Watcombe Manor, Oxfordshire, England

About 1080 William I gave Préaux Abbey (Lisieux, Normandy) an estate in Watlington assessed at 5 hides, which had belonged to two English freemen, Aelfhelm and Wulfric. Préaux Abbey was returned as lord in 1086. In a lawsuit of 1221 this estate, then said to be 4 hides, was described as Watcombe manor. The abbey was still overlord of the estate in 1361 and probably retained rights over it until the dissolution of alien priories by Henry V. During the French wars of the 14th century the abbey's property was constantly in the king's hands and it seems to have sold early in Edward III's reign all real interest in the estate to its under-tenant, John de Stonor, and to have retained only a nominal overlordship.

The earliest known under-tenants seem to have been members of a Buckinghamshire family from Hambleden (Bucks.): a Sir William of Hambleden was in possession in 1184, Jordan of Hambleden in 1192, and Osbert of Hambleden in 1217. Osbert of 'Cocham' (? Cookham, Berks.), who held the manor in 1221, was probably the same man as Osbert of Hambleden. By 1238 a William of Watcombe was tenant: he agreed to pay an increased rent of £8 and to find lodging for the abbot, his prior, or his steward when they came to the manor. He undertook to provide this entertainment three or four times annually and also to find food for eight horses at his own cost. The abbot had before received a rent of 11 marks (£7 6s. 8d.) and hospitality, and had the right to tallage William's men each year, a burden which was remitted in the new agreement. In 1252 the tenant was William de la Ho, who seems to have taken his name from Howe hamlet. He may have been a son of William of Watcombe and a member of the original Hambleden family, since he owned land in both Hambleden and Watcombe. He settled the property in 1252 on his son William on his marriage to Maud, daughter of Robert de Swynebrook, and it is no doubt this son who was holding Préaux Abbey's manor in 1279. In 1291 the abbey was receiving the same rent of £8, and the obligation to entertain the officers of the abbey was valued at £1.

Sir John Stonor, the notable judge, evidently purchased the tenancy of this manor in 1313 for 10 marks from two sisters, Alice and Maud, wife of William of the Chamber, who were perhaps the daughters of William and Maud de la Ho. In 1315 Sir John was granted free warren in his demesne lands in Watcombe. Later he settled the manor on himself and his wife, and in 1346 he seems to have bought the manor from the overlord, Préaux Abbey, for he was released from payment of the old rent and henceforth paid a nominal rent of 2s. On his death in 1354 he held Watcombe manor of the Abbot of Préaux for 2s. a year, as well as a messuage and carucate of Watlington manor for 10s. a year The Black Prince's steward tried to treat Watcombe as part of Wallingford honor, but Sir John (II) Stonor, the judge's son, successfully maintained his claim that it was held of Préaux at fee farm. When Stonor died in 1361 he held a messuage and 80 acres of Préaux Abbey for 2s. yearly with 5 acres of meadow, a ruined horse-mill, pasture at Watcombe and in Watlington for 2 horses, 6 oxen, and 100 sheep, 62s. rent of free tenants, and pleas of court worth 2s. yearly. Like other Stonor property, Watcombe manor was held in custody during the minority of the heir, Edmund Stonor, by Isabella, the king's daughter, but in 1363, although still a minor, Edmund was allowed to hold it and the other manors at farm. On Sir Edmund Stonor's death in 1382 the heir was another minor and Sir Robert Belknap had his custody and held courts for both Watcombe and Watlington lands. Watcombe was not mentioned among the properties held on the death of Sir John Stonor in 1390, nor among those of his brother Sir Ralph Stonor in 1394. Sir Ralph, however, had made a settlement of it in 1393, and so Watcombe may have been included in 'Hoo' manor, another Stonor property in Watlington, and like 'Hoo' have been held by his widow Joan and her second husband Edmund Hampden, who received rents from 'Hoo' and Watcombe from 1396 to about 1407. Watcombe must then have reverted to the Stonors, for in 1417 Thomas Stonor's receiver accounted for similar rents and for a clerical tenth paid to the king for 'La Hoo', which must in fact have been for Préaux Abbey's property in Watcombe. Watcombe or Watcombe fee manor, as it was sometimes called, followed the descent of Stonor manor until the execution of Sir Adrian Fortescue in 1539, when it descended to his daughter Margaret, wife of Thomas, Lord Wentworth (d. 1551), as her share of her mother's inheritance. Her son Thomas, Lord Wentworth (d. 1584), sold the manor in 1562 to Ambrose Dormer and his kinsman John Bolney, and they to a Robert Tyrrel, gent., in the same year. By 1577 the Anthony Molyns, who was buried in Watlington church in 1582, was lord. His heirs were his two daughters, Anne, wife of John Simeon, lord of Brightwell Baldwin in 1600, and Margaret, wife of Martin Tichburne, but in 1608 only half of Watcombe manor was held by them; the other half belonged to Sir Michael Molyns, the brother of Anthony Molyns and lord of Chislehampton, Clifton Hampden, and of Clapcot (Berks.). Sir Michael died in 1615 in possession of Watcombe manor; he held of the king 'of the late monastery of Préaux in Normandy'. His heir Sir Barentine Molyns was succeeded in Watcombe by his own son Sir Michael Molyns, who in 1629 sold the manor to a William Lucy. He in turn sold it in 1634 to John Eustace of Pyrton. The Eustaces were prominent yeoman farmers in this part of Oxfordshire and they acquired land in the course of the 17th century in several neighbouring parishes, including Britwell. By 1650 Watcombe manor had passed to a Thomas Eustace,who may have been the son of an earlier Thomas Eustace, who had held a messuage and 32 acres of land in Watlington on his death in 1615. In 1681 Thomas Eustace, gent., settled Watcombe and Britwell manors on his son Thomas, when he married Mary Bayley. The younger Thomas's line seems to have come to an end with the deaths of another Thomas Eustace and his young wife Mary, both in 1713. In 1714 the manor was conveyed to Elizabeth Hill, widow, and others. She was the sister of Thomas Eustace the younger (fl. 1681), the widow of John Hill of Tarriers (in Hazlemere, Bucks.). She died in 1715, leaving one surviving son, Thomas Hill. It was perhaps her grandson, a 'Mr. Hill' of Tarriers and a minor who was said to hold the manor in 1718. By 1747 the site of the manor of Watcombe fee was in the possession of Samuel Horne, Esq. (d. 1777), a merchant of London, who also held Ingham manor in Watlington with which Watcombe subsequently descended. The Hornes were a well-established trading family in Watlington. It is not clear whether Samuel Horne retained the manor in his own hands or whether he gave it to his kinsman Edward Horne, gent., of Watlington, Pyrton, and Britwell (d. 1765). Both Edward Horne's son, John Yardley Horne (d. 1789), and his successor Edward Horne (d. c. 1814) were certainly in possession of a great deal of property in Watlington at the end of the 18th century. Edward Horne was followed by Henry Hulton, who in 1815 and as late as 1832 occurs as lord of Watcombe and Ingham manors, but by 1854 Edward Horne Hulton, evidently a descendant of both families, was lord of Watcombe and Ingham manors, as well as of Britwell. The latter had been succeeded by 1864 by the Revd. William P. Hulton, who died in 1885, and the manors passed to his widow Philippa C. H. Hulton. She put the estate up for sale in 1897 and again, together with a Henry Horne Hulton, in 1911. In 1915 and 1920 Ivan Jackson, Esq., later Major Jackson, was lord, and in 1939 Milton Harris, Esq.