Catalogue description SILEBY (LEICS.)

Sileby was one of the Segraves' five principal Leicestershire manors. Between 1236 and 1239 Stephen de Segrave exchanged the manor of Thornton (BCM/D/5/45) with Simon de Montfort for Sileby and Thurnby. [BL Harl. MS 4748, f. 14d. Simon had acquired Sileby in Oct. 1236 and the exchange with Stephen was confirmed by Henry III in March 1239.] The grant included the advowson of Sileby, for which Nicholas de Segrave was later sued by Edmund of Lancaster, but Edmund quitclaimed it to Nicholas by a fine of 1277-8. [BL Harl. MS 4748, f. 15.] Nicholas Lord Segrave granted half his water-mill and windmill there to a tenant for life (above, BCM/D/5/18/3 [GC 819]), and the manor was included in the settlement of 1343-4. It was held by the duchess Katherine and the reversion was granted by the duchess Elizabeth to the queen in 1476 and by William Berkeley to Richard III in 1484. The rents of Thurnby and possibly those of Cossington were paid at Sileby. The manor was sold with Thurnby in Oct. 1587 by Henry Lord Berkeley to George Shirley, who in the same year married Henry's daughter Frances. [Smyth, ii. 359 (BCM GC 5458).]