SOUTHILL with ROWNEY Sudgible, Sudgivele (xi cent.); Southyevell (xii–xiv cent.). Rueye, Runheye (xii, xiii cent.); Rowndehay, Rownhey (xvi cent.).
Southill with Rowney, including the hamlets of Stanford and Broom and the
extra-parochial hamlet of Shefford Hardwick, forms a large parish lying a
mile west of the Roman Way. The land slopes towards the River Ivel, which
forms the eastern and southern boundary of the parish. The lowest point is
near Stanford Mill, and is 108 ft. above the ordnance datum; the highest point
north of Rowney Warren is 269 ft. above ordnance datum. The area is 6,094¾
acres, of which 3,122 acres are arable land, 888¾ are permanent grass and
341 woods and plantations. The soil is partly gravel and partly clay, the
subsoil principally clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and turnips;
an increasing area is devoted to market-gardening, an industry which is rapidly
developing.
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Stanford is a scattered hamlet containing a school, two inns and a mill. Stanfordbury Farm lies near Shefford Hardwick, which consists of one farm, the property of Mr. Samuel Whitbread. Broom forms a compact little hamlet in the eastern part of the parish, containing Broom Manor Farm, an infant school and an assembly room. Broom Hall, the residence of Mr. Rupert Fordham, in the north of the hamlet, stands in a fine park. Gastlings, which derives its name from the Gastlyn family, who lived there in the 13th century, is in the west of the parish. A few scattered houses to the north of the parish are known as Ireland (the Inlonde of the 16th century). Two Romano-British vaults were found near Stanfordbury Farm in this parish in the early part of the 19th century.
The following place-names have been found in documents relating to this parish:—Stratfurlong, Trottesmere, Rowmerfurlong in the 14th century; Cockinsteleland, Herteshyne, le Meredither, Doys House, Bryky Close, Duf Close, Great Hell Close, Ketilsey, Pondefeld, Graces Ground in the 16th century. The names of Johnson and his biographer Boswell are connected with Southill. John Dilly, brother of Edward and Charles Dilly, the booksellers in the Poultry, lived here, and was visited by Boswell in 1779. Two years later Johnson accompanied his friend on a visit to the same hospitable mansion. 'He found himself very happy at Squire Dillys, where there is always abundance of excellent fare and hearty welcome.' Johnson attended the parish church, and subsequently drank tea with the vicar. From Southill he went on to see Luton Hoo, recently built by the Marquess of Bute.
In 1086 Hugh de Beauchamp held 2 hides 1 virgate of land which later became known as SOUTHILL MANOR. This land appears to have passed from the Beauchamps to Warden Abbey some time in the 12th century, for in 1198 its charter of confirmation contains mention of land in Southill. In 1330 the abbot claimed view of frankpledge and rights of free warren in this manor, which was retained by the abbey till the Dissolution, its value being then estimated at £32 18s. 10d.
The manor remained for some time Crown property, but one of the more important estates in Southill which emerged after the Dissolution, Fisher's Grange, which in the previous century had been held by Sir John Fisher and Agnes his wife, by whom they had been granted to Warden in 1506, was acquired in 1542–3 by Sir Michael Fisher. It passed by the marriage of his granddaughter and heir Agnes to Oliver Lord St. John of Bletsoe, who died in 1582. Their son Oliver died in 1618 holding the same land in Southill, but their grandson Oliver, created Earl of Bolingbroke in 1624, had acquired the manor in addition to the grange, probably by purchase, before 1641. He was killed at the battle of Edgehill in 1642, fighting on the side of the Parliament, and was succeeded by his grandson Oliver. It has not been found possible to trace how Southill Manor passed from the Bolingbrokes to the Ongleys, but in 1792 it was in the possession of Robert second Lord Ongley, who still held it in 1797, and whose family had acquired considerable property in Southill at different times.
The greater part of his lands in this parish he exchanged with Samuel Whitbread early in the 19th century for an estate in Old Warden. Lord Ongley, however, retained the manorial rights in Southill, and they passed on his death in 1814 to his son Robert third Lord Ongley, who conveyed them to Joseph Shuttleworth, when the latter purchased nearly all the Ongley estates in Bedfordshire between the years 1869 and 1873. After his death in 1883 these rights passed to his son Col. Frank Shuttleworth, who is the present lord of the manor of Southill.
Other tenants in Southill in 1086 besides Hugh de Beauchamp were designated as two Frenchmen, holding of William Spech 5 hides ½ virgate. The overlordship of the land belonging to one of these tenants, which later became known as GASTLYNS or GASTLYNBURY MANOR, fell to the inheritance of Albreda, the younger sister of Walter Espec, who married Geoffrey de Trailly. It became attached to the honour of Trailly, comprising the possessions of Albreda's descendants, with the exception of half a virgate of land which belonged to the neighbouring fee of Simon le Bel of the barony of Warden. The Trailly overlordship is last mentioned in 1428. The half virgate does not reappear in connexion with Gastlyns after 1284–6, and was probably reabsorbed in the neighbouring fee.
In 1229 Walter de Godarvill, the first tenant of the manor whose name has been traced, was reinstated by the king in his land in Southill, and continued in possession until his death in 1250, when the manor was held by a yearly rent of 6d. and a pair of gilt spurs. He was succeeded by his daughter Joan, the wife of Sir Geoffrey Gastlyn, from whom the manor derives its distinctive name. She survived her husband, and was succeeded by her son Edmund in 1286–7, who alienated the manor to Hugh Doffevill in 1301 for 100 marks, but was re-enfeoffed later by Hugh with his wife Isabel. She held the manor in 1313, being succeeded by her son John before 1316. He was living in 1337, but in 1346, his heir Edmund being under age, the manor was entrusted to the care of his aunt, Alice Gastlyn, and John Baret. He must have died without direct heir, for Alice was lady of Gastlyns in her own right in 1356, but by 1363 the manor had been alienated to John Creuker for his life, with reversion to Geoffrey Gastlyn, Alice's son, which reversion the latter granted in that yeare to Richard Gregory and others in trusteeship. Six years later they assigned the manor to Warden Abbey on condition that two chaplains were provided to celebrate divine service daily for the souls of Geoffrey and Alice Gastlyn, of their ancestors and of all faithful departed at the altar of St. Mary in the conventual church of Warden, whose abbot paid £100 for a licence to hold this gift in mortmain. Gastlyns Manor remained in the possession of Warden Abbey until the Dissolution.
In 1544 it was in the tenure of John Gardiner, and was granted to Francis Pigot of Stratton, whose son Thomas conveyed it to Hugh Cartwright in 1566. In 1587 William Cartwright alienated it to Nicholas Thurgood and his heirs, who remained in possession for eighty years. The will of Thomas Thurgood, great-nephew of Nicholas, was proved 4 January 1648, in which Gastlyns was left to his elder son John, with contingent remainder to his younger son Nicholas. In 1667 John Thurgood conveyed the manor to Sir John Keeling. The Keeling family were still represented at Southill in 1707, and their property there was probably sold about this time to Sir George Byng, who bought largely in Southill during the second decade of the 18th century, and was created Baron Byng of Southill in 1721. His grandson George fourth Lord Torrington was in possession of Gastlings Manor in 1762, and sold it in 1795 to Samuel Whitbread, whose family have since resided at Southill Park, the present representative being his great-grandson Mr. Samuel Whitbread, J. P.
In the time of Edward III John Gastlyn claimed the right of free warren in Gastlyns, and produced a charter of King Henry III to his mother Joan granting her this right and also that of a weekly market on Tuesday. The free warren in 1369, when the manor was assigned to Warden Abbey, was worth 6s. 8d. yearly, but no reference was made to the market, which had apparently fallen into disuse.
The land which belonged to the other French tenant of William Spech in Southill at the time of the Domesday Survey was held in 1166 by John le Bel and was attached to the barony of Warden. In the next century it was known as the fief of Simon le Bel, held of the heirs of Warden, and in 1284–6 was divided between the Abbot of Warden and the Priors of Chicksands, Newnham and St. John of Jerusalem. No later mention of the overlordship has been found in Southill; the greater part of the land was absorbed by Warden Abbey before 1346 and became part of their manor in Southill. The principal part of the property of Chicksands Priory in Southill evidently consisted of the Tithe Mills, which were situated in Clifton and Southill and have been treated under Clifton. The value of the land which they possessed in Southill itself at the Dissolution was only worth 2s. 8d. With the exception of the rectory the land attached to Newnham Priory at that time was valued at £1 19s. 2d. In the reign of Edward III the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem held view of frankpledge at his manor at Langford for the tenants on his land in Southill.
There are three entries dealing with small portions of land in the hamlet of Stanford in Domesday. Roger held of Hugh de Beauchamp 1 hide which Ailmar d'Ow held and could sell to whom he wished; secondly, Alric held in chief a quarter of a virgate which had belonged to him in the time of King Edward, and which he could assign as he chose; and lastly, Ordin, who was a man of King Edward, and who also possessed a quarter of a virgate, as he had done under Edward the Confessor, which he could sell as he pleased. The last two holdings do not reappear, and probably became attached to the manor of Eaton or absorbed in the barony of Bedford, which are both traceable in Stanford by 1284–6. These overlordships continued in Stanford, the last reference that has been found to the Eaton Barony being in 1360, to the barony of Bedford in 1499.
There were two manors in the hamlet of Stanford. Of these STANFORDBURY MANOR derived its origin from land which was confirmed to Warden Abbey in 1198 in a charter of Richard I. Various small grants were added to this from time to time, and in 1257 the abbey possessed nearly 4½ hides in Stanford attached to the barony of Bedford, which in 1284–6 represented the corresponding half fee to that held by John le Child. The manor remained with the abbey until the Dissolution. In 1543 the Crown granted Stanfordbury to Edward Gostwick and his wife Dorothy. The former died in 1558, leaving as his son and heir William, then aged fifteen years, who had livery of the manor in 1564, and in the same yeare conveyed it to Oliver Lord St. John of Bletsoe, brother and heir of John Lord St. John referred to above, who died seised of it in 1618. After this it appears to have followed the descent of Southill Manor (q.v.), and passed to the Whitbread family, who own it at the present day, the name being retained in Stanfordbury Farm.