Manors and Estates
At Domesday Ellerton was a berewick of the manor of Aughton, and was held by the Count of Mortain, and farmed by Nigel . It comprised 6 bovates to the geld. In the same vill were 10 bovates to the geld, sokeland of Aughton. Nigel had 2 villans and 2 bordars there.
In the Clamores (fol 373) it is stated that Nigel had relinquished 2 carucates of land in Ellerton, which belonged to Barn and Ulf.
In the Summary (fol 381v) the Count held 2 carucates and the king 2 carucates.
By the time of Kirkby’s Inquest, 1284-85, the heir of Gaunt [Sir Gilbert de Gaunt] had the fee in Ellerton, consisting of 1 carucate and 1 bovate of land, of which Robert Lascells and Thomas de Graystoke held 1 carucate and the Templars 1 bovate, through tenants.
However, by 1303 the fee was held by the Barons Graystoke (created in 1295), and farmed by Thomas de Pyk who held ½ carucate, and Isabella de Lascells who held the other ½ carucate.
In the Nomina Villarum of 1316 it named the lords of the manor of Ellerton as the Prior of Ellerton and Thomas Pickering, indicating that there were two manors in Ellerton at this time.
The Pickering family held the manor of Ellerton, of the Graystoke fee, until the early 16th century when Christopher Pickering was succeeded by his daughter Anne. By this time the manor had become known as Ellerton Pickering.
After her father’s death, Anne became the ward of Sir Richard Weston, who married her to his son, Sir Francis Weston, in 1530, and she bore him a son, Henry, in 1535.
Sir Francis was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber at the court of King Henry VIII. He suffered a sad fate when he was accused of high treason by committing adultery with Anne Boleyn, the king's second wife. He protested his innocence, but was found guilty and beheaded on Tower Hill, just outside the Tower of London, on 17 May 1536.
Anne remarried quickly, in late 1536 or early 1537, to Sir Henry Knyvett. Sir Henry was also a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and had helped Anne in her fight for her husband’s life. Anne and Sir Henry had six children together, the first being born in 1537, before Sir Henry died in 1547.
Anne went on to marry a third time, to John Vaughan, in 1549, bearing further children, and died in 1582.
While married to Sir Henry Knevett Sir Henry and Anne sold the Manor of Ellerton, along with many other manors and lands, to the king, Henry VIII.
In 1548, Ann, now widow of Sir Henry, was granted the Manor of Escrick and many lands and liberties (long list), which included the Manor of Ellerton, for life, with remainder to Henry Knevett, son and heir of the said Henry Knevett, deceased. This was in return for services to the king's father (to Henry VIII by Sir Henry Knevett, now deceased).
In 1560, Sir Henry Knevit, sued for confirmation of the grant by Edward VI of the manors of Escrick, Hawghton and Ellerton, which presumeably was the manor formerly held by Ellerton Priory, thus acquiring the two manors of Ellerton.
In 1599 Hugh Bethell acquired both manors from Thomas, Lord Knyvet.
Grisella Bethell, the only dau of Sir Hugh Bethell of Ellerton, married Sir John Wray, 2nd baronet Glentworth, in September, 1607, and the manors of Ellerton then passed to Sir John, who then transferred them (by sale or upon the coming of age is not clear) to Walter Bethell, Grisella's nephew.
The manor or manors remained in the hands of the Bethell family, as in 1750 Henry Clarkson was appointed by Slingsby Bethell as gamekeeper in the manor of Ellerton, but which manor is unclear, and they could well have been merged.
The last mention of a lord of the manor comes in the trade directory for 1840, where Sir Christopher Bethell Codrington was named as lord of the manor. However, Sir Christopher had tried to sell his estate in 1839 but was unsuccessful. Sir Christopher died in February 1843 and his entire estate was put up for sale to meet the demands of his creditors. Again the sale was unsuccessful and a notice appeared in the Yorkshire press on October 12th, 1844, announcing that according to an Order of the High Court of Chancery, made in a case Vernon v. Thelluson, the manors of Ellerton and Laytham were to be peremptorily sold, in 37 lots.
[Joseph Vernon, Thomas Benson, Frances Wigg and George Wigg were the executors of Thomas Carr, esquire, deceased. The Hon. Arthur Thelluson and John Edward Dowdeswell were the executors of Sir Christopher Bethell Codrington. Thomas Carr was the principal creditor of Sir Chirstopher, and since they both died the debts were taken up by their estates, hence the case of Vernon v. Thelluson. Papers from this case can be found in the Hull History Centre, under reference DDJ/6/8].
On the 16th and 17th October 1844 it is recorded that Joseph Dunnington Jeffries was the highest bidder for Lot 28, the Rectory and Church advowson, and later an offer for Lot 27, the annual rent-charge [Hull History Centre, reference DDJ/6/1], however it is not recorded who bid for the Manor. However, it was presumeably William Worswick, as Whellan's History of the East Riding, in 1857, names him as the lord of the manor.
There are no further mentions in the press after this date concerning the Ellerton manors, nor in the trades directories from this date.
There are no documents listed for Ellerton in the Manorial Documents Register.