BROUGHTON MANOR (Later the Manor of Crawley Magna)
The Broughton family took their name from the nearby village of Broughton.
By 1489 John Broughton was in possession of the Monkswood Tenement (Present day Dollars Grove) of 80 acres of land in Great Crawley which had derived from the Abbot & Monks of St. Pierre de la Couture in 1243 and also Mathias Manor(Present day Grange) & Filliols Manor (Present day Manor Farm , East End).
The Manor of Broughtons by 1595 had some 300 acres of land but the old Broughton Manor House (Manor Farm c22) which had been renovated earlier in the century had become ruinous while in the hands of Richard Morton. Richard had resided in Filliols Manor House (c21) and his widow was allowed the use of it with certain demesne lands for life. Before 1600 Richard or his son Henry had disposed of two large holdings to Anthony Tyringham, the first deriving from Mathias Manor was the Grange (Franklins Farm Estate). The second representing the major portion of the old Filliols demesne with a large farmhouse occupying the site of present day Rookery Farm (c24) was on Broadmead Lane (c6).
In 1625 Henry Morton granted the rest of the estate together with the site of Broughtons Manor House to Richard Stanton who in turn conveyed the estate to William Knight & Brian Harrison who sold it to Bernard Gregory before 1638. On his death it passed to his son Thomas who like his father before him lived in the old Filliol moated Manor House (c21).
It was this Thomas Gregory (or possibly an uncle of the same name who rebuilt and extended the ruinous old Broughton Manor House (c22) adding a new North West Wing commemorated by the initials TG1661 on a stone in the North Wall by the Doorway and the date 1660 carved on the entrance hall in the North West Wing.(Present day “Moat Farm”)
Thomas died in 1672 & the property was in Trust to his wife Elizabeth for life. His 3 daughters sold it to William Lowndes in 1718.
A Schedule of Writings on the purchase of The Manor of Crawley Magna and Broughtons by William Lowndes, the actual documents can be examined at the Bucks Study in Aylesbury and were by Mrs Theed acting as Executrix of Bernard Gregory for his daughters and their sons. The signature by William Lowndes for the documents was on 22nd May 1724.