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EAST GRINSTEAD AND ITS MANORS. 113
Pickesse was returned, 1st October, 1586, as M.P. for East Grinstead, and in 1589 was found seized of the Manor of Brambletye.
On 25th May, 1588, Thomas Cure died seized of the Manor of Lavortye, leaving George his eldest son and heir. This Thomas Cure was the donor of the Seal to the Borough Town of East Grinstead in 1572.
In 1603 Thomas, Lord Buckhurst, possessed the Manor of Brambletye; 1610 to 1621 Richard Earl of Dorset held it of the King as of his Honour of Aquila at the value of £4.
The property next came into the possession of the Comptons, and to Sir Henry Compton is ascribed the building of the house which now stands in ruins.
Henry, Baron Compton, of Compton Wynyates, who died in 1589, married Lady Frances Hastings, who died in 1574, and then Anne, daughter of Sir John Spencer and widow of Lord Monteagle. Sir Henry Compton, of Brambletye, was a son of this second marriage. He married Lady Cecille, daughter of Robert Sackville, Earl of Dorset, who bore him three daughters and four sons. The second son, Henry, was slain in a duel by Lord Chandos and was buried at East Grinstead in June, 1652. The fourth son, Thomas, was the last of the family to possess Brambletye.
The family resided here during part of the Commonwealth, 1649-1659, and James Compton, the son of Sir Henry Compton, died there on 28th July, 1659, and was buried at Withy ham, which circumstance disposes of the report that the house was destroyed in the time of Cromwell. The last Court held by the Comptons was on January 13th, 1660, the year of the Restoration, and was the first act of the then proprietor, George Compton, on the return to peaceable times.
Sir James Richards next lived at Brambletye. He was of a French family, his father having come into England with Queen Henrietta Maria, the unfortunate wife of Charles I. For saving several men of war James Richards was knighted and afterwards—February 22nd, 1683-4—was raised to the rank of a baronet, being then |
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