VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Crowmarsh Gifford (Oct. 2016) • manors • p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress CROWMARSH GIFFORD Manor and Estates In the late Anglo-Saxon period Crowmarsh Gifford almost certainly belonged to the large royal estate focused on Benson, although the evidence is largely circumstantial.1 A separate 10-hide manor was created before the Norman Conquest, covering the whole of the later parish and possibly extending outside it.2 A part was subinfeudated in the 12th century and later became detached, perhaps giving rise to some of the small scattered freeholds recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries;3 the rest remained in single ownership, however, passing to a succession of mostly minor and sometimes resident lay owners, and covering three quarters of the parish in 1833. Thereafter it was gradually broken up. The medieval manor house was replaced in the 18th century by a new mansion house in Howbery park, which was sold separately from the manor in 1858. The manor itself was bought by the lord of neighbouring Newnham Murren, the lordship of Crowmarsh eventually lapsing in the mid 20th century. A few small parcels were held by local religious houses during the Middle Ages. Crowmarsh Gifford (later Howbery) Manor Descent to c.1500 In 1086 Crowmarsh Gifford was held of Walter Giffard (d. 1102) by Hugh Bolbec.4 Giffard’s overlordship passed to his son Walter (d. 1164) and then (with his other possessions) to the FitzGilberts and Marshals, earls of Pembroke.5 Thereafter it descended with the earldom until the latter’s resumption by the Crown in 1389, passing to Henry III’s half brother William de Valence (d. 1296) and to his Valence and Hastings successors.6 In the 14th century Crowmarsh was said to be held of the Valences’ manor of Bampton, and in 1534 of the Crown’s manor of Ewelme.7 1 Above, intro. (par. bdies); below, social hist. (Middle Ages); VCH Oxon. XVIII, 36. 2 VCH Oxon. I, 410; above, intro. (par. bdies). 3 Below (other estates). 4 VCH Oxon. I, 410. 5 Complete Peerage, II, 387; X, 352–76. 6 Ibid. X, 377–97; Close 1247–51, 102. 7 Black Prince’s Reg. IV, 181; TNA, C 142/57/72; below, local govt. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Crowmarsh Gifford (Oct. 2016) • manors • p. 2 The mesne lordship passed to Bolbec’s son Walter (d. c.1142) and grandson Hugh (d. 1165), whose own young son Walter was left in Hugh’s brother’s wardship.8 Around 1168 the wardship was given to Reynold de Courtenay (d. 1191),9 whose daughter Egelina held 100s.-worth of land at Crowmarsh in 1219;10 the manor itself, however, seems to have been seized by Henry II, who granted it to Amfrey son of Roland. Amfrey’s son Alan exchanged it with the king in 1173 for the manors of Thenford (Northants.) and Aston Rowant,11 and Henry subsequently returned Crowmarsh to Walter Bolbec (d. 1190). Walter’s daughter Isabel (d. 1206 or 1207) was succeeded by her aunt Isabel (d. 1245), the younger Hugh’s daughter and wife of Robert de Vere, 3rd earl of Oxford.12 By then the manor was reckoned at one knight’s fee,13 though by the 1190s a third (worth £10 a year) appears to have been subinfeudated to the Pipard family of Rotherfield Peppard, and remained separate thereafter.14 Isabel was succeeded in the rest of the manor by her son Hugh (d. 1263), 4th earl of Oxford, and grandson Robert (d. 1296), the 5th earl,15 who in 1285 granted it to his daughter Joan (d. 1293) on her marriage to William de Warenne (d. 1286).16 Following Joan’s and William’s deaths it reverted to the earl, and in 1316 was held of Robert’s son Robert (d. 1331), the 6th earl, by Geoffrey de Hauteville.17 By 1346 the de Veres had subinfeudated the manor to Ralph Restwold (d. by 1362), the Black Prince’s steward of Benson, who was granted free warren at Crowmarsh.18 He was succeeded by his son Ralph (d. 1383) and by Ralph’s grandson Richard (d. 1423), a Cumberland MP, who in the 1390s let part of his Crowmarsh estate to John James of Wallingford.19 Richard’s son Richard (d. 1475) served as MP for Cumberland, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire,20 and though by then the Restwolds were probably non-resident, they continued to live nearby: the younger Richard’s son Thomas (d. 1480) died at his manor of Hedsor (Bucks.), and family members were buried at 8 Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, 334–5; Pipe R 1165 (PRS 8), 22–3; Pipe R 1167 (PRS 11), 105. 9 Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus (PRS 35), pp. xxxix–xl; Pipe R 1168 (PRS 12), 11; VCH Berks. IV, 372. 10 Book of Fees, I, 252; cf. Oxon. Fines, p. 1 (mentioning Reynold’s son Robert). 11 Pipe R 1173 (PRS 19), 77; Book of Fees, I, 116–17; Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, 867. 12 Book of Fees, I, 117; Sanders, English Baronies, 98; Pipe R 1197 (PRS n.s. 8), 40; Complete Peerage, X, 208–13. 13 Book of Fees, II, 830. 14 Below (this section). 15 Cal. Inq. p.m. I, p. 185; Rot. Hund. II, 774; Feudal Aids, IV, 154; Complete Peerage, X, 213–18. 16 Cal. Close 1279–88, 449; Cal. Inq. p.m. II, p. 382; Complete Peerage, XII (1), 507. 17 Oxon. Fines, p. 222; Feudal Aids, IV, 171; TNA, E 179/161/8; OAS Trans. 39 (1900), 8. 18 Cal. Inq. p.m. X, p. 519; Cal. Chart. 1341–1417, 54; Black Prince’s Reg. IV, 181, 294; Hist. Parl. 1386–1421, s.v. Restwold. 19 Cal. Inq. p.m. XIII, p. 98; XVI, p. 20; XVII, p. 312; Cal. Close 1369–74, 589; 1374–7, 260; 1385–9, 58; Cal. Fine 1383–91, 9–10; Feudal Aids, IV, 200; Hist. Parl. 1386–1421, s.v. Restwold. 20 Hist. Parl. 1386–1421, s.v. Restwold; TNA, C 140/51/8. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Crowmarsh Gifford (Oct. 2016) • manors • p. 3 the Franciscan friary at Reading.21 In 1503 Thomas’s son Richard (d. 1522) was involved in a (probably fictitious) recovery of the manor, by then called Howbery from its principal farmstead adjoining the churchyard. The date and circumstances of the family’s departure from Crowmarsh are uncertain, however.22 The Pipards’ right in a part of the manor was established by 1195, when Walter Pipard (d. 1214) held 10 librates of land in Crowmarsh. Presumably that represented the third of the manor held of the de Veres in 1279 by his successor Ralph Pipard (d. 1303), who had inherited from his father Ralph son of Ralph FitzNicholas. The share then comprised 3 yardlands in demesne, 5½ yardlands held by tenants, a share of two mills, and rents from 11 cottars.23 The estate passed to Ralph’s son John Pipard (d. 1331), who released it in 1310 to Peter of Wallingford,24 and probably it was acquired later by Sir William Bereford (d. 1326), lord of Newnham Murren, whose £10-worth of rents in Crowmarsh (held of Robert de Vere) was reckoned at a third of a knight’s fee.25 Thereafter part of it may have been held by John James of Wallingford, who obtained free warren in Crowmarsh in 1394.26 Descent from c.1500 By 1510 the Restwolds’ Howbery manor had been acquired by William Cope (d. 1513) of Hanwell, to whom the earlier grant of free warren was confirmed.27 Ownership passed to Cope’s son Stephen (d. 1534), of Bedhampton (Hants.), and grandson William (d. 1558) of Ashton in Bainton parish (Northants.),28 whose widow Joyce contested it against his brother Anthony.29 By the 1520s, however, the manor was held under the Copes by Edward Hildesley, formerly of East Ilsley (Berks.), who settled at Crowmarsh.30 The family were Roman Catholic recusants, and Edward’s son William (d. 1576) married Margaret Stonor of North Stoke;31 they were succeeded by their son Walter (d. 1596), whose lands were seized by the Crown in the 1580s–90s under the recusancy laws. Howbery farm was let from 1593 to Leonard Willmot and John Simmonds,32 while a request to the Crown in 1586 for a grant 21 Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, III, pp. 465–6; TNA, PROB 11/11/515 (1498). 22 TNA, CP 40/963, m. 344d. For later Restwolds, VCH Bucks. III, 188. 23 Oxon. Fines, p. 1; Rot. Hund. II, 774; Close 1237–42, 515; 1242–7, 184, 281; VCH Oxon. XVI, 311. 24 Abbrev. Plac. 312. 25 Cal. Inq. p.m. VI, p. 471; Cal. Close 1323–7, 614; below, Newnham Murren, manors. 26 Boarstall Cart. pp. 234, 238, 241, 246, 259; Cal. Inq. p.m. XVII, p. 312; Cal. Chart. 1341–1417, 349. 27 L&P Hen. VIII, I (1), p. 293; TNA, PROB 11/17/2; VCH Oxon. IX, 115. 28 TNA, PROB 11/25/240; ibid. C 142/57/72; N.H. Nicolas (ed.), Testamenta Vetusta (1826), II, 749. 29 TNA, C 3/33/64; C 3/34/17. 30 Ibid. E 179/161/195; E 179/162/233; VCH Berks. IV, 28. 31 TNA, PROB 11/58/435; Stapleton, Hist. of Post-Reformation Catholic Missions, 286; below, relig. hist (pastoral care). 32 Recusant Rolls 1581–92, 83, 92–3; 1592–3, 255; 1593–4, 123–4; 1594–6, 71–2; TNA, PROB 11/87/76; ibid.