Stratford-upon-Avon

The Lordship of the Manor of Stratford-upon-Avon is of great interest and antiquity, predating the Norman conquest by at least 300 years. It is first mentioned as 20 hides of land belonging to Etherlard, sub-King of the Hwiccas, who granted it to Egwin, third Bishop of Worcester (693-714) who founded Evesham Abbey and relinquished his see on becoming the Abbey's first abbot. After Etherlard's death there is some evidence that his brother Oswald forced Abbot Egwin to surrender Stratford to him. Afterwards, the chronicler of Evesham records that the Bishops of Worcester fortoris ne-acquired Stratford. Offa and King Beorthwulf of Mercia confirmed the Bishops' possession of Stratford and granted privileges by charter including “those rights which are the King's”.

In the Domesday survey of 1086 the entry for the Manor (see covers of this catalogue) reads in translation: “The same Bishop of Worcester, Wulfstan, later canonized, holds and held Stratford on Avon. There are 14½ hides. There is land for 31 ploughs. In demesne are 3 ploughs; and 21 villans with a priest and 7 bordars have 28 ploughs. There is a mill worth 10s. and 1,000 eels, and meadow 5 furlongs long and 2 furlongs broad. [Tempus R]egis [E]dwardi] and afterwards it was worth 100s.; now £25.”

In the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189), Bishop Baldwin compiled a register of all his lands (. . . titulæ extente maneriorum Episcopatus Wygornensis) in which Stratford is said to contain 15 hides and one yardland.

King Richard I granted John of Coutances, Bishop of Worcester, on 25 January 1196, the right to hold a weekly market.

The Bishop immediately granted to his burgesses, who were paying 12d. a year for their tenements, the right to attend the market free of toll.

Bishop Mauger who succeeded John confirmed this grant to the burgesses.

In October 1215 Bishop Walter Grey obtained a Royal Charter granting him the right to hold an annual fair, beginning on the “Even of holy Trinity, and to continue for the next two days ensuing”.

Bishop William de Bley's obtained another Royal Charter for a fair from King Henry III to be kept on the “Eve of St augustine and on the day and morrow after” (26 May). Sixteen years later, Bishop Walter de Cantilupe obtained a further grant for a fair to be held on the Eve of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September). Bishop Walter was the son to William Cantilupe and the elder brother of Thomas who was elected Lord Chancellor by the barons, led by Simon de Monfort, who opposed Henry III during the Baron’s War in the mid-1260s. Walter also obtained a Charter of Free Warren over his demesne lands in his Lordship of Stratford, given at Merton by Henry III in 1254. In 1269 Bishop Godfrey Giffard obtained a charter for a fair to be held for three days from the eve of Ascension.

Bishop Walter Giffard had Stratford surveyed in 1291 when it was found that the Manor produced an annual income from building rents of 20 shillings for 240 acres of land, 100 shillings from a mill, and 60 shillings from the profits of the Manorial Courts. Eight years later, Stratford yielded an annual income to the Bishop of £57.1s.½d. He also had a park at Stratford and in 1280 sent out injunctions to his deans throughout the diocese instructing them to excommunicate anyone caught trespassing there.

Bishop Walter de Maidstone received a Charter from Edward II in 1309 for a Thursday market and a fair to begin on the Eve of St Peter and St Paul for 15 days.

The burgesses of Stratford, who had been quit of tolls at the markets and fairs since Bishop John of Coutances’s day, found themselves paying from 1333 when Robert de Stratford became vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. The ostensible reason for charging local people was to meet the costs of paving the town. Robert was born in the town and took his surname from it. He became successively Archdeacon of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester, and Lord Chancellor of England in the reign of Edward III. His brother, John, became Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1339 Bishop Wolstan de Braunsford farmed the manor to John de Peto for his life at £60 a year. An arrangement between the parties infringed the King’s rights and the manor was temporarily taken into the King’s hands. It was restored to the Bishopric in 1372.

The Bishops of Worcester continued to hold the Manor until 1549 when Bishop Nicholas Heath passed it to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Lord Protector to Edward VI, and Duke of Northumberland. On the death in 1553 of Edward VI, Dudley attempted to place his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne in place of Princess Mary. With Dudley’s attainder and execution in 1554, the Lordship of Stratford seems to have reverted to his wife Jane, who shared the grant with her husband.

On her death, the Lordship of Stratford returned to the Crown and was granted by Queen Mary to the Catholic Hospital of the Savoy. With the accession of Elizabeth I, the Savoy was suppressed and Stratford was granted by the Queen to Ambrose Dudley, the third son of John Duke of Northumberland, who was created Earl of Warwick. In the grant his brother Robert Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth’s favourite (“to our beloved Lord Robert Dudley knight of the Garter”) was named as residual legatee if his brother died without issue. In the event, Robert predeceased his brother by two years.

Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, died childless in 1590 and Stratford again escheated to the Crown. In 1591 the Queen granted it to Henry Best and John Welles, who conveyed it to Sir Edward Greville, the son of Ludovic Greville of Milcote, Warwickshire. In the 1590s there were several tenancies under the Crown by Peter Greville, Sir Edward’s brother, and Peter Cresswell. Greville was still Lord of the Manor in 1609, but in 1610 he conveyed it to Sir Arthur Ingram who sold it on at a profit to the land speculator, Lionel Cranfield. Cranfield attracted the attention of George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham, James I’s favourite. Buckingham married his own kinswoman, Anne Brett, to the rich businessman, and saw to Cranfield’s advancement at Court. In 1621, he was created Baron Cranfield and made Lord Treasurer, and in 1622 Earl of Middlesex, but two years later, he quarrelled with Buckingham, was impeached, and retired to his estates, although at his death in 1645 he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Cranfield was succeeded as Lord of the Manor of Stratford by his son, James, 2nd Earl of Middlesex, on whose death in 1651 the lordship passed to Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, whose only daughter and heir, Lady Frances Cranfield, brought Stratford to her son, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, KG, who was created Baron Cranfield and Earl of Middlesex in 1675 by Charles II, in right of his mother’s brother, the last Earl of Middlesex. Lord Dorset was succeeded as Lord of the Manor of Stratford by his son, Lionel, 7th Earl of Dorset, who in 1720 was created Duke of Dorset in addition to his other titles which were: Earl of Dorset, Earl of Middlesex, Baron Buckhurst and Baron Cranfield. He was High Steward (which title was automatically held by the family as well as the Lordship of the Manor) of Stratford from 1708 until his death in 1765 when he was succeeded as Lord of the Manor of Stratford by his son, Charles, 2nd Duke of Dorset, High Steward of Stratford. On his death in 1769 his nephew John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset and British Ambassador to the Court of Versailles, succeeded him as Lord of the Manor of Stratford. The famous cricket-playing Duke was in Paris during the great upheavals of 1789 and even took over a team of cricketers from his Kent estate at Knole in the forlorn expectation that English sportsmanship would set a good example to the French revolutionaries. The 3rd Duke died in 1799 and was succeeded by his son George Sackville, 4th Duke of Dorset, who died in 1815 in a hunting accident at Dublin, but his mother, Arabella Diana, Dowager Duchess of Dorset, daughter of Sir Charles Cope, Bart, retained a life interest in the Manor after her son’s death. She remarried Earl Whitworth who in 1815 was elected High Steward of Stratford. Lord and Lady Whitworth both died in 1825 and under the terms of the 3rd Duke of Dorset’s will, his eldest daughter, Lady Mary, wife to the Earl of Plymouth, inherited the Manor.

Lord Plymouth held the title of High Steward of Stratford until his death in 1833 when he was succeeded by George, Earl De La Warr, husband to Lady Elizabeth Sackville, younger daughter of the 3rd Duke of Dorset. Lady Elizabeth’s sister remarried to Earl Amherst, but she died without issue in 1864 when her interest in the Lordship of Stratford passed absolutely to her sister, Countess De La Warr. On Countess De La Warr’s death in 1870, she left Stratford to her younger son, Mortimer Sackville who was created Baron Sackville by Queen Victoria in 1876 with special remainder to his younger brothers. On Lord Sackville’s death in 1888, his brother Lionel, 2nd Baron Sackville, GCMG succeeded him as Lord of the Manor, who died in 1908 unmarried and was succeeded at Stratford by Lionel Edward, 3rd Lord Sackville, the son of his brother, the Hon. William Sackville-West (whose daughter, Victoria [Vita] Sackville-West, a leading light in the Bloomsbury Group of the 1920s, married Sir Harold Nicolson). Lord Sackville died in 1928 and was succeeded as Stratford by his brother Charles, 4th Lord Sackville, KBE CB CMG, on whose death in 1961, Stratford passed to Edward, 5th Baron Sackville, his son, who died in 1965 and was succeeded at Stratford by his cousin Lionel Bertrand, 6th Lord Sackville, who was succeeded by his brother Hugh, 7th Baron, who sold it to the present Lord of the Manor of Stratford.

Rights, customs and incidents

Offa and King Beorthwulf of Mercia confirmed the Bishops' possession of Stratford and granted privileges by charter including “those rights which are the King's”.
King Richard I granted John of Coutances, Bishop of Worcester, on 25 January 1196, the right to hold a weekly market.
The Bishop immediately granted to his burgesses, who were paying 12d. a year for their tenements, the right to attend the market free of toll.
In October 1215 Bishop Walter Grey obtained a Royal Charter granting him the right to hold an annual fair, beginning on the “Even of holy Trinity, and to continue for the next two days ensuing”.
Bishop William de Bley's obtained another Royal Charter for a fair from King Henry III to be kept on the “Eve of St augustine and on the day and morrow after” (26 May).
Sixteen years later, Bishop Walter de Cantilupe obtained a further grant for a fair to be held on the Eve of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September).
Walter also obtained a Charter of Free Warren over his demesne lands in his Lordship of Stratford, given at Merton by Henry III in 1254.
In 1269 Bishop Godfrey Giffard obtained a charter for a fair to be held for three days from the eve of Ascension.
Bishop Walter de Maidstone received a Charter from Edward II in 1309 for a Thursday market and a fair to begin on the Eve of St Peter and St Paul for 15 days.
An arrangement between the parties infringed the King’s rights and the manor was temporarily taken into the King’s hands.
Cranfield was succeeded as Lord of the Manor of Stratford by his son, James, 2nd Earl of Middlesex, on whose death in 1651 the lordship passed to Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, whose only daughter and heir, Lady Frances Cranfield, brought Stratford to her son, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, KG, who was created Baron Cranfield and Earl of Middlesex in 1675 by Charles II, in right of his mother’s brother, the last Earl of Middlesex.

Associated manorial documents / archive references

• Documents ranging in dates from 1301-1937 (many in non-continuous series) comprising: Ministers’ accounts, Comptus rolls, Court books and rolls, Views of Frankpledge, Rentals, Presentments, Close Rolls, Patent Rolls, Esreats, Orders, Accounts, Minutes, Appointments, Deputations, Stewards’ papers, Records of courtsleet, Bailiffs’ accounts, Settlements, Deeds of Trust, Extents and Miscellaneous papers are to be found in the following repositories: Public Record Office, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office, The Folger Shakespeare Library, Warwick Record Office, Kent Archive Office, Hereford and Worcester Record Office, British Library, National Register of Archives and Berkeley Castle.
• A comprehensive listing of these records is available on request.
• Purchasers should satisfy themselves about any rights to these documents.

Historical holder / succession information

1. Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex
   1651|1675 · passed_to · historical_holder_or_transferee
   Source wording: Cranfield was succeeded as Lord of the Manor of Stratford by his son, James, 2nd Earl of Middlesex, on whose death in 1651 the lordship passed to Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, whose only daughter and heir, Lady Frances Cranfield, brought Stratford to her son, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, KG, who was created Baron Cranfield and Earl of Middlesex in 1675 by Charles II, in right of his mother’s brother, the last Earl of Middlesex.