HUNGERFORD'S ESTATE
John Barnard (d. 1537), citizen and mercer, chamberlain of the City of London, and his wife Alice had property in Chelsea, described as 3 messuages, 6 cottages, 100
a. land, 10 a. meadow, and 10 a. pasture, with property
in Kent, which they settled in 1528 on themselves for life
and then on their son James and his heirs. (fn. 17) Barnard
owed 54s. 6½d. quitrent to the manor of Chelsea, (fn. 18) and
at least three of the houses which can be traced later had
commoning rights, (fn. 19) suggesting that the estate had been
built up from a number of medieval freeholdings. James
(d. 1540) left his mansion house at Chelsea and all his
lands to his widow Ursula for life on condition that if she
married again she should support his children until they
came of age. The lands were then to pass to his son
Richard, (fn. 20) who seems to have died without issue, as
James's heir in 1582 was his daughter's son. (fn. 21)
By 1543 Ursula had married Thomas Hungerford (d.
1581), courtier and gentleman pensioner, who in 1544
acknowledged that he held in his wife's right seven
cottages and 100 a. freely from the manor for 545. 6½d.
rent and suit of court. (fn. 22) He was presented for overstocking on the common with his cattle in 1543, and his
property in 1566 included a messuage on the south side
of the new parsonage house in Church Lane and land in
Eastfield. (fn. 1) He also received 2 messuages and 2 gardens in
1569 from Adam Powell and his wife Alice, William
Dabourne and his wife Anne, and William Beane. (fn. 2) Alice,
Anne, and William were the children of Thomas Beane
(d. 1549): he left his house called the Great Rose next to
the church to his son William, two houses to Alice and
another to Agnes, (fn. 3) and the property conveyed to
Hungerford may have included the Great Rose, which
stood on the corner of Church Lane opposite the church,
since a house on that site was later said to have belonged
to Hungerford. (fn. 4)
Ursula Hungerford died in 1583 leaving her leases to
her son Edmund Hungerford, and bequests of 12
pictures, including portraits of all the Tudor sovereigns
which hung in the parlour and the great chamber of her
house in Chelsea. (fn. 5) The property which had belonged to
Hungerford had been divided by 1587: the smaller part
passed to Edmund Hungerford, (fn. 6) while the Barnard
freeholding, known as Hungerford's farm, was held in
1587 by Thomas Young for 545. 6½d. In 1595 Young
conveyed to John Shuckburgh (Shugborow,
Shuckborough) of Warwickshire a messuage or farm
and land in Chelsea, possibly as a settlement on the
marriage of Young's daughter Christian with John's
brother Henry; whatever the case, in 1599 Henry
Shuckburgh conveyed the property to another brother
Francis. (fn. 7) Young seems to have been the man of that
name who had a prebendal lease in Willesden, and may
have died c.1604: a Thomas Young, Yeoman of the
Guard, gave to the each of the parishes of Chelsea,
Kensington, and Willesden 20s. a year for use of the
poor. (fn. 8) The grant of the Chelsea farm was confirmed to
Francis Shuckburgh in 1606 by Henry and his wife and
Young's widow Elizabeth, (fn. 9) and in 1607 Francis sold to
William Blake for £1,100 the farmhouse, 74 a., and 11
lots of meadow in the tenure of William Wrennall and
another acre in West meadow. The land included 32 a.
called Sandhills, (fn. 10) which Blake later sold to Sir Lionel
Cranfield and which formed part of Chelsea Park. (fn. 11)
Elizabeth Young still held other land once belonging
her husband, and in 1607 settled all her property in
Kensington, Chelsea, and Fulham for the use of herself
for life, then for her daughter Christian Shuckburgh and
her issue. The property consisted of a mansion called
Brompton Hall in Kensington with its outhouses and
grounds, and all the land belonging to it in Kensington,
Chelsea, and Fulham; the Catherine Wheel in
Kensington; a messuage and buildings in Chelsea in the
tenure of William Gawnte; the messuage called the
Blackhouse in Chelsea where Elizabeth lived, with
outbuildings, dovehouse, grounds, 2½ a. in Eastfield,
and two closes lying together next to Chelsea Heath
containing 6 a.; a messuage in the tenure of Thomas
Creake with one orchard or garden and all buildings
belonging to it in Chelsea; houses occupied by 10
tenants; meadow in Fulham; and 4 lots in the western
common mead of Chelsea. The conveyance included the
right of revocation by Elizabeth, which she exercised in
1611, (fn. 12) just prior to selling the Catherine Wheel in
Kensington to Robert Chare, citizen and fietcher of
London, and at her instruction Thomas Baldwin sold to
Chare two messuages lying together on the east side of
Church Lane and south of the parsonage, which were the
Hungerford tenement of 1566. (fn. 13)
Elizabeth Young died between 1611 and 1615 and
was succeeded by her daughter Christian, who was
estranged from her husband. (fn. 14) In 1626 Christian wife of
Henry Shuckburgh was assessed at £2 in lands in the
subsidy, (fn. 15) and in 1645, then a widow, was assessed at
£200, but in 1646 was successful in getting that reduced
to the £35 which she claimed was a fifth of her revenue. (fn. 16)
Christian's son John died by 1647, leaving a will in
which he devised his land in Chelsea and Brompton to
his son Thomas, with payments to his other children,
Henry and Frances, and called upon his mother to
confirm that she and his grandmother had both promised he should have the land. (fn. 17) In 1648 Christian and her
grandson Henry Shuckburgh, both of Chelsea, conveyed
to her eldest grandson Thomas for payments under will
of Christian's husband, Brompton Hall and 6 acres, the
houses once occupied by William Gawnte, Elizabeth
Young, and Thomas Creake, and houses occupied by 6
tenants. (fn. 18) She probably occupied her mother's house,
the Blackhouse, and was succeeded there by Thomas
Shuckburgh, who died in 1670.
Later history of the remaining estate is uncertain. By
1706 the Blackhouse alias the Whitehouse, formerly
held by Elizabeth Young, Christian Shuckburgh, and
Thomas Shuckburgh, had passed to Edward Harris of
Aldenham (Herts.), together with the messuage called
the Dog tavern, formerly held by Thomas Creake, with
an orchard and garden and all other premises belonging
to the two houses; 5 houses purchased from Thomas
Crompton by Thomas and Henry Shuckburgh; and 6
cottages built on part of the orchard and ground
belonging to the Blackhouse and the Dog. Harris's property was inherited by his daughter Elizabeth, wife of
William Grove, and then passed to their daughter
Elizabeth and her husband Edward Peacock, goldsmith,
who were holding it in 1718. By then the Blackhouse and
the Dog had each been divided into two dwellings occupied by tenants, with 6 cottages in Waterman's Court,
and 6 houses in or near Church Lane with their
outhouses and gardens. (fn. 1) The Blackhouse apparently lay
on the west side of the four houses making up Arch
House and the White Horse, and the Dog lay on the west
side of the Blackhouse. In 1739 the property was
conveyed to Grove Peacock of St Martin-in-the-Fields,
coachmaker, son of Edward and Elizabeth. (fn. 2) The estate
has not been traced further.
EDMUND HUNGERFORD'S HOLDING AND ARCH HOUSE
In 1587 Edmund Hungerford held freely 2 tenements
once Cleybrooke's for 7½d., (fn. 3) possibly the 2 messuages
and 2 gardens conveyed to Thomas Hungerford in
1569. (fn. 4) A conveyance in 1584 by Anthony Hungerford to
John Wall and John Towgood of a messuage, wharf,
garden, and orchard in Chelsea (fn. 5) may be a resettlement or
a sale of part of Thomas Hungerford's property.
Edmund Hungerford sold to Michael Forth of Enfield
waste ground between a messuage and the river near
Danvers House which by 1624 had houses on it when it
was sold to Sir John Danvers. (fn. 6) Though Thomas Hungerford is said to have sold property to Richard Fletcher,
bishop of London, (fn. 7) it seems more likely that it was sold
to the bishop after Hungerford's death. This was a
capital messuage and other buildings where the bishop
was living by 1592, and formed the basis of the property
later known as Arch House. In 1594 Bishop Fletcher
married as his second wife Mary the widow of Sir
Richard Baker, and died in 1596 leaving large debts to
the queen for First Fruits of his various ecclesiastical
preferments, and only his house in Chelsea, plate, and
some other goods to provide for his children. (fn. 8) His
Chelsea house was presumably sold: it was said to have
belonged to Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, (fn. 9) perhaps on
behalf of the Crown, and was probably the messuages,
two gardens, and one wharf conveyed in 1610 by Sir
William Selby and Talbot Bowes and his wife Agnes to
Sir Thomas Baker, Mary Fletcher's stepson. (fn. 10) Sir
Thomas died in 1625 leaving his house and garden in
Chelsea to his wife Constance for life, with permission to
sell it for the benefit of his children. In 1625 Constance
conveyed the house and other houses which had been
converted into one dwelling, with its barns, stables,
wharf, and landing places to Sir Edward Powell, Bt,
Master of Requests, and his wife Mary for £600. (fn. 11) In the
1650s it was claimed that Mary Powell's mother Jacoba,
widow of Sir Peter Vanlore, had provided the money for
the purchase and intended the house to be conveyed to
her trustees. Jacoba was said to have lived in the house
until her death in 1636 when she left it to Thomas
Crompton, her steward, and Lady Powell seems to have
lived there from about 1636, when she separated from
her husband, until her death in 1651, (fn. 12) The Powells had
a substantial mansion there, having incorporated into it
another messuage in Church Lane and a little cottage
adjoining, and in 1646 Sir Edward bought the freehold
of the additional houses from Thomas Fisher for £150. (fn. 13)
Sir Edward was listed as owner of rights of common for
'cottages'. (fn. 14)
Sir Edward Powell died in 1653 without heirs,
devising his lands to his sister's son, William Hinson,
who added the name Powell and was granted a baronetcy in 1661. (fn. 15) In 1679 Sir William was presented at the
court leet for encroaching on Church Lane opposite the
church by erecting 3 stacks of chimneys each jetting 10
inches. (fn. 16) He died in 1680, devising the rents from the
mansion, stables, barns, and coachhouses in Chelsea,
then in possession of William Dyer, to his wife Mary for
life, and then to his only child Mary (d. 1723), wife of Sir
John Williams, Bt, and her issue. (fn. 17) By 1685 the house
was standing empty and in need of repair, and was leased
by Sir John and Mary Williams to Charles Stanton of
London, carpenter. (fn. 18)
Lady Williams's property was inherited by her four
daughters as coheirs, and in 1733 they conveyed to
Richard Coope of London four houses in Chelsea which
had formerly been one, with 4 stables and 3 gardens, one
called the White Horse inn, abutting the Thames on the
south and Church Lane on the east, purchased from
Lady Baker and Thomas Fisher and occupied by tenants,
together with pews in the churches of Fulham or
Chelsea. (fn. 19) In 1743 a 61-year lease of tofts and parcels of
buildings running from 1684 and made by Mary
Williams in 1686 to Stanton was assigned to Richard
Coope, citizen and salter. (fn. 20) The four houses occupied the
site of nos 64-7 Cheyne Walk. No. 67 was Arch House,
so-called because it was extended southward to the riverside wharf, leaving an archway over the public highway
along the riverside. It is not known when this extension
was built, though it is shown in illustrations of Chelsea in
the mid 18th century. The southern wing was demolished when the embankment was created c. 1870; nos
64-6, which had been rebuilt in the early 19th century,
and no. 67 were then renamed Lombard Terrace. They
were all demolished in the 20th century. (fn. 1)