Admin/biog history
The Monoux family originated in Worcestershire in the Middle Ages,and the family fortunes were made by one George Monoux, who became Lord Mayor of London and founder of Walthamstow Grammar School.
Details concerning the early history of the Monouxes can be obtained from Publications nos. 17 and 19 of the Walthamstow Antiquarian Society. No. 17- 'George Monoux', gives an account of the career of this man, who was successively Mayor of Bristol, Master of the Draper's Company, and Mayor of London. He owned property in Yorks. (North and South Anston, Harthill and Cadebeston), Norfolk, Stafford, Berks, Cambs., Essex, Herts., Notts. (Gonalston), Surrey.
George Monoux bought Bosomes manor in Wootton in 1514 thereby beginning the long connection of the family with Bedfordshire. George Monoux died without direct heirs and the property passed to the hiers of his elder brother, Humphrey. Humphrey's great grandson, George, married Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Mordaunt of Turvey, and their son Humphrey may have been the first to take up permanent residence at
Wootton. Humphrey's son, Lewis, lived first at Leighton Buzzard, but at the time of his death, 1629, was at Wootton (Ref F622).
Lewis' son Humphrey Monoux, sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1635, was a member of the Beds. Committee of Parliament (responsible for county affairs during the Civil War). He was given a baronetcy in 1660 and it was he who bought the Sandy property in 1670. (The manor of Sandy had belonged to Henry Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who had been killed at the battle of Newbury in 1646, and his son Robert sold it to Humphrey Monoux. In 1668 the property was described as 'the manor of Sandy, mills, warrens, game of conies, a capital messuage, the site of the manor', and in 1671 we find that 'The Lady Spencer' was still living in the house then occupying the site of the present house).
Sir Humphrey Monoux died in 1675, leaving two sons, Humphrey who took the title and remained at Wootton, and Lewis, who was a lawyer and appears to have become interested in the Sandy property. He began to buy properties in the parish, and probably lived there himself after his marriage. When his brother died in 1685, Lewis became guardian of his children and took over the management of the estates. In books of accounts kept by him we find interesting items: 'payments for work about the Place garden', 'weeding and laying
out the Place garden', 'the Town carts for carrying rubbish out of the Placeyard'. (F652-3).
Lewis Monoux died in 1720 leaving two sons, Humphrey and Lewis. Humphrey greatly increased the Monoux possessions in Sandy by his marriage with Elizabeth Bromsall, and it was he who built Sandy Place.The exact date is not known, but it is before 1752 in which year he died.* His brother Lewis was the rector of Sandy and lived in the rectory which was also probably built by the Monouxes.
The title and estates descended from father to son for three generations to Sir Humphrey Monoux, the 4th bart., upon whose death in 1757 Talbot Williamson wrote 'the king has lost no friend in him, for they used to drink the Pretender's health from the master to the scullion '(Ref M catalogue).
Sir Humphrey (4th bart.) died childless and the title and estates passed to his cousin, Philip, of Sandy. He was grandson of Lewis, son of the 1st. bart., who settled at Sandy and son of Humphrey, who built up the estate there. Sir Philip married Elizabeth Reddall of Eversholt, and appears to have continued to live at Sandy; his will gives some detail of the contents of the house. He was succeeded by his son, Phillip, who died unmarried in 1809, whereupon the title again passed to a younger line - to the Rev. Philip Monoux, rector of Sandy.
The Wooton branch of the family died out in 1757, and the title passed to Philip, son of Humphrey, who became the 5th baronet. His marriage settlement in 1762 describes the capital messuage in Sandy 'lately erected', a close adjoining called the Place close, a piece of ground on the north east side of the river near the mansion called the Reedbed or Fishponds, and the parsonage.
*See F635, the marriage settlement of Sir Philip, 1762: 'a capital messuage in Sandy lately erected by Humphrey Monoux esq. deceased.' Sir Philip in his will (F639) leaves the mansion at Sandy, and mentions the Kitchen garden 'which hath been since my marriage much enlarged' by the addition of ground
from cottages."
Archival history
a) Purchase from Halliday in March 1931, except deeds of Oakley and miscellaneous properties (now AD894-915), purchase from Rev. W.C. Hall of Norwich, Sep 1932, except a Flitwick deed (AD916). Purchase from Halliday, part of above but not recieved until a year or more after the former was sent. These items were catalogued originally as AD894-1011, 1066-1086 and 1087-1100 respectively.
b) 4 purchases from Marcham & Co., London, Feb-Nov 1948; purchase from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, May 1949, not previously catalogued.
At some point the three separate sections of AD were rearranged. The deeds relating to Sandy, Wootton, Cardington and Eversholt were merged into one catalouge, AD2004-2703. Those manuscripts with no connection with the Monoux estates were numbered 894-982. This left two gaps in the numbering of AD from 983-1011, 1066-1100).