Under the Saxons the manor of Cassio was, it has been stated, among the numerous possessions of Offa with which he endowed the Abbey of St. Albans, and it remained attached to that abbey until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. In Domesday Book it is stated that “the Abbot of St. Albans holds Cassiou; it answers for twenty hides; of these the abbot holds nineteen. There is land for twenty-two ploughs. Six hides are in demesne, and there are five ploughs, and a sixth may yet be made. Three foreigners and thirty-six villeins with eight bordars have there fifteen ploughs, and one may yet be made. There are, moreover, three bordars and two bondmen, and four mills of 26s. 8d. Meadow for twenty-two ploughs. Pasture for the cattle. Pannage for 1,000 hogs. Its whole value is £28; when received £24; and in King Edward’s time £30. St. Alban held and holds this manor in demesne.” In the twelfth century the revenue duties payable from Cassio to the abbey were, at Christmas 2s. and twenty-four hens; at Easter, 2s. and 600 eggs; and on St. Alban’s day, 2s. and twenty-four cheeses. By Henry I. the whole liberty of Cassio was formally made over to the abbey. In 1546, after the dissolution of the monasteries, “the lordship or manor of Cayshobury” and other places was granted to Sir Richard Morrison, Knight, in consideration of certain property in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, and of the sum of £176 17s. 6d. in money; to hold the same by the service of the tenth part of a knight, and paying for the same yearly £5 12s. 6½d. Soon after this, Sir Richard commenced the erection of “a fayre and large house, situated upon a dry hill not far from a pleasant river in a fayre park, and had prepared materials for the finishing thereof; but before the same could be half built, he was forced to fly beyond the seas.” The mansion was completed by his son, Sir Charles Morrison, who died in 1599. On the marriage of Elizabeth Morrison, the only surviving child of Sir Richard’s grandson, the property passed to her husband, Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel of Hadham in 1641, from whom the present possessor, the Earl of Essex, is lineally descended. Baron Capel appears to have resided more at Hadham than at Cassiobury, but his son, Arthur Capel, created Viscount Malden and Earl of Essex in 1661, after residing there for a time, took up his residence at Cassiobury, the greater part of which he is said to have rebuilt—indeed, it is said that the whole of the mansion, with the exception of the north-west wing, was rebuilt by him, employing for the house May, the architect, and for the laying out of his gardens Moses Cooke—who in 1675 published a volume on fruit-trees—and, it is also said, Le Notre, and Rose, his head-gardener at Essex House, in the Strand.
Back View.
Of the house and its gardens, Evelyn, on the 16th April, 1680, thus wrote:—“On the earnest invitation of the Earl of Essex, I went with him to his house at Cassioberie in Hartfordshire. It was on Sunday, but going early from his house in the square of St. James’s, we arrived by ten o’clock; this we thought too late to go to church, and we had prayers in his chapell. The house is new, a plaine fabric built by my friend Mr. Hugh May. There are divers faire and good roomes, and excellent carving by Gibbons, especially the chimney-piece of ye library. There is in the porch or entrance a painting by Verrio, of ‘Apollo and the Liberal Arts.’ One room parquetted with yew which I lik’d well. Some of the chimney-mantles are of Irish marble, brought by my lord from Ireland, when he was Lord-Lieutenant, and not much inferior to Italian. The tympanum or gable at the front is a basso-relievo of Diana hunting, cut in Portland stone handsomely enough. I did not approve of the middle dores being round, but when the Hall is finished as design’d, it being an oval with a cupola, together with the other wing, it will be a very noble palace. The library is large, and very nobly finished, and all the books are richly bound and gilded; but there are no MSS. except the parliament rolls and journals, the transcribing and binding of which cost him, as he assured me, £500. No man has been more industrious than this noble lord in planting about his seat, adorned with walkes, ponds, and other rural elegancies; but the soile is stonie, churlish, and uneven, nor is the water neere enough to the house, though a very swift and cleare streame run within a flight shot from it in the valley, which may be fitly call’d Coldbrook, it being indeed excessive cold, yet producing fair troutes. ‘Tis pitty the house was not situated to more advantage, but it seems it was built just where the old one was, which, I believe, he onlley meant to repaire; this leads men into irremediable errors, and saves but a little. The land about it is exceedingly addicted to wood, but the coldnesse of the place hinders the growth. Black cherry-trees prosper even to considerable timber, some being 80 foote long; they make alsoe very handsome avenues. There is a pretty oval at the end of a faire walke, set about with treble rows of Spanish chesnut-trees. The gardens are very rare, and cannot be otherwise, having so skilful an artist to govern them as Mr. Cooke, who is, as to ye mechanick part, not ignorant in mathematiks, and portends to astrologie. There is an excellent collection of the choicest fruit.”
By the second Earl of Essex the gardens were altered and improved; and it is said that those of the old mansion of the Morrisons which had not been reconstructed by the first earl, were restored or rebuilt by him. With the exception of these alterations and a few other occasional repairs, the house remained as it was left by the first Earl of Essex, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the greater part was again rebuilt by the late earl, from the designs of James Wyatt.
We now proceed to speak of the families of Morrison and Capel, to whom Cassiobury has successively belonged.
William Morrison, or Morysine, in the reign of Henry VI. resided at Chardwell, Yorkshire, and it was his grandson, Thomas Morrison, of Chardwell, son of William Morrison by a daughter of Roger Leigh, of Preston, who removed into Hertfordshire. He married a daughter of Thomas Merry, of Hatfield, by whom he had a son, Sir Richard Morrison, who, in 1537, succeeded Cardinal Pole in the prebend of Yatsminster-Seconda in Salisbury Cathedral. In 1539 he was appointed by Henry VIII. ambassador to Charles V., Emperor of Germany, in which he was accompanied by Roger Ascham, and, in 1546, had a grant of the manor of Cashiobury, and soon after commenced building there a mansion of considerable size. Besides Cashiobury he had grants, and acquired much property, in London, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Somersetshire. Under Queen Mary and her persecutions Sir Richard was compelled to fly from England, and died at Strasburg in 1556. He married Bridget Hussey, daughter of Lord Hussey (who, after his death, married successively Henry, second Earl of Rutland, and Francis, third Earl of Bedford), by whom he had issue one son, Sir Charles Morrison, Knight, and three daughters, Elizabeth, married first to Henry Norris, son of Lord Norris, of Rycote, and secondly to Henry, second Earl of Lincoln; Mary, married to Bartholomew Hales, of Chesterfield; and Jane Sibilla, married, first to Edward, Lord Russell, and, second, to Arthur, Lord Grey, of Wilton. Sir Charles Morrison, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and was a minor at the time of his father’s death, married Dorothy, daughter of Nicholas Clarke, and widow of Henry Long, of Shengie, and by her had issue a son, Sir Charles Morrison, and three daughters, Bridgett, married to Robert, fifth Earl of Sussex, and Elizabeth and Catherine, who died unmarried. This second Sir Charles, who succeeded his father in 1599, and was then a minor, was created a baronet by letters patent, June 29, 1611, and on the coronation of Charles I. was installed a Knight of the Bath. He married Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Baptist, Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden (the lady afterwards married successively Sir John Cooper, Bart., and Sir Richard Alford, Knight), and by her had issue two sons, who died young, and a daughter, Elizabeth Morrison, who thus became his only heir. This lady, Elizabeth Morrison, married Arthur Capel, who, by letters patent, dated August 6, 1641, was created Baron Capel, of Hadham, and thus the large estates of the Morrisons, both at Cashiobury and elsewhere, passed into the family of Capel, its present holders. The arms of Morrison were, or, on a chief, gules, three chaplets of the first. Crest, specially conferred on Sir Richard, in allusion to his literary attainments, a Pegasus rising, or.
