Southwick

The manor of Southwick first appears in the historical record in 1133, when Henry I founded a priory of Augustinian canons at Portchester Castle and granted them a hide of land in Southwick, along with the manor of Candover and a hide in Applestead. Between 1145 and 1153 the priory relocated from Portchester to Southwick itself. The canons accumulated further lands through grants from the Boarhunt family during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. By the late medieval period Southwick Priory controlled extensive holdings across Hampshire, Sussex, Wiltshire and Dorset.

The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 valued the priory at £257 4s. 4d. annually. On 7 April 1538 Prior William Norton and twelve canons surrendered the monastery to Dr Layton, the Crown's commissioner. Norton received a pension of £66 13s. 4d.

The site was granted to John White, servant to Sir Thomas Wriothesley. In 1546 the manor and church of Southwick were formally granted to Wriothesley so that he might alienate them to White. John White pulled down the conventual church and established his household in the prior's lodging. He died in 1567. His son Edward White succeeded him and died in 1580. Edward's heir John White settled the manor on his daughter Honor upon her marriage.

Honor White married Sir Daniel Norton. Sir Daniel died seised of the manor in 1636, leaving a son Richard. The manor descended through the Norton family until Richard Norton, the younger, died on 25 December 1733. He left the Southwick estates to his nephew Francis Thistlethwayte, son of his sister Mary.

Francis Thistlethwayte took the additional name Whitehead. He died on 30 March 1751 and left the estates to his elder brother with remainder to Robert Thistlethwayte. The manor has remained with the Thistlethwayte family since. At the time of the VCH publication in 1908, the lord of the manor was Alexander Thistlethwayte.

In 1940 the Admiralty requisitioned Southwick House and its grounds. From early 1944 Southwick House served as the advance headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Forces, used the house as his forward command post. On 5 June 1944 Eisenhower took the decision to launch Operation Overlord from Southwick House. D-Day, 6 June 1944, remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. The map room where the invasion was planned survives.

The Thistlethwayte family retains the lordship of Southwick and the surrounding estate to this day.