Manor Farm Spaldwick

A Background and Short History

by

Stuart Dixon

September 2014 was an decisive time in the history of the Manor Farm house. Having been an important building on the High Street in Spaldwick since it was built in the 16th century it was rescued from decay and dilapidation for restoration. It had stood empty for many years since the last occupant died in 2005 and was in a sad and sorry state. To the delight of all the villagers it was bought by a professional restorer, Richard Johnson, whose enthusiasm for the project was matched inversely by those amateur diy-er’s who saw the amount of work required!

This short booklet attempts to put some history and colour on an important village landmark; there will be those who are more knowledgeable and I ask for leniency where errors are found. As usual I have probably rambled on and gone off at a tangent and there are still many gaps to be filled; consider this a first draft.

Stuart Dixon January 2015 CONTENTS

Introduction 4

Montagues 6

Copyhold Tenants 12

The Barnards and Lady Olivia Sparrow 13

The Ferrymans 16

INTRODUCTION

The date of the building of the original Manor Farmhouse has yet to be determined exactly. It was once thought to have been built about 1628 when the Earl, now Duke, of Manchester became Lord of the Manor, but is probably older. In a 1926 Inventory of Huntingdon it is described as “late 16th century” but recent examination of some of the timbers and structure show that it could be early 16th century.

A detailed survey was undertaken in 1977 which showed the many changes that have taken place over the life of the building, for example, the extension to the west (left) which served as a separate dwelling for some considerable time (one Rhoda Paine lived there in the two ground floor rooms, the grand-daughter of the Rev. J Manning, Spaldwick Free Church, and who died in Huntingdon Infirmary in February 1915 aged 104), and in the 18th century the joist and rafters in the main rooms were plastered over and baking ovens built in to the open hearths.

The whole building is constructed of good quality oak with some reused timber in the extension and throughout can be seen much evidence of the wattle and daub walling.

MONTAGUES

This Royal and Ducal House of Montagu is descended from Drogo de Montaigu, a Norman aristocrat, who was a companion of William, Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror .

They came to prominence in the 16th century. The judge Sir Edward Montagu's (c.1485–1557) grandson, Sir Henry Montagu (c.1563–1642), who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench (in which office it fell to him to pass sentence on Sir Walter Raleigh in October 1618), as well as of England and , was in 1620 raised to the as Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, and as Viscount Mandeville. In 1626 he was further honoured when he was created Earl of Manchester.

His son, the 2nd Earl, was a prominent Parliamentary General during the Civil War, but later supported the restoration of Charles II. His son, the 3rd Earl, represented in the House of Commons and it was his son , the 4th Earl, who in 1719 was created by George I. He had been Ambassador to the republic of Venice, to the court of France, and to the imperial court in Vienna and he became Principal Secretary of State in 1701. The “Manchester” title is said to be based, not on the city of Manchester, but on Godmanchester: an Earl of Godmanchester would have been referred to as “Lord Godmanchester”, with suggestions of blasphemy.

They continued their prominence but the 2nd Duke’s five marriages were perhaps an early indication of their notoriety. In the 18th century the family fielded a Master of the Horse and (the 4th Duke), and a Governor of Jamaica (the 5th Duke, whose wife ran away with a footman). The 7th Duke, in the 19th century, married a celebrated beauty Louise von Alten, who later went on to marry the 8th .

ROYAL GRANT OF THE MANORS OF SPALDWICK, ST. IVES WITH SLEEPE AND BUSTLERS AND THE STREET OF ST. IVES AND THE MANORS OF HALLIWELL CUM NEEDINGWORTH, JUNE 17 [A.D. 1628].

PATENT ROLL, 4 CHARLES I. Part 14, No. 3.

Abstract of a Grant to Henry Earl Of Manchester, to him and his heirs.

The King to all to whom &c. greeting Know ye that We &c, of Our special grace and mere motion have given and granted and by these presents for Us Our heirs and successors do give and grant to (Our right well beloved and right trusty cousin and counsellor) Henry Earl of Manchester (President of Our Privy Council) his heirs and assigns for ever All that Our manor of Spaldwick with all that the Soke of Spaldwick to the same manor pertaining, in Our County of Huntingdon, with all its rights, members, and appurtenances, and all lands, tenements, rents, and hereditaments in the said County of Huntingdon, called or known by the name of the Manor of Spaldwick, ……………….And also all those the perquisites and profits of Courts of the manor aforesaid which said manor of Spaldwick and other the premises above by these presents before granted by particular thereof are mentioned to be parcel of the lands and possessions late of the Bishop of Lincoln. ….and rendering yearly to Us our heirs and successors of and for the aforesaid manor of Spaldwick, with the appurtenances, £65. l1s. 2d. of lawful money &c.

The Daily Mail has described the Montagues as “Dukes of degeneracy: fraudsters, drug addicts and jailbirds - the Dukes of Manchester have shamed the aristocracy for generations”. History records that many of them and family members were involved in scandals of various sorts, but the same can be said of many families, aristocratic or not.

However, all this was yet to pass and the 1st Earl was evidently in good standing with the King for he was rewarded by Charles I with the “Manors of Spaldwick, St Ives with Sleepe and Bustlers....and Halliwell cum Needingworth” on the 17th June 1628, at which time he was President of the Privy Council. £65 11s 2d was the annual charge payable to the King for the privilege.

It seems possible therefore that following his ownership of Spaldwick the Duke decided upon some changes and amongst those was an extension to the existing house, the western, left, side, as a granary (the solid door entrance) and cheese room. There is some evidence, chamfered beams and roof purlins for example, to suggest that the main part of the house was built much earlier, possibly around 1520, but by whom is still an annoying mystery. At that time Spaldwick was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln and he was a regular visitor to his “palace” close to St. James church; a large manor house would be seen as an important addition to the village, “The George” public house was built as a private house in about 1539, Ivy House about 1580.

The house itself was the centre of a busy farm and indeed continued to be up to the late 20th century. In their 1785 tour of England on behalf of their father the Duc, the La Rochfoulcauld brothers stopped at “The George” and remarked on the amount of pasturage in and around the village; its prime purpose was the production of milk and cheese which was transported to London via Lynn; perhaps the cheese room at the Manor was a central store for the village.

COPYHOLD TENANTS

I have yet to find out who was farming here before around 1730 as tenant of the Manchesters. At some point during the 18th century the manor and much surrounding land were owned by Sir Robert Bernard—a map of the 1775 enclosure of Spaldwick clearly shows this—quite possibly as a Copyholder. From medieval times all land had technically been owned by the Sovereign who granted parts, “Manors”, to tenants (“tenants-in- chief”) who in turn granted portions to lesser tenants and so on, in return for some particular service or rent. There was though a distinction between “free” and “unfree” tenures. Land held by unfree (servile or villein) was simply land held at the will or discretion of the Lord of the Manor and unlike a freeholder had no security of tenure. A villein’s life was dogged by insecurity, his family had no rights to inheritance for example and the manorial court regulated his activities including permission to sublet or even for his daughter to marry. However, his status improved over time and by the 16th century social and Manor Farm, belonging to Sir Robert Barnard (tracing of the 1775 Inclosure Award Map by William Inskip Ladds)

economic change, the intervention of the courts at various times to protect villein tenants and the growing realisation that custom played an important part in legal decision making meant that villeins were more secure in their tenancy—a copyholder tenancy. This was literally a tenancy held with an actual copy of the details held on the Court Roll and the tenancy was thus officially registered, something that only applied to freeholders much later. To qualify as copyholder land it had to be part of a manor, it needed a manor court and, because it was based on custom it could not be newly created. By the late 17th century continuing case law meant that copyhold land could be bought and sold, mortgaged and inherited., and during the 19th century several Copyhold Acts encouraged enfranchisement—turning copyhold into freehold—and subsequent Acts introduced compulsory enfranchisement. It was thus by this method that the Bernards are likely to have come to be the owners of various parcels of land.

THE BERNARDS AND LADY OLIVIA SPARROW

There were three Sir Robert Bernards. The first, son of Francis, was born in 1662 and was a Serjeant-at-Arms and judge in Ely. He lived at Brampton Hall and was a friend of Samuel Pepys who dined at the Hall when he stayed at his house in Brampton. Sir Robert’s son was John and his son was the second Robert. The second Robert had a son, called John!, who had two children, Mary and the third Sir Robert.

The Enclosure Map of 1775 must refer to this Robert who did not marry and had no children so when he died in 1789 his property passed to his surviving sister Mary.

Mary had married a Mr Sparrow and they had a son in 1773 called Robert (!). This Robert, who eventually became Brigadier General Sir Robert Bernard Sparrow, in 1797 married Lady Olivia Acheson, daughter of the 1st Earl of Gosford, an Irish peer. They lived at Brampton Park but the marriage was to last only six years. In 1805 her young husband died age 32 (either from a fever at sea or on active service, or both; sources differ), leaving behind an immensely rich and very attractive young widow. Her wealth came from Brampton Park of course but also from estates in Essex inherited through her late husband’s mother, as well as much land including Spaldwick, and Houghton Mill; her beauty was apparently legendary even in her older years, as was her grace and generosity. To add to her grief their son Robert died four years later in 1809, son John in 1819 having suffered from TB for some time, and daughter Millicent had a neurological problem causing fainting spells and unconsciousness, possibly epilepsy. However, Millicent’s illness did not prevent her marrying George Montagu, 6th Duke of Manchester, by whom she had three children.

Lady Olivia was an extremely religious woman and had a deep seated belief in the education and care of the poor. During the early 19th century there was no formal education system, so the vast majority of poor children were therefore deprived of schooling. In 1820 she is recorded as having given £500 (approx £40,000 today) that year to various charitable organisations in Huntingdon—including the building of Spaldwick school—and in 1834 she opened a church day school in Leigh, Essex; her Educational Foundation continues to help school children in Brampton and in addition she believed in providing the blind with means of earning a living, educating them and providing a dignified life, not just survival through begging. Lady Sparrow employed the blind Reverend J.W. Burke as a domestic chaplain at Brampton and he worked hard to teach and train the blind within the Association for the Welfare of the Blind. He received contributions from many winter residents in Nice where Lady Olivia had a villa. She subsequently had a house especially built at nearby Villefranche which had an easy approach by boat. Since her villa had to have access by land too, she enlarged the seaside path to Nice and made it suitable for coaches, at her own expense. She was also a contributor to the construction of the first portion of the well known Promenade des Anglais, planned by Reverend Lewis Way to provide work for the poor in Nice.

She received many offers of remarriage, but refused them all, preferring to dedicate herself to her children and her two intellectual vocations: religion and education for the poor and the blind, but family life was not what she deserved. Her only surviving child, daughter Millicent, Duchess of Manchester, died aged 50 at Kimbolton Castle in 1848 after a long illness. Her husband, the 6th Duke, claimed that shortly before dying, she rose from her bed to tell him to cancel her previous will (in which she left everything to her children) and make himself sole beneficiary. A very long lawsuit followed, but Lady Olivia couldn’t prove that the Duke of Manchester was lying and in 1858 he gained ownership of the land. Her grandchildren therefore lost most of their inheritance; Lady Olivia lived to the unusually great age of 85 and died on her estate in 1863, having survived all of her children.

The Barnard Estate in Spaldwick 1857

THE FERRYMANS

The name Ferriman will be familiar to local people and it was a Thomas Ferryman who came to live in Spaldwick in about 1780. The spelling of the name varies, particularly in census returns and other hand-written documents, but later becomes constant spelt with an “i”.

Originally from Nottinghamshire where they had been since 1620 or so the Ferrymans were a prominent Leicestershire family and it was John and Fanny’s eldest son Thomas who moved to Spaldwick. John was a baker, his other son John a miller and on the whole a respectable and thriving family with yeoman farming ancestors.

Thomas was living and working the farm together with his wife Susanna and in 1793 he was charged 15s 5³d pa for “Duties on Houses, Windows and Lights, and on Clocks and Watches”.

Susanna died on Christmas Day 1797 aged 34; Thomas died just over four years later on 25th January 1803 aged 45. His 18 year old son Thomas continued to farm the property and married Rebecca Peake in 1812. Their eldest son William died 12 days before his father in December 1849 and so the second son, Thomas, who was 12 at the time, would eventually inherit the copyhold when his mother Rebecca died in December 1860 aged 77.

In 1856 Thomas married Emma Belton and they had two children, Thomas (again!) who unfortunately died aged 10 months in 1858, and Emma Elizabeth. Their marriage was short lved for Thomas died in September 1862 aged 49 leaving Emma with a two year old daughter. She continued to live at the farm and four years later married John Brawn with whom she had another daughter Edith Emily. (This daughter married Mark Davis, a name well known to Spaldwick people, and it was their daughter [Edith] Irene Davis who lived at the farm and who was much interested in Spaldwick history) The elder daughter, Emma Elizabeth, married Edward Brown and it was this connection of Browns and Brawns who carried on the family farming business up to the present day.

In July 1918 the rent for the 101 acres of Manor Farm was £79 18s 6d (about £5000 today) and inflation was running at 22%. Mention was made earlier about the lifestyle of the Dukes of Manchester and on the 18/19 July 1918 there was a sale of their land and property; Harry Brawn successfully bid £1900 (£95000).

The farm continued to be worked and the house lived in until the last occupant died in 2005 and legal issues prevented a sale of the house until recently. At the time of writing much renovation has been done although there is a long way to go before it can become a family home once more.

—————————————————- The 1798 appointment of and instructions to “Mr Cook and John Doe” to assess the villagers of Spaldwick and appoint collectors of the due taxes and ‘make out fair copies’ and deliver same to The George Inn at 10 o’clock on the 20th June or incur a penalty of £50. On a previous occasion in 1792 Thomas Ladds was one of the Assessors when the Parish had to raise £120 13s 4d Land Tax at the rate of 4s in the £ on “all persons holding manors, messuages, lands, tenements, woods, tythes, tolls, fisheries, parks, but not those of poor persons which are not of the yearly value of 20s” Sources

The Daily Mail (news article-2017091) http://bcw-project.org/biography/edward-montagu-earl-of-manchester (Ian J. Gentles, “Edward Montagu, Second Earl of Manchester”, Oxford DNB, 2004

Ronald Hutton, “The Restoration, a political and religious history of England and Wales 1658-1667”, (Oxford 1985)

Bertha Porter, “Edward Montagu, Second Earl of Manchester”, DNB, 1894 http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/m/ earls_and_dukes_of_manchester.html

Early Records of the Duke of Manchester’s English Manorial Estates Charles Gervaise Boxall 1892

The History of Parliament online (/volume/1820-1832/member/montagu- george-1799-1855)

The Riviera Reporter

The Cottagers Monthly Visitor, vol 1, 1821

Survey 1975, TL130728 EM Davies et al.

Various papers Huntingdon Archives

Norris Museum

Irene Davis estate

Elizabeth Smith

Linda Smith

© All sketches and photographs, Stuart Dixon 2015