Winterbourne Danvers

Possibly it became part of the land held here by the Danvers family, since their estate in Winterbourne seems to have been a large one. Their manor is afterwards known by the name of WINTERBOURNE DANVERS. Robert Danvers married in or before 1224 Muriel daughter of Alan de Dunstanville, was coroner of Berkshire, and died in or before 1246, when the sheriff was ordered to elect a coroner in his place. He seems to have been succeeded by his son Robert, of whom little is known but that he married Amice, who inherited land at Littlecote. It was probably his son or nephew Sir Thomas Danvers who was in 1285 made Sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, an office which he held for four years; he held the office also in 1307 and again a few years later. This Thomas Danvers was holding the manor in 1315–16, and died in 1323, leaving three grandsons, Edmund, Richard and William, the sons of his son Thomas, who had predeceased him. The youngest of these married Margaret daughter and heiress of John Lovell of Benham, and thus came into possession of the manor of Benham Lovell in the parish of Speen (q.v.). The eldest, Edmund, seems to have been in banishment or in prison at the time of his grandfather's death, but was pardoned on the accession of Edward III, when his estates were restored to him. The name of his first wife was Alice, and after her death he married Isabel widow of Sir John de Swanland. By his first wife he had two sons, Robert and Edmund, and he died in or soon after 1358. He was succeeded by his elder son Robert, who married Alice, one of the sisters and co-heirs of John de la Beche of Aldworth. Robert died in 1361 seised of this manor, when his heir was his son Edmund, then aged sixteen years and more. Edmund Danvers was born in 1345, and in March 1366 he left England, after enfeoffing his uncle Edmund Danvers (who died shortly afterwards) of his lands here. The younger Edmund married Alice daughter of John Cleet, and died seised of lands here in 1381, when his heir was his son William, then aged fourteen. In the inquisition taken after his death it is stated that the lands here were held of him by military tenure by Roger de Colyndon, Richard Mauduyt and John Elyn. William Danvers was born in 1367, and was brought up at Donnington Castle by Sir Richard Abberbury, who had married his mother. She seems to have held the manor of Winterbourne Danvers in dower, for in 1390 Sir Richard obtained for himself and his heirs a grant of free warren at his manors here. William Danvers married Joan, who seems to have been related to Maud daughter of Sir Ralph Ufford and wife of Thomas Earl of Oxford. He is returned as lord of this manor in 1428, though his stepfather was still living, and by this time he had acquired the manor of Winterbourne Grey (q.v.), which with other estates he settled on his son Robert on his marriage. In 1423 he executed another deed instructing the trustees on the death of Alice, Robert's wife, to hold the manor for his wife Joan for her life, and afterwards to sell it for the good of their souls. In 1442–4 the manor of Winterbourne Danvers was conveyed by Peter Fettiplace and John Hyde, possibly trustees for William Danvers, and by Thomas Hannes and Isabella his wife, who was probably William's daughter, to William de la Pole Earl of Suffolk and Alice his wife, who already held Donnington (q.v.), with which this manor then passed.