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Huntingfield or Huntingafielda
Soon after the conquest, Roger, lord of the manor of Huntingfield, assumed the
name of his lordship, and devised the same to William de Huntingfield, his son
and successor; founder of Mend-ham Priory, in King Stephen's reign, about the
year 1140, and who deceased in 1155.
Roger de Huntingfield, his son and heir, flourished in the reign of King Henry
II.; whose son William, was one of the Barons who signed Magna Charta, in the
17th of King John, 1215. He was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and an
accountant with Alberic de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and others, for the customs of
those counties.
In the 14th of King Henry III., Roger de Huntingfield, his son and heir,
purchased Huntingfield Hall, in Norfolk, of John de Lacy, Constable of Chester,
and Earl of Lincoln, and Margaret his wife, it being the inheritance of Saier de
Quincy, late Earl of Winchester. In the 19th of the said reign it was
represented to the King that Roger de Huntingfield had sent to his assistance,
in Gascoign, Andrew de Gayzi, his Knight, who had performed laudable service;
and the Sheriff of this county had an order, that the demand of 60 marks due
from him to the Crown, should be excused.
William de Huntingfield was his son and heir; and in the 7th of King Edward I.,
an agreement was made between this William de Huntingfield and John de Engaine,
and enrolled, that Roger, eldest son of William, should many Joan, the eldest
daughter of the said John. This William deceased about the 11th of the said
King.
Roger de Huntingfield, his son, succeeded. He was one of those Barons who sent
Pope Boniface word, that the Kingdom of Scotland was not of his fee; and that he
had no jurisdiction in temporal affairs over either of the Kingdoms: which was
subscribed in the Parliament held at Lincoln, in the 30th of King Edward I.
In the following year he held this manor of the King in capite, as of the honor
of Eye, by the service of one Knight's fee, and the fourth part of a Knight's
fee; and deceased about that period, leaving Joan, the daughter of John de
Engaine, his widow. William de Huntingfield, their son and heir, succeeded, and
deceased in the 7th of King Edward II., leaving Roger his son and heir, about
eight years of age. Sibilla, his relict, re-married to William do Latimer.
In the 13th of the same reign, Walter de Norwich, a Baron of the Exchequer, owed
£18 for the farm of the custody of the third
part of the manor of Huntingfield, in Suffolk, which Sibilla his widow held in
dower; after whose decease it was in the King's hands, by the minority of Roger,
son and heir of the said William and Sibilla de Huntingfield.
This Roger de Huntingfield married Cecilia, daughter of Walter de Norwich, and
deceased in the 11th of King Edward III., seized of the manors of Huntingfield,
Benges, and Harham; leaving William, his son and heir, aged 7 years. In the 30th
of that reign, he accompanied Edward the Black Prince into Gascoign, and had
letters of protection, dated the 30th of February.
Amongst the inquisitions, in the 50th of the same King, the jury find that
William Lord Huntingfield, long before his decease, was seized of certain
property here, and in divers other parishes; with the advowson of Huntingfield,
Cookley, and Pettistree, in Willford hundred: and by a fine levied in the 48th
of that reign, between William de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, querent, and the
feoffees of the said William Lord Huntingfield, defendants, this property became
settled on the said Earl for life; after the decease of the said William,
remainder to Thomas, William, and Edmund, sons of the said Earl; all of whom
died without issue.
Alice, widow of Sir John de Norwich, Knt., his kinswoman, was his next heir; but
did not inherit, in consequence of the above settlement, and the said property
passed to the three sisters of William Earl of Suffolk, upon his decease, in the
4th of King Richard II. It subsequently became the inheritance of the De la
Poles, Earls of Suffolk, and so continued until the attainder of Edmund De la
Pole, who was beheaded in 1513, the 5th of King Henry VIII., when his estates
became forfeited to the King.
This manor and estate was a grant from the Crown, to Henry, son of William
Carey, Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII., by Mary his wife, daughter of
Thomas Bullen, Earl of Wiltshire, and sister to Queen Anne Bullen; who, in the
1st of Queen Elizabeth, was created Baron Hunsdon, and sent to convey the
ensigns of the Order of the Garter to the King of France; and, upon Ids return,
was made Governor of Berwick upon Tweed.
From his near affinity to her Majesty, and other causes, he held several
honorable offices during her reign, and was made Knight of the Garter.
Huntingfield Hall, when in the possession of this nobleman, was honored with a
visit from the Queen, who is stated to have here enjoyed the pleasures of the
chase in a kind of rural Majesty, and to have shot a buck with her own hand,
from a favorite tree in the park, known by the name of "Queen Elizabeth's Oak."1
In 1596, George, eldest son of Henry Lord Hunsdon, succeeded his father in the
Barony, and was a Knight of the Garter. He died in 1603, and left issue, by
Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir John Spencer, of Althorp, an only daughter
and sole heir, Elizabeth, who married to Sir Thomas Berkeley, Knt. She died in
1635.
Sir Robert Coke, second son and heir of Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas, married Theophila, their daughter, and inherited the
Huntingfield estate, in right of such marriage.
Sir Robert deceased in 1653, without issue; when John Coke, Esq., of Holkham, in
Norfolk, 4th son of Sir Edward, succeeded to this inheritance; and it continued
in that family until Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, sold it to Sir Joshua
Vanneck, Bart.; whose descendant, the present Baron Huntingfield, is now
proprietor.
Ambrose Jermyn, Esq., Gentleman Pensioner to King Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
Queen, Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, deceased in 1575, and was buried in this
parish church. He married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of John Paston, Esq.;
Bridget, his other daughter and co-heir married Sir Edward Coke.
William, eldest son and heir of Robert Howard, of Howard's Place, in Brockdish,
Norfolk, Esq., died in 1566, seized of many lands in this parish, Bradfield,
Cratfield, and Ubbeston.
CHARITIES. The town estate consists of a house, four tenements, and
homestall, containing about two acres; and a cottage adjoining, all in this
parish, let to different tenants, at rents amounting to
£14, 15s. a year. Lands in the parishes of
Heveningham and Ubbeston, containing together about 6½A.,
rents £15 a year. These lands were purchased
in the 5th of King Charles I., and conveyed to trustees. A copyhold house, and
homestall of six acres, in Heveuingham, called "Abbott's Land," let at
£10 per annum. This property was given, or
purchased, about the year 1645. The rents of the town estate are applied in the
repair of the buildings thereon, and of the church, and the surplus is carried
to the general account of the parish. In the parish terrier is the following
entry: "In the said parish there is a small free school of four pounds a year,
given by Mr. Berry Snelling,2 deceased; which said
sum is given to the rector and churchwardens of the parish, for the use of
schooling poor children: which said money is paid by Lord Huntingfield, out of a
farm in his possession, tied for the payment of the money."
1. A description of this oak, from the pen of the Rev. Charles
Davy, rector of Onehouse, in Stow Hundred, written in the year 1782, and
inserted in the "East Anglian," for April 1814, Las recently been reprinted in
Mr. Wooderspoon's Historic Sites," p. 289.
2. It appears from the parish register, that "Bury, the son of
Mark Snelling, and Mary his wife, was buried the 6th day of March, 1725,"and
that "Bury Snelling, the son of John Snelling, was born 19th of November, 1656."
County
of Suffolk
Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page |
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