CHAPTER III - Stockwell
This chapter covers the area of the former
Manor of Stockwell, which extended further south than the relatively small area now
known as Stockwell. The Manor was roughly
diamond-shaped. The boundary in the north is
uncertain, but on the east it probably ran from a
point just north of Durand Gardens in Clapham
Road to the junction of Stockwell Park Road and
Groveway and down Stockwell Park Road. On
the west it probably followed the southern boundary of Vauxhall Manor along Lansdowne Way
and Wandsworth Road and thereafter the boundary between the parishes of Battersea and Lambeth to Clapham Road. In the south the Manor
was bounded by the present Brixton Road and
Brixton Hill on the east and Bedford and Lyham
Roads on the west. A small detached portion of
the Manor lay on the north-west side of Wandsworth Road (fig. 19).
STOCKWELL MANOR
The emergence of Stockwell and Vauxhall Manors
as separate entities after the division of South
Lambeth Manor has already been discussed on
page 57. The evidence suggests, however, that
although Stockwell achieved manorial status at
about the end of the 13th century (fn. a) the courts of
Vauxhall Manor imposed their jurisdiction on
Stockwell for centuries afterwards. In 1326 a
rent of a head penny was payable by Stockwell
Manor to the View of Frank Pledge of Vauxhall, (ref. 2)
and was still being paid in 1528–9. (ref. 3) In 1722
the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury were presented by this (their own) court to put up new
stocks in Stockwell as well as in Vauxhall. (ref. 4) Even
as late as 1814, when a new pound was needed
in Stockwell, it was the View of Frank Pledge
of Vauxhall which ordered it to be erected,
though on this occasion the responsibility for its
erection was placed on the Lady of Stockwell
Manor. (ref. 5) It is impossible to tell whether the
Lords of Stockwell recognized the jurisdiction of
the Vauxhall court, for the only manorial record
which has been found of an independent court
being held for Stockwell is a draft minute of a
Court Baron and View of Frank Pledge held in
1626 by Sir George Chute, then Lord of the
Manor. (ref. 6) The minute records the election of a
headborough, ale-conner, and constable, although
before this date, tithing men, and after this date,
headboroughs and constables, were elected for
Stockwell liberty at the Views of Frank Pledge
held at Vauxhall. (ref. 7) This evidence, though scrappy,
does serve to confirm that Stockwell and Vauxhall had originally been linked closely enough for
an association to continue, however weakly, until
the 19th century; it also lends colour to the
hypothesis that together they formed the ancient
Manor of South Lambeth.
The descent of the Manor is described in some
detail in the Victoria County History of Surrey,
(ref. 8)
published in 1912, but additional information
has since been discovered. At the close of the 15th
century, Stockwell Manor, together with Leve-hurst, Bodley, Upgrove and Scarlettes, and parts
of Vauxhall and Lambeth Manors, was held by
Sir John Leigh (Legh). Shortly before his death
in 1523, he erected a chapel (ref. 9) in the parish church
in which he and his wife were buried, (ref. 10) and a
second chapel in Stockwell. He left instructions
in his will that the chapel at Stockwell should be
repaired out of the profits and revenues of Stockwell and Levehurst Manors, and bequeathed
66s. 8d. a year for a chantry priest and 53s. 4d.
for ornaments; two vestments were to be made
out of his furred velvet gown, with crosses from
his jacket of crimson velvet. (ref. 9)
Sir John Leigh's heir was his nephew, John
Leigh, (ref. 9) who in 1543 exchanged Stockwell and
Levehurst Manors with the King for otherproperty. (ref. 11) Stockwell was held by the Crown
until 1555, when it was granted to Anthony
Browne, Viscount Montagu, “for the better
support of the estate and rank of a viscount”, (ref. 12)
in consideration of his services to Queen Mary
during the rebellions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Wyatt. The Manor was
held in chief for the service of half a knight's fee
and charged with an annual rent of £8 12s. 11d.
Viscount Montagu was succeeded by his grandson, the second Viscount Montagu, (ref. 13) who sold
the Manor in 1598 to George Chute of Brede,
Sussex. (ref. 14) Excepted from the sale were 30 acres
called Great or (sic) Little Crowlands, seven acres
called Paradise, Stockwell chapel, a forge and
lands in the occupation of “Jukes”, and Stockwell
Wood.
Some of this latter property corresponds with
certain lands which were let on long leases by the
second Viscount Montagu before he sold the
Manor. In 1580 he let the manor house, with
part of Crowlands and other closes, to Henry
Store of London, woodmonger, for 1,000 years,
and in 1586 he granted a lease of some 44 acres
for 2,000 years to John Pynder (Pindar) and
John Thrayle, citizens and vintners of London. (ref. 15)
John and/or Thomas Norton also had a lease of
part of the Manor. (ref. 16) Most of these leasehold
interests were acquired by Francis Gofton, who
after mortgaging them, (ref. 15) sold them in 1640 in
three lots to Richard Rundell of Stockwell,
yeoman, Edmond Dent, of South Lambeth, and
Samuel Lewes, citizen and merchant taylor of
London. (ref. 17)
Before he died, George Chute settled the
Manor on Sir George Chute, (ref. 18) one of his younger
sons. Sir George Chute was knighted in 1608 (ref. 19)
and died in 1649. (ref. 20) In his will he expressed a
wish to be buried in the aisle in St. Mary's
Lambeth where his predecessors, Lords of Stockwell Manor, had a right to be buried—presumably in the Leigh Chapel. Sir George's son, also
a George Chute, of Stockwell (ref. 21) and Streatham, (ref. 22)
inherited the Manor, but sold about 76 acres to
John Howland of Streatham in 1683. Howland's
daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Wriothesley, Duke
of Bedford, inherited her father's estate and on
her death it passed into the hands of her husband's
descendants. (ref. 22) The estate is marked on the plan
on Plates 74 and 75 as belonging to the Duke of
Bedford. The rest of the Manor continued to be
held by the Chute family until 1699, when the
family's trustees sold it to (Sir) John Thornycroft. (ref. 23) When Sir John died he left the Manor in
trust for his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Lieutenant-General the Hon. Roger Peter Handasyd, and
only a shilling to his “undutiful obstinate and
rebellious” son John. Nevertheless, when John
Thornycroft junior made his will in 1739, he
bequeathed his father's estate to Henry Forster
of Southwark, distiller, and five years later his
sister Elizabeth had to pay £630 to regain the
property. Her brother was then described as
lately a prisoner in the King's Bench Prison. (ref. 24)
The plan reproduced on Plates 74 and 75 represents the Manor of Stockwell in 1773 when it was
owned by Henshaw Thornycroft. In 1781
Edward Thornycroft, then owner of the Manor,
sold about 30 acres to Benjamin Robertson of
Stockwell; this estate lay on the west side of
Stockwell Road. An abstract of title relating to the
estate mentions, but does not abstract, a deed of
1778 in circumstances which suggest that Robertson had already purchased another part of the
Manor before 1781. (ref. 25) This may have been the
site of Stockwell Park Crescent and part of Stockwell Park Road which Robertson's nephew and
heir, John Bedwell, sold in 1806. (ref. 26)
The major part of the Manor remaining in
the hands of the Thornycroft family was sold by
auction in 14 lots in 1802; (ref. 24) it comprised all the
land south of the present Ferndale Road and some
adjoining it on the north side. Probably the last
pieces of the Manor to be disposed of were Stockwell Green and Stockwell Common, which were
sold about the same time as the auction took
place, to William Lambert, who thus became
Lord of the Manor. (ref. 27)