The Manor of Tempsford Drayton

Volume II of the Victoria County History of Bedfordshire was published in 1909 and gives the history of the manors in Tempsford. The Manor of Tempsford Drayton was established in the late thirteenth century when it was separated from Tempsford Manor following the death of Robert de Carun. It passed to Robert’s daughter Joanna and her husband Miles of Drayton and succeeded to their son Geoffrey in 1346.

Robert Scott possessed Drayton’s Manor in 1428 and it passed from him to his daughter Elizabeth and eventually to her daughter Margaret Sheffield. Margaret died in 1528 and in 1565 Thomas Sheffield alienated Drayton’s Manor to George Keynsham at the same time as Keynsham acquired Tempsford Manor.

Keynsham family arms

Now united, both manors stayed with the Keynshams until 1639 when fourteen year old Anne Keynsham inherited them both on the insanity of her father. She married Anthony Saint John and died in 1700. Some time later the manors passed to Henry Bendish and then in 1772 to Sir Gillies Payne.  In 1830 they were sold to William Stuart and his grandson, Lieutenant-Colonel Dugald Stuart, was still Lord of the Manor of Tempsford with Drayton when the Victoria County History was published in 1909. A succession of Law of Property Acts in the 1920s effectively abolished manors in all but name.