Nicholas de Haversham, (I)

Name Nicholas de Haversham [90, Haversham pedigree, Vol IV, p. 187], 23G Grandfather Death ca 1255 General Of Haversham, Bucks. Father Hugh de Haversham Spouses 1 Emma de Bosco [90, Haversham pedigree, Vol IV, p. 187], 23G Grandmother General Heir of her bro. Arnold de Bosco, to Claybrook, Northants. Father William de Bosco Children Nicholas de (-ca1274) ________________________________ The tenants who held Haversham in the 12th century took their name from the place. Robert and Nicholas de Haversham are mentioned in 1174–7. (fn. 13) In 1190 Hugh de Haversham rendered account of 30 marks for an agreement concerning the wood of Haversham. (fn. 14) Hugh held Haversham as late as 1220. (fn. 15) His son Nicholas owed 100s. for relief for his father's fee here in 1221. (fn. 16) Nicholas de Haversham, who in 1232 was one of the collectors of the one-fortieth in the county, (fn. 17) held Haversham until his death about 1251, (fn. 18) when he was succeeded by a son of the same name. (fn. 19) This Nicholas died in 1274, leaving a daughter and heir Maud, who was then only six months old, (fn. 20) and a widow Joan, to whom dower was assigned in the manor. (fn. 21) In 1274, during Maud's minority, the bailiff of the king's escheator was accused of selling the timber and destroying a fish-pond there. (fn. 22) About this time the custody of the manor was granted to Queen Eleanor. (fn. 23) Maud daughter of Nicholas married as her first husband James de la Plaunche, who was seised of the manor in the right of his wife until his death about 1306. (fn. 24) He left two sons: John, the elder, (fn. 25) who seems to have died young, and William, who afterwards held the manor. (fn. 26) His widow married John de Olney (fn. 27) before 1309, (fn. 28) and in 1324 a settlement was made by which Haversham was to pass after Maud's death to William de la Plaunche and Joan his wife and their issue, with contingent remainders to John son of John de Olney and Maud de Haversham and his issue, to John and James sons of John de Pabenham, the husband of Joan de la Plaunche, daughter of James and Maud, and their issue successively. (fn. 29) Maud outlived her second husband, (fn. 30) and died about 1329, when William de la Plaunche inherited. (fn. 31) He married a second wife, Hawise, and died about 1335, leaving a son William, then aged nearly ten. (fn. 32) Roger Hillary and John Leghe were guardians in 1346. (fn. 33) In 1347 William died, leaving two daughters Katherine and Joan, aged four and two, while a third, Elizabeth, was born after his death. (fn. 34) By 1356 Joan was dead, Katherine had married William de Birmingham, and Elizabeth five years later was the wife of John son of Fulk de Birmingham. (fn. 35) Katherine seems to have died without issue sometime after 1372, when a second inquisition was held as to her father's property, (fn. 36) and Elizabeth was seised of the whole by 1389, when she was the wife of John Lord Clinton. (fn. 37) She afterwards married Sir John Russell, kt., (fn. 38) and various settlements of the manor were made, it being at this period invariably in the hands of trustees, and known as PLANCHES or PLANKUS MANOR. (fn. 39) She left no issue at her death in 1423, her heir being William Lucy, the son of Alice, daughter of Margery, daughter of James son of Joan de Pabenham. (fn. 40) The manor, however, was claimed under the terms of the settlement of 1324 by Walter de Strickland and Isabel his wife, who was the daughter and heir of John de Olney, son of William, son of John, son of John de Olney and Maud de Haversham. (fn. 41) Their claim was upheld, and the manor was quitclaimed to them in 1429 by the trustees of Elizabeth Russell, with reversion, failing Isabel's issue, to Alice Lucy and her issue. (fn. 42) Isabel died in 1445. (fn. 43) Her son and heir Richard Strickland was a minor, and the manor was again in the hands of trustees. (fn. 44) He attained his majority, however, before his death in 1458. (fn. 45) Since he left no issue Haversham passed, under the terms of the fine of 1429, to William Lucy, (fn. 46) as it was found by inquisition that Alice mother of William Lucy had died in 1430. (fn. 47) William died in 1466, and his son William, who succeeded him, (fn. 48) also acquired Dagnall Manor in Edlesborough and Great Loughton Manor, with the latter of which Haversham descended. During the tenure of William Lucy, great-greatgrandson of the William who died in 1466, (fn. 49) Richard Ylshaw, who claimed to hold a lease of Haversham lordship, was ordered in 1541 not to molest Thomas Oldney in his possession of the farm of Haversham lordship until the case between the two was decided. (fn. 50) William Lucy denied that he had ever promised the farm to Oldney, as the latter maintained, but was advised to reflect that, as the king had written to him in Oldney's favour, it would be well to let him have the farm and recompense Ylshaw some other way, a course which he ultimately followed. (fn. 51) Sir Thomas Lucy, kt., son of William, did not alienate Haversham with Loughton Manor in 1557, but, with Thomas his son, (fn. 52) made a settlement of the manor in 1580. (fn. 53) Sir Thomas's chief claim to fame lies in his alleged prosecution of Shakespeare about 1585 for deer-stealing in the Lucys' park at Charlecote, Warwickshire, which led to the poet's immortalizing Lucy in the character of Justice Shallow. (fn. 54) He made a further settlement of Haversham in 1594, (fn. 55) and died in 1600, (fn. 56) his son Thomas dying in 1605. (fn. 57) Thomas, son and heir of the latter, succeeded to Haversham, (fn. 58) dying in 1640. (fn. 59) He was followed by his eldest son Spenser Lucy, whose widow, with her second husband William Sheldon, (fn. 60) quitclaimed the manor in 1653 to Robert Lucy, (fn. 61) brother and heir of Spenser. (fn. 62) Robert's brother and male heir Richard held in 1660, (fn. 63) but appears to have become deeply involved in debt and mortgaged the property to John Corrance, who held with others in 1664. (fn. 64) It was apparently sold in that year to Maurice Thompson, 'a Person of mean Extraction,' (fn. 65) who was sheriff of the county in 1669, (fn. 66) and died in 1671, being succeeded by his son John, (fn. 67) upon whom he had settled Haversham Manor in 1668. (fn. 68) John Thompson was created a baronet in 1673, (fn. 69) and was raised to the peerage as Lord Haversham in 1696. (fn. 70) He was member for Gatton, Surrey, in 1685, and was among the heartiest partisans of William of Orange. (fn. 71) He was made a lord of the Admiralty in 1699, but resigned two years later, and went over to the Tory party. As a member of the House of Lords he was instrumental in making that assembly persistently reject the Occasional Conformity Bill. In 1705 he achieved notoriety by moving the address to the queen urging her to call to England Sophia of Brunswick, the heir-presumptive. This was in effect the close of his public career. He died in 1710, and was succeeded by his son Maurice, the second Lord Haversham. (fn. 72) He held the Haversham estate (fn. 73) until 1729, when he joined with his daughters in selling it for £24,500 to Lucy Knightley, (fn. 74) who was descended, on his mother's side, from the Lucy family who had previously held Haversham. (fn. 75) He died in 1738, leaving a son and heir Valentine, (fn. 76) who was succeeded in 1754 by his son Lucy. (fn. 77) In 1764 he barred the entail, (fn. 78) and in the same year sold to the trustees of Alexander Small. (fn. 79) In the Northants Mercury for September 1764 appeared an advertisement that Small, as owner of the manor of Haversham, 'being desirous to preserve the Game and Fishery in the said Manors (i.e., Clifton, Hardmead and Haversham) for his own and Friends' Amusement, gives this public Notice, that all unqualified Persons who shall hereafter be found guilty of disturbing, killing or destroying the Game . . . shall be prosecuted by the utmost Rigour of the Law.' (fn. 80) He was at this time about seventeen, and was married, having one child. He is described in a contemporary record as 'a great Sportsman and much given up to amorous Dalliances, as reported, so as to occasion great Uneasinesses at Home.' (fn. 81) His son Alexander was party to a deed in 1785, the object apparently being to break the entail; the son, however, died during his father's lifetime. (fn. 82) In 1806 Small sold the manor to Roger Radcliffe and William Greaves. (fn. 83) By a deed of 1815 it was assigned to the latter, (fn. 84) in whose family it has since remained, Mr. Thomas Greaves being now lord of the manor. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62599