The Tasburgh Family

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Originally there were two Manors in Tasburgh. At the time of the Domesday Book the main one, which became known as Tasburgh Uphall, was held by a man called Tarolf. We don't know exactly when his descendants began to be called de Tasburgh but for tax collecting and as people began to move around the county and country, it became increasingly important to be able to which Richard for example you were talking about.

Certainly the name was in use in the early 1200s and by then the family had also acquired lands at St Peter South Elmham, just over the county boundary into Suffolk. Their powers as Lord of the Manor can be illustrated by a record from 1247 when Ralph de Tasburgh was lord and had been granted the right to try in his own court baron all theft committed by residents in his manor and to execute them and take their forfeited goods.

Gradually the family shifted its base from Tasburgh to South Elmham. The rectors' boards at the back of the church records that in 1274 Roger de Tasburgh, as Lord of Tasburgh Uphall manor, sold the right to appoint the rector, the advowson, to Sir Robert de Tateshale, Lord of Buckenham Castle, and in 1280 he sold the manor itself to Richard de Boyland. The de Tasburgh's moated manor house in the village was located on the higher ground commanding the junction of the river Tas from Tharston with its tributary, the Hempnall stream, and as can be seen from the plan and would have had its own chapel, because there is a record of a grant of a right of way in 1289 passing between Sir Richard de Boyland's courtyard and his chapel of St. Michael.

The family's house in South Elmham was just to the north of St. Peter's church but they hadn't by any means severed all links to Norfolk because they also owned property in Norwich where they are recorded in the 1400s as merchants and freemen of the city. Following the Dissolution of the Monastries in 1538 John Tasburgh was able to purchase Flixton Priory and used much of the stone from there to extend and improve his own house known as St Peter's Hall which is now home to St. Peter's brewery and restaurant.

In his Will the same John Tasburgh asked to be buried "in the chapel of our Lady Mary Virgin on the north side of the church of St Peter before the image of our Lady" but the chapel later fell into disrepair and was demolished c.1800 so there's now no trace of the Tasburghs to be found in the church. His grandson, Sir John Tasburgh, substantially expanded the family's land holdings, and in 1615 built a grand house for the family in Flixton overlooking the Waveney valley.

However, with their Royalist and catholic sympathies, two thirds of the family's estates were confiscated by Cromwell and the puritans after the Civil War, though the family retained the house and surrounding park. During a royal tour of Suffolk, Charles II admired Flixton Hall, and on being told it was owned by a "Popish dog" is said to have replied "but the dog has a very beautiful kennel !" In 1678 the family was implicated in what became known as the Popish Plot to replace Charles II with his catholic brother, later James II, but the plot turned out to be the fabrication of a man called Titus Oates and the family escaped a charge of treason.

In 1713 the male line of the Tasburghs died out and later the Flixton estate passed out of the family, but Flixton church still displays many floor ledger slabs and memorials bearing their name. The Hall was badly damaged by fire in 1846 just after the above print was published. It was re-built in an even more grand style by the then owner Sir Robert Sholto Adair, but after WW2 the costs of repair and death duties forced the sale of the 3000 acre estate, and the Hall was eventually demolished in 1953.