Wootton or Upper Shelton

At the Survey of 1086 Albert of Lorraine held a manor of 3 hides in Shelton, a member of Wootton. It appears to have been obtained by the priory of Caldwell, who as early as 1276 received land in Wootton of the gift of William son of Ralph le Carter. In 1291 the priory's possessions in Shelton, Kempston and Biddenham were assessed at £6 10s. 4½d., and in 1387 additional land in this parish was acquired from Adam, vicar of Oakley. In 1535 the priory's temporalities in Shelton were said to amount to £9 10s. 3d., but in 1536 a total value of £9 14s. 2d. was recorded, of which £5 16s. was received as rent of the manor of WOOTTON SHELTON alias UPPER SHELTON, leased in 1532 to William Wheeler for a term of twenty years, and the rent was obtained from lands in Wootton. This manor was taken into royal custody at the Dissolution, and William Wheeler's lease was renewed for a period of twenty-one years by Edward VI in 1550, while in 1560 the reversion was bestowed on Richard Champion, John Thompson and their heirs. Wootton Shelton was afterwards obtained by John Matthew, who was lord of the manor in 1595, and whose relative William Matthew and Sarah his wife alienated it in 1625 to Roger Pemberton. The latter, who died in 1627, by a codicil dated 7 November 1627 to his will of 13 November 1624, left legacies of £40 a year each to his grandsons Robert and Ralph Pemberton, and six widows, 'in my almshouses to be erected' at St. Albans, were to receive £5 a year each. He was succeeded by his son John, on whose death in 1645 the manor passed to his son, another John, who was lord in 1665. Wootton Shelton remained in the Pemberton family for the next 120 years, and is last mentioned in their possession in 1784, when John Pemberton was the owner. During the 19th century the history of this manor is obscure. Mr. Dimmock, who was lord of the manor at the close of the century, mortgaged the property, which mortgage has recently been foreclosed.