âfit for a lordâ. In manors where the land was seldom, if ever, in hand, the manor house might be no more than a farm with outbuildings, lived in by the steward or let off to another tenant. The manor courts, attended by copyholders, which performed many of the functions of the later vestry councils, were held as often as not in inns.
Later, after the upheavals of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, there was a tendency for land-holdings in London to become concentrated in the hands of a few great families. Cantelowes manor, consisting of about 210 acres on the east side of the town, was seized after the execution of Charles I and sold off to two London merchants; ten years later, after the Restoration, it was returned to the family who had held it just before the Commonwealth. From thence, by a route that is not clear, it passed about 1670 into the possession of the Jeffreys family, of Judge Jeffreys fame â the Judge is reputed to have owned a house in Kentish Town. In the following century a Jeffreys granddaughter married Charles Pratt, who was created Baron Camden in 1765 and Viscount Bayham and Earl of Camden in 1786. It was this first Earl of Camden who managed to get an Act through Parliament to enable him to lay the southern part of his estate out in building leases: hence Camden Town, and the streets in it which take their names from Camden family connections. There is a Jeffreys Street in Kentish Town, one of the oldest and most architecturally attractive of the area, and Brecknock (as in Road and Arms) was a Camden family seat.
In contrast, the St Pancras manor or manors became divided, as time went by, into several parcels. In the sixteenth century the Skinners Company Estate and what was to become the Foundling Hospital Estate became separated off in the south, in present day Bloomsbury, as did the Aldenham (Plattâs) Estate near the church on the west of the Fleet. After the Restoration, the Somers family acquired most of the rest of that area â whence Somers Town. The smaller section to the east of the Fleet, apparently known as the prebendal manor (as distinct from the lay manor) passed through several different tenancies in the late eighteenth century before being acquired by the Agar family, the notorious shantytown landlords who are commemorated in Agar Grove.
Tottenhall Manor, having been leased by St Paulâs to the Crown in the sixteenth century, was also seized on the establishment of the Commonwealth and sold to one Ralph Harrison. At the Restoration the manor reverted to the Crown, and from thence came into the possession of Isabella, Countess of Arlington, who left it to her son, Charles Fitzroy, one of Charles IIâs many progeny. It was still in the Fitzroy family in the late eighteenth century, when the current Charles Fitzroy became Lord Southampton. He had only a leasehold interest in the property, but, through the good offices of his uncle, the Duke of Grafton, then Prime Minister, he managed to have an Act put through Parliament converting his leasehold to a freehold to himself and his heirs for ever. The annual compensation paid to the then-prebendary and to the Church was trifling by comparison with the enormous value which the estate, as building land, acquired over the next two generations. A writer in the Morning Chronicle in 1837 (cited by Howitt) reckoned that, for an outlay of only £17,784 to date, the Southampton family had by then received at least a million and a half from this estate, and more was to follow. Such was the nature of the speculation in land to which the old manorial holdings finally lent themselves. West Kentish Town was part of the result, including the house which today proclaims its fields beneath.
Once manors and lords were a thing of the past in St Pancras, a folk memory of them lingered on, sentimentalised by Victorian notions of rustic Good Old Days. Until about the middle of the nineteenth century a timbered building of
Later, after the upheavals of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, there was a tendency for land-holdings in London to become concentrated in the hands of a few great families. Cantelowes manor, consisting of about 210 acres on the east side of the town, was seized after the execution of Charles I and sold off to two London merchants; ten years later, after the Restoration, it was returned to the family who had held it just before the Commonwealth. From thence, by a route that is not clear, it passed about 1670 into the possession of the Jeffreys family, of Judge Jeffreys fame â the Judge is reputed to have owned a house in Kentish Town. In the following century a Jeffreys granddaughter married Charles Pratt, who was created Baron Camden in 1765 and Viscount Bayham and Earl of Camden in 1786. It was this first Earl of Camden who managed to get an Act through Parliament to enable him to lay the southern part of his estate out in building leases: hence Camden Town, and the streets in it which take their names from Camden family connections. There is a Jeffreys Street in Kentish Town, one of the oldest and most architecturally attractive of the area, and Brecknock (as in Road and Arms) was a Camden family seat.
In contrast, the St Pancras manor or manors became divided, as time went by, into several parcels. In the sixteenth century the Skinners Company Estate and what was to become the Foundling Hospital Estate became separated off in the south, in present day Bloomsbury, as did the Aldenham (Plattâs) Estate near the church on the west of the Fleet. After the Restoration, the Somers family acquired most of the rest of that area â whence Somers Town. The smaller section to the east of the Fleet, apparently known as the prebendal manor (as distinct from the lay manor) passed through several different tenancies in the late eighteenth century before being acquired by the Agar family, the notorious shantytown landlords who are commemorated in Agar Grove.
Tottenhall Manor, having been leased by St Paulâs to the Crown in the sixteenth century, was also seized on the establishment of the Commonwealth and sold to one Ralph Harrison. At the Restoration the manor reverted to the Crown, and from thence came into the possession of Isabella, Countess of Arlington, who left it to her son, Charles Fitzroy, one of Charles IIâs many progeny. It was still in the Fitzroy family in the late eighteenth century, when the current Charles Fitzroy became Lord Southampton. He had only a leasehold interest in the property, but, through the good offices of his uncle, the Duke of Grafton, then Prime Minister, he managed to have an Act put through Parliament converting his leasehold to a freehold to himself and his heirs for ever. The annual compensation paid to the then-prebendary and to the Church was trifling by comparison with the enormous value which the estate, as building land, acquired over the next two generations. A writer in the Morning Chronicle in 1837 (cited by Howitt) reckoned that, for an outlay of only £17,784 to date, the Southampton family had by then received at least a million and a half from this estate, and more was to follow. Such was the nature of the speculation in land to which the old manorial holdings finally lent themselves. West Kentish Town was part of the result, including the house which today proclaims its fields beneath.
Once manors and lords were a thing of the past in St Pancras, a folk memory of them lingered on, sentimentalised by Victorian notions of rustic Good Old Days. Until about the middle of the nineteenth century a timbered building of
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