Charney Manor, Berkshire (Now Oxfordshire), England

CHARNEY (Ceornei, ?ix cent.; Cernei, xi cent.; Cerneia, xii cent.; Cerneye, xiii cent.; Cherney, xvi cent.) is included in the forged list of lands supposed to have been granted to Abbot Rethune by Kenulf, King of Mercia, in 811, (fn. 54) and it is also named in another spurious charter ascribed to the same king dated 821. (fn. 55) At the time of the Domesday Survey Charney, assessed at 2 virgates and valued at £6, formed part of the possessions of Abingdon. (fn. 56) There was also half a hide in the same place held of the abbey by Warin, who had succeeded Ulwin, the tenant in the reign of Edward the Confessor. (fn. 57) Charney continued in possession of the monks until the Dissolution, (fn. 58) and the dairy farm of Charney furnished sixteen pondera of cheese a year to the monks. (fn. 59) The sums due from the manors of Charney and Longworth for the supply of wood to the abbey were commuted by Abbot Faritius for money payments. (fn. 60) Abbot Vincent bestowed 60s. from the rent of Cuddesdon and Charney for the supply of the monks' wood-house, (fn. 61) and the manor of Charney was also required to take its turn three times a year in the service of the cook of the abbey in the conveyance of fish, and also in the provision of eggs, fowls and beans. (fn. 62)

At the Dissolution the abbey's estate in Charney was worth £54 3s. 2d. a year. (fn. 63) In 1545 Henry VIII granted the manor in fee to William Gorfen of Reading. (fn. 64) William Gorfen died in 1547, and his sister and heir Alice Gorfen (fn. 65) in 1551 settled the reversion of the manor after her death on her distant kinsman Chidiock Paulet, the third son of William Paulet first Marquess of Winchester. (fn. 66) Chidiock Paulet had succeeded to the estate by 1563. (fn. 67) He died in 1574, and his son William Paulet (fn. 68) sold the manor eight years later to William Dunch. (fn. 69) William Dunch died in 1596, his heir being his son Edmund. On the death of Wharton Dunch, great-great-grandson of Edmund, in 1705, (fn. 70) Charney passed to Francis Keck, (fn. 71) who had married his only sister and heir Jane. (fn. 72) It then continued in the Keck family until the beginning of the 19th century, (fn. 73) when it was sold by George Anthony Legh Keck to James Crowdy, Thomas Price Belcher, Daniel Giles and William Pinder. (fn. 74) It had become 'the property of Mr. Bushnell of Wallingford' in 1806. (fn. 75) In 1833 the Rev. John Bushnell, rector of Beenham, near Reading, sold 'Charney otherwise Cerney otherwise Cerney Basses and Weeks' to Mr. Philip Pusey of Pusey. (fn. 76) The estate is now the property of the Berkshire County Council, who purchased it for small holdings from Mr. Sidney Edward Bouverie-Pusey in 1909. (fn. 77)

Now owned by the Woking Quakers.

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