Wootton or Bosoms

Wootton Manor, like Sharnbrook and Chalgrave, became part of the barony of Bedford, but whereas in these latter parishes the Beauchamps are found as intermediary lords, in Wootton they acquired the ownership in fee and held of the king in chief. As in Bromham (q.v.) the manor descended in the Beauchamp family until the death of the last male representative, John de Beauchamp, at the battle of Evesham in 1265, when the rights became vested in his three sisters Maud, Ela and Beatrice, who, however, did not enter into possession of the manor until the death in 1295 of Isabel widow of Simon de Beauchamp, the elder brother of John, to whom Wootton had been assigned in dower. That third of the manor which was acquired by Maud the eldest sister, widow of Roger de Mowbray, was held for the term of his life by her second husband Roger Lestrange, who died in 1311, when it passed to John de Mowbray the grandson of Maud, who in 1316 settled it for life on his father-in-law William de Braose. In 1320 he granted the reversion of the manor to Roger Marshall of Milton and Sarah his wife, to hold of him by service of a rose yearly; but William de Braose quitclaimed his life interest to them in the same year and they entered into possession. Roger Marshall increased his estate in Wootton by the acquisition of land from John de Patishull without royal licence, for which offence his son John Marshall had to obtain pardon in 1353, when he received a grant of additional land from William son of John de Patishull. John Marshall died in 1361 and was succeeded by his son Thomas, then two years of age, at whose death without issue in 1374 his sister Maud, then wife of Walter Merwe and afterwards of — Dale, inherited the premises. Maud died without issue in 1418, when the manor passed to her cousin and heir William Bosun, while the lands acquired from William Patishull in 1353 reverted to their heirs the Toddenhams, and will be found treated with their other lands in the parish. William Bosun, from whom the holding derived the additional name of BOSOMS MANOR, died in 1424, leaving a widow Margaret, who lived until 1447, and two daughters, of whom Margaret the elder, the wife of William Burgoyne, inherited the manor, which on the death of her husband in 1456 passed to their son Richard. The latter died in 1464, leaving a son John, then aged seven years, during whose minority his wardship was bestowed on John Earl of Worcester. The Burgoynes appear to have afterwards alienated Bosoms Manor, for in 1514 it was in the possession of Edward Langley, from whom it was purchased in that year by George Monoux, citizen and alderman of London, in whose family it remained for many generations. In 1527 George settled the manor on his daughter Ann and her husband Nicholas Taylor for ninety-nine years, and in 1531 he settled the reversion on Thomas, grandson of his brother and heir Humphrey. George Monoux died in 1544, when the manor was inherited by George the son of Thomas, who had died in 1537. In 1564 the manor was settled on George and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Lord Mordaunt, and passed on his death in 1593 to Lewis son of his son Humphrey, who had died in 1585. On his death in 1628 Lewis was succeeded by his son Humphrey, created a baronet in 1660, and the manor then descended as in Sandy (q.v.) to the fifth baronet, Sir Philip Monoux, who succeeded to the title in 1757; but there is no mention of the manor after 1770, and it did not by name form part of the property divided among Sir Philip's four sisters and co-heirs in 1809.