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Letheringham
Ledringaham, Crew or Trew
This lordship, it appears, was included amongst the 220 manors' granted, with
the honor of Eye, to Robert Malet, a Norman Baron, by William the Conqueror. The
family of Glanville were very soon after enfeoffed in the same, under the Lord
Malet; and the Boviles held under the Glanvilles, in the time of King Henry II.,
with whom they afterwards became allied by marriage.
They descended from Sir Philip de Bovile, who gave lands, in the reign of King
Henry I., to the Priory of Wykes, in Essex, and Paul de Bovile, who lived in the
following reign. In the year 1195, William de Glanville gave 100 marks to have
the custody of the heir of William de Bovile, until of age, with Ins lands, &c.
This heir was, most likely, the William de Bovile who married Isabel, daughter
and heiress of the sister and co-heiress of Jeffrey de Glanville, of Bacton, in
Norfolk; for in the 3rd of Edward II., William, son and heir of William de
Bovile, and Isabel his wife, was impleaded for the manor of Alderton, and the
church of Dallinghoo, in this county, by William de Huntingfield, who descended
from Emma, the other sister and co-heir, wife to John de Grey; being part of the
possessions of the said Jeffrey de Glanville.
In the 56th of King Henry III., a fine was levied between John be Bovile,
querent, and William de Bovile, deforcient, of the lordship of this
parish, with those of Alderton, Greeting, Dallinghoo, and Thorp, in this county;
whereby they became conveyed to William, for life; remainder to John, and his
heirs; remainder to the right heirs of William; which John was brother of
William. In the 5th of Edward I., John de Bovile held these lordships of the
honor of Eye.
In the 7th of King Edward II., William de Bovile (probably son of the above John
de Bovile) was lord; and in the 11th of the same reign, a settlement was made,
whereby the said William, and Joan his wife, were to be seized in a moiety of
their estate for life, remainder to Simon Fitz Richard, and Nicholaa his wife,
one of the daughters of the said William de Bovile.
In the 21st of the following reign, Richard Fitz Simon, son of the above Simon
Fitz Richard, and Nicholaa his wife, granted the lordship and advowson of
Letheringham, with the advowson of the Priory there, to Sir John de Ufford, in
trust, for the use of Margery. sole daughter and heiress of Sir John, son of Sir
William Bovile, and Joan his wife.
This Margery married first, to Sir John Carbonel, Knt., and secondly, to Thomas,
second son of Sir John Wingfield, Knt., of Wingfield Castle, and Elizabeth his
wife, the daughter and heir of John Honeypot, of Wingfield, Esq.; by which
marriage the said Thomas Wingfield, in her right, became seized of the lordship
of this parish, about the 36th of the same King, where his descendants of the
elder branch continued until the time of King William III.
This knightly family derived their name from Wingfield Castle, in this county,
of which they were lords, and became early divided into various branches,
furnishing the nation with men "wise in council and brave in war. "In the reign
of King Henry VIII., there were, it is said, eight or nine Knights, all
brothers, and two Knights of the Garter, of this house.
Richard, youngest son of Sir John Wingfield, K.B., of this parish, was a great
favorite with that Monarch, and had the chief command, under the Earl of Surry,
of the forces sent into France, in the 14th of his reign: for his services
performed in that kingdom he was made a Knight of the most noble order of the
Garter.
He was also Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster, Lord Deputy of Calais, and
one of the Privy Council to King Henry VIII.; was Ambassador to the Emperor
Maximilian, and was afterwards sent out in the same capacity to France, and
again in the like office of honor into Spain; where he died, in 1525, and was
buried at Toledo.
Sir John, the eldest son, succeeded his father here: he was High Sheriff of
Norfolk and Suffolk in the 1st of King Richard III., and served the same office
again the 8th of Henry VII. He married Anne, daughter of the Lord Audley, and
had issue Sir Anthony Wingfield, who for his bravery at the battle of Spurrs,
was knighted, and afterwards installed Knight of the Garter. He was also
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to King Henry VIII., and a member of his Privy
Council; and was appointed by that Monarch, one of the Council to his son, and
Executor of his last will, by which he bequeathed him a legacy of
£.200. His descendant, of the same name, was
created a Baronet in 1627, and resided at that period at Goodwin's, in the
parish of Hoo, from whence he soon after removed to E as ton.
William de Bovile gave the church and tithes of this parish, to St. Peter's, in
Ipswich; when a small Priory of Black canons was settled here, as a cell to that
Monastery. The time at which this took place has not been ascertained.
The tithes of the manors of Thorpe, in Hasketon, and Letheringham, in this
county; of Bawsey, Leziat, and Custhorp, in Norfolk; and the impropriation of
the churches of Charsfield, Hoo, Letheringham or Trew, and a portion of
Hasketon, belonged to this Priory. Its valuation in "Taxatio
Ecclesiastica,"1291, in 19 parishes, was £.4
6s. o¼d.
Previously to the dissolution there were 20 acres of arable land, 30 acres of
pasture, and 10 acres of meadow, attached to the site of the Priory, in the
occupation of the prior, valued at .6 13s. 4d. At the dissolution it was granted
to Sir Anthony Wingfield, and in 1553, re-granted to Elizabeth Naunton, his
third daughter: in the time of King James I., Sir Robert Naunton converted it
into a good mansion, and resided here.
William Naunton, the last possessor of that family, left this estate, after the
death of his wife, to his next heir; and it devolved upon William Leman, of
Beccles, Esq. The present possessor is Andrew Arcedeckne, Esq., of Glevering
Hall, in Hacheston.
The old mansion was pulled down, about 1770: there was a picture of St. Jerome,
and an original of King James I., of some value, the others very indifferent.
The church contained some noble monuments, but it has been suffered to go to
ruin, and the monuments are defaced and destroyed.
Weever has preserved some account of them, all of which, in his time, he says
"were fouly defaced;" and Mr. Gough, in his "Sepulchral Monuments," has
engravings of plates and monuments in this church: he observes that "mere
neglect and exposure to the weather, could not have reduced them to that state
of complete desolation in which they appeared in 1780."
In Nichols's "Leicestershire," are two engravings of figures in the conventual
church here; and in Cotman's "Sepulchral Brasses," is an etching of a brass
plate upon the tomb of Sir Anthony Wing-field, in this parish church. The late
Rev. William Clubbe had also collected together many fragments, from this
ancient church, its brasses, and monuments, and of these a pyramid was erected
in his vicaral garden at Brandeston, with appropriate inscriptions thereon, in
Latin and English.
ARMS. Glanville: argent; a chief indented, azure. Bovile:
quarterly; or and sable.
CHARITIES. Sir Robert Naunton erected in this parish an almshouse, of
brick, one story high, for the reception of his decayed servants; wherein were
apartments for five persons, but there being no endowment, it has long since
become ruinous and useless.
Mem. In 1618, Alice Caston, of Ipswich, widow of Leonard Caston, Gent.,
for the fulfilling of his intent and desire, gave by will an annuity of
£.12, issuing out of divers lands, &c., in
the manors of Letheringham, Hoo Godwin's, Westhall, and Sturmin's, in this
county; with another of ten marks, out of divers other lands, manors, and
tenements, in Saltisham, Sutton, Bawdsey, &c., late in the possession of the
Earl of Rochford, for the founding of one Fellowship, and one Scholarship, in
the College of Corpus Christi, in Cambridge; to which she ordered those of the
names of Caston, Clenche, Brownrigge, and Amfield, should be preferred.
County
of Suffolk
Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page |
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