Manor of Langford

Volume II of The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire, published in 1908, gives the histories of each of the three manors in the parish of Langford. 

Prior to the Domesday Survey the manor of Langford was held by Lewin, a thegn of Edward the Confessor. At the time of the Domesday Survey the manor of Langford was assessed at ten hides and was in the possession of Walter Fleming, founder of the Wahull family. This family continued to hold the manor in chief in an almost direct line of succession till the latter half of the 16th century. Simon, grandson of Walter the Fleming, was succeeded by a son Walter, who died without issue, and whose nephew Saer, son of his brother Simon, was Lord of Wahull at his death in 1250.  Walter, son of Saer, succeeded his father, and the succession of father and son was maintained unbroken from this time until the death of Nicholas de Wahull in 1367.

Nicholas de Wahull left two infant daughters, Elizabeth and Eleanor, to succeed him, who both died before 1377, and the manor therefore reverted to Nicholas de Wahull their great uncle. Again, for more than a century and a half the manor continued in the direct male line, until the death of Anthony Wahull, in 1541, when it passed to his daughter Agnes, who was 17 days old at the time of his death.  She married twice, first Richard Chetewood, and secondly Sir George Calverly, and on her death in 1576 her son Richard Chetewood succeeded her. He married Anne daughter of Sir Valentine Knightley, and by his alienation of the manor to Charles Nodes in 1628, it finally passed from the family in whose hands it had remained since the Conquest. The Nodes were still holding the manor in 1704, in which year George Nodes transferred it to John Draper, who in 1716 conveyed it to Thomas Browne, and from that date until the beginning of the nineteenth century its descent is the same as that of Etonbury manor in the parish of Arlesey. The present Lord of the Manor is Mr. Gurney.

Reference: William Page, A History of the County of Bedfordshire, Vol. II, Parishes: Langford (Victoria County History, 1908)

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives: 

• CRT130LAN/8: Notes relating to Langford Manor and Manor Farm House
• HA359-440: Langford and Langford Rectory Manor: Stewards papers, 1749-1823
• WJ200-216: Manor of Langford: Estate of John Pateman, 1706-1752
• WJ221-224: Whole Estate: Manor of Langford
• WJ225-236: Manor of Langford: Small properties
• X836: Estate records relating to the Manor of Langford, 1747-1978
• Z903/1: Deed to copyhold property in the Manor of Langford (1729-1932)