MANOR HOUSES
School of Pythagoras.
The oldest secular
building in Cambridge is the one described in 1279
as 'the stone house of the scholars of Merton'. (fn. 55) Of
other stone houses, such as the stone house called the
Lamb in St. Michael's parish, (fn. 56) the stone houses
opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulchre given
to the Barnwell canons by Master Robert of Fulbourne, (fn. 57) the stone house of John of Cambridge, (fn. 58) the
stone house of Adam Elyot, (fn. 59) or the large stone
house of John le Rus outside Trumpington gate, (fn. 60)
where the Fitzwilliam Museum now stands, no trace
survives. The house, however, that stands today
behind the yard of the 'Merton Arms', between
Northampton Street and the Cam, appears to go
back to the later 12th century. (fn. 61) Since the 13th
century it has been owned by Merton College,
Oxford. Antiquarians from the days of Elizabeth I
have miscalled it the School of Pythagoras, or, less
frequently, the houses of Anaxagoras. (fn. 62)
The oldest part, running north-east to south-west,
looked originally toward the river, an ancient arm of
which, believed to date from the days when 'East
Angle and Mercian glared at one another across
Magdalene Bridge', (fn. 63) was then 500 ft. nearer to the
house and could serve both as moat and channel for
waterborne supplies. (fn. 64) Documentary evidence (fn. 65)
shows that the estate of which it was the principal
messuage was held by the Dunning family and that
when Harvey Fitz Eustace, Dunning's grandson,
was Mayor, he lived in this house, as his father
Eustace had done. How his descendants lost their
wealth, and had finally to sell the house and property to Merton College in 1270–1 has been sketched
by Maitland and told in detail by Milner Gray. (fn. 66)
Early in the 13th century the owner had added a
smaller wing, containing a solar, to the original 12thcentury building, possibly on a recently purchased
piece of land. (fn. 67) In spite of considerable mauling in
the 18th and 19th centuries, the building is today
a weather-proof structure, as interesting architecturally as it is historically; (fn. 68) the strong and simple
manor-house of the first Mayor of Cambridge, once
the headquarters of his estate and the site of its
manorial court. (fn. 69)
As the property of Merton College, the house was
leased to various tenants, one of them, Eudo of
Helpringham, Mayor six times in the 14th century.
The house and farm were acquired for King's College in the 15th century, presumably as a source of
food, but returned to Merton after about sixteen
years. (fn. 70) From the 15th to the 19th century the
lessees were farmers. They made substantial additions, as time went on, to the original buildings,
which came to be used as a granary. (fn. 71) It was in
virtue of its manor of Merton Hall that in 1801
Merton College was one of the five claimants to the
lordship of the waste in the western fields of Cambridge, then about to be inclosed. (fn. 72) Seven years
later the farmhouse had become a school house—
Merton Hall Academy, a boys' boarding school,
which came to an end in three years. Since then
Merton Hall has been a private residence, though
from 1872 to 1874 it housed the society which was
afterwards to be known as Newnham College. (fn. 73)
Harleston's Inn.
Some details are extant concerning the house of another medieval Mayor of
Cambridge, which was also the capital messuage of
a manor, though it is no longer standing. Maitland
called attention to the acquisition in the early 14th
century of many strips in the town fields by a seeming newcomer, Roger of Harleston. (fn. 74) Roger also
acquired lands in the county, where he acted with
county squires, such as Hugh le Zouch and Warin of
Bassingbourn, in both private and public transactions. (fn. 75) He also transacted business in the Borough
with Cambridge burgesses. (fn. 76) In 1359 he was granted,
with three other townsmen, a grange on the river
bank at Cambridge, with a dovehouse and other
accessories, together with a messuage at Waterbeach. (fn. 77) Harleston also owned houses at Denny,
Milton, Cottenham and Haslingfield, which were
looted by the rebels in 1381, as, in the same week, were
his house and dovehouse in Cambridge. (fn. 78) All this property, both in the county and the Borough, came into
the hands of Ivo of Harleston, possibly his nephew.
Ivo, the son of John of Harleston and Margaret of
Walton, was born at Cambridge on Palm Sunday
1378 (fn. 79) and died in 1403, leaving, besides lands in
Bedfordshire and Essex inherited from his mother, (fn. 80)
a manor in the town of Cambridge in St. Clement's
parish, extending to the townships of Enhale, (fn. 81)
Newnham, Coton, Chesterton, Waterbeach, and
Fordham in the county of Cambridge. (fn. 82) Of his son
John, a minor in 1403, we hear no more after the
death of Ivo's relict Eleanor in 1416. (fn. 83) The treasurers' roll for 1424–5 records a payment from 'the
heirs of Roger of Harleston'; (fn. 84) the family seems to
have left Cambridge. The house was known to
Caius in 1574 as Harleston's Inn, a hostel for
jurists; (fn. 85) it had been licensed by the Bishop of Ely
in 1466 for the celebration of divine service. (fn. 86) The
house with its appurtenant lands was purchased by
St. John's College in 1534 from Sir John Mordaunt. (fn. 87)
The house can be identified on Hamond's map. (fn. 88) Its
disappearance is signalized by the change of name
when Harleston's became Thompson's Lane, (fn. 89) but
the dovehouse, acquired with 'Harleston's lands' by
St. John's College (fn. 90) is traceable on the map beyond
the King's Ditch until the ditch itself was built over
and the Dovehouse Close became Sussum's market
gardens. (fn. 91)