Frampton on Severn: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

Before the Conquest Frampton was held by Ernesi, and in 1086 Drew son of Pons held it of the king; Roger de Lacy also held 1 hide there unjustly. (fn. 1) Frampton later passed to Drew's nephew, Walter son of Richard son of Pons; Walter, who assumed the surname Clifford, (fn. 2) made the grant mentioned above of the mill at Frampton c. 1180, and his son Walter (fn. 3) confirmed Frampton to his younger brother Richard de Clifford in 1200, to hold it of Walter. (fn. 4) Richard held the manor of FRAMPTON at his death in or before 1213, when Walter made fine for the custody of the land and heirs of his brother Richard. (fn. 5) Another Richard de Clifford, son and heir of Richard, was in possession by 1236 (fn. 6) and possibly ten years earlier. (fn. 7) He was succeeded by Hugh de Clifford, to whom in 1249 Walter de Clifford confirmed Frampton manor. (fn. 8) The overlordship of Walter's successors as lords of Cliffordcastle was recorded up to the late 15th century. (fn. 9)

Hugh de Clifford, who received the grant of a market and fair at Frampton in 1254, (fn. 10) is said to have been succeeded in that year by his son John, who in turn died in 1299. (fn. 11) A John de Clifford was lord of Frampton in 1276 (fn. 12) and 1288, (fn. 13) but he seems to have been succeeded by his son Richard by 1294. (fn. 14) John de Clifford had already demised the manor to Peter Flory for his life, (fn. 15) and in 1296 Richard de Clifford granted a further term. (fn. 16) By 1303 a life interest in the reversion of the manor, of which ⅓ belonged to John's widow Margery as dower, had been conveyed to Robert FitzPain and his wife Isabel, and in that year, to provide maintenance for himself and his wife Sarah, education for his son, and portions for his daughters, Richard de Clifford conveyed all his interest in the manor to Thomas of Berkeley. (fn. 17) In 1305 Thomas conveyed the manor to Robert and Isabel for a yearly rent of 22 marks. (fn. 18) The rent continued to be paid in the mid 17th century. (fn. 19)

Robert FitzPain died in or before 1315, (fn. 20) and his widow Isabel held the manor in 1316 (fn. 21) and 1320. (fn. 22) Their son and heir Robert had a high assessment for tax in Frampton in 1327, (fn. 23) and in 1338 settled the manor on John Chideock and his wife Isabel, apparently the younger Robert's daughter. (fn. 24) Robert was dead perhaps by 1340, when John Chideock paid a rent owed by the lord of the manor, (fn. 25) and certainly by 1355, when his widow Ela quitclaimed her right in Frampton manor to John and Isabel. (fn. 26) Their son John was lord of the manor in 1366 (fn. 27) during his father's lifetime, for in 1370 the elder John quitclaimed the manor to his son John. (fn. 28) The son died in 1415, leaving as his heir an infant son John, but his widow Eleanor (fn. 29) held the manor at her death in 1433, and Eleanor's second husband, Ralph Bush, (fn. 30) held the manor for his life in 1437 when John Chideock and his wife Catherine settled the reversion on their daughter and coheir apparent, Catherine wife of William Stafford. (fn. 31) William and Catherine were in possession in 1440; (fn. 32) William was dead by 1450, (fn. 33) and his widow died in 1479 holding the manor, having married secondly John Arundell and thirdly Roger Lewknor, and leaving as her heir her son Thomas Arundell. (fn. 34)

Thomas Arundell died holding the manor in 1485 or 1486, leaving a son and heir John (fn. 35) who settled the manor in 1496 on his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset. (fn. 36) Their son John (d. by 1564) was succeeded by his son John (d. 1590), who had settled Frampton on his wife Anne and his daughter-in-law Anne, wife of a fourth John Arundell. (fn. 37) The younger John and Anne sold the manor in 1632 to Humphrey Hooke, when the estate comprised c. 700 a. (fn. 38) Humphrey died in 1659, a few weeks after his eldest son, Thomas, whose son Sir Thomas Hooke, Bt., succeeded to the manor and died in 1678. (fn. 39) Sir Thomas's son, Sir Hele Hooke, was succeeded in 1712 by his three sisters as coheirs, Elizabeth who married Thomas Grove, Mary who married William Hammond, and Anne who married William Dyer, each of whom had ⅓ of the manor. Elizabeth's son John Grove in 1767 bought ⅓ from the devisees of Edmund Hammond, the third and last surviving son of Mary, and was left the reversion of Anne's ⅓ by her son Hele Dyer (d. 1768 or 1769), who gave a life interest to his sister Elizabeth (d. c. 1780), wife of Michael Heathcote. John Grove died in 1769, and his son Thomas (fn. 40) sold Frampton manor in 1792 to Nathaniel Winchcombe. (fn. 41) Winchcombe later inherited the Frampton Court estate, and the subsequent descent of the manor is given below with that of Frampton Court.

In 1315 the manor included a chief house with a garden. (fn. 42) The Chideocks may have lived in that house, though their main residence was apparently at Chideock (Dors.). (fn. 43) By 1614 the Arundells had evidently leased the manor-house with 150 a. to Giles Addis; (fn. 44) in 1792 the site of the manor with a house called Frampton Farm and 130 a. was occupied by Richard Clarke, (fn. 45) and that house was evidently the one standing 100 yds. east of the church behind the large barn (fn. 46) that survived in 1968. The house had been partly demolished by 1815, (fn. 47) and by 1879 (fn. 48) only a small part of the building survived, a brick-covered timber-framed structure known in 1968 as the priest's house and used as a shed. It comprised three bays, and the roof contained curved wind-braces.

The estate that centred on FRAMPTON COURT, (fn. 49) called the manor of Frampton between the late 15th century and the early 17th, (fn. 50) originated in an estate held by another branch of the Clifford family. William Clifford was a freeholder in Frampton in 1302, (fn. 51) and with his wife Catherine and son John was granted a lease of some land in 1320. (fn. 52) John, as John Clifford the elder, held land in fee c. 1350; (fn. 53) a younger John Clifford may have been his nephew, John Clifford of Daneway, mentioned below. (fn. 54) John the elder is said to have been succeeded by his son James Clifford (fn. 55) of Frampton, who also acquired Fretherne manor (fn. 56) and was accused in the early 15th century of unjustly taking possession of lands in Frampton. (fn. 57) In 1426 James's widow, Joan, and Henry Clifford, apparently James's son, made an agreement with the lord of Frampton manor and other landholders there, (fn. 58) and Henry received a lease of land in Frampton in 1440. (fn. 59) Henry was succeeded in 1452 by his son James (d. 1468), (fn. 60) whose son Henry died in 1485 holding an estate called Frampton manor that was clearly the same as the land held c. 1350 by John Clifford the elder. Henry's son James (fn. 61) died in 1544 having settled the manor on his wife Anne and leaving a son and heir Henry, (fn. 62) who was succeeded in 1559 by his son James. (fn. 63) In 1613 James Clifford died leaving as his heir his only daughter Mary, wife of John Cage. (fn. 64)

Mary Cage died in 1640 and her husband in 1643. (fn. 65) As they had no children the estate passed first, apparently, to Anthony Clifford, (fn. 66) son of Mary's uncle George. Anthony died without issue in 1650, and the heir was Richard Clifford, son of Henry, son of Mary's uncle John. Richard sold most of his estate in Frampton and Fretherne, (fn. 67) and in 1650 he sold an estate in Frampton including the rents of 28 freehold, leasehold, and possibly copyhold tenants to his cousin John Clifford, (fn. 68) son of James, son of Mary Cage's uncle William. (fn. 69) On John's death in 1684 the estate passed to William (d. 1727), son of Nathaniel Clutterbuck and John's daughter Mary. (fn. 70)

William Clutterbuck's son Richard held the estate until he died unmarried in 1775. The estate passed for her life to his niece Elizabeth, wife of Edmund Phillips and one of the two daughters of William and Catherine Bell. Mrs. Phillips was succeeded in 1801 by the son of her sister Anne and Nathaniel Winchcome, another Nathaniel who in the same year changed his surname to Clifford. (fn. 71) The Winchcombes had been settled in Frampton from at least 1683 (fn. 72) and by 1801 the younger Nathaniel was already, by purchase, the owner of Frampton manor (fn. 73) and of several smaller estates in the parish. (fn. 74) From Nathaniel Clifford (d. 1817) (fn. 75) Frampton manor and the Frampton Court estate passed to his son Henry Clifford Clifford, who was succeeded in 1867 by his grandson Henry James Clifford (d. 1891). H. J. Clifford's son Henry Francis died in 1917 leaving a widow, Adelaide Hilda, who subsequently married Lt.-Col. J. A. T. Miller, and an only child, Henrietta Hilda Elizabeth, (fn. 76) who married Peter F. S. Haggie. The Haggies changed their name to Clifford in 1942, and in 1968 they owned the estate, then amounting to c. 700 a. It had been 1,570 a. in the mid 19th century, (fn. 77) but three farms were sold following the death of H. F. Clifford in 1917. (fn. 78)

Frampton Court stands on a site which was apparently moated until 1651, when John Clifford had a new house built there. It was of brick, (fn. 79) of two stories with attics; the symmetrical entrance front had a two-story porch and three gablets with oval windows to the attics, and there were bay windows to the ground floor only. (fn. 80) With 9 hearths, the house had the second highest assessment in the parish in 1672. (fn. 81) In 1731 Richard Clutterbuck began what appears to have been a complete rebuilding, in Bath stone; (fn. 82) the rainwater-heads are dated 1733. The house is thought to have been designed by John Strahan, (fn. 83) in a style reminiscent of Vanbrugh's, and has a main block of three stories, with a grand stairway to the first-floor entrance beneath a pediment supported on square Ionic pilasters. There are two plain flanking wings, of two stories and stuccoed, with massive arched chimneys. The most notable feature of the house is the rich woodwork of the interior. Some 20 years later a Gothick garden house was built at the end of an ornamental canal. (fn. 84) The tall ashlar dovecot in the grounds may be of the same period. The main house, which was slightly altered in 1823–7, (fn. 85) has been occupied by the owners except for the last decades of the 19th century and the first of the 20th. (fn. 86)

The Templars received a grant of two yardlands in Frampton from Richard son of Pons. In 1185 the estate was held of the Templars by Roger de Cauntelo, (fn. 87) whose son Richard made an exchange of rights in Frampton with Richard de Clifford c. 1230. (fn. 88) Another Roger de Cauntelo, his widow Margery, and Roger his son were recorded in Frampton in the late 13th century. (fn. 89) The Templars' rights in Frampton, treated as part of their manor of Temple Guiting, passed through the Clintons and Huddlestons (fn. 90) to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, (fn. 91) which received 20s. rent from Frampton in 1535. (fn. 92) The college continued to receive the rent in the late 18th century. (fn. 93)

The estate of the Cauntelos, or a part of it, passed to a branch of the Clifford family. John Clifford of Daneway in Bisley died in 1397 holding in Frampton a messuage, one plough-land, and £4 rent. He was said to hold his lands of the king, but Richard Whittington and Hugh of Bisley, who claimed that John's other lands were held as of their manors of Lypiatt and Bisley, established that his Frampton estate was held of John Clinton as of Temple Guiting manor. (fn. 94) John's heirs were said to be his daughters Elizabeth and Anne. (fn. 95) Elizabeth married John Staure, and in 1401 Richard Whittington and Hugh of Bisley complained that James Clifford and John Staure had ejected them from John Clifford's estate. (fn. 96) Anne seems in fact to have been Alice, who married William Teste and was the daughter of John Clifford, (fn. 97) said to be the son of Henry, brother of John Clifford the elder. (fn. 98) William and Alice Teste of Frampton complained c. 1420 that they had been disseised by James Clifford and his son William of their estate in Frampton, including land called Cauntelos. (fn. 99)

William Teste, who was recorded in 1416 (fn. 100) and 1445, (fn. 101) and Alice were supposedly the parents of Lawrence Teste, citizen and draper of London, who lived at Frampton (fn. 102) and died in 1507 or 1508. Lawrence's elder son John died childless a few days later, and his younger son Giles, (fn. 103) a clerk, died in 1542, having settled the Frampton estate in 1533 on his nephew Francis, son of William and Mary Codrington. (fn. 104) Francis Codrington (d. 1557) was succeeded by his son Giles, (fn. 105) who died in 1580 having settled the manor on his wife Isabel and their children in tail male. Giles's elder son Francis died in 1581 without male issue, leaving a brother Richard. His daughter Margaret, (fn. 106) however, with her husband Edward Bromwich inherited the estate: (fn. 107) Edward was living in Frampton in 1608 (fn. 108) and died in 1624. (fn. 109) His son Isaac was in possession of the estate in 1630 (fn. 110) and 1653, (fn. 111) but in 1670 it was bought by Rice Yate (d. 1690), whose son Walter Yate bought more land in Frampton. Robert Gorges Dobyns Yate, the great-grandson of Walter's sister Catherine Dobyns, sold the estate (fn. 112) to Nathaniel Peach in 1779. By his will dated the same year Nathaniel gave the estate to his brother Samuel, by whose will dated 1781 it passed to his grandson Samuel Peach Cruger, who by 1788 had changed his surname to Peach. In 1839 Samuel Peach Peach sold the estate to Henry Clifford Clifford, (fn. 113) and since then it has been in the same ownership as the manor and Frampton Court.

The chief house of the estate, recorded in 1542, (fn. 114) has been called Manor Farm since at least 1879. (fn. 115) The oldest part of the surviving building is a twostoried rear wing projecting from the south-east corner of the principal range; it may represent the solar wing of the house occupied by the Teste family in the 15th and early 16th centuries. The walls are of close-studded framing, partly refaced, and the upper room has an open roof with curved windbraces. A small projection, perhaps for a garderobe or staircase, is entered on each floor by a doorway with a two-centred head. At right angles to the wing at its south-east corner is a two-storied addition with a jettied gable-end; it is known as 'Rosamund's Bower', but the character of its framing suggests that it was not built before the early 16th century. The principal range of the house, of two stories and attics, is taller and on a grander scale. The entrance front, which faces north and has a two-storied gabled porch near its west end, has a ground floor of ashlar and an upper story of close-studded timbering with ogee braces. (fn. 116) Two of the lower windows are of six lights, each light having an arched head; both the windows and the arch of the porch have pentagonal stops to their dripmoulds. Internally there are several stone fireplaces, those to the hall and parlour being carved with late Gothic ornament. The range appears to have been built in the second quarter of the 16th century, probably by Francis Codrington whose arms (fn. 117) and cipher appear in the glass of the hall windows. (fn. 118) The east end of the range, which contains the ground-floor parlour, may have been remodelled in its upper stories later in the 16th century; the front, which is jettied both at the slightly raised first-floor level and below the attic gable, has no ogee braces and the timbers are less heavy than elsewhere. The moulding of the first-floor bressummer is continued as a stone string course round the large projecting chimney on the east wall; above this the chimney is of brick and there are two diagonally-set brick stacks of Elizabethan character. A service wing projecting northwards at the west end of the house has wall-framing of square panels and appears to date from the late 16th or early 17th century; at its junction with the principal range, however, there are indications of an earlier wing in the same position. The ashlar plinth which runs beneath the whole wing and continues beneath later out-buildings opposite the main range suggests that by the 16th century the courtyard in front of the house was already enclosed by buildings on three sides.

The house was occupied as a farm-house by tenants apparently from the late 17th century (fn. 119) until the early 20th, when it was carefully restored. (fn. 120) Near the house is a timber-framed barn of seven bays, its walls composed of small and regular square panels standing on an ashlar plinth; the roof has collar-beams and braced tie-beams, and the double purlins have curved wind-braces. There is also a gabled ashlar dovecot of the 17th century with a timber-framed lantern. The house, the barn, and the dovecot are all roofed with stone slates. (fn. 121)

Roger son of Osbert de Puddiford received grants of land in Frampton from Richard de Clifford c. 1200; (fn. 122) Roger later granted at least part of the land to Gloucester Abbey, from whom it was held for life by Peter the burgess, (fn. 123) perhaps a successor of the burgess in Gloucester belonging to Frampton in 1086, (fn. 124) and by whom it was granted to Richard de Clifford c. 1245. (fn. 125) In 1276, however, Richard de Puddiford was important enough to be presented, along with John de Clifford, for withdrawing suit from the hundred and county. (fn. 126) In 1316 William of Boulsdon was named as one of the lords of Frampton, along with John de Clifford's successor, (fn. 127) so William, named as a freeholder of the manor in 1302, (fn. 128) may have succeeded to Richard de Puddiford's estate. In 1327 William of Boulsdon had the third highest assessment for tax in Frampton. (fn. 129) His estate was evidently the one in Frampton and Boulsdon in Newent held of the Earls of Hereford by Richard Ward in the mid 14th century, (fn. 130) for, following a Robert Boulsdon who had land in Frampton in 1426, (fn. 131) Thomas Bouldson died in 1473 holding the manor of Boulsdon and a house and 146 a. in Frampton as of the honor of Hereford. His daughter and heir Elizabeth (fn. 132) may have married John Alley, one of whose daughters and heirs, Joan, brought what was described as the manor of Frampton called BOULSDON to her husband, Thomas Smart. Thomas died in 1521, after his wife, and their son Humphrey was their heir. (fn. 133) By 1603 the estate had been amalgamated with James Clifford's Frampton Court estate. (fn. 134)

Richard de Clifford (d. by 1213) gave the services of two men in Frampton, perhaps with the tithes, to Clifford Priory (Herefs.). (fn. 135) At some time before 1228, when Frampton was served by a vicar, (fn. 136) the priory appropriated the rectory. In 1500 the priory had 4 tenants in Frampton; (fn. 137) in 1518 it leased the tithes to William Tyndall, James Clifford, and Thomas Haynes. (fn. 138) In 1553 the Crown granted the rectory to Edward Cooper and Valentine Fairweather, (fn. 139) and in the same year the title passed to Henry Clifford who, as James's son and heir, was already lessee of the tithes. (fn. 140) The rectory then descended with the Frampton Court estate until the 1650s when Richard Clifford, while selling his other property, (fn. 141) retained the rectory. Richard was succeeded in 1658 by his son Edmund, whose widow Christian, later wife of Samuel Leet, retained the advowson and presumably the rectory until her death in 1681. Christian's son, Edmund Clifford, (fn. 142) in 1691 settled the rectory on Joan Upton, described in 1707 as his sister and executrix, (fn. 143) and Anne Gibbs. By 1714 the rectory had passed to John Chamberlayne, (fn. 144) another grandson of Richard Clifford (d. 1658); (fn. 145) his widow Elizabeth (fn. 146) sold the rectory in 1725 to Elizabeth Sheldon, who conveyed it four years later to John Wicks of Frampton (d. c. 1744). Another John Wicks, who became Vicar of Frampton in 1765, died in 1770 having devised the rectory to his infant daughter Anne (fn. 147) with a life interest to his widow Anne. (fn. 148) The younger Anne (d. 1841) (fn. 149) received at inclosure in 1815 an allotment of 87 a. in Slimbridge Warth and corn-rents to replace her rectorial tithes, which comprised two-thirds of all the tithes of the parish. The rectorial glebe by then amounted to only a few acres, (fn. 150) but earlier it had been larger and had presumably included Advowson Farm. (fn. 151) That house, standing at the south end of the green and in 1968 divided into two houses called East Gables and West Gables, is a cruck-framed building of six bays, with a 17th-century cross-wing on the east. One of the cruck-trusses retains part of an arch-brace to the collar. The inserted upper floor is lit by gablets, and the front facing the green is rendered and has been given wooden windows of two and three pointed lights; incorporated in the back of the house is a stone carved with a scene depicting two men and a woman, apparently of the 16th century.

Nicholas of the Newland, who in 1322 received a lease of 1 yardland from Robert FitzPain, (fn. 152) had the highest assessment for tax in Frampton, and the second highest in the hundred, in 1327. (fn. 153) If Nicholas had a freehold estate it may have been that which had come to Geoffrey and Alice Holford by 1440, (fn. 154) which in turn may have been one of three estates held by the families of Haynes, Fream, and Selwyn.

Thomas Haynes, mentioned above as one of the lessees of the rectorial tithes, died in 1543. (fn. 155) In 1616 Giles Haynes settled a house and two plough-lands on his marriage with Anne, daughter of Richard Haynes, and she with their son and heir Richard survived at Giles's death in 1629. (fn. 156) Another Giles Haynes was living in Frampton in 1672, (fn. 157) John Haynes had an estate there in 1678, (fn. 158) and Joseph Haynes was one of the chief ratepayers in 1703. (fn. 159) The family's house was the Grange, (fn. 160) so called by 1889, (fn. 161) which contains a central chimney-stack behind the front door, a room with carved panelling and a decorative plaster ceiling of the early 17th century, and a staircase of the same period with turned balusters; the house was given a new brick front, with a cornice similar to that at Nastfield Farm and some interior woodwork, in the 18th century, and in the later 19th century it was altered and enlarged. In 1672 Giles Haynes's house was taxed on 3 hearths; (fn. 162) in 1678 John Haynes had what was described as a chief house, with a newly built house sharing its courtyard. (fn. 163) In the early 18th century Joseph Haynes was said to have a handsome house and a good estate. (fn. 164) The newly built house may have been the part which was in use as a malthouse in 1835 (fn. 165) and had been converted into a separate private house called Rosamunde's House by 1968. The Hayneses' estate had passed by 1815 to the Cliffords, (fn. 166) with whom the Hayneses were connected by marriage. (fn. 167)

Robert Fream died in 1599 holding Lower Lypiatt manor in Stroud and an estate in Frampton. His son and heir Thomas (fn. 168) had four tenants in Frampton in 1618. (fn. 169) Thomas's son Thomas was in possession of the estate in 1653 and was succeeded by three daughters as coheirs, of whom Sarah married Henry Window, (fn. 170) Elizabeth married Thomas Clutterbuck, (fn. 171) and Anne married Thomas Chamberlayne. (fn. 172) The subsequent descent of the estate has not been traced.

In 1653 Jasper Selwyn had an estate in Frampton (fn. 173) which may have been the one that he acquired in 1651. (fn. 174) In 1672 he lived in the largest house recorded in Frampton, with 14 hearths, which he may have had as a tenant rather than as part of his freehold estate. (fn. 175) He died in 1690, and his son Jasper was succeeded by his eldest son Richard in 1733. (fn. 176) The younger Jasper, described as having a good house and estate in the parish, (fn. 177) was apparently the last of the family to live at Frampton. In the year of his death he settled land there and a house called Yew Tree House, later described as a farm-house, on Richard, who was dead by 1770. In 1775 Richard's son William made over his life-interest to his eldest son John, who sold the estate in 1791 to Nathaniel Winchcombe; (fn. 178) the Selwyns' estate was thereafter merged with the manor and the Frampton Court estate.