Documents relating to the manor of Leigh in Iden and Beckley

These documents were found among the records of Elwell and Co of Highworth near Swindon, solicitors, which were deposited at the Wiltshire Record Office (ACC 1033) in the 1950s; there is no further provenance.

For a descent of the manor, see Iden Tenement Analysis, P27/7, 37, 45 and 47; the particular (AMS6506/1) shows that a house was present on one of the holdings, probably Twisland (P27/37), which had disappeared by 1638.

Although undated, the particular can be dated to shortly after October 1617: 25 March 1617 is descibed as last past and 25 March 1618 as next ensuing in a lease of 21 October 1617.

At the date of the particular the manor of Leigh was owned by Thomas Peniston, bt, of Cornwell in Oxfordshire, who sold it to Richard Sackville, earl of Dorset, on 29 November 1617; the document should probably be seen as a draft prepared in connection with the sale (ASH L 1571). Demesne rents for the manors of Leigh, Rockland and Wartling are entered into the receiver's account for 1618-19; those for Leigh correspond with the information in the particular, except that the land formerly held by Moses Maudsley had been let to Simon Cooper. The rents are entered as received but the entries themselves deleted, suggesting that the sale to Elizabeth, widow of Sir William Craven (lord mayor of London 1610-1611), took place late in 1619 or in 1620 (ADA 45, p90). Leigh is to be found in Elizabeth Craven's hands in January 1621 (ASH L 1570).

The estate passed to William Craven, Lord Craven, on the death of his younger brother Thomas in 1637 and seems to have been sold immediately. Sir Thomas and Sir John Culpepper, from whom the purchase-money was received (2 below), do not feature in the descent of the property which by 1638 was in the hands of Sir George Whitmore, a former lord mayor of London (for whom see DNB). It is possible that they were acting as his agents.

Elwell and Co absorbed the firm of Crowdy and Rose of Faringdon in Berkshire, who may have acted for either the Penistons or for the Craven family of Hampsted Marshall in Berkshire. If the receipt can be seen as a duplicate, then the Cravens seem more likely clients.

Documents given 24 April 1999 (ACC 7888)