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From the earliest times until after the Reformation we find Hampstead an appanage of the Church. At the dissolution of the Abbey and Convent of Westminster, Henry VIII. granted the Manor of Hampstead, combined with those of North Hall and Down Barnes, in part support to the newly-made bishopric of Westminster. In 1551, two years before the death of Edward VI., they were surrendered to the Crown, and in the same year granted to Sir Thomas Wroth as a mark of the young King’s favour. This gentleman, who, ‘amongst the divers sober and learned men of the King’s privy chamber, by whose wise and learned discourse he was much profitted,’ stood highest in his estimation, and in proof of it, with boyish generosity, we find the King, who had knighted him, making him rich presents from the royal wardrobe, and bestowing on him, not only the Manor of Hampstead and the others above-mentioned, but a plurality of manors in several counties.

On the death of Edward, and accession of Mary, Sir Thomas fled to Strasburg, where he remained till the succession of Elizabeth, when he returned to England, where he was ‘received into the Queen’s favour, and employed by her in the concerns of State.’

In Hakluyt’s ‘Voyages,’ Park tells us, ‘there is an account of a merchandising voyage to Barbary in the year 1552, set forth by Sir Thomas Wroth and others.’

His name appears in the catalogue of Middlesex gentry,[53] and ‘it is observable,’ says Fuller, ‘that of all in this catalogue, he who went away for his conscience hath alone his name remaining in the County.’ He retained a high reputation to the last, and died at his Manor of Durants, in Enfield, co. Middlesex, October 9, 1573.

The Manor of Hampstead remained in this family till sold by one John Wroth to Sir Baptist Hicks in 1620. This Sir Baptist Hicks was a wealthy silk mercer of Cheapside. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard May, of London, who outlived her husband, and at her death left £200 for the purchase of land, the produce of which was to be appropriated to apprenticing children and assisting the poor of Hampstead.

Sir Baptist Hicks was the son of Michael Hicks, silk mercer in Cheapside, and the younger brother of Sir Michael Hicks, secretary to Lord Treasurer Burleigh. He was brought up to his father’s business, and had ‘great dealings with the Court for his rich silks and commodities from Italy and other foreign parts, by which he made a great estate. Upon the coming in of King James he was sworn one of his servants (anno 1603), and soon knighted.’[54] He is remarkable for having been the first citizen who kept shop after receiving knighthood, and for having built at his own expense, in the midst of the street called St. John Street, Clerkenwell, a building of brick and stone for the convenience of the meetings of the justices of the county of Middlesex, of whom he was one,[55] which had hitherto been held ‘at a common inn called the Castle in St. John’s Street, the resort of carriers and many other sorts of people.’[56]

‘On Wednesday, the 17th of Jany., 1612, the “Session House” being then nearly finished, there assembled twenty-six justices of the said county, being the first day of their meeting there, where the founder feasted them all; and then, after they had considered what name this structure should bear, they all with one consent gave it the name of Hicks’s Hall, in grateful memory of the builder, and he freely gave the House to them and their successors for ever.’[57]

But previous to this his wealth, the King’s favour, and the honour bestowed upon him, and, above all, the contempt he had shown for civic dignities—having paid the fine of £500 to be discharged from the office of Alderman for Bread Street Ward, which was permitted at the King’s express desire—appears to have brought on him the ill-will of the Court of Aldermen, who disputed his right to continue in business after knighthood; and subsequently by standing on his knighthood for precedency, a right which a fellow-citizen, one Herrick, and his wife disputed, he involved himself in another contest with them. It proved a tedious, troublesome, and chargeable one, owing to the haughty deportment of both Hicks and Herrick and of their imperious wives, ‘who, at their own expense, maintained the suit against the Court of Aldermen.’

It was after these proceedings—perhaps as a sort of peace-offering—that Hicks’s Hall was built. Sir Baptist Hicks was one of the Commissioners appointed by the King (anno 1620) to inquire into the decay of St. Paul’s. He was eventually created Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden, with remainder, in default of male issue, to his son-in-law, Sir Edward Noel, who had married the eldest of his two daughters, Juliana, by whose descendant Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, son of Sir Edward Noel (son-in-law and successor to Lord Hicks, Viscount Campden), the Manor of Hampstead was sold to Sir William Langhorne, Bart., 1707; and from this time, says Park, the Manor of Hampstead became closely connected in proprietorship with that of Charlton, in Kent, which Sir William had likewise purchased, and where he resided in the fine mansion built by Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Henry, Prince of Wales.

Park calls this gentleman an East India merchant, but I find that a Sir William Langhorne, thirty-five years previous to the purchase of Hampstead Manor, was Governor of Madras.[58] Sir William had for his first wife a daughter of the Earl of Rutland, who died in 1700, and at nearly fourscore married a second time ‘the daughter-in-law of his friend, Dr. Warren, to whom he gave the Rectory of Charlton, and who appears to have resided like a private chaplain in his house. Seven years afterwards, at his death (aged eighty-six years), he left Dr. Warren his sole executor, guardian, and tutor to his nephew and residuary legatee, William Langhorne Games, Esq., and trustee of the Manor of Charlton. From this gentleman the estate passed to Mrs. Margaret Maryon, widow, a distant relative of Sir William (a fourteenth tenant in tail), from whom it descended to her son, the Rev. John Maryon, with whom the testamentary limitations ended. A new entail was created, from which the present proprietor derives his title, as those who succeed him are likely to do for many years.’[59]

By the will of the Rev. John Maryon, the Manors of Hampstead and Charlton were limited to the testator’s niece, sole executrix and residuary legatee, Margaret Marie Weller, widow (1760), for life; with remainder to her only child, Jane Weller, for life; with remainder to the heirs of the said Jane Weller, who married General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, Bart., who in his wife’s right became possessed of the manor in or about 1780. Sir Thomas died in 1798, and his wife, Dame Jane Wilson, was Lady of the Manor until 1816, when her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, Bart., under his father’s will became tenant for life of the manor, with the advowson, and divers freehold messuages, lands, and hereditaments at Hampstead.

On his death he was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Maryon Wilson, and he by his son, Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson.

Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon Wilson is the present Lord of the Manor (1898).[60]