Northington Grange, Hampshire, England

Six hides at NORTHINGTON were named in the almost certainly spurious charter of Edward the Elder to the New Minster.In the Domesday Survey it is difficult to distinguish Northington from the other lands of the abbey in Micheldever Hundred. It may, perhaps, have been identical with the six hides held by Alsi and his father before him. In the fourteenth century three distinct holdings can be traced in Northington. These were the demesne lands of the abbey, known later as the Grange, and two reputed manors held by under-tenants, and known respectively as Northington and Totford.

The GRANGE, as its name denotes, was kept under the immediate control of the abbey. In 1263 Alice wife of Henry le Frankelyn released all her right in 36 acres of land in Northington to the abbey, and in 1346 the abbot of Hyde was said to hold there a moiety of a hide which had been in the tenure of Henry le Frankelyn. It seems, therefore, that this land was part of, or was added to, the Grange. Amongst the lessees of the Grange was Thomas (or William) Turner, who obtained a thirty years' lease from the abbey, 24 May, 1519. He also farmed the glebe lands and the tithes of Northington chapel, paying for the whole £8 10s. yearly. After the surrender of the abbey in 1538, the Grange fell to the crown with the rest of the monastic lands, and was leased successively to William Ryth and Richard Pigot. Finally, in January, 1589–90, Queen Elizabeth sold it to Richard Thekeston and Henry Best, who were probably speculators, for they parted with it almost immediately to James Hunt of Popham, who died seised of it in 1605. (His grandson of the same name sold Northington Grange and chapel, together with two mills, 464 acres of land, meadow, wood, and heath in Northington and Kingsclere, and the tithes of Northington, to Sir Benjamin Tichborne in 1641.

Northington Grange was evidently purchased by Sir Robert Henley before 1665, and added to his estate in Swarraton, which was also known as the Grange. He was buried at Northington in 1692 and was succeeded by his eldest son Anthony, whose grandson Robert was Lord Keeper and was created earl of Northington by George III.

The title became extinct on the death of his son and heir Robert, whose sisters and co-heiresses sold the Grange in 1787 to Henry Drummond, a wealthy banker. Drummond's grandson and heir, the famous follower of Irving, sold the estate in 1817 to Alexander Baring, a cousin of Sir Thomas Baring of Stratton. He also was a leading banker, and was created Baron Ashburton in 1835. In 1842 he negotiated the settlement of the boundaries between the United States and the British Territory in America, and during his lifetime many distinguished guests visited the Grange. The estate was inherited in 1848 by his son William Bingham, second Lord Ashburton, a noted philanthropist, who was succeeded by his brother in 1864. The latter's son and heir, the fourth Lord Ashburton, greatly improved the Grange estate. He died in 1889 and was succeeded by the present Francis Denzil, fifth baron.

The tenement known later as NORTHINGTON MANOR was held of the successive lords of Micheldever, and apparently had no manorial rights attached to it. It evidently included land lying near the site of the present village of Northington, its appurtenances extending into Totford and Swarraton. The tenant in 1167 seems to have been a certain Richard, and late in the following century Herbert Butler (Pincerna) was holding three hides in Northington of the abbot of Hyde, while Richard son of Ralph also had four and a half virgates there. In 1346 Henry of Northington was holding with the abbot a part of the land which had been Henry le Frankelyn's. Northington was a few years later in the possession of Thomas Bifleet and his wife Alice, who were holding in her right two-thirds of a messuage, 2 carucates of land, 2 acres of meadow, 100 acres of wood, besides other land in Totford, Northington, Swarraton, and Burcot. In 1357 they granted these lands to Richard Burton and his wife Alice, together with the remainder of the other third due to Alice Bifleet at the death of John Hungerford, to hold of them and the heirs of Alice Burton for a yearly rent. he grant stipulated that, failing heirs of the bodies of Richard Burton and his wife Alice, the lands should revert to Thomas and Alice Bifleet, and this seems to have occurred, for in the following century the Bifleets were seised of considerable lands in Northington. Robert Bifleet held two messuages and certain land called Northington at his death 20 July, 1488. He left an infant son and heir John, who evidently did not live to inherit the estate, for two years after Robert Bifleet's death a certain Thomas Bifleet died seised of land in Northington, and was succeeded by his brother John Bifleet, then aged thirty. In May, 1635, Robert Bifleet, perhaps a grandson or greatgrandson of this John, settled the 'manor of Northington,' in Northington, Swarraton, and Totford, on his son Thomas at the time of his marriage with Mary Speake. In 1707 Francis Dickens and his wife Rachael sold the manor of Northington, with Totford and Swarraton, to Anthony Henley, with whose estate at the Grange it has since descended.