Reference
KK85-104
Title
The Prebendal estate
Date free text
1550-1705
Production date
From: 1550 To: 1705
Admin/biog history
With the exception of an isolated court roll, 1448-1459 (KK792), only post-medieval records of the prebendal estate have survived. Until 1583 it was held by William Johnson, father and son, who had taken it on lease in 1534 (Richmond 'Leighton Buzzard', 69) and in 1550 (KK85. (For some account of this family cf Richmond, ibid 131-132). William Johnson junior married Mary, daughter of Edmund Harman of Taynton, Oxon, in 1560 (KK87-88), and shortly after leased the glebe lands to a group of local husbandmen (KK89). A number of his leases of tithes, 1560-1577, have survived (KK105-6, 112, 114, 120-7, 135-6). In 1583 Johnson, then living at Widford, Gloucestershire, assigned his lease to Christopher Hoddesdon for £1,800. In 1614 it was leased to trustees to hold for Sir Thomas Leigh, and thenceforth followed the descent of the manor (KK93). It was purchased by George Smith of London in 1650 (KK99-100) but was restored to the Leighs at the Restoration. A lease of the prebendal house to Edmund Carvill of Leighton Buzzard, butcher, in 1584 includes a description of the house and outbuildings (KK91). The Duncombe family were tenants of the glebe by 1576 (KK509). In 1589 Clement and Giles Duncombe held the glebe, while Edmund Carvill occupied the prebendal house (KK20), and the family continued to hold the glebe until after 1625 (KK509). A group of local yeomen are found holding part or all of the glebe lands in 1654 (KK510-513, 101, 324). A Chancery suit of c1705 between Lady Elizabeth Leigh and Arthur Tarsey (KK326-329) relates to 30 acres of glebe land alienated after sequesteation in 1654/5. Manorial rights in the prebend appear to have lapsed after 1631, when the series of court rolls ends. The estate papers include a copy of the parliamentary survey of 1647 (KK799), and accounts & correspondence relating to an attempt made in 1807 to raise rents and recover concealed glebe lands (KK805-814), which is no doubt to be connected with the contemporary surveys of the manor.
Level of description
file