The manor of HORLEYS can perhaps be traced to the hide separately assessed at the time of the Domesday Survey, and referred to later as the Foliot hide. Henry I desired Abbot Reinald (1114–30) to acknowledge the right of Roger Foliot to this hide. Robert Foliot, counsellor to the abbey, apparently owed suit at the court of Broughton. Robert, Abbot of Ramsey (1180–1200), confirmed a grant of Walter Foliot to Henry his brother of all his lands in Broughton, and Henry conveyed his land at Wylyhide (Wilehide, Wyllehida), in Broughton, to his nephew Richard, son and heir of Walter. Richard granted this land to the almoner of Ramsey Abbey. Henry Foliot retained a rent in Wylyhide which in the middle of the 13th century he conveyed to William de Clunches. The land upon which the rent was charged was held in 1252 by Ralph de Broughton, Philip de Clervaux, and others. Ralph de Broughton held other lands of the abbot in Broughton. John, son of Ralph de Broughton, was holding lands in Broughton in 1279, and William, son of Ralph de Broughton, a little later. In 1382 Isabella, late the daughter of William de Broughton, released to Robert de Tychmershe and Margaret his wife, sister of the said Isabella, lands which were her father's in tail.
In 1454,
apparently another Isabella, then widow of Ambrose Germyn, released
to John Horley (Hurle), clerk, Henry Torkington, and Sir Edward
Ingoldesthorp, kt., the lands called Titmershes, in Broughton, and
in 1457, John Horley (Hurlegh), clerk, and Henry Torkington, granted
to Walter Grete and others all the lands which they held in
Broughton, Wistow, and
Ramsey, on condition of a yearly payment of
40 marks at the Swan Inn, in Huntingdon, till 200 marks were paid.
In 1483 Margaret Grete, widow, John Grete, William Grete, Richard
and Thomas Pulter and others released a messuage, etc., in Broughton
to Laurence Merton, and in 1523 Joan Rowley, widow of William Grete,
of Broughton, made a settlement of all her lands and tenements in
Broughton on herself and her heirs. John Grete, of Broughton, in
1535 mortgaged to John Lawrence, of Ramsey (the lessee of the site
of the manor in that year), all his manors in Broughton for £46,
upon condition of repayment with expenses within sixteen years, and
in the following year the manor of Horleys, in Broughton, was
conveyed by John Grete, of Woodwalton, and Thomasina his wife, to
George Robinson, citizen and mercer of London, who in 1541 conveyed
to William Lawrence, of St. Ives, 'all that manor called Horles,
late Grekes.'
William Lawrence and Margery his wife conveyed the manor of Horleys
to Sir Henry Williams, alias Cromwell, in 1570, and later in the
same year it was granted by Sir Henry to trustees for his wife, Dame
Joan, in place of the manor of Woodwalton, part of her jointure
which he had sold. After this date, it followed the descent of the
chief manor of Broughton.
Victoria County History - Huntingdonshire - Printed in 1932
