Admin/biog history
Since no clear picture of the growth of the Luton Hoo estate can be gained from the present collection of deeds, a brief account will be given here. Further details will be found in the Victoria County History (VCH) and in Austin's History of Luton.
THE MANOR OF LUTON WITH ITS MEMBERS, AND THE HUNDRED OF FLITT, 15TH - 17 CENTURIES.
i) The greater part of the manor of Luton (4/6 shares, including the manor of Fennels Grove, Greathampstead Someries and Langleys, and the Hundred of Flitt were originally the property of John, Lord Wenlock. They escheated to the Crown on his death at the battle of Tewkesbury, 1471. in which he fought on the Lancastrian side, and the estates were then granted to Thomas Rotherham, bishop of Lincoln, later Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. He devised the Luton estates to his nephew Sir Thomas Rotherham of Someries (see pedigree), and they remained in the possession of the Rotherham family until the beginning of the 17th century. Sir John Rotherham then embarked on a costly and unsuccessful lawsuit with his neighbour, the Earl of Kent, and probably as a result the estates were sold and the family moved to Essex, though the Farley branch continued to own estates in Luton. The manors of Luton and Fennels Grove were sold to Sir Robert Napier 1610/11. The Hundred of Flitt was conveyed to him c. 1618. The manor of Langleys was acquired by Sir John Napier in 1721. Greathampstead Someries, which had been conveyed to Sir Francis Crawley, son-in-law to Sir John Rotherham, was not purchased by the Napiers until 1724 (though the farm house [C137] seems to have been conveyed earlier. [DW324, OR].
ii) The other 2/6 of the manor of Luton had become separate manors known as Woodcroft Hallyard and Woodcraft. The latter had been owned by the Kendal family and their descendants [DW57-8], but by the 17th century both belonged to the Wingate family who sold them to Sir Robert Napier in 1653.
iii) The Rotherhams also owned other manors which had not been the property of the Wenlocks.
a) The manors of Brache, Laleford and David Ashby [DW32, 46. 50, 57-8] had belonged to the Kendall family [DW33-58] in the 14th century, and were acquired by the Rotherhams from their descendants the Markhams, towards the end of the 16th century. They were sold to Robert Napier in 1602.
b) The Rotherhams also acquired a moiety of Dallow manor from the Crawley family. This was conveyed to Sir Robert Napier in 1665. (This was Dallow Farm where Bunyan is said to have preached).
iv) The Manor of Luton Hoo which gives its name to the whole estate had belonged to the Hoo family. and in 1522 was sold by William Boleyn Esq. (see Hoo pedigree) to Richard Fermor, a wealthy merchant of the Calais Staple. [DW1-9. 17-27]. His son, Jeremiah Fermor, sold it to Sir John Brockett in 1565 [DW 9] and it was conveyed by trustees to Robert Napier in 1601. In 1623 Sir Robert Napier obtained a licence to enlarge the park by another 300 acres, with free warren. Enclosure of the park seems to have been completed by 1632/3 [DW90-92]. He apparently built a brick mansion house there on the site of the old one which is mentioned in DW 6, and this became the seat of the lord of Luton Manor.
v) Two other manors were acquired by the Napiers in the 17th century and became part of the Luton estate.
a) The manor of West Hyde Aynel [DW 28-31], purchased from Neele and Halsey in 1612.
b) The manor of Bailiffs purchased from Field in 1638. [V.C.H., Austin, DW.]
THE NAPIERS AND THE LUTON HOO ESTATE
It was this family which, as can been seen from the above account, first built up the main estate. Many of the deeds in this catalogue, other than those relating to the manors, refer to small properties within the town and hamlets of Luton. None are later than the 17th century, and it is probable that they relate to the enlarging of the Luton Hoo estate by the Napiers in that century.
The Napiers first settled in Bedfordshire c.1601 when the trustees of Sir John Brocket sold the manor of Luton Hoo to Robert Napier als Sandy, a Turkey merchant, and member of the grocers' Company. [D.N.B.,DW107]. He was evidently a wealthy man for the State Papers mention that he was a suitable person with whom to negotiate a loan, and it was presumably in return for such services that James 1 visited Luton Hoo and knighted him in 1611. The following year he was made a baronet - a new dignity specially created to sell for the augmentation of the royal revenue. His second wife, Margaret Barnes, was the daughter of a London mercer, and seems to have come from a wealthy family. DW303 gives an account of the foreign trade ventures of Bartholomew Barnes, 1607-8, which include ventures with the Muscove Company and the newly formed East India Company, as well as cloth trade with Flanders and the Baltic. A debt outstanding was £100 due from the late Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Robert Napier purchased several small properties in West Hyde [DW86-9, 95-110], Newmill End [DW73-7] and Luton [DW59-72, 79-81,83-85,99-100,103,109-114] and Limbury [DW71]. These were probably, in the case of the arable and pasture lands, incorporated in the Park, or in nearby farms such as Ringsford Farm [DW8-9], Hide Farm, Stapleford Farm, Brache Farm [DW 324] or Limbury Farm [DW325]. Of the messuages in Luton the most interesting are Lawleys also the Church House [DW78-81, the Harts Horn [DW 83-5], and four tenements on Tower Hill [DW99-100]. George Rotherham Esq. gave £4p.a. rent charge on Lawleys (also West Luton Farm) for mending the Church and steeple [C.C. report]. In this will of 15 April, 1637, Sir Robert Napier gave four houses on Tower Hill for the use of four poor persons [C.C. report]. The Harts Horn was one of the houses mentioned in a petition sent by Sir Robert Napier to the Privy Council in 1618. He complained that good dwelling houses in Luton with the street, many with large malting houses attatched, were being turned into several inferior tenements. [DW83 supports this statement]. The petition stated that the Harts Horn had already been pulled down, but this is not in accordance with the evidence of the deeds. [DW85].
Langleys, a capital messuage in Castle Street, had belonged to Thomas Atwood, who in 1610 gave a rent charge of 40s p.a. for the benefit of the poor out of this house and land. His daughter and coheir Agnes, married Nicholas Rotherham (see Rotherham pedigree) and it seems to have come into the possession of the Rotherhams. In 1660 it was let as a workhouse [HA54]. By the 18th century it must have been sold to the Napier family, probably together with the manor, since it belonged to Francis Herne in 1760. [BS uncat acc. 2419].
There were several water mills attatched to the estate. Brache mill belonged to Brache manor [C68], and was pulled down in the 19th century. Stapleford Mill, according to DW326, was held of the manor of Laleford, but this is contradicted by DW5-6, 26 and 312 which show that it was attatched to the manor of Luton Hoo. This mill was probably pulled down when the park was enlarged by the Earl of Bute. The Hyde Mill seems to have belonged to the manor of East Hyde alias the Hyde. [DW8], and was purchased by Sir Robert Napier in 1642 [DW94]. This mill still survives. 'Le Newemelle' is mentioned in a deed of 1343 [DW187]; two mills at Newmill End were purchased by Sir Robert Napier in 1619 [DW82, 360-4]. One of these survived until the 19th century. Extents of Luton estate taken in 1677 and 1694 mention 5 water grist mills, in 1712, 6 mills, in 1812, 3 mills. [Austin, Beds. Mag.]
The advowson of the vicarage of Luton was acquired by Sir Robert Napier in 1623, together with the tithes, then described as of Chiltern Green, but later referred to as the tithes of Newmill End, East and West Hyde and Stopsley. Thomas Pomfret who become vicar of Luton in 1660 [DW324-5] was a controversialist of some repute. He was the Author of a sermon on the duty of obedience at the time of the Rye House Plot, and was almost 'plucked out of the pulpit' by Judge Jeffries as a result of a misunderstanding over a certain passage in an assize sermon preached by him. He died in 1705. His son was the poet John Pomfret, vicar of Maulden. [Austin; Fasti.]
In 1620 Sir Robert Napier also obtained the grant of two fairs in Luton, - a confirmation of existing rights.
Sir Robert Napier who succeeded his father in 1637, represented Peterborough in the Long Parliament. He was an ardent royalist, and his estates were sequestered in 1644. He offered to compound, and was discharged in 1647. [D.N.B.] He found the changes in the parish church distasteful and therefor greatly improved the chapel at Luton Hoo. [Austin].
Sir John Napier who inherited the estate in 1675, suffered a recovery of the manor in 1694 [Austin]. At that date the estate consisted of the manors of Luton, Luton Hoo, Bailiffs, Aynels, Dallow, Brache, David Ashby, Laleford, Woodcroft, Hallyard, and the Hundred of Flitt, the Park, Luton Hoo, 70 mess., 20 tofts, 5 water corn mills, 5 dovecotes, 100 gardens, 2,500 ac. of arable, 150ac. meadow, 500ac pasture, 450ac wood, 500ac furze and health, 500ac. of moor, common pasture, free fishery, free warren, courts leet and baron, view of frankpledge, fairs, markets, tolls etc., Luton, the tithes of Newmill End, E & W Stopsley, and the advowson of Luton Vicarage.
In the eighteenth century it became necessary to obtain a private Act of Parliament to settle the estates of Sir John Napier who died a lunatic in 1711 as the result of a fall from a horse. The Act [OR2030] recited articles of agreement dated 21 December, 1717. The estates comprised the manor of Luton, the manors of Aynels, Bayliffs, Dallow Hoo als Luton Hoo [sic], the Hundred of Flitt, Brache Manor, Hyde manor [probably the manor of E & W Hyde which had belonged to the Rotherhams and of which no separate mention is made after the 16th century], Hallyard, Woodcroft and Barton [sic], the mansion and park of Luton Hoo, the advowson of Luton vicarage, Pursley Farm, Rynesford Farm, Hyde Farm, Coleharborow Farm, Someries farm 'late [ie before 1702] purchased of Francis Crawley Esq.,', Copthall and 340 acres, and several other farms (unspecified), houses, cottages, closes, woods. etc., a coach-house and stables in Luton, toll of Luton, and Brache mill.
The estate finally passed to his grandson. Sir John Napier (see Napier pedigree) who died without heirs. and devised the estates to his aunt Frances who bequeathed them to her nephew Francis Herne.
The Luton Hoo estate, 1763 - 1903
Francis Herne sold the manor of Luton and the Luton Hoo estate to the 3rd Earl of Bute in 1763. The Earl enlarged the park to 1,200 acres, employing Capability Brown to landscape it, damming the River Lea and creating a lake and canal. The house was altered and enlarged by Robert Adam and finished by Robert Smirke. Alterations which Dr. Johnson approved of when he visited it in 1781. There were two fires in 1771, apparently not serious, but the house was gutted by fire in 1843, and the estate was sold in 1845. At this date it was described as the Manor of Luton, called in the ancient description the manors of Luton, Brache, Luton Hoo, Dollowe, Bayliffs, Aynells, Hallyard and Woodcroft, with view of frankpledge and court baron, profits consisting of rents from shops in Luton market-house, tolls on market days, stallage of the fairs, tolls payable for sheep and pigs, and quitrents. The manor of Dallow was not sold with the rest of the estate but was purchased seperately by T. Sambrook Crawley. The estate when sold did not include the Bury and Maiden Common farms or land in and about the town of Luton. The remainder of the estate was purchased by Mr. Ward, and sold by him to John Shaw Leigh in 1848. J.S. Leigh, a former mayor of Liverpool, restored Luton Hoo House, made further purchases of property in West Hylem set up a model farm and greatly improved the estate. It remained the property of the Leigh family until 1903, when it was sold to Sir Julius Wernher. [V.C.H.,Austin]
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST IN THE DEEDS
The Hermitage: Five deeds of the late 14th century [DW10-15]
Grants of land (one of them a corody), to 'John the brother hermit, prior of the Hospital of the blessed St.Thomas and St. Mary Magdalene in Luton, his bretheren and successors'. DW is endorsed in a 16th century hand 'old deed belonging to the hermit'. By the end of the 15th century the hospital seems to have become the property of the Hoo family and their descendants. A demise by Ann Bolyn, daughter of Lord Hoo, appoints William Durward custodian for life of the 'hospital of the blessed Mary Magdalene of Luton, and of the chapel of the blessed Mary Magdalene' [DW16]. By 1551 the hermitage, like the manor of Hoo, has become the property of the Fermors [DW8] and is referred to as 'le armytage, or a free chapel with hermitage adjoining in Luton'. The last mention of the hermitage occurs in D.D.C 138 which refers to Thomas Symons, of 'the Hearment e' in the parish of Luton, yeoman. The present 'Hermitage' in Luton Hoo Park is a late 19th century building and has no known connection with the earlier hermitage. According to Austin the site was in Hassex wood. It is said to have been founded by Thos. Becket, was used leper hospital, and was under the Augustinian rule. [see also the account in the V.C.H.]
The Kendal family: A group of demises, all dated 1347 [DW39-44] may be connected with the fact that Edward III had ordered of levy of men to be made for the French war, and a writ addressed to the Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1346/7, ordered the men to be at Portsmouth by Lent next. Edward de Kendale had to send a hobeler (soldier mounted on a small horse). [B.H.R.S. II 261].
A subsidy for the Holy Land : 1338. [DW283]
The Horse Mill, Luton : 1392. [DW168] Renesford Mill : 1313/14 [DW168]
Brache Mill and a flood-gate 1411/12 [DW 54]
The Guild of the Holy Trinity, Luton [DW175 and 158] Houses belonging to the Fraternity on Chipping Hill. Luton, adjoining the messuage mentioned in DW158 became the 'Lion' and Cross Keys inns.
[C199, BS827-37] [see also Austin and the Guild Book]
The Old Tavern [DW164] (see C.C. report & Beds. Mag. II, 95)