MAIDS’ MORTON

Inquests and Indictments from the Late Fourteenth Century, Buckinghamshire, mention a John and William Harris performing jury service in 1377 and 1378.

When Hugh de Aylesbury died, in 1423, his land at Broughton passed to his aunt, Eleanor, who became the wife of Sir Humphrey Stafford, of Grafton, Northamptonshire. Thus, both Milton Keynes and Broughton came to be held by the Stafford family. Meanwhile, the lands retained by the de Broughtons passed by marriage to the Howard family. Agnes Howard married William Paulet, and, in 1572, they sold their holding to Thomas Duncombe, who settled the manor of Broughton, near Aylesbury, on his second son, Francis, in 1590. Drewe Woodliffe married Katherine Duncombe, a member of the Moreton branch of the Duncombes, at Aylesbury, Bucks., on November 30, 1581.

(Robert Cheney died in 1542, aged 47. His daughter, Margaret Cheney, married Richard Duncombe, of Moreton, Bucks. They had issue: John Duncombe, of Moreton, who married Mary Russell, daughter of William Russell. Their daughter, Katherine, married, in 1581, Drewe Woodliffe (National Archives. Reference: C 1/1473/28), whose son was John Woodliffe, who settled in Virginia, and whose daughter, Anne Woodliffe, was named as ‘kin’ of Thomas Harris in the 1624 Muster). Richard Duncombe was a son of Thomas Duncombe, of Wingrave, Bucks., and, as such, was a nephew of Bennedict Duncombe, of Maids Moreton, Bucks).

The advowson of Maids’ Morton continued to be held by the Pevers after they had parted with the manor, following the same descent as Broughton in their descendants the Broughtons, and being sold by Lady Agnes Paulet, Marchioness of Winchester (daughter of William, first Lord Howard of Effingham, by his first wife Katherine, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Broughton. (G.E.C. Peerage, viii, 174).

In 1431, John Harryes is recorded as of Walton, near Aylesbury, and in 1455 and 1461, a John Harryes is recorded as of Broughton: ‘Grant from John Harryes of Walton, near Aylesbury, to John Baldewyn, William Puxstede, Thomas Halle, John Caldecote of Aylesbury, and Richard Blewet of Stone (co. Buckingham], of a messuage, curtilage, selion of pasture and appurtenances in Walton. Dated Tuesday next before the Feast of All Saints, 10 Hen. VI., 30 October 30, 1431′ (Worcestershire Archives Service. Reference: 705:349/12946/495015).‘Grant from William Cotes and Thomas Tannere of Walton, near Aylusbury, to Robert Playtour of Debgrove (Bedgrove, co. Buckingham) and John Harryes of Bro(u)ghton (near Aylesbury), of four acres of arable land in the fields of Debgrove. Dated the day of the Apostles Simon and Jude, 34 Hen. VI. October 28, 1455 (ibid. Reference: 705:349/12946/494833). ‘Grant from John Balky of Aylesbury, co. Buckingham, Richard Ward of the same place, and William Parkyn of the same place, to John Harreys of Brougthton (Broughton, near Aylesbury and Robert Playtour, of five acres and a rood of land in the field of Caldecote’, May 4, 1461 (ibid. Reference: 705:349/12946/495189).

(These were old associations: 705:349/12946/487881: Grant from Thomas de Caldecote to Elias Andlaf of Waltone and John, his son, of land and appurtenances in Waltone. Dated Wednesday in the Feast of the Deposition of St. Dunstan, 9 Edw. II 19 May, 1316. 05:349/12946/489879: Grant from Adam le Tannere of Aillesbur’ to Robert Palmer of Walton, near Aillesbur’, and Agnes, his wife, of a messuage, a curtilage and three acres of arable land with appurtenances in Walton. Dated Saturday next after the Feast of St. Martin the Bishop, 24 Edw. III 13 November, 1350. 05:349/12946/494840: Grant from Thomas Tannere of Aylesbury, chaplain, and Thomas Welle of Aylesbury, to John Basset of Aylesbury, of four acres of meadow in Walton [near Aylesbury].Seals. Dated Friday in the Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin, 2 Hen. V 20 July, 1414′).

On 1 April 1442, Robert Somery granted this property as the manor of Moreton called Greenhams to Henry VI, by whom in the following month it was granted to All Souls College, Oxford. It was leased by the warden in 1493 as the lordship of Moreton to Robert Woodward, jun., of Buckingham, and in 1518 to John Harris, who in 1535 was paying a rent of £7 6s. 8d. for the manor of Moreton with the mill there called ‘Brent Myll.’ Old leases existing among the archives of All Souls show that, as the manor of Greenhams, many separate leases were made of it to the Harris family in the 16th century and to John Easton in the 16th and 17th centuries’ (‘Parishes: Maids Moreton’, in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4, ed. William Page (London, 1927), pp. 198-205).

(The Woodliffe family also held tenements in Maids Moreton: ‘Gift by Robert Woodlef to John Lombard of Buckingham of his tenement in Maids Moreton. March, 2, 1560′ (Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archives. Reference: D4038/A/12/18). John Harris is recorded in a Pleadings case of circa 1560, in which he is a defendant against the executor of John Finch, son of Sir Moyle Finch, and cousin of Erasmus Finch, who sponsored Margaret Bourdman in Virginia, habitee of the Captain Thomas Harris household: ‘Stevensons v. Forde. Plaintiffs: John Stevensons, executor of John Finch. Defendants: John Forde and John Harrys. To complete purchase, and for discovery as to a contract. Land, parcel of and belonging to the manor of Aylesbury. Buckinghamshire’ (National Archives. Reference: C 2/Eliz/S27/34).

1. John Harris of Maids Moreton.

1.1. Robert Harris, Rector of Bechampton, son of the said John Harris of Maids Moreton, which is situate 6 miles west of Bechampton. Robert Harris succeeded as Rector of Bechampton on June 11, Anno 1526, being presented by William Tylor (Taylor) on the Convent of Luffields title and right. He died Anno 1551, 5 Edw. VI, and was succeeded by John Bierly instituted June 1, 1551, on the presentation of Robert Pigot, Esq.

1.1.1. John Harris, defendant with his wife, Joan, in a case concerning land in Aylesbury 1556-1558 (National Archives. Reference: C 1/1473/28) held 230 acres of land of the manor of Greenhams in Maids Moreton in 1587, lands previously held by his grandfather in 1518 ( Alfred Leslie Rowse The England of Elizabeth p. 111, 2003), where his nephew, Leonard Pigott, son of William Pigott and his sister, also held land (ibid.).

1.1.2. …. m. William Piggot, brother of Matthew Pigott, who succeeded as Rector of Bechampton. William Piggot’s sister Ursula Pigott, married her kinsman, Christopher Pigott, of Doddershall, near Aylesbury, Bucks. Christopher Pigott’s brother, Thomas, represented Aylesbury in the 1589 Parliament before serving as county sheriff in 1593-4. Sir John Gibson married Anne, daughter of Sir John Allott, Fishmonger of Wood Street, London, and Mayor in 1590, widow of the aforesaid Thomas Pigott. Margaret Berman (Bourdman), recorded as being in the household of Captain Thomas Harris in the 1624 Muster, was a niece of Sir John Gibson on her mother’s side. William Pigott’s sister, Lucia Pigott, married Robert Lee, of Hulcott, Bucks. Robert Lee was the son of Benedict Lee, of Hulcot, Bucks., and his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Cheney, Esq., of Chesham Boyse, Bucks. The said Robert Cheney died in 1542, aged 47. His daughter, Margaret Cheney, married Richard Duncombe, of Moreton, Bucks. They had issue: John Duncombe, of Moreton, who married Mary Russell, daughter of William Russell. Their daughter, Katherine, as said, married, in 1581, Drewe Woodliffe, whose son was John Woodliffe, who settled in Virginia, and whose daughter, Anne Woodliffe, was named as ‘kin’ of Thomas Harris in the 1624 Muster. John Duncombe held a capital messuage in Moreton in the 16th century. As stated, Richard Duncombe was a son of Thomas Duncombe, of Wingrave, Bucks., and a nephew of Benedict Duncombe of Maids’ Morton.

Wingrave St Peter & St Paul, a parish, in the union of Aylesbury, 5 miles (N.E.) from Aylesbury; registers:

1.1.3. Margaret Harris. ‘5 Jul 1579 Jo Haws & Margarett Harris’. The first notice I can find of the Haws/Hoare family of Aylesbury finds them dwelling in the parish of Walton in 1489, receiving, as John Harryes, a grant from the Balkey family: ‘Consideration £60. October 21, 1489: Grant from John Balkey of Aylesbury, co. Buckingham, late the younger, to John Baldwyn, John Baldwyn, knt., Richard Fryr, clerk, Ralph Verney, esq., Richard Heynys, citizen and mercer of London, Richard Crypte, citizen and mercer of London, John Spycer of Aylesbury, and Thomas Hoore of Walton in the parish of Aylesbury, of the Lordships called Castell (Castle) Fee and Bawdys (Bawd’s) Fee in Aylesbury and Walton (Worcestershire Archives Service.Reference: 705:349/12946/495742).

1.1.4. James Harris. ’30 Nov 1587 James Harris & Luce Lucas‘; ‘9 Sep 1601 Jo Tredway* & ‘Luce Harris, widow’. Richard Burton appears as a headright of Thomas Lucas; and was father of Captain John Burton of Longfield, as follows: University of Rochester: ‘1637 15 Aug. Patent of Robt Craddock and Jno Davis, 600 acres [PB 1: 451, 452]. “300 acres, bounded northerly on a great swamp, southerly toward lands of Alice Edloe widow, westerly the River, easterly into the woods. Called Longfield.” “300 acres joyning Longfield. Nly lands included in this patent. Beginneth next to the lands of the sd Alice Edloe widow.” “Assigned by Jno Baugh of Varina planter to Wm Cooke & Richd Carpenter 13 June 1636, by them assigned to Jno Davis & Robt Craddocke of Harihatoxs planters 29 July 1637.” C&P ii., pp. 116-117: John Davis*, 500 acres, Henrico Co., 1 Oct. 1672. 300 acres adjoining John Burton; including nigh half the long feild, over the brass Spring, &c.; half of pattent granted Robert Cradock, & by Howell Price, Attorney of said Cradock, sould to John Cox, who assigned to said Burton; 300 acres due said Davis a ssonn & heire of his father, John Davis; 20 acres for transportation of 4 persons: Abell Gower, Wm. Gower, John Clarke, Ann Malby. *John Davis was of Jamestown (July 4, 1635), where he mentioned his master, Mr. Richard Perry of London. The common link between these families was the London based tobacco trade.

In the lists of tithables of Henrico County, 1679 are the following names: Richard Tredway, Sr., and son John Tredway. This family appear thus: ‘Tredway v Bunby. Plaintiffs: John Tredway. Defendants: Thomas Bunby. Subject: lands held of the manor of Cheneys, Buckinghamshire. 1603-1625. C 2/JasI/T8/65. John Tredway was the son of Richard Tredway, gent, of whom the Duncombes wer tenants: ‘Richard Tredway, gent., Edmund Waller, gent., demandants. John Duncombe, gent., tenant. Griffith Hampden and Ann his wife, vouchees. 1 messuage, 1 garden, 2a. pasture in Dinton. D-LE/1/52. 28 November 1584. (Lee family deed).

The Lucas family are recorded thus: PROB 11/195/95, Will of Nicholas Lucas of Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, January 24, 1646. Estate of Roger Lucas, dec’d: deed of partition. Wingrave and Rowsham. 1628. D 81/43. They were a ‘cousin’ branch of the Lucas family of London, mentioned thus: (i) Edward Fletewood, esquire, one of the sons of Sir William Fletewood of Great Missenden, Kt., deceased, and Mariana Fletewood, his sister. (ii) Anne Lucas, sister of Sir John Lucas of Covent Garden, co. Middlesex, Kt. Property … assigned for residue of term of 1000 years. Consideration: £200. 27 May 1658. D-LE/3/46. This links to the Cheneys: John Cheney, resided at Drayton Beauchamp, Bucks. His heir was Francis Cheney, Sheriff of Bucks., who married, as his second wife, Anne Fleetwood, daughter of Sir William Fleetwood, of Great Missenden, Bucks.

‘Rowsham is pleasantly situated in a valley about a mile SW. (by foot-path) from Wingrave, and on the road between Aylesbury and Leighton Buzzard, about miles NE from Aylesbury. Here is a long-established brewery belonging to Messrs. Lucas and Lovett. This Manor-house, and the manors of Burbage and Theobalds (a corruption of the old name of Fermbauds, Feraumbanlds, or Fermbraund), we are told by Lipscomb, were in the hands of the Pipards in the reign of King Edward I. ; and soon afterwards became the property of Edward the Black Prince. In the records of later times Rowsham mostly passed in conjunction with Wingrave. Lord L’Isle sold the manor of Rowsham to John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. In the reign of King Henry VIII. it came to the Dormers, and subsequently descended, by the heiress of the Dormers, to the Stanhopes, Earls of Chesterfield. Early in the last century the manor and hamlet of Rowsham were in the pea session of the family of Grace. The manor now belongs to the family of Lucas. Dr. Lipscomb says that the name of a member of this family “occurs here as a contributor, with others, to the gift of the tenor bell to Wingrave church in 1620” (James Joseph Shehan, ‘Hist. Bucks’, p. 791, 1862).

1.1.4.1. Captain Thomas Harris. ‘May 1622 Thomas Harris Elizabeth Taylor‘. In January 1627, Richard Taylor complained in court at Jamestown that he ‘susteine[d] much wronge from Thomas Harris and others that plant[ed] on his divident’. Summoned by warrant, Harris and the others produced a deed whereby four years earlier Taylor, with William Vincent and the late George Grimes, had agreed to share their cleared lands with the defendants. Judgement was therefore given for Harris and the other new-comers, and Taylor was ordered to reimburse the defendants their costs. Richard Taylor was probably the brother-in-law of Thomas Harris, who seems to have m. Adria Hoare as a second wife, a probable cousin; she may have m. him as a second husband. Joane Child, her sister, sponsored Adria’s voyage to Virginia. The Child family of Aylesbury were tennants of the Cheneys. In 1577, the said John Cheyney, Esq., left a rent-charge of £5 per annum to the poor of Amersham, Chesham Boyse, and Drayton Beauchamp; chargeable upon a farm called the Moze, in Chesham parish. In 1622, William Child left a rent-charge of 20s. per anum to the poor of this parish (James Joseph Sheahan, History and Topography of Buckinghamshire, p. 807, 1862). John Cheney, Esq. was the uncle of John Duncombe, whose daughter, as stated, married Drewe Woodliffe. It would be reasonable to assume that Adria Hoare’s sister married a grandson of William Childe, a son of one of his sons, John or William. The baptismal records of Wingrave are extant from 1590.

1.1.3. Thomas Harris. Final concord between William Richardson and Thomas Harrys pfs. and John Lambert senior def. of 2 messuages, 2 cottages, 2 tofts, 2 gardens, 2 orchards, 200 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, 4 acres of wood and 20 acres of furze and heath in Buckingham and Maids Moreton: consideration £80. Day after St. Trinity. 1577. D4038/A/12/20.

1.1.3.1. Maids Moreton St Edmund 1560 – 1901. ’12 Sep 1560 Anna Harris’, ‘9 Feb 1565 John Harris’; ’12 Jan 1566 William Harris’; ‘1 Aug 1568 Mary Harris’.

Wingrave Manor was sold in 1544 to John Rock, who died seised in 1547. John Rock obtained livery of his father’s estates in 1567, and licence to alienate Wingrave Manor to Thomas Hyde in 1569. In 1570, Thomas Hyde was succeeded by his son George, and he in 1580 by his brother Robert, who owned this manor in 1582. It was sold by Robert Hyde before his death in 1607 to Sir Robert Dormer, and follows the same descent as Wing Manor (Add. MS. 5840, p. 343; Priv. Act, 37 Geo. III, cap. 52).

The advowson of Wingrave St Peter & St Paul passed to the Crown in 1535. Thomas Duncombe was lessee for a term of fifty-six years dating from 1535. (Pat. 13 Eliz. pt. ix, m. 4, reciting earlier lease). In 1571, the Crown granted a new lease for twenty-one years to John Duncombe,* (ibid.) and another in 1575 to Benedict Duncombe, (Ibid. 17 Eliz. pt. xiv, m. 6) which was cancelled for a fresh lease in 1580. (Ibid. 22 Eliz. pt. ii, m. 24). In 1583 he obtained a further lease for three lives in survivorship. (Ibid. 25 Eliz. pt. xiii, m. 18).

*John Duncombe, of Moreton, who married Mary Russell, daughter of William Russell. Their daughter, to repeat again, Katherine, married, in 1581, Drewe Woodliffe, whose son was John Woodliffe, who settled in Virginia, and whose daughter, Anne Woodliffe, was named as ‘kin’ of Thomas Harris in the 1624/5 Muster.

Mr. Browne Ellis, the erudite antiquarian, gives a splendid introduction to the history of Maids’ Moreton:

In 1086 4 hides in Moreton were held as one manor under Walter Giffard, V.C.H. Bucks. i, 250. The under-tenant in 1086 was Turstin, evidently identical with the Turstin son of Rolf who held Great Missenden at that date (ibid. 247). Either he or his successors subinfeudated these 4 hides in Moreton, the intermediary lordship thus created descending with the manor of Great Missenden and, like it, dividing into moieties (Feud. Aids, i, 123).

This first Manor of this Place belonging to the Giffards, after the Death of Walter Giffard, the second Earl of Buckingham, Anno 1164, (he dying without Issue Male) passed to his Heirs general; and became the Property of Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who assumed also the Title of Earl, of Buckingham, but the Issue Male of the Clares likewise failing, this Manor descended to Hugh de Audly, by Marriage of Isabel, Sister and Coheir of Gilbert de Clare ; for I find him possessed hereof, Tempore Edw. Ill, in which Reign it came to Ralph Stafford, by Marriage of Margery, Daughter and Heir of the said Hugh Audley; and he died seized thereof, Anno 1371, Edw. HI, and was succeeded by his Son Hugh Stafford, Earl of Stafford, and he on his Death Anno 1403, 4 Hen. IV, by Edmund Stafford, Brother to William Stafford, who was returned to have held a Leet here, Tempore Hen. IV, as was also,, in the same Reign, one Hugh Greenham, and that he held a Manor hereof the Honour of Glocester, Anno 1408, 9 Hen. IV, to whom, I presume, succeeded William Greenham his Son, for he is returned Anno 1422, 1 Hen. VI, to die seized of Moreton Manor, after which I presume it escheating to the Crown, King Hen. VI, by Letters Patent, dated 17 May 1441 and granted it to All Souls College in Oxford; for I find a Conveyance made to the said College of the Manor in Moreton juxta Bucks, called Greenham’s Manor, Ex Dimissione Robert Somery, Anno 1442.

The Church, which is dedicated to St. Edmund the King, and Martyr, (whose Festival is Nov. 20,) is a very neat, elegant Structure, delightfully situated, and deserves a Draught. It was built, as before mentioned, by two Maiden Sisters, of the Family of the Peovers, about the Year 1450, 28 Hen. VI. It consists of a Nave, or Body, and Chancel, with a small Vestry on the South Side, and has a neat embattled Tower at the West End, in which were three very tuneable good Bells’.

copyright m stanhope 2015