Admin/biog history
The Manor of Pillinge
The earliest known reference to the manor of Marston Pilling occurs in 1443 on the death of Sir John Cornwall to whom it then belonged, and who also held the manors of Ampthill and Millbrook. According to the Victoria County History [Vol. III pgs. 273, 310, 317] these three manors all followed the same descent but the details of this are not clear from the accounts given; Pilling manor is said to have followed the same descent as Millbrook manor until the death of Sir Henry Grey in 1562 but Millbrook and Ampthill manors are both said to have been acquired by the Crown in 1524 and attached to the Honour of Ampthill on its creation in 1542. It seems likely that in fact the manor of Pilling passed with the others to the Crown in 1524, certainly it was in royal hands by 1542 for a survey of the Honour made in that year lists the manor of Pelyng with demesne, leased to William Hall at £8 a year.
[CRT100/25 f.30]
By letters patent of Philip and Mary dated 8 February 1555 all lands in Marston belonging to the manor of Pelinge, once belonging to Richard, Earl of Kent and then parcel of the Honour of Ampthill were leased to Thomas Elder for twenty one years from the preceding Michaelmas at £8..20d a year.*
Queen Elizabeth by letters patent dated 1 July 1564* granted to her favourite, Robert Dudley, Master of the Horse and subsequently Earl of Leicester, the manor of Pelynge and lands belonging and various ex-monastic lands - the manor of Caldecote and Holme Mill Grange (Warden), lands in Chaulton in Toddington (Dunstable) and lands in Elstow (Caudwell Priory). This was one of a series of grants made to Dudley at this period when he was high in the Queen's favour:
"In 1563 he received from the Crown the manor and lordship and castle of Kenilworth, the lordship and castle of Denbigh and lands in Lancashire, Surrey, Rutland, Denbigh, Carmarthen, York, Cardigan and Brecknock. The manors of Caldecote and Pelynge, Bedfordshire, with many other parcels of land, followed in the next year, and in 1566 sixteen other estates in different parts of England and Wales were assigned to him" [Dictionary National Biography]
*[see Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I 1563-66 pg.95]
The earliest deed surviving in this collection is a grant made by Dudley, dated 30 September 1564, shortly after he was created Baron of Denbigh (28 September) and Earl of Leicester (29 September) by which he granted the manors of Pelynge and Caldecote and other Bedfordshire premises to George Fish of Southill, gentleman, who was then in his service. George Fish retained the manor of Caldecote and other premises but sold the manor of Pilling for £600 in 1567 to John Saunders a yeoman from Bragenham in Soulbury, Buckinghamshire.
John Saunders probably came to live in Marston and it is almost certainly he who is described in the Herald's Visitation of Bedfordshire in 1634 as John Saunders of Marston Pillings esquire. Doubtless his status rose with the acquisition of property although it must also be remembered that the information was given to the Heralds by his descendants. Both John and his son Richard added to the estate with several small purchases. Richard's son, John, was educated at Cambridge and Lincolns Inn and was knighted in 1624. It is likely that he usually resided at the manor house which was described as being in his occupation in 1637 when he made a settlement on his son and daughter-in-law, John and Ursula. John, the son, had followed in his father's footsteps and after receiving his initial schooling locally at Thurleigh and Clifton, was educated at Cambridge and Lincolns Inn. He and Ursula lived at Marston for some years before moving to Sapperton, Lincolnshire, probably in the summer of 1651. [see RO14/16 and /29]. They retained the estate at Marston for
almost twenty years, apparently in the occupation of another member of the family, Roger Saunders, but in 1670 sold it for £1,450 to Robert Dennis.
The Dennis family came from Kempston but following the purchase of the Pilling estate Robert seems to have settled in Marston. In 1674 he married Margaret Bird, then of Sherington, Buckinghamshire; her late father Francis Bird had left her premises in Lavendon which she agreed to convey to her husband when she attained her majority while he settles most of the Marston estate to provide her jointure [RO14/24]. Six years later Robert died, leaving the Lavendon estate to be divided between his two daughters, then aged 4 years and 18 months. His widow remarried a few years afterwards, becoming the wife of Robert Squire of Marston. Margaret's mother, Elizabeth Babbington, died in 1681 bequeathing certain premises in Buckinghamshire in trust to be sold and the proceeds to be devoted to the purchase of other lands; in 1686 Margaret and Robert Squire purchased premises in Marston from the Beale family in fulfilment of this bequest.
As Robert Dennis had left no male issue the estate fell to his two daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. Half (a moiety) of the estate was settled on the marriage of Elizabeth to Robert Averay of Cruwys Morchard, Devon, in 1701 but was bought back two years later by Robert Squire for the sum of £1,800.
In 1705 Margaret Dennis and Robert Squire conveyed the premises to Lord Bruce from whom they were purchased twelve years later by Rupert Billingsley of Pall Mall Court, Westminster. He was probably a retired seaman for he is once referred to as Captain Billingsley [RO14/54] and his wife showed an interest in seamens' widows. Rupert died in 1720 and his widow Mary seven years later. By will she left the residue of her estate to her daughter Bridget, providing that if Bridget died a minor, £6,000 should be devoted to founding a hospital for seamens' widows at West Drayton and the residue of the state divided amongst the testatrix's sisters. In fact, although Bridget died a minor she left a daughter, a circumstance which her mother appears not to have anticipated, and a dispute arose over whether the estate should be applied to the charity and Mary Billingsley's sisters or whether it should descend to the child, Bridget Belasyse, since it was felt that Mary's intention could not have been to disinherit her grand-daughter.
The case was heard in the Court of Chancery and some of the related papers survive here among the deeds to the estate. It appears that Rupert Billingsley had often said in conversation that he would make a fortune of £10,000 for his daughter which was sufficient fortune for any woman whatsoever. From the report made by the Master in Chancery it appeared that Rupert's personal estate could not satisfy the bequest to his daughter and the deficiency, about £5,000 had to be made chargeable on the Marston estate. It was ordered that the estate should be sold and it was in due course purchased by William Belasyse, Rupert's son-in-law, for £5,450 in 1739. It was from him that the Earl of Ossory purchased the estate in June 1758; the Earl died shortly afterwards (24 September) and the assignment of mortgages, following the conveyance, was completed by the Duke of Bedford, acting as the guardian of the young Earl who was still a minor.