The Prebendal Manor’s royal connections go back hundreds of years.
The first known connection was with King Cnut who owned Nassington and its timber hall (where the stone building now stands). Whilst staying with a large entourage it is recorded that he played a game of dice!
After Cnut’s death, the timber hall remained in royal ownership until about 1107 when Henry I gave it to the Bishop of Lincoln as a Prebend. However, its royal connections did not cease even when the timber building was rebuilt in stone in 1200..
In the thirteenth century, Prebendary John de Lacey was Edward I’s clerk and his special equerry when on the king’s errands abroad. He was buried in Woodnewton, Northamptonshire.
In 1377 Simon of Sudbury became the chief advisor to Richard II when the young king came to the throne. In 1417 Nicholas Colnet, was a physician to Henry V, and as such went to the battle of Agincourt.
Lionel Woodville was granted the manor in 1465 by Edward IV, who was his brother-in-law. Edmund Chadderton became the Richard III’s chaplain and treasurer.
In the sixteenth century, John Whitgift who founded Whitgift School, Croydon became a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and after her death, he crowned James I.
