Stotfold Brayes Manor

Information taken from Victoria County History, Vol. II, 1908.

At the time of the Domesday Survey the large and important manor of Stotfold Brayes, then assessed at 15 hides, was held by Hugh de Beauchamp of the king in chief, and had formerly been held by Anschil, a thegn of King Edward. It contained four mills and was worth £25. This manor continued to belong to the Beauchamps as part of the barony of Bedford until it passed by the marriage of Maud, daughter and one of the co-heiresses of William Beauchamp, into the hands of Roger de Moubray, who died in 1266. Their son Roger succeeded them and was followed by a son John. He married Aliva, daughter of William de Braose, and settled Stotfold manor on the latter for life. John de Moubray joined the insurrection of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster in 1321, and being made prisoner at the battle of Boroughbridge he was hanged at York soon after. In the same year a grant was made to Hugh le Despenser the younger and Eleanor his wife of the 'manor of Stotfold which William de Braose held for life and John de Moubray forfeited. Hugh le Despenser held the manor until his attainder in 1326, when his estates escheated to the Crown. The manor in 1327 reverted to John de Moubray, son of the above John, hanged at York, all the lands held by his father being granted to him 'in consideration of the ser- But argent. vices of his ancestors to the king's progenitors, and of the services that the king believes he will render to him in the future.' John de Moubray held Stotfold manor till his death in 1361, at which time it was worth £20 per annum. He was succeeded by his son John, who died in 1368,  but his wife Elizabeth retained the manor for her lifetime. In 1377 her son John de Moubray—subsequently created Earl of Nottingham—who was underage, succeeded her.  He died underage in 1383, and his brother Thomas, who acquired the further dignity of Duke of Norfolk, succeeded to the manor, and his wife Elizabeth, who outlived him, held it till her death in 1425. Her grandson John de Moubray, who died in 1461, followed her in the tenure of Stotfold manor, and his widow Eleanor was allowed in 1470 a yearly rent of £6.6s. from the manor. In 1475–6 John de Moubray their son died without male issue, and his daughter Anne married in 1477 at the age of five the younger son of Edward IV, Richard Duke of York, who in contemplation of such a marriage obtained a grant of the dignities and estates of his wife's father. 

Rental of Stotfold Brayes Manor, 1540 [ref: HA511]

After the murder of the duke in the tower in 1483 the Earldom of Nottingham passed to William Viscount Berkeley, and the dukedom of Norfolk to John Howard, whose son Thomas was made Earl of Surrey on the same day that his father was raised to the dukedom. The manor of Stotfold was included in the Earl of Nottingham's moiety of the Moubray estates, but after his death in 1491 it passed to the Earl of Surrey (whose father had been slain at Bosworth, and his estates forfeited in 1485). By him it was alienated in 1491 to Sir Reginald Bray, Minister of State to Henry VII. The manor, however, did not long remain in this family, Sir Reginald was succeeded by a nephew Edmund Lord Bray, whose son John transferred the manor by fine in 1547 to Edward Butler. On his death in 1562 the latter was succeeded by his son George, who died in 1602 in possession of this manor, called for the first time Stotfold Brayes, leaving a son Beckenham Butler. He in 1610 sold the two manors of Stotfold Brayes and Stotfold Newnham for £5,044 to Thomas Angell, who in 1620 sold them to Mary Lady Welde. She died in 1624 and left as her heir her niece Anne, wife of William Litton of Knebworth, who on her death, before 1638, was followed by her son Roland Litton, who held the manor till his death in 1674.  William Litton his son died without issue in 1704, and left his estate by will to Litton Strode, grandson of his sister Judith. He died in 1710 leaving the property to his cousin William Robinson, who took the name of Litton. John Robinson Litton, his son, was in possession of the manor in 1747, and died in 1762 leaving a nephew Richard Warburton as heir. In 1795 the two manors of Stotfold Brayes and Stotfold Newnham were purchased by John Williamson, whose daughter Sara married the Rev. William Alington, who died in 1849, and whose grandson Julius Alington (son of John Alington) is at the present-day lord of the manor.

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives: 

• HA500-503:Court rolls, 1509-1540
• HA511: Rental, 1540
• X95/411/1: Feoffment, 1617
• X95/411/122: Transfer of mortgage, 1840