MANOR
In the time of Edward the Confessor HAMPTON was held by Earl Algar. It was granted by the Conqueror to Walter de St. Valery, who also received the neighbouring manor of Isleworth and considerable property in other parts of England. (fn. 80) In
1086 he held 35 hides in Hampton, 18 hides being in demesne, the rest farmed by tenants.
For considerably over a century Hampton remained
in the hands of the St. Valerys. In 1130 Henry I
remitted to Reginald de St. Valery, probably grandson of Walter, (fn. 81) the sums of £10 10s. of his
Danegelt, and £11 16s. 2d. of the auxilium comitatus
in Middlesex. (fn. 82) He appears to have held the office
of dapifer to Henry II before his accession. (fn. 83)
From 1158 to 1163 Reginald was still holding
lands in Middlesex and other counties. (fn. 84) In
1173-6, a Bernard de St. Valery, presumably son
of Reginald, is mentioned as holding what appear
to be the same lands. (fn. 85) In 1201-2 Thomas,
probably son of Bernard, held the property, (fn. 86) and
seems to have been in possession till 1218-19,
when Henry of St. Albans was permitted by
Henry III to retain the manor of Hampton,
which he held of the gift of Thomas de St.
Valery, notwithstanding that all the lands of the
said Thomas de St. Valery had been taken into
the king's hands. (fn. 87) It has been suggested that
Thomas joined the rebel barons in the reign of
King John, and if he did not submit on the accession of Henry III, his lands may have been forfeited after the battle of Lincoln in 1217. (fn. 88) He
died in 1219, leaving only a daughter, Annora,
whose first husband, Robert de Dreux, possessed the
other St. Valery manor of Isleworth in right of
his wife. (fn. 89)
The knights Hospitallers
Gules a cross aregent.
Henry of St. Albans, who thus became lord of
the manor at some period before 1218-19, was
well known as a merchant and citizen of London,
and was one of the sheriffs in 1206. (fn. 90) He only
held Hampton for a short
time, as in 1237 he sold it
to Terrice de Nussa, Prior
of the Hospital of St. John
of Jerusalem in England,
for 1,000 marks, (fn. 91) he and
his wife Sabine quitclaiming
all rights in the manor to
the prior and his successors.
The prior seems to have
made some claim to the
property at an earlier date,
as in the Close Rolls of
1230 a 'contention' is
mentioned between H. de St. Albans and the
prior concerning 'the house of Hampton; (fn. 92) and
there seems to have been a preceptory of the
order at Hampton as early as 1180, when the
sisters of the order were removed from their several
commanderies to Mynchin Buckland in Somersetshire. 'Sister Joan' is mentioned in the Mynchin
Buckland charter as the sister from 'Hampton in
Middlesex.' (fn. 93)
In 1250 Henry III made a grant to the prior
and brethren of free warren 'in their manor of
Hampton,' which was confirmed by Edward I in
1280. (fn. 94)
Nevertheless, in 1292, Sabine of Durham
claimed the property as the heiress of her grandfather Henry of St. Albans, (fn. 95) disputing the right
of the then prior, Brother Peter of Hagham, to the
manor, saying that her grandfather had been
unjustly disseised of the property. The pleading
of the prior is curious, as he denies that Henry
ever was in seisin of the said manor, and the jury
found that the prior and his predecessors continually held it 'for fifty years past and more.' The
actual sale, which seems to have taken place when
Henry quitclaimed his rights to the prior and his
successors for 1,000 marks, is not mentioned, and
eventually as a compromise Sabine agreed to accept
100 marks, and quitclaimed for herself and her
heirs 'all her rights and claims in the said manor
to God, St. John the Baptist, the prior and
brethren of the hospital and their successors.' (fn. 96)
Henry of St. Albans had a son William, who is
mentioned, with his wife Alice, in 1232, as holding a messuage at Newton in Middlesex, but he
and his heirs never seem to have claimed Hampton. (fn. 97) The only other person who is mentioned
as having held the manor 'for her life' before the
Knights Hospitallers sold it to Wolsey, is Joan, the
widow of Robert de Grey, kt. Tanner and
Dugdale have both made the mistake of supposing
that Joan de Grey was herself the donor of the
manor of Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers. (fn. 98)
What really happened seems to have been that
Joan de Grey inherited the manor of Shobington
in Buckinghamshire from her father Thomas de
Valognes, it having been part of the dowry of her
mother Joan de Valognes. This manor in 1298-9
Joan de Grey granted in mortmain to the Knights
Hospitallers, but with their permission retained
her life interest in it, and at the same time had
granted to her by them a life interest in the manors
of Hampton in Middlesex and of Raynham in
Essex, possibly in return for or in acknowledgement of the actual gift which she had made to
them of Shobington. (fn. 99)
There is record of two further gifts of land in
Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1303
Walter de Wyke and Maud his wife granted them
a messuage, 100 acres of arable land, 1 acre of
meadow, and 20s. rent. (fn. 100) Christine Haywood
also gave them 60 acres of land with appurtenances
in Hampton, and the 'Wike' (Hampton Wick.) (fn. 101)
In 1338 the report of Prior Philip de Thame
to the Grand Master of the Order gives an account
of the 'Camera' of Hampton as comprising a
messuage with a garden, a dovecote, and 840
acres of land, chiefly pasture, yielding altogether
£83 13s. 10d. annually. (fn. 102) The house was evidently small, as the total expenses, including the
stipends and clothing of the brother in charge,
'a chaplain to serve the Chapel,' a corrodyman of
the king, and other members of the household,
were only £30 7s. 2d. per annum. A charge of
20s. a year is mentioned for maintaining a weir,
which was used for fishing, and farmed at a rent
of £6. There is also a yearly charge of 68s. 4d.
arising out of a composition for tithe made with
the vicar of Hampton, (fn. 103) and further expense
seems to have been incurred by the entertainment
of guests going to and coming from the Black
Prince's house, either at Sheen, or more probably
at Kempton (Kennington), about a mile from
Hampton Court. (fn. 104) There are few further references to the house before it became the property
of Cardinal Wolsey. Fox, Bishop of Winchester,
in a letter to Wolsey, mentions that Henry VII had
used it as a 'cell' or subsidiary house to his neighbouring palace of Richmond. (fn. 105) The manor was
leased in 1505 for ninety-nine years at £50 a
year, to Giles, Lord Daubeny, Chamberlain to
Henry VII, (fn. 106) who died in 1508, leaving in his
will the remainder of the lease to his wife, who
survived him, (fn. 107) but this agreement is not mentioned in the lease granted to Wolsey in 1514.
By an indenture dated 11 January 1514-15,
Sir Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Hospital of St.
John of Jerusalem, and the brethren of the order
granted a lease for ninety-nine years of the manor
of Hampton Court with
all appurtenances to Thomas
Wolsey, Archbishop of
York, and his assigns, at a
rent of £50 a year, the
lease to take effect from
24 June 1514. (fn. 108) The
prior and brethren were to
allow £4 13s. 4d. yearly to
the archbishop for a priest
to perform divine service in
the chapel of the manor,
and also four loads of wood
and timber from St. John's
Wood yearly for the repair and maintenance of
the weir.
Wolsey
Sable a cross engrailed argent with a lion passant gules between four leopards' heads azure thereon and a chief or with a rose gules between two Cornish choughs therein.
By the terms of the lease Wolsey was to build,
rebuild or alter as he chose, and at the expiration
of the term was to leave a thousand couple of
'conys' in the warren, 'or else for every couple
that shall want 4d.'
The exact date, or the exact manner in which
Wolsey, probably actuated by signs of the king's
jealousy and displeasure, surrendered the manor
and the splendid house he had built to Henry VIII
is not known. (fn. 109) It became the king's property
before the rest of the cardinal's lands were escheated to the Crown after his attainder in 1529. (fn. 110)
A letter from Jehan le Sauche, the Austrian
Ambassador, to 'Madame' (Elizabeth of Austria),
is now in the Vienna archives, and speaks of the
gift having been made as early as June 1525. (fn. 111)
Stowe and Cavendish both say that the king made
an exchange of Richmond for Hampton Court
with the cardinal. (fn. 112) Lord Herbert of Cherbury
stated that Wolsey only finished the palace in
1525, and exchanged it with the king for Richmond in 1526. (fn. 113)
Wolsey himself, in writing to the king as early
as 1521, dates his letter from 'Your house of
Hampton Court,' (fn. 114) but as late as 1528, in writing
to others, continued to speak of it as 'my manor
of Hampton Court.' (fn. 115)
In 1527 Laurence Stubbs, Wolsey's paymaster
of the works, wrote to him, 'your buildings-at
York Place, Hampton Court, Oxford, &c., go
forward.' (fn. 116) In a letter from Fitzwilliam to
Wolsey in 1528 he said, 'The King will be glad
to be at your manor of Hampton Court on Saturday next-as I told him you could not conveniently remove by that day, he wished to be at your
house on Saturday or Monday at furthest, where
he will spend three or four days before his repair
to Greenwich.' (fn. 117) In 1527, however, it was
generally considered to be the king's property.
Dodieu (the French Ambassador's secretary) wrote
of it as 'a handsome house built by Wolsey, and
presented by him to the king,' (fn. 118) but Wolsey certainly continued to live there, to receive private
visits there, (fn. 119) and probably to bear all the expense
of the upkeep, and continued building (fn. 120) until the
time of his disgrace in 1529. (fn. 121)
The idea has usually been accepted that on the
suppression of the order of St. John in England in
1539 the reversion of the lease of Hampton Court
escheated to the Crown with the other property of
the Order, (fn. 122) but this was not the case. In 1531
the king made an exchange with Sir William
Weston, then prior, of 'the Manor of Hampton
or Hampton Courte, Middlesex, for the advowson
of the prebend of Blewbery in Salisbury Cathedral,
lands at Stansgate, Essex and a messuage in
Chancery Lane in the suburb of London.' (fn. 123)
The King of England
Azure three fleurs de lis or, for France,quartered with Gules three leopards or for England.
Sir William Paulet, Christopher Hales, AttorneyGeneral, Baldwin Malet,
and Thomas Cromwell were
appointed as trustees, to
receive the manor 'to the
King's use.'
From that date, 5 June
1531, Hampton Court became the property of the
Crown or the State, and
has so continued to the present day, with one short
interval, during the Commonwealth, (fn. 124) when the fee
of the manor and honour
was sold to Mr. John Phelps of London, gentleman, for £750. (fn. 125) Bushey Park and its appur
tenances were sold to Edmund Blackwell for
£6,638 7s., and the Middle Park to Colonel Norton
for £3,701 19s. In February 1654 they were
all re-acquired for the use of the State, on the
return of the purchase money and the payment
of £1,200 surplusage, (fn. 126)
made necessary because
some of the lands had already been sold again. (fn. 127)
John Phelps appears on the
Court Roll as lord of the
manor from 14 May 1652
to 2 June 1654. (fn. 128) No
further courts are recorded
till 2 April 1657, when
the Lord Protector's name
appears. (fn. 129) After the death
of Cromwell a bill was introduced into Parliament to settle the honour and
manor of Hampton Court on General Monk, but
this was not carried, and on the restoration of
Charles II it became once more the property of
the Crown. (fn. 130)
Cromwell
Sable a lion argent.