Nicholas Rainton the second, great-nephew of Sir Nicholas

When Sir Nicholas Rainton died in 1646, Forty Hall was inherited by Sir Nicholas’ great-nephew, also called Nicholas. The Estate then continued to be passed down through relations, connected by marriage, until it was put up for Auction in1787.

The second Nicholas Rainton enlarged the Forty Hall Estate, adding a deer park and incorporating much of the land where Elsyng Palace had once stood. Nicholas is also believed to have been responsible for building the service courtyard to the west of Forty Hall, including what is now the Long Gallery.

The younger Nicholas appears to have been unpopular both with his tenants and his fellow Members of Parliament. His attempts to enclose areas of common land surrounding Forty Hall met with much opposition. Local people had previously been able to graze their animals on this land and in 1672 angry tenants, including Thomas Saltmarsh and John Lofte, let loose a large number of sheep, destroying over twenty acres of Nicholas Rainton’s newly sown corn and clover.

It is for his alleged involvement in the Rye House Plot that Nicholas Rainton II is remembered to this day. A plan had been hatched to murder King Charles ll and his Brother James, Duke of York as they journeyed home from a visit to Newmarket. An informer implicated Sir Nicholas and a Major Childs of Enfield, claiming that the perpetrators of the plot had been given refuge at Forty Hall. When Royal troops were sent to search the house, no evidence was found and Rainton was soon released. He was lucky however to survive the ordeal, as others connected with the Plot were put to death on extremely flimsy evidence.

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