The Manor of Keysoe Grange

Volume III of The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire published in 1912 gives details of the manors in Keysoe. Keysoe Grange probably had its origins in land given by Simon de Beauchamp to Chicksands Priory in the reign of King John (1199-1216). Chicksands had been founded by de Beauchamp’s mother. Chicksands continued to hold the grange until the priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII (1509-1547) in 1538.

 
Arms of the Crawley family

In 1540 Henry granted the manor to Sir John Saint John of Bletsoe. The manor remained the property of the Saint Johns of Bletsoe until the first years of the 18th century when it passed to Edward, Baron Harley, later 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. In 1719 he alienated the manor to Jeremiah Sambrook. On his death a portion of the manor passed to the Crawley family of Stockwood, who held the manor into the 20th century. A succession of law of Property Acts in the 1920s effectively abolished manors in all but name.