Manors

DUNCHURCH, assessed at 5 hides in Domesday Book, had been held by Ulmar in the time of Edward the Confessor, and in 1086 was held by William from Osbern son of Richard. (fn. 21)  The manor, assessed at half a knight's fee, continued to form part of the honor of Richard's Castle in the Welsh Marches, being held of William de Stuteville of that honor in 1235–6 (fn. 22)  and 1242–3, when John de Dunheved was tenant. (fn. 23)  In 1287 another John de Dunheved held the manor of Dunchurch of Robert de Mortimer of Richard's Castle for 1 knight's fee. (fn. 24) Eustachia, John's widow, held a messuage and 2 carucates of land of Hugh de Mortimer in 1308, (fn. 25)  and in the following year the overlordship of this holding, assessed at half a knight's fee, was ordered to be delivered to Thomas de Bykenore and his wife Joan, who was Hugh de Mortimer's eldest daughter and coheiress. (fn. 26)  Soon afterwards Richard's Castle passed to a branch of the Talbot family through the marriage of Richard Talbot with Joan de Mortimer as her second husband. (fn. 27)  Richard's grandson John died in 1375 holding a knight's fee in Dunchurch. (fn. 28) His second son, another John, was the last male Talbot of this line, and died in possession of Dunchurch, then held by Sir Kynard de la Bere and Katherine his wife, in 1388. (fn. 29)  His estates devolved on three coheiresses, and Dunchurch is not mentioned further in this connexion.
By a charter of between 1154 and 1161, confirmed in 1235, (fn. 30)  Ingelram Clement granted a grange in theterritorium of Bilton, now partly in Dunchurch, with other lands in the latter parish, to Pipewell Abbey (Northants.); and this monastery also obtained from Ralph son of Wigan 7½ of the 8 virgates of land in Dunchurch with which his father had been enfeoffed by Henry I, the remaining half-virgate being given to the church of Dunchurch. (fn. 31)  The Abbot and Convent of Pipewell were granted free warren in their demesne lands in Dunchurch and elsewhere in 1283. (fn. 32)  Their property in Dunchurch and Toft in 1291 comprised 6 carucates valued at 15s. each, rents of £2 annually, livestock worth £2, and 2s. in perquisites of court. (fn. 33)  In 1316 the abbot was stated to be lord of Dunchurch and its members. (fn. 34)  The possessions of this monastery in Dunchurch, including Bilton Grange and Toft, were valued in 1535 at £16 16s., plus £16 10s. for the rectory. (fn. 35)  In 1557 they were reckoned as a manor and assessed at one-fortieth of a knight's fee, and were granted in chief to Sir Rowland Hill and Thomas Leigh, citizens and aldermen of London, (fn. 36)  after which date they descended with the rest of Dunchurch (see below).
The part of Dunchurch not granted to Pipewell passed to Ingelram's son William Clement. He left two daughters of whom the elder, Christiane, married Avenel the Butler. They sent the younger daughter Alice to the nunnery of Ankerwick when she was 5 years old, and three years later persuaded her to say that she wished to be a nun. (fn. 37) When she came to years of discretion she repudiated her vows and left the nunnery; for which she and her supporter William de Bidun were excommunicated. (fn. 38)  But a later inquiry into her case caused Pope Innocent III to annul the sentence and to approve her marriage to Alan de Wodecot. (fn. 39)  In 1208 Hamo de Bidun granted her land in Warwickshire for her life; (fn. 40)  and in the same year when the Abbot of Pipewell sued Hamo for the advowson of Dunchurch he called Alice to warrant it. (fn. 41)  Christiane had died before this, and her son Jordan the Butler was ill in 1220 (fn. 42)  and died before 1223, in which year William de Stuteville and Margaret his wife, of Richard's Castle, claimed the custody of Jordan's daughter and heir Christiane. (fn. 43)  Alice having, presumably, left no surviving issue (fn. 44)  the manor was held entirely by Christiane, who married John de Dunheved, (fn. 45)  and, after his death, Thomas Trymenel, with whom in 1260 she granted the manor and the wardship and marriage of her son John de Dunheved to Henry de Montford for 5 years. (fn. 46)  In 1300 John de Dunheved and Eustachia his wife settled two parts of the manor on themselves for their lives with contingent remainders to their sons and daughter Stephen, John, Thomas, Oliver, and Roese. (fn. 47)  Stephen leased the manor to John de Somery for life and then fled the realm for a felony. (fn. 48)  John the second son apparently mortgaged the manor to Sir John Pecche, whose rentcollector he murdered in 1325, (fn. 49)  and granted it to Sir John and Eleanor his wife and to their heirs in 1330, to hold of the chief lords. (fn. 50)  Sir John Pecche died seised of the manor, held of John Talbot of Richard's Castle, in 1386, leaving two infant daughters as coheiresses, (fn. 51)  and two years later it was in the hands of Sir Kynard de la Bere, who had married Katherine, Sir John's widow. (fn. 52)  Margaret Pecche, who was one day old at her father's death, married Sir William Montfort of Coleshill, to whose family the manor passed. In 1410 she, with her husband and her mother, made a settlement of the manors of Dunchurch and Toft on themselves and her heirs. (fn. 53)  The manors passed to the Crown on the attainder and execution of Sir Simon Montfort for his support of Perkin Warbeck in 1495. (fn. 54)  The following year the manor of Dunchurch was granted to Gerald, Earl of Kildare, and Elizabeth (St. John) his wife, (fn. 55)  this grant being renewed in 1503, when free warren was granted, and Toft is also mentioned. (fn. 56)  After the earl's death in 1513 his widow granted a term of years in the manors to the Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England; she died in 1516. (fn. 57)  In 1529 Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, her grandson, had licence to alienate the manors. (fn. 58)  He, as 10th Earl of Kildare, and his brother James, who was concerned with Thomas Howth in a recovery of the two manors in 1532, (fn. 59)  were executed for rebellion in 1537, so that the manors again fell to the Crown, Dunchurch being granted in 1541 to Sir John Williams. (fn. 60)  He must have re-granted it almost immediately to Anthony Stringer of London who, in 1543, exchanged it, with lands in Bucks. and Northants., for Marlborough Priory and other monastic estates. (fn. 61)  It then remained with the Crown till 1555, when it was granted to Christopher Smythe and Thomas Warton, to be held in chief as one-fortieth of a knight's fee with three other manors. (fn. 62)  In the same year Smythe and Warton received licence to alienate the manor to Sir Rowland Hill and Thomas Leigh, (fn. 63)  which was accomplished in 1556. (fn. 64)  By a private agreement between Hill and Leigh Dunchurch was reserved to the latter and his descendants. (fn. 65)  In 1575 Alice Leigh, widow of Thomas, who had been knighted and was Lord Mayor of London in 1558–9, (fn. 66)  was dealing with Dunchurch, Thurlaston, and Long Lawford manors. (fn. 67)  Her younger son Sir William and his wife Frances (Harington) and son Francis conveyed the two first-named manors, and that of Toft, to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and Francis's father-in-law, and Edward Mountague, in 1597, (fn. 68)  probably for a settlement on Francis's marriage. Further transfers by fine occurred between these families in 1601, (fn. 69)  1605, (fn. 70)  and 1609. (fn. 71)  In 1620–1 Sir Francis Leigh obtained the right to hold a yearly court leet. (fn. 72)  Sir Francis Leigh's son Francis was created Baron Dunsmore in 1628 (fn. 73)  and was lord of the manor when Dugdale wrote (1640), but died without male issue in 1653. His daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, (fn. 74)  and their daughter, another Elizabeth, inherited the manors of Dunchurch, Thurlaston, and Toft, and married Jocelin, Lord Percy, who became Earl of Northumberland in 1668. (fn. 75)  After his death without issue in 1670 she married Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, with whom she was dealing with the manors in 1673. (fn. 76)  The lordship continued with the Dukes of Montagu till the extinction of the dukedom in 1790, when it passed by marriage to the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry. Charles William, 4th duke, was vouchee in a recovery of 1811, (fn. 77)  and in 1850 Lord John Scott, probably the second son of the 5th duke, was lord of the manor, (fn. 78)  which still belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch.