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Before the Norman Conquest the manor of Ruislip was held by Wlward Wit, a thegn of King Edward, who also held the manors of Kempton and Kingsbury in Middlesex and considerable estates elsewhere. By 1086 it had passed to Ernulf of Hesdin (de Hesding), who granted it to the Abbot and Convent of the Benedictine Abbey of Bec in Normandy. Bec enjoyed possession of it until 1211 when King John sequestrated the properties of the abbey, and were fully confiscated in 1404, when Henry IV granted Ruislip manor, with reversion to the king and his heirs, jointly to his third son John, later Duke of Bedford. On his death in 1435 the manor reverted to the Crown, and although Bec petitioned the king for the restoration of their property, Henry VI in 1437 leased Ruislip manor, with a plot called Northwood, for seven years, later extended to a grant for life, to his chancellor John Somerset. In 1438 the king granted the reversion on this estate to the University of Cambridge. The University surrendered its interest in 1441, and the king granted the reversion to his new foundation, the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, later King's College, Cambridge. In 1451, shortly after a Commons petition requesting the dismissal of Somerset, Ruislip manor was granted outright to King's College. In 1461, however, Henry VI was defeated by Edward of York and the Lancastrian grants were declared void. King's College was not included in the list of exemptions; but in the following year Edward IV granted Ruislip manor, with Northwood, in free alms to King's College, in whose possession it remained until the break-up of the college estates in the early 20th century.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 134-137 (available online).

Harrow manor was owned by Archbishop Wulfred, who gave the Harrow lands to his kinsman, Werhard, a priest, for life. Werhard in 845 devised the land to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. Harrow was held by King Harold's brother, Earl Leofwine, in 1066, but Canterbury regained it after the Conquest. When the Canterbury lands were divided by Lanfranc between the archbishop and Christ Church, Harrow and Hayes were allotted to the former. Except sede vacante, when it was administered by the Crown, Harrow manor was held by the archbishops until Cranmer was forced to exchange it with Henry VIII on 30 December 1545. Six days later, the king sold it to Sir Edward (later Lord) North (d. 1564), Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations. Dudley (d. 1666), the 3rd baron, sold Harrow manor in 1630 to Edmund Phillips and George and Rowland Pitt. In 1636, after Phillips's death, Rowland Pitt quitclaimed his interest to George Pitt and his heirs. George Pitt's son, Edmund, was dead by 1666 and the manor descended to Edmund's daughter, Alice, and her successive husbands, Edward Palmer and Sir James Rushout. The manor remained with the Rushouts, until the 3rd baron, Sir George Rushout-Bowles, died in 1887. His widow, Lady Elizabeth Augusta, sold some of the estate but on her death in 1912 the bulk passed to her grandson, Capt. E. G. Spencer-Churchill. He sold the remaining land in the 1920s but retained the manorial rights until his death in 1964, when they passed to his executors.

'Harrow manor' described both manorial rights over the whole area and the chief demesne farm in the centre of the parish. To distinguish it from the Rectory estate at Harrow-on-the-Hill, the demesne was, from the 14th century, called Sudbury manor or Sudbury Court. Its descent followed that of Harrow manor.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 203-211 (available online).