In 1086 the second largest landholder (after Crowland Abbey) in Oakington was Picot the Sheriff of Cambridge. This land, together with additional land previously held by Boselin de Dive and by the abbey of Ely, subsequently passed to Picot’s successors the Peverels and others. These included Hugh of Dover (husband of Maude Peverel), Robert de Ros (grandson of Maude’s sister Rose), Gilbert Pecche (the chief lord of Bourn) and Sir Philip de Colville of Histon. However, by 1300 the holding had become very fragmented, and much of the land had probably been incorporated into the other Oakington estates.
John of Grantchester held some land by 1302, and probably earlier. John of Grantchester was said to be age 90 in 1316. His son Richard of Grantchester held the land by 1338 and was lord in 1346. He does not seem to have left any descendants, and the estate appears to have been inherited by Agnes, daughter of another of John’s sons. Agnes is recorded as suing a widow in 1376 for demolishing the hall, chamber and kitchen of her dower house. By 1380 she had probably sold the land to Thomas Morant of London who had previously married Ellen Rushton, sister and heir of John Rushton. The estate was later known as Rushtons and Moreyns manor. The estate appears to have been held by the Oakington and Wighton families in the 1400s, and by 1521 had passed to Robert Freville of Little Shelford. What subsequently happened to the estate is unclear, but it may have been incorporated into the estate of Christopher Burgoyne (previously the du Lays’ manor and later Hatton’s Great Farm) who married Robert Freville’s daughter Thomasine.
Sources include:
- ‘Oakington: Introduction’, in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds, ed. A P M Wright, C P Lewis( London, 1989), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol9/pp192-195 [accessed 17 September 2024].
- https://opendomesday.org/place/TL4164/oakington/
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