The Sadleir Web

The connection of Sir Ralph Sadler with Standon is well known to all who take an interest in this worthy knight. A few words on the village and its history, and how he came to be connected with it, from one who has lived and worked here for many years might be of interest also.

Standon is nowadays a small quiet village a bit under thirty miles north of the centre of London. This is perhaps its the most significant fact in this story; Standon was no more than a good day's horse ride from London in mediaeval times, and therefore it became popular with City merchants who set up their country homes in the area, and moved their families out into the country when the Plague and other pestilences became too prevalent in the city. Several it seems stayed a bit too long at work themselves and succumbed later in Standon. A number of brasses and memorials of the 15th century in the church are to wealthy London merchants.

Standon had been established as a Market Village by the Lord of the Manor, Gilbert de Clare in the 12th century, he having obtained a monopoly from the King to hold a market in the area. This accounts for the present wide layout of our High Street which gives the village a lot of its charm. This proved a most profitable venture for him, and it thrived for many years, since all other markets in the area were suppressed if they were considered to compete, and eventually the merchants formed themselves into a Borough in its own right. So Standon was quite a well known and prosperous place in the time of Henry VIII, and the Lordship of the Manor had in fact reverted to the crown some years previously, so that it formed part of the jointure of Catherine of Aragon. When she fell from grace, it passed to Jane Seymour, and the man who was Steward of her affairs was….. Ralph Sadler. On the death of Sir William Coffyn who was the actual Steward of the Manor of Standon, probably of the plague, in 1538, Ralph got himself appointed Steward in his place, and probably took up residence in the village (this is the subject of some research at present). In 1539 he was granted the Manor of Standon, the Borough of Standon and some other Manors in the area by the King in return for services rendered. This probably included some land confiscated from the Knights of St John at the dissolution of the monasteries. A tremendous amount of land was distributed to favourites of the King, making them extremely wealthy men. In 1543 Ralph started building the Lordship and the rest as they say is History.

Standon today still has many old houses, but not many dating back as far as Sir Ralph's time. The house in which I live is reliably dated stylistically to before 1385, and is the oldest surviving intact house in the village. From the wonderful Crown Posts in our roof space and several other features we think that it may have been the Court House for the Borough of Standon, when the village flourished from the Market. The Borough was quite separate from the Manor of Standon, possibly right up to just before the time that Sir Ralph received them as a gift from the king.

We still have a lovely Church, built by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, with a detached Bell Tower and many steps rising up to the altar with the lie of the land. Here Sir Ralph is buried with a fittingly sumptuous marble memorial.

Pat Bird