Silwood Park Manorial Records; Part One; DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF THE COURTS OF THE MANOR...

The information relating to the courts has been given in the following order:

1. Name of the manor

2. Type of court

3. Date

4. Lord (or Lady) of manor

5. Steward

6. Language

7. Size

8. Notes on condition

9. General notes

Compiled by Alistair Moffat

Professor T. R. E. Southwood, the Director, transferred the court roll and other records to the College Archives in 1971.

Silwood Park, near Ascot, in Berkshire, is now the home of the Imperial College Field Station. It was purchased by the College in 1947.

Sunninghill has long been called a manor although it is properly only a parcel or member of the royal manor of Cookham. It was described as a separate manor in the conveyance of it by John Holm in 1362. In 1466 John Norris is stated to have died with 'the manor of Sunninghill in his possession'. In 1583 a deed records the transaction of 'all the manor of Sunninghill, with all its rights and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the Right Honorable Henreye Lord Norreys, together with all the freehold and copyhold rents' from Henrie Lane of Coworth to William Daye of Eton. From him it passed to his son Mathew, a man of much note who was five times mayor of Windsor, which office he held during the Commonwealth. The first court of which there is a record was held by him in 1616. Shortly after his death the manor was sold to John Aldridge, described variously as a farmer and a tanner, who first held a court there in 1677. He made a family settlement of the manor on his son John, a proctor in Doctors' Commons, on whose death in 1737, his widow appears as Lady of the Manor and she held a court in 1740. Their son John, an attorney at law who devised the manor in trust for his son George, a minor; under that will a court was held in 1752 by Henry Stevens and George Bellas. In 1764 they sold the estate to John Pitt, the Surveyor General of His Majesty's Woods and Forests, who held a court that year. In 1764 and 1781 Pitt purchased more lands from the Aldridge family. He held the manor for 20 years, and on his death the estate was sold to James Hartley in 1787, who in the following year, sold the estate to James Sibbald, a partner in the London banking firm of Marsh, Sibbald and Co. Having purchased several small properties, he abandoned the old mansion Eastmere with which manorial rights were enjoyed and transmitted. Under the direction of his architect Robert Mitchell he built a new house, the first Silwood.

During the period covered by this roll, 1616 - 1790, courts were held irregularly and no court was held between 1769 and 1789, although there are three memoranda attached to the record of the court of 1769 dealing with land deals in 1777 and 1782, when we can conjecture that the people concerned insisted on the business being properly recorded.

The business transacted is exclusively concerned with the transfer of land and the admission of tenants. During Mathew Day's tenure of the manor, extracts of accounts and rents paid are attached to four of the court records, although none of his successors appear to have recorded this information in this way; it is interesting to note that one of the extracts of accounts was kept in Latin.