December 1537 Titchfield Abbey and its estates came into the hands of Thomas Wriothesley; who at the age of 32, was one of Henry VIII's closest officials. Wriothesley had been at the royal court since the age of eighteen, acting as secretary both to Thomas Cromwell and the King during the difficult years of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He had a house at Micheldever, and had taken an interest in several of the local monasteries, so that when they were dissolved it was not surprising that he should have obtained first some of the lands of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, then Titchfield, Beaulieu, and later Hyde Abbey in Winchester.
Compared to others, the Titchfield order got away lightly after the dissolution and (it is said) were able to secrete some of the finery away to Beaulieu, but it is not clear how badly damaged was the abbey. However a report says “As on his other estates, Thomas acted with great speed at Titchfield in ordering the conversion of the abbey into a residence.” This involved considerable redesign and building work. By the time the traveller, John Leland, passed through Titchfield in 1542 he was able to write
"Mr. Wriothesley hath builded a right stately house embattled and having a goodely gate and a conducte (conduit) castled in the middle of the courte of it. In the very same place where the late Monasterie of the Premonstratensian stoode".
Wriothesley was not the only one in a hurry to see the abbey gone. Within a few days of the surrender, a man named Sherlond and half-a-dozen neighbours turned up offering to buy statues, altars and stone. The tenants came in such large numbers to renew their leases with the new landlord that the Parish Church had to be used as the manor court. Apparently they were so glad that the abbey had been dissolved, and said that it should have been done seven years ago. Wriothesley was assured by his agent "you have now many good and hearty tenants." The only hesitation was shown in the demolition of the steeple of the abbey church; it was in a dangerous state, it was mid-winter, the carpenter delayed and superstitiously, the agent said "we would be loth to adventure with him before the change in the moon."
Wriothesley became Secretary of State to Henry VIII and displayed cunning flexibility in the diplomatic sphere and stayed in favour after Cromwell's fall. He was created Baron Titchfield in 1544 and Lord Chancellor until the King's death in 1547 when he inherited £500 from the royal will.
Then he became one of the council appointed to govern for the young Edward VI. The committee promptly promoted each other to the peerage, Wriothesley becoming Earl of Southampton. But his religious persuasion led him to cross swords with Lord Somerset whereupon he was heavily fined and dismissed from office. He died in his house in Holborn, London in 1550.
Henry, second earl of Southampton, was aged just five when he succeeded to the title; seven when he was host to Edward VI at Titchfield in 1552 and was only 20 when he married. He entertained the young Queen Elizabeth at Titchfield in 1569, but was later involved in a number of Catholic plots against the queen, and as a result spent several years in the Tower. Henry was perhaps fortunate to be free when in 1581 to die in his bed at Titchfield, though at the early age of 37. In his will he left moneys for the erection of the fine monument in the parish church.
In the village, the centuries old daily market market was reduced to five days to reduce persistent riotous behaviour by locals. Merchants' houses were realigned to form a right-angle to the town centre, enclosing their properties with gates and guards.
The Third Earl another Henry was nearly eight when he acceded to the title. As a boy he was a royal ward, in the guardianship of Elizabeth's powerful minister Lord Burghley. Henry grew up to be a handsome and cultured courtier, friend of the young Earl of Essex. He was a socialite was patron to several writers, including William Shakespeare. No doubt Shakespeare would have visited Titchfield Abbey and it has been suggested, on tenuous evidence, that some of the more courtly plays may have been first acted at Titchfield. Beyond that there theories that he spent some time in the village and drew inspiration for his sonnets here.
Wriothesley may not in those years have spent much time at Titchfield: as well as the London Palace, Southampton House, in Holborn, he had several other houses. Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, Henry, engaged in several rash escapades which culminated in a very dangerous involvement in Essex's unsuccessful rebellion of 1601. Like his father, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and was lucky to escape with his life when the Queen died two years later. He forfeited his estates, but recovered them on the accession of James I.
But he was not by nature the kind of patient, industrious official his grandfather had been, and so in the new reign became not a courtier but a politician and active member of the House of Lords. He was a vigorous, restless man, sometimes hot-tempered, but also charming and companionable. Among his many interests was the exploration and settlement of North America, and nearer home as Captain of the Isle of Wight he spent much time at Carisbrooke Castle improving the defences of the Island.
He found time to take a close interest in his house and estate at Titchfield. It was Henry who built the canal, the Stony Bridge and the ironworks; had the estate surveyed and the great map of 1610 made. He almost certainly built the market hall and is said to have revived the woollen industry. It follows that the "clothing-house" and a workshop or small factory mentioned in 1634 was also his work. His efforts appear to have been successful: the parish registers show that the population of the parish rose steadily from the late sixteenth century to the 1640's. the iron mill, tanneries, saltings and farm produce. The third Earl (now aged 51) and his elder son died in 1624 on a military campaign in Holland.
The fourth Earl, Henry's second son Thomas, succeeded to the estates at the age of 17, and shortly after entertained Charles I and his newly married Queen, Henrietta Maria. at Titchfield. He had at first been critical of the royal government, but by the beginning of the Civil War had joined the King. He remained a moderate and several times took part in negotiations between the combatants. In spite of the earlier disagreements the royal couple retained fond memories of Titchfield and the king fled here during his attempt to escape from parliamentary control. It was in fact while he was hiding at Place House in 1647 that he was found by Colonel Hammond and taken into custody. The fourth Earl is said to have sat with the king's body through the night after the execution. He was allowed to live quietly at Titchfield during the Commonwealth and Protectorate. At the Restoration Charles II appointed him Lord Treasurer, but he lost sympathy with Charles's policies. Thomas died in London in 1667. Both of his sons had died in childhood. Of his surviving daughters, Rachael married Henry Somerset, the Earl of Gainsborough and took the house at Titchfield into that branch of the family: Charles II visited them there in 1675. Another daughter married the Duke of Montagu, and their descendant still lives in another of the family houses at Beaulieu. Lord Gainsborough's house was back in the news when in 1688 it was taken for the Queen as a convenient point from which to escape to France when a Dutch invasion was imminent.
Racheal died in 1709 at the age of just 19 years leaving Titchfield to pass to the Dukes of Beaufort, one of whom sold the estate to the Delmé family in 1741.
But in the late 17th and early 18th centuries the owners visited the house less and less frequently, and then only on their way to the coast. Parts of the house seem to have been occupied from time to time by dowagers and other female relatives, but some parts were allowed to fall into disrepair. When Missing wrote his poem in 1740 he could already describe the house as "sunk in dust". The fortunes of the great house were paralleled in those years by the fortunes of the parish. For still obscure reasons the Civil War and its aftermath appear to have done long term damage to the economy of the village. Although the diarist Pepys. when he rode down Hollam Hill in April 1662 said that "in one view we could see £6000 per annum" we can assume he was exaggerating for he was a political opponent and thus a jealous critic of the fourth Earl. The population of the parish in fact fell steadily through the late 17th century, only recovering in the middle of the eighteenth.
An unlikely legend says that an effigy of the third Earl was burnt in a barrel because he closed off the River Meon to build the canal. The burning in the village square developed into the annual carnival took place around 1880, more than a century after the last of the Wriothesley family died. Generally they left good memories of a golden age in which the energetic Earl had revived the woollen industry and brought a generation of prosperity to the village.