Reference
KK1-84
Title
The Manor
Date free text
1567-1896
Production date
From: 1567 To: 1896
Admin/biog history
Manorial Descent
The deeds add little to the account given in the Victoria County History of Bedfordshire iii, 403-4. the court rolls show that John Worship was holding the manor by 1393 (KK619). The earliest deeds relate to the assignment of the manor by Robert Christmas to George and John Barne in 1576, following a mortgage for £1,500 in 1571 (KK1-5). the latter assigned the lease to Christopher Hoddesdon in 1581/2 (KK13). On the marriage of Hoddesdon's daughter Ursula to John, son of Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire the property was settled on them by trustees, reserving a life estate to Hoddesdon and his first wife Alice (KK19-20). On Hoddesdon's death in 1610, Sir Thomas, son of John Leigh, succeeded to the manor. Lady Elizabeth Hoddesdon assigned her jointure lands in Leighton Buzzard and Stewley to Leigh for £160 per annum (KK22-28 cf761-5). In 1656 Sir Thomas Leigh agreed with Colonel Okey to sell the manor to Richard Mead fo Great Brickhill for £6,300, and the profits of the manor were shared by four speculators, of whom Okey was one (KK34). Mead was still occupying the manor in November 1661 (KK33). Leigh mortgaged the manor for £7,050 in 1663, when his debts totalled £7,255:10s (KK35-6). In 1668 he assigned his lease to George Bates, the king's physician (KK38), but the Dean & Canons of Windsor renewed his lease in 1671 (KK39). Though the Leighs appear to have been financially embarrassed for many years (cf KK43-5, debts of Charles Lord Leigh c £7,000 in 1755), they were purchasing property in Leighton Buzzard throughout the 18th century (KK139-334, 516-607). In 1852 Colonel Edward Hanmer paid £47,557 for the assignment of the Leigh lease (KK55) and in 1863 £31,000 to the Dean & Canons of Windsor for the reversion of the fee simple. Both the Leighton Buzzard and Stockgrove estates were heavily mortgaged in the late 19th century (KK63, 82, 383, 387-99).
Level of description
file