You are in [Themes] [Manor of Hungerford Engleford]
There is no single "manor of Hungerford". Indeed, there is no mention whatsoever of a manor named Hungerford in the Domesday Survey of 1086.
The history is much more complicated! There were several ancient manors holding land in Hungerford - Inglefol (Hungerford Engleford), Charlton (Hopgrass and Charnham Street), Eddington, and Denford. Many more Domesday manors were nearby, including Leverton, Inkpen, Avington, Chilton Foliat, Shalbourne and the large manor of Kintbury.
Follow this link for more on the Manorial History of Hungerford itself.
This article described the manor of Hungerford Engleford (variant spellings of this name include Ingleford, Inglefol, Englefield. The Victoria County History of Berkshire uses the form Engleford, and I will maintain this as the standard form for normal reference purposes).
The manor of Hungerford Engleford from 1420 onwards:
In 1420 the Manor of Hungerford Engleford passed from the Belet to the Darrell family (of Littlecote).
Both Hungerford manor and Hungerford Engleford manor were held by Sir Walter Hungerford 1446:
In 1429 they sold it to Sir Walter Hungerford – at which time it comprised 11 messuages in Hungerford, one in Charnham Street, with 84 acres..
Sir Walter Hungerford had served under Henry V in France in 1415, and fought at Agincourt. Henry awarded him Knight of the Garter. On Henry's death in 1421, Sir Walter Hungerford was an executor of his will. Towards the end of Hungerford's life, in 1446, Henry VI granted Sir Walter Hungerford "the lordship of the manor of Hungerford, the town and borough, and our Park in Hungerford, the Fee of Sanden, for fealty and twenty marks yearly".
The manors of both Hungerford and Hungerford Engleford were again held by the same lord, one manor a seignorial, and the other a royal demesne. Separate audits and accounts were presented annually, and separate courts were kept in respect of each.
When Sir Walter Hungerford died in 1449, the manors were inherited by his son Robert, 2nd Baron Hungerford, and when he died in 1459 by his son - another Robert, 3rd Baron Hungerford. The 3rd Baron was an active Lancastrian in the Wars of the Roses, and his forfeited estates were given by the Crown to Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Robert was killed at the Battle of Hexham in 1464.
Commoners' rights and Quit Rents:
So the manor of Hungerford Engleford existed with its own rights long before the trust which set up the Borough and Manor, finalised in 1617. Being an entirely separate manor (in the same way as the manor of Hidden was or the manor of Charlton / Hopgrass) they paid their own quit rent to their own lord and not to the Town and Borough of Hungerford.
However, they differed from the manors of Hidden and Charleton / Hopgrass in that the Hungerford Engleford properties seem to have Commoners' rights as townsmen.
Because the Hungerford Engleford properties originally paid quit rents to the Lord of the Hungerford Engleford manor, they do not appear on the Hungerford town quit rent rolls. However, but their residents do appear in Commoners' lists. (Rules about who were or might be Commoners seem to have changed at different times in the town's history!).
The properties comprising Hungerford Engleford manor:
The manor house or capital mansion of the manor of Hungerford Engleford was, from earliest times of which we have record (i.e. 1470), located on the site of the present 121 (now 120a) High Street (still known in the 20th century as Manor House).
The manor of Hungerford Engleford comprised several properties. These included houses on both the east and west sides of the High Street, as well as in Church Street and lands in Sanden Fee. It did not possess land or property in "Newtown", since the latter was part of the manor of Hidden, and no such property in "Newtown" could have been sold as part of the manor of Hungerford Engleford.
The properties appear to be:
16 Bridge Street
25 High Street
38-39 High Street
67-69 High Street
77 High Street
84 High Street
114 High Street
119 High Street
121 High Street
124 High Street
125 High Street
127 High Street
129 High Street
Several further properties at the east end of Church Street.
Most of the Hungerford Engleford properties lie on the east side of the High Street, possibly reflecting the origin in land east of the present town, adjacent to the parish of Kintbury. There are some Hungerford Engleford properties at the eastern end of Church Street, and there are some lands in Sanden Fee.
The sale and break-up of Hungerford Engleford manor:
During the 19th century manorial rights tended to disappear, due particularly to the Enclosure Awards, but the break up of the manorial system had been in evidence from the mid 17th century when manorial lords were sometimes forced by debt to dispose either of single items of their property by means of long leases virtually equivalent to freehold (e.g. 999 years) or long-lease a bloc of property (according to their financial needs) or in desperate cases to sell off the manor itself.
This happened with Hungerford Engleford (and it did also with the manor of Hidden).
In 1724 the deeds of 25 High Street reveal that William Hungerford sold to John Hungerford (son of Walter Hungerford) the "Manor & Lordship of Hungerford".
According to "Is name your Hungerford?" by E.L. Davis, John Hungerford of Lincolns Inn was a Bencher, Counsel for The East India Company and Member of Parliament for Scarborough. He came from the Cadenham branch of the Hungerford family, probably one of the three sons of Sir George Hungerford.
John Hungerford died just five years later on 8 Jan 1729 and was buried at Hungerford Church one week later. He left £16,000 and his extensive library went to Kings College, Cambridge, where there is a monument in his memory. A striking memorial tablet (illustrated in Sir Richard Colt Hoare's "Hungerfordiana") was placed in Hungerford Church, but has not survived. However, a memorial to his manservant, Henry "Trusty" Capps has survived. Trusty Capps died in 1774, leaving his legacy to the poor of the Parish. In 1782 the £50 legacy was used to re-build the Grammar School.
When John Hungerford died, his executors were Rev Thomas Mangay and John Coppinger. The will stipulated that one third of the estate should go to Mangay and two thirds to the Provost and "Scollars" (sic!) of Kings College, Cambridge.
John Hungerford's widow Mary died in 1739.
In the following year, 1740, (the documents relating to 25 High Street state that) Kings College, Cambridge brought a bill in the High Court of Chancery against Mangay and Coppinger regarding the Will. The Hon. Justice Page decreed the the Freehold of the estate should be sold on the open market. It was duly advertised in 1742 in the London Gazette at an expected price of £2600.
In 1743 it was duly bought by Matthew Loder, surgeon, of Thame. He paid £1000 to Rev. Dr. Thomas Mangey (spelling different) of Eling, Middlesex, Doctor of Divinity, and £1600 to John Coppinger of St Clements Danes. [ The documents mention that the manor was previously purchased by Henry Smith and in the tenure of John Ball, and formerly purchased by John Hungerford Esq., late of Lincoln's Inn, Middlesex.]
In his will dated 1762, Matthew Loder left his "Manor in Hungerford" to Sam Smith, his son-in-law (who was married to his daughter Frances).
In 1771 Sam Smith of Stroud, Lacock, Wiltshire, renounced his right of inheritance in favour of his third son, Matthew Loder Smith, surgeon in Hungerford.
In 1808 Matthew Loder Smith and his wife Lucy advertised Manor House and the whole estate for sale. The Morning Post of Sat 1 Oct 1808 included the following advert:
"Freehold Estate, Hungerford. To be sold, the Manor, or reputed Manor of Hungerford Ingleford, with the Mansion-house thereto belonging, situate in the pleasant town of Hungeford, in the county of Berks, consisting of six rooms on a floor, in good repair, with coach-house, stables, two walled gardens excellently planted with young fruit trees, in great perfection, dairy, good cellars, and all other conveniences. And also, all those several closes, pieces, and parcels of arable meadow and pasture land, part of the meadow adjoining the said mansion-house, containing altogether 117 acres or thereabouts, farm-yard, coack-house, stables, granary, and all other convenient out-buildings, with right of common for 200 sheep; the whole land-tax redeemed. The arable land lies in the commonable fields in the parish of Hungerford, which are capable of great improvement by an enclosure, together with an extensive right of fishing in the River Kennet, so much famed for trout, eels and cray-fish. The Kennet and Avon Canal, from London to Bath, now nearly completed, runs through the town, in which there is fine rich fishing. The fixtures in the mansion-house must be taken at valuation, and the purchaser may be accomodated with 4000l. (£4,000) on the security of the estate. Hungerford is situate sixty-five miles from London and forty from Bath, and the Bath coaches pass through it every morning and evening; the roads are excellent, and the neighbhood abounds in field sports. The Purchaser may have immediate possession of the mansion-house and great part of the estate. For further particulars, apply personally, or by letter post paid, to Mr James Hall; or Mr George Ryley, Solicitors, Hungerford; and for a view, at the mansion-house."
The manor and estate were bought by John Hunt Watts of Ham, Esq. for £5450. At that time the estate included cottages occupied by Dean Hatter, Mary Shepherd (widow), Maria Bance (widow), Henry Clements, ..... Martin, John Chuswick and John Leader (labourers), Misses Robinson, Browns Yard, "Bartons" or Close.
Thereafter, it seems that the various individual properties were sold at different times. The "Manor of Hungerford Engleford" ceased to be a single entity.
The Canal Wharf, 2011