Volume XLI, The 1610 Royston Survey, and the Surveys of 1649, 1650 ad 1652
This volume comprises four seventeenth-century documents which directly relate to the short period when James VI and I bought up large parts of Royston town centre and made his house there one of his principal royal residences.
The 1610 survey was compiled for the lord of the manor of Royston Priory, Sir Robert Chester (d. 1640). It itemises all his properties in and around Royston. Individual houses are briefly described, with information on which properties were adjacent. The names of the occupants and the basis of their tenures are also recorded. Previous tenants are occasionally mentioned. Similar information, including acreage, is given for the fields surrounding the town. The survey’s context was almost certainly James I’s interest in acquiring more property in the town, which related to a wider shift in the king’s involvement with Hertfordshire. The swap of Hatfield and Theobalds between James and the 1st Earl of Salisbury in 1607 made Theobalds the King’s most favoured large-scale residence. Royston was then developed as his most favoured small-scale residence, to be used as a more private retreat from the full court at Theobalds. By 1610 James had already built a new house for himself at Royston and he was expected to acquire other properties there, which indeed he did do. Sir Robert Chester probably commissioned the survey to assist in his negotiations with the king and thus it provides a snapshot of the town just when James I was in the process of making significant property purchases there.
The papers of the parliamentary commissioners for the sale of Charles I’s lands include three surveys of the late king’s properties in Royston (1649, 1650 and 1652). Those properties were the small house which had been built by James I (the ‘Palace’) and the pre-existing houses along the east side of what is now Kneesworth Street, which James had purchased as accommodation for his servants.
The volume has been prepared by the Royston Heritage Group, with Dr Andrew Barclay as lead editor.
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