IDBURY: MANORS and ESTATES

Transcription

1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress IDBURY: MANORS and ESTATES MANORS AND ESTATES In 1086 Idbury manor was assessed at 14 hides and the tiny Foscot manor at 1 hide. 1 Foscot (given to Goring priory in the 12th century) remained a separate estate until the Reformation, but was not mentioned later; Idbury was held by mostly nonresident lords throughout the Middle Ages, and descended in two halves from 1294 until 1548, when it was reunited by the resident Edward Gainsford. Eighteenth- and 19th-century lords also lived elsewhere, and though the manor still included most of the parish in the early 20th century, 2 from the 1920s it was broken up. Godstow nunnery held an additional small estate until the 1530s. 3 Idbury Manor Descent to 1548 In 1066 Idbury was held freely by three thegns, and in 1086 (under the Norman baron Ralph de Mortimer, d. 1104) by the important Domesday landholder Oidelard. 4 The overlordship remained attached to the Mortimers honor of Wigmore (Herefs.) until the death of the last Mortimer earl of March in 1425, when its ownership becomes unclear: 5 in 1490 it was held by Arthur, prince of Wales, of the honor of Cheylesmore near Coventry, 6 though by 1637 it had been restored to the lord of Wigmore. 7 The manor itself was reckoned at 1½ knights fees in 1305 and at 1 knight s fee thereafter. 8 1 VCH Oxon. I, OHC, DV X/52. 3 Below (other estates). 4 VCH Oxon. I, 385, 416; New DNB, s.v. Ralph Mortimer; Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I, Cal. Inq. p.m. XXVI, p. 234; Sanders, Eng. Baronies, 98 9; New DNB, s.v. Edm. Mortimer. 6 Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, I, p TNA, C 142/730/94. 8 Cal. Inq. p.m. IV, p. 163; X, p. 537; XVII, p. 453; XXII, p.418; Feudal Aids, IV, 160, 184, 188; Book of Fees, I, 449; II, 828, 839.

2 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 2 The descent of Oidelard s tenancy is uncertain until , when the lord was Brian de Brampton. 9 In 1279 he or a namesake held Idbury for the service of guarding Wigmore castle with 20 horses for 40 days when the king was at war in north Wales. 10 Sir Brian de Brampton (d. 1294) was succeeded by two infant daughters, Margaret (who married Sir Robert de Harley), and Elizabeth (who married Sir Edmund de Cornwall), between whose successors the manor remained divided until The Harley share passed to Malcolm de Harley (probably Robert and Margaret s son), 12 and in 1428 was held by John Barton (probably of neighbouring Fifield), 13 passing by the mid 15th century to Sir Robert Shottesbrook, and later to John Nowers (d. 1490) of Tackley. 14 He was succeeded by his son Edmund Nowers (d. 1543), whose heir was his granddaughter Alice, wife of Edward Gainsford. 15 The Cornwalls share passed from Sir Edmund (d. 1354) to his younger son Sir Brian (d. 1391) and to his son Sir John Cornwall (d. 1414). 16 John s daughter Elizabeth married Sir William Lichfield (d. 1446), who was succeeded by his granddaughter Margaret, wife of Humphrey Stafford. 17 After her death in 1453 Idbury passed to (Sir) Humphrey Blount (d. 1477), grandson of Sir John Cornwall s sister Isabel, and to his son Sir Thomas Blount, 18 who in 1504 sold the share to the widowed Katherine Wyndeout (d. 1525). She married as her second husband the London mercer Sir Richard Haddon (d. 1517), and on her death the manor was bought by John Pakington. 19 Thereafter it passed by sale to William Fermor in 1531, to William Crofton in 1541, 20 and in 1548 to Edward Gainsford, thereby reuniting the manor Book of Fees, I, Rot. Hund. II, Cal. Inq. p.m. III, pp ; Moor, Knights, I, Feudal Aids, IV, 164, 184; Cal. Inq. p.m. X, p. 537; XVII, p. 453; Moor, Knights, II, Feudal Aids, IV, 188; above, Fifield, social hist. (Middle Ages). 14 TNA, CP 25/1/191/28, no. 34; ROLLR, DG39/415 16; Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, I, p. 270; cf. VCH Oxon. XI, ROLLR, DG39/430 1; cf. VCH Oxon. XI, Cal. Inq. p.m. X, pp. 138, 537; XVI, p. 453; XX, p. 82; XXVI, p. 233; Feudal Aids, IV, 164, 184; Moor, Knights, I, 239; Hist. Parl. s.v. John Cornwall; cf. VCH Oxon. XV, Cal. Inq. p.m. XX, p. 82; XXVI, p. 234; Feudal Aids, IV, 188; Hist. Parl. s.v. Roger Corbet. 18 Cal. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Com.), IV, 383; Hist. Parl. s.v. John Cornwall, John Blount, Humph. Blount; cf. VCH Oxon. XV, ROLLR, DG39/417; DG39/420 2; TNA, PROB 11/21/281; VCH Oxon. XV, 49; Hist. Parl. s.v. John Pakington. 20 ROLLR, DG39/423 9; for Fermor (of Somerton), VCH Oxon. VI, 292 3; VCH Northants. V, 109; below (other estates). 21 ROLLR, DG39/432 4.

3 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 3 Descent from 1548 Funerary monument in the parish church to John Loggin (d. 1637) and his son Robert (d. 1654), mentioning their Scottish ancestry. Gainsford (d. 1575) and his son John (d. 1594) retained the reunited manor and resided in the parish, 22 but in 1620 Edward s grandson John Gainsford (a Roman Catholic recusant) sold it to the lessee, John Loggin (d. 1637) of Little Tew. He moved to Idbury, and was succeeded by his son Robert (d. 1654), the county s sheriff in Robert s nephew John (d. 1681) 24 was succeeded by his daughters Elizabeth, wife of Charles Fortescue (d. 1732) of Husbands Bosworth 22 OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 185, f. 326; TNA, PROB 11/84/258; Oxon. Visit ; below, social hist. (16th to 18th cents). 23 ROLLR, DG39/438 40; DG39/458; TNA, PROB 11/176/499; PROB 11/241/697; ibid. C 142/730/94; Oxon. Visit , 56; VCH Oxon. XI, 251; C. Peters, Lord Lieutenants and High Sheriffs of Oxon. (1995), 127; below, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 24 John was son of Robert s younger brother Thomas (d. 1659), lord of Little Tew, who did not inherit Idbury.

4 farm. 30 In 1922 the manor house was bought by the journalist John William VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 4 (Leics.), and Alethea, wife of Charles Cottington of Fonthill Gifford (Wilts.). 25 Cottington s share was bought by Fortescue, 26 whose son Francis (d. 1748) and daughter Maria Alethea (d. 1763) were succeeded by their aunt Frances s greatgrandson Francis Fortescue Turville (d. 1839) of Husbands Bosworth. 27 The manor passed to his son George (d. 1859) and grandson Francis (d. 1889), who left it to his widow Adelaide, Lady Lisgar, and to his unmarried sister Mary; on her death in 1910 it reverted to Francis s third cousin Lt.-Col. Oswald Turville-Petre (d. 1941), 28 who from the 1920s broke up and sold the estate. 29 Those subsequently acquiring land in the parish included Christ Church, Oxford, owners in 1941 of the 385-a. Church Robertson Scott (d. 1962), founder of the magazine The Countryman. 31 On his death it was sold to Margaret Godley and Edith Wood, who established a finishing school there. 32 Manor House Idbury s medieval lords were largely largely non-resident, though Brian de Cornwall maintained a house there in 1351 when it was broken into. 33 Nothing else is known of it, and the surviving manor house (c.150 m. from the church) was built probably in 1570 for Edward Gainsford, though its present appearance reflects alterations and additions by the Loggins and Fortescues from the late 17th century. 34 The north and east fronts (facing the road) are of limestone ashlar, while the rear-facing south and west fronts are of roughly coursed limestone rubble. The house is a double pile, and has two storeys with attics, and a stone-slated roof with coped verges. The symmetrical three-bay north front includes a central doorway formerly under a ribbed segmental wooden hood (since removed), 35 above which is a two-light cavetto- 25 TNA, PROB 11/367/204; PROB 11/657/255; Oxon. Visit , 56; B. Stapleton, History of the Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire (1906), ROLLR, DG39/ TNA, PROB 11/1915/356; Stapleton, Hist. of Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxon. 160; VCH Leics. V, 31; Burke s Landed Gentry (1871 edn), II, VCH Leics. V, 31; Complete Peerage, VIII, 39; Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1883 and later edns). 29 By 1929 Lt.-Col. Petre had sold over half the parish s farmland: OHC, RDC9/3/F6/1 2; below, econ. hist. (19th and 20th cents); social hist. (19th and 20th cents). 30 TNA, MAF 32/914/91; OHC, RDC9/3/F6/ New DNB; below, social hist. (19th and 20th cents). 32 Below, social hist. (educ.). 33 Cal. Pat , Section based on Bldgs List, IoE Not yet inspected by VCH. 35 Illust. in OPA, D260254a (dated ).

5 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 5 moulded leaded and mullioned window and a roundel inscribed O More Than Happy Countryman If He But Knew His Good Fortune. On either side are similar three-light windows, while the attics are lit by wooden cross gabled dormers extending below the eaves. The north front of Idbury manor house. The south front is of similar design, with the addition of a central doorway and flanking three-light windows to the house s semi-basement. The ground and first floors were originally lit by three two- or three-light mullioned windows, though 20thcentury changes included the insertion of another smaller window to the ground floor, while the two gabled dormers are of four lights. The twin gable ends have external end stacks, their integral shafts including moulded dripstones and capping. To the right of the rear stack on the east front are four narrow rectangular windows directly above each other, and a moulded datestone M/1570. Internally a cross-passage in the front range has been removed, though the ground-floor room retains four chamfered cross-beams and a large open fireplace with a segmental stone lintel. To the rear a dog-leg staircase with closed strings, slender turned balusters, and a moulded handrail leads to the attics and basement. Rooms on the ground and first floors have small moulded stone fireplaces with pedimented overmantles, while underneath is a three-bay barrel-vaulted cellar. Each range has a five-bay collar and tie-beam roof with double or butt-purlins. In the 1970s

6 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 6 the house was restored and modernized and included extensive gardens to the south and east. 36 Foscot Manor In 1086 Foscot (reckoned at a hide) was held by Richard de Courcy, and in 1166 by William de Courcy, whose tenant there was Alan son of Reinbert (d. 1173). 37 Before his death Alan and his son William gave the manor to Goring priory, which held the hide of Brian de Brampton in alms in 1279; the abbey s tenant, Robert de la Hide, paid an annual rent of The priory held the manor until the Dissolution, but by the 1530s the rent was withheld, and no later record of it has been found. 39 Despite its designation as a manor, suit of court was owed to the lords of Idbury, and no separate Foscot courts are known. 40 Other Estates Godstow abbey held a small estate in Bould and Foscot comprising lands and rents granted by Bartholomew and Richard Labanc in the 13th century. 41 The abbey received 6s. 8d. rent in 1291 and still in 1540, after which the estate presumably passed into lay hands. In 1774 the rent belonged to Richard Wodham as part of the duke of Buccleuch s Adderbury estate. 42 A freehold of 18½ yardlands belonging to Idbury manor was confiscated from John Gainsford for recusancy, and was held from him by Jeremy Fermor (d. 1603), William Fermor of Somerton s nephew, for 6 13s. 4d. annual rent. 43 Jeremy s nephew, Richard Fermor of Somerton, sold it in 1630 to Henry Chivers of Calne (Wilts.), 44 whose grandson Henry sold it in 1680 to James White. White s executors 36 Sale Cat., Idbury Manor (1983): copy in OHC, SC VCH Oxon. I, 417; Farrer, Honors, I, 120; Red Book Exch. I, T.R. Gambier-Parry (ed.), A Collection of Charters relating to Goring, Streatley, and the Neighbourhood, , Vol. I (ORS 13, 1931), 1; VCH Oxon. II, 103; Rot. Hund. II, 734; Tax. Eccl Valor Eccl. II, Below, local govt. 41 Godstow Eng. Reg. I, Tax. Eccl. 45; Dugdale, Mon. IV, 377; OHC, Hyde IV/i/1; ROLLR, DG39/702, rental 1783; cf. VCH Oxon. IX, ROLLR, DG39/475; DG39/698, m. 1; DG39/2015; VCH Oxon. XI, 31; below, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 44 ROLLR, DG39/476 9; cf. VCH Wilts. XVII, 69.

7 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Idbury (Jan. 2014) Univ. of London manors p. 7 sold it in 1683 to Edmund Chamberlayne of Maugersbury (Glos.), 45 whose son John sold it to Charles Fortescue in 1715, thus reuniting it with the main manor ROLLR, DG39/480 2; DG39/485 6; DG39/566; DG39/700, m. 1; cf. VCH Glos. VI, ROLLR, DG39/487; DG39/566.