Barony of Bedford

Volume Three of The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire, published in 1912 gives a summary history of each of the manors in Cardington. The main manor can be traced back to the holding recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as belonging to Hugh de Beauchamp, created Baron of Bedford by King William II (1087-1100). The manor remained in the Beauchamp family until 1265 when John de Beauchamp was killed at the Battle of Evesham fighting for Simon de Montfort against King Henry III (1216-1272). The manor, like the rest of John’s substantial possessions, including the Barony of Bedford, was then divided.

 
The Pateshull family coat of arms

A lesser part of the manor passed to Ida, daughter of John’s sister Ela de Beauchamp who married John de Steyngrave. Ida's manor descended to her daughter Isabel, wife of Sir Simon de Pateshull and later of Walter de Teye, who died in 1325. He was succeeded by Isabel’s son by her first marriage, John de Pateshull. His son William held the manor until his death in 1360 and left four sisters as co-heirs and it was Alice, wife of Sir Thomas Wake who inherited the property.

The Wake family coat of arms

The Wake family continued to own the manor until the death of Sir Thomas Wake, son of Alice and Thomas, in 1458. After this the manor no longer appears in the surviving historical record. It may have been sold at some point and absorbed into the larger Manor of Cardington.