Woodperry Manor, Oxfordshire, England

In Domesday Book Roger d'Ivry held WOODPERRY of Odo of Bayeux, the holding being assessed at 4 hides, the overlordship passed with that of the d'Ivry lands to the St. Valery family and thence to Richard, Earl of Cornwall. In 1166–7 Gilbert 'de Almaria' paid a fine of 20s. for Pery (i.e. Woodperry),with which the Aumery or Damory family were thereafter connected for some 200 years. In 1223–4 Robert Damory obtained a knight's fee in Woodperry by fine with Alexander de Burton and Emma his wife. Robert died in 1236, and was succeeded by his son Roger. Roger was still alive in 1281, and from him the property presumably descended through his son Robert, who died in 1285, to Robert's son Richard. This Richard was bracketed with John de St. John in 1316 as lords of the vill of 'Stanton cum Wodepurye et Stoford'. In the following year he obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands, in which Woodperry was included His son Richard Damory became heavily indebted to Edward III, and in 1354 was forced to enfeoff the king of his demesne lands. In 1358, however, the manor of Woodperry, which Richard held for his life, was granted in reversion to Sir John Chandos, if Chandos should survive Richard, and in 1360 Richard surrendered his estate to Chandos, who obtained a grant of the manor in fee.

From the death of John Chandos in 1370 the descent of Woodperry manor is confused. He left as heirs two sisters, Elizabeth and Eleanor, and a third sister's daughter, Isabel. Of these, Elizabeth granted her portion of the manor to feoffees in 1379, who subsequently passed it on in 1391 to Roger Collyng, who had married Eleanor; meantime Collyng and his wife had conceded Eleanor's share to their son Roger and another.What happened to Isabel's share is not known, nor how the manor passed, as it apparently did, into the hands of William Willicotes. It is true that Willicotes's inquisition post mortem in 1410–11 mentions only a messuage, lands, and rents in Woodperry, and does not specify that he held the manor, but the inquisition on his daughter, Elizabeth Blaket, taken in 1445–6, makes it clear that the life-interest that she held in the manor had descended to her from her father. The reversion belonged to Willicotes's right heirs.

In 1449 this large group of heirs of John Chandos's heirs female leased the manor for eight years to Edmund Hampden, and John Weston; but as to the subsequent transference of title there is little evidence. By 1485–6 the manor was said to have been held by Robert Brome (Browne or Broun). A deed of 1456–7 shows him in process of acquiring ¼ of 1/5 of the manor: whether he did indeed acquire the other shares, or whether the title of manor came to attach to what he had secured, is a matter for speculation.

In 1532 John Brome was in possession and in 1557 he (by then Sir John Brome) bargained and sold, and later the same year granted to New College the rectory—later referred to as the rectory and manor of Woodperry.