Henlow Warden Manor

The origins of the manor of Henlow Warden are obscure, but is it possible that it was land which Azelina, wife of Ralph Taillebois, claimed in Henlow at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086. Hugh de Beauchamp, baron of Bedford, made a counterclaim which was probably successful. The Beauchamps were important benefactors of Warden Abbey, and it seems likely that they gifted the land to the Abbey, which held two carucates in Henlow in the 13th century. The manor was then held by Warden until the Abbey was dissolved in 1537. At the time of the Dissolution the value of this property, together with land in Astwick, was assessed at £16 13s 10d.

In 1544 Henlow Warden was granted by King Henry VIII to William Sewster, who sold it to John Raven from whom the manor passed to his son and grandson, both also called John. In 1641 a house known as Graies Bury was held by John Raven as a ‘capital messuage’ (the chief house of the manor, or manor house).

Sometime after 1654 Henlow Warden passed by inheritance to the Edwards family, and in 1670 it was held by George Edwards. He was succeeded by his son George in 1712, who was followed in turn by his own son, also George. In 1739 George Edwards bought 2/3rds of the manor of Henlow Lanthony, and by 1775 he owned the whole of that manor alongside Henlow Warden.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the third George, continued to hold the manor after her husband’s death in 1781. Their son, yet another George, died in 1807 and the manor was inherited by his sister Frances’s son, George Nigel Raynsford, who took the name Edwards. In 1849 the manor was held by Thomas Alexander Raynsford, and in 1855 by General Raynsford. By 1869 Henlow Warden had passed to Rev. Henry Addington, the husband of the eldest daughter of Thomas Alexander Raynsford. Their son Thomas Alexander Addington went bankrupt and the manor came into the hands of the Alliance Bank, who sold it to Edward Hammond Thompson in 1889, who in turn sold it to George Gribble in 1896.

Bedfordshire Archives holds a number of manorial records relating to Henlow Warden, including court books from 1712 to 1845. Ministers accounts from 1537 to 1547 are held by the National Archives. A full list of records known to survive for Henlow Warden can be found on the Manorial Documents Register available through the online catalogue of the National Archives.