Charlton Manor is an English manor and ancient demesne over 1,000 years old in the county of Hertfordshire in England, approximately 45 minutes north of London, and adjacent to the market town of Hitchin with which it has ancient historical connections. Charlton Manor is recorded in the Hertfordshire County Archives.
Over time the ownership of Charlton Manor, a landed estate, and the title of Lord of the Manor of Charlton, has changed numerous times since coming into being before 1066 and the Norman Conquest. It passed through the hands of Earl Harold Godwinson (who became King Harold II on 6 January 1066 after the death of Edward the Confessor), William the Conqueror (King William I, Duke of Normandy), and various Priors and heads of the Knights Templar before they were disbanded. This was followed by ownership by the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitallers) before they were in turn disbanded causing ownership to pass to King Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the monasteries. From then Charlton Manor and the Lordship of Charlton descended with Hitchin Priory under the initial ownership of Ralph Radcliffe.
Over the following four centuries the lordship of the Manor of Charlton passed as part of Hitchin Priory through various members of the Radcliffe and Delmé-Radcliffe family. In 1925 Sir Ralph Delmé-Radcliffe was noted as Lord of the Manor in the Manorial Documents Register of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in London. When he died in 1963 the Lordship passed to his daughter Anne who subsequently sold Hitchin Priory. The Lordship was then passed by Anne to Peter Havart-Simkin, a British citizen currently residing in California in the United States, who now holds this ancient title.
Charlton Manor, William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book
The Manor of Charlton dates to well before William the Conqueror and the conquest of England in 1066 and is referenced in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cerletone (see illustration) later to become known as Charlton. There is also a reference and translation as part of the Open Domesday project.
Prior to William the Conqueror, Charlton Manor was owned by Earl Harold (and in 1066 by him as Harold II the last Anglo-Saxon king of England) as Overlord of the manor with the Lordship held by two of Harold's sokemen. Earl Harold controlled some 16 Hertfordshire manors in the Hundred of Hitchin (which consisted of 20 different towns and villages including Charlton).
The Manor of Hitchin was the head of the group held by Earl Harold, to which King William succeeded after the Conquest. Prior to 1066 Earl Harold, the son of the Earl of Wessex and brother-in-law of King Edward the Confessor, was a landowner associated with 719 properties in England. After the conquest, King William owned all the lands previously owned by Harold and was associated with 2,360 properties in England.
William granted the Manor of Hitchin to Ilbert, Sheriff of Hertfordshire (who was also the High Sheriff of Essex, on behalf of the crown as a Royal Manor. Subsequently, the manors of King's Walden, Charlton and Offley were formally attached to the Manor of Hitchin by Ilbert. Hence the Lord of the Manor of Charlton was formally connected with the Manor of Hitchin. In 1086 King William was both the Tenant-in-Chief of the Manor of Charlton and the Lord of the Manor of Charlton.
Charlton Manor from the Knights Templar to Henry VIII
Hertfordshire was a focal point for the Knights Templar in England. The Manor of Dinsley, which was formerly part of the Manor of Hitchin was given to the Knights Templar in the 12th century after a chapter of the Order of the Temple meeting in Paris in 1147. The Templars built a preceptory on the site – which was renamed or known as Temple Dinsley.
The property of the Knights Templar was increased by gifts from benefactors. Among the larger gifts was land in Charlton which was donated in 1244-5 by Maud de Lovetot. As such, the Manor of Charlton became even more closely associated with and controlled by the Knights Templar, and the Lordship of the Manor of Charlton was vested in the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar were granted free warren in their demesne lands of Dinsley, Preston, Charlton, King's Walden and Hitchin in January 1253 by Henry III.
Charlton Manor and the Lordship of Charlton Manor were in the hands of the Knights Templar until the suppression of the order in 1307. Between 13 October 1307 and 8 January 1308, the Templars went largely unmolested in England. The majority were never arrested but the damage was done. The order was officially disbanded in 1312 by Pope Clement V.