MANORS.
In 1086 Twyford was held by two
canons of St. Paul's: Durand held 2 hides of the
king, and Gueri held 2 hides described as a manor
'in the demesne of the canons'. (fn. 25) The estates are
presumed to represent East and West Twyford
respectively. (fn. 26) In 1102 the canons leased land at
Twyford to Ulf and one heir after him. (fn. 27) Reiner
held it before 1114 when the canons granted it to
Walter of Cranford and his daughter Adelaide for
their lives. (fn. 28) About 1183 Pain, son of Henry, and
his wife Eileen, daughter of Adelaide's husband
Morel, received the estate with warranty against
the kin of Morel and Adelaide. (fn. 29) Grants were
made at the end of the century to Robert and to
Master Roger, sons of Morel. (fn. 30) Robert's widow
Catherine quitclaimed her dower in 1200 in
exchange for 10s. quitrent to Martin de Capella,
who may have been Roger's son, (fn. 31) and in 1219 to
Henry de Capella (d. c. 1248), to whom she
surrendered the rent in 1225. (fn. 32) The estate descended to Henry's son Bartholomew (d. c. 1258)
and Bartholomew's daughter Joan, still a minor
in 1274, when rents were received by Sir Frank
de Bohun, who had married Bartholomew's
widow Nicole. For a time during the 1260s the
estate had been seized by Sir Robert de Bruce and
then by the servants of Lord Edward. (fn. 33) Sir Frank
gave Joan in marriage to John (d. 1284), his son
by his first wife. In 1281 the manor was sold by
John Kirkby, later treasurer of England and
bishop of Ely, to William Paynel, who was related
by marriage to the de Bohuns (fn. 34) and may have
been a trustee. In 1290 Kirkby died seised of the
manor, (fn. 35) which descended to his brother William
(d. 1302) and then to his sisters. (fn. 36) In 1304 Joan de
Bohun and Mary, widow of Nutus of Florence,
challenged the title of the Kirkby sisters, who
claimed that John de Bohun had mortgaged the
manor to Nutus and his brother Burgensus and
that the brothers had sold it to John Kirkby after
de Bohun's death. (fn. 37) Since de Bohun was still
alive when Kirkby conveyed the manor in 1281,
the manor may have been the subject of a trust
similar to that which de Bohun made for his
Sussex estates. (fn. 38) The manor appears to have been
vested in 1313 in Joan de Bohun. (fn. 39)
By 1361 John Pecche, a London fishmonger,
had been granted the manor to hold of St. Paul's
for rent of a red rose at Midsummer, by Thomas
Blondel, probably acting as trustee. Pecche
granted a life estate to Sir Robert Aston, who
held the manor at Pecche's death in 1380.
Pecche's son and heir (fn. 40) Sir William, a London
grocer, granted the rent from the manor to John
Hadley, also a London grocer, who in 1403 had
the wardship of Sir William's son John. (fn. 41) In 1433
Richard son of Adam Bamme, mayor of London,
gave West Twyford in exchange to John Philpot
(d. by 1439), (fn. 42) whose descendant John Philpot
(d. 1485) was succeeded by his son John (d.
1510) (fn. 43) and that John's son Peter. (fn. 44)
Sir Peter Philpot sold the manor in 1540 to
John Lyon, a London grocer and future mayor
(d. 1564). (fn. 45) West Twyford then passed to John's
nephew Richard (d. 1579), then probably to his
sons Henry (d. 1591) and John (d. 1631), to
John's nephew George (d. 1635), and his son
George, (fn. 46) who in 1637 sold it to Robert Moyle. (fn. 47)
Moyle (d. 1638) left the manor to his widow
Margaret for life. (fn. 48) Margaret and her second
husband, Sir Christopher Clapham, apparently
occupied the house and estate until the marriage
of Moyle's eldest son Walter in 1653. (fn. 49) Walter
(d. 1660) similarly left a life interest to his widow
Mary, who married Thomas Henslow in 1665. (fn. 50)
Walter's son Walter, by will dated 1686, left the
manor to his sister Margaret, wife of Edward
Bennett, for life, with remainder to his two halfsisters, Henslow's daughters. (fn. 51) The Bennetts
sold their interest to Henslow in 1689 and he, as
trustee for his daughters, sold the manor in 1692
to Sir Joseph Herne, M.P., a wealthy London
merchant (d. 1699). (fn. 52) Sir Joseph was succeeded
by his sons Frederick, a bachelor, and Joseph (d.
1723), also an M.P. (fn. 53)
The manor descended through Joseph's
daughter Penelope, wife of John Cholmeley, to
her grandchildren Sir Montague Cholmeley, Bt.,
and his sister Penelope, who jointly sold it in
1806 to Thomas Willan, a London stagecoach
proprietor. (fn. 54) Willan was succeeded in 1828 by his
daughter Isabella Maria (d. 1862) and her husband John Kearsley Douglas, later DouglasWillan (d. 1833). In 1890 their son William
Moffat Douglas-Willan sold the house, with 19 a.
and the advowson, to William H. Allhusen, who
in 1902 sold them to the Roman Catholic Alexian
Brothers, the owners in 1981. Some other land
was sold in 1897 to form part of the Willesden
workhouse infirmary site and some in 1900 to the
Royal Agricultural Society, becoming part of the
Park Royal estate. Col. Douglas-Willan was still
the chief landowner in 1908 but the remaining
land was sold for building after the First World
War, much of it in 1933 to Guinness Brewery. (fn. 55)
A manor house was mentioned in 1290, (fn. 56) and it
may have been occupied by William Anderby,
recorded as gentleman of West Twyford in
1430, (fn. 57) and by John Arundel, who had a lease of
the estate for at least 20 years from c. 1531. (fn. 58)
Sixteenth-century Flemish tiles have been found
on the site. (fn. 59) The Lyons and the Moyles lived
there, with several of their relations; in 1664 the
house was assessed on 20 hearths. (fn. 60) From 1690
the house was leased, (fn. 61) and c. 1715 most of the
'fine old mansion house' was demolished and
replaced with farm buildings, part of the great
hall apparently surviving. (fn. 62) By 1800 the house,
on a moated site, was plain and two-storeyed, a
'typical Georgian refronting of an earlier building'. (fn. 63) From that year the lessee was Thomas
Willan, (fn. 64) who on buying the estate in 1806 filled
in the moat and built a Gothic seat, which he
called Twyford Abbey, to designs by William
Atkinson, a pupil of James Wyatt. The main part
of the house is square in plan with a tower-like
central block of three storeys, octagonal turrets,
and embattled parapets. Built of brick faced with
cement, the house was set in wooded grounds and
was approached from the west. A service wing
stood to the east and stables and coach-houses to
the north. The Alexian brothers, who use the
house as a rest home for the aged, enlarged it in
1905, 1914, and 1966 and much altered its
appearance in 1935, when the parapets were
removed, and in 1951 and 1959-62. In 1973 the
brothers were refused permission to demolish the
house. (fn. 65)