MANORS.
Before the Conquest the canons of
St. Paul's held 5 hides, which in 1086 constituted one manor within the vill of Fulham. (fn. 31) Their
lands were divided before 1181, although the two
estates of 3 hides and 2 hides were still said to
form one manor in 1222. (fn. 32) The division presumably had arisen from the need to maintain the
prebendary of Chiswick, first mentioned in
1103-4. (fn. 33)
The larger estate was called by 1181 the manor
of SUTTON
(fn. 34) and by c. 1537 SUTTON
COURT. (fn. 35) In 1502 the bishop ordered that
Sutton, with the rectory and advowson of
Chiswick, was to be enjoyed by the dean of St.
Paul's so long as he should keep residence. Dean
Feckenham's right and his annual payments to
the chapter were confirmed in 1555, when
mediators found that Sutton was not part of the
deanery's ancient endowment but had been 'encroached' by his predecessors. (fn. 36) Thereafter
Sutton Court, which could not be leased without
the dean's consent, (fn. 37) was often known as the
dean's manor. (fn. 38) In 1617 some chapter officers
and local tenants were found to have withheld
profits from the dean, hoping that he would not
be able to assert his right to a manor which had
been part of the common possessions of St.
Paul's. (fn. 39) Nominally the lordship remained with
both dean and chapter, except during the Interregnum when it was sequestrated to the
corporation of London, (fn. 40) until it passed to the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners on the death of
Dean Coplestone in 1849. (fn. 41)
The manor probably was always farmed out, as
in 1181 to Nicholas, archdeacon of London, and
in 1222 to Philip of Hadham. (fn. 42) Sutton may have
been held at farm by the ancestors of John de
Bray, who acquired land in fee in Chiswick in
1324, 1330, and 1337. (fn. 43) His interest in the manor
may have passed, with other lands of his in
Chiswick, to Sir William Scrope, who granted
them to Richard II. (fn. 44) The Crown held the manor
of Sutton by Chiswick in 1431, granting it to the
treasurer Ralph, Lord Cromwell, in 1437 and
1442, (fn. 45) and disposed of the revenues in 1457. (fn. 46) It
was said to have belonged formerly to Thomas
Bray in 1469, when granted to Richard Bury, (fn. 47)
and in 1470 Baldwin Bray surrendered his rights
to Thomas Coveton and other clerks, who
perhaps were acting for St. Paul's. (fn. 48) The dean
and chapter leased Sutton in 1524 to Sir Thomas
More, on whose attainder in 1535 it passed to the
Crown, which granted the remainder of More's
term to his widow Alice. John Lane, who denied
having bought Alice's interest in Sutton Court in
1535, was granted leases by St. Paul's in 1538, (fn. 49)
1547, (fn. 50) and 1572. (fn. 51)
A 21-years' sublease was granted by Lane, of
Twickenham, to John Sheppard in 1573. Under
John Sheppard's will, dated 1575, the profits
were to be taken during the minority of his two
sons by Henry Platt, who further sublet the
manor to Sheppard's widow Joan and her second
husband Christopher Leyland. By 1589, when
Joan was still alive, Sheppard's surviving son
Robert had further subleased the manor to
Robert Rowe. (fn. 52)
In 1639 the chapter granted Sutton Court for
21 years to Thomas Edgar, whose lease by 1649
had been bought by Chaloner Chute (d. 1659), (fn. 53)
afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons. (fn. 54)
Chute's widow Dorothy, formerly Lady Dacre,
in 1661 was promised compensation for the
manor, which had been assigned to her for life in
1653 but which Dr. Matthew Nicholas, on becoming dean of St. Paul's at the Restoration, had
granted to his elder brother Sir Edward
Nicholas, (fn. 55) the secretary of state. (fn. 56) Leases for
21 years, renewable by fine every 3 years, (fn. 57)
thereafter were made by the chapter to Sir
Edward in 1668, to William Ashburnham
in 1672, to Thomas Belasyse, Viscount (later
Earl) Fauconberg (d. 1700) from 1675, and
to his widow Mary, a daughter of Oliver
Cromwell, who died at Sutton Court in
1713. (fn. 58) From 1713 the lessee was Lord
Fauconberg's nephew Sir Thomas Frankland,
bt. (d. 1726), (fn. 59) followed briefly by Joseph
Ormerod, (fn. 60) from 1728 Richard Boyle, earl of
Burlington, from 1756 William Murray, later
Lord Mansfield, under Burlington's will, and
from 1773 John Heaton. The remainder of
Heaton's final term, granted in 1799, was presumably bought by William Cavendish, duke of
Devonshire, to whom in 1800 St. Paul's sold all
the land but not the manorial rights. (fn. 61)
Chiswick had no separate rectory estate: the
great tithes were held with Sutton Court by Sir
Thomas More (fn. 62) and later lessees, and were
purchased in 1800 by the duke of Devonshire. (fn. 63)
In 1589-90 the lessee was entitled to all tithes of
corn and hay within the parish except from the
demesnes of the prebendal manor, which paid
only one third of the tithe of corn. (fn. 64) The great
tithes were estimated to be worth £55 4s. in
1649, (fn. 65) produced £93 9s. in 1702, (fn. 66) and were
commuted for a rent charge of £50 in 1846. (fn. 67)
The manor house known by 1649 as Sutton
Court (fn. 68) stood near the centre of the parish,
north-east of Sutton Lane. (fn. 69) Roman brickwork
and 15th-century pottery were found on its site
in 1905. (fn. 70) The dating of letters patent from
Chiswick may record visits to Sutton by Henry
VI between 1441 and 1443. (fn. 71) Several houses were
acquired by John de Bray (fn. 72) but a mansion house
was mentioned only in 1589, when it had a
gatehouse, malthouse, and farm buildings, all in
decay. (fn. 73) The buildings, including a dovecot, had
been newly mended a year later, when they stood
within orchards and gardens of 3 a. (fn. 74) The main
house, with a large hall and with garrets over the
upper floor, had grounds of 9 a. in 1649. (fn. 75) It was
assessed at 30 hearths in 1664 (fn. 76) and was 'fit to
receive tomorrow a family of 40 or 50' in 1674,
when there were 12 a. of walled garden. (fn. 77) The
gardens were noted in 1691, when Lord
Fauconberg possessed a maze and a bowling
green, (fn. 78) and in 1725-6. (fn. 79) When part of the estates
of Lord Burlington and the dukes of Devonshire,
Sutton Court was occupied by undertenants, one
of whom, Thomas King, largely rebuilt it before
1795. (fn. 80) Later tenants were Radcliffe Sidebotham
in 1816, (fn. 81) Lt.-Col. Henry Cavendish in the
1820s, (fn. 82) Frederick Tappenden, who kept
a boarding school there from c. 1845, (fn. 83) and
William Compton in 1890. (fn. 84) The house, of two
storeys and nine bays, with a balustrade and
central pediment, (fn. 85) was demolished in 1896 and
replaced c. 1905 by flats called Sutton Court, (fn. 86)
which in 1979 stood on the north side of
Fauconberg Road.
The prebendal estate, said in 1590 to be held
of Sutton, (fn. 87) was often called in the 16th and
17th centuries CHISWICK manor (fn. 88) and
from the mid 18th century the PREBEND
manor of Chiswick. (fn. 89) Except during the Interregnum (fn. 90) the lordship remained with the prebendaries until the death of John Smith in 1859,
whereupon the manor, in reversion on the expiry
of under-leases, passed to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. (fn. 91)
The prebendaries presumably exploited the
estate until Gabriel Goodman, who retained his
stall on becoming dean of Westminster, decided
to secure his manor house at Chiswick as a
retreat, in times of sickness, for Westminster
school. The transfer, begun in 1562, was completed in 1570 by a lease of the entire estate for
99 years to Westminster's receiver-general, who
then joined Goodman in assigning the property
to the chapter, which in 1572 in turn joined
Goodman in subletting the lands while reserving
the school's house. (fn. 92) Thereafter Westminster
held the manor house on long leases, later for
3 lives, (fn. 93) until the remainder of the chapter's last
lease was bought by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1865. (fn. 94)
From 1572 the demesne lands of the Prebend
manor, except the school's house, were leased out
by the chapter of Westminster, (fn. 95) at first for 21
years (fn. 96) and by the early 18th century for 3 lives. (fn. 97)
Leases were made to Thomas Childe in 1572, the
judge Thomas Owen (d. 1598) in 1591, William
Smeeth, to whom Owen had previously sublet
the property, between 1592 and 1626, Henry
Fryer in 1628, and the civilian Dr. (later Sir
Arthur) Duck (1580-1648) between 1633 and
1640. (fn. 98) Duck's son Richard was in occupation in
1649, (fn. 99) when the manor, the school's house being
reserved, was sold by parliamentary commissioners to William Angier and Edward Raddon of
London. (fn. 1) The restored chapter leased the same
property to Thomas Kendall and others in 1663 (fn. 2)
and Kendall's interest was bought by Sir
Stephen Fox, already a substantial copyholder, (fn. 3)
in 1684-5. (fn. 4)
After Fox's death in 1716 the manor was held
by trustees under his will, (fn. 5) then by his son
Stephen (later earl of Ilchester) in 1726, by Dr.
Michael Hutchinson, minister of Hammersmith,
from 1727, by Mrs. Mary Daniel and Joseph
Ashton from 1737, by Gauntlett Fry in 1745, by
Miss Susanna Sharp from 1746, and by James
Fry from 1768. Alexander Weatherstone held
it from 1770 to 1783, followed by his widow
Ann until 1795 and by the guardians of their
son Henry. In 1803 Henry Weatherstone,
of Lower Halliford in Shepperton, sold the
lease to Benjamin Welstead of Kimbolton
(Hunts.) in trust for George Richards (d. 1805) of
Marylebone, who left it to his nephew the Revd.
Harry Welstead (d. 1819) of Stoneley Hall,
Kimbolton. (fn. 6) It passed to Harry's mother Ann
Welstead (d. 1827), to her younger son Charles
(d. 1850), and to Charles's executors Charles
Marion Welstead and Charles Holt in trust for
Mary Hayton, who in 1869 was granted administration of Harry's estate. The Welsteads' final
lease, which had been renewed in 1837, was
acquired by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in
1882.
The house reserved for Westminster, in 1649
first called College House, (fn. 7) was an extension of
the prebendal manor house which stood east of
the church (fn. 8) and which has tentatively been
identified with the vicarage house mentioned in
1297. (fn. 9) Possibly Gabriel Goodman's predecessors
had allowed Westminister to use the prebendal
house, since Abbot John Feckenham was at
Chiswick in 1558, when he employed workmen
there. (fn. 10) In 1570 Goodman stipulated that his
house be extended in order to accommodate the
prebendary, the master and usher of Westminster grammar school, and 40 children. (fn. 11)
Medieval stonework from the west part of the old
manor house, previously its kitchen quarters, was
used in Goodman's building, where by 1582 the
entire school apparently could be lodged during
an epidemic. (fn. 12) Scholars still retired to Chiswick
under Dr. Richard Busby, whose premises were
assessed at 24 hearths in 1664. (fn. 13) By 1705 the
school's building had been divided among poor
families (fn. 14) but soon afterwards was evidently
repaired, being occupied by the headmaster in
1725 and intermittently by his successors until
the time of William Markham, headmaster
1753-65, who used the prebendary's lodgings, (fn. 15)
as did the writer James Ralph, who died there in
1762. (fn. 16) A few pupils apparently also stayed at
Chiswick, since the dormitory was repaired in
1763. (fn. 17) Meanwhile the older manorial building to
the east had apparently been sublet c. 1650 and
later by Sir Stephen Fox. (fn. 18) It had fallen into
decay in 1710 and been replaced by a brick house,
which from 1770 was the childhood home of the
writer Mary Berry and her sister Agnes, later
friends of Horace Walpole. (fn. 19) In 1788 the chapter
of Westminster leased out its mansion house,
presumably the entire range of building, for 21
years to Martin Cole, a timber merchant, (fn. 20) who
in 1806 had sublet College House as a ladies'
school. (fn. 21) Charles Whittingham the elder moved
his Chiswick Press in 1818 from High House to
College House, (fn. 22) where the printing office
adjoined a two-storeyed dwelling house, with
domestic offices to the east. (fn. 23) After 1852 the
building was leased by the year and used as a
lecture hall until its demolition in 1875, when it
was replaced by the existing Suffolk House,
Staithe House, the Hollies, and Thames Bank. (fn. 24)
A copyhold house with 2 a. of garden was sold
in 1663 by Henry Broad, (fn. 25) a Chiswick resident in
1654, (fn. 26) to Sir Stephen Fox, who between 1682
and 1684 replaced it with a house designed by
Hugh May, Comptroller of the King's works, (fn. 27)
before erecting another seat on land acquired in
1691. (fn. 28) Fox's lease of the Prebend manor from
1684 probably explains why his house of 1682-4
has sometimes wrongly been called the manor
house (fn. 29) and why the second, with which it has
been confused, came to be named Manor Farm
House. (fn. 30)
Fox's first house was assessed at 18 hearths in
1664 (fn. 31) and, after rebuilding, was partly shown on
Knyff's view of Lord Burlington's seat. (fn. 32) Evelyn
in 1682 thought that its cramped garden did not
justify the expense of its layout, (fn. 33) although it was
presumably that house, rather than Fox's later
one, whose garden won praise in 1691. (fn. 34) It was
sold by Fox's executors to Mary, dowager
countess of Northampton (d. 1719), whose son
George Compton, earl of Northampton (d. 1727)
had married Fox's youngest daughter Jane.
Mary's heir, according to manorial custom, was
her youngest son Spencer Compton (d. 1743), (fn. 35)
later earl of Wilmington and First Lord of the
Treasury. (fn. 36) Lord Wilmington, who also acquired
Turret House in 1722 from the Wardour family, (fn. 37)
was succeeded by his nephew James Compton,
earl of Northampton (d. 1754), (fn. 38) whose daughter
and heir was Charlotte, suo jure Baroness Ferrers
(d. 1770), wife of George Townshend, later
Marquess Townshend (d. 1807). (fn. 39) Charlotte and
her husband in 1758 surrendered most of Lord
Wilmington's property to Sir John Heathcote,
bt., of Normanton (Rutland) (d. 1759), (fn. 40) whose
youngest son John surrendered it to the Hon.
James Douglas in 1780. Perhaps the Douglases
already lived there, since the house was sometimes called Morton House: (fn. 41) James Douglas,
earl of Morton, had died at Chiswick in 1768 (fn. 42)
and the countess of Morton paid rates in 1774-5. (fn. 43)
Douglas conveyed the mansion with 7 a. of
garden to Robert Stevenson in 1783 (fn. 44) and the site
of Turret House to William Cock, a market
gardener, in 1791. Stevenson conveyed his house
in 1807 to Lady Mary Coke, (fn. 45) who died there
in 1811. (fn. 46) Meanwhile some land retained
by Lady Ferrers, including a little in Sutton
Court manor, had passed to her younger son
Charles Townshend (d. 1796) and then to his
brother Frederick. (fn. 47) The entire property passed
to the dukes of Devonshire by purchases from
Lady Mary Coke's executors, from William
Cock's son William in 1814, and from Frederick
Townshend's nephews George, Marquess
Townshend, and the Revd. George Osborne
Townshend, in 1838. (fn. 48) The mansion, of seven
bays with a central pediment in Stevenson's
time, (fn. 49) was demolished in 1812 and replaced by
the existing great conservatory of Chiswick
House. (fn. 50)
Manor Farm House, (fn. 51) itself sometimes called
Manor House in the 19th century, was built
by Fox on the west side of Chiswick Lane.
The house was probably the house admired by
William III, where the new style of architecture
was extolled by Bowack and where Fox's sons
Stephen, later earl of Ilchester (1704-76), (fn. 52) and
Henry, later Lord Holland (1705-74), (fn. 53) were
born. Eighteenth-century lessees of the Prebend
manor apparently sublet the house, which c.
1786-1810 was a school under the Revd. Thomas
Horne (fn. 54) and by 1849 an asylum under Dr.
Thomas Harrington Tuke. (fn. 55) The building was
two-storeyed and of red brick with stone dressings, with dormers in a high slate roof; the main
garden front had nine bays c. 1850, when there
was also an extension. Panelling was bought by
the art-dealer Joseph Duveen in 1896, when the
asylum moved to Chiswick House under Dr.
Thomas Seymour Tuke (fn. 56) and Manor Farm
House made way for Balfern Grove and neighbouring roads.