LUFFIELD ABBEY
Luffield covers 216 acres, two-thirds of which are
devoted to pasture and one-third to arable land. (fn. 1)
The soil is clay and gravel and the subsoil various.
Luffield was formerly extra-parochial, (fn. 2) and considered
partly in Buckinghamshire, where it was assessed
under Stowe (fn. 3) (whose boundaries do not, however,
touch it at any point), and partly in Silverstone in
Northamptonshire, where the monastic church
formerly stood. (fn. 4) In 1831 its area was given as
450 acres, of which 60 lay in Northamptonshire. (fn. 5)
In 1881 it was still reckoned as extra-parochial, (fn. 6)
but is now rated as a parish extending into both
counties. It is still reputed to be extra-parochial for
ecclesiastical purposes. The parish consists of a single
farm, of which the house occupied in 1831 by the
whole population, a family of ten persons, (fn. 7) is situated
to the north-east, on the site of the old priory. No
traces now remain of the former conventual buildings,
and even Willis, who visited Luffield on 11 October
1732, found only a piece of the old tower of the
church, from which he deduced the supposed
dimensions of the church, 80 ft. in length and 30 ft.
in breadth. (fn. 8)
Manor
The history of the Benedictine priory
of LUFFIELD down to its acquisition by
Westminster Abbey has already been
traced elsewhere. (fn. 9) The grant of Luffield Priory,
manor and advowson to the abbey was confirmed in
1503, (fn. 10) and the abbot appears to have leased the
estate almost immediately to Sir Richard Empson for
forty years. (fn. 11) On his attainder a lease for thirty-four
years was granted to William Tyler in 1512, with the
site and demesne of the priory and lands in Luffield,
the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr in Lillingstone
Dayrell and the chapel of St. Nicholas in Evershaw,
Biddlesden. (fn. 12) At the Dissolution Luffield became
Crown property, and as such was attached to the
honour of Grafton formed in 1542. (fn. 13) In 1551
the manor and site were granted to Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton, (fn. 14) whose second son Arthur
Throckmorton (fn. 15) settled the estate by fine in 1580, (fn. 16)
and again in 1582, (fn. 17) 1596, (fn. 18) and 1614. (fn. 19) Sir Arthur,
who died in 1626, had four daughters, of whom the
second, Ann, married Sir Peter Temple of Stowe. (fn. 20)
She had died in January 1619–20, leaving a daughter
and heir Ann, who, after the death of her father in
1653, (fn. 21) Made a settlement of Luffield with her
husband Thomas Roper, Viscount Baltinglass. (fn. 22) They
were sued for debt in 1658 by Clement Throckmorton and others, who complained that a secret
conveyance of Luffield prevented the recovery of the
money, and were confined in the Fleet Prison, (fn. 23) where
Ann died in 1696. (fn. 24) A quarrel arose over her
inheritance, which included Thornborough (q.v.),
between William Temple, of Lillingstone Dayrell,
her first cousin once removed on her father's side, (fn. 25)
and Thomas Lennard, Lord Dacre and Earl of Sussex,
her first cousin once removed on her mother's side, (fn. 26)
the grandson of Sir Arthur Throckmorton's third
daughter Elizabeth. (fn. 27) In the final division of the
property in 1701 Luffield was
allotted to William Temple. (fn. 28)
His son and heir William
Temple, who inherited the
manor in 1706, (fn. 29) gave up his
rights in it in 1718 to his
cousin Sir Richard Temple,
bart., of Stowe, Lord Cobham
of Cobham, whom he afterwards succeeded in the baronetcy. (fn. 30) It descended with
Stowe (q.v.), to which it was
still attached in the mid19th century (fn. 31) ; but the
manorial rights are now vested
in Sir Edmund Giles Loder,
bart., of Leonardslee, Horsham, Sussex, the sole
landowner.
Loder. Azure a fesse between two scallops or with three harts heads caboshed proper upon the fesse.
In 1230 the prior and monks received a grant of
a yearly fair on the feast of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross, (fn. 32) of which no mention has been found
after 1330. (fn. 33)
There do not appear to be any endowed charities
subsisting in this parish.