9th EARL OF EXETER
THE HUNTINGDON FEE
The Claim to be Lord Paramount in Great Crawley derives from Judith Countess of Huntingdon who held 1.25 hides in Great Crawley at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086.
Over a number of generations via Earls of Huntingdon ( and King David of Scotland) it passed down to the Cecil Family of Stamford who were Earls of Exeter.
A C Chibnall says that the Exeter muniments include court rolls for a view of frankpledge and court baron of the Latimer fee (As it became known ) held in North Crawley from 1591 until 1788 and the number of tenants varying between 35 and 65.
In the early years of the Cecil ownership the steward of the court was puzzled as to whether a holding did or did not come under his jurisdiction. This was because Robert Johnson who had acted as steward for the last Lord Latimer was dishonestly withholding the necessary information.
When the historian Browne Willis visited Crawley in 1733 he was told that the Earl of Exeter was the Lord Paramount and received rents on alienation of estates on all the Manors there but they seldom mounted to more than a few shillings and against this the agent had to offset the running of the courts.
At the end of proceedings on 16 and 17 May 1768 the 15 members of the jury dined at Richard Halls inn (The Castle) at a cost of £8 2s 9d and the stewards expenses for 2 nights at Bedford were
£2 1s 7d with nothing left for the Earl of Exeter and gradually the courts faded away although there still were reports of occasional courts in The Cock at the first half of the nineteenth century.
Lord Cecil Brownlow the 9th Earl of Exeter and the 9th Baron of Burghley was born on 21st September 1725 in Stamford, Northamptonshire, he was christened on 25th September 1725 in St. Martin’s, Stamford.
1747 MP for Stamford
He married on 24th July 1749 Letitia Townshend daughter of the Honourable Horatio Townshend of Norfolk. Letitia died in 1756.
1751 Lord Lieutenant for Rutland
1752 he was MP for Rutland
1755 – 1779 He employed Capability Brown to landscape Burghley House Deer Park
In 1763 to1768 he travelled to Italy on a “Grand Tour” to purchase fine art etc.
He married Ann Maria Cheatham on the 23rd April 1770
1772 He was allocated 2 plots of land totalling 8 acres in North Crawley in the Act of Enclosure.
1773 The two plots in the actual award was 5.938 acres in Brook End, Hurst Green and 1.5875 acres in Tindery Field.
1793 He died on 26th December in Stamford and is buried at St. Martins at Stamford, Lincolnshire
He was known as Lord Burghley form 1725 to 1754 when he succeeded as the 9th Earl of Exeter
His portrait was in 1747
He was succeeded by his nephew Henry Cecil