Milton: Manor and other estates

Manor and other estates

Abbot Thurcytel, expelled from Bedford after 971, gave the reversion of 4½ hides at Milton to the canons of St. Paul's, London, in return for a prebend there. The clerks, finding their possession of it disputed, exchanged it before 984 for land in Essex with the newly founded abbey at Ely. (fn. 1) Beorhtnoth, abbot of Ely (d. c. 996), acquired another 2 hides at Milton from one Ulf in exchange for land at Fordham. (fn. 2) The abbey's Milton estate later comprised almost the whole vill, 12 hides. By 1066 6¾ hides had been granted to the abbey's steward, Aethelbeorht, another 45/8 hides being possessed by 4 sokemen. All that land, with 2½ yardlands held by a royal sokeman, had by 1086 been seized by Picot the sheriff. (fn. 3) The abbey's rights were later recognized again, and by 1166 MILTON manor was held as 23; knight's fee of the bishop of Ely, (fn. 4) whose successors remained tenants-in-chief into the 17th century, (fn. 5) and were still receiving reliefs from its lords c. 1470. (fn. 6) In the mid 16th century the tenure was reckoned as socage, (fn. 7) but by the 1630s was again said to be by knight service. (fn. 8)

Picot gave Milton with his elder daughter Agnes to Ralph de St. Germain, (fn. 9) probably the Ralph who held it in demesne in 1086. (fn. 10) By 1166 it had descended to Everard of Milton or of Beach, sheriff of Cambridgeshire 1170-7. (fn. 11) In 1197 Everard's successor, Peter of Beach, bought out the claim raised in 1194 by Robert Picot, lord of Quy and Waterbeach, who alleged that Henry I had given Milton to his grandfather Henry Picot. (fn. 12)

Peter of Beach lost Milton after adhering to the baronial rebels in 1216. The royal commander, Fawkes de Breaute, ordered to reseise Peter in 1217, (fn. 13) instead disseised him of dependent property at 'Beach', and, perhaps by 1220, (fn. 14) had obliged him to surrender Milton manor also. Fawkes had by 1222 granted it to another king's knight, Godfrey of Crowcombe, to hold for two gilt spurs or 6d. a year. In 1225 the king confirmed Godfrey's rights to hold Milton under Peter, who vainly sought to recover it in 1228 in the church courts. (fn. 15) Peter's son Peter and widow Beatrice released their claims to hold Milton in demesne to Godfrey in 1232-3. (fn. 16) The Beaches' mesne lordship was not mentioned after 1236, (fn. 17) unless it was the source of Philip de Lisle's lordship, acknowledged by Godfrey's successors in 1261. (fn. 18) Sir Simon de Lisle, mesne lord by 1284, released his rights with his Impington manor in 1289 to the bishop of Ely, (fn. 19) and succeeding bishops were entitled to the spurs or their equivalent into the 15th century. (fn. 20)

Godfrey of Crowcombe, steward of Henry III's household 1225-35, (fn. 21) was in 1229 granted free warren at Milton with the right to chase deer roused there into the king's own warren of Cambridge, also a three-day fair about 8 September, not traced later. (fn. 22) His second wife Joan de Somery had him assign the whole manor for her dower, (fn. 23) and after his death c. 1247 (fn. 24) married Ebles des Monts, (fn. 25) later royal steward 1256-63. (fn. 26) In 1252 Clarice of Crowcombe, presumably Godfrey's daughter by his first marriage, released Milton to Ebles and Joan in tail, with remainder to Ebles's own heirs. (fn. 27) In 1264- 5 Ebles's Milton estate was seized by Philip de Colville and in 1266 was burnt and plundered by the Montfortian rebels. (fn. 28) Ebles died in 1268. (fn. 29) In 1276 Joan settled Milton on their daughter Eleanor's marriage to John le Strange, reserving a life interest in half its income. (fn. 30)

John le Strange, who held the whole manor in 1279, (fn. 31) and his successors were regularly summoned to parliament as barons from 1300. (fn. 32) He died in 1309, having settled Milton on his second wife Maud. (fn. 33) John's son and heir John obliged Maud's second husband Thomas Hastang to sell it to him in 1310. (fn. 34) Later Lords le Strange, whose main estates were in Shropshire, until the early 15th century usually included the whole of Milton in the jointures intended for their widows. (fn. 35) Of John's sons and successive heirs John died without issue in 1323, Roger (fn. 36) in 1349. His son and heir, another Roger, (fn. 37) died in 1382. Roger's son John (fn. 38) (d. 1397) left as his heir his son Richard, (fn. 39) who held Milton in 1428, (fn. 40) but in 1446 exchanged it with William Lowe. (fn. 41)

Lowe, sheriff of Cambridgeshire in 1460, (fn. 42) died holding Milton in 1462, (fn. 43) probably jointly with his wife Eleanor (d. 1469). Their son Richard Lowe, (fn. 44) having probably fought for the Lancastrians, forfeited his lands in 1471, but the bishop of Durham, to whom they were sold, restored them to Richard when he was pardoned in 1473. (fn. 45) Richard died in 1479, leaving as heirs his two sisters Elizabeth and Constance. (fn. 46) Milton had in 1473 been settled for life on his widow Eleanor who possessed it with her next three husbands, Hugh Melle (fl. c. 1481), Sir Thomas Cornewall (d. by 1503), and Sir William Houghton. When in 1503 George Stanley, Lord Strange, and his wife Joan, granddaughter and eventual heir of Richard, Lord le Strange (d. 1449), claimed Milton, Eleanor and Houghton lost the case by default; one John Whichcote was unsuccessful in claiming to have bought in 1497 the reversion of half the manor from Elizabeth's daughter Margaret Hokseley. Constance had sold her half in 1481. (fn. 47)

Milton was adjudged to George Stanley shortly before his death in 1504. (fn. 48) Joan occupied it in her own right until her death in 1514. Thereupon her 'faithful, ancient servant', Thomas Stanley (d. 1525) of Alderley (Ches.), her husband's cousin, took the revenue of half the manor as steward, annuitant, and trustee, and by 1516 held the remainder on lease, rent free, from Joan's son Thomas Stanley, 2nd earl of Derby (d. 1521). Only in 1525 did possession come to Earl Thomas's son and heir Edward. (fn. 49) In 1548 Earl Edward sold the whole manor to William Cook of Chesterton, (fn. 50) serjeant at law since 1547 and justice of Common Pleas in 1552 (d. 1553). (fn. 51)

Cook's widow Alice, to whom he devised half the manor, and her second husband William Barne occupied the whole estate until both died in 1562, (fn. 52) just before Cook's son Thomas came of age. (fn. 53) Following his death without issue in 1577, his widow Audrey released her life interest in Milton in 1578 to his brother Henry. (fn. 54) A recusant, (fn. 55) Henry and his son John, to whom he ceded control of the estate after 1609, leased over 215 a. of the demesne from 1600 at very low rents. The lease of another 185 a. was acquired in 1616 by William Harris of Elsworth, who the same year bought out the Cooks' freehold, then supposedly comprising 469 a. of arable. (fn. 56) John Cook reserved from the sale 75 a., increased to 100 a. by the 1650s when it was leased to the Harrises, which in 1657 he transferred to his son Francis, who sold it in 1668. (fn. 57)

William Harris (d. 1628) assigned to his eldest son Simon only his lands in Elsworth, and settled Milton manor in 1624 upon his wife Margaret (d. 1658) for her life, with remainder to his next son John. (fn. 58) It was resettled, leaving Margaret with half the land, in 1640 and 1653 upon John's marriage to Martha Tempest. (fn. 59) John died in 1659, and in 1666 Martha and his eldest son John sold the manor with 200 a. (fn. 60) Martha still inhabited the manor house in 1674. (fn. 61)

The purchaser was Sir Jeremy Whichcote, Bt. His brother, Dr. Benjamin Whichcote, then rector, had since the mid 1650s himself bought much land in Milton: 95 a. of copyhold and most of a 130-a. freehold, (fn. 62) including c. 90 a. of former demesne. (fn. 63) In 1667 Sir Jeremy settled the manor in tail male on his daughter Anne's marriage to the lawyer Francis Pemberton (kt. 1675), later a judge. (fn. 64) The courts were held until 1675 in the name of trustees, including Sir Jeremy's son Sir Paul. (fn. 65) Pemberton bought the 100 a., once Francis Cook's, in 1676. (fn. 66) Dr. Whichcote at his death in 1682 left his Milton lands to two of Sir Jeremy's younger sons, Jeremy and Christopher. Following Christopher's bankruptcy c. 1689, Pemberton acquired that property in 1692. (fn. 67)

Sir Francis Pemberton's manorial estate, thus reunited and covering c. 500 a., (fn. 68) passed by his will on his death in 1697 to his widow Anne (d. 1710), then to his third son Francis (d. 1762). The latter's eldest surviving son, the Revd. Jeremy Pemberton, sold his Milton estate, by then heavily mortgaged, (fn. 69) in 1766 to Samuel Knight, member of a wealthy clerical family and rector of Milton from 1776. (fn. 70) When Knight died in 1790, (fn. 71) it descended to his son Samuel, who, having survived his only son Samuel (d. s.p.m. 1829), (fn. 72) at his death in 1835 devised Milton to his second wife Frances for her life, with remainder to John Percy Baumgartner, son of his daughter Philippa Anne (d. 1852) by the Swiss-born physician John Thomas Baumgartner (fn. 73) who inhabited Milton Hall in 1851. (fn. 74) Frances died in 1842, and John Percy, who had heavily mortgaged his expectations, (fn. 75) sold his Milton land, covering c. 570 a. since inclosure in 1802, partly by auction in 1859, partly, including the Hall, in 1860-2. (fn. 76) Baumgartner retained the manorial rights until his death in 1903, after which they belonged until the 1930s to the Misses Baumgartner of Godmanchester (Hunts.). (fn. 77)

The estate was divided: George Archdale (d. 1871), master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, bought Manor farm with 96 a., and Prof. Charles Babington acquired New Close farm, 92 a. (fn. 78) In 1873 the Revd. C. Kinleyside sold Manor farm with 275 a. to the Revd. W. B. Pike (fn. 79) (d. after 1874). Pike's son and namesake died in 1905; (fn. 80) his executors sold it with 261 a. in 1908 to the county council, which also bought 78 a. in 1910 and New Close farm from A. M. Babington in 1912. Later purchases up to the 1970s included c. 45 a., while 13 a. were sold for building. In 1985 the council owned c. 455 a., mostly north and west of the village and let to smallholders, and remained the parish's largest landowner. (fn. 81)

In 1235 Henry III gave Godfrey of Crowcombe ten timbers (frustae) to house himself at Milton, (fn. 82) presumably at the manor. A large rectangular moat was still visible in the 20th century north of Fen End, (fn. 83) which was called Hall End c. 1780 when William Cole, having found foundations, fishponds, and ditches, identified it as a manorial site. (fn. 84) The move to a new position near the church was probably made c. 1550 by William Cook, whose initials were carved on an arched doorway in the house there: fragments of older stonework were discovered during repairs c. 1772. (fn. 85) That house included in 1562 three or more chambers, one a 'hall chamber', (fn. 86) and had 9 or 10 hearths in the 1660s, when it contained a central hall, probably two parlours, a hall chamber with a gallery over it, and offices with cellars south of the hall. (fn. 87) Under the Pembertons it was used as a farmhouse, but Samuel Knight, on settling at Milton in the 1770s, occupied it rather than the rectory, 'fitting up' or rebuilding part as a 'neat house' c. 1772. (fn. 88) The modern Milton Hall was built by his son Samuel, who probably completed it in 1794. (fn. 89) Its surrounding park was laid out to designs of 1789 by his friend Humphrey Repton, (fn. 90) producing a vista east from the house surrounded by plantations, and a lake to the south-east. In 1794-5, to enlarge his grounds to the west, Samuel had the Cambridge-Ely turnpike diverted away from the west front of his house. (fn. 91) The house has a plain neo-classical exterior in grey brick and is almost square: the centre part is three-storeyed, having a large balconied room on the top floor. The ground floor has on the west a hall, 40 ft. high, and on the east an oval room projecting into a bow towards the park. They are flanked by two large rooms, used c. 1800 as the drawing and dining rooms, and by two-storeyed wings containing the offices. (fn. 92)

After being offered for leasing in 1807 and 1814, (fn. 93) the house was occupied by the Knights and Baumgartners until the 1850s. (fn. 94) In 1862 the Hall with grounds covering 73 a. was sold to Richard Miller, a Cambridge wine merchant. (fn. 95) The Revd. Charles William Giles inhabited it from 1866 to his death in 1888, (fn. 96) after which it was sold c. 1889 to the Pryors of Cambridge, (fn. 97) who leased it with 20 a., while letting to farmers much of the park, reduced by sales by 1925 to only 30 a. (fn. 98) By the 1940s the Hall belonged to the earl of Wilton's settled estate. (fn. 99) Used in the 1930s to house refugee Basque children, and between 1939 and 1945 as military billets, it was sold with 33 a. in 1948 to the Eastern Electricity Board, which used it as a regional headquarters. They replaced the old stable block on the north c. 1965 with two wings of office buildings. It was resold in 1983 for continued use as offices, the next occupants adding curving screen walls on the western front (fn. 100)

In 1279 a yardland was held of Chamberlains manor in Landbeach, and 15 a. of the Templars of Denny. (fn. 101) St. John's College, Cambridge, had £2 worth of rent c. 1546. (fn. 102) The rector Thomas Goad (d. 1638) left for the library of King's College, Cambridge, land for which 22 a. were allotted at inclosure in 1802, another 9 a. being bought c. 1870. (fn. 103) William Moses (d. 1688), master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1654- 60, left to his college land for which 68 a. were allotted in 1802. (fn. 104) Both colleges retained their properties until the 1920s or later. Caius College owned a 6-a. close in 1800 and in the 1930s, and in 1925 acquired the former glebe, which it owned in 1986. (fn. 105)