Manor of Stradbroke with Stubcroft · Hoxne Hundred · Suffolk

The Lords of the Manor

A complete succession from before the Norman Conquest to the present day — forty-six named holders across nine centuries, documented in primary sources at The National Archives, Suffolk Archives, and the Norfolk Record Office.

This page records every known lord of the Manor of Stradbroke with Stubcroft in sequence. It is a working document, updated as new archival sources come to light. Forty-six named holders are confirmed or attested; the true total across nine centuries is probably in the range of fifty to sixty.

The table is honest about its uncertainties. The medieval period in particular contains gaps — periods where descent is probable but no direct instrument survives. Those gaps are labelled. The confirmed entries rest on primary sources, the details of which are noted against each entry.

Confidence tiers

Confirmed Named in a surviving primary source — charter, inquisition post mortem, court record, or enrolment.

Probable Named in a reliable secondary source with consistent corroboration, or descent by normal inheritance where the line is established.

Inferred Logically required by context — the holder almost certainly existed, but no direct source names them.

Open The period is unresolved; the holder or holders are unknown.

Before the Conquest · pre-1066

—

Unknown pre-Conquest lords

Before 1066

The settlement of Stradbroke predates its documentary record by centuries. The place-name itself — from Old English stræt (road or Roman road) and brŏc (brook) — describes the settlement at the brook on the ancient ridgeway that crosses north Suffolk through Stradbroke and Debenham. The settlement was named and occupied by at least the eighth or ninth century. Two Anglo-Saxon churches stood here before the Conquest, and Edric of Laxfield held the manor in commendation to the Abbot of Ely — an Ely connection reaching back, plausibly, to the tenth-century Benedictine reform. Edric received or inherited Stradbroke from predecessors now invisible to the record.

Open

1

Edric of Laxfield

Held at the Conquest · by 1066

The greatest Anglo-Saxon thegn of eastern Suffolk, holding more than fifty manors across the county. He held Stradbroke in commendation to the Abbot of Ely, with soke and sac. Dispossessed after 1066. Little Domesday Book, Suffolk §6.308.

Confirmed

The Norman Settlement · 1066–c.1135

2

William Malet

1066 – c.1071

Received the Honour of Eye on the Conquest redistribution. One of the most powerful Norman lords in Suffolk, lord of Eye Castle. Little Domesday Book, Suffolk §6.308.

Confirmed

3

Robert Malet

c.1071 – c.1106

Tenant-in-chief at Domesday 1086. The survey records Stradbroke under his name: thirty-five households, woodland for four hundred pigs, two churches, annual value sixteen pounds. Little Domesday Book, Suffolk §6.308.

Confirmed

4

The Crown · Henry I

c.1106 – c.1135

Robert Malet forfeited the Honour of Eye to Henry I after supporting the losing side in the baronial conflicts following the Conquest. The Honour passed to the Crown and was held in demesne throughout Henry I's reign.

Confirmed

5

Stephen of Blois (later King Stephen)

c.1135 – c.1154

A charter in Stephen's name as Count of Mortain grants Stradbroke to Ernald Rufus son of Roger; this document is preserved only in the 1227 inspeximus and has been identified as a forgery produced around 1200. The Stradbroke grant in Henry I's name carried in the same inspeximus is likewise spurious (Charters of William II and Henry I Project, Carpenter, Sharpe and Doherty). Stephen's tenure over the Honour of Eye is nonetheless established.

Confirmed

The Le Rus Lords · c.1135–1375 · c.272 years

6

Ernald fitz Roger (Ernald Rufus I)

c.1103 – c.1160

First named le Rus holder of Stradbroke. The Pipe Roll of 31 Henry I (1130) records him paying sixty shillings de feodo suo — for his fee — establishing the family in possession during Henry I's reign. The fee farm of £28 (equivalent to forty marks at thirteen shillings and four pence to the mark) that will define Stradbroke for the next four centuries is rooted in this generation. The 1199 King John charter looks back explicitly to tempore regis Henrici proaui nostri — the time of King Henry our great-grandfather — naming this Ernald as the grandfather of the 1199 holder. Pipe Roll 31 Henry I, 1130, p.90; Oblata Roll 1 John, 1199.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

7

Ernald Ruffus II

c.1160 – before 1187

The intervening Ernald, formerly missing from the standard accounts and recovered to the chain in 2026 through close reading of the Pipe Rolls. Pipe Roll 5 Henry II (1159) records him at sixty shillings pro recreantisa — an amercement for breach of duty — and at a parallel sixty-shilling allowance, locating him as holder in the mid-twelfth century. Dead by 1187, when his son Ernald III is first attested. Pipe Roll 5 Henry II, 1159, pp.9, 11.

Confirmed

8

Ernald Rufus III

c.1187 – c.1209

Receives the King John charter of 17 June 1199 at Shoreham, paying ten marks relief to hold Stradbroke at farm of £28 per year sicut Ernaldus Ruffus auus predicti Ernaldi illud melius et liberius et integrius tenuit tempore regis Henrici proaui nostri — as Ernald Rufus his grandfather held it in the time of King Henry our great-grandfather. The charter, sealed by Hubert Walter as Chancellor and witnessed by the Earls of Essex, Pembroke, and Norfolk, is the authentic foundation document of the le Rus tenure and the earliest surviving primary record of the family's title. He founded Woodbridge Priory of Black Canons c.1193. King John charter B33, 17 June 1199 (Magna Carta Project); Fine Rolls and Pipe Rolls 1199–1200; Monasticon Anglicanum vi. 600.

Confirmed

9

Hugh Rufus I (son of Ernald III)

c.1209 – c.1230

Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk 1225–27, warden of the sea-coast in 1227. In November 1226 he paid twenty marks to Henry III for confirmation of the family-held Stephen, Henry I, and King John charters together, and for a new royal grant of a weekly market — Friday at Stradbroke and Wednesday at Woodbridge, in perpetuity. The 1227 inspeximus enrolled at Charter Roll 11 Henry III is the operative output of this fine; the wide central street of Stradbroke village preserves the market's footprint today. Fine Roll Henry III 1226 entry 277; Charter Roll 11 Henry III Part 1 m.9 (Cal. Chart. R. i. 46–47); Hardy 1844, Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum Vol. II.

Confirmed

10

William le Rus (son of Hugh)

c.1230 – 1252

Holds the manor through the middle of the thirteenth century. In 1240 the tenants of his Stradbroke estate complained that the wood is entirely devastated so that the land is arable and no pig food is able to exist there — the earliest direct primary attestation of the woodland-to-arable conversion that had transformed the Domesday-era forest of four hundred pigs into farmland over a hundred and fifty years. His inquisition post mortem of 1252–53 names his daughter Alice as heir, aged six. Eye Priory Cartulary (Brown 1994 no. 370); IPM Henry III Vol.1 entry 282 (TNA C 132/14(17)) and entry 462 (TNA C 132/23(17)).

Confirmed

11

Alice le Rus (daughter and heir · ward)

1252 – c.1300/1

Inherits as a child of six, held as royal ward through her long minority. First married Richard Longespee, who died without surviving issue before 27 December 1261; on her second marriage, before 9 September 1265, she carried Stradbroke to Richard de Breuse, a junior member of the Sussex Bramber line. Her own mother was Agatha de Clere of Bramley, Surrey, accounting for the family's southern connections. Alice survived her second husband by some nine years and died c.1300–01. Both she and Richard were buried at Woodbridge Priory, the foundation of her great-grandfather Ernald III. IPM Henry III Vol.1, entries 282 and 462 (TNA C 132/14(17) and C 132/23(17)); Complete Peerage Vol. II p.304; Calendar of Inquisitions iv. 19.

Confirmed

12

Richard de Breuse

c.1266 – before 18 June 1292

Holds the manor through Alice's right after their marriage before 9 September 1265. Custos of the peace of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1265–66. A Close Roll of Edward I records the deer park at Stradbroke in his tenure, and the Rotuli Hundredorum of 1275 give the fullest contemporary picture of the manor's jurisdiction — gallows, three sub-manorial courts (Whitingham, Stradbroke, Wingfield), free tenants, and complaints over livestock distraint. Buried at Woodbridge Priory. After his death Alice held the manor in her own right; in June 1297 she conveyed it by feet of fine to her son, the younger Richard. Close Roll Edward I; Rotuli Hundredorum Vol.2, pp.186–187; Complete Peerage Vol. II p.304; TNA CP 25/1/216/43 fine 42.

Confirmed

13

Gyles de Breuse (son of Richard and Alice)

c.1296 – before 6 February 1311

Married Joan, daughter of Richard de Beaumont of Witnesham, Suffolk. His inquisition post mortem of 4–5 Edward II names his heir as his son Richard, aged eight or nine. The Suffolk certiorari from Framlingham confirms that Gyles held nothing of the king in chief in Suffolk on the day of his death — a structural finding that explains the absence of Stradbroke from the king's-IPM series in this period: the manor was held in mesne tenure of the Honour of Eye, not in chief of the Crown. CIPM Vol. 5 p.270 (4–5 Edward II); Complete Peerage Vol. II pp.302–307.

Probable

14

Richard de Breuse (son of Gyles)

c.1311 – before 1325 (a minor in wardship)

Aged eight or nine at his father's death in early 1311, held as the king's ward under Robert son of Payn and then Edmund Bacun. The Feudal Aids of 1316 record him as nominal lord of Stradbroke and Wingfield while still a minor in Bacun's custody at Fressingfield. The 1297 feet of fines of his grandmother Alice conveying Stradbroke to his father is the underlying primary instrument of the family's continued tenure. Died as a minor without issue; the inheritance passed to his next brother, Robert. Feudal Aids 1316; CIPM Vol. 6 (Robert's 1325 IPM, recital); TNA CP 25/1/216/43 fine 42.

Probable

15

Robert de Breuse (brother of Richard)

d. before 12 July 1325 · a minor in the king's ward

Heir to his brother but, like him, a minor in the king's ward at his early death. Robert never held the lordship in his own right. His widow Katherine — daughter of Sir Thomas de Norwich, brother of Walter the Treasurer — received livery of dower on 16 September 1325 and again on 8 April 1326, eventually professing as a nun at Dartford, Kent, on 2 February 1378/9. The heir after Robert was his next brother, Sir John of Stinton. Fine Rolls Edward II 1325–26; CIPM Vol. 6 (Robert's IPM, writ 12 July 19 Edw. II); Complete Peerage Vol. II pp.302–307.

Probable

16

Sir John de Brewes of Stinton

10 August 1306 – 17 April 1342

Born on the feast of St Laurence 1306; aged eighteen when his brother Robert died in 1325. The first de Brewes lord to hold Stradbroke as an adult in his own right. He married Eve, daughter of Sir Robert d'Ufford by Cecely de Valoignes — a politically remarkable match: the d'Uffords held the Honour of Eye, the very overlordship to which Stradbroke's forty-mark fee farm was rendered. The lord of Stradbroke had married the daughter of his own mesne overlord. His death on 17 April 1342, established in 2026 by inquisition post mortem and Fine Roll escheator commissions, replaces the long-standing Blomefield account that placed his death c.1346. He and Eve were both buried at Woodbridge Priory. CIPM Vol. IX item 102 (taken at York, 17 January 1349); Calendar of Fine Rolls v. 288 (escheator commissions, 6 May 1342); Complete Peerage Vol. II pp.302–307.

Confirmed

17

John de Brewes, heir of Stinton

b. 23 March 1329 · in Crown wardship 1342–1350

Heir of Sir John of Stinton at his death on 17 April 1342, a child of thirteen. Held as the king's ward for eight years; came of age on his birthday 23 March 1350. This generation, recovered to the chain in 2026 through close reading of the Inquisitions Post Mortem, had been absent from earlier accounts of the title which compressed two generations into one. His status as lord of Stradbroke during the wardship is administrative — the manor remained under his nominal lordship while the Crown took the issues — and after his majority the documentary trail attests him still alive c.1371, holding land at Mendham of the Norwich superior lordship. His relationship to the Sir Richard de Breouse line that emerges in 1346 holding Wingfield of Eva de Ufford is an open prosopographic question; both belong to the same Brewse-of-Stradbroke kinship network. CIPM Vol. IX items 54 and 102 (1347–49); CIPM Vol. XIII entry 124 (1371 Roger de Norwich IPM, Mendham extent).

Confirmed

18

Sir Richard de Breouse chevalier · The Brewse–Wingfield Transmission

c.1346 – 1359

By the Feudal Aids of 1346 Sir Richard de Breouse holds Wingfield of Eva de Ufford, John of Stinton's widow — the next attested Brewse-of-Stradbroke lord after the wardship of the 1329 generation. The transmission of the principal manors of Stradbroke and Wingfield to Sir John de Wingfield, completed by November 1359, is documented at primary chancery level by two surviving feet of fines: in 1357 (TNA CP 25/1/221/90), Sir Richard transferred Wingfield to five trustees — John de Wynewyk, chaplain to Edward III and Treasurer of York Minster; David de Wollore, Master of the Rolls; Sir John de Wingfield himself; his brother Sir Thomas; and the lawyer Gilbert de Debenham — conditioned on the death of Katherine, childless widow of Sir Richard's son Richard de Brewse III; in November 1359 (TNA CP 25/1/221/91), the surviving trustees settled the manors of Stradbroke and Wingfield, but pointedly not the advowsons of their churches, on Sir John and his wife Eleanor. The advowsons were retained for the foundation of Wingfield College by mortmain alienation in 1361–62. This two-instrument trustee transfer is the legal substrate of the entire Wingfield succession. TNA CP 25/1/221/90 (1357) and CP 25/1/221/91 (November 1359); Bloore & Martin 2015 pp. 20–22; Rye 1900 pp. 220, 223; Feudal Aids 1346 (Wingfield).

Confirmed

Eleanor de Wingfield and the De la Pole Family · 1375–1513

19

Eleanor de Verlay, Lady Wingfield (widow of Sir John)

Died August 1375

Her inquisition post mortem — read directly from the original Latin parchment at The National Archives — names the manors of Stradbroke and Wingfield held of the Honour of Eye at fee farm of forty marks per annum, in a single tenure clause indicating one mesne lord, one rent, one feudal route. Her daughter Katherine de la Pole is named as heir, of full age, requiring no wardship. Eleanor was a Verlay, not a Brewse. Her father was Thomas de Verlay, a king's yeoman granted Saxmundham market in 1310; her mother was Joan de Grymeleys, the Glanville heiress of Sternfield, Saxmundham, Kelsale, and Rendham — the maternal Glanville inheritance explains the south-east Suffolk reach of the Wingfield estate her husband later assembled. Stradbroke and Wingfield came to Eleanor and Sir John not by her bloodline but by the 1357–59 trustee transfer from the de Brewse family. TNA C 135/254/8 (Eleanor's IPM, read directly 29 March 2026); Bloore & Martin 2015 pp. 26–28; CPR 1301–7 pp.125–6; FA Vol. V p. 86; Suffolk feet of fines TNA CP 25/1/217/57, /58, CP 25/1/219/70.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

20

Katharine de la Pole (daughter of Eleanor)

1375 – c.1385

Named as heir in her mother's IPM: 'Katerina de la Pole est heres proxima' — of full age, no wardship. Carries the title into the de la Pole family. TNA C 135/254/8.

Confirmed

21

Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk

c.1385 – 5 September 1389

Chancellor of England under Richard II, financier, and from 1385 the first earl of his line. The manor of Stradbroke was re-granted to him by the Crown in May 1382 following the death of the 2nd Earl of Ufford without male heirs, and an August 1386 Patent Roll consolidation refers to the fee farm of HIS manor of Stradbrok — fee simple consolidation, a generation removed from the mesne tenure of Eleanor's IPM. Impeached and attainted by the Merciless Parliament in 1388; fled to France; died in Paris on 5 September 1389. After his death the fee farm was assigned to Queen Anne of Bohemia as dower; on her death in 1394 it reverted to the Crown until the 2nd Earl was restored by Parliament in 1399. Parliament Roll 12 September 1385 (earldom creation); CPR Richard II Vol. II 1381–5 p.478 m.9 (May 1382 re-grant); CPR Richard II Vol. III 1385–9 m.29 (August 1386 consolidated confirmation); CPR Henry IV Vol. 1 p.160 (1399 restoration).

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

22

Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk

1389 – c.early September 1415

Restored to his father's estates in tail male by Henry IV in 1399. His inquisition post mortem of 21 October 1415, taken at Hoxne, returns the Honour of Eye and the dove-tenure of sixty-nine acres at Wingfield held in chief by two white doves at the Easter rent — the same tenure form recorded forty years earlier in Eleanor's IPM. By this date the forty-mark Stradbroke fee farm has been folded into the consolidated Eye honour held by the de la Poles themselves. He died at Harfleur in early September 1415 during Henry V's siege — not at Agincourt seven weeks later — most likely of dysentery in the camp. CIPM Vol. XX entry 458 (TNA C 138/15 no. 48a; E 149/104 no. 2); CPR Henry IV Vol. 1 p.160 (1399 restoration).

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

23

Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl of Suffolk

September – 25 October 1415 · aged 21

Succeeded his father by six weeks. Killed at Agincourt on 25 October 1415, fighting alongside the king at the age of twenty-one. His inquisition post mortem, taken at Mendham on 10 January 1416, returns the same dove-tenure as his father's IPM and confirms his brother William, born 16 October 1396, as next heir. CIPM Vol. XX entry 459 (TNA C 138/16 no. 48b; E 149/105 no. 5).

Inferred

24

William de la Pole, 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Suffolk

1415 – 1450

Holds Stradbroke and Stubcroft as a named paired unit — the earliest explicit documentary pairing of the two manors. A Close Roll of Henry VI (25 June 1434) records him holding Stradbroke jointly with Alice by fine. Murdered at sea, May 1450; Alice received livery as surviving joint tenant. Parliament Roll 8 Henry VII; Close Rolls Henry VI.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

25

John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk

1450 – 1491

Holds the manor through the upheavals of the Wars of the Roses. A Parliament Roll of 1493 names Stradbroke with Stubcroft in a retrospective restoration to his son Edmund. Parliament Roll 1493.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

26

Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke (later Earl) of Suffolk

1491 – 1499 (operative forfeiture)

Restored to the family estates by Act of Parliament 26 February 1493 — Stradbroke and Stubcroft named together explicitly as a paired unit. He fled the realm on 1 July 1499; that date, not his 1504 attainder Act or his 1513 execution, is the operative date of forfeiture for his estates per the Parliament Roll of January 1503/4. Executed on Tower Hill, 4 May 1513. His flight closes the de la Pole chapter; Stradbroke passes to the Crown. Parliament Roll 8 Henry VII (1493); PROME Henry VII, Parliament of January 1503/4 (Act of Attainder).

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

The Crown and Charles Brandon · 1513–1538

27

The Crown · Henry VIII

1513 – 1537

Stradbroke passes to the Crown on Edmund de la Pole's attainder and remains in royal hands for twenty-four years. Various grants within this period are documented. The Patent Roll of 1538 retrospectively clarifies tenure from this point. Patent Roll 30 Henry VIII.

Confirmed

28

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk

1537 – 1538

Henry VIII's closest friend, brother-in-law, and jousting companion. Receives the manor by Letters Patent in 1537 — part of the great redistribution of ecclesiastical and former attainted property in the 1530s. Surrenders it back to the Crown in 1538, the year before his second dukedom became extinct. His tenure lasted barely a year but places Stradbroke at the very centre of Henrician power. Patent Roll 30 Henry VIII.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

The Crown · 1538–1697 · Nine Monarchs

29

The Crown · Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, the Commonwealth, Charles II, James II, William and Mary

1538 – 1697 · approximately nine monarchs

The manor remains in Crown hands for one hundred and fifty-nine years — the longest single continuous period in its documented history. Brandon's surrender in 1538 also severs the connection with the Honour of Eye that had defined the manor's fee farm obligation since the Norman settlement. The dissolution of Eye Priory in the same year transforms the tenurial structure entirely. Calendar of Treasury Books 1697.

Confirmed

The Cornwallis Family · 1697–1823 · 126 years

30

Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis

1697 – 1722

Acquires the manor by fee simple grant from the Crown in January 1697, ending one hundred and fifty-nine years of royal lordship. The grant is confirmed by the Calendar of Treasury Books. Died 1722. Calendar of Treasury Books, January and March 1697; Letters Patent TNA C 66/3396 (ordered, pending delivery).

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

31

Charles, 1st Earl Cornwallis

1722 – 1762

Succeeds his father. Created Earl in 1753. The Cornwallis court baron records at the Norfolk Record Office begin to accumulate in this period. SRO HA68 administrative history; NRO CHC series.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

32

Charles, 1st Marquess Cornwallis

1762 – 1805

General Cornwallis of Yorktown — the officer who surrendered to Washington in 1781, and who subsequently served as Governor-General of India and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Confirmed as lord of the manor in the court baron record of 13 October 1801. Court Baron NRO CHC 269783, 13 October 1801.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

33

Charles, 2nd Marquess Cornwallis

1805 – 1823

Confirmed as lord in the court baron of 15 October 1807. Died without children in 1823, ending the Cornwallis tenure after one hundred and twenty-six years. Sells the estate — approximately four thousand acres, annual rental of nearly £7,900 — to Matthias Kerrison for £250,000. Court Baron NRO CHC 269784, 15 October 1807.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

The Kerrison Baronets · 1823–1886

34

Matthias Kerrison

1823 – c.1827

A Bungay grain merchant who purchases the entire Cornwallis Suffolk estate in 1823. His will of 1827 — proved 30 April 1827 — names Stradbroke individually and devises the manors, lordships, and manorial titles to his son Sir Edward Kerrison for life, with remainder. SRO HA68; Will PROB 11/1724/445.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

35

General Sir Edward Kerrison, 1st Baronet

c.1827 – 1853

Waterloo veteran, Member of Parliament for Eye 1824–1852. Inherits the lordship under his father's will. The 1st Baronet presides over the period of the manor's most extensive court baron activity. Will of Matthias Kerrison PROB 11/1724/445; Roberts, Lost Country Houses of Suffolk (2010).

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

36

Sir Edward Clarence Kerrison, 2nd Baronet

1853 – 1886

Presides over the last documented General Court Baron of the manor, held 16 October 1862. Kelly's Directory of Suffolk (1879) records him as lord. Died without issue in 1886, bringing the direct male Kerrison line to an end. Court Baron NRO CHC 269785, 16 October 1862; Kelly's Directory of Suffolk, 1879; TNA MAF 9/307/9, 1868.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

Stanhope and Lady Bateman · 1886–1918

37

The Right Honourable Edward Stanhope M.P.

1886 – 1893

An intermediate lord, identified by primary archival research in 2026 — his tenure was unknown to previous accounts of the title. On the death of the 2nd Baronet without issue in 1886, the manor passed under the terms of Matthias Kerrison's 1827 will to Stanhope, as heir to Emily Harriet Kerrison (his mother, daughter of the 1st Baronet), who had predeceased the 2nd Baronet by twelve years. Stanhope is confirmed as lord in a Copyhold Enfranchisement Award of 1893. Secretary of State for War 1887–1892; responsible for the Stanhope Memorandum reforming British military priorities. Died 21 December 1893. TNA MAF 9/307/33, 1893 (Brickdale Enfranchisement, names Stanhope as lord); National Probate Calendar 1894.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

38

Agnes Burrell Kerrison, Lady Bateman

1894 – 1918

Receives the lordship under Stanhope's will. Niece of Sir Edward Kerrison 1st Baronet. The last member of the Kerrison family connection to hold the manor. Died 14 March 1918. 1924 deed recitals; Beinecke MS 365; SRO HA68.

Dedicated page coming

Confirmed

The Twentieth Century · 1918–2024

39

Charles Bateman-Hanbury (executor)

1918 – 1923

Holds the title as executor of Agnes Lady Bateman's estate while the affairs of the estate are administered. A mortgage to the National Bank in December 1920 is recorded in the title instruments. 1924 deed Second Schedule.

Confirmed

40

Harold Selborne, 9th Viscount Torrington

July 1923 · brief tenure

Acts as releasing party in a July 1923 instrument. Tenure is brief, probably administrative in character. 1924 deed Second Schedule.

Confirmed

41

Lawrence Bernard Lister

July 1923 – May 1924

A Stowmarket auctioneer who holds the title for approximately nine months before the 1924 sale. 1924 deed.

Confirmed

42

Adolphus George Maskell

1924 – 1937

A Chelmsford solicitor who purchases the title on 1 May 1924 — the transaction that establishes the root of modern title. Maskell was a deliberate collector of East Anglian manorial titles, acquiring several others in this period. He devises the title to his two daughters equally in his will of 1937. Indenture 1 May 1924.

Confirmed

43

Hilda Parker and Ruby Malpass (jointly)

1937 – post-1937

Maskell's daughters inherit in equal shares under his will of 1937. The title then passes through a series of testamentary devolutions and assents documented in the title bundle. Probate 1937; Manorial Services Ltd catalogue.

Confirmed

44

Multiple testamentary devolutions

1937 – 1984

Six probates and assents are documented in the title bundle, passing the title through several private hands across the mid-twentieth century. A memorandum of 1984 records the dispersal of the Maskell estate titles. The holders in this period have no recorded connection to Stradbroke or Suffolk. Title bundle at Pinney Talfourd LLP (vendor's solicitors).

Confirmed

45

Manorial Services Ltd

By 2022 – 2024

The title is held by Manorial Services Ltd and offered for sale through their catalogue (Volume 5, November 2022), with Strutt and Parker acting as joint agent. The title passes through four independent professional assessments before sale — by Strutt and Parker, Manorial Services Ltd, Pinney Talfourd LLP (vendor's solicitors), and Geoffrey Barrett — each conducting their own due diligence on the chain. MSL catalogue Vol.5 November 2022.

Confirmed

46

The current Lord of the Manor

22 May 2024 – present

The manor is currently held in private ownership. Acquisition was recognised by the Manorial Society of Great Britain on 23 May 2024. A comprehensive primary-source history of the manor from Domesday to the present is in preparation. Indenture 22 May 2024; MSGB recognition 23 May 2024.

Confirmed

The count of forty-six named lords is a conservative working figure. It treats the Crown period 1538–1697 as a single entry, though it comprised approximately nine individual monarchs. It does not include pre-Conquest holders before Edric of Laxfield, whose existence is certain but whose names are unknown. And it does not capture every intermediate generation in the medieval de Brewse and le Rus periods where descent is probable but no direct instrument survives. The five-generation le Rus pedigree carried above — recovered in stages through close reading of the Pipe Rolls, Charter Rolls, and Eye Priory cartulary — was independently confirmed in 2015 by Peter Bloore and Edward Martin in Wingfield College and its Patrons at identical structure. The true total of lords is in all likelihood between fifty and sixty holders.

The documentation behind this succession — charters, inquisitions post mortem, Pipe Rolls, Parliament Rolls, court baron records, enfranchisement awards, probates, and conveyances — spans nine centuries and draws on archives from London, Suffolk, and Norfolk. It is, as far as is known, among the most fully documented manorial title chains in the county.