Members of the  Carthew family lived at the Abbey in Woodbridge for many years and for a while they were also lords of the manor of Woodbridge late Priory. The manor had been purchased by Thomas Seckford from Queen Elizabeth I in 1566. He built the house called The Abbey on the site of the old priory and the Sessions House (or Shire Hall) on the Market Hill.

After Thomas Seckford died in 1585 the manor, The Abbey and the Sessions House were in the hands of the descendants his elder brother for 39 years. When the last male heir in this branch of the family died these properties passed to the son of Thomas Seckford’s younger brother. When he died the properties passed to his wife Dorothy North. She eventually bequeathed them to her family, the Norths of Laxford, and they were subsequently inherited by Edward North of Benacre, Suffolk.

A family tree of the decedents of Edward North is given below and the dotted red line shows who subsequently inherited the manor of Woodbridge late Priory and the house at Woodbridge called the Abbey.

The rear elevation of town house called The Abbey

which was built by Thomas Seckford.

Family tree showing the ownership of The Abbey

and that of the manor of Woodbridge late Priory

Edward North's first wife was Frances Eade and they had a son Edward II. After Frances died Edward married Anne, the widow of John Colby, who already had two daughters Anne and Mary.

Edward II eventually married his stepsister Anne and her sister Mary married Thomas Carthew who was from an ancient Cornish family.

Edward II inherited six manors when his father died in 1701.  These included the manor of Woodbridge late Priory, The Abbey and the Sessions House.   When Edward II died in 1707 he bequeathed all of his manors to his nephew Thomas Carthew who, within a year, had started to build an imposing hall at Benacre.

Thomas Carthew died in 1741 and eventually Benacre Hall and five manors had to be sold the clear his debts and to provide a settlement for his daughter. Only the manor of Woodbridge late Priory, The Abbey and the Sessions House passed to his son, Thomas II, who had been born in 1732.

After Benacre Hall was sold in 1745 Thomas Carthew II came to live at The Abbey. He had trained as a lawyer but found it hard to make a decent living and so decided to become a clergyman. As lord of the manor of Woodbridge late Priory he held the advowson, the right of presenting a clergyman to the benefice (living), of St Mary’s Church. He exercised that right in 1779 and served as Rector of St Mary’s until his death in 1791.

Thomas II married Elizabeth Morden. After she died he married Mary Wall, then Anne Denny and finally Elizabeth Russell who survived him. He said that ‘he was so happy a married man he could not live without a wife’.

Thomas II had many children but only his three sons William, Morden and Thomas III need concern us.

William entered the navy. He was made a Post Captain in 1794 and, in the same year, he commanded the Redoubt of 20 guns which was stationed at Sheerness. In 1795 he was appointed to the Brilliant, a small frigate in the North Sea Station, and was subsequently given command of a ship which was sent to the West Indies. He eventually retired with the rank of Rear Admiral in 1812.

He returned to Woodbridge and bought The Abbey from the executors of Francis Brook who had purchased it in 1791. William also bought Barrack Farm. For many years he was a magistrate and also served as Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk. He died without issue in 1827 and his memorial is on the wall by the font in St Mary’s. He bequeathed The Abbey to his nephew Morden whose army service led to him becoming a General. He eventually sold The Abbey, in 1853, to the Rev Peregrine Bingham who restored the house and grounds with great taste.

The third son, Thomas III, joined the army and served for some time in India before returning to be a clergyman. He became rector of St Mary's when his father died in 1791.

Thomas III married Anne Boggis and they had three surviving children Thomas IV, William Morden and Anne.

Thomas IV, a lawyer, married Louisa Clarkson, the daughter of the abolitionist John Clarkson. She died in 1836, at the age of 26, and Thomas IV remarried.  He owned Westholm, a large house just beyond the junction of Station Road and Cumberland Street. The house was sub divided into three and in 1960s and Morely Avenue and Westholm Close were built in its extensive grounds.

William Morden became a surgeon and in 1864 he is listed as living in Melton.

Anne married Thomas Pytches of Melton. The Carthews viewed him with suspicion. One account of their history describes him as ‘a gentlemen who had spent a handsome fortune’ and he had to sign a pre nuptial agreement preventing him from accruing any Carthew inheritance that might come Anne’s way. (There is a separate article on the Pytches family which gives details of Anne and Thomas Pytches and their descendents.)

The story of the Carthews of Woodbridge would end at this point if, in 1865, The Abbey had not been sold by the Rev Peregrine Bingham to a Mrs Elizabeth Carthew of London. Through this sale The Abbey came back into the hands of a Carthew for the third time.

Elizabeth Carthew initially rented The Abbey to a Colonel Long for a while but she eventually moved into it. By 1890 it was occupied by Colonel Ranulphus John Carthew JP who was presumably Elizabeth Carthew’s son. He was the first Director of the Suffolk Branch of the British Red Cross which was set up in 1909. He went on to found the Woodbridge Red Cross Division and his son Major Peter Carthew also played an active part in the Woodbridge Red Cross.

Colonel Carthew died in 1943 and his grave in Warren Hill cemetery overlooks Fen Meadow and the grounds of his former home. His widow, Sybil, sold The Abbey and its 14 acres of land to the Endowed Grammar School and they opened it as a Junior School in 1949.

Mrs Sybil Carthew

In 1805 the manor of Woodbridge late Priory was sold by the executors of Thomas Carthew to the banker Philip Riches. A year later he sold the manor to William Wood Page and, a year later, it was purchased by Jacob Whitbread (of Loudham Hall). Then, in 1814, it was sold to the bankers Dykes and Alexander. At that time there were 154 tenants of the manor, of whom upwards of 140 were copyholders who paid rent to the lord of the manor.

In 1829 the manor and lower floor of the Sessions House were sold separately.

The lower floor of the Sessions House was sold to the County Court who already owned the rest of the building. The lower floor had previously been leased to the Corn Exchange and they remained there until they ceased trading in November 1941. The lower part of the Sessions House was then used as offices of the Magistrates' Court held above. This court was moved to Ipswich in 1986 and the Town Council purchased the Sessions House in 1987.

The manor of Woodbridge late Priory was sold to William Rouse who was already the lord of the manor of Hasketon. Both manors were eventually inherited by his son Rolla Rouse who lived in Fern Villa, Melton. On his death in 1887 the manor passed to his sons. The eldest, Charles Medow Rouse, served as Rector of St Mary’s from 1870-1887 and he built the imposing Rectory near the Seckford hospital.

In April 1896 the Rouse family sold the market rights to Urban Council of Woodbridge. From then on the income from the manor was solely that arising from copyhold rents.

The copyhold act of 1894 gave either the lord of the manor or the tenant the right to compel the other to reach an agreement for the enfranchisement of copyhold land – i.e. to enable the tenant to buy the freehold of the land. The objective was to remove the obligations between the lord and the tenant and thus make it easier to buy and sell land. The minute books of the manor subsequently record a steady stream of enfranchisements.

The Rectory built by Charles Medow Rouse. It was sold in 1983 a year after the house in Church Street was purchased for use as a Rectory.

The Rouse family were still lords of the manor when a 1926 Act abolished copyhold tenure and all copyhold land was immediately enfranchised. From that time the manor of Woodbridge late Priory no longer had any income and the entries in the records of the manor ceased. Whoever the present owner is, the only benefits that come with it is the right to call themselves lord of the manor of Woodbridge late Priory and the rights to minerals mined in manor.

In Woodbridge, as in many other manors, the mineral rights are worthless because nothing was mined, yet the lord of the manor still holds this legal right to the land. To remove this abnormality, mineral rights will cease to exist in 2013 unless a claim to them has been lodged with the Land Registry by that date. Purchasing a manor without mineral rights will then be the equivalent of buying a personalized car number plate.

An account of the family of the Rev Thomas Carthew of Woodbridge Abbey, who died in January 1791. Reprint of the Gallovidian 1905. Available on line at www.archive.org

Manorial Law, AW and F Barsby, Legal Research and Publishing in association with the Manorial Society of Great Britain.