The Wentworths of Belchamp Walter

The Wentworths of Belchamp Walter

Menu The Wentworths of Belchamp Walter

The Wentworths of Belchamp Walter - 1539-1611

I have always been puzzled by the statement on the English Heritage website that the Belchamp Walter Manor and Estate was "held" under the de Veres until it "came" to Sir Roger Wentworth in 1539.

Firstly, there is a long period between the de Veres at Castle Hedingham and 1539. In 1539 John de Vere was the 16th Earl of Oxford and a supporter of Queen Mary. He was suspected and charged for Catholic sympathies (you think with Mary?) but was instrumental in Mary's accession to the throne in 1553. While he was a "magnate" in the county of Essex he was a bigomist and married Margery (Margaret) Golding from Belchamp St. Paul (1548).

Estate "(still officially held by the de Veres)"

At the time Sir Roger "came to" Belchamp Walter the de Veres were busy elsewhere. They could have "owned" the estate but this assumes that they "owned" it in the first place. The statement that Belchamp Walter was given to Geoffery de Mandeville (1140) as part of a dowry by Aubrey to his daughter Rohse prior to his death in 1144 comes from Thomas Wright and may not be accurate..

Under the de Veres it was held by a number of families until in 1539 it came to Sir Roger Wentworth.

Sir Roger's grandson, John Wentworth, commissioned the surveyor Walker to prepare a map of his estate, which was completed in 1605 and showed that the house was surrounded by a garden with an orchard, a rectangular pond, and a dovecote, and was enclosed to west and north by a ditch. John Wentworth sold the manor (still officially held by the de Veres) to John Raymond in c 1611.

Top

The Wentworths of Belchamp Walter - 1539-1611

Links