Reference
RO10
Title
Farmhouse and lands in How End, Houghton Conquest, purchased by John, Lord Baron of Gowran in 1749
Admin/biog history
It is possible that this house may have been the manor house of the Manor of How End prior to 1629. It is certainly located sufficiently close to the deamesne lands of that manor for this to be feasible but the only evidence for this assumption is that
a) the house is described as a capital messuage with dove house and appurtenances while the house which remained with the manorial lands is merely called a messuage, and
b) that the Lord of the Manor, Giles Blofeild, moved from How End to Ampthill after selling off from the manorial estate this capital messuage with 100 acres of lands, leaving the manorial estate with only closes of pasture, totalling about 90 acres.
Archival history
NB.
There is some confusion between the deeds to the manor of Howend (RO2) and the deeds to a farmhouse in Howend (RO10) which at one time formed part of the manor. It appears that several deeds which might be expected to have been retained to provide title to the manor were in fact handed over to provide the early title to the farm. A possible reason for this could be the respective size and values of the two estates since normally on the division of an estate the deeds would remain with the holder of the most valuable portion. Several parcels of land had already been sold off from the manorial estate [see RO2 section B] and it is likely that the estate which remained with the manor (RO2) was smaller in size and value than the farm (RO10)
The intention of the cataloguer has been as far as possible to sort the deeds into the groups handed over with each respective purchase. The abstracts of title found with each group provide a clue to this as do the series of numbers endorsed on the documents. There are two series of such numbers, one is a figure in ( ) written with a thick pen, the other is written with a finer pen and is a figure in ( ) preceded by "No.". The second series of numbers corresponds exactly with the abstract of title RO10/86 to the farm. This abstract has been taken as a guide in deciding which deeds belonged to RO10 while the abstract of title RO2/128 has been used to establish which deeds belonged to the title of the manor.
The deeds have been numbered according to which group it is thought they belonged to on the purchase of the respective estates in 1740 and 1749, but in the catalogue the two series have been integrated in order to provide a logical narrative of the history of each estate. In the section of the catalogue dealing with the manor (RO2) any entries relating to deeds which are numbered in RO10 are cross referenced, and vice versa.
The correlation and confusion between the two groups of deeds was noticed by Lord Gowran's estate officers after both properties had been acquired as is shown by the following marginal notes on the two abstracts of title mentioned above:
"the title deeds wanting are amongst the writings belonging to the estate purchased by my Lord Gowran from William Edwards esquire" [RO2/128]
"this deed is amongst those relating to the manor of Howend purchased by Lord Gowran" [RO10/86]
Reference
Level of description
sub-fonds