CHENIES

Isenhamstede (xii cent.); Iselhamstede Cheynes (xiii-xix cent.); Eastnamsted Cheynes (xvi-xix cent.); Chenies (xx cent.).

The parish of Chenies was originally known as Isenhampstead, but from the 13th century onwards¹ was spoken of as Isenhampstead Chenies from its connexion with the Cheyne family, who resided here for nearly 300 years. During the 19th century the old name was gradually dropped, and to-day the parish is universally known as Chenies.

It covers an area of 1,759 acres, of which 1,056 acres are arable land, 474 acres are permanent grass, and the rest is covered by woods and plantations², while there are 10 acres covered by water. The soil is gravel, flint and chalk and produces crops of wheat and barley.

In the south the land attains a height of 407 ft. above ordnance datum at the small hill on which the church is placed. It falls away to under 300 ft. in the west and to 270 ft. in the extreme south-east near Chorley Wood station, where the Metropolitan railway enters the parish.

The village stands near the northern boundary on the brow of a hill. In the centre is the green with its well, sheltered by rows of tall elms and surrounded by red brick cottages, solid and well built with pointed gables and tall chimneys and good-sized gardens round the cottages. A road leads to the church on the west, behind which is Great Home Farm, while opposite stands the old manorhouse of the Cheynes, which for a long time has been used as a farm. It was rebuilt probably about 1530 by the first Earl of Bedford, who had married Anne Sapcote in 1526. Leland, who visited Chenies a little later, says: 'The olde House of the Cheyneis is so translated by my Lorde Russel that litle or nothing of it yn a maner remaynith untranslated: and a great deale of the House in ben newly set up made of Bricke and Timber: and fair logginges be new erected in the gardein. The House is within diverse Places richely painted with antique Workes of White and Blak. And there be about the House 2 Parkes, as I remember.'³

Only one wing now remains, but it is in a state of good preservation, due to the solid material used and to the good work put into its construction. Its high-gabled roofs with clusters of quaintly twisted and ornamented chimneys form a striking feature, which has been copied in the architecture of the cottages in the village. Some original glass remains, including a shield with arms and quarterings of Russell within a garter with a coronet above, also some old tiles and three fireplaces of Totternhoe stone.

A few yards north of the house is a cellar of two chambers, dating apparently from the 15th century, and probably part of a former house. The walls are of flint and chalk and both chambers have vaulted roofs.

In a field in front of the manor-house stands an oak said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth on her visit in 1570.

Chenies House, the residence of Miss Russell, stands in pretty grounds north of the church, from whence a fine view can be obtained of the woods at Latimer. From the church a road leads past the Bedford Arms and Baptist chapel, erected in 1779, to the rectoryhouse, half a mile distant from the church. The schools, which were built in 1846, lie a little south of the village. Further south in Green Street, a lane leading to Chorley Wood station, are Little and Great Green Street Farms.

The country around is hilly and richly wooded and watered by the River Chess, which on the north turns the wheel of Chenies Mill and separates the parish from Hertfordshire. The Chess is here famous for its trout, and Mr. Froude has written many pages descriptive of the pleasure of trout-fishing at Chenies⁴. Woodside House, which lies between the woods and the river, is the residence of Adeline Duchess of Bedford. A road running parallel with the river leads west through park-land bordered by woods to Dell Farm, near which is the site of a fairly large Roman villa⁵, and from here footpaths lead south to Oldhouse Farm.

Peter Allibond, who translated theological treatises from the French and Latin, was rector of Chenies at his death in 1629 and was buried in the chancel of the church⁶.

Note 1. Chan. Inq. p.m. Hen. III, file 5, no. 16.

Note 2. Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905).

Note 3. Leland, Itin. (ed. 2), i, 115, 116.

Note 4. Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects (ed. 3), iv, 526-42.

Note 5. V.C.H. Bucks. ii, 8.

Note 6. Dict. Nat. Biog.

1165. The first notice of Isenhampstead is found in 1165, when it was held for a knight's fee by Alexander de Isenhampstead⁹. He was probably the ancestor of the Alexander Cheyne who presented to the church in 1232¹⁰ and died before 1247¹¹. His son John¹², who was Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1278¹³, incurred debts to the king. After his death about 1285 his manors, among them Isenhampstead, valued at £11 4s. 3d., were taken by the king, but a certain pension was allowed to the widow Joan¹⁴..

Note 9. Liber Niger (ed. Hearne), 192.

Note 10. R. of Hugh of Wells (Cant. and York Soc.), ii, 85.

Note 11. Chan. Inq. p.m. Hen. III, file 5, no. 16.

Note 12. Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A 72; Cal. Close, 1272-9, p. 350.

Note 13. P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 1.

Note 14. Cal. Fine R. 1272-1307, p. 213.

1296. The next to hold Isenhampstead was Bartholomew Cheyne, whose name occurs between the years 1296 and 1316¹⁵. He was followed by Alexander Cheyne, who with Margaret his wife was in 1321 in possession of Isenhampstead Chenies Manor [Map], so called for the first time¹⁶, and was still holding in 1346¹⁷. By 1350 it had passed to John Cheyne¹⁸, who was Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1371¹⁹ and a knight of the shire in 1373²⁰. He was afterwards knighted²¹, but in 1397 was condemned to death as a Lollard with Sir John Oldcastle²². The sentence was, however, at the intercession of the Lords, commuted to one of perpetual imprisonment²³.

Note 15. Feud. Aids, i, 91, 18; Lipscomb, Hist. and Antiq. of Bucks. iii, 251.

Note 16. De Banco R. 238, m. 155. Alexander presented to the church in 1325 (Add. MS. 5480, fol. 39).

Note 17. Feet of F. Bucks. Mich. 6 Edw. III, no. 8; Feud. Aids, i, 116.

Note 18. Cal. Close, 1349-54, p. 230.

Note 19. P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 2.

Note 20. Ret. of Memb. of Parl. i, 190.

Note 21. Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 235; Close, 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 32 d.

Note 22. V.C.H. Bucks. i, 291.

Note 23. Ibid.

On Sir John Cheyne's (age 78) death without issue in 1468³³ his widow Agnes married Edmund Molyneux, who was sheriff of the county in 1475³⁴ and presented to the church in 1479³⁵. He died in 1484³⁶, and Agnes survived him ten years. By her will 20 November 1494 her first husband's great-great-nephew John Cheyne of Chesham Bois (q.v.) obtained Drayton Beauchamp, Grove and Cogenhoe Manors, but Chenies [Map] passed to Agnes Cheyne's niece Anne (age 35) wife of David Philip³⁷. Anne (age 35) and David Philip, who was sheriff in 1498³⁸, had some difficulty in inducing the trustees to hand over the manor³⁹, but were in possession in 1500, when Chenies was settled on Anne and her issue⁴⁰. She died seised of it in 1510, when it passed to her granddaughter Anne wife of John Broughton and daughter and heir of Guy Sapcote (age 19), son of Anne Philip (age 35) by a former husband (age 39)⁴¹.

Note 33. Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. IV, no. 51.

Note 34. P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 2.

Note 35. Lipscomb, Bucks. iii, 252.

Note 36. Brass in church.

Note 37. Add. MS. 5840, fol. 39.

Note 38. P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 2.

Note 39. Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 218, no. 30.

Note 40. De Banco R. Hil. 15 Hen. VII, m. 297; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxv, 162.

Note 41. Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxv, 162.

John Broughton died in 1518⁴², and by 1523 Anne (age 39) was the wife of Richard Jermingham⁴³. He died before 1526, in which year Anne (age 39) married John Lord Russell (age 33)⁴⁴, the favourite of Henry VIII (age 26), who stayed at Chenies [Map] in 1534⁴⁵. Lord Russell was made lord high admiral in 1540⁴⁶, and in 1541 the privy council met at Chenies⁴⁷. In 1550 Russell was created Earl of Bedford, and on his death in 1555 he was buried in the mausoleum in Chenies Church built by his widow Anne⁴⁸, and in which all the succeeding Earls and Dukes of Bedford lie buried.

Note 42. Ibid. xxxiii, 108.

Note 43. Feet of F. Div. Co. East. 15 Hen. VIII; Bucks. East. 15 Hen. VIII.

Note 44. Dict. Nat. Biog.; Feet of F. Bucks Trin. and Mich. 20 Hen. VIII.

Note 45. L. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 965.

Note 46. Ibid. xvi, 1339; Dict. Nat. Biog.

Note 47. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 1287.

Note 48. G.E.C. Complete Peerage.