MRP: Christopher Willoughby will

Christopher Willoughby will

Editorial history

08/01/12, CSG: Created page

---

---

---

---

To do

(1) Check the transcription

---

---

Notes

Bishopstone, Wiltshire

"Bishopstone

Bishopstone is 10 km. east of Swindon on Wiltshire's border with that part of Oxfordshire which was formerly part of Berkshire. The parish, 3,520 a. (1,424 ha.), was increased to 2,299 ha. (5,681 a.) in 1934 when its neighbour Little Hinton was added to it. It was long and narrow, 7 km. by 2 km., one of several such parishes running north-west and south-east across the flat clay land of the Cole valley up the chalk of the Marlborough and Berkshire Downs, and, with roughly equal amounts of each kind of land, it conformed to the type....

Manors and Other Estate

...In the early 16th century the bishops leased their demesne lands to members of the Precy family and in 1542 Bishop Salcot granted a lease of them until 1605 to John Precy. In 1548 the bishop leased the whole manor, subject to the Precys' interest, to John Knight for 99 years. Knight was possibly a trustee of the Precys. Charles Precy held the manor from 1600 or earlier until his death in 1626. It passed to Thomas Precy and Henry Shelley, possibly his executors. In 1626–7 they sold the lease to Gilbert Keate (d. 1657–8) to whom new leases were granted in 1629 and 1636. Gilbert was succeeded by his son Jonathan (created a baronet in 1660) to whom a new lease was granted in 1661. Keate assigned his lease in 1663–4 to Christopher Willoughby (d. 1681) and it passed to Christopher's cousin George Willoughby (knighted in 1686, d. 1695). In 1692–3 Willoughby settled his leaseholds of the manor and prebend of Bishopstone and new leases were granted to his trustees. They passed together to his son Christopher (d. 1715), to Christopher's son George (d. 1751), and to George's son Henry....

In 1647 there was on the manor a ten-room house, built of and roofed with stone, with thatched outbuildings. It stood south-west of the church, between the church and the Swindon-Wantage road, and was lived in by the Willoughbys. In 1757 it was settled for life on Jane, relict of George Willoughby (d. 1751). From 1803 it was held by James Puzey (d. 1837) who kept a school in it. In 1840 the house was said to be large, dilapidated, and only partly occupied. Drawings of it made in 1845 show it to have been in a mixture of styles. Wings were taken down in 1852. In 1862 the house was taken into the prebendal estate by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in exchange for land, and was demolished."

---

Possible primary sources

TNA

C 5/435/110 Willoughby v. Willoughby: Gloucester. 1662

C 6/82/36 Short title: Rowden v Willoughby. Plaintiffs: Richard Rowden. Defendants: Christopher Willoughby. Subject: property in Little Langford, Wiltshire. Document type: answer only. 1679
C 6/109/162 Short title: Thynne v Thynne. Plaintiffs: Sir James Thynne kt. Defendants: Sir Henry Frederick Thynne kt and bart, William Hussey, John Bampfield, Benjamin Lewye, James Foster, Christopher Willoughby and others. Subject: manors of Warminster, Corsley, Whitbourne, Bugby, and Deverill, Wiltshire. 1650

C 6/236/67 Short title: Willoughby v Locke. Plaintiffs: George Willoughby. Defendants: Hercules Locke. Subject: property in Upavon, Wiltshire. Document type: bill, answer, replication. 1680

C 6/260/113 Short title: Willoughby v Tyte. Plaintiffs: Sir George Willoughby kt and Dame Dorothea Willoughby his wife. Defendants: Thomas Tyte. Subject: personal estate of the deceased Geoffrey Northleigh, of Wiltshire, and Middlesex. Document type: bill, answer. 1688