

 Hadsley Gosselin, AssistantUnder-Secretary for Foreign 

 Affairs from 1898-1902 and minister plenipotentiary 

 at Lisbon from 1902 to 1905. He died at Busaco, 



Portugal, in 1905 and was succeeded by his : 

 Captain Alwyn Gosselin, the present owner. 



The manor-house built by 

 Sir Thomas Leventhorpe was 

 pulled down by Mrs. Plumer 

 after William Piumer's death 

 in 1822, Mr. Plumer having 



was a fine brick mai 

 situated on the south 1 

 Blakesware estate, with a 

 courtyard and terraced gar- 

 dens, with the Quarters and Gossilin. Gulua 

 the Wilderness to the rear." chctitmn betysaa thne 

 Charles Lamb, whose grand- trocenti truant. 

 mother Mrs. Field was house- 

 keeper in the Plumer family and who used to 

 stay with her at Blakesware during his childhood, 

 describes it in one of his essays under the name of 

 Blakesmoor. There are drawings of the ruins among 

 the Additional Manuscripts at the British Museum. 92 

 The present house was built by Mrs. Hadsley Gosselin, 

 grandmother of the present owner, in 1878. The 

 chapel was built by her son Sir Martin Gosselin and 

 was opened by the Cardinal Archbishop of West- 



Blakes Bushes and Little Blakesware also preserve 



then 



e of Blake. 



W1DBVRT alias GRIMBOLDS alias WHITE- 

 BOROUGH HILL lies on the east of Ware. The 

 name occurs as Witerberwe in 1308 s3 and survives 

 in Widbury Hill, Widbury Hill Farm and Widbury 

 Wood. The estate took its first name from a family 

 of Grimbold (Grymbaud), who were living at Ware 

 in the 14th century. 94 In 1353 Juliana Grimbold 

 released a moiety of a messuage situated in Ware to 

 John son of William atte Water. 96 The Grimbolds' 

 lands in Ware came later, about the end of the 1 5th 

 century, into the possession of Thomas Rede, a citizen 

 of London. His daughter and co-heir Agnes married 

 Robert Lytton, whose son William died seised of half 

 the manor of Grimbolds in 1517.^ Robert his son 

 and heir was aged five; he had livery of seisin in 1533. 

 Another quarter of the manor was held in 1520 by 

 John Smith and his wife Joan, who was perhaps a 

 daughter of Rede's other co-heir. They conveyed 

 it in that year to Richard Hill and others. U7 Gilbert 

 Hill was in possession in 1 579-" He was said to 

 hold a third part of the manor of Grimbolds and a 

 capital messuage called Whitborowe Hill. 99 There 

 is no further trace of the remaining parts of the 

 manor, so that probably he had the manorial rights. 

 In a rental of his lands a dove-house and pond are 

 mentioned, and he received quit-rents from ' The 

 Bear,' 'The Bull.' 'The Checker,' and from a 



