TETSWORTH

On the London and Oxford road, some twelve miles east of the latter city, lies the little village of Tetsworth, a village which in the old coaching-days was one full of life and bustle.  Old inhabitants say, though perhaps they somewhat exaggerate the glories of their village, that in those days three hundred horses, the pick and flower of the old coach-horse breed, stood ready for work in the stables of its many inns.  And long, very long ago, at a period when the Oxford coach would have been a phenomenon scarcely less wonderful than a Great Western express, Tetsworth was a busy and well-known place, for Oxford and London were royal cities, and kings and queens and other great people frequently journeyed through the village.

Tetsworth stands in a well-wooded country, amongst rich pasture-lands, on an eminence which stretches east and west across the Oxford road, rising to a height of sixty or seventy feet above the adjacent valleys.  On its highest point, to the west of the road, about three hundred and thirty-three feet above sea-level, stands the village church.  The road cuts the eminence diagonally from south-east to north-west, and on the northern slope, between the church and the road, lies the greater part of the village.  On the opposite side of the road, at the entrance to the village, is the Swan Hotel, a fine old red-brick house, once the centre of the village life.  Beyond is the village green, and again beyond is Tetsworth Common, on which from time immemorial the villagers have pastured their cattle.

From the summit of Tetsworth Rise one looks southward over a pleasant valley, which, broken by other eminences, intervenes between it and the Chiltern Hills, on the northern slope of which may be seen the windings of the London road.  Away to the south-west runs the old Wallingford road, passing through the villages of Wheatfield and Stoke-Talmage, while looking northward the town and church of Thame, three miles distant, are clearly seen, and to the north-east the woods of Thame Park mark the site of a once great Cistercian abbey.

The most direct road from Thame to Wallingford runs through the village, and was at one time a road of no little consequence, leading as it did from Thame, a favourite seat of the princely bishops of Lincoln, to Wallingford, the scene of so many stirring events in early English history.  Thus Tetsworth barred the London and Wallingford roads, and not improbably in part owed thereto its origin; only in part, for another reason for the village is to be found in the good and plentiful water supply which the site affords.  Close to the highroad, at the back of the ridge on which stands the church, there rises in a cup-like hollow a fine spring of water which is still known as ‘the Napp,’ whence paths diverge to the cottages of the villagers, to whom, as to their forefathers of many past generations, this never-failing spring has been of priceless value.

The Napp

A curious relic is the name, ‘the Napp,’ of Anglo-Saxon times, for ‘Nappe’ or ‘Knaep’ denotes a cup with sloping sides and a flat bottom.  Such exactly is the Tetsworth ‘Napp,’ and for some thirteen or fourteen hundred years the place has borne its present designation.  There, doubtless, many a Saxon and Norman wayfarer, on his journey from London to the West Country, has slaked his thirst; and there, too, many a band of armed men, scouting from Oxford or from Wallingford, may have refreshed themselves and their horses.  ‘Tetteswurd’ was the name of the village in Norman times, and the name points to its origin.  It reminds us of the days when Cerdic and Cymric with their followers sailed up Southampton Water, and spreading through what are now the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Oxford, and Berkshire, established the kingdom of the West Saxons.  Then it was that a certain ‘Teot’, fresh, perhaps, from his Jutland home, journeyed northward looking for a settlement, and finding in the Knaep and the rich pastures around a land of promise, built there his house, and prospered, and called the land after his own name, and so the place became, and so it remains, ‘Tetteswurd’—the homestead of Teot.

Tetsworth Church

The name does not appear in the Domesday Book, and probably at that time (1086) Tetsworth was still but a wayside farm with its few huts for the landholder’s serfs; but shortly after the Conquest it became a manor and a part of the great possessions of the See of Lincoln.  In the year 1123 Alexander the Norman—called ‘the builder’, and from his generous nature ‘the bountiful’— was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln.  He added much to the magnificence of his cathedral, founded monasteries, built castles at Banbury, Sleaford, and Newark, and bought many farms and manors.  Very probably he was the builder of Tetsworth Church, which till within a few years since remained as a relic and monument of those early times.  Unhappily the church was destroyed in 1841, and not a single stone of the ancient structure can now be identified.  Sketches of the church and its very ancient and interesting south door have been preserved and may be found in volumes of the Gentleman’s Magazine.1.1  There are also drawings of the church amongst the Rev. Dr Lee’s MSS., now in the Bodleian Library.  In the year 1774 a Mr John Thorpe and his family chanced to stop in the village for refreshment, when one of the party made a sketch of the south door, which, writes Mr Thorpe, ‘had small panels and very large clumsy old hinges.  Above the door is a semicircular arch of stone, under which figures carved in alto relievo, the one representing a bishop in pontificalibus with a crosier in his left hand and his right hand lifted up as giving benediction.  The other figure represents a priest under the tonsure, holding in his left hand the New Testament open, and his right hand pointing up to the Paschal Lamb and banner within a circle or nimbus.  The sculpture of these figures is extremely rude; but what is most singular in the arch is the ornamental carved work of the inner moulding, somewhat similar to the west door of Iffley Church.  I look upon this doorway at Tetsworth to be undoubtedly early Norman.’

A writer in the same magazine,1.2 to whom also we are indebted for a sketch of the church, describes it as consisting of a single nave and chancel, separated by a plain round arch.  In the south side of the chancel was a holy water basin, and, beneath it, a black coffin-fashioned stone, ornamented by quatrefoils.  The font was a plain round one, with a long fluted shaft.  Dr Lee, in his History of St. Mary’s Thame, says that the masonry of the north-west corner of the nave was undoubtedly of Anglo-Saxon character, the chancel arch of Norman work the east window Early English.  In the north wall of the sanctuary was semicircular-headed window, very plain and severe.  One cross-marked gravestone remained in the chancel, and there were several slabs from which the brasses had been torn.  The holy-water basin Dr Lee describes as very curious and of early Romanesque work, consisting of an arch of interlaced carved work of stone, with a projecting basin of granite; on either side a rude pillar of granite supporting the arch.  In the chancel window remained the arms of Pypard, of Latchford, of Doyley, and of de Bardis.1.3

Such was the Norman church of Tetsworth, the church of its early lords, the families of Chevauchesul and Danvers, and one might have hoped that respect for its historical and religious associations would have preserved this sacred relic of Norman England.  But no; the carved figures, the very feature of the church which was its chief ornament, sufficed to condemn the whole to narrow Puritanism, and in 1841 the fabric was utterly demolished.  The then Bishop of Oxford interceded in vain for the preservation of the south door; and, failing, sent an agent to bid for the sculptured figures which surmounted the arch.  But even these he could not save, for the village iconoclasts outbid the agent, and, having secured the figures and the sacred symbol, broke them into pieces, and threw them into a pit which was being dug for the foundation of the new church.

Looking to the accounts which we have of the ancient church of Tetsworth, it seems probable that it was built or enlarged in the latter part of the reign of Henry I or in the early part of that of Stephen, and this supports the view that it may have been built by Bishop Alexander.  He, at any rate, was closely connected with the early history of the village, both as its suzerain and as the builder of the neighbouring abbey of Thame.  It is a curious reflection that in these later days we have become interested in the village of Tetsworth owing to the kindly feeling which moved the Bishop in the year 1138 to translate the Cistercian community from Otmoor, near Oxford, to his own park at Thame; for in their house were written and preserved the records which we have of the early history of the Danvers family.

Thame Abbey

Bishop Kennet tells us in his Parochial Antiquities that Sir Robert Gait, lord of the manor of Hampton Gait, ‘obtained leave from Gilbert Abbot of Waverlie to found a Cistercian abbey in the village of Ottendun (Oddington), which he named, from an adjoining wood, Ottelee.’  The site of the abbey was very low, and, says the Bishop, ‘the religious always affected such places, out of the pretence of more solitary living; but I believe rather out of love to fish and fat lands.  However, this site was fitter for an ark than for a monastery, and, therefore, was soon removed by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, to Thame, and the church there dedicated to St Mary on the 21st June 1138, of which the Bishop was now represented the founder, although it was only a translation of the other, and the Bishops augmentation to it was only the park of Thame, in which the abbey was built.’

Of the abbey all that remains is a part of the comparatively modern abbot’s lodging—which forms a wing of the present mansion1.4 —and some remains, more ancient, of a chapel for visitors and wayfarers, which once stood outside the abbey, and now form part of St Mary’s Chapel, standing a little to the north of the mansion.  In this abbey for some four and a half centuries lived and died successive generations of Cistercian monks—good neighbours to the villagers of Tetsworth, considerate landlords to such of them as were tenants of the abbey lands, instructors of their children, helpful to them in sickness, ready always to listen to the voice of the friendless and oppressed, checking by their presence or by their prayers, or, maybe, by their maledictions, the miseries which were the outcome of the cruelty and lawlessness of the age.  For at the time of which we are writing (A.D. 1138) Henry, the great and vigorous son of the Conqueror, had passed away, ‘a man of whom all men stood in awe, no man in his time dared harm another, for man and for beast he made peace, and to all he gave secure living.’  So witnesses the Saxon chronicle; but in Henry’s place reigned Stephen, weak in title as in character, as unable to control the feudal baronage as he was unable or unfit to conciliate the Church.  In his time the once prosperous and joyous land of the Anglo-Saxons filled up its cup of misery, groaning under the exactions and cruelties of its Norman lords.

But to return to the Abbey of Thame.  Let us imagine ourselves about the year 1250, or a few years earlier, in the scriptorium of the abbey.  At a rude desk sits a monk, and before him is a parchment volume, six or seven inches in breadth and ten or eleven in height, containing some ninety leaves.  By his side is an iron-bound oaken chest, from which he takes another volume, similar to that on which he is about to work, and a number of slips of parchment.  Of these some are small—two or three inches in breadth and five or six inches in length—while others may be such as we should call folio size.  All have one or more seals attached by tags of parchment.  They are the charters, or deeds of gift, which have been granted to the abbey since its foundation a hundred years and more ago; and these the monk is about to copy into the volume which lies before him.  He is engaged in compiling a new register, or chartulary, of the abbey’s muniments, which will include, besides the charters, final concords made in the courts at Westminster and elsewhere, post-mortem inquisitions of abbots, confirmations of the charters by Popes and Kings and Bishops, lists of tenants and particulars of their tenures.  The volume which he has beside him is an older register—one made in days gone by—which is to assist him in his work.

The Norman abbey in which our monk and his companion worked—for two of them were engaged upon the earliest part of the register—has been utterly destroyed; of church and cloister, chapter-house, refectory, and the rest, not one stone of that period remains upon another; of the original deeds which the chest contained probably all are lost, perhaps thrown aside as worthless when, at the dissolution, the will of the King distributed the abbey lands to new owners— men who cared nothing for the memories of those who in years gone by granted their lands to pious uses.  But the register itself, for the most part of the work of those two monks, has been preserved.1.5

Register of Thame Abbey

The register is a volume containing eighty-seven folios.  The greater part of the manuscript is in two contemporary handwritings of the middle of the thirteenth century, or perhaps a few years earlier.  The earliest charter which the volume contains—the first of the series—is that of Robert Gait giving his land in Ottendun (Oddington)—a fourth part of the manor—with its appurtenances, to the abbey, which, as an introductory paragraph states, he had obtained leave to found from the Abbot of Waverley, the mother-house in England of the Cistercian Order.  The charter is witnessed by Adelelm, treasurer of the King, William, Archdeacon of Northampton, Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon (the historian), Magister Osbert of Hache, Robert de Oilli, Constable of the King, Wankelm Wadard, Roger de Aumari, Ralph de Salchei.

The second charter is that of Edith Forn, wife of Robert de Oilli.  The third is the confirmation of his wife’s grant by Robert de Oilli.  The fourth is that of Henry de Oilli, Constable of the King, son of Robert de Oilli.

Robert de Oilli was the son of Nigel, the brother of the Robert de Oilli, the favourite baron of the Conqueror, who married the daughter of Wygod of Wallingford.

The above-mentioned charters are amongst these ‘de Otteleya,’ which include also the charters of the Pauper, or le Poure, family ‘of Ottendun;’ e.g., those of Genteschivre Pauper, son of William, and of Hugo, son of Genteschivre.  To the charters of Otteley, follow those of Mortune, then those of Sidenham, Horsendun, Tetteswrd, Stoke-Talmage, and other places, and then various deeds relating to the abbey lands.  At page 62 is a table of the tithes of Chalgrove of the 22 Edward III (1348), and this is one of the latest, if not the latest, of the deeds.  At page 74 is a deed of gift of Symon Danuers of Burton of houses and lands to Geoffrey de Stokes, and on the last page, in a handwriting of the same period, is a list of the scutages due from the two fiefs of Danvers and Thalemasche in Tettesworth and in Ippewell.  Symon Danuers is the chief holder in the Danvers fief both in Tettesworth and in Ippewell.  Other members of the family holding in the same fief are Richard, Roger, and Agnes daughter of Anne.

Amongst the tenants of the Thalemasche fief no one of that name is mentioned.  Symon Danuers is the largest tenant.  The heirs of Richard Danuers and Roger Danuers are also amongst the tenants.

After the monks had competed their work, copying into the volume all the abbey deeds then extant, the register remained in the scriptorium.  From time to time additions were made to the record, but the pages of the volume, as it lies before us, bear evidence to the truth of what has been written regarding this and other such chronicles: ‘Unfortunately, as it is with the journals or diaries of men and women of the nineteenth century, so it was with the journals and diaries of the monks of the thirteenth, they evidently were kept by fits and starts; and before the fourteenth century was half out of the practice of keeping up these diaries in all but the larger monasteries had come to an end.’ 1.6

Now let us note that amongst the names of the individuals which we most frequently find in the older part of the register, either as donors of lands or witnesses to charters, are those of members of the families of le Gait and le Poure of Ottendun (Oddington), of Chevauchesul and Danvers of Tetsworth, and of Talemasche of Stoke-Talmage.  By marriage or by descent these families were allied, and the alliance is one which we can best explain by a reference to the history of two men who, at the time of the foundation of Thame Abbey, were amongst the most powerful of the great men of the kingdom.  The contemporary chronicler, William of Malmesbury, recording the transactions of the period, writes: ‘Erant due in Anglia Episcopi potentissimi et generossissimi, Rogerus Salesberiensis, et nepos ejus, ex fratre, Alexander Lincolniensis.’  Regarding these two Bishops, and a third, also a nephew of Roger’s, Nigel, Bishop of Ely, we find frequent notices in the histories of William of Malmesbury and his contemporary chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon—the latter, indeed, dedicated his history to Alexander, and he was the Bishop’s companion in one, if not both, of his journeys to Rome.  The life of Roger, the uncle, was a strange and eventful one.

ROGER, BISHOP OF SALISBURY

Priest and Politician

He began his career as a parish priest in the neighbourhood of Caen, and the story runs that Prince Henry, with some of his companions, accidentally entered the church in which Roger was saying Mass 1.7 and was so well pleased with the rapidity with which the service was dispatched, that he jestingly said to Roger, ‘Sequere me’—follow me—and, as the chronicler adds, ‘non secus ille adhæsit quam Petrus olim Regi cælesti idem dicenti.’  Roger obeyed the prince, and not only followed, but diligently served him, and himself, to such good purpose, that he became Chancellor, Bishop of Salisbury, and Chief Justiciar, and had great influence in disposing of the Crown of England.  In the year 1103, the King, having quarrelled with his chancellor, William Giffard, on the subject of the investitures, regarding which Giffard sided with Archbishop Anselm, dismissed him, and appointed in his place Roger, now Bishop of Salisbury, who had remained about the Court, and had proved himself an able and dexterous man.  Subsequently he was promoted to the high office of Chief Justiciar, an office which he held till the year 1133, and in virtue of which he governed England during the King’s long and frequent visits to Normandy.

Supports Stephen

Roger it was who was mainly instrumental in obtaining from the English and Norman barons a recognition of Maude as successor to her father’s crown.  But no sooner was the King dead, than, heedless of the debt of gratitude which he owed to him, and of the vows of fealty which he had taken to his daughter, he upheld Stephen in his usurpation, and was rewarded by the new king with the offices of Chancellor and Lord Treasurer.

Shortly after Stephen’s accession to the throne in the year 1135, Roger resigned the chancellorship, inducing the King to appoint to the office his nephew, Alexander, who some years previously (1123) had been consecrated Bishop of Lincoln.  The other nephew to whom we have referred, Nigel, was in the year 1133 consecrated Bishop of Ely.  But before the year 1139 Alexander had resigned the chancellorship, and in his place Roger, son of the Bishop of Salisbury, was preferred to the office.

Decline of Power

But though the King had made use of Roger, it is probable that he never really loved him, and it is certain that the time came when he coveted the enormous wealth which the Bishop had amassed, and the strong castles which he had built at Salisbury, Sherborne, Devizes and Malmesbury; and with them the castles at Banbury, Sleaford and Newark, which had been raised by Roger’s nephew, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln.  An opportunity for the realization of his wishes presented itself in the year 1139, when Stephen held a great council at Oxford, to which the three Bishops were summoned, and to which Roger came unwillingly and with forebodings of evil to himself and his kindred.  At Oxford, as William of Malmesbury states, owing to ancient enmity between Bishop Alexander and Alan, Earl of Brittany and Richmond, a fight arose between their servants, in which the Earl’s servants were defeated, and his nephew slain.  The King ordered the Bishops to make satisfaction, and imprisoned the Bishop of Salisbury, his son Roger,1.8 and his nephew Alexander.  Nigel, however, managed to escape, and fled to his uncle’s impregnable castle at Devizes.  Thither the King carried the unfortunate Bishop of Salisbury, and with him his much-loved son, and partly by starving the father, and partly by preparations made before the castle to hang the son—‘res infamia et notabilis et ab omni humanâ consuetudine remota,’ says Roger of Hoveden—he compelled Nigel to give up the castle, and with it his uncle’s treasures.  By somewhat similar means the King possessed himself of Alexander’s strongholds, but though he thus far prospered in his attack upon the Bishops, his success was dearly bought, for by his conduct he forfeited the goodwill of the Church, and, as the first-fruits of this change, Matilda the Empress arrived in England to assert her rights, and amongst her supporters were Robert de Oilli of Oxford, and Brian Fitz-Count of Wallingford.

Death

But Roger, Bishop of Salisbury—his castles surrendered, his treasures pillaged—did not live to witness the misfortunes of the King, for he died that very year, and as he was breathing his last, the residue of his treasures, which he had placed upon the alter for the completion of his church, was carried off, and Roger, the wealthy bishop and Chancellor, regarding whom Stephen had often repeated, ‘By the birth of God, I would give him half England, if he asked for it.  Till the time be ripe, he shall tire of asking before I tire of giving,’ was now indeed Roger Pauper.  His son, Roger le Poure, was for a time Chancellor of England, but he possessed neither the wealth nor the ability of his father, and appears to have died in poverty, if not in exile.  However, to him and to his sister Maude, the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, perhaps mindful of favours received from their father, gave the manor of Oddington, which in the reign of Stephen was in part held by Sir Robert le Gait,1.9 who had married Maude le Poure, and this is the history of the connection of the le Gaits and the le Poures of Ottendun, who were, moreover, cousins to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, and, as we shall see, were, through his family, connected with the Danvers family, and through them with those of Chevauchesul and Talemasche.

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LINCOLN

Nephew of Roger

Alexander—Alexander of Blois, as the chroniclers call him—was, so William of Malmesbury tells us, the son of a brother of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, but though he may have been born, and may have passed his early years at Blois, he was educated in the house of his uncle Roger, who brought him up sumptuously—‘nutritus igitur in summis deliciis a Rogero avunculo suo,’ writes Henry of Huntingdon—and with extravagant habits, which seem to have clung to Alexander and to have kept him all his life in difficulties which the princely revenues of his see and the contributions of his friends were never able to remove.

The Builder

Alexander was a great builder, building, as we have seen, three castles, one of which, that of Newark-on-Trent, a contemporary chronicler designates ‘fortissimum et florentissimum,’ and, indeed, its ruins evidence the truth of his description—still the magnificent river-face of the castle extends along the bank of the Trent, while the very perfect remains of the great gateway tower testify to the former strength of the Bishop’s stronghold.  Reduced it was, not however by the force of arms, but by the starvation of its owner by the King his captor, and beneath the Norman arch which still remains, the King in triumph, with the Bishop in his humiliation, entered the castle on its surrender.  But the Bishop was a builder not only of castles, but of churches also.  Thus amongst others, he built the grand old church of Banbury; he founded, moreover, four monasteries, and when his cathedral of Lincoln was, in the year 1141, disfigured by fire, he so restored it that it appeared more beautiful than when it was first built, and was surpassed by none in England.  To him, writes Canon Venables, we may probably ascribe ‘the three western doorways, the intersecting arcade above the two side recesses of the west front and the three lower stories of the western towers with their elaborately ornamented gables facing north and south.’

Magnificent in his buildings, Alexander was magnificent also in his habits; and hence the title given to him by the Court of Rome—which he twice visited—‘Alexander the Magnificent,’ while by his people and by his clergy he was well beloved and revered.  ‘Flos et cacumen Regni et Regis’ he is called by Henry of Huntingdon, who ends his laudatory verses on the Bishop with the lines:

‘Lincolniæ gens magna prius, nunc maxima, semper

Talis, et iste diu sit nobis tutor honoris.’

Death

The Bishop seems to have recovered the King’s favour, and with it his castles, and died, in 1147, of a fever which he caught on a journey made to visit his friend, Pope Eugenius IX, at Auxerre.  He was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.

One of Bishop Alexander’s immediate successors built the lovely Galilee porch of Lincoln Cathedral, which includes the chamber wherein are now preserved the muniments of the Dean and Chapter.  Amongst these muniments, one of the most precious, if, indeed, it may not be called the most precious, is the Registrum Antiquissimum, a bound parchment volume containing two hundred and fifty folios.  It is the ancient register or chartulary of the cathedral, and was probably compiled at the end of King John’s reign, during the bishopric of Hugh de Wells.  Its contents are copies of the royal charters—the originals of many of which have also been preserved—episcopal grants, and grants to the cathedral from many donors, many of them men of great renown, documents relating to the manors and revenues of the cathedral, Papal Bulls, and a form for conducting the election of a bishop.

DANVERS OF TETSWORTH

Charter to Robert Danvers

No. 199 amongst the royal charters is one of Alan, Count of Brittany and Richmond, to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln.  This Alan10 was one of the band of nobles, tyrannical and cruel, which gathered about Stephen, and to whom the miseries of the people of the land were mainly due.  Pre-eminent in evil was Alan, ‘execrable and polluted with every wickedness, thinking it a disgrace that anyone could compare with him in cruelty.’  In addition to his earldoms of Brittany and Richmond, he obtained from Stephen that of Cornwall.  In the battle of Lincoln (1141) he fought, though feebly, on the King’s side, and as a result of the victory of the friends of the Empress suffered imprisonment, and lost his treasures and his earldom of Cornwall.  Probably it was while in a penitent mood, owing to his losses, that he gave to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, his ancient foe, a charter, which runs as follows: 

‘Alan. Com. Brittan. et Richemont. omnibus hominibus et amicis suis clicis et laicis.  Salt. sciatis me dedisse et concessisse Alexand. epo. Linc. et heredibus suis quibus eam dare voluerit Knivetunam cum omnibus pertinentiis suis in feudum et hereditatem scilicet tenendam de me et de heredibus meis per servicium unius militis et nominatim Robt. de Aluers filius neptis ejusdem Alex. epi. sit heres ei, nisi ipse alicui alim heredum suorum eam in vita sua et hereditate concesserit.’  

The names of the witnesses to the charter give no help towards determining its date, but we may reasonably place it between the years 1140 and 1147, the year of Alexander’s death.  Alan became Earl of Richmond in the year 1137, but it is unlikely that he made any gift to the Bishop prior to the year 1139, for William of Malmesbury, a personal friend of the latter, tells us that at the time the Bishop and the Earl were ancient enemies.  It is more probable that when Alexander recovered the favour of the King, and with it his lordships and castles, the ancient feud was healed, and that as a peace-offering the Bishop received for his great-nephew, Robert Danvers (De Aluers), the gift of the manor of Kniveton.  Moreover, we may notice that the Earl is not in the charter designated Earl of Cornwall, an earldom which he lost in the year 1141.

Whether Robert Danvers ever obtained possession of the Earl’s gift we do not know, nor have we any evidence of the presence of any members of his family in Kniveton (Yorkshire).  There can, however, be little doubt that this Robert Danvers is the individual who, about the year 1145, was a witness to a charter given by Robert Chevauchesul to Thame Abbey, a charter which was subsequently confirmed by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln.  He was, as we shall find, the father of William Danvers who married Emma, sister to Robert Chevauchesul, and to Matilda Talemasche.  Robert’s grandfather was Sir Ralph Danvers (De Aluers), of Little Marlow; and if we have rightly identified Robert Danvers, of Count Alan’s charter, it was this Ralph who married the sister of Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln.  Thus, by bringing Roger of Salisbury and Alexander of Lincoln into our history, we explain the connection which the register of Thame Abbey evidences was very close between the families of le Gait and le Poure, Danvers, Chevauchesul and Talemasche.

CHEVAUCHESUL FAMILY

From charters which are amongst those included in the register of Thame Abbey, we learn that early in the twelfth century there lived at Tetsworth a certain Awcher Chevauchesul with his wife Mabilia and their sons, Robert and Roger, and daughters Emma and Matilda.  Of Awcher Chevauchesul we know no more than is told us by the mention made of him in the Tetsworth charters and by his name.  That he was a Norman there can be no doubt.  Was he an archer who rode upon a horse, Archer Chevauchesul, one of the mounted archers who were found amongst the Norman cavalry?  He was, so far as our records witness, the first of his name in England; and as his son Robert was born about the year 1125, Awcher Chevauchesul may have been born towards the end of the eleventh century.  Not improbably he was a countryman of Bishop Alexander’s, and as a loyal and trusty soldier, may have been placed by the Bishop in the lordship of Tetsworth to watch and ward his interests on the Oxford and Wallingford roads.  His wife’s name as Mabilia, and it is probable that she was a Talemasche of the ancient Saxon family of that name, for in the year 1199 we find her grandchildren, Ralph de Anuers and Richard Talemasche, together paying in Essex ten marks that they may have the lands of their ancestors.  Awcher Chevauchesul was lord of Tetsworth, and Anthony à Wood11 tells us that his family were also lords of Hampton, near Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, which hence was called Chevauchesul-Hampton, shortened into Chesilhampton.  But at Tetsworth the Chevauchesul family lived, and it is likely that the plan of the village of their day was much as at present.  On the ridge by the wayside, at the entrance to the village, stood the church, and probably the priest’s house was placed a little to the west of it, on the site of the present vicarage.  To the north of the church, between it and ‘the Napp,’ overlooking the latter, would stand the manor-house, with the village street beyond, the houses as now stretching along the left-hand side of the road.  Around the manor-house and church, and extending down the southern slope of the hill, would stretch the lord’s demesne, while on the northern slope, and between it and the village street, would lie the common field, extending to the site of the present manor-farm, divided into parallel strips, or allotments as we should now call them, for the use of the villeins, or upper class of villagers.  If the village boasted in those early times a hostel, it probably stood near the entrance to the village, on or near the site of the Swan Hotel; beyond the hostel was the common pasture-land.  As for the road, though a king’s highway, it was but a rough, unmetalled track, passable for horsemen and litters, rarely traversed by wheel carriages, save by the village carts.  The houses that bordered it were but sorry huts of timber and mud, having neither window nor chimney, the smoke from the fire finding its way out by a hole in the roof or through the door, and in the way of furniture boasting nothing beyond the cooking utensils, a bench, and possibly a plank bed; outside, in front of each hut, would be a heap of refuse, the playground of fowls and pigs and children, but much valued as a manure.

Like their lord, many of the villagers were Normans, for it must be remembered that the Norman lords of English lands were living amongst a hostile people, and could not have maintained their foothold, but that they brought with them from Normandy vassals, whom they settled in the English villages.

Ancient Manor-House of Tetsworth

The manor-house may have been built of stone, for stone of an easily- worked sort was close at hand; but more probably it was of the timber and plaster work of the period, and consisted mainly of the hall.  The hall had a high-pitched roof, supported by a central row of rests or pillars, in the middle of which was an aperture, through which escaped the smoke from the hearth below.  At the lower end of the hall was a porch or vestibule, and on the further side of this the buttery and the kitchen.  At the upper end of the hall the floor was raised to form the dais, on which was placed the table for the lord, his family, and visitors of good degree.  But the table consisted merely of boards laid upon trestles, and was removed after each meal.  Such, too, was the table in the body of the hall, which served for the servants and chance visitors.  All, lord and servants alike, sat upon benches, for chairs had not yet become a fashion.  The windows of the hall were unglazed, and guarded merely by wooden shutters; the floor was of earth, littered at night with straw or rushes to form the common sleeping-place of servants, guests, and the younger members of the family.  An opening near the dais led by a wooden staircase into a tower built against the wall of the hall, the lower story of which formed the cellar, and the upper ‘the solar’, the sunny room, the bedroom and only private apartment of the lord and lady.  Its scanty furniture consisted of a bed, a bench, a chest or hutch, in which were kept the valuables of the family, and a couple of perches, on one of which the clothes were hung, while on the other the falcons roosted.  The floor was boarded, but not carpeted, and the door and the unglazed window were protected by curtains.  Probably the solar could boast a fireplace and chimney; yet despite the fire, it must have been in winter a miserable lodging.  And, indeed, all the arrangements of the house were such that we in these days may well wonder that any but the very hardiest of our ancestors survived the conditions of their childhood.  The house was no doubt surrounded by a moated wall or hedge, within which were included the garden and stables.

Family of Aucher Chevauchesul and Mabilia Talemasche

In such a house as this, in the early part of the twelfth century, lived Aucher Chevauchesul, lord of Tetsworth, his wife Mabilia, their sons, Robert and Roger, and daughters, Matilda and Emma.  Robert, the eldest son, married Matilda— Matildas or Maudes were many in those days—Roger, the second son, became a monk; Matilda, the daughter, married Peter Talemasche, of the neighbouring village of Stoke-Talmage; while Emma married William Danvers, and eventually was heiress to her brother Robert, who left no children.  William and Emma Danvers had sons—Robert, Ralph, William, Roger, and Walter; we do not know of any daughters.

Family of Peter Talemasche and Matilda Chevauchesul

Peter Talemasche and his wife had a son, Richard, and a daughter, Claricia, who married Alan, a clerk or cleric, who lived at Tetsworth.  Richard Talemasche married Amicia, sister to Richard Taillard, of Charlbury, and they had four sons, Richard, Peter, William, and Ralph.  William and Ralph, as we learn from one of the charters preserved in the register, became monks in Thame Abbey; while as we learn from the same source, Peter Talemasche became heir to his brother Richard, and died leaving no children.

Talemasche Family

The Talemasche family (Talemasche, Tollemache, Talmag, Toedmag in the Domesday Book), were seated at Bentley in Suffolk long before the Conquest, but the first of them of whom we have authentic record is Hugh, who about the year 1138 signed as a witness to a charter of John St John to Eva, first abbess of Godstowe.  This Hugh had lands at Stoke in Oxfordshire, a village which was probably after him named ‘Stoke-Talmage.’  Hugh had sons Peter and William, both of whom are named in the Thame Abbey register.  Final concord of 27 Henry II (1180), Richard Talemasche mentions his father Peter (Thame Abbey Register).  In the latter part of the reign of Richard I a William Talemache of Bentley gave lands to the Priory of Ipswich, and this probably was the William, brother of Peter.  From the Assize Roll12 of 31 Henry III (1246) and from an Oxon fine, 126 of 31 Henry III (1246), we learn the presence in Tetsworth of a Richard Talemasche, son of Hugh Talemasche, who, as the roll states, was seised of land there in the same reign.  Neither of these members of the family is mentioned in the Thame Abbey register.  Hugh was probably the son of William.  In a very interesting MS. (Wood, No. 10, Bodleian), the register of the Preceptory of Stanford, there are amongst the Tetsworth charters, f. 62, a charter and a fine, regarding a virgate of land which Peter Talemasche gives to the Templars.  The fine is dated 15th day of Hillary Anno Reg. John XII (1210).  Amongst the Stoke Talemasche charters of the same volume are two granted by Peter Talemasche to the Templars.  They are not dated, but the names of witnesses to the first, Richard Foliot, Henry de Wytefeld, Hugh de Talemasche, and to the second, John Doyli and Herbert Quatremayn —indicate late twelfth century deeds.

The relations of the Chevauchesul, Talemasche, and Danvers families are set forth in the accompanying charts, which is compiled from particulars given in the charters of Tetsworth and Stoke-Talmage.1.13

The charters of the Danvers family will be found in the appendix to this chapter.

DANVERS FAMILY IN TETSWORTH

The earliest of the Tetsworth charters of the Thame Abbey register are two of Robert Chevauchesul, to one of which Robert Dauers,1.14 doubtless Robert, the father of William Danvers, signs his name as a witness.  We find William’s name attached as a witness to four of the earlier charters in the register—at page 6 to one of Robert le Gait, grandson of the founder of the abbey; at page 36 to one of John de Horsendun;1.15 at page 37 to one of Richard Talemasche (his wife’s nephew?); at page 39 to one of Henry de Witefeld.  Careful study of the charters evidences that these are early charters, given prior to the time when the younger Robert Danvers and his brothers Ralph, William, Roger and Walter began to sign as witnesses to the family and other deeds.

Unfortunately, ancient charters are more often than not undated; the people to whom they were given trusted to the recognition of some of the many witnesses whom they were careful to procure, and they took care on the death of a donor to have his charter confirmed by his heir.  Hence, too often we are left without data by means of which we can learn of the donor’s period.  But, fortunately, even at this distant period we can sometimes by attention to the names of the witnesses arrive at the date of a charter.  Thus there is a charter of Robert Chevauchesul’s which he gave to the abbey, beginning ‘Ego Robertus Chevauchesul assensu Matildis uxoris sui dedit residuum terre sui in Horsendun,’ etc., and to this charter follows its confirmation by the suzerain, the Bishop of Lincoln:  ‘Alexander Lincolnee Episcopus, etc., confirmaverunt Everard16 Abbati de Parco Tama illam hidam quam Robt Chevauchesul dedit,’ etc.  Now, amongst the witnesses to the Bishop’s confirmatory document is David, Archdeacon of Bucks, and as he was Archdeacon between the years 1145 and 1171; and as Bishop Alexander held the see between the years 1123 and 1147, the deed must have been signed between the years 1145 and 1147; and as Robert Chevauchesul must have been of age when he gave the charter, we conclude that he was born not later than the year 1124 or 1125.  The date receives confirmation from the circumstance that we find mention of Robert Chevauchesul’s name in many contemporary documents during the latter half of the twelfth century, but none after the year 1202.  We may, therefore, suppose that he died about that time at the age of seventy-five or seventy-six.

In another of these charters Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, confirms the donation which Robert Chevauchesul, with the consent of his mother Mabilia, and his brother Roger, and all his sisters, had made to the abbey, and amongst the witnesses to the deed is Robert (Foliot), Archdeacon of Oxon.  Now, as Robert the bishop held the See of Lincoln from the year 1147 to 1167, and as Robert the archdeacon was Archdeacon of Oxon from the year 1151 to 1167, we learn that Robert Chevauchesul, his mother and brother and sisters were alive, and as all give their consent to the grant, the brother and sisters were presumably of age, at some time between the years 1151 and 1167.

William Danvers and Emma Chevauchesul

Another charter which may be noticed here is that of Ralph Danvers, son of William and Emma, who, ‘in the ninth year of King Richard’ (1197), with the consent of his lord (and brother, Robert Danvers) gives his lands in Tetteswurd to God and the Abbey of Thame; amongst the witnesses are the other brothers Walter and William Danvers, and thus we learn that William Danvers (the father) was dead in the year named, and that at least two of his sons, Robert and Ralph, were then of age.  Further, we learn from quite another source1.17 that Robert, the eldest son, was a king’s assessor in Oxfordshire in the year 1199, when he must have been a man of age and standing; therefore the date of the births of his father and mother cannot have been many years subsequent to that of Robert Chevauchesul.  For various reasons we would place that of William Danvers at about the year 1135.

It is noteworthy that Emma Danvers, in the charter which she gives to Thame Abbey, provides that prayers should be said for her soul, and for the souls of her father and mother, and of her brother Robert Chevauchesul, and for those of her ancestors and heirs, but makes no mention of her husband.  Robert Danvers, the eldest son, does mention both his father and his mother, but his brother William, in his charter, mentions only his well-beloved mother and his Uncle Robert; while another brother, Roger, mentions only his mother, his brothers, and his ancestors.

One is tempted to speculate as to the reason of this omission of the husband’s name by his wife and children; to ask whether anything had occurred to cause divided interest in the family, and whether anything is discoverable in the history of the period which might account for such divisions; any circumstances of the times which would be likely to render the name and memory of William Danvers displeasing to the brethren of the Cistercian Abbey?  We think there is.  Let us suppose that the period is about the year 1170, when Emma has been some time married, and is with her children living with her brother Robert at Tetsworth, while her husband is absent on service with the King in Normandy (one of the Harleian MSS., a copy of an ancient roll, mentions a William Danvers amongst the knights of Henry II).  The news of the day is that the strife between the Archbishop and the King—the King whom in one of his letters Becket speaks of as being ‘opposed to the liberty of the Church by a kind of hereditary right,’ and let it be remembered that this is a strife which peculiarly affects the interests of the Cistercians, for the King had threatened the confiscation of their possessions in England, with a view to driving the order to refuse a home to the Archbishop at Pontigny.

That the Chevauchesul family were fast friends of the Cistercians their charters bear ample witness, and doubtless Robert Chevauchesul and his sister were quite prepared to credit the reports of the King’s evil doings which the monks from the neighbouring abbey would bring to their ears; and great must have been their horror when at last the tidings came of the expedition of Fitzurse and his companions, and its consummation in the murder of the Archbishop.  And what if William de Anuers—where is he the while?  Following the King!  Could he have been amongst the company of the murderers?  Slightingly he has spoken of the murdered prelate, lovingly always of his master, the King.  Can he have been, if not in deed, yet in word and will, an abettor of the crime?  Such thoughts may have agitated Tetsworth manor-house—thoughts which the monks of Thame did not scruple to utter, and may have rendered them ill-disposed to receive gifts for the repose of the soul of one of whom they deemed excommunicate and unforgiven.

Friends and Neighbours in Tetsworth

Before leaving for a time William Danvers and the family at Tetsworth, let us notice two contemporary documents which tell us something of their friends and neighbours.  The first of these is a charter1.18 (circa 1170-80) in which Peter Talemasche grants to Robert Doilli for his homage and service, and for one horse of ten marks, and for one hawk which he gave to him, one virgate of land in Tettesworde, namely, that land which William, son of the priest, held, paying one pair of white gloves at Easter in lieu of all service.

The other document is a list of Oxon fiefs1.19 of the Bishop of Lincoln of the year 1201, in which we find together the names of Robert Chevauchesul, Herbert Quatermain, Richard Foliot, Richard Talemasche, Robert de Anuers, John de Builli (Bruly), all individuals who, themselves or their near relatives, were ancestors of the Danvers family.

SUMMARY

We may then safely assert that the presence of the Danvers family at Tetsworth during the middle of the twelfth century is clearly established, and partly because this is so, and partly because we are able from the Tetsworth family to trace an unbroken descent, in the male line, to the Danvers of the present day, we begin our memorials with those of William Danvers of Tetsworth and his wife Emma.  And though we find ourselves upon less sure ground when we trace the story of William’s ancestry, we believe we are able to demonstrate that he was the son of Robert, the son of Geoffrey, the son of the Norman knight—‘De Alvers’—who came to England with the Conqueror.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER ONE

CHARTULARY OF THAME (folio 41).

In the Latin deeds which follow, the need for the required type-characters led to the omission of many marks of contraction present in the original.

1  Rob’ de Anuers de j. virgata.

Notum sit omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filiis quod ego Robertus Danvers dedi et concessi et presenti carta confirmavi deo et monachis sancte Marie de Tham’ unam virgatam terre in Tettleswrd pro salute anime mee et patris et matris mee et heredum meorum in perpetuam elemosinam, scilicet dimidiam virgatam quam Johannes le Mai tenuit cum pertinentiis suis cum pratis et pascuis et pastruis suis, et alaim dimidiam virgatam terre factam de Dominico meo cum pertinentiis suis, cum pratis et pascuis et pasturis suis scilicet, en la Nuterblachelande dimidiam acram, in Innerblakaland dimidiam acram.  En Innermersche dimidiam acram.  En Siepfurlong dimidiam acram.  A la Wudeweie dimidiam acram.  In Stanfurlong dimidiam acram.  En est wellefurlong dimidiam acram.  Super Ettenhill unam acram pro Crofta.  En lachegore unam acram.  En Haldingfurlong dimidiam acram.  En Brocfurlong dimidiam acram.  En la Meswendelone 1 acram.  Sup Benehulle dimidiam acram.  Subtus Benehull dimidian acram.  Super Cocstowe dimidiam acram.  In Cocstowehelde dimidiam acram.  Subtus Cocstoweheld dimidiam acram.  En la cuba dimidiam acram.  In Berefurlong dimidiam acram, ad caput Cube dimidiam acram.  In Smedefurlong dimidiam acram.  Super Stapelhulle dimidiam acram.  Super Trindhulle dimidiam acram.  In Smaledefurlong dimidiam acram.  In Mersfurlong dimidiam acram.  Et ad instam dimidiam virgatam terre habebit totam meam partem prati sub Gardine quod jacet juxta pratum quod Adam tenuit.  Quam scilicet predictam dimidiam virgatam Emma mater mea dederant fratri meo Willielmo Danvers et ipse mihi in hanc elemosinam faciendam reddidit, videlicet solutam et quietam ab omni servicio et exactione seculari.  Ita tamen quod monachi dabent mihi et heredibus meis unam libram Cinimi annuatim ad festum sancti Michaelis.  Et ego et heredes mei hanc elemosinam eis warantizabimus.  Salvo tamen servicio domini Regis.  Testibus, Ric’ Talemasche, Will’ de Bruges, Rad’ foliot, Ric’ filio ejus, Ric’ pirun, Rad’ de Colebi, Nichol’ de oilly, Huberto Quatremains, Will’ Danuers, Rad’ Danuers, Alano clerico, Gileb’ Magno, Laurentio de Stoke, Michaele Grimbald, Walto de Chulewrd, Rob’ Valance, et aliis.

2 Rad’ de Anuers (folio 41b)

Notum sit omnibus Christi fidelibus.  Quod ego Rad’ Danvers assensu domini mei Roberti Danvers anno Nono Regis Ricardi dedi et concessi et presenti.  Carta confirmavi deo et Abbatie de Tham’ in puram et perpetuam elemosinam totam terram meam in villa de Tetteswrd, scilicet duas virgatas terre cum Masagiis et Croftis, quas Rob’ Cheuauchesul mihi dedit pro homagio et servicio meo, et illam quartam partem virgate cum Masagio quam Gilebertus Chena tenuit, et due alia Masagia que Wills presbiter et Wills faber tenuerunt.  Cum omnibus pertinentiis suis in Masagiis et Croftis, in terra arabili et pratis et pasturis, plene et integre, libere et quiete ab omni servicio et exactione seculari.  Salvo servicio domini Regis, et una libra piperis que de eodem tenemento debetur Roberto Danuers et heredibus suis annuatim ad Pascha.  Hanc autem elemosinam ego et heredes mei Abbatie de Tham’ warantizabimus.  Testibus Ric’ Talemasche, Petro filioejus, Willo et Waltero Danuers, Walt’ Bikestrop, Joh’ filio ejus, Ada clerico de Cennor, Ric’ clerico de Burtona.

3 Rad’ de Anuers (folio 41b).

Sciant presentes et futuri quo ego Rad’ Danvers dedi Monachis de Tam’ pro saluti anime mee et antecessorum meorum redditum duorum solidorum de terra quam Gileb de Kene tenet de me in Tetteswrd in puram et perpetuam elemosinam solutam et quietum ab omni seculari servicio et exactione.  Testibus Ric’ Talemasche Wall’ de Bikestrop’ Ric’ pirun, Ric’ Gernun et aliis.

4 Rob’ de Anuers (folio 41b)

Notum sit omnibus Christi fidelibus quod ego Rob’ Danvers concessi et presenti Carta confirmavi deo et Abbatie de Tham’ totam donacionem quam Rad’ Danvers frater meus dedit Abbatie de Tham’, scilicet duas virgatas terre cum Masagiis et Croftis de feudo meo in Tetteswrd, et duo alia Masagia, scilicet Willi presbiteri et Willi fabri, et quartam partem virgate quam G. Chena tenuit de eodem Rad’.  Cum omnibus pertinentiis suis in terra arabili et pratis et pasturis, plene et integre, libere et quiete ab omni servicio et exactione seculari.  Salvo servitio domini Regis et una libra piperis que michi et heredibus meis debetur annuatim de eodem tenemento ad Pascha.  Pro hac autem concessione et confirmatione dedit mihi abbas j. Marcam argenti.  Testibus qui prius.

5 Will’ de Anuers (folio 41b).

Notum sit omnibus Christi fidelibus quod ego Wills Danvers concessi et presenti Carta confirmavi donationem quam frater meus Rad’ Danvers fecit Abbatie de Tham’ scilicet duas virgatas terre cum Masagiis et Croftis, quas Rob’ Cheuauchesul avunculus suus et meus illi dedit pro homagio et servicio suo, et illam quartam partem virgate terre cum Masagio quam Gileb’ Chena tenuit, et duo alia Mesagia que Wills presbiter et Wills faber tenuerunt cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, sicut Carta ejusdem Rad’ testatur.  Hanc autem donationem totam, cum ei sicut heres de jure succedere debuissem, confirmare curavi, pro salute anime mee et dilecte genitricis mee et avunculi mei Rob’ Cheuauchesul et aliorum antecessorum meorum.  Testibus qui pruis, et aliis.

6 Will’ de Anuers (folio 42).

Sciant tam presentes quam futuri quod ego Wills Danuers dedi et concessi et hac mea Carta confirmavi Deo et Beate Marie et Monachis apud Tham’ Deo servientibus unam virgatam terre in villa de Tettleswrd cum omnibus pertinentiis suis.  Illam scilicet quam Mactild tenuit in pura et perpetuam elemosinam.  Habendam et tenendam de me et heredibus meis, bene et in pace, libere et quiete integre et honorifice.  In planis et pascuis, in viis et semitis, in pratis et pasturis et omnibus aliis libertatibus et aisiamentis.  Reddendo singulis annis ad Natale domini unam dimidiam libram piperis mihi et heredibus meis pro omni servitio et exactione quantum ad nos pertinet.  Salvo Regali servicio.  Et hanc terram ego et heredes mei dictis Monachis warantizare debemus.  Testibus qui prius et aliis.

7 Rog’ Danuers (folio 42).

Notum sit omnibus Christi fidelibus quod ego Rog’ Danuers clericus dedi et concessi et presenti carta confirmavi deo et ecclesie sancte Marie de Tham’ et Monachis ibidem Deo seruientibus unam virgatam terre in Tetteswrd cum omnibus pertinentiis suis.  Illam scilicet quam Wills Bunetun tenuit quam michi mater mea Emma Cheuauchesul et frater meus Rob’ Danuers pro servicio meo dederunt.  Hanc virgatam terre eis cum corpore meo pro salute anime mee dedi et pro salute matris mee et fratrum antecessorumque meorum, liberam et quietam ab omni servicio et exactione seculari, preter Regalia et unam libram Cinimi.  Testibus, Ric’ Talem, Osmdo sac’, alano clerico, Rad’ Danuers, Gaufr’ filio Gunne, Ric’ fil vmfr’ et aliis.  

8 Emma Cheuauch’ (folio 42).

Notum sit omnibus Christi fidelibus quod ego Emma filia Aucheri Cheuauchesul dedi et concessi et hac presenti Carta mea confirmavi.  Deo et Ecclesie sancte Marie de Tham’ et Monachis ibidem deo servientibus in puram et perpetuam elemosinam duas acras terre in Tetteswrd de hereditagio meo unam videlicet in Scipfurlong, et alteram in Blakelande, pro anima patris et matris mee et fratris mei Rob’ Cheuauchesul, et pro anima mea, et salute heredum et antecessorum meorum.  Solutam et quietam ab omni servicio et exactione seculi.  Et sciendum quod predictas acras Monachis prefatis cum corpore meo dedi.  Testibus, Ric’ Talem , Rog’ persona de Tetteswrd, Will,’ Rad’ et Walt’ Danuers, Hel’ Daure, alano clerico, et Rob’ herede meo, qui huic donationi assensum prebuit.  

NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lx, Part i, p. 17, 1774.

1.2 Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxiii, Part ii, p. 719, 1793.

1.3 Dr Lee’s Miscel. Thamesis, Bodleian.

1.4 The seat of Wykeham Musgrave, Esquire, in 1895.

1.5 Register of Thame Abbey in the British Museum. Copies of the register, or, rather, abstracts from it, are Cotton MS. Julius, c. vii, pp. 287-304, and Harleian MS. No. 5,804.  The Rev. Dr Lee has also an epitomised copy of the register, and an epitome of it may be found in Harleian MS. 6,950 (Dr Hutton’s Collections).  The Cottonian copy was made by Nicholas Charles, Lancaster Herald, in the year 1611.  It is not by any means a complete copy; it epitomizes the charters, omits the names of many witnesses, and does not include several deeds which are present in the original, but it adds tables of descent of donors to the abbey which are absent in the original.

1.6 Dr Jessop’s Coming of the Friars, London, 1889, p. 131.

1.7 Cf. Campbell’s Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. i, p. 53, and the chroniclers above mentioned.

1.8 Freeman (History of the Norman Conquest, vol. v, p. 287) says that Roger’s mother, Matilda of Ramsbury, may very well have been his father’s wife.

1.9 Dunkin’s Oxfordshire, vol. ii, p. 215.  Bishop Kennett’s Parochial Antiquities, vol. i, p. 132.

1.10 Alan, Count of Brittany and Richmond was son to Stephen, who was brother to Alan, the builder of Richmond Castle.

1.11 Quoted in Oxfordshire Pedigrees, Sir T. Phillips, p. 78.

1.12 Assize Roll of 31 Henry III (1246), No. 699, M. 24.

1.13 Cf. Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. i, of 1821, p. 275; ‘Charters of Abbeys of Thame and Godstow’ in Dugdale’s Monasticon; Betham’s Baronetage, vol. v, appendix 72.

1.14 Other witnesses to the charter are Ric. Talemasche, Samson Prior of Coges, Ric. de Roumeli, Will. fil. Osb., Gilb. Pipard, Will, Presbyter of Tetteswrd.

1.15 Bodleian Charter, No. 314, of Ralph and John Horsendone to Thame Abbey; date assigned, 1170-80.

1.16 Cotton MS. Julius, c. vii, p. 387, et seq.

1.17 Rotuli Curiae Regis (R.O.).

1.18 Charter No. 20,202 in the Bodleian Catalogue.

1.19 Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus (Record Office), p. 155.  Some other contemporary documents mentioning Danvers and Talemasche families:  Oxon Pipe Roll, 7 John (1205), Rob. de Anuers, Ric. and Peter Talemasche.  Oxon Pipe Roll, 9 Henry II (1162), Rob. Chevalchesul in Tetsworth.  Liber Niger (1165), Rob. Chevalchesul holds of Bishop of Lincoln.  Pipe Roll, Oxon, 1 John (1199), Rob. de Auners in Oxon. Same year Rotuli Curiae Regis. Magdalen College Calendar, ‘miscellaneous,’ circa. 1200.  Avicia Talemasche and husband Richard give land in Stoke to Hospital of St John Baptist.

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