MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES. From the Middle Ages virtually the whole parish was included in two principal manors, of which the larger belonged from the early 12th century to the late 15th to the resident Lovel family.

Minster Lovell Hall: the church and ruins from the south

The smaller one, centred on Little Minster, was absorbed into the main Minster estate in the early 15th century. From the 17th century to the 19th the owners were the non-resident Cokes of Norfolk, earls of Leicester, who let the manor house and most of the land to tenants and bailiffs; the estate was largely broken up during the 19th century.

Minster Lovell Manor. In 1086 Minster Lovell, assessed at 7 hides, was evidently in royal hands, having been formerly held by Earl Aubrey, the Conqueror's appointee as earl of Northumberland from 1080 to 1081.¹ Probably it was among lands granted by Henry I before 1124 to William Lovel (or Lupellus), one of a family with estates near Ivry in Normandy, which retained it until 1485.²

Overlordship may have been acquired by William's brother-in-law Robert de Beaumont (d. 1168), earl of Leicester,³ since in 1253 the manor was held by his successor Simon de Montfort (d. 1265), earl of Leicester,⁴ and later by Edmund Crouchback (d. 1296), the king's son.⁵ Thereafter, however, the overlordship was associated with the de Quincy share of the barony of Leicester, passing to Alan la Zouche (d. 1314), and in the 1340s being reportedly in the king's hands as part of the de Quincys' forfeited honor of Winchester.⁶ In 1408 the overlord was the duke of Lancaster, the future Henry V, following whose accession the manor was held in chief as of the duchy.⁷ Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries the manor was assessed at ½ knight's fee,⁸ but in the mid 15th century at 1/20 or 1/30 and in the mid 16th at 1/40 knight's fee.⁹

William Lovel (d. by 1170) was succeeded presumably by his son Waleran d'Ivry (d. c. 1177) and by Waleran's brother William Lovel (d. 1213), who, with his wife Isabel, held property in Minster Lovell in 1197.¹⁰ That William's son John Lovel, a minor in 1213, briefly forfeited his lands in 1216 and 1223 and died in 1252, when his widow Katherine received a third in dower; the rest passed to their son John (d. 1287), knighted by 1265.¹¹ Following John's death the manor passed through the male line to John (d. 1310), 1st Lord Lovel, to John (d. 1314), 2nd Lord Lovel, and to his posthumous son John (d. 1347), whose lands remained in the king's wardship until 1333.¹² Two thirds of Minster Lovell were granted to Hugh Despenser in custody in 1325,¹³ the rest being presumably held in dower by John's mother Maud (d. by 1341), who, with her second husband Sir John de Haudlo, received the two thirds in 1327.¹⁴ John Lovel’s son John died a minor in 1362, the manor having meanwhile been held by his mother Isabel (d. 1350)¹⁵ and by the king's daughter Isabella.¹⁶ It subsequently passed to the younger John's brother and heir, also John Lovel, who married Maud, daughter of Lord Holand, and who by 1380 was styled Lord of Titchmarsh and Holand.¹⁷ Following his death in 1408 the manor passed to his widow Maud (d. 1423), grandson William Lovel (d. 1455), and great-grandson John (d. 1465),

Effigy of William (d. 1455) or John Lovell (d. 1465) in Minster Lovell church

whose widow Joan (d. 1467) received it in dower.¹⁸ Their son and heir Francis, of age in 1477, was created Viscount Lovel in 1482, but having fought for Richard III at Bosworth, he was attainted in 1485 and his lands escheated to the Crown.¹⁹

In 1486 Henry VII granted the manor for life to his uncle Jasper Tudor (d. 1495), duke of Bedford.²⁰ Under an Act of 1495 the manor passed on Jasper’s death to Henry, duke of York (later Henry VIII), and reverted to the Crown in 1502.²¹ In the 1520s it was administered by various keepers and stewards appointed by the Crown, among them Sir William Compton and the courtier Sir Henry Norreys. In 1549 Edward VI granted it to John Dudley, earl of Warwick and later earl of Northumberland;²² it was evidently exchanged with the king in 1550--1, however,²³ and was granted to Dudley's brother Andrew, a knight of the Privy Chamber.²⁴ Following the Dudleys' executions in 1553 their lands were forfeited to Queen Mary, who seems at first to have allowed Northumberland's widow to retain them, but who subsequently received Minster Lovell in exchange for lands elsewhere.²⁵ In 1560 the Crown sold the manor to Robert (later Sir Robert) Kelway and his wife Cecily, lessees from 1553 of the house and demesne farm,²⁶ from whom it passed to Robert's daughter Anne, who married Sir John Harrington.²⁷ Following a dispute in 1597, after Harrington tried to sell the entailed manor, it was settled on their daughter Lucy and her husband Edward Russell, earl of Bedford, and in 1603 the Harringtons, having finally broken the entail, sold it to Sir Edward Coke, attorney general to Elizabeth I and later chief justice of the King's Bench.²⁸

From Sir Edward (d. 1634) the manor passed to his nephew Robert (d. 1673), and to Robert's son Edward (d. 1707).²⁹ Edward's son Thomas (d. 1759) was created Baron Lovell and, in 1744, Viscount Coke and earl of Leicester, but his son Edward having predeceased him, the Coke titles became extinct and the estate was settled on Thomas's sister's son Wenman Roberts, who took the surname Coke.³⁰ He came into possession in 1775, the estate having been meanwhile held by Thomas's widow Margaret.³¹ Wenman Coke died in 1776, to be succeeded by his son Thomas Wenman Coke, M.P., earl of Leicester of the second creation from 1837, also known as 'Coke of Norfolk'.³² An Act of 1812 enabled the family to sell most of the manor the same year.³³ Some farms were bought by occupying tenants, and in 1813 the manor farm and lordship were sold to William Elias Taunton, justice of the King's Bench and Recorder of Oxford; in 1821 he bought another lot from Henry Leake of Witney, and in 1825 acquired most remaining land and cottages belonging to the Cokes,³⁴ who retained 355 acres in 1840. Minster woods, excepted from the sale of 1812, were sold in 1854 to J. R. Kimber and Robert Abraham,³⁵ thus putting an end to the Cokes’ ownership of any part of Minster Lovell.

Taunton was succeeded in 1834 by his son, bearing the same name, whose successors sold the reduced estate to Robert Raikes in 1874. He sold it to a farmer, John Deane, in 1875.³⁶ It then comprised some 677 a., with two farmhouses (including Windrush Farm), the Swan Inn, fishing rights, and 26 cottages, as well as the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall (the medieval manor house) and the nearby Manor Farm House. Deane's daughter Emily succeeded in 1887,³⁷ and in 1917 sold Manor Farm House and its land, the ruins, and the lordship to Col. F. B. de Sales La Terriere. In 1934 his widow sold the Manor farm estate, then less than 300 a., to J. R. Groome, owner of Minster Lovell Estates Ltd., who later sold it to University College, Oxford;³⁸ the ruins were given in 1935 to the Ministry of Works,³⁹ succeeded in 1984 by English Heritage. In the 1970s Manor Farm House was bought by Sir Peter Parker, then Chairman of British Rail, who owned it at his death in 2002. Most of the land was by then detached.⁴⁰

Manor House (Minster Lovell Hall). Depite mention of a curia in 1197⁴¹ there is no unequivocal evidence that the Lovels were permanently resident before the 15th century. There was presumably a house in 1279 when land was held in demesne, and a house with a hall, four chambers, and farm buildings, including barns and a stable, was mentioned in 1423.⁴² This was probably the house whose foundations were discovered under the east and west wings of the present house in 1937--9,⁴³ and foundations discovered under the present barns may also relate to this complex.

The surviving house, abandoned and partially dismantled in the mid 18th century, was built for William Lovel in the 1430s, probably by remodelling the earlier one.⁴⁴ The U-plan house,

Minster Lovell Hall: the great hall (centre), with kitchen and stable wing (foreground)

built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar on the main facades, stands on a gently sloping site immediately south-east of the church, and was originally open to the river Windrush on the south side.⁴⁵ The main entrance was on the north side facing the church, along an elaborate cobbled path which led through a vaulted gateway beneath the chapel into the screens passage at the east end of the hall. In addition to the gateway, there were two other rooms below the chapel, at least one of which was heated. The chapel itself apparently had windows similar to those in the church. The principal rooms were on the north side of the courtyard behind the chapel. The hall was placed in the centre and had exceptionally high walls (40 feet) to allow for windows on both sides; those on the north were positioned above the roof of the chapel. The main chamber was located immediately to the west of the hall, and had a large solar above it. The cobbled path through the gateway continued south towards the kitchen and stable located in the east wing, ending near a secondary gateway which apparently provided access to the farmyard. Only the foundations of the west wing survive, but it was apparently largely devoted to chambers, many of which were heated. A tower with three floors, and oriel windows facing south on the upper floors, was added to the south-east corner of the west range in the later 15th century; at the same time, a wall was built across the south side of the courtyard, enclosing it completely, perhaps to make it defensible. Despite this, the primary purpose of the house was entertaining on a grand scale: Richard III possibly stayed there as a guest of Francis Lovel,⁴⁶ and Henry VII certainly did so.⁴⁷

A complex of farm buildings, also constructed of coursed limestone rubble, and including a dovecot and two large barns, were probably built or rebuilt at the same time as the house in

Dovecot and barns formerly attached to Minster Lovell Hall

the 15th century. The remains of at least one other structure, probably another barn, were discovered near the dovecot during excavation of a garden pond.⁴⁸

Manor Farm: barn formerly attached to Minster Lovell Hall

Following the Lovels' forfeiture in 1485 the house was presumably occupied by bailiffs or lessees; the Kelways lived there in the mid 16th century, but from 1602 the Cokes again let it, at first to Francis Ewer and his family, and from the mid 17th century until the 1720s to the Wheelers.⁴⁹ Some work was carried out on the house about 1605, in preparation for a visit by the Coke family:⁵⁰ this work was largely repairs, but may also have included the construction of two new wings on the north side of the house at right angles to the main range. Both of these structures were of two storeys with cross-mullioned windows, but neither appears to have been heated.⁵¹ Also during the early 17th century, the two barns were reroofed, and a new granary and other outbuildings were constructed. The Wheeler family lived in the house until the 1710s, and John Wheeler was taxed on 18 hearths in 1665.⁵² In 1747 the house was partially dismantled by the Cokes, who held an on-site sale of the materials.⁵³ Subsequently, the main chamber on the north side was used first as a barn, and then as a cottage, before being entirely abandoned. The ruins were given to the Ministry of Works in 1935.⁵⁴

Minster Lovell Hall: the church and ruins in the early 19th century (Skelton, Antiq. Oxon.)

Francis Lovel, lord of Minster Lovell manor in the late 15th century, supported Richard III and Lambert Simnel, and was reportedly killed at the battle of Stoke in 1487. A legend that he fled to Minster, and that a skeleton, supposedly his remains, was discovered in a hidden underground chamber during building work in 1708, was first recorded in the 1740s; no such vault has been found, and the story lacks further evidence.⁵⁵

Manor Farm. In the mid-to-late 16th century, the 12th-century chapel of St. Cecilia north of the churchyard⁵⁶ was converted into a small house, later known as Manor Farm, apparently for the use of representatives of the Cokes in Minster. The large 12th-century arch which formerly gave access to the churchyard was blocked, and a new entrance with a small pent-rooffed porch created on the north. The house was

Manor Farm from the churchyard (or south)

originally arranged as a hall with an east cross-wing projecting slightly to the north. The cross-wing was apparently heated only on the ground floor, and retains a carved stone fireplace with a four-centred opening in a traceried square surround surmounted by a plain triangular pediment. The eastern end of the hall, and the passage between the hall and the cross-wing, were lit on the south by tall two-light windows with diamond-shaped mullions. Probably soon after its conversion, the hall

Manor Farm: blocked 12th-century arch to churchyard

was floored and a stack inserted inside the west end, serving the rooms on both ground and first floors; fireplaces with depressed four-centred heads survive on both levels. In the 19th century the house was extended to the east to provide additional kitchen and service accommodation; probably at the same time, the north gable end of the cross wing was partially rebuilt, to extend it around the formerly external stack, and some new windows were inserted. The house was renovated about 1973, at which time dormers were added to convert the previously unused attic space into living accommodation, and new stairs were built. A large conservatory was added on the south-east side in the late 20th century.

This house was apparently occupied by various bailiffs for the manor, notably the Harris family under the Cokes. By the mid 19th century it was leased, with the adjoining farm buildings formerly attached to Minster Lovell Hall, to John Gillett, who farmed it for the Tauntons. A succession of tenant farmers followed in the first half of the 20th century, until it was bought by Sir Peter Parker and ceased to be a working farmhouse.⁵⁷

Little Minster Manor. Before 1066 and still in 1086, the manor of Little Minster was held in chief by Sawold.⁵⁸ Soon after it passed to the d'Oilly family, who subinfeudated it to the Chesneys before 1110, when Roger de Chesney granted tithes at Little Minster to Eynsham abbey.⁵⁹ The overlordship descended with the d'Oilly barony of Hook Norton, passing to Henry d'Oilly (d. 1232), his widow Maud and her second husband William de Cauntelo, and to the d'Oillys’ heir Margaret, countess of Warwick, and her husband John de Plessis (d. 1263), who succeeded after Margaret's and Maud's deaths in 1261.⁶⁰ The overlordship remained in the de Plessis family at Hugh de Plessis's death in 1349,⁶¹ but was not mentioned later. The manor was usually assessed at ½ knight's fee,⁶² and a part of it at ¼ fee in 1324.⁶³

From Roger de Chesney the manor presumably passed with other Chesney lands to Hugh de Chesney (fl. 1163), Ralph de Chesney (d. c. 1195), and his daughter Lucy, who married Guy de Dive (d. 1218).⁶⁴ Between 1240 and 1250 it was held by John and Margery de Cantelupe (?Cauntelo) of the earl of Warwick, and by Margery alone in 1279, when she seems to have leased some of it to Walter de Leckhampton.⁶⁵ In the 1320s Henry de Dive (d. 1327) still retained an interest,⁶⁶ but in 1302 and 1320 the lord was William de Cantelupe; he was succeeded before 1324 by Walter de Cantelupe, parson of Snitterfield (Warws.), who that year granted land and a mill to Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, for life, with reversion to Thomas West, who held them in 1325.⁶⁷ By 1346 John Laundels (d. 1361), sheriff and escheator of Oxfordshire, held the manor, and a Laundels was still in possession in 1362.⁶⁸ Part had passed to the Lovels probably by 1408, when John Lovel and Maud held land in Little Minster called 'Laundelles'.⁶⁹ He and his successor William Lovel increased their holding, and in 1465 John Lovel owned the manor with that of Minster.⁷⁰ Thereafter, the two were regarded as a single manor.

Manor House. No medieval manor house is known, though William Cantelupe, taxed in 1316 on goods worth 13s., may have had a demesne farm, and the 'site of the farm of Little Minster' was mentioned in 1588, when it was held by copy with 6 yardlands.⁷¹ Possibly that was the 'mansion' or 'manor house' of Little Minster leased in the late 17th century to Col. Edward Heylyn and his son Henry, who probably lived there;⁷² Edward was a relative of the Royalist theologian Peter Heylyn who, during the Civil War, had taken refuge in Little Minster.⁷³ Eighteenth-century lessees included the Peacocks of Asthall and John, Earl Grandison, who presumably sublet it.⁷⁴

The house has not been identified, but may have been that called the 'Old Manor House' by 1935, when sold to Mrs. Bouverie-Pusey.⁷⁵ The present stone-rubble house has two storeys, with a long front range with several short projecting wings to the rear, and appears to be largely of two builds. The

Little Minster: the Old Manor House

earlier part, which may date from the later 16th century, comprises a backwards L-shaped block on the south, encompassing the present drawing room, hall, and study. The rear room (the present study) was almost certainly heated from the outset, but the fireplaces in the hall and drawing room are probably later additions. Probably in 1616, when a datestone reset next to the present main door was carved, the house was extended northwards with a range apparently comprising two heated rooms on the ground floor, and a single large, heated great chamber above. A stair tower in the angle between the new and older ranges at the rear was probably added at the same time, as were stacks and fireplaces in the older range, and the entire house appears to have been reroofed. A dairy was added to the north of the 17th-century block in the 18th or early 19th century. Renovations were carried out in the 1920s for a member of the Batts family, and the house was extended at the rear at each end in the late 20th century. Throughout the 19th century the farmhouse was used by the Hale family, who were tenants of the Tauntons, and then became part of John Gillett's leasehold estate. A stable has a datestone of 1823 with the initials J. W., whose owner has not been identified.⁷⁶

Rectory (Priory) Estate and Tithes. In 1183 x 1185 Maud Lovel, with her son William's approval, granted Minster Lovell church, with half its endowment, to the abbey of Ivry in Normandy, the other half being reserved for the vicar.⁷⁷ In the 1290s the abbey's estate, then held by the so-called prior of Minster Lovell as the abbey's local representative,⁷⁸ was valued at £4 13s. 4d.;⁷⁹ as later, it comprised a yardland of glebe (32 a.), 12 a. of meadow later called Monk Ham, and half the tithes.⁸⁰ As the land of an alien priory, it was seized repeatedly by the king during the wars with France from 1337, and in 1414 was confiscated.⁸¹ Joan of Navarre held it from 1409 to her death in 1437, when it was leased for 10 years to Sir William Lovel, the rent being received from 1438 by Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; in 1441, however, the estate, with reversion of the leases, was given by Henry VI to his newly-founded college at Eton (Bucks.), the grant being confirmed the following year.⁸²

The college leased the estate from the 16th century or earlier, together with the tithes, of which some were commuted to a modus in 1589.⁸³ In 1596 the Rankells, rich clothiers of Witney, rented the estate;⁸⁴ in 1628 the lessee was Edward Heylyn, and in the mid 18th century John, Earl Grandison, and his widow, each of whom sublet it.⁸⁵ In 1840 Eton's share of the tithes was commuted for an annual rent-charge of £119; the estate then comprised some 25 a. of arable and meadow, with adjacent fishing rights.⁸⁶ The estate was sold by Eton College in the early 1920s.⁸⁷

A 'rectory house' for the estate, mentioned from 1608, was apparently a predecessor of Bridge Cottage, at the entrance to the bridge leading into the southern end of the village.⁸⁸ Possibly it occupied the site of the former 'priory', whose site is otherwise unknown, though the priory is perhaps more likely to have stood near the church and vicarage house.

Minster Lovell: Bridge Cottage

Tithes of Little Minster manor were granted by Roger de Chesney to Eynsham abbey before 1110, a grant confirmed by Henry I that year.⁸⁹ They were estimated at 6s. 8d. in 1254 and at 10s. in the 1270s.⁹⁰ Though still recorded in 1390 the tithes were not mentioned later,⁹¹ perhaps indicating that the abbey had exchanged them with Eton College for property elsewhere.

Godstow Abbey Estate. Godstow abbey held a yardland in Minster by 1200, and still had farms and rents there at the Dissolution.⁹² In 1545 the Crown granted the land to William Goodwin; it was sold to the Kelways in 1556, becoming part of the chief manor.⁹³ Its origins were still remembered in 1671, when John Wheeler settled on his son a piece of land called 'Godstow Close'.⁹⁴