Eight miles from Bedford on the hills rising to the south of the Ouse valley is the town of Ampthill. Here Sir John Cornwall, Lord Fanhope, one of the English commanders at Agincourt, built the Castle which Henry VIII visited frequently and wrhich served as the residence of Queen Catherine of Aragon during the proceedings for her divorce. In 1542 Henry created the Honour of Ampthill, to which were attached numerous properties including the Manors of Ampthill and the neighbouring village of Millbrook. The Castle was not favoured by succeeding monarchs and was in ruins by the end of the sixteenth century. James I took an interest in the place, however, and in 1605 the Earl of Dorset, writing to the royal Officer of Works, stated “I have received signification of his Majesty’s express pleasure for the building of a fit and convenient house upon the ruins of Ampthill in which he may be lodged.” Although plans were prepared and preliminary surveys made, and although James visited the neighbourhood on more than one occasion, the project was dropped. All that marks the site of the Castle today is the monument erected in the eighteenth century by the Earl of Upper Ossory, a stone column and cross with a shield bearing the arms of Castile and Aragon and lines by Horace Walpole on the pedestal.

In July 1649 an Act was passed for the sale of most of the Crown lands; and the various regiments of the Army, finding that they could purchase lands with the arrears of their pay, appointed attorneys to buy as much land as the debentures (which certified the sums owing to the individual officers and men) would permit. In common with other regiments Okey, his officers and men appointed an attorney, the officer in question being Major Tobias Bridge. The document confirming the appointment is preserved and contains the signatures of the officers and men : some illiterate men, however, indicated their approval by a cross. All the entries have seals, most of which are in a good state of preservation, that at the side of Okey’s signature bearing his own arms: the document is dated 16 February 1649 [50].