The Middle Ages

Pre 1066 Midhurst develops as Saxon village
1103 Henry I leases estates near Arundel to Savoric fitz Cana from Normandy. He makes his home at Ford
1106 Savaric also receives Midhurst and Easebourne.
1158 After his death the estates are split between his sons. Savaric II keeps Ford: Geldwin gets Midhurst and builds fortified manor house on St Ann’s Hill.
1187 Estates reunited under Geldwin’s son Frank, who returns to Ford. This is the family home until 1284. The Hill only occupied occasionally. They call themselves de Bohun and later, Bohun.
c.1140 Savaric III founds Easebourne Priory
1284 Sir John Bohun moves from Ford to new home, Coudreye, on site of Cowdray ruins.
1305 King Edward I and his son, the future Edward II, visit Coudreye
A Tudor and Stuart Palace
c.1488

Sir David Owen (great-uncle of Henry VII) marries the de Bohun heiress and after her death (c.1496) acquires Coudreye.
c.1520-29 Owen gradually demolishes Coudreye and begins building Cowdray.
1529

Owen’s son Henry illegally sells Cowdray to Sir William Fitzwilliam for £2000. Sir David Owen continues living there until his death in 1535.

  
1533 Sir William licensed by Henry VIII to empark and crenelate Cowdray.  
1536

After the dissolution he is given Easebourne priory and other monastic properties.

1537

Sir William is ennobled as Earl of Southampton on the birth of Edward VI.

1538

Henry VIII visits Cowdray (3-7 August). Sir William’s half-brother and heir, Anthony Browne, receives Battle Abbey. A dispossessed monk curses his family ‘by fire and by water’.

Lady Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury, imprisoned at Cowdray (November 1538 - September 1539)
1539 Henry VIII visits Cowdray (30-31 July).  
1540 Sir William created Lord Priy Seal (he hwas Lord High Admiral 1536-40)
1542 Sir Anthony Browne inherits Cowdray.
Sinking of the Mary Rose (July)
1545 Henry VIII visits Cowdray (early August).
1548 Browne’s son (also Sir Anthony) inherits.
1552 Edward VI visits Cowdray (July 27-28) and complains that food was too rich.
1554 Sir Anthony Browne is ennobled as 1st Viscount Montague on marriage of Queen Mary to King Phillip of Spain.
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada. 1st Viscount is under house arrest at Cowdray because of his Catholocism.
1591 Queen Elizabeth I visits Cowdray (August 15-21).
1592 2nd Viscount inherits
1595 Montague issues his Book of Orders and Rules for the direction of his household.
1605 Gunpowder plot. 2nd Viscount briefly imprisoned for complicity.
1611 2nd Viscount imprisoned for a year because he refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to King James I. Fined £6000.
1629 3rd Viscount inherits.
1630s Robert May employed as chef at Cowdray
1643-60 During and after the Civil War, two thirds of Cowdray estates sequestered and all plate, etc. seized. House garrisoned by Parliamentary forces but escapes demolition.
1682 4th Viscount inherits. He orders the compiling of an inventory of furniture at Cowdray.
1705 5th Viscount inherits.
 
The Georgian Period  
1747

6th Viscount inherits

  
1767 7th Viscount inherits  
1770 ‘Capability’ Brown employed to modernise gardens
1787 8th Viscount inherits.
1793 Cowdray semi-destroyed by fire (September 24). 8th Viscount drowned on the Rhine in Switzerland (early October). Title passes to descendant of 2nd Viscount who dies childless. Viscountancy becomes extinct.
1794-1840 Estates inherited by 8th Viscount’s sister. She marries Colonel Poyntz who outlives her and dies in 1840. Family live in former keeper’s lodge in Cowdray grounds. The two sons are drowned off Bognor in 1815. Estates pass to three daughters who cannot agree the division.
Victorian and 20th Century
1843

Estates sold to 6 th Earl of Egmont for £300,000.
1874 7th Earl of Egmont inherits. Keeper’s lodge is rebuilt to become present Cowdray Park (1878).
1897 8th Earl of Egmont inherits.  
1908 Estates sold to Sir Weetman Dickinson Pearson who in 1917 becomes Viscount Cowdray.  
1913-19 Sir William St John Hope asked to report on the ruins of Cowdray, Easebourne Priory and St Ann’s Hill. Some restoration work done.
1927 2nd Viscount Cowdray inherits.
1933 3rd Viscount Cowdray inherits.
1995

4th Viscount Cowdray inherits.
1996 Cowdray Heritage Trust created
2006/7 Major conservation project
2007 From 31st March 2007 - Cowdray now open to visitors.

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Cowdray Heritage Trust, Visitor Centre, River Ground Stables,
Cowdray Park, Midhurst, West Sussex GU29 9AL
Tel: 01730 810781 email: info@cowdray.org.uk