INTRODUCTION

In the 11th century there were two manors in Frinton. For most of the 14th century they were held together and treated as a single manor, but by 1399 that manor had been divided into two halves which may have coincided with the two earlier manors. From the early 16th century there was probably a single manor, although a medieval freehold in Clacton, Skirman's Fee, was held with Frinton manor and came to be considered a separate Frinton estate even though only c. 20 a. of it lay in Frinton.[1] Apart from short periods in the later Middle Ages and in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the manorial lords lived on their other estates, and Frinton manor house and demesne lands were leased to farmers.

The 11th-century manors were assessed at a total of 6½ hides, suggesting that they extended beyond the later parish. In 1343 the lord, who is not known to have held other manors in Tendring hundred, held 681 a. of land and rents in St. Osyth, Weeley, Ardleigh, Great Bromley, Great Clacton, Little Clacton, Kirby and Great Oakley as well as Frinton.[2]

THE MEDIEVAL MANORS

In 1066 one manor, assessed at 3½ hides, was held by Leofsunu whose holding probably comprised four other Essex manors and five in Suffolk;[3] by 1086 it had passed to Geoffrey de Mandeville. The other manor, assessed at 3 hides, was held by Harold, presumably King Harold, in 1066 and by Eustace of Boulogne in 1086.[4] The descent of both manors in the 12th and 13th centuries was complicated, and cannot be traced completely. The overlordship of Geoffrey's manor descended with the earldom of Essex to Humphrey de Bohun (d. 1298), and to Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester (d. 1397).[5] The overlordship of Eustace's manor descended with the honor of Boulogne until 1221 or later.[6] In 1303 the united Frinton manor was apparently held of Walter le Gros of Little Bentley.[7]

In 1086 Geoffrey de Mandeville's tenant was 'Renelm' or Rainald who also held Geoffrey's manor in Shelley.[8] With Shelley, the Frinton manor descended to Rainald's daughter Aubrey, and then to William of Shelley, to his son Simon, and to Simon's son William (d. 1182). The second William's daughters and coheirs Amy and Sarah married brothers, Oger and Michael sons of Oger.[9] In 1198 Frinton, then held of the Shelley family by Ralph son of Richard, was allotted to Sarah and Michael son of Oger.[10] The mesne tenancy descended with Shelley in the 13th century, being held in 1302 by John de Legh,[11] but there is no later record of it.

Ralph had been preceded in the demesne tenancy by his father Richard, who had presented a priest to Frinton church.[12] In 1231 William of Burnham seems to have obtained the manor, assessed at 1 knight's fee, from Stephen de Plesingho.[13] Geoffrey Burnham, who held land in Frinton in 1289,[14] was presumably his descendant.

After the Norman Conquest Eustace of Boulogne's manor was held of him by Ingelric, who also held Birch Hall in Kirby-le-Soken. By 1086 Ingelric had been succeeded at Frinton by Ralph de Marci.[15] A mesne lordship was later held by Hugh Triket, who was succeeded by Simon Triket before c. 1217.[16] In 1198 actual possession of the manor was disputed between coheirs, Agnes and Parnel Tregoz and their husbands Geoffrey de Nerford and Ralph de Trauers.[17] Agnes and Geoffrey de Nerford seem to have conveyed their interest in the manor to Geoffrey de Ambly, who disputed possession with Parnel and John son of Bernard, presumably her second husband, in 1205–6.[18] John held the Frinton manor, described as ¼ knight's fee, c. 1217 and in 1222, but had been succeeded by his son Walter before 1242.[19]

By 1289 Geoffrey Burnham held land in Frinton and Kirby in right of his wife Agnes,[20] and in 1303 he held the ¼ fee in Frinton.[21] It is possible that Geoffrey, by his marriage to Agnes, had united the two Frinton manors. He, or another man of the same name, was assessed for subsidy in Frinton in 1319 and 1327, having the highest assessment in the parish in both years.[22] In 1335, the patron of the living, and presumably lady of the manor, was Anne Fillol, perhaps Geoffrey Burnham's widow.[23] In 1343 John Burnham and his wife Anne settled estates, including land in Frinton, on themselves and their heirs, and John held the ¼ fee in Frinton in 1346.[24]

The Burnhams' Frinton manor was divided into two halves or moieties in the later 14th century. By 1399 William Godmanston of Bromley held land in Frinton, perhaps the former Boulogne manor, described in 1412 as a moiety of the manor and in 1428 as ¼ knight's fee which John Burnham once held.[25] Before 1429 William acquired land in Clacton which probably included the estates called Skirman's Fee later held with Frinton.[26] Another Frinton manor, presumably the other moiety of the Burnham manor, was held in 1393 by John Rokele of the duke of Gloucester, heir of Geoffrey de Mandeville's estate, as ¼ knight's fee.[27] In 1442 Geoffrey Rokele conveyed a moiety of Frinton manor to William's son John Godmanston, thus re-uniting the two parts of the manor.[28] John (d. 1459), who was MP for Essex in 1445–6 and 1449, seems to have had a house in Frinton as well as in Little Bromley.[29] His son, William Godmanston of Bromley, was killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471, fighting for Henry VI. In 1475 he was attainted, and in 1476 his lands were granted to Robert Chamberlain, knight of the body to Edward IV. In 1485, however, Godmanston's attainder was reversed and his heirs recovered his estates.[30] A Frinton manor, by 1532 called and presumably including Skirman's Fee,[31] descended with Little Bromley to Godmanston's great niece Christine Warner and her husbands William Browne of Welford, Gloucs. (d. by 1532), and Humphrey Dymocke (fl. 1533).[32] Christine's son, John Browne, died in 1542 or 1543, and between 1543 and 1545 his widow Isabel and his son Edward conveyed Frinton to his daughter Mary and her husband John Moreton, who still held in 1552.[33]

THE LATER MANOR

By 1557 Frinton had passed to the heirs of Robert Chamberlain. In that year Robert's granddaughter Mary and her husband Francis Cokayn seem to have made a settlement of Skirman's Fee,[34] and in 1584 Skirman's Fee and Frinton were settled on Mary and Francis's daughter Dorothy and her husband William Pirton.[35] Dorothy and William seem to have divided the manor into two again. In 1591 they sold the manor of Frinton or Frinton Hall to John Wright of Kelvedon,[36] and about 1603 Dorothy conveyed the manor of Skirman's fee in Clacton and Frinton to Edward Grimston of Bradfield.[37] Grimston presumably acquired Wright's manor, for at his death in 1610 Skirman's Fee or Frinton Hall passed to his son Harbottle, later Sir Harbottle.[38] Sir Harbottle died in 1648 and was succeeded by his son, another Sir Harbottle.[39] In 1652 the manor or manors were settled on the second Sir Harbottle's son, George Grimston, and his wife Sarah Alston. George died in 1655, and Frinton was held in trust for Sarah by her father, Sir Edward Alston.[40] The trust was presumably broken on Sarah's remarriage in 1661, and Frinton Hall and Skirman's Fee were sold to Sir Edward Alston. In 1663 or 1664 Sir Edward, with his brother Penninge, sold them to Richard Skinner of Furnipall's Inn, London, and Edward Franklin of Middlesex. A conveyance in 1663 to another Londoner, Faithful Teate, may have been part of a settlement.[41]

The history of the manors is not documented again until 1689 when Bernard Whalley and his wife Lucy conveyed them to Thomas Warren of Wapping.[42] Warren lived at Frinton Hall for a few years before his death late in 1696 or early in 1697, when he was succeeded by his young son Jeremiah.[43] Jeremiah was living in Frinton in 1722,[44] but in 1731 he and his wife Hannah conveyed Frinton Hall to Sir Richard Hopkins, a London alderman, who died intestate c. 1746. Hopkins's lands were divided between his heirs at law, and Frinton was assigned to Sir Edward Bellamy.[45] On Bellamy's death in 1748, Frinton and Skirman's Fee, passed to his daughter Ann (d. 1767) and her husband George Lynn (d. 1758) of Southwick, Northants.[46] Ann devised all her real estate, presumably including Frinton, to her brother Humphrey Bellamy (d. 1767) and then to his, unnamed, younger children.[47] In 1772 the manor was said to belong to Mrs. Bellamy of London,[48] presumably Humphrey's widow.

In the later 18th century and the 19th Frinton was held by a number of lords, all of them non-resident. In 1776 the manors seem to have been divided between John Tekell or Teagle and his wife Ann, and Thomas Pitfield Slater and his wife Mary.[49] They were probably still lords in 1782, when Tekell presented Slater, a clergyman, to Frinton rectory, but by 1792 the manors had been further subdivided, into as many as 10 parts.[50] John Tekell seems to have held most of the land until 1800 when he was succeeded by William Lushington. Isaac Stafford Brown acquired an interest in the manor in 1801, and Horner Reynard in 1819,[51] and in 1839 Charlotte Lushington, Edward Horner Reynard, and Isaac Stafford Brown owned the manorial estate.[52] Isaac Stafford Brown died before 1848 and Charlotte Lushington before 1861.[53] In 1863 the lords were said to be Edward Horner Reynard, and William Stone in his capacity as executor,[54] presumably of Charlotte Lushington. Reynard's share was sold in 1866 to F. B. Parlsee, who was probably acting for the developer Peter Schuyler Bruff.[55] By 1886 Bruff had certainly acquired the whole estate, which was broken up into building plots for development.[56]

OTHER ESTATES

Roger Kyrketon of Colchester in 1383 devised a house and land in Frinton to his son Robert.[57] That or another small estate, held of the bishop of London, passed from Bartholomew Bourchier , Lord Bourchier (d. 1409) to his daughter and heir Elizabeth, who married first Sir Hugh Stafford (d. 1420) and then Lewis Robessart.[58] Neither estate has been identified.

A small freehold called Crisps, variously estimated at 16 a., 18 a. and 20 a., was held of the Clacton manor of Skirman's Fee from 1603 or earlier. The land may have been in the north-east corner of the parish, extending into Walton. It was held by Jeremy Burges (d. 1626), then by his widow Penelope and her second husband Lionel Bacon who sold it in 1676 to Joseph Thurston, a Colchester woollen-draper.[59] Thurston sold it in 1710 to Jeremiah Shaw of Kirby, and it remained in his family until his descendant Shaw King sold it to William Hunt in 1798.[60] Although William Micklefield seems to have held it from 1808 until 1831 or later, the estate was probably the small one held by Jackson Hunt in 1839.[61] The Hunt family retained land in the parish until 1863 or later.[62]

Frinton Wick, 134 a. in 1839, seems to derive from the farm called the Wickett, sold by Sir Edward Alston to Henry Hecklefield of London in 1664. In 1669 Henry Hecklefield devised the farm to his nephew John Hecklefield, who in 1694 sold it to trustees for Cornelius a Tilborge.[63] Tilborge (otherwise Tilburgh, Tilbury or Tulbury), a physician, was later reputed to have swallowed quantities of poison and survived.[64] In 1727 and 1741 the Wick was owned by Cornelius's son Dr. John Tilburgh; he occupied the farm in 1727, but had a tenant by 1736.[65] In 1752 the farm belonged to Elias Cox. By 1766 it had passed to Michael Hills of Colne Engaine, and it descended in the Hills family until 1848 or later.[66] In 1863 and 1868 it was owned by Charles Hicks.[67] In 1878 his executors sold it to James Harman of Clacton-on-Sea.[68]

In the early 19th century it was said that James Bushell, a mariner and diver known for his success in exploiting wrecks, had lived at Frinton Wick.[69] Bushell married Joan, daughter of Thomas Warren of Frinton Hall, and may have rented the Wick for a short time. However, there is no contemporary evidence for his residence in Frinton, and at his death in 1738 he lived in Dedham.[70]