The Manor of Barton

At the time of the Domesday in 1086 the manor was assessed at eleven hides worth ten pounds. The overlordship was vested in the Crown and remained so until the Dissolution of the Monasteries; when the manor was taken in hand by the King and annexed to the manor of Ampthill in 1542.

The manor formerly belonged to the monks of Ramsey; it was given to the Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire in 1044 by Eadnoth, Bishop of Dorchester. The grant was confirmed by Edward the Confessor in 1066, by William the Conqueror in 1078, by Pope Alexander III in 1178 and by Edward III in 1334. During the 13th century the manor was enlarged by several grants and purchases. Abbot Hugh of Sulgrave granted the whole tenement purchased from Robert Peveril and around the same date John de Bazter released to the abbey fields in Barton called Bakeworthe and le Hacche. In 1278 8 2/3 acres of land were purchased by the abbey from Walter de la Haye and his wife Matilda and the same amount was bought the next year from Richard de Caddington and his wife Sibyl. Sibyl also granted to the abbey one-third of a messuage and a croft in Barton and 3 messuages. In 1354 Thomas Turford, a mason gave 50 acres of land. 

The value of the manor varied very little, at the close of the 13th century it was worth £23.8s ¼d. In the 14th century the manor was let for the discharge of the abbey’s debts. In 1336 it was leased out to Sir William de Hale, Robert de Caddington and Master Robert de Bergh, rector of Houghton.

Ramsey Abbey continued to hold the manor until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it became Crown property. It was then leased for short terms to various people. In 1550, Princess Elizabeth was Lady of the Manor and it was kept in her hands until 1578, when it was then granted to William Worthington for 21 years. In 1602 the manor reverted to the Crown. In 1612 Thomas, Viscount Fenton, surrendered the office of Steward of the Manor, which was then conferred by James I upon Lord Bruce. In 1628 a grant of the manor was made to Edward Ditchfield and others as trustees for the City of London, who probably sold it to Richard Norton, who was lord of the manor in 1634.

The family of Norton retained the manor for many years, and in 1709 it was in the possession of Richard, son of Richard Norton, who alienated it to John Roberts of North Mimms. The latter sold it to Robert Jenkin of Harpenden, who in 1735 transferred his right to Edward Willes, Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose son, Mr. Edward Willes, afterwards the Reverend Edward Willes, was holding the manor in 1805. The Reverend Edward Willes owned the manorial rights during the last half of the nineteenth century,  and at his death the Lordship of the manor was vested in his trustees, in whose hands it still apparently remains.

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives 

• AD3740: Copy of Court-Roll manor of Barton in the Clay, 1588
• F686: Barton: Feoffment. £170, 1636
• HA6: Manor of Barton in the Clay
• Z937/6/1: Manor of Barton - copy of mortgage on copyhold land, 1717
• Z937/6/2: Obligation of Tymothy Pryor to Thomas Field for 324 on manorial land in Barton, 1720
• Z937/6/3: Brief note showing rents on John Field's manorial land in Barton, 1750
• Z937/8/4: At the Court Baron of the Manor of Barton, 1766
• PM2178-2183: Receipts for Quit rents for manor of Barton, 1772-1778
• X149: Manor of Barton in the Clay
• Z402/11/4: Notes on Barton as a Manor of Ramsey Abbey, 1981