Standish: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

Beornwulf, King of Mercia 823–5, granted 15 hides at Standish under Evesbury to St. Peter's, Gloucester. (fn. 1) With others of the abbey's estates it was held in 1066 by Aldred, Archbishop of York, and in 1086 by his successor, Thomas. It was then assessed as 15 hides, of which the abbot had one, Hugh, Earl of Chester, had one unjustly, and Durand the sheriff had 3, (fn. 2) but those fragments of the 15-hide estate may have been outside the boundaries of the later parish of Standish. (fn. 3) In 1086 King William granted possession of Standish to Gloucester Abbey, (fn. 4) and in 1095 Thomas, Archbishop of York, rendered Standish along with other estates to the abbey. (fn. 5)

Gloucester Abbey retained STANDISH manor until the Dissolution. In 1291 it had 4 plough-lands there in demesne, (fn. 6) and in 1354 was granted free warren there. (fn. 7) In 1202 Bishop Mauger of Worcester confirmed a grant by which the abbot, Thomas Carbonel, was said to have restored to the abbey almonry the whole manor except for a pension of 4 marks paid to the abbot. (fn. 8) In 1301 the Archbishop of Canterbury intervened to prevent the profits of the manor from being used to supply the monks with a sumptuous table at Standish; he upheld the arrangements made by Abbot Thomas, and enjoined that all the issues were to be delivered to the subalmoner for distribution as alms. (fn. 9) In or before 1324 the manor was taken into the king's hand (fn. 10) because the abbot had, 10 years earlier, withdrawn the alms of a quarter of corn a week by which the manor was said to be held, but the abbey regained possession after showing that the charter of 1086 was a grant in free alms. (fn. 11) In 1347, however, Bishop Bransford confirmed his predecessor's confirmation of 1202. (fn. 12) In the early 16th century the alms were distributed at Gloucester in corn, in gowns, and small cash sums to 13 poor men, and in a weekly disbursement of 8d. known as the abbot's almsdish, but because that method attracted a disorderly and infectious crowd Abbot Malvern replaced it by instituting the fraternity of the Holy Cross, to comprise a prior and 12 other poor men including preferably former tenants of Standish called Peter's Men, who would attend daily services in the abbey church and receive gowns and doles of cash and bread. (fn. 13) In 1535 the gross income from Standish manor, £125 a year, was much higher than that from any of the abbey's other country estates; from the income £29 was distributed in money and food to 13 paupers praying for the soul of King Beornwulf, and £63 in other alms. (fn. 14)

The Crown granted the manor in 1547 to the Duke of Somerset, (fn. 15) and in 1552, after the duke's attainder, to Sir Anthony Cooke. (fn. 16) In 1556 the Crown licensed the sale of the manor to Thomas Winston and Richard Stephens, (fn. 17) who in the same year agreed upon a division of the manor. Stephens was to have the manor-house, demesne lands, and mills, which George Huntley then held (fn. 18) under a lease of 1537 to his father John. (fn. 19) Richard Stephens was licensed to alienate ⅓ of his estate in Standish to Walter Stephens and another ⅓ to Edward Stephens; (fn. 20) Edward was Walter's brother, and his heir in 1559, (fn. 21) and in 1561 and 1562 lived at Standish. In 1561, however, Richard and Edward Stephens sold all their property in Standish to Thomas Winston and his wife Anne. (fn. 22)

Thomas Winston (d. 1562) was succeeded by his infant son Henry, (fn. 23) who came of age in 1581. (fn. 24) Henry became Sir Henry Winston of Standish, (fn. 25) whose daughter and eventual coheir Sarah married John Churchill and carried the name Winston into the Churchill family. (fn. 26) Sir Henry Winston was succeeded in 1609 by his son Henry, (fn. 27) who with his wife Cassandra conveyed Standish manor to William Button in 1611. (fn. 28) From William Dutton (d. 1618) the manor passed to his younger son Sir Ralph, (fn. 29) who died in 1646 (fn. 30) leaving an infant son William as his heir. (fn. 31) From William Dutton (d. 1675) the manor descended with the Duttons' Sherborne estate, (fn. 32) although in 1818, before the first Lord Sherborne's death, Standish belonged to his son John, (fn. 33) who in 1839, as Lord Sherborne, had 1,750 a. in Standish. (fn. 34) John's great-grandson, James Huntley Dutton, Lord Sherborne, in 1921 sold his Standish estate, which had been enlarged by small purchases, to the Gloucestershire County Council. Although the council sold some of the land, (fn. 35) it remained the chief landowner in 1939 (fn. 36) and in 1967.

The chief house of the manor was Standish Court. The buildings were described in detail in 1548: they were mostly of stone and included a hall 23 ft. wide, a parlour 18 ft. wide with a freestone fireplace, 10 chambers of which one was 30 ft. wide and another had a freestone fireplace and two glazed windows, two stairways, and outbuildings including a dovecot. The porch mentioned in 1548 was apparently the gatehouse, (fn. 37) built in the 14th or 15th century, of which the ruined archways have survived. The medieval house may have included a chapel, for a decayed chapel of St. Mary was recorded c. 1703. (fn. 38) Although features such as the stream and fishpond recorded in 1548 have survived in a modified form, the only part of the living quarters still existing in 1967 was a two-story rough-cast wing: the west wall contains four windows with stone mullions and four-centred heads to the lights, and the wing is identified with the buildings described in 1548 by its 18-ft. width and by the existence of a projecting stone stairway and an early-16th-century stone fireplace on each floor, the lower one panelled on the chamfer. South-west of the wing and at right-angles to it, where the hall is likely to have been, a two-story stone range was built in the later 17th century, with mullioned and transomed windows and a segmental hood on brackets over the main door. Subsidiary buildings of coursed rubble adjoining the range on the south and west may have been built at the same time or later.

The house was occupied by the lord of the manor, Sir Henry Winston, in 1590, (fn. 39) by his son Henry in 1610, (fn. 40) and by Sir Ralph Dutton in 1631 (fn. 41) and 1634. (fn. 42) In 1672 William Dutton lived there, and the house had 9 hearths. (fn. 43) It was apparently let as a farm-house by 1735, (fn. 44) and it remained one until the sale of the estate in 1921. In 1923 F. Winterbotham bought the house and began to restore it; (fn. 45) it was presumably then that the new Standish Court Farm was built. Winterbotham sold the house c. 1935 to Sir Philip Stott, Bt., whose son, Sir George, sold it in 1946 to Mr. L. A. Beck. Eleven years later Mr. Beck converted the house and its outbuildings into seven dwellings and sold them separately. (fn. 46)

Between 1618 and 1646 Sir Ralph Dutton was licensed to sell what was then described as the manor of COLETHROP to Giles Yate. (fn. 47) Giles Yate of Colethrop was succeeded c. 1675 by his son William, whose younger son Charles succeeded to the Colethrop estate. Charles died in 1721, and left as his heirs six daughters of whom Dorothy received Colethrop and married Powell Snell, of Guiting Grange. Charles, the third son of Dorothy and Powell Snell, sold Colethrop manor, with 278 a., to Samuel Niblett, of Gloucester, (fn. 48) in 1770. (fn. 49) Niblett, who died in 1798, came of a family that included Andrew Niblett, a parishioner of Standish in 1584, (fn. 50) and several others of the same surname in the 17th century. (fn. 51) Samuel Niblett's grandson, Daniel John Niblett, had 470 a. in Colethrop in 1843. (fn. 52) He also owned Haresfield Court, with which Colethrop thereafter descended. (fn. 53) The chief house of the Colethrop estate, Colethrop Court, (fn. 54) was presumably the house with 8 hearths occupied by Mr. Yate in 1672. (fn. 55) The old house, described as a handsome seat c. 1710 (fn. 56) and as a large capital mansion c. 1770, (fn. 57) had been pulled down by 1872, (fn. 58) and by 1882 a new farm-house called Manor Farm, and later Colethrop Court or Colethrop Farm, occupied the site. (fn. 59)

Between c. 1260 and c. 1280 William of Colethrop was succeeded in Colethrop by his son, John of Colethrop. (fn. 60) John of Colethrop c. 1300 and in 1315 made what appear to have been settlements of his lands in Colethrop. (fn. 61) In 1362 Joan, late the wife of John Ditchley, granted evidently the same estate to Roger Norris, (fn. 62) to whose son John the lands were confirmed in 1379 (fn. 63) and 1381. (fn. 64) In 1435 Hugh Twissell and his wife Joan settled an estate partly in Standish of Joan's inheritance; (fn. 65) in 1461 John Twissell and his wife Joan settled ah estate in Colethrop that included a pasture called the Haye. (fn. 66) The grouping of deeds relating to the Twissells' estate suggests that it was derived from that of William of Colethrop. (fn. 67) In 1500 or 1501 Robert Twissell died having settled an estate including 300 a. of pasture called the Haye, 200 a. of meadow in Standish, and 40 a. of arable in Colethrop. His widow Margaret and his son and heir George (fn. 68) further settled the estate in 1503. (fn. 69) George Twissell died holding land in Standish in 1534, (fn. 70) and in 1539 Edward Twissell held an estate called THE HAYES, (fn. 71) for which he paid an assized rent to Standish manor. (fn. 72)

Edward Twissell sold all his lands in Standish in 1546 to William Capell and his son Edward, and William conveyed all his interest to Edward Capell the following year. In 1581 and 1592 the estate belonged to Richard Capell, whose son and heir Richard mortgaged it in 1602 to Gregory Wiltshire. In 1616 Gregory had an estate of over 200 a. in Standish and Colethrop, (fn. 73) formerly Richard Capell's; in 1624 he was bankrupt, (fn. 74) and his conveyance of land in Standish, Hayes, and Colethrop to Thomas Browne, Thomas Pury, and James Wood in 1634 (fn. 75) may have been for the sale of the estate. In 1775 the Hayes belonged to a Mr. Buckle, (fn. 76) and it is possible that Roger Buckle owned it in 1672 when he had a house in Colethrop or Hardwicke. (fn. 77) By 1797 Thomas Martin had bought the Hayes; (fn. 78) in 1843 Mary Martin owned and occupied it, with 175 a. (fn. 79) It was afterwards added to the Nibletts' Haresfield Court estate, and was owned in 1967 by Miss A. Tidswell. (fn. 80)

There is no indication that any of the owners of the Hayes between the early 14th century and the early 17th lived in Colethrop, and most of those recorded are known to have lived elsewhere. Hayes Farm was built in the 17th century, perhaps by Gregory Wiltshire; it is a three-storied house of stone with a Cotswold stone roof and has a nearly symmetrical front of three gables. Inside is a fireback dated 1661. Roger Buckle's house in 1672 had 4 hearths. (fn. 81) In or before 1775 Mr. Buckle appears to have occupied the land himself, as did his successors the Martins. (fn. 82) The house was thoroughly restored in 1947 as Miss Tidswell's home.

Another estate in Colethrop had been part of Llanthony Priory's manor of Haresfield. (fn. 83) In 1543 Richard Andrews was licensed to sell to William Bond lands in Colethrop, which were then occupied by Alice Bond, widow. (fn. 84) In 1597 John Bond died seised of lands in Colethrop, and his heir was his infant grand-daughter Mary Young, who later married Edmund Snow. (fn. 85) Edmund, Mary, and Thomas Young conveyed the estate in 1620 to Thomas Clissold, (fn. 86) and afterwards it is likely to have become merged in the Colethrop manor estate. (fn. 87)

About 1775 George Fielder bought from the lord of Standish manor a considerable estate in Putloe. (fn. 88) Elizabeth Fielder, daughter of George and sister of another George, married William Croome (d. 1802) of North Cerney, and their son James Fielder Croome owned the Putloe estate in 1803. (fn. 89) In 1818 James Fielder Croome owned PUTLOE COURT, Putloe Farm, and Gables Farm, (fn. 90) and in 1823 his Putloe estate amounted to 279 a. (fn. 91) He died in 1836, and in 1843 his trustees owned 327 a. in Standish parish; (fn. 92) his only son, James Fielder Croome, died unmarried in 1853, his widow Mary in 1862, and his only daughter, Mary Elizabeth, wife of George Pardoe, without children in 1903, (fn. 93) and the estate passed to a younger branch of the family. The Revd. William Michell Croome, great-grandson of William and Elizabeth, (fn. 94) sold Putloe Court in 1920 to the tenant, William George Sealey, for whose wife and son, Mr. Lawrence Sealey, Putloe Court and 330 a., including Church farm and Barracks farm in Moreton Valence, were held in trust in 1967. (fn. 95) Putloe Court incorporates a timber-framed structure, but the main part is a square building of c. 1700 of cream and red brick with stone dressings and platbands. A barn by the house has numbered posts and trusses, braced with curved struts; the upper members of the trusses are themselves curved, forming small upper crucks.

The great tithes of Standish belonged to Gloucester Abbey, as appropriator of the rectory. (fn. 96) In 1541 the Crown granted the rectory and tithes to the see of Gloucester, (fn. 97) and the bishop owned most of the great tithes in 1839, when they were commuted for corn-rents. The tithes were held at the time on lease by the three major landowners, and some land was successfully claimed as tithe-free. (fn. 98)