MANORS.
In 957 King Edwy is said to have
granted 9 hides at Lotheresleage and Tunworth to
his thegn Lyfing. (fn. 13) Tunworth was in Kingsbury but
the other estate was probably the 6 measures of
land (mansas) in Hendon said to have been granted
in 959 by King Edgar and Dunstan, as bishop of
London, to the abbey of Westminster. (fn. 14) The estate
seems to have consisted of that part of the parish
which lay north and west of a line from Burnt Oak
to Highwood Hill. (fn. 15) The grant of 959 also mentioned
land called Blechenham, which lay south of the
river Brent. (fn. 16) According to a charter of St. Dunstan,
said to date from 963-75, (fn. 17) the archbishop purchased
a total of 20 hides in Hendon for the abbey. A
forged charter, claiming to originate from Edward
the Confessor in 1066, confirmed grants of land in
Hendon to Westminster by earlier kings; (fn. 18) Blechenham and Lotheresleage were mentioned, with another
district of unknown location called Codenhlaewe.
None of the names was recorded in Domesday,
when the manor of HENDON, held by the abbot,
was assessed at 20 hides, 10 of which were in
demesne. (fn. 19)
A late-11th-century grant of the manor in fee
farm by Abbot Gilbert Crispin to Gunter and his
heir (fn. 20) was confirmed c. 1136, after the succession of
Gunter's son Gilbert. (fn. 21) In 1224 Abbot Richard of
Barking, attempting to recover the lands alienated by
his predecessors, was involved in a law-suit with
Gilbert of Hendon, the tenant of the manor and
possibly a descendant of the earlier Gilbert, concerning a house and 3 carucates in Hendon. (fn. 22) In
1226 the land was granted to Gilbert for life (fn. 23) and
the abbot was to receive rent and free hospitality at
Hendon for two days and a part of a third every year.
Gilbert had an interest in the manor in 1228 (fn. 24) but by
1268 it had passed into the hands of Geoffrey le
Rous. (fn. 25) In 1312 the abbot took the manor into his
own hands, granting Richard le Rous the manor of
Hodford and £100 in exchange. (fn. 26) Thereafter
Hendon manor was retained by the abbey until the
Dissolution, although it was leased in 1422 (fn. 27) and
1505. (fn. 28)
In 1541 the king granted the manor to Thomas
Thirlby, bishop of Westminster. (fn. 29) With the suppression of the bishopric it reverted to the Crown
but was granted in 1550 first to Thomas, Lord
Wentworth, (fn. 30) and afterwards to Sir William
Herbert, (fn. 31) created earl of Pembroke in 1551. (fn. 32)
Pembroke settled it in 1569 on his second son Sir
Edward (d. 1595), (fn. 33) from whom it passed to
Edward's eldest son William Herbert (d. 1656),
created Lord Powis in 1629. (fn. 34) The manor, settled on
Powis's eldest son Percy, (fn. 35) a recusant and royalist, (fn. 36)
was sequestrated in 1650 and conveyed by Parliamentary trustees to Charles Whitmore of Balmes House,
Shoreditch, two years later; (fn. 37) in 1654 Rhys Vaughan
was holding manorial courts. (fn. 38) Percy Herbert, Lord
Powis, regained possession at the Restoration and
died in 1667. (fn. 39) His son William, who succeeded
him, was made earl of Powis in 1674 and marquess
of Powis in 1687, but fled the country in 1688 and
forfeited his estates in the following year. (fn. 40) From
1690 until 1692 courts were held in the name of his
brother-in-law Henry Somerset, duke of Beaufort,
and others. (fn. 41) In 1692 and again in 1694 William
Herbert, Viscount Montgomery, eldest son of Lord
Powis, vainly petitioned to be admitted to the
manor on the grounds that it had been settled on
him. (fn. 42) Hendon was granted in 1696 to William
Zuylestein, earl of Rochford, to be held at a small
rent, (fn. 43) but the grant did not take effect because of a
settlement on the marchioness of Powis before her
husband's attainder. (fn. 44) The exiled marquess, who
received a dukedom from James II, was succeeded
in 1696 by his eldest son, who was outlawed in that
year but for whom courts were being held in 1698. (fn. 45)
Lord Powis was committed to the Tower from 1715
until 1722, when his marquessate was restored, (fn. 46)
and mortgaged the manor in 1721. (fn. 47) As the result of
a further mortgage, (fn. 48) to Guy's hospital, Southwark,
courts were held for the hospital from 1727, (fn. 49)
although by 1733 they were again being held in the
name of Lord Powis. (fn. 50) He died, still in debt, in
1745, having vested the manor in trustees; (fn. 51) in 1747
it was in the hands of John Hitchings. (fn. 52) Lord
Powis's only son William died unmarried in 1748,
devising his estates to a distant relative Henry
Arthur Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who
was then created earl of Powis. (fn. 53)
In 1754 the earl was empowered to sell the manor
and estate (fn. 54) and in 1757 the lordship was purchased
by James Clutterbuck, (fn. 55) who conveyed it in 1765 to
his friend David Garrick, the actor. (fn. 56) Garrick died
in 1779, leaving the manor in trust for his nephew
Carrington Garrick, (fn. 57) later vicar of Hendon, on
whose death in 1787 it was again put up for sale. (fn. 58)
It was in the hands of Charles Pratt, Earl Camden,
and Albany Wallis in 1790 (fn. 59) and was purchased later
in that year by John Bond, (fn. 60) who died in 1801.
Bond's executors (fn. 61) unsuccessfully attempted to sell
the manor in 1802, (fn. 62) after which it passed into the
hands of his mortgagee, Richard Lowndes, who held
it under a direction of the Court of Chancery in
1816. (fn. 63) It was finally sold in 1825 to Samuel Dendy,
who was succeeded in 1845 by his son Arthur Hyde
Dendy. In 1889 it was held by Arthur Dendy's
widow, Eliza, (fn. 64) on whose death it was conveyed to
Sir John Carteret Hyde Seale, Bt., Mrs. Russell
Simpson, and Major H. Dendy, who were joint
lords in 1923. (fn. 65)
In 1754 the manor was conterminous with the
parish (fn. 66) and two years later the demesne lands
totalled 1,226 a., (fn. 67) in two large blocks. (fn. 68) They were
divided at auction in that year and several new
estates were thereby formed. (fn. 69)
The abbots of Westminster also held the rectory
estate, which was managed separately. The rectory
was valued at £20 in 1291 (fn. 70) and was leased to John
Lamb, the farmer of Frith manor, in 1487. (fn. 71) It was
worth £34 6s. 8d. in 1535, when it included lands
near Silk stream and Colin Deep Lane and between
Parson Street and Dollis brook, together with a
park of 21 a. (fn. 72) At the Dissolution it passed to the
Herbert family but by c. 1640 it was in the hands of
the Crown and called the manor of HENDON
PLACE. (fn. 73) It was then a compact block of lands
bordered by Parson Street, Finchley Lane, and
Dollis brook, together with some fields in Finchley,
and contained 132 a. William Nicholl died seised of
the property in 1645, by which date it had ceased to
be called a manor, (fn. 74) and Paul Nicholl was in
possession in 1664. (fn. 75) In 1721 it was conveyed, with
the house called Hendon Place, to John Edwards, a
London merchant. (fn. 76) He devised it to his daughter
Susanna, wife of William Sneyd of Bishton (Staffs.),
who conveyed it in 1730 to Thomas Snow, a
London goldsmith (fn. 77) later resident at Littleberries.
In 1808 George Snow of Langton (Dors.) sold the
estate to James Ware, who conveyed it in 1811 to
John Carbonell, from whom it was bought in 1824
by the Lord Chief Justice Sir Charles Abbott, (fn. 78)
later Lord Tenterden of Hendon (d. 1832). (fn. 79) The
Hendon Place estate, 75 a. in 1828, (fn. 80) was sold by
Lord Tenterden's son in 1862 (fn. 81) and afterwards
divided for building. (fn. 82) The rectorial tithes, retained
by the Herberts, were worth £200 in 1690 (fn. 83) and
£679 by 1755, the year before their sale to eleven
purchasers. (fn. 84)
The abbot of Westminster owned a house in
Hendon in 1285. (fn. 85) Soon after the manor came under
the direct management of the abbey, a new country
house was built in Parson Street; it was known at
first as the parsonage but was later called Hendon
Place. The house, which was finished in 1326, was
built by Westminster workmen (fn. 86) and in 1540 contained a chapel on the ground floor. (fn. 87) Cardinal
Wolsey stayed there on his way to the north of
England in 1530 (fn. 88) and Queen Elizabeth I was a
visitor in 1566, 1571, and 1576, when the Herberts
were in possession, and again in 1594, when Sir
John Fortescue was the tenant. (fn. 89) In 1593 the
building was called Hendon House and styled the
manor-house. (fn. 90) It was described as pleasantly
situated on a slope and large enough to entertain
the king c. 1640 (fn. 91) and had 23 hearths in 1664. (fn. 92) It
was leased by the Nicholls in the late 17th century
to the earl of Northampton, and then to John
Aislabie (1670-1742), Chancellor of the Exchequer, (fn. 93)
who spent large sums on both house and grounds
and on a bridge to connect them with Finchley.
Thomas Snow built a new Palladian mansion, (fn. 94)
pedimented and with wings; (fn. 95) by 1816, when the
house was unoccupied, a large ballroom had been
added. (fn. 96) Alterations were made by John Abbott,
Lord Tenterden of Hendon (d. 1870), in the 19th
century, when the house became known as Tenterden
Hall. (fn. 97) After serving as a school, it was demolished
in 1936. (fn. 98)
John Bond, lord of the manor after Garrick's
death, lived from 1792 to 1797 (fn. 99) in a house at
Golders Hill, which was known from 1796 as the
Manor House. (fn. 1) It seems to have been the building
occupied from 1753 to 1763 (fn. 2) by Jeremiah Dyson, (fn. 3)
although his house has sometimes erroneously been
identified as Golders Hill House, a later building on
the opposite side of North End Road. The Manor
House, an unpretentious stuccoed building, was
considerably enlarged in the late 18th century,
perhaps by John Bond, (fn. 4) but after its sale in 1797 to
Robert Ward, the occupier in 1833, (fn. 5) it ceased to be
the residence of a lord of the manor. It became the
administrative and residential quarters of the Manor
House hospital in 1917 and was demolished in
1962. (fn. 6)
The nucleus of the manor later known as
HODFORD and COWHOUSE was a house and a
carucate granted by Henry of Wymondley and
Mabel his wife to Nicholas de Lisle and his wife
Emme in 1278. (fn. 7) After Nicholas's death Emme conveyed the lands to Edward I, who in 1295 granted
them to the abbey of Westminster for the soul of
Queen Eleanor. (fn. 8) The estate was called the manor of
Hodford in 1296, when royal officers were ordered
not to take goods there belonging to the abbey. (fn. 9)
In 1312 the abbot and Richard le Rous exchanged
their respective manors of Hodford and Hendon,
Richard becoming lord of Hodford. (fn. 10) The manor
was held of Hendon manor and in 1321 a rent of 1d.
was paid for it. (fn. 11) Richard le Rous and his wife Maud
conveyed the manor in 1317 to Henry le Scrope, (fn. 12)
lawyer and adherent of Edward II. Henry was
already in possession of an estate at Blechenham,
which he held of Westminster in 1312 by a quit
rent, (fn. 13) and had acquired property from Thomas of
Blechenham in 1315. (fn. 14) His lands in the south of the
parish thereafter formed part of the Hodford
estate. Henry le Scrope died in 1336, (fn. 15) leaving the
manor to his wife Margaret, who later married
Hugh Mortimer and died in 1358. (fn. 16) It then passed
to her son Sir Richard le Scrope (?1327-1403), later
Lord Scrope of Bolton and Lord Chancellor. (fn. 17) In
1399 Scrope granted the manor, then called Hodford
and Cowhouse, to the king, (fn. 18) who immediately
regranted it to the abbey of Westminster. (fn. 19) In 1542
it was granted to the chapter of the new cathedral of
Westminster, (fn. 20) in 1556 to the restored monastery, (fn. 21)
and in 1560 to the newly-founded collegiate church
of St. Peter, Westminster, (fn. 22) whose chapter conveyed
the estate to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in
1855. (fn. 23) When the lord of Hendon was attempting to
assert rights over the estate in 1870, it was claimed
that its manorial status had lapsed after the Civil
War. (fn. 24) The Church Commissioners sold the leaseholds of most of their houses in Hendon during the
1950s. (fn. 25)
The Hodford and Cowhouse estate consisted of a
compact block of lands stretching from the Hampstead border to a point north of Golders Green
Underground station and from Cricklewood to
Golders Hill. (fn. 26) Westminster leased it out at all
periods, although until the late 17th century it
remained in direct control of the woodlands called
Hodford wood and Beecham grove. (fn. 27) The estate
totalled 434 a. in 1855 (fn. 28) and was split into three
farms known in 1889 as Hodford (or Golders)
Green, Cowhouse (or Avenue), (fn. 29) and Westcroft
farms. There is no record of a manor-house,
although one was formerly thought to have stood on
or near the site of the 18th-century Golders Hill
House. (fn. 30) A chapel on the abbot of Westminster's
manor of Hodford existed in 1321, when services
were licensed by the bishop of London, but was not
subsequently recorded. (fn. 31)
The third medieval manor in Hendon owned by
Westminster was that of FRITH and NEWHALL.
It was first mentioned by name as a manor in
1500 (fn. 32) but the estate probably included lands in
Hendon granted to the abbey c. 1222-46 by Walter
del Frith and Ernald, son of Roger del Frith. (fn. 33)
Gilbert of Hendon made another grant to the abbey
c. 1226-8 of 2 crofts formerly held by Viel, stretching
from the lands of Ernald del Frith to the river
Brent. (fn. 34) A rent was paid to Westminster for Newhall
in 1374. (fn. 35) From 1500 until the Dissolution, the
manor of Frith and Newhall was farmed by John
Lamb. (fn. 36) It was granted in 1541 to the see of
Westminster (fn. 37) and, on its suppression, to Thomas
Thirlby, who became bishop of Norwich. (fn. 38) He
conveyed it to his brother Thomas, of East Dereham
(Norf.), who, on his death c. 1566 settled it on his
eldest son Henry. (fn. 39) Henry Thirlby sold it c. 1585 to
Richard Wickes of Hampstead, (fn. 40) by whom it was
conveyed in 1608 to William Peacock. (fn. 41) In 1613
Robert Smythe and others conveyed it to Francis
Townley (fn. 42) and in 1711 it was in the possession of
James Walker of Stratford-le-Bow. (fn. 43) It was held in
1737 by Thomas, son of James Walker, and Sir
John Lade, Bt., (fn. 44) to whom a share had been conveyed in 1719 by Barbara, widow of Michael Grigg
of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. (fn. 45) Sir John died in 1740,
leaving his estates to a great-nephew John Inskip,
who took the name Lade but was not created a
baronet until 1758. (fn. 46) He died in 1759 and was
succeeded by his son and namesake, (fn. 47) who, deeply
in debt, conveyed the estate to Sir Charles Blake
and others, (fn. 48) perhaps as trustees for T. G. Fentham,
who was owner in 1810. (fn. 49) Manorial rights soon
afterwards lapsed.
The lands of Frith and Newhall lay in the northwest of the parish adjoining the Finchley border,
bounded on one side by Dollis brook; they consisted
in 1754 of Dollis, Frith, and Partingdale farms,
containing 69 a., 153 a., and 54 a., respectively, and
of another 100 a. (fn. 50) The estate was split up after
1809; (fn. 51) in 1828 Partingdale farm was held by
R. Franks, Frith farm by Thomas Fentham, and
Dollis farm by Sir Charles Flower of Belmont,
Mill Hill. (fn. 52) In 1893 Frith Manor farm, as it was
then called, was in the hands of John Heal and
T. M. Merriman, who conveyed it to Frank Head. (fn. 53)
Frith Manor House, near the junction of Frith
Lane, Partingdale Lane, and Lullington Garth, was
built in 1790, (fn. 54) when the adjoining Frith farm-house
was converted into offices and servants' rooms. (fn. 55)
The manor-house, a stuccoed building with wings,
was said to contain a 16th-century stone fireplace
and linen-fold panelling brought from elsewhere. (fn. 56)
In 1889 it was occupied by Magwitch Davidson. (fn. 57)
It was sold in 1951 to Maj.-Gen. Robb and gutted
by fire in 1957. (fn. 58)
The nucleus of the manor of CLITTERHOUSE
was a house and one carucate held by John de
Langton in 1321 (fn. 59) and by his younger son Robert
in 1335. (fn. 60) Robert's son and namesake held it in
1361, when it was called the manor of Hendon, and
successfully defended his tenure against Ralph de
Langton, his uncle. (fn. 61) In 1371 Robert de Langton
conveyed it to Adam de Walton and his daughter
Joan, (fn. 62) who married Robert Derby of Liverpool.
The estate was conveyed to Joan and Robert in
1382 (fn. 63) and by them to Richard of Foxton, clerk,
and Walter Norman, chandler, (fn. 64) who in 1383
granted it to Hugh Winkburn and Isabel his wife. (fn. 65)
Isabel afterwards married Henry Lynch and granted
it in 1403 to John Winkburn, her son, Thomas
Ardynton, John Carter, and others. (fn. 66) John Winkburn
quitclaimed his interest to Ardynton and Carter in
1408, (fn. 67) the others already having done so, (fn. 68) and after
Ardynton's death in the same year John Carter
granted the estate to William Loveney and other
feoffees. (fn. 69) They granted it in 1428 to Robert
Warner, citizen of London, (fn. 70) who conveyed it in
1429 to Thomas Pynchon, Henry Frowyk, and
others, (fn. 71) from whom the manor was acquired in
1439 by St. Bartholomew's hospital. (fn. 72) The hospital's
property in Hendon was augmented in 1446 by two
near-by estates granted by Henry Frowyk and
William Cleeve, master of the king's works. (fn. 73) The
first, called Vynces, lay north of the Clitterhouse
estate and the second, Rockholts, lay south of the
road to Childs Hill. The manor was held of Westminster abbey (fn. 74) and was retained by St. Bartholomew's in 1547, when the hospital was vested in the
Corporation of London. (fn. 75) Manorial rights had
lapsed by 1771. (fn. 76) The estate, diminished by the
encroachments of the Midland Railway's Cricklewood carriage-sidings in 1868, (fn. 77) remained the
property of St. Bartholomew's hospital until 1921,
when it was sold to the War Department; (fn. 78) it was
later split up among private developers.
In 1584 the estate was managed as one farm,
called Clitterhouse, consisting of 118 a. of arable
and pasture and 80 a. of wood, in a compact block
in the south-west of the parish by Edgware Road
near Cricklewood. (fn. 79) It remained intact until the
mid 19th century. The farm-house, near the
modern Hendon football club grounds in Claremont
Road, was shown in 1715 (fn. 80) as a large timber-framed
building of two storeys, with three gables and a
jettied first storey. It occupied one side of a courtyard, on the other sides of which were weatherboarded barns of the standard Middlesex type, with
steeply pitched roofs, and stables. Alterations were
carried out after 1794 (fn. 81) and by 1838 another farmhouse had been built on the site. (fn. 82) The 19th-century
building had been converted into flats by 1974. (fn. 83)
The priory of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, owned
an estate at Hendon in the Middle Ages. Its later
name, the manor of RENTERS, may derive from a
house and a carucate held in 1309 by John of
Islington of Geoffrey le Renter and Joan, widow of
John le Renter. (fn. 84) Geoffrey le Renter held a freehold
estate of that size in 1321, along with Bourncroft, (fn. 85)
perhaps identifiable with Bone Croft, which in 1754
lay a short distance north of Renters farm-house. (fn. 86)
In 1359 the abbot of Westminster licensed Hugh
de la Mare, chaplain, to alienate to the convent of
St. Bartholomew a house and lands in Hendon,
together with property in Great Stanmore, to be
held of the abbot at a small annual rent. (fn. 87) The
priory's Hendon estate consisted c. 1538 of 15 fields,
crofts, and meadows, and some woodland, north of
the Clitterhouse estate. (fn. 88) The manor, called Renters
or Romers, was granted by the king in 1543, along
with the manor of Edgware Boys, to Sir John
Williams and Antony Stringer. (fn. 89) They in turn
granted it in 1548, together with a barn, 30 a. of
arable land, 40 a. of meadow, 60 a. of pasture, and
26 a. of wood, to Sir Roger Cholmley, the judge, (fn. 90)
who in 1565 left it to his servant and clerk Jasper
Cholmley. (fn. 91) In 1682 the manor was alienated by
William Cholmley of Teddington, Jasper's descendant, to Jerome Newbolt, great-grandfather of
J. M. Newbolt, prebendary of Winchester, who held
it in 1795. (fn. 92) Manorial rights had already been
extinguished and in 1796 Newbolt's estate, no longer
described as a manor, consisted of 12 fields. (fn. 93)
The estate was tenanted in 1795 by P. Rundell, a
London goldsmith, and after his death in 1827 by
his great-nephew Joseph Neeld, (fn. 94) a solicitor, who
had married the eldest daughter of John Bond (fn. 95) and
had bought houses and land in Brent Street and
Burroughs Lane from Joseph Crosse Crooke in
1809. (fn. 96) In 1874 Joseph's son Sir John Neeld, Bt.,
owned 668 a. in Middlesex (fn. 97) and by the beginning
of the 20th century he had acquired a large block of
land in Hendon stretching south from the Burroughs
to Park Road and including part of the old Renters
property. His land was developed for housing by
Sir Audley Dallas Neeld, Bt., grandson of Joseph
Neeld, who succeeded in 1900, and several of the
streets in the neighbourhood were named after
members of the family. (fn. 98) No trace remains of the
farm-house called Renters, which in 1828 occupied
a site near the point where Shire Hall Lane crossed
the Brent, (fn. 99) on the site of the present Brent Cross
road junction.