Clophill House

Clophill House first appears in the historical record in 1586, as a small farm known as Millcoft. It was purchased by Ralph Compton from John Findall and had previously been owned by an Alexander Clarke "and Clarkes in the past" implying that it was already quite old.

The mill opposite is mentioned earlier than this though. There was a mill on the manor of Cainhoe at the time of the Domesday Survey worth 6s. This mill descended with the manor. In 1272 there are listed two mills in Clophill but by 1376 only one, passed with the manor of Clophill and Cainhoe and rented in 1445 by Lord Edward Grey de Ruthyn for 53s. 4d. In 1514 Richard earl of Kent demised the mill called 'Clophyll Myll' with the dam and pytell belonging to William Hewyns, baker of Ampthill. In 1553 the mill was granted to Andrew Christendome at a rent of 60s. for the term of twenty-one years, and in 1558 the reversion was granted to Robert Power for ninetytwo years. He sold the reversion to Henry and George Fisher and the latter sold it to Thomas Newdigate who was in possession in 1572. In 1611 the mill was granted to Felix Wilson and Robert Morgan and their heirs for the rent of 60s. Soon after, however, James I gave the mill to James Beverley and the grant was confirmed in 1627. Probably James Beverley sold his rights in the mill to Amabel, dowager countess of Kent, at the same time that he sold her the manor of Clophill and Cainhoe, as there is a water-mill on this estate at the present day. There are mentions of a mill as belonging to the priory at Beadlow, such as in the taxation of Pope Nicholas of 1291, where it is listed as being located in Clophill along with other land, meadows and a dove cote. Excavations at Beadlow in 1908 found no traces of any mill buildings so it is just possible this is also Clophill mill and the Millcroft estate also was part of the holdings of the priory and would have become part of Beadlow Manor, under the ownership of St Alban's Abbey, after the priory was dissolved in 1429. It was mentioned again in 1517 but may have become separated after the dissolution in 1533 when the lands of the last tenant, John Fisher, were broken up and sold to different owners from 1543 to 1551. Beadlow Manor was sold eventually to John Charnock "except for certain parcels of land" which may refer to Millcroft. Other land in Clophill that had been held by Fisher as old priory lands were sold variously to David Clayton and to Henry Sparke. This would offer the best explanation as to how Millcroft, uniquely in Clophill, came into private hands.

A later dispute in 1652 between a later Sir John Charnock, as Lord of the manor of Beadlow and James Beverley, as Lord of the manor of Clophill and Cainhoe, confirms that Beadlow did once include properties located in what is now Clophill when Charnock claims rights to much of Clophill (motivated by desire to gain the wealth of the newly opened quarries in the north-west of the village) based on the historic land ownership within the west part of the village around the bridge, including the Inn there. This land had historically not been settled, the village being further to the east along the high street, but had recently been built on with a dozen or so cottages over which he was also keen to claim manorial rights and rents. Beverley, a barrister by training, won the case but on the basis that these properties were completely cut off from the rest of Beadlow, had long since ceased to be connected to the priory and ought therefore to be considered part of Clophill. The verdict in 1654 was that Charnock was not guilty of tresspass on the land within Clophill that came within the ancient manor of Beadlow but had no rights to claim other land around this and was guilty of trespass with regard to the quarry. After the case in 1654 Beverley sold Clophill Manor to Amabel Countess of Kent, who from Wrest Park had overlordship rights over the manor anyway, and in the following year Chernock sold her all of the Beadlow manorial rights in Clophill, retaining for himself only the manor estate at Beadlow farm. When the Wrest Park estate was broken up and sold off in 1918 these were still recorded separately as the Manor of Clophill and the Manor of Beadlow in Clophill (listing a number of properties in the west of the villager). The titles were bought by a Biggleswade shopkeeper and when the telephone box was erected on the Green his widow's permission had to be sought under the manor of Beadlow.

The earliest definite mention of Clophill mill is in 1275 when a small child, Sarah 2 ½ year old daughter of James the Miller fell in the well and drowned. James is mentioned again as miller in the taxation of 1297, though a mill is earlier mentioned when William the Conquerer bequeeths Clophill and Cainhoe, including a mill, to his follower Nigel D'Albani.

The Millcroft property then consisted of a farmhouse and a shop together with over 10 acres of land running along the north of the High Street, including barns, and 1 acre to the south. This is interesting in that it was the only land in Clophill not owned and rented from either the Manor of Clophill & Cainhoe or the Manor of Beadlow. The shop was rented out to a blacksmith called Robert Hewitt. This would have been isolated from the rest of the village which, at that time, was only about fifteen cottages of stone or cob mostly clustered around Cross Tree - where Great Lane and Little Lane meet the High Street. There was also an Inn by the bridge on London Way (the A6), probably on the site of the Flying Horse Inn, although this was owned by the Manor of Beadlow. In 1563 the total population of Clophill was listed as 25 families.

It is possible that this Compton family were an off-shoot of the Northampton Comptons, now Marquesses of Northamptonshire, who had come from this area. Sir William Compton (1482-1528) owned the Manor of Clophill and Cainhoe while his grandson, Sir Henry Compton of Compton Wynyattes (1538-89), owned land in the adjoining parish of Upper Gravenhurst in the 16th century, though neither lived in the parishes. Sir Henry owned Bowells Manor in Gravenhurst, named after the Bueles family, from 1567 to 1574 when he sold it to the Earls of Kent who lived at nearby Wrest Park. Bowells included 20 properties, 2 mills and 11,000 acres of land. Ralph Compton would be of the right age on acquiring Clophill to have been, possibly, an illegitimate son of Sir Henry. Bowells was leased to Richard Brooke, a servant of Sir Henry, in 1568.

The Compton family were to own Millcroft until 1682/3 when they sold up and left. We think they may have emigrated to America some time after 1700 as another family, with similar names appears in South Carolina and Tenessee which were being colonized at that time by settlers. In 1663 King Charles II granted large parts of land in North Carolina, then being settled, to those who had helped restore him to the throne after the Commonwealth. The Comptons of Clophill were royalists.

Ralph Compton died in 1610 leaving Millcoft to a nephew from London, also called Ralph, who is described as a yeoman (freehold farmer). It appears he rented the shop to a Thomas Half-penny, but moved to live there soon after 1623 as he had a son, another Ralph, who died and was buried in Clophill in 1631.
Ralph Compton II became Bailiff to Sir Peter Osborn of Chicksands Priory and lived there while renting out Millcroft. He managed Sir Peter's affairs during the Civil War, when the Osborns were Royalists and Sir Peter was Lt. Governor of Guernsey who tried but failed to hold it for the King and so had his Bedfordshire estates confiscated. Ralph moved back to Clophill late in the war when Sir Peter was forced away, though later returned to Chicksands when it was restored and is often mentioned in Sir Peter's diary and was included in Sir Peter's will in 1653. It appears the Comptons became quite wealthy owning several houses in Clophill including Ivy House and one called Mouses towards Beadlow. Ralph's second son, another "Ralph Compton of Chicksands", born in 1634/5 was admitted to Kings College Cambridge in 1652 aged 17 having previously been a scholar at Eton where his name "R Compton" is carved ona shutter in Lower School. This son became chaplain to Lord Maynard in 1661 but died in 1663.

Around 1663 Ralph Compton built the connecting hall that joined the two cottages into one house, subsequently known as Clophill House. Some time before 1662 the land at the top of Mill Lane was rented to Robert Heath who built Mill Lane Cottage on it, that was subsequently inherited by his wife Susan. This Susan Heath later divided the cottage into two and shared it with another widow, Mrs Hall. These two ladies were followers of John Bunyan, who lived in Elstow only a few miles to the north and included Clophill in his travels. They are mentioned in the Bunyan Meeting Book of 1668. Susan's daughter married Willian Stratton in 1664 and in 1691 their daughter Elizabeth married John Wiltshire. Susan Heath died in 1691 and in 1697 Elizabeth Wiltshire and her brother Nehemiah Stratton sold the cottage to a Samuel Wiltshire (presumably a relative).

Ralph himself died in 1669. His wife Elizabeth had died in 1666, so the estate passed to his remaining son John Compton. Another son, Thomas Compton, also lived in Clophill where he married to Joan Wheeler in 1673. John Compton is listed as living at Speeds Farm in Chicksands in 1671. The Compton Return of 1676 lists all the churchgoers in the village as 225 Conformists and 13 Nonconformists, but also confirms firstly the extent to which Clophill had grown - in 1603 there had been only 120 communicants - and secondy the Comptons were active in village life. In 1682 John sold off most of the land, the fields known as Broom Close and Mill Close that ran along High Street almost to Great Lane, to Thomas Beaumont of Silsoe who sold them on in 1699 to John Carter, a local Grocer. Part of Mill Close, 3 acres, was sold by him to Nathaniel Samm who built a house there that survives to this day as the Old Post Office.

In 1683 John Compton finally sold Clophill House to Jane Nodes who assigned it to Thomas Shepard in trust for Thomas Edwards, a blacksmith from Maulden. It appears that it was then mortgaged to Robert Ravensden, the miller since 1672 having taken a lease on the Mill which was owned by the de Greys of Wrest Park as part of the Clophill and Cainhoe Manororial estate. The rental for the mill is recorded in 1684 as being £37.10.

By 1716 the house had been sold again to Henry Gaskin, a shepherd. All three properties and the fields behind are shown with owners marked in the Wrest Park Mapp of 1716.

We do not know exactly why Compton sold off his estate or where he Compton family went after 1683, though they remained in the area for some time as John Compton testified in a case concerning damage done by brick and lime carts to the bridle path between Campton and Haynes, that his father as Bailiff had kept a gate across the path to stop such traffic. It may have been caused by a court case brought against him by Sir Villiers Chernock (Lord of the Manor of Beadlow) in 1678 under a writ of "habeas corpus juratorum" which it appears he lost and had to pay heavy damages for. Sir Villiers went on in 1680-1 to become High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, so perhaps Compton thought it wise to leave. One of the earlier sale documents, dated 1669, of a number of properties to Sir Thomas Peyton of Kent mentions a court case judgement of 1668 and still in force ordering Compton to pay £800 in damages to Peyton as the reason for the sale. The later sale to Jane Nodes of 1683 mention the reason as "urgent occasion for a further 150".