Thursday, February 18, 2010

Mantell; Horton Priory

18 Feb. 2010 by Greg Ramstedt
This is my first family history blog, so I will keep it simple to try to get the hang of it.

I have wondered for years how Horton Priory in Monks Horton parish, Kent, England, went from Augustus William Mantell (1777-1833) to Edward Reginald Mantell (Dean of Stamford; died 1884 in St Albans, Herts.). They were about 5th cousins, and E. R. Mantell is not mentioned in A. W. Mantell's will. I'm wondering if E. R. Mantell purchased it for nostalgic sake, since the Priory had been in the Mantell family since the reign of Edward VI (1540s I think). Anyway, I understand there was a legal battle and that the records are recorded in the Forest division, but I'll have to get the reference from the 19th century notes that Jim Reid sent me years ago. I did find in the Canterbury Cathedral Archives (using the online Kent Archives Service catalogue) that in 1833 the Rev. Edward Reginald Mantell, vicar of Louth, Lincs. wrote Thomas Starr, auditor, "requesting help with his attempts to prove his title to Horton Priory, at Sellindge." See CCA-DCc-AL/1139. This sounds like a document worth ordering at some point. This looks like a very good lead in tracking down an old mystery. I visited Horton Priory and Brig. Gore in the early 1980s and took some good pictures, but there were extensive additions to the Priory after the Mantell family lived there. My direct ancestor, Francis Daniell (1773-1858) of Devonshire thought that somehow his side of the family would inherit Horton Priory in 1833, and he even travel to Sellindge, Kent, to see if he could make a claim to it. He was unsuccessful. Augustus William Mantell had children outside of marriage, and their Woodlands descendants in Australia have been very interested in their origins from Mantells. I think that both the Daniell and Woodlands descendants would like to learn more. The Mantells go back to Sir Walter Mauntell (died 1487) and the War of the Roses.