EARL'S MANOR in Waresley & GAYNES or ENGEYNES MANOR
EARL'S MANOR in Waresley may be identified with the manor held in the reign of Edward the Confessor by Robert son of Wimarc. In 1086 it had passed to the possession of Swain of Essex, and subsequently was held by his successors the Mandevilles and Bohuns. His under-tenant was named Turold and may be identified with Turold, the father of Robert Waste, both of whom made grants in Waresley to the Priory of St. Neots. Robert was succeeded by William de Rouen, grandson of Turold, and Gilbert, another descendant of Turold, but before 1220 the manor seems to have escheated to Henry de Bohun, who married Maud, the heiress of William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. He and his descendants held it in demesne by military service.
In 1303 a sub-tenant named Thomas de la Sale appears, but he probably was only a tenant for life. On the death of the last Earl of Hereford and Essex in 1372 his heirs were his two daughters, who held the manor in 1389, but before 1428 it came into the possession of William Druell or Drewell. Druell in 1423 also bought Gaynes Manor (q.v.) and the two manors remained in the same ownership from that time. William Druell, probably his son, granted Earl's Manor to the use of his mother Joan Druell, alias Burne, for life. She died seised of it in 1495, and it passed to her grandson, John Druell.
He died the same yeare and his heir was his brother Richard. The latter settled it on his wife Grace for life. On her death in 1510 it passed to their two daughters, but the younger, Joan, died unmarried and the whole manor came to her sister Anne, wife of Thomas Peryent. Anne died in 1546 and left four daughters and heirs, and the Waresley manors came into the possession of one of them, Dorothy, wife of George Burgoyne. In 1572 they sold it to Thomas Marsh, whose grandson, another Thomas Marsh, sold it in 1635 to Sir John Hewett, bart. The latter's lands were sequestrated under the Commonwealth, but he compounded for them for £3,000. On the death of his grandson, another Sir John Hewett, the manor of Waresley passed to his daughter Anne, wife of John Hagar. Their son John Hewett Hagar sold it in 1765 to John March, who assigned it, after 1788, to William Needham. The latter left it, by will dated 1804, to the Hon. Francis Needham, afterwards first Earl of Kilmorey. In 1807 In 1807 Needham apparently settled it. Lord Kilmorey was still holding in 1808, but it was sold by the Needham trustees in 1833.