Edward Steed Girdlestone ,

ID 2248

Extra Notes about Steed and the manor in Newton , north of Wisbech .

From : A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume IV , published 2002 , :

p270 � 271 :

There were several other charities of a more miscellaneous character. . . . . . . . Steed Girdlestone gave �100 in 1841 for Christmas dinners for the poor; each family was to have 7 lb. of beef

P201 � 206 :

MANORS

Newton is not mentioned in Domesday Book. The first authentic reference occurs c. 1210, (Footnote 12) and the name of the village suggests that it may have been a very late settlement, like Elm (q.v.). It is significant also that Newton is not mentioned at all in the earliest (1221) of the Ely episcopal cartularies, (Footnote 13) and only in a cursory manner in that of 1251. (Footnote 14)

As in all the manors of the Isle that were not explicitly reserved to the prior and convent in 1109, the Bishop of Ely was overlord, and he was by implication still so considered in 1851. (Footnote 15) Butfor many centuries before he had held no immediate rights in Newton. At the beginning of the 13th century there was one tenant by military service, Stephen de Marisco, who held 1 fee of the bishop in Newton and Walsoken (Norf.). (Footnote 16) It seems that during the next half century the manor was subinfeudated to his family, for in 1267 Geoffrey de Marisco, Stephen's son, was granted free warren in his demesnes at Newton. (Footnote 17) The 1251 cartulary shows that the bishop held no demesne in Newton in severally, nor are any of his customary tenants mentioned. (Footnote 18) The rents payable to the bishop moreover amounted to no more than 12d. Stephen (sic) de Marisco, (Footnote 19) on the other hand, held an unspecified amount of land by military service which had been commuted for 6s. 8d.

Geoffrey de Marisco was the last in the male line, and his daughter Desiree, by her marriage to Sir Roger Colvile of Carlton Colvile (Suff.), brought the manor to the family which was so prominently associated with Newton until the end of the 18th century. (Footnote 20) Several of the Colviles were men of mark. Sir Geoffrey (d. 1317), son of Roger and Desir�e, was knighted in company with Edward Prince of Wales (1306). His son Sir John I fought at Cr�cy and took part in the later French campaigns of Edward III. To him the grant of free warren, made to de Marisco in 1267, was confirmed in 1353. (Footnote 21) Before his death (1361) he settled the manor for his own benefit should he return from France, or for that of his son, another John. In 1361 the manor was extended at 6s. 8d. for the site of the manor house, 200 acres of arable demesne at 1s. 6d. an acre, 40 acres of pasture (4d. an acre), a windmill worth 15s., rents of �160s. 4d., commutation of labour services 40s., and perquisites of court 20s. It was stated to be held by socage. (Footnote 22) John Colvile II, who succeeded his father, (Footnote 23) was knighted in 1367 and died in 1394. (Footnote 24) His eldest son, Sir John Colvile III, was perhaps the most remarkable member of the family. In 1409 he was sent by Henry IV on an important mission to Italy, (Footnote 25) and at the end of the following year he was appointed Constable of Wisbech Castle, a position which he held until at least 1446. (Footnote 26) In 1412 he accompanied an expedition to France against the Duke of Orleans, and the following year commanded a naval force which won a victory over the French in the English Channel. He fought at Agincourt, and for these and other services was granted a pension of �40 a year for life. He was the founder of the College of St. Mary by the Sea in Newton. (Footnote 27) Sir John Colvile IV, his eldest son, was sheriff in 1459 and died ten years later. (Footnote 28) His eldest surviving son Francis was then an infant, and the family estates were entrusted to the Bishop of Lincoln, who sold the custody to Anne, John's relict. Anne's second husband, Sir Robert Brandon, forcibly excluded Francis from his lands when he came of age, and he apparently never enjoyed them, as Anne outlived him by a few months. At her death in 1494 the manor passed to Richard Colvile, Francis's son; it comprised 12 messuages, 10 cottages, land, estimated at 100 acres of arable, meadow, and marsh severally, together worth �30, and �10 rents in Wisbech, Leverington, Newton, and Tydd. (Footnote 29) At Richard's death in 1525 the manor, with lands in the village and in Leverington, Tydd St. Giles, and Wisbech, was valued at �30. (Footnote 30)

Son succeeded father for another three generations, (Footnote 31) until the death (1611) of Thomas Colvile (knighted 1611). (Footnote 32) He left no son and no will, and his brother Richard succeeded. Richard's eldest son John was accidentally killed at the age of 7, (Footnote 33) and on his death in 1650 (Footnote 34) he was succeeded by William, his second son, who was a devoted Royalist and sheriff in 1660. He died without surviving issue, and was succeeded by his brother Jeffrey (d. 1699), who lived at Walsoken. Richard, Jeffrey's surviving son, was a member of the Inner Temple and resided chiefly there or at Harrow. He died childless in 1723. He devised all his lands, subject to the life interest of his relict, to his nephew Robert Barker for life with remainder to his issue in tail. In default of issue the lands were to go to his nephew Colvile Lumpkin, son of Richard's sister Susannah by her second marriage to John Lumpkin, in like manner. (Footnote 35) Portions of the estate had to be sold or assigned to meet debts and legacies, (Footnote 36) and when Robert Barker (who assumed the name and arms of Colvile) succeeded his uncle the estate was much encumbered. He immediately began the task of restoring the fortunes of the family. He would rise early to see that the work on the estate was properly carried out, and gave his personal attention to every particular. In his time the estate was richly wooded, chiefly with oak and ash, and he would not allow any felling. Church services had to wait until he had taken his seat, and no one was allowed to walk out of church before him. In spite of his severity and reserve he was greatly loved by all the villagers, and long after his death personal anecdotes were current in Newton. (Footnote 37) He was a county magistrate, sheriffin 1739 and Town Bailiff of Wisbech in 1769; he possessed much property in the town in the right of his second wife. His only son Richard, who succeeded him in 1778, was also Town Bailiff of Wisbech, but his tenure of that office was unfortunate. (Footnote 38) He had the reputation of a spendthrift, and at his death (1784) the estate subject to incumbrances devolved upon his son Robert, the last of the Colviles to enjoy the property. Robert Colvile was amiable but unbusinesslike, and in 1792 contracted to sell the whole to James Redin for �47,532. The estate comprised manorial rights in Newton, Walpole, and West Walton, the Hall, and nine farms comprising 1,682 acres. (Footnote 39) Redin sold the estate in lots at a considerable profit and demolished the Hall, (Footnote 40) replacing it by a farmhouse which still exists. His son, another James Redin, lived there until 1824.