Racton

Before the Norman Conquest, Racton was held by Fulk under King Edward the Confessor. By 1086, the Domesday survey records it in the hands of Ivo, holding of Earl Roger de Montgomery as tenant-in-chief, assessed at 5 hides.

Shortly after the Conquest, Savaric fitzCane acquired Racton along with Stoughton, Up Marden, and Easebourne. He married Muriel de Bohun, and around 1142 they granted the church of Racton to Lewes Priory with the consent of their son Ralph. Savaric died about 1144. The Bohun family maintained mesne tenancy of Racton until at least 1199. The overlordship descended with the Rape of Chichester, held throughout the medieval period by the earls of Arundel.

Ralf Sanzaver appears in connection with Racton from 1196, claiming two and a half hides. In 1206, he granted William de Rakindon 2 hides as a quarter knight's fee, retaining the mill. By 1233, the estate passed to Henry fitz-Richard of Spargrove in Somerset in exchange for Spargrove manor. Thomas Sanzaver, who died in 1349, was the last of the family to hold the property; the lands reverted to the Earl of Arundel.

Roger Gunter contributed to the subsidy at Racton by 1327 and held land in chief of the king "by service of two white capons when the king shall come into the district." He died in 1437. John Gunter (d. 1475) acquired the Aldsworth portion through a fine. John Gunter of Chilworth, Surrey (d. 1511) was the first to be described as holding "a manor" at Racton.

John Gunter (d. 1558) held the manor in three distinct parts: one of Henry, Earl of Arundel, as of his manor of Stansted; the main portion of William Dawtrey as of his manor of Aldsworth; and 200 acres of pasture of an unnamed lord. Sir George Gunter (d. 1624) is commemorated by an elaborate monument in Racton church depicting him kneeling at a fald-stool with his wife Ursula.

Colonel George Gunter won lasting fame for assisting the escape of Charles II from England after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. A later George Gunter married Elizabeth Sherrington in 1695. Their son assumed his mother's surname, becoming Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl (d. 1733). His daughter Frances Katherine ultimately inherited, and in 1755 she married William Legge, second Earl of Dartmouth, bringing Racton into the Legge family where it remained at the time of the VCH publication in 1953.