In 1086, the Bishop of Lincoln had 31-Hides in Milton and his Tenants 9 or 9¾-Hides. These Lands had apparently come to him from Dorchester when the See was moved soon after 1072. The Tenants’ Hides appear to represent Ascott Township and there is no record at this date of the 2-Fees in Great & Little Milton (afterwards Great Milton Manor), 1st precisely Recorded in 13thC Documents, or of the Prebendal Manor, later known as Romeyn’s Court, which came to Constitute the 2-Principal Manors in Great & Little Milton.
Enclosures – The Century & a Half which extends from the middle years of the 15thC to the close of the 16thC were, as has been shown, a Period remarkable for the extent & variety of its changes in almost every aspect of Society. In the Political, Intellectual & Religious World, the 16thC seemed far removed from the 15thC. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that Economic changes were numerous & fundamental, and that Social Organisation in Town & Country alike was completely transformed. During the Period last discussed, the 14th & the early-15thC, the Manorial System had changed very considerably from its Mediæval form. The Demesne Lands had been quite generally Leased to Renting Farmers, and a new Class of Tenants was consequently becoming numerous; Serfdom had fallen into Decay; the old Manorial Officers, the Steward, the Bailiff & the Reeve had fallen into unimportance; the Manor Courts were not so active, so regular, or so numerously attended. These changes were gradual and were still uncompleted at the middle of the 15thC; but there was already showing itself a new series of changes, affecting still other parts of Manorial life, which became steadily more extensive during the remainder of the 15th & through much of the 16thC. These changes are usually grouped under the name “Inclosures.” The enclosure of Land previously open was closely connected with the increase of Sheep-raising. The older form of Agriculture, Grain-raising, laboured under many difficulties. The price of Labour was high, there had been no improvement in the old crude methods of Culture, nor, in the Open-fields and under the Customary Rules, was there opportunity to introduce any. On the other hand, the inducements to Sheep-raising were numerous. There was a steady demand at good prices for Wool, both for Export, as of Old, and for the Manufactures within England, which were now increasing. Sheep-raising required fewer hands and therefore high wages were less of an obstacle, and it gave an opportunity for the Investment of Capital and for comparative Freedom from the restrictions of Local Custom. Therefore, instead of raising Sheep simply as a part of ordinary Farming, Lords of Manors, Freeholders, Farming Tenants & even Customary Tenants began here and there to raise Sheep for Wool as their Principal or Sole Production. Instances are mentioned of 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 & even 24,000 Sheep in the Possession of a single Person. This Custom spread more and more widely, and so attracted the attention of Observers as to be frequently mentioned in the Laws & Literature of the time.
By 1166, the 2–Milton Fees were evidently included in the 8-Fees which Roger de Cundi then Held under the Bishop: he made a Grant of Land at Milton to Eynsham Abbey; his Widow Basilea made a Grant of a Rent in the Parish to Oseney Abbey and was still living in Milton in 1225; finally Agnes, the daughter of Roger & Basilea, married Walter de Clifford, the Marcher Lord, who was Holding in Milton in John’s Reign. His son, Walter de Clifford, succeeded him in 1221 & in 1236 Granted the Fees in Great Milton to Walter de Kirkham, Dean of St Martin’s-in-the-Field & later Bishop of Durham, who was then Prebendary of Milton Manor. Walter de Kirkham was to pay £71 and to Hold the Fees for 13-yrs on condition that he performed Walter’s Foreign Service & cleared him of a Debt of £155-13s-4d to the Jews. In 1279 John de Clifford Held the Fees. He may have been a member of the younger branch of the Clifford Family which had Held Frampton-on-Severn (Glos) under Walter de Clifford in 1235. John de Clifford of Frampton is said to have died in 1299, but his Heirs did not Hold Great Milton.
By 1305 the Clifford Holding was Divided: Sir Richard de Louches Held a 2/3-Fee (later known as Camoys Manor) & William Inge Held a ⅓rd-Fee (later known as Ingescourt). Richard de Louches was a member of a widespread Family which Held Lands in both Oxon & Berks. He married Elena Wace, daughter of William & Agnes Wace. He was returned as one of the Lords of Great Milton at the Inquest of 1316 and was Granted Free Warren in 1318, but died before 1327 when his son John was in Possession. In 1346 John still Held his portion of Great Milton, but by 1367 it had passed to Elizabeth de Louches, the daughter of John’s son William. She brought it to the Camoys Family by her marriage with Sir Thomas Camoys, the Commander of the Left Wing of the English Army at Agincourt. Sir Thomas died in 1421, leaving as his Heir his Grandson Hugh, who was already in Possession of the ⅓rd-part of Great Milton Manor, i.e. Ingescourt.
Sir William Inge who held this ⅓rd-part in 1305 was returned as Joint Lord of Great Milton with Richard de Louches in 1316. He seems to have been the son of Thomas Inge of Totternhoe (Beds), and by this time he was a well-known Judge (he opened the Lincoln Parliament of 1316) and Held extensive Possessions in some 10-Counties. Sir William Settled Ingescourt & other Lands on his 2nd wife Iseult, the Widow of Urian de St Pierre. Sir William died in 1322 and his Heir was Joan, his daughter by his 1st wife. She never Held the Manor, for Iseult (d.1370) outlived her. Iseult Granted Great & Little Milton to John atte Streete of Little Milton & Robert de Woubourne for the Term of her life, and in 1360 Joan’s son, William La Zouche of Harringworth, Quit-claimed his Rights in Great & Little Milton to these 2-men and to the Heirs of Robert. In 1370, soon after Iseult’s death, John atte Streete of Little Milton obtained a Grant of Free Warren in his Demesne Lands in Great & Little Milton for himself & his Heirs.
By 1416 Sir Richard Camoys was in possession of Ingescourt. Whether it came to the Family by Purchase or marriage is not known, but in that year he Granted it with all his Property in Gt & Lt Milton to Feoffees so as to make Provision on his death for his wife, Joan Poynings, daughter of Sir Richard Poynings. By June Sir Richard Camoys was dead and the Feoffees released Ingescourt to Joan with reversion to Sir Richard’s son John and, if John had no Heirs, to the other sons Ralph & Hugh. Both Joan & John died shortly after and Bishop Philip Repingdon of Lincoln had custody of the Heir Ralph and of Ingescourt Manor. Ralph also died after the Resignation of Bishop Philip in 1419 and Bishop Philip and his successor Bishop Richard Fleming both claimed the Custody of the child Hugh, who now became Heir to Ingescourt. By this time Hugh’s grandfather Sir Thomas Camoys had died (1421), leaving Hugh as his Heir, and so Ingescourt & Camoys Manors were United and Great Milton Manor was once again under one Lord.
On Hugh’s death in 1426, however, his Lands were divided between his 2-sisters Margaret & Eleanor, who had married respectively Ralph Radmylde & Sir Roger Lewknor. There is no record of the Descent of the Lewknor portion, although the Inquisitions show that the Radmyldes Held only Half the Manor in the 15thC. Some arrangement between the 2-Families had doubtless been made by the end of the 15thC, by which the Lewknors took over some of the Sussex Manors of the Camoys Inheritance & Wheatley in Oxon and the Radmyldes or their Successors took the Milton Manors and other Sussex Manors. Ralph Radmylde continued to Hold after his wife’s death and was succeeded by their son Robert in 1443. Robert died in 1457, and his son William, who was a Minor in 1457, obtained Possession in 1474. Before his death in 1499 William disposed of various Estates. In 1492 he Sold Coombe & Chilworth, his other Property in Great Milton Parish, retaining Great & Little Milton Manors. By April 1499 Great Milton had been Sold to Sir Reginald Bray, since the Court was in that year Held in his name. He was the Famous Lord Bray who by Serving the Tudors had risen from obscurity to Found the Fortunes of the Brays of Shere. The Transaction had been started at least as early as 1497. Leland said that Bray ‘bought it off Danvers‘ i.e. Thomas Danvers of Waterstock, and it may be that Danvers had been an intermediary in some of the numerous negotiations over the Manor. On Bray’s death in 1503, his nephew Edmund succeeded and in 1510 made a Partition of the Lands with Sir William Sandys, who had married Margaret, Sir Reginald’s niece. Great Milton went to Edmund and in 1539 to his son John, Lord Bray (d.1557), who is said to have Sold the Manor to ‘Dormer, Mair of London‘. This was Sir Michael Dormer, whose father Geoffrey had obtained the Baldington Estate in Little Milton in 1473. Sir Michael himself Purchased Lands in Lt Milton in 1533 & Ascott Manor before his death in 1545. Ambrose Dormer his son succeeded him. Ascott became one of the Dormers’ Seats and in 1566, the year he Leased Great Milton Manor for 21-yrs to Alexander Calfhill, Ambrose Dormer Settled the Manor on his son Michael, then a Minor. Sir Michael, who c.1580 challenged Calfhill’s Tenancy, seems to have Sold Gt & Lt Milton Manors c.1588 to Sir William Grene. The Oxon Estates of Sir William & his son Michael were the subject of complex dealings arising from their Debts. Gt Milton Manor was bought by Sir George Coppin for £3,000, and he died Seized of it in 1619; but his Estates also were encumbered by Debt, and his son Robert Sold the Manor for £2,500 to Humphrey Ayleworth, a Member of the Glos & Warks Family. By 1634 Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, who already had the Lay Fee of Milton Manor Prebend, had Purchased it. He died in 1640 and the Coventry Estates were Held by his eldest son Thomas (d.1661). In 1653 Thomas Lord Coventry seems to have Settled Gt & Lt Milton on his younger son Thomas & his wife Winifred. In 1675, however, they Conveyed them to Sir William & John Coventry, sons of Thomas’s brother, George, Baron Coventry (d.1680). In 1687 John Baron Coventry died unmarried and the Estates went to his uncle Thomas, who became Baron Coventry and was created Viscount Deerhurst & Earl of Coventry in 1697. He seems to have Settled Gt & Lt Milton Manors on his 2nd wife Elizabeth Graham. After his death in 1699, they were Held by Elizabeth & her 2nd husband, Thomas Savage, who continued to Hold them when Elizabeth died in 1724 until his own death in 1742. In 1755 George William, Earl of Coventry (d.1809), was Lord of the Manors. In 1773 he Sold them to Thomas Blackall. The Blackall Family had been established in the neighbouring Parish of Great Haseley for several Generations and had Leased Land in Chilworth in the 17thC. John Blackall died in 1784 in Possession of the 2–Milton Manors and of Ascott. The Property passed to his cousin John Blackall of Great Haseley (d.1790), to his cousin’s son John (d.1803) & grandson John. On the last John Blackall’s death in 1829, the Manors passed again to a cousin, Walter Long of Preshaw (Hants). He was Lord of the Manors in 1844 but opened negotiations shortly afterwards for their Sale to the Trustees of the Boulton Estate, who Purchased the Manors of Gt & Lt Milton, Ascott, Latchford, & Haseley for £184,000 in 1847. Matthew Piers Watt Boulton of Tew Park & Haseley was Lord until his death in 1894. His son Matthew Ernest Boulton Held the Estates until 1914 when his sister Clara Gertrude succeeded to Tew Park and his cousin Lt-Col Anthony John Muirhead (1939) to Haseley Court, but there was no further record of Manorial Rights in Gt Milton Parish.
Although the Main Manor of Gt Milton extended into Lt Milton Township there was also a smaller Estate there, known later as Little Milton or Cottesmore Manor. By the late-12thC the Bishop of Lincoln had created a ½-Knight’s Fee, Held of his Dorchester Manor, in Chislehampton & Little Milton. In 1166 Ernald de Cardunville held it. Thereafter the ¼-Fee in Lt Milton followed the Descent of the other ¼-Fee of the Cardunvilles in Chislehampton and presumably Escheated to the Bishop in 1225, when a certain Alice, who claimed to be the Widow of James de Cardunville, failed to Establish her Right to Dower in 10-Virgates in Lt Milton. By 1279 the Lt Milton Fee had been Granted to Laurence de Louches. He was still the Tenant in 1301 & 1305 and the Estate evidently became merged in the de Louches Manor of Gt Milton and followed its Descent.
In 1279 a William de Bluntesdon was the Demesne Tenant of most of Laurence de Louches’s Estate in Lt Milton; by 1301 he had been succeeded by a Laurence de Bluntesdon, who died in that year, holding some 9-Virgates of Laurence de Louches for 1/8th of Half a Fee. His daughter Joan was Heir, but there is no further Record of the Descent of the Estate in the 14thC. By the early-15thC it is found in the Possession of the famous Chief Justice, John Cottesmore of Haseley & Brightwell Baldwin. He died in 1439 and the Estate, except for that part of it which formed the Dower of his Widow Amicia Bruley, passed to his son John. John died before 1474 and his son, also named John, Succeeded, but part again seems to have been Assigned as Dower, this time to Margaret, Widow of John (II) Cottesmore. At this date, the Estate was also known as Cottesmore Manor and was Subordinate or partly so to the Main Camoys Manor of Gt Milton, since John (III) Cottesmore (d.by 1519) was frequently Fined for defaulting in his Suit of Court. In Lt Milton the Cottesmore Possessions included Messuages & Lands called ‘Colrentreves‘, ‘Richemans‘ and a House ‘Bluntesdon‘ which were undoubtedly part of the 13thC Manor Held by Laurence de Louches, but which were in 1487 said to be Held of Gt Milton Manor for payment of 1-lb of cummin each year. On the death of Cottesmore’s son William, Lt Milton & Dorton (Bucks) were put in Trust for John (IV) Cottesmore, the Son & Heir of William Cottesmore & of his 2nd wife Florence. In 1533 this John Cottesmore Sold the Manors to Sir Michael Dormer, who was amassing Land in both Parishes. In 1554 Lt Milton was Held by Sir Michael and his Heirs of the Bishop of Lincoln as of his ‘Manor of Dorchester‘. Like the other Dormer Lands, the Manor passed to the Grenes, but was Bought from them by Sir William Cope of Hanwell, who in 1616 Sold Lt Milton Manor & Lordship to Thomas & Paul Ayleworth of Warks for £3,404. It appears from a later Lawsuit that they were acting on behalf of their brother Humphrey, who also Bought at this time Gt Milton Manor and an interest in the Prebend. Lt Milton Manor was said to be greatly encumbered by ‘sundry Leases, Annuities, Statutes, etc.‘ made by the Grenes: it, therefore, changed hands frequently. It ultimately passed to Lord Coventry, who in 1634 was in Possession of both Gt & Lt Milton Manors and it Descended thereafter with Gt Milton Manor. Lt Milton Manor was offered for Sale in 1893 with Lt Milton Manor Farm, but no further reference to it has been found.
Milton Manor Prebend (Milton Ecclesia), known by the 16thC as Romeyn’s Court (Above) and later as the Manor of Great & Little Milton and The Prebend, was formed, according to the Hundred Rolls, as a Prebend of Lincoln Cathedral by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln (1123-48). It is 1st mentioned in a Papal Confirmation of 1146 when it was described as comprising half of Milton. The Prebend was sometimes called the Manor of Milton & Binbrook, since the appropriated Rectory of St Gabriel, Binbrook (Lincs) was attached to it. In 1254 it was valued at £25 and at £46 13s 4d in 1291; in 1535, when Binbrook was valued separately, Milton was being Farmed for £24.
The Manor belonged to the Prebendary until 1775, when the Lessee, Charles Sturgess, Vicar of St Mary’s, Reading, and himself the Prebendary from 1727 to 1746, Purchased the Freehold subject to an Annual Payment of £24 & £100 or 33 quarters of wheat to the Prebendary. The Rent-charges were attached to specific parts of the Estate in 1803 when Sturgess Sold the Prebendal Manor & Estate to William Davey of Dorchester. The Estate seems to have been split up by the Sale of the Prebendal Farm in 1806, but the Rent-charges continued to be paid to the Prebend until 1840 when they were transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. There is still a Prebend of Milton Manor in Lincoln Cathedral. The Manorial Rights were Held in 1808 by John Hedges & Benjamin Bennett but were up for Sale in 1810. It is not known what happened to these Rights until 1840, when Walter Long, Lord of the other Gt Milton Manors, was also Lord of the Prebendal Manor and perhaps had Inherited it from the Blackalls. The Manor passed in 1847, like his other Property, to the Boulton Estate and followed the Descent of that Estate.
Until 1775 the Prebendary usually Leased the Manor. In the 16thC, it was Leased from 1516 to Robert Edgerley (Egerley), a Prominent Parishioner, for 60-yrs at £24 a year. He married Katherine, possibly a Belson, and there is a Brass to their children in Milton Church. His 2nd wife Agnes Succeeded to the Lease on his death in 1551 and took it to her 2nd husband, Sir Thomas Benger. Later, Sir William Grene, Lord of Gt Milton, and his son Sir Michael were the Lessees. By 1616 it was being Leased by Sir William Cope of Hanwell, who Held the Manor Courts. From 1628 it was Held by Thomas, Lord Coventry. The Lords of Gt Milton Manor were the Lessees until 1742, when Ambrose Isted, son of Thomas Isted of London, obtained the Lease. In 1765 Charles Sturgess took over the Lease and later bought the Freehold.
Richard Davis’s Map Of Oxfordshire 1797
An Estate of 7½-Hides in Chilworth was Held by Roger d’Ivry in 1086. As his Lands passed to Reynold de St Valery in 1153 this Manor acquired the name of Chilworth Valery. The St Valery Estates were Granted in the 13thC to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and became part of the Honour of Wallingford & later of the Honour of Ewelme. The Overlordship of Chilworth Valery followed the Descent of the Honour, and as Late as 1841 Tenants from Chilworth attended the Frankpledge Courts of Ewelme.
The Tenant in 1086 was a certain Hugh, possibly the same Hugh who Held under Roger d’Ivry in Stoke Talmage, and who may have been the grandfather of Peter (I) Talemasch. Peter’s son Richard (d. by 1205) was the Mesne Tenant of Chilworth at the end of the 12thC. His son Peter (II) Talemasch Sold his Estate in Chilworth & Coombe (said to be 1-Knight’s Fee) to Ralph Hareng in about 1223. Ralph, a Royal Justice, had close connections with the St Valery Honour and Held other Land of it in Bucks & Oxon. The Mesne Tenancy of Chilworth & Coombe probably followed the same Descent as these Estates for the rest of the 13thC. Ralph (I) Hareng was succeeded by his son Ralph (II) Hareng by 1230 and in 1242 this Ralph still Held 1-Fee in Chilworth & Coombe. By the 1250s, however, the Property had probably already come to the Senlis (St Lys or ‘de Sancto Licio’) Family, like Holton & the Bucks Estates. In 1279, therefore, Simon de Senlis Held the St Valery Fee in Chilworth & Coombe. On his death his Estates went to his son Andrew de Senlis, then a Minor, who was returned as Holding a Fee in Holton, Chilworth, & Coombe in the 1300 Inquisition into the St Valery Lands. There is no later mention of Andrew de Senlis’s connection with Chilworth & Coombe, though he does not seem to have died until well into the 14thC. Nor is there any further reference to the Mesne Tenancy of the Estate.
Richard Gernon of Coombe was the Demesne Tenant by the end of the 12thC, and his Family, which remained in Possession until the 14thC, gave the Manor its alternate name of Coombe Gernon (or Garnon). The name Gernon was widespread in South England, but no direct connection has been found between the Gernons of Coombe and those elsewhere. In 1207 Richard Gernon was involved in a Lawsuit over a ½-Hide in Stoke Talmage in which it was maintained that Juliana, daughter of Richard Gernon and his wife Lucy, had Quit-claimed to Richard Talemasch her Rights in the Legal Part of the Fee of 4-Knights, which she claimed of Richard Talemasch in Stoke Talmage & Chilworth. Richard Gernon had been Overseas at the time, but was obliged to acknowledge the Fine. A Roger Gernon had succeeded him by 1223, when the Homage & Services of Roger Gernon & his Heirs and 1-Knight’s Fee in Chilworth & Coombe were transferred to the Harengs. In 1243 Roger or a son Roger (II) Gernon Held the Fee in Chilworth & Coombe of Ralph Hareng. A List of Talemasch Fees, about the same date, shows that Roger’s Oxon Holdings included a ½-Hide in Stoke Talmage and a 1½-Fee in Coombe, of which the ½-Fee was apparently in ‘Wlfinton‘. By 1279 John Gernon, who must have been Roger’s son, Held the Estate which was then estimated as half the total extent of Coombe & Chilworth and had been reckoned as 7-Hides in 1255. He or another John Gernon was one of the Lords in 1316, and the Gernons were still in Possession in 1327, when a John Gernon paid a high Tax in Coombe. It is possible that this John Gernon was the Sir John Gernon (d.1339) of East Lavington (Wilts), for the Manor, or part of it, apparently went in the 14thC to the Rycotes, Clerks & Englefields, by the marriage of Sir John Rycote to Elizabeth Gernon, Daughter & Heir of Sir John Gernon of Lavington. Katherine, the daughter of that marriage, married Nicholas Clerk, who in 1398 or 1399 was in Possession of ‘… cumbe‘ by Milton and all Lands Late of John Rycote of Rycote. In 1428 William Fowler, the husband of Clerk’s granddaughter Cecily Englefield, was Joint Owner of this Manor, and in the later-15thC part at least of Chilworth & Coombe was called ‘Ricotes‘. The other Joint Owner of the Manor was John Beke, who also Held at Chislehampton, but no explanation has been found of his connection, nor of the fact that in 1428 both parts of the Estate were said to have been previously in the Possession of William of Harpenden, presumably Lord of Harpsden, whose Lands were in Custody in 1378. Beke’s daughter Joan married John Rous, who thereby gave the name ‘Rous‘ to part at least of Chilworth. The Beke & Fowler Estates may have been United by some Family arrangement: Beke’s Widow, Elizabeth Quatremain, married Nicholas Englefield, Fowler’s father-in-law. In any case, Thomas Danvers, who married Fowler’s granddaughter Sybil Fowler, probably came to some agreement with Rous, as he did over Chislehampton, and secured both ‘Ricotes‘ & ‘Rous‘, which Descended to his nephew. The fact that Sybil had Dower only of Coombe Gernon and not of the Radmylde Manor in Chilworth, which Danvers had also obtained, implies that this portion had Descended by Hereditary Right. From this time Coombe Gernon Descended with the other Chilworth Manor.
In 1086 Hasculf Musard was already in Possession of the Estate (or part of it) later known as Chilworth Musard Manor. A Clerk’s note added to the entry claimed it to be the Land of Roger d’Ivry’s wife: if so, it must have been of her Inheritance, for it did not pass with the other D’Ivry Lands to the St Valery Family, but had for several Centuries a different History from Chilworth Valery. The Musards were Overlords for about 2-Centuries and gave their name to their Chilworth Manor. Their chief centre Lay at Staveley in Derbyshire. A Richard Musard succeeded Hasculf in the early-12thC and by 1166 Hasculf (II) Musard (d.1184) had 1-Knight’s Fee of the old Enfeoffment (i.e. before 1136) Held by a Geoffrey of Chilworth. His successor Ralph (d.1230) regularly paid on his Fees in Oxon, which included Heythrop & Horspath, and his son Robert (d. c.1246) Held 1-Fee in Coombe in 1235, which was defined more clearly as 1-Fee in Chilworth & Coombe in 1243. Robert’s brother Ralph (d.c.1271) succeeded him, but the Musard Overlordship is not mentioned after 1255 and it probably Lapsed at the end of the 13thC, when the Legitimate male line of the Musards died out.
Geoffrey of Chilworth in 1166 was the 1st Recorded Subtenant of the Musard Estate. His Successors were not noted until 1235, when Alexander of Coombe, a County Coroner, Held the Fee. By 1246 his son William had Succeeded him. William had died by 1273 when his wife was assigned Dower in Coombe & Chilworth & in 1279 his son John Held the Fee. The Coombe Family apparently continued in Possession in the 14thC, for a Richard of Coombe paid a high contribution to the Tax Assessments of 1306, 1316 & 1327, though he was not returned as Lord in 1316. The Descent of the Estate in the 14thC cannot be traced, but it probably came into the hands of the Inge or Louches Families of Gt Milton and ultimately passed to Sir Thomas Camoys by his marriage with Elizabeth de Louches. Like Sir Thomas’s other Lands it went on his death in 1421 to his grandson Hugh and in 1426 to the Radmyldes & Lewknors. The Radmyldes had the closest connection with it and their portion was known as ‘Radmyll‘ and consisted of a 2½-Messuage & 2-Carucates in Coombe and Great & Little Chilworth, worth £10. William Radmylde, the Last of the Family, Sold it to Thomas Danvers of Waterstock in negotiations which seem to have lasted from 1492 to 1497. Danvers (d.1502) appears by this Purchase to have rounded off his Estate in Chilworth & Coombe which then consisted of the former Musard & Valery Fees & the Cottesmore Estate.
Thomas Danvers’s Heir was his brother William (d.1504), but his Widow Sybil (d.1511) had Dower of Coombe Gernon & Chilworth. William’s Successor, his son John (I), died in 1508 leaving his Heir John (II) a Minor, who died in 1518 when his Property went to his 4-sisters & co-Heirs, Anne, Mary, Elizabeth & Dorothy. By a Family arrangement, Dorothy & her husband Nicholas Huband (Hubard or Hubowle), a Warks man, took the Chilworth Property. Nicholas died in 1554, and on Dorothy’s death in 1558 her son John succeeded, and on his death in 1585, his brother Ralph. Ralph Huband had Sold the property to William Grene by 1596. Like the other Grene Estates, most of Chilworth was Mortgaged and eventually Sold in the early-17thC to John Simeon of Brightwell Baldwin, a Member of a notable Roman Catholic Family. An extended Lawsuit with the Grenes ensued, but the Simeons retained Possession. George Simeon, who had been associated with his father John (d.1617) in the negotiations, held the Property until his death in 1664 and Settled it on his wife Margaret (Molyneux) in 1660. Sir George’s son James (d.1709) was in Possession in 1680, when he Mortgaged the Property to William Dormer of Ascott for £5,000. His son Sir Edward Simeon Held it until his death in 1768. He was unmarried and his Estate here and in Britwell Prior consequently passed to Thomas Weld, a younger son of his sister Margaret, who had married Humphrey Weld of Lulworth Castle (Dors). Thomas Weld assumed the name of Simeon, but apparently died soon after, leaving an only daughter Mary, a Nun at Bruges. His nephew Thomas Weld succeeded him and seems to have Sold the Property in 1794. There is no further mention of Manorial Rights.
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 