granted to Peter, Archbishop of Rouen, but he appeared to subsequently have nothing to do with it, as four months later ownership of the manor passed to William Melton, the Archbishop of York. Upon his death in 1340 he left his possessions to his nephew William de Melton, the son of his brother Henry. In 1348, William de Melton obtained King Edward III's permission to give his manor to William Edendon, Bishop of Winchester. The ownership of the manor of Bentworth was then passed by marriage to the Windsor family, who had been constables of Windsor Castle. The Bentworth Hall estate was evidently returned to the Melton family, because it is mentioned among their possessions in a document dated to 1362. It then passed to William's similar-named son, Sir William de Melton. Sir William's son, John de Melton, who inherited the house in 1399, was recorded as owner of the manor of Bentworth in 1431. He died in 1455, and was succeeded by his son until the latter's death in 1474, then finally his grandson John Melton. After the death of the last, the manor of Bentworth remained in the possession of the Windsor family for at least 150 years. Elizabethan to Georgian The Windsors owned many manors, including Bentworth. An example is from the will of Edward, 3rd Lord Windsor, dated 20 December 1572 which contains the words: " ... touching the disposition of ... all those my manors of Bentworth Hall, Burkham, Astleye, Mill Court and Thrustons ... in the county of Southampton ... " Twelve years later in 1590, the 5th Lord Windsor, Henry Windsor (1562–1605), sold the manor of Bentworth to the Hunt family, who had been tenants since the beginning of the 1500s. Ownership passed in 1610 to Sir James Woolveridge of Odiham and in 1651 to Thomas Turgis, a wealthy London merchant. His son, also Thomas, described as one of the richest commoners in England, left the manor of Bentworth to his relative William Urry, of Sheat Manor in 1705. In 1777 William Urry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth married two brothers, Basil and William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton Hall, Staffordshire. Their sister-in-law was Maria Fitzherbert, the secret wife of the Prince Regent, later King George IV. In about 1800, Mary Fitzherbert (who had eleven children) became owner of Bentworth Manor and Manor Farm. 19th century to the Second World War In 1832 the Fitzherbert family