Kingston Bagpuize House, Berkshire (Now Oxfordshire), England

Introduction

The village's suffix comes from the De Bachepuis family who were lords of the manor from the 11th century. The De Kingstons later took over and evidently took their name from the village.

John Latton purchased the estate in 1542. The family's main residences were Symeon's Manor in Chilton and Upton Manor in Blewbury, but they seem to have transferred their allegiance to Kingston Bagpuize around 1570. It may have been around this time that the original John Latton's grandson of the same name built a moated manor house on the present site. The earliest part of the current house, the basement, may have been part of this early house. Elias Ashmole saw the building in the 1660s and commented on the Latton family heraldic glass which appears to have ended up at Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. After his death in 1596, John Latton II's widow, Dorothy, married Justice Sir David Williams, a prominent judge who took up residence at Kingston. The Latton family lived in the house for another four generations until 1670, when John Latton IV sold up to Edmund Fettiplace and moved to Esher Place in Surrey. Fettiplace was the newly-married heir of the main Appleton and Besselsleigh branch of this abundant Berkshire family. He seems to have relocated to Kingston Bagpuize and lived there until his death in 1711 when his daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, briefly inherited the estate. It was her widower, John Blandy of Inglewood House (Kintbury), who had the present red brick Baroque house built, around 1715. His architect was probably William Townsend (or his brother, George), an associate of Hawksmoor who worked on Queen's College, Oxford. The former front door on the east side of the house has a parallel at Radley Hall which Townsend also designed and the pediments on all four sides are similar to Hawksmoor's Clarendon Building in Oxford. The flaming urns flanking the pediments come from the Blandy coat of arms. The house has massive walls and was originally a double pile building with central corridor going from front to back and rooms leading off on both sides. Blandy made further alterations around 1728, including the removal of the central corridor and the addition of the cantilevered staircase and the oak panelling in the library and the dining room.

Kingston Bagpuize House was apparently, Blandy's favourite property where he wished his male line descendants to reside. Upon hi's death in 1736, his daughter, Elizabeth the wife of William Shaw, should have inherited her mother's property but, in a bizarre switch, Kingston Bagpuize went to her half-brother, John Blandy II, while she took on her father's house at Inglewood. The younger John Blandy is remembered as a great benefactor to the village, for he paid for the rebuilding of the parish church. He was succeeded, in 1791, by Adam Walker, the eight-year-old grandson of his maternal cousin, Margaret Southby (formerly Day). He took on the additional name of Blandy and, later, the name Jenkins was added by his son, John, upon inheriting the fortune of his maternal grand-uncle of that name.

It was John Blandy Jenkins who, in 1865, moved the main entrance of the house to the west front, with the drive approaching from the relocated gates to the north, next to the church. The old entrance became the garden front and a ha-ha was constructed around the lawn that was laid over the old paving. The main entrance hall was converted to the present drawing room and the inner staircase hall became the new entrance hall as it remains today. After just over two hundred years at Kingston, the Blandys sold the estate to the wealthy corn merchant, Edward Strauss MP in 1917. He undertook some minor works, adding the Palladian-style mouldings to the small sitting room; but he went bankrupt in 1935. Lord Ebury purchased the house, but four years later, sold it to Miss Marlie Raphael. The house's furniture and fittings were collected by this lady and the family of her niece, Lady Grant & Tweedsmuir, who still live there.

Kingston Bagpuize House is open to the public during the Summer.

History

According to the Abingdon Chronicle King Edgar in 970 granted 7 hides in KINGSTON to his faithful deacon Brihteah. In support of this the abbey produced two charters of King Edward, both spurious; the first granted or confirmed 7 hides here to Abingdon Abbey, the second granted 13 hides to Ælfstan. In or before 971 20 hides at Kingston were bequeathed by the ealdorman Ælfheah (Alfhegus) to the ealdorman Ælfhere (Alferus), and were purchased from the latter by Osgar Abbot of Abingdon. No mention of these grants was made in the later claim to the overlordship of Kingston set up by the monks of Abingdon. Ousted by the Normans after the battle of Hastings they claimed to hold by the grant of one Turkill, who, by the advice of Earl Harold, had commended himself and his land to them. Turkill fell at the battle of Hastings, and Henry de Ferrers seized his lands, the abbey being powerless to prevent it. Domesday Book, however, records that one Stanchil had been the Saxon tenant of Henry de Ferrers' fee in Kingston, while the Kingston lands of one Turchil had passed to William son of Ansculph.

Kingston Bagpuize was thus divided in 1086 between Henry de Ferrers and William son of Ansculph. The latter's fee may be identified as the northern part, as it contained the fishery. The overlordship of the southern part descended from Henry de Ferrers to succeeding tenants of the honour of Tutbury.

Ralph, under-tenant of Henry de Ferrers in 1086, was the Ralph de Bagpuize who held Barton and Alkmonton in Derbyshire of Henry de Ferrers. Ralph left a son and heir Henry, who had been succeeded by his brother Robert by 1113. Robert held three knights' fees in Derbyshire of the Earl of Ferrers in 1166. John de Bagpuize was lord in 1208, and was succeeded before 1241 by William de Bagpuize, probably his son, who was followed before 1261 by a brother John. In 1290 John's son and heir William (fn. 38) granted to John de Kingston and his heirs a messuage and 2 carucates of land in Kingston in exchange for rents in Wiltshire, John confirming to Alice de Bagpuize for life, for the payment of a rose yearly, a messuage and one carucate of land here. In 1292 Nicholas de Kingston and his wife Margaret gave up to John de Kingston all Margaret's claim in a messuage and carucate of land and all her right to the land formerly belonging to William de Bagpuize in Kingston Bagpuize. This or another John de Kingston was lord of this part of the vill in 1316, and the latter was still alive in 1328, having been knighted before 1327. He left a son and heir Thomas, and it was probably on his son Sir John that, with Elizabeth his wife, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Childrey, the manor was settled in 1414. Sir John de Kingston died shortly afterwards, leaving a son Thomas under age, but Elizabeth held the manor until her death in 1463, when it passed to her grandson, Thomas's son Thomas. He died in January 1506–7, when his heir was his grandson John Kingston, then aged sixteen, who obtained livery of his lands in 1511. At his death in 1514 his brother Nicholas succeeded, and, on his death without issue in 1515, the manor came to his sister Mary, wife of Thomas Lisle. Thomas survived Mary, who died in 1539, when her heirs were William Gorffyn, son of her paternal aunt Margaret, Margery wife of Sir John Cope, daughter of her paternal aunt Katharine Mallory, and Katharine wife of Thomas Andrews and Margaret wife of Thomas Boughton, granddaughters of Katharine Mallory. William Gorffyn and Katharine Andrews, with her husband, conveyed their parts in 1542 to Sir John and Margery Cope, who in February 1542–3 conveyed the manor to John Latton. He at the same date acquired the other part of Kingston with which the Kingstons' estate subsequently descended.

From William son of Ansculph the overlordship of the second manor of Kingston descended with the manor of Bradfield, of which these lands were held in 1502.

Adelelm held under William son of Ansculph in 1086. He is called Adelelm de Kingston in 1113, and was presumably ancestor of the succeeding owners of the manor. About 1240 Maud de Gournay, perhaps wife of Hugh de Gournay who died in 1239, held a knight's fee in 'Kyngeston Rogeri' as guardian of the heir of Roger de Kingston, and a John de Kingston purchased half a hide of land here from John Pygate in 1248. The Kingstons were succeeded by the family of Fokeram; William de Fokeram, tenant in 1272, must have been the William de Fokeram who alienated half the advowson of Fyfield to the Prior of Poughley. In 1290 his son William quitclaimed to William de Birmingham, lord of Maidencourt, and his heirs the remainder of a messuage, 2 carucates of land and 100s. rent here which his father and mother Ellen held for life with remainder to himself.

It is not clear whether the new tenant was the William de Birmingham who was taken prisoner in the Gascon wars of Edward I or his son William, knighted in 1306. This family had for some generations been lords of Birmingham in Warwickshire, where they held their lands of the same overlord. The knight of 1306 was presumably the William who was lord of Kingston Bagpuize in 1316 and 1327.His son William was father of Sir Fulk, who, with Joan his wife, made a settlement of this manor and the advowson of the church in 1340, and, with his wife Elizabeth, entailed the manor in the spring of 1353. Sir Fulk leased the manor for life to Peter Coke in 1367. He was succeeded by his eldest son John Birmingham, also a knight. Sir John married Elizabeth widow of John Lord Clinton, and previously wife of Robert Lord Grey of Rotherfield, and died childless. She held this estate in dower until her death in 1423, when it became the joint property of Elizabeth and Ellen, daughters of Thomas de la Roche and Elizabeth daughter of Sir Thomas Birmingham, kt., brother of Sir John. Elizabeth was then wife of George Longueville, Ellen of Edmund Lord Ferrers of Chartley Holme (Staffs.). The moieties held by these heiresses were sometimes each called a manor. After the death of Elizabeth George Longueville married Margaret daughter of his overlord, John (Sutton) Lord Dudley; he was succeeded in the estate called KINGSTON LONGUEVILLE in 1458 by Richard son of his son Richard, who died in the same year, leaving a son John, aged fifty days. John, who was knighted in 1487, made a settlement in 1497, and in 1541, with his illegitimate sons Arthur and Richard, sold it to John Latton and William Daunce for £100.

Devereux. Argent a fesse gules with three roundels gules in the chief.
After the death of Lord Ferrers in 1435 Ellen married as her second husband Sir Philip Chetwynd of Ingestre in Staffordshire, and in 1439 with her husband and others she conveyed the manor to one John Ferrers, presumably as trustee. Her son William Lord Ferrers died seised of it in 1450, leaving a daughter and heir Anne, aged eleven, already married to Walter Devereux, son and heir of Sir Walter Devereux, kt., of Bodenham and Whitchurch in Herefordshire.Walter Devereux was summoned to Parliament as Lord Ferrers, by right of his wife, from 1461 to 1483. He was slain fighting for Richard III at Bosworth in 1485. John Lord Ferrers, his son by Anne, died in 1501, leaving a son and heir Walter, who in 1542 with Richard his son and heir conveyed the estate to John Latton of Chilton, who thus acquired the two manors. They descended with the manor of Symeons in Chilton until the death of John Latton in 1596. His widow Dorothy married in the following year, at Kingston Bagpuize, the judge, Sir David Williams, who made Kingston House his principal seat and gave a new bell-tower to the church. Dorothy, who held the estate in dower, became insane and died in 1629. Her son William Latton, his wife Elizabeth and their son and heir John had settled the manors of Kingston Bagpuize, Kingston Ferrers and Chartley, Kingston Longueville and Kingston Coope (Cooper, Cowper) in 1621 on John's marriage with Katharine daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Hamond of Brasted, Kent.John Latton described as of Kingston Bagpuize, died seised of the estate in 1631 in his father's lifetime, leaving a son Thomas, who made settlements of it in 1650–1. In 1675 his eldest son John Latton purchased the shares of the younger children in the manor. Joseph Tyrell, Anne his wife, Joseph Strainge and Anne his wife conveyed one-fifth to Benjamin Tomkins in 1725 ; George Radford, Elizabeth his wife, Michael Rawling, Betty his wife, Thomas Martin and Susan his wife conveyed one-fifth to William Ayres in 1726. Before this date, however, the whole manor is said to have come into the possession of the Fettiplaces, and Edmund Fettiplace was living here in March 1710. His only daughter and heir Elizabeth married John Blandy, by whom she had a son Fettiplace and a daughter Elizabeth. Edmund on his death in 1710 left the mansion house to Fettiplace and his heirs with contingent remainder to the younger Elizabeth. Both the heirs must have died before 1736, when their father John Blandy bequeathed Kingston Bagpuize to his son John by his second wife Elizabeth Weblin. The younger John was Sheriff of Berkshire, and died at Kingston Bagpuize in 1791, aged seventythree. He bequeathed £2,000 for rebuilding the parish church and additional endowment to the school founded by his father. He was succeeded by his cousin Adam Walker, who took the name Blandy. Adam married Sarah Mott, and, dying in 1841, left a son John who married Caroline Anne Poyntz, niece of Richard Hoare Jenkins of Llanharran House, Glamorgan, and died in 1844. His widow and son John took the additional name of Jenkins on the death of Caroline's uncle Richard Hoare Jenkins. John Blandy Jenkins in 1891 made over this estate to his son John Blandy Jenkins; he died in 1901 at Las Palmas, leaving a son John, a minor, whose trustees are the present owners of the manor.

 Introduction by:  © Nash Ford Publishing 2002. All Rights Reserved. The location of this house is now administered by Oxfordshire County Council.