Title
There are numerous documents dealing with Clophill
and Cainhoe in Jeayes' catalogue, nos: 82 - 212, 273 - 338.
The de Grey family held the manor of Clophill cum Cainhoe
from about 1425 untill 1508 when they sold it ( V.C.H., iii,
322). However, they continued to buy small properties in
the parish during the 16th century (see Jeayes' 203, 337);
the deeds in this section of the catalogue concern their
purchase during the 17th century of the various manors in
Clophill, including that sold in 1508, together with the
deeds of various small properties bought before about 1850,
and a series of leases of their farms in Clophill.
Before dealing with the documents as a series it
will be well to mention one or two of interest in themselves.
Several leases deal with Clophill Warren (4/296 - 301).
That dated 1590 contains the specification that at the end
of the lease the warrener, Robert Smale of Campton, is to
leave 500 conies of which 300 were to be black; that for
1641 similarly insists on a high proportion of black rabbits.
In the earilier case the numbers could be checked by the
owner, one Robert Beverley, and 'other indifferent men':
the picture of these early 17th century gentry solemnly
endeavouring to check the number of black rabbits in Clophill
warren, if the condition really was intended literally, has
its lighter side. Perhaps the most interesting of the
leases is that made by the Dowager Countess of Kent in 1656,
it refers to the bowling green which was to be impaled within
the warren, and to what was apparently an observation
building there called 'the stand'. It also gives what must
have been optimistically framed, and certainly to modern ears
quaintly worded, clauses for the control of the rabbits.
Robert Ravensden, the warrener, was to prevent them escaping
from the warren, but the Countess was to allow them 'peaceably
to grass and depasture' in Whitrich mead, next the warren,
'without any wilful molestation, hunting, chasing, killing
or otherwise annoying them'. A memorandum endorsed on the
lease gives some idea of the 'hunting ethics' to be used:
the warrener could have all the rabbits outside the warren
except those in certain ground near Wrest House, which could
be dealt with by the Countess's servants by the destruction
of their burrows or by the use of dog or gun; but not by
any other means. If however, the rabbits strayed into cornland
(it is not clearly specified where), then nets might be used
to catch them; snares however, were still forbidden. The
latest surviving lease, dated 1669, specifies that at the
end of its term the burrows were to be tenantable and not
mangled or decayed.
One of the leases (4/299) shows that the Countess
extended the warren, and thus the group of parklands
surrounding Wrest House soon after its purchase in 1655;
there are other scattered references to the extension of the
park, (e.g. 4/149 - 151), together with the small scale
rearrangement of the pasture rights of the inhabitants of
Clophill to compensate for those over the land enclosed and
emparked. One sale of wood in the form of a lease of the
right to cut and sell timber survives from the early 16th
century, (4/195). The influence of the neighbouring wood
and park land is shown in the layout of the farms described
in the various leases, (4/302 - 36); they contain a large
proportion of enclosed land or consist entirely of it. If
some had been taken in from the open fields of the parish,
some had almost certainly been brought under cultivation by
the clearing of woodland in preceding centuries. The
impression is gained that in the late 16th and early 17th
centuries Cainhoe was relatively more important when compared
with Clophill than it is today. In one deed there is record
of the recent erection, c.1650, of ten cottages on the waste
at Clophill (4/53). The leases of Clophill mills, 1672 -
1763 (4/318 - 320), contain some inventories of instruments;
and one document is a copy of a feoffment of charity trustees
in Clophill in 1681/2, of which no other copy appears to have
survived (4/149; cf. D.D.P.45/25).
In more domestic mood there is a lease made in 1571/2
in which the lessee is to provide Richard Fisher's widow with
houseroom food and drink 'at the upper table...... and fare no
worse than he or his wife', (4/23). In an agreement of 1601
(4/8), there is mention of a clock in the leased premises and in
a sale of 1670/1 (4/80), one room in a house is excepted from
the conveyance. Finally the uncertainly of the country's
constituton in the 17th century is pinpointed by clauses in
leases during the 1680's: the tenant was to pay the national
taxes due from the property he leased; but by what lawful
authority were national taxes to be imposed? In later times
it could be stated that the taxes were enacted by parliament,
but in the 1680's with Charles II balanced on the razor edge
of his personal rule, the phrase used was 'by the supreme
authority of the nation' (4/306).
The series of document dealing with the descent
of the various manors in Clophill all extend or modify the
present accepted process. The earliest deed dealing with
that of Clophill cum Cainhoe adds something to what is known of the various lessees from the Sovereign during the 16th
century; (4/1); it was bought by the Countess de Grey in
1655. For the manor of Clophill Hall one document brings
its acquisition as far forward as 1685/6 (4/63). Similarly
the accepted account of the descent of the manor of Beadlow
during the 17th and 18th century is revealed as inaccurate
(V.C.H., iii, 322-3). In fact, St. John Chernock sold the
manorial rights and much of the land to Robert, Earl of
Ailesbury in 1655 (a Protectorate deal between two staunch
Royalist families); Ailesbury sold it together with the
manor of Clophill Hall to the Dowager Countess of Kent in
1685/6 (4/53, 4/63). Some manorial rights seem to have
remained with the land which Chernock retained for in a
lease of 1691 (D.D.T.48/39) these together with this retained
land were leased by Chernock to Richard Edwards and others;
this seems to have been the reputed manor of Beadlow which
was offered for sale, by someone at present unknown, in 1803
(A.D.234/2). The same land was apparently the subject of a
recovery in 1833 in which Antonio Montcucci was the 'tenant',
but its history is still obscure (A.D.1655). A number of
deeds concern the purchases of Michael Cole, who at the end
of the 17th century was one of the more prosperous
inhabitants of Clophill and who on his death in 1711/2 was
described in the parish register as 'an ancient man' the
land was bought by the Duke of Kent in 1717 (4/75 - 136).
The series dealing with Heath Close, bought by the Countess
de Grey in 1833 gives the vicissitudes of this land in
great detail over a period of more than 200 years.
Although the leases contain many items of interest,
some of which have been indicated above, they do not as a
series yield information as readily as those for Blunham
(see section 1 of these catalogues). This is partly because
of the gap in their sequence from about 1680 to just after
1750 but it is made worse by the fact that in the interval
the land may have been re-allotted between the various farms.
However, with few exeptions leases of 12 years and less seem
to have been the rule in the second half of the 17th century
and when the series resumes after 1750. As at Blunham and
Carlton covenants specifying the use of clover and the
improved rotation of crops appear towards 1780: in fact in
the lease of Cainhoe Park Farm it is absent in 1776 but
present in 1778 (4/335, 4/336).
The documents in this section were found to be somewhat in disorder when cataloguing commenced; their
order is therefore artificial and in some cases should be
regarded as tentative, especially in sections 4/75 - 136,
and 4/152 - 62.
SCHEME OF CATALOGUE
(I) Manor of Clophill with Cainhoe & Clophill Mills 1564-1718: L4/1-22
(II) Manor of Clophill Hall etc. 1572-1685: L4/23-48
(III) Manor of Beadlow 1553-1657: L4/49-58
(IV) Manors of Beadlow and Clophill Hall 1685-1690: L4/59-64
(V) Land bought by Earl of Ailesbury 1652-1675: L4/65-74
(VI) Land bought from Michael Cole of Clophill
a. land bought by Cole from Howson family, 1648-1680: L4/75-85
b. land of which Cole was trustee, 1681-8: L4/86-88
c. land bought by Cole from Thomas Edwards, 1606-99: L4/89-91
d. land bought by Cole from William Collyer, 1651-74: L4/92-95
e. land bought by Cole from Elizabeth Mathews, 1671-1701: L4/96-102
f. land bought from George Stevens of Dunstable, 1693-4: L4/103-111
g. Michael Cole's mortgages, 1699-1712: L4/112-121
h. purchases of above land by Duke of Kent, 1699-1717: L4/122-136
(VII) Minor purchases by Duke of Kent and Successors
a. land bought from William Young, 1662-1704: L4/137-148
b. Clophill town land exchanges, 1682-1734: L4/149-151
c. land bought from Stephen Brooks, 1694-1782: L4/152-162
d. Heath Close bought from William Eames, 1600-1833: L4/163-222
e. messuage bought from Ezra Eagles, 1749-1834: L4/223-257
f. cottage bought of William Crouch, 1817-1821: L4/258-267
g. land bought of Daniel Odell, 1812-1851: L4/268-190
h. land bought from George Montague, 1855: L4/291-294
(VIII) Leases before 1700
a. woods and warrens, 1512-1669: L4/295-301
b. Cainhoe Lodge and Farm, 1648-1658: L4/302-303
c. Upper Cainhoe Farm, 1676-1682: L4/304-306
d. 104 acres in Cainhoe Park, 1655-1691: L4/307-311
e. misceallaneous leases, 1604-1699: L4/212-317
(IX) Leases of Clophill Mills, 1672-1763
(X) Leases after 1700
a. farm in occupation of Philip Samm, 1757-1769: L4/321-322
b. Cainhoe Farm, 1759-1785: L4/323-325
c. farm including warren ground, 1760-1780: L4/326-328
d. farm in occupation of Samuel Taylor, 1765-1778: L4/329-330
e. farm in occupation of William Arnold, 1766-1779: L4/331-334
f. Cainhoe Park Farm, 1776-1778: L4/335-336
(XI) Miscellaneous Deeds, 1578-1839: L4/337-348
(XII) Additional Documents, 1380-1850: L4/349-390