A.D. 1554 - 1700

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

Life at Culworth

Daniel Danvers, second son of John Danvers, of Culworth, and his wife, Dorothy Raynesford, was born about the year 1554, two years before his father’s death, and, with his elder brother, Samuel, and his sisters, Temperance, Justice, Prudence and Fortitude, was brought up under the guardianship of his mother and her father, Sir William Raynesford, in Culworth manor-house.  The fabric of the present house is no doubt substantially that of Daniel’s boyhood, and thence the children looked out upon the village games which at certain seasons were still celebrated upon the adjacent green.  For though, as Harrison tells us, ‘superfluous numbers of idle-wakes, church-ales, help-ales, and dirge-ales, with their heathenish rioting, were well diminished,’ yet we learn from the parish records that at Eastertide, Whitsuntide, Bartholomewtide, and on May-day, ‘the young men’ still made collections for the church at the games around the village cross.

Education

Nor would the education of the children be neglected, for the schoolmaster was abroad in those days.  The example of the late King, Edward VI, and of his royal sisters, had influenced the courtiers of both sexes, and we are told of them that ‘there are few which have not the use and skill of sundry speeches, besides an excellent vein of writing, beforetime not regarded.’ 12.1  Grammar-schools, too, were being generally provided for the use of the middle classes, and amongst them was a notable one at Banbury and another at Thame.  Doubtless Stanbridge’s Grammar and Colet’s Accidence were books not unknown in the Culworth house.  Banbury Grammar School12.2 was at the time in great reputation, and it is very possible that Daniel Danvers received his education there, under the eye of his relatives at Calthorpe House and Broughton Castle, and in a puritanical atmosphere which, if we read the history of the family aright, was one congenial to its members, and one which early in life made a lasting impression upon Daniel’s mind.

From Henry VII to Elizabeth I

Born during the unhappy reign of Queen Mary, Daniel Danvers may have been old enough to remember the rejoicings on the accession of Elizabeth, who was by the Protestants, who formed the bulk of the middle classes, regarded as their champion.  Strange times and many changes the Culworth villagers had witnessed.  The middle-aged amongst them remembered the days when it was their care that the lights should always burn in the village church before the Holy Rood beneath the chancel arch, and before the altar of the Trinity and the shrine of St Christopher, and that the sepulchre should be decked at Eastertide with lights and holy memorials.  Times also when, every Sunday and holy day at the least, Mass was said in the church, and when representations of the saints looked down upon the worshippers from wall and window, calling upon the living to walk in the ways of the holy dead.  And then came the days—and doubtless they were days in which many rejoiced—when the wardens set up the great Bible in the church, and charged all who were able to read and study the holy volume.

And then followed the days when fanatics came from Banbury or Northampton and despoiled the village church, breaking down shrine and tabernacle and Holy Rood, and leaving the painted windows only because of the cost that should grow by the alteration of the same;12.3 and those were the days when the wardens made that grudging entry in their records.  ‘The Vykar must fynd us wyne and bread till saint andrey’s day.’  Then ensued another change, for Queen Mary came to the throne, and though about this time the Culworth records are for many years imperfect, we find in them sufficiently plain indications of the restoration of the old forms of worship, for, in the year 1558, we have, after an interval of many years, a charge for wax for the sepulchre and for ‘betynge candelles,’ and a new holy water stocke is provided, doubtless in the place of one that had been destroyed in the days of Edward VI.  And this year, as might be expected, there is no mention of provision of bread and wine for Holy Communion.  The records, after 1558, are again imperfect till the year 1664; then, however, four separate entries for bread and wine, or wine alone, witness to the alterations in the Church services which were made shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth.

DANIEL DANVERS

Marries Susanna Pope

After the death of his father we hear nothing more of Daniel Danvers till the year 1583, when, according to an entry in the register of Wroxton Church, he was married there, on November 12, to Susan, daughter of John Pope, Esq., of Wroxton Priory.

POPE FAMILY OF WROXTON

William Pope

The Pope family is one of considerable historic interest, and it is one which gave two wives to the Danvers family.  The family, according to Warton,12.4 were seated in Kent before the reign of Edward III, but the first of them of whom we have any certain record is a Sir Thomas Pope, of Oxfordshire, who had a son, William Pope, of Deddington, a place about six miles south of Banbury.  William married first Juliana, and, as his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Edmund Yate, of Stanlake, and by her had a family of two sons, Thomas and John, and three daughters, Elizabeth, who married first Richard Hutchins of Chipping- Norton and second John Orpwood, Juliana a nun of Godstow, Alice, who married Edward Love, of Aynhoe.  William Pope died 16 March 1523,12.5 leaving landed property in Deddington, Whitehill and Hooknorton.  In his will he desired that he might be buried in Deddington Church, to the torches, bells and lights of which he left legacies, and desired to have ‘a preste synginge one yeare.’  His wife after his death married John Bustard, of Adderbury, and died in 1557, at Wroxton, where she appears to have lived with her son, John Pope, after the death of her second husband.  A brass to her memory remains in the chancel of Wroxton Church.

Thomas Pope

Thomas, the eldest son, born about the year 1508, was educated at Banbury Grammar School, and subsequently at Eton, and thence proceeded to Gray’s Inn to be trained for the law.  He quickly recommended himself to public favour and royal notice, and after holding various offices, was, in the year 1536, made treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, which was established for the purpose of valuing and selling the possessions of the dissolved monasteries.  Fuller, in his Worthies of England, speaks of Thomas Pope as one of candid carriage; standing single and sole in this respect, that of the abbey lands which he received he refunded a considerable proportion for the building and endowment, during his life, of Trinity College, Oxford.  To him also we owe the preservation of the Abbey Church of St Albans, which had been condemned to destruction, and was saved only by Thomas Pope’s strenuous intercession with the King.  Pope, or Sir Thomas, as we should call him, for he was knighted in the year 1536, was a dear friend to Sir Thomas More, and to him was committed by the King the task of warning his friend of his immediate execution.  On July 5, 1535, Pope waited on Sir Thomas More, then under condemnation in the Tower, early in the morning, and acquainted him that he came by command of the King and Council to bring to him the melancholy news that he must suffer death before nine of the clock the same morning, and that therefore he should immediately begin to prepare himself for that awful event.  Upon this message, More, without the least surprise or emotion, cheerfully replied: ‘Master Pope, I most heartily thank you for your good tidings.  I have been much bound to the King’s highness for the benefit of his honors that he hath most bountifully bestowed upon me, yet am I more bound to his grace, I assure you, for putting me here, where I have had convenient time and space to have remembrance of my end.  And, so help me God, most of all am I bound unto him that it hath pleased his Majesty so shortly to rid me out of the misery of this wicked world.’  Then Pope subjoined that it was the King’s pleasure that at the place of execution he should not use many words.  To this More answered that he was ready to submit to the King’s commands, and added: ‘I beseech you, good Mr Pope, to get the King to suffer my daughter, Margaret, to be present at my burial.’  Pope assured him that he would use his interest with the King for this purpose; and having now finished his disagreeable commission, he solemnly took leave of his dying friend, and burst into tears.  More, perceiving his concern, said: ‘Quiet yourself, good Mr Pope, and be not disconcerted, for I trust that we shall one day in heaven see each other full merrily, where we shall be sure to live and love together in joyful bliss eternally.’

Sir Thomas Pope did not comply with the times during the reign of Edward VI, but was taken into favour and made a Privy Councillor on the accession of Queen Mary.  To him was confided the care of the Princess Elizabeth during her enforced residence at Hatfield; but, though he won her esteem and regard, his principles would not allow of his taking office on her accession to the throne, and his name was omitted from the list of the Privy Councillors.  In July 1536 Sir Thomas was divorced from his first wife, Elizabeth Gunston.  He died in the year 1558-59, and was first buried with his second wife, Margaret Townsend (widow of Sir Ralph Dodmer), in the Church of St Stephen’s, Walbrook, whence their bodies were removed to the chapel of Trinity College, Oxford, to the tomb which was erected for him by his third wife, Elizabeth Blount (widow of Anthony Beresford, and daughter of Walter Blount of Blount’s Hall, Stafford), who, after his death, married Sir Hugh Paulit of Hinton St George, Somerset.  William Blount of Osbaston, brother to Elizabeth, married Frances Love, daughter of Alice, Sir Thomas Pope’s sister.  They had a son, Sir Thomas Pope-Blount, of Tittenhanger.

Sir Thomas amassed great wealth and large landed estates, of which a considerable portion was devoted to the foundation of Trinity College.  In the year 1537 Sir Thomas bought from William Raynesford, of Wroxton, the interest which he had acquired in the buildings and property of the dissolved Priory of Wroxton, and subsequently he obtained, by exchange from the Crown, the reversion of all the property of the Priory, property which he bestowed upon the college which he founded.  Sir Thomas left no children (Alice, his daughter to Margaret Townsend, dying in her infancy), and his heir was his brother, John Pope, Esq., of Wroxton.

Monuments in Wroxton Church

The village of Wroxton is three miles north-west of Banbury, a pleasant little village, the more ancient part of which is dominated by the church, dedicated to All Saints.  The church is fourteenth century of the Decorated period, and consists of chancel, nave and aisles, south porch, and a west tower, which has been rebuilt.  The chancel has plain Decorated windows without cusps, and has two sedilia and the ancient roof.  There is a piscina in the north aisle.  The chancel screen is Perpendicular with additions of a later period.  The font also is Perpendicular and is very fine, but the carving of the figures was deepened about forty years ago.  The chancel is full of memorials of the Pope, North and Guilford families, of which the most striking is the magnificent monument to Sir William Pope, first Earl of Downe, and his wife, Anne Hopton.  The monument is an altar-tomb of alabaster, on which are the recumbent effigies of the earl and his countess, he dressed in a suit of half armour with an earl’s coronet on his head, and the countess in a long robe, ruff and veil.  At their heads kneel two sons, and at their feet a daughter.  The face of the earl is singularly handsome and refined, almost womanly in the delicacy of the features, while that of the countess, though by no means unpleasing, denotes a woman of strong character.

Just within the altar rails is a brass with an inscription to the memory of Margaret Pope, died in 1557, wife of William Pope, of Deddington.  She was the grandmother of Sir William Pope, Earl of Downe, and of his sister, Susanna Danvers.

In the chancel are buried Lord Keeper Guilford, and his wife, Frances, daughter and coheiress of Thomas, (nephew to Susan Danvers) third Earl of Downe, who brought the Wroxton estate to her husband’s family.  Here also are buried Mr Thomas Coutts and his first wife, Elizabeth.  One of their daughters, Susan, married the third Earl of Guilford, and hence their connection with Wroxton.

On the south of the church is ‘Wroxton Abbey,’ built by the first Earl of Downe upon the site of the ancient priory, and now the seat of his descendant, Lord North.  The mansion contains many fine portraits of the Pope and North families, amongst them those of Sir Thomas Pope and of his nephew, Sir William Pope.

John Pope and Elizabeth Brockett

John Pope, the brother of Sir Thomas, lived in the Priory house, which stood close to the site of the present mansion, and, dying in the year 1583, was buried in the village church.  He was three times married, but had children only by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Brockett.  They had three sons, of whom two, George and Thomas, died in infancy, a third, William, survived, and was created a baronet, and subsequently, in the year 1628, Earl of Downe. (John Pope’s first wife was Ann Stavely, and his third, Jane Windham, daughter of Edmund Windham of Felbrigge, Norfolk.)

Earl Downe

William Pope the first Earl of Downe and Anne, his wife (widow of Henry, 3rd Baron Wentworth, and daughter of Sir Owen Hopton), had two sons, Sir William and Thomas.  Sir William died before his father, and his son Thomas became second Earl of Downe, but, leaving no male issue, was followed in the title by his uncle, Thomas, third Earl of Downe.  Thomas, second Earl, left a daughter, Elizabeth who married firstly, Sir Francis Henry Lee of Ditchley.  Thomas, second Earl, had brothers, John and William, who died without issue, and two sisters, of whom the eldest, Elizabeth married George Raleigh of Farnborough, Warwick, and the second, Anne, baptized January 1, 1617-18, married Sir Samuel Danvers of Culworth, Bart., and died March 1678. Thomas, third Earl of Downe married Beata, daughter of Sir Henry Poole.  He was followed by his son, Thomas, fourth and last Earl of Downe.  He had also five daughters, Eleanor, Anne, Beata, Frances, and Finetta.  Frances married Sir Francis North, Lord Keeper, created Baron Guilford in 1683.  They had issue, North, Earl of Guilford, from whom descent the present family.

Family of John Pope and Elizabeth Brockett

John Pope and his wife, Elizabeth, had also six daughters, of whom the eldest, Georgia, baptized 3 January 1563-4, married Robert Raynsford, of Staverton, the son of Richard Raynsford, of Gyles, Essex, and of Drayton, near Daventry.  Richard was the son of George, brother to the Sir William Raynsford whose daughter Dorothy married John Danvers.  Robert married, as his second wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Kirton, of Thorpe Mandeville.  Their son, Sir Richard Raynsford, of Dallington, was M.P. for Northampton in 1659-60 and 1661, and Lord Chief Justice, 1676.

Ann married John Spurling of Baldock, Hertfordshire.  Jane married Francis Combes of Hemstead, Hertfordshire.  The baptisms of three of the daughters of John Pope, Georgia, Penelope and Mary, are entered in the Wroxton Church register in the years 1563, 1568 and 1569.  Another daughter, Susanna, was married on November 12, 1583, to Daniel Danvers, gentleman.  Clearly Susanna must have been older than both Penelope and Mary, or she would have been of the age of fifteen only when she married.

Susanna’s mother was Elizabeth,12.6 daughter of Sir John Brockett, of Brockett Hall, near Hatfield, Sheriff of the county in the years 1561 and 1581, by Margaret,12.7 daughter of William Benstede of the ancient family of that name.

Susanna Pope Marries Daniel Danvers

The parish church at the time of the marriage of Susanna Pope and Daniel Danvers was essentially that of the present day.  The father of the bride had not been long dead, but her mother was still living, and in her father’s place stood her brother William, the man whose tomb now dominates the chancel, prominent amongst the many memorials of his descendants which somewhat overpower the sanctuary.  The register of Wroxton parish church begins in the year 1552, and for many years the entries are very few in number—that of the marriage of Daniel Danvers and Susanna Pope is the only one of the year 1583, and the one which follows it is in June, 1584, and is also a Pope marriage—‘Edmonde Meriden and Hellono Pope were married on the seaventh daye.’

DANIEL DANVERS AT CULWORTH

The ‘Dower House’

To Culworth Daniel Danvers carried his bride, and there they lived till towards the end of the century.  It seems very probable that he built the house now known as the ‘dower house’ in anticipation of his marriage.  In a deed, dated April 24 of 32 Elizabeth I (1589), Samuel Danvers, as lord of the manor, grants to Daniel Danvers leave to add to the house which he (Daniel) had lately erected towards Culworth Street.  The architecture of the dower house, and the fact that it is, with the exception of the manor-house, the only gentleman’s dwelling-house upon the street, is sufficient evidence that it is the house in question.  When Daniel Danvers removed from Culworth he sold this house, together with the rest of his property in the parish, to his nephew, John Danvers.  The grounds of the house adjoin those of the manor-house, and neither grounds nor house have been dismantled, as in the case of the manor-house.  The oak-panelled hall and one oak-panelled room remain as they were in the time of Daniel Danvers.  The grounds, too, retain terraced walks and old-time hedges, which recall the days when Daniel’s children played thereabout.

Family of Daniel Danvers and Susannah Pope

The children were all baptized in Culworth—Frances, the eldest, on September 20, 1584; John, the eldest son, on August 29, 1585; Anne on September 11, 1587; Anthony on April 22, 1590; Mary on June 15, 1592; William on August 23, 1593; and a second Mary on April 13, 1598.

On October 15, 1587, Daniel Danvers8 bought of his brother Samuel for £12 10s. and a yearly rent of £3, the lease of the Berry Close with the house thereon, in which at the time lived William Watts.  He puts the name of his eldest son, John, in the lease.  Daniel appears to have been a moneyed man, as we find him on one occasion, in the year 1586, lending £400 8 to his brother Samuel on the security of the latter’s tithes of grain and corn in Culworth, the money to be repaid in a twelvemonth in the house of Lady Dorothy Benger (their mother) in Culworth.  In the year 159112.8 (March 20, 34 Elizabeth I) Daniel Danvers bought from Samuel Danvers for the sum of £400 a moiety of the manor of Moreton Pinkney, with the house thereon occupied by Mr Thomas Brickett, and other appurtenances of the manor.  The following year he again lends to his brother on the security of the tithes of Culworth.

CONTEMPORARY LIFESTYLE

Daniel Danvers does not appear to have followed any profession, and it is evident from the baptisms of his children in Culworth Church and from the notices which we find of him in the Lay Subsidy Rolls,12.9 and in the parish accounts, that he lived the greater part of his life in the village.  His occupations would be those of the country squire, but it must be remembered that the squire was no longer the country boor that he was a few generations back, a man with no knowledge but that of husbandry and hunting, and with no books beyond, perhaps, one on heraldry.

Literature

The literary activity of the country, roused in the days of Henry VII, had not subsided; indeed, early in the reign of Elizabeth I, all the new ideas, called into existence by the Renaissance, the Reformation and the discovery of the New World, assumed a form, and found expression in writing.12.10 In the year 1590 were published the first three books of The Faery Queen, and we may imagine Daniel Danvers reading Spenser’s verses, and delighting to unravel the meaning of the allegory, finding in the red-cross knight the militant Christian, in Una, whom he loves, the true Church, and in Duessa, who seduces him, a type of Popery.  Then followed the earlier plays of Shakespeare, while many of those whose hearts were not stirred by Spenser or by Shakespeare, or by the works of the numberless minor poets of the period, found a literature to their taste in the abundant theological writings of the day.  The taste or spirit which induced Daniel Danvers to possess himself, as we learn from the records, of Calvin’s Institutes, would lead him to study, along with the English Bible, the works of Erasmus and of Jewell12.11—The Apology, and The Defence of the Apology, which were, we know, amongst the books that belonged to the village church.  Possibly in his studies he found a kindred spirit in Mr Kinge (Knight?), of Culworth, one of the ministers ‘who doe especiallye assemble themselves’ at the classes, or synods, of Northampton, one of whose tenets was that ‘such as cannot preach are no ministers,’ and that, shaking off the yoke of Bishops, Pastors, Doctors—Elders, Deacons, Widows, should govern the Church.12.12

Outdoor Occupation

Outdoor occupation, too, Daniel Danvers would find in plenty, for those were prosperous days for individuals who possessed land, and capital wherewith to stock it—indeed, it is one of William Harrison’s complaints against the times that the gentry were taking their lands into their own hands, and becoming graziers, butchers, tanners, sheepmasters, woodmen, and what not.12.13  ‘Our sheep are very excellent,’ he writes, ‘sith, for sweetness of flesh, they pass all other.  And so much are our wools to be preferred before those of Milesia and other places, that if Jason had known the value of them that are bred and to be had in Britain, he would not have gone to Colchis to look for any there.’ 12.14  Northamptonshire, too, was a great horse and cattle breeding country, and great attention was being paid to the improvement of the breeds.  Owing, too, to the recent introduction of winter roots and other winter food, sheep and cattle could be kept through the winter without the loss from death and deterioration which formerly prevailed.  The land also was more intelligently worked, and thus, and by the use of manures, its productiveness was vastly increased.  So that there was plenty of occupation for an intelligent landholder, and plenty of inducement to him to make full use of his land and capital.  Moreover, the Culworth parish accounts give us a hint that the lord of the manor and his brother were engaged in the way that Harrison decries, for in the year 1570 Mr Danvers buys the town bull for 30s.  Probably the parish, which had already given up its ale business, was now parting with its stock.

Meals

As regards the daily round of a squire’s life, we learn from Harrison that the regular meals were two in number only.  ‘With us,’ he writes, ‘the nobility, gentry, and students do ordinarily go to dinner at eleven before noon, and to supper at five, or between five and six at afternoon, except here and there some young hungry stomach that cannot fast till dinner time.’  The beverage early and late in a country house was beer, commonly a year old, ‘or peradventure,’ says Harrison, ‘of two years’ tunning or more, but for the household usually not under a month’s age, each one coveting to have the same stale as he may, so that it be not sour, and his bread new as is possible, so that it be not hot.’

Houses

The same authority tells us of the many houses that at this period were pulled down, that they might be rebuilt according to the new fashion of brick or hard stone, or both, their rooms comely and large, and their houses of office distant from their lodgings.  And he notices three things that are marvellously altered in England: one is the multitude of chimneys with which the houses are now provided in the place of the two or three of former days; and another change is the amendment of the lodging, the mattresses, the feather beds, and pillows in the place of the straw pallets, with a good round log for a pillow; and the third change that he notices is the exchange of wooden for pewter platters, and wooden spoons to silver or tin.  And in another place he tells us that because of their plenty the gentry loathed silver vessels, and would have Venice glasses, and even the poor will have glass, contenting themselves with such that are made at home.  But with reference to the glass vessels he quaintly reflects that ‘they go to shards at the last, and breed much strife towards such as have the charge of them; and as regards the amendment of house and furniture, when,’ says he, ‘our houses were built of willow, we had oaken men, but now that our houses have come to be of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many, through Persian delicacy, crept in amongst us altogether of straw.’

DANIEL DANVERS AT MARSH BALDON

Buys the Manor from Sir William Pope

To return to Daniel Danvers.  In the year 1599 his elder brother, Samuel of Culworth, died, and after that we find no further record of Daniel’s presence in Culworth, while five years previously he had bought from his brother-in-law, Sir William Pope, the manor, with its appurtenances, of Marsh Baldon in Oxfordshire.  The conveyance of the manor is recorded in an Oxon Fine of the year 1594.12.15  The fine is passed between Daniel Danvers, his wife Susanna, and William Pope; the manor is called March Baldington, or Marsh Baldon, or March Baldington Windesor.  With the manor are twelve messuages, eight cottages, two dovecots, twenty gardens, twenty orchards, twenty acres meadow, two hundred acres pasture, five acres wood, one hundred acres furze and heath, three hundred acres land, and thirty-five shillings of rent in Marsh Baldon, Newington, Nettlebed, Brightwell, and Watlington, and the advowson of Marsh Baldon Church.

Descent of the Manor

The descent of the manor of Marsh Baldon and of the advowson of the church is very carefully traced in a case12.16 which was frequently before the courts in the years 1770-72, and was heard in the House of Lords, February 4, 1774.  From the evidence adduced in the case, it appears that the manor and advowson were released by Walter Windsor, son of Lord Windsor, to Sir Thomas Pope.  From Sir Thomas’s nephew, William Pope, they passed to his sister Susanna and her husband, Daniel Danvers, and in October, 1613, were the subject of a marriage settlement made on the marriage of John Danvers’ eldest son, and heir of Daniel, with Anne, the daughter of Anthony Sadler.  After the death of John, the manor and advowson passed to the Pollard family by the marriage of Susan, daughter and heiress of John Danvers, with John Pollard.  Those who are interested in the history of the village may find the case fully reported in Symonds’ MS. collections for Oxfordshire, vol. vi, in the office of the Town Clerk of Oxford, and in the original pleadings, which are presently held at the Record Office.

Monument to John Danvers

Marsh Baldon is a village situated about six miles to the south-east of Oxford.  The manor-house in which Daniel Danvers lived is presently (1895), the seat of Sir John Christopher Willoughby, but the panelled hall and some of the rooms remain as they were when he inhabited them.  The house is, however, considerably enlarged by the addition of rooms at the back of the old manor-house.  The house stands in a small park close to the little church, in which is a monumental slab to the memory of John Danvers, late of Marsh Baldon in the county of Oxon, Esq., who deceased the 26th April, 1616, æt. suæ 30.  On a slab is a brass with Danvers arms: 
1. quarterly a chevron between three mullets of six points (Danvers);
2. on a bend three martletts (Brancestre);
3. checky a chief gutty (Coleshill);
4. fretty of six (Blanchminster) with, in the centre of the shield a mullet for difference.

In the register in which John Danvers’ death is recorded he is called ‘lord of the manor.’  His daughter and heiress married John Pollard, of the neighbouring village Nuneham-Courtney.  We anticipate in respect of these particulars in order to account for the presence in two of the church windows of the arms of Danvers and Pollard.

Sells Culworth Assets

In the Close Roll of 4 James I (1606), part xvii, is an indenture made on May 10 between Daniel Danvers, of March-Bauldwyn, in the county of Oxon, gentleman, Susannah, his wife, and John Danvers the younger, son and heir apparent of the said Daniel and Susannah on the one part, and John Danvers, the elder, of Culworth (Daniel’s nephew), on the other, witnessing that the said Daniel Danvers and Susannah, his wife, and John, their son, in consideration of the sum of £1,230 (a large sum at the time), sell to the said John all their land and houses, etc., in the parish and field of Culworth.  The land included the Berry Close (where are the remains or site of the castle), and houses and land in the occupation of Richard Piddington, John Goodwyn, and several other people, whose names are frequently met with in the parish records.  One of the houses, that in the occupation of Margaret Butler, must have been a considerable one, as the rent was £23 annually—a large rent, as we may judge from the fact that John Danvers, the lord of the manor, appears in the Lay Subsidy Roll of the year 1610 with a rating of only £14 in land.  (Lay Subsidy Rolls of Culworth Parish are wanting between the years 1556 and 1592.)  That of the latter year rates Samuel Danvers, Esq., in lands at £25, while Danyell Danvers, gentleman, is rated at only £4.  Yet small as that rating may seem, it represented the estate of many a village squire.  Robert Washington, the then (1596 roll) squire of Sulgrave, was rated at £4 only, and such was the rating of many of the gentry who head the rolls of several Northampton villages of the period.)  By this sale Daniel Danvers finally separated himself and his family from Culworth.

Shortly after the death of Daniel’s eldest brother, Samuel, we find his son, Samuel the younger, clearing off the encumbrances on his father’s estate, (this deed is signed by Danyell Danvers and Susan Danvers) and amongst other deeds is one12.8 dated April 1, 42 Elizabeth, by which Daniel Danvers and Susan, his wife, agree to levy a fine by means of which the moiety of the manor of Moreton Pinkney will pass to his nephew.  Further,12.8 on the 24th of the same month, he by another deed releases to Samuel Danvers ‘all manner of actions debte dutyes and demaundes.’  On the back of this deed we find in the handwriting of John, brother to Samuel Danvers the younger, the words, ‘My unckle Danyell Danvers his release to my brother Sa: Danvers.’

John Danvers marries Ann Sadler

Daniel’s son and heir, John, was baptized at Culworth, August 29, 1585, admitted C. F. to Winchester College, æt. 12, in the year 1598.  He married Anne, daughter of Anthony Sadler at St Saviour’s, Southwark, November 11, 1613.  The baptism of their only child, Susan, is entered in the parish register on October 17, 1614.  On February 28, 1635, is the entry of the marriage of Susanna Danvers and John Pollard.  From the Visitation of Wiltshire12.17 of the year 1623 it would appear that Mrs John Danvers married again, for we find in it an entry to the effect that Richard Goddard, of Upham, Wilts, married Anne, widow of John Danvers, of Boldon, Oxon.  The families were already allied, for Lewis Pollard, father of John Pollard, married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Goddard, of Upham, Wilts.

POLLARD FAMILY

The Pollard family, a very ancient one in Devon, trace their descent to Walter Pollard, of Waye, temp. Henry III.  From Walter was lineally descended Sir John Pollard,12.18 of Nuneham-Courtney, whose son, Lewis, married Elizabeth Goddard, and by her had a large family, of whom the eldest, John, husband of Susan Danvers, was born in the year 1608.  Sir John Pollard had a brother, Anthony, to whose memory a grand monument was erected in the chancel of the ancient church of Nuneham-Courtney.  In the year 1764 this church was pulled down, and after the manner of church restoration of the period, the monument would in the usual way have been broken up and employed as building material.  It was, however, rescued, and removed, with a fragment of the ancient church, to the grounds of Marsh Baldon manor-house, where it now stands in the woods by the side of the small lake which the grounds include.  Strange it is, lighting in this lonely spot upon a beautiful fragment of Early English work, against which rests the fine monument of Anthony Pollard and his wife, Phillippa.  Uncovered, exposed to wind and rain, lie their effigies and those of their two sons; above them are the armorial bearings of the family, described by Anthony Wood as he saw them, when in his time they were in the chancel of Nuneham-Courtney Church.12.19  The inscription states that the tomb is that of Anthony Pollard, Esquire, brother of Sir John Pollard of Nuneham, of the ancient and illustrious family of Pollard of Harwood, Devon, who died July 19, 1577, æt. 51; and of Phillippa, his wife, sister of Ralph Sheldon, of Beoly, Worcester, who died December 23, 1606, æt. 77.  They had two sons, William and John, who died young, and whose mutilated effigies are placed beside their parents’ tomb.

DANIEL DANVERS AT HORLEY

Buys Land

In the year 1615 Daniel Danvers12.20 and his son, Anthony, bought of Thomas Wykeham and his wife, Frideswide, and others, two houses, two gardens, 140 acres land, 20 acres meadow, 30 acres pasture, and 16 acres gorse in Swalecliffe.  And probably about this time, and in consequence of the death of his eldest son John, Daniel Danvers decided to leave Marsh Baldon, for in the year 161712.21 we find him again with Anthony, buying from Richard Leighte and Elizabeth, his wife, and Margaret York, widow, the manor of Horley,  Oxfordshire, and four messuages and four tofts, two dovecots, four gardens, four orchards, 140 acres land, 40 acres meadow, 80 acres pasture, 40 acres wood, 10 acres of gorse, and fifteen shillings of rent in the village for himself, his son Anthony and their heirs.  Thus Daniel became ‘Daniel of Horley,’ as Baker calls him in the Danvers pedigree.  Of the village we shall have more to say hereafter; suffice it now that it is a little more than a mile north of Wroxton,where lived Daniel’s wife’s brother, Sir William Pope, at the time engaged in building the grand mansion which is the present seat of his descendants.  Eight miles to the east of Horley is Culworth, where lived Daniel’s nephew, John, and at Banbury and Broughton, two miles away, lived his cousins Danvers and Fiennes, while the next village to Horley on the east was Hanwell, the seat of his friends the Copes.  Then, again, a little beyond Hanwell, is Prestcote, the ancient dwelling- place of Daniel’s ancestors, and at the time one of the seats of his cousin, Henry, Baron Danvers.

Death of Daniel Danvers

And at Horley, surrounded by many friends, Daniel and Susanna Danvers passed the last years of their lives.  He died in February, 1623, and his wife followed him in November, 1628.  Their burials are entered in the Horley register, and doubtless husband and wife were buried in one grave in Horley churchyard.  Their tombstone, if it ever existed there, has disappeared, but this in common with many others, which in the neglected and irreverent Georgian era are known to have been used for paving-stones and as building materials for neighbouring houses.  Daniel left two sons, Anthony of Horley and William of London, and no doubt one or more of his daughters survived him, but whether it was so, and whether they married, and whom they married, is to us unknown.

MEMBERS OF THE DANVERS FAMILY CIRCA A.D. 1620

Let us notice who and where were the other members of the Danvers family, descendants of John of Dauntesey and his wife, Anne Stradling, at the date of Daniel Danvers’ death.  At Culworth was his nephew, John Danvers, with his wife, Dorothy Pulteney, and their son, Samuel.  At Dauntesey and Prestcote was Sir Henry, Baron Danvers, and at Chelsea his brother, Sir John Danvers and his first wife, Magdalene, the widow of Richard Herbert of Blackhall and Montgomery and mother of George Herbert of Bemerton.  At Baynton was Charles Danvers, second cousin to Sir Henry, with his wife and five sons and nine daughters.  At Corsham and Tockenham were John Danvers, grandson of Sir John and Anne Stradling, his wife Susan, and their son John.  At Upton and Ratley, in Warwickshire, were George Danvers, great-great-grandson of Sir William Danvers and his wife Anne Pury, with his second wife, Maria, and three or four sons.  At Fifield, in Berks, were John, brother of George, and his wife, Mary  At Adderbury was Thomas, also a great-great-grandson of Sir William, and his wife, Alice Knevett, and several nephews, children of his brothers.

Before the end of the next century all the male descendants of these families—saving one, a great-great-grandson of Daniel’s—were dead, and not a single acre of the once broad lands of the family belonged to a man of the name of Danvers.

WILLIAM DANVERS OF LONDON

‘Silkman’ of Paternoster Row

William Danvers, the third son of Daniel Danvers, and his wife, Susanna, was baptized at Culworth in August, 1593.  As was the case with so many of the younger sons of country gentlemen of the period, he went into trade.  He was apprenticed to the Skinners’ Company and latter established himself as ‘a silkman’ in Paternoster Row.  In the times of the Lancastrian kings the makers of rosaries, or Pater Nosters, had established themselves in this neighbourhood, attracted to it, no doubt, by the vicinity of the three great ecclesiastical establishments, St Paul’s Cathedral and the monasteries of the Gray and Black Friars.  The rosary turners seem to have made way for the mercers and silkmen, and in the year 1665 we find Pepys dressed in his new camelott suit, the best he ever wore in his life, going to Paternoster Row to choose silk to make him a plain ordinary suit.  And the street was then, as now, often blocked, not, however, by carts carrying loads of books or of paper, but by the carriages of the nobility and gentry buying silk and lace and cloth, or doing business with the seamstresses and tire-women who had also settled in the Row.

‘The Golden Dragon’ and ‘The Blue Boar’

Each shop had its signboard setting forth the name and business of its owner, and William Danvers, as we learn from his will, had two houses in the Row which were known as ‘The Golden Dragon’ and ‘The Blue Boar’.  Moreover, William held a share in a ship, The Advice of London, and doubtless imported from Genoa or Venice, or possibly even from India, the silks which he sold.  He seems to have been a prosperous man, owning the two houses in the Row, and land and houses in Kerry Lane, near Whittington College, a site still marked by College Street, Queen Victoria Street, and he had, too, much silver plate, which by his will he divided amongst his children.

Marries Anne Clarke

William married Anne, daughter of Clement Clarke.  He belonged to the parish of St Faith, a church which once stood near the east end of old St Paul’s, but being demolished in the year 1256, a part of the crypt of the cathedral was made over to the use of of the congregation, and became the Church of St Faith’s beneath St Paul’s.  The registers of the church have been preserved, and we find there the entry, July 14, 1646, of the burial of Elizabeth, daughter of William Danvers, silkman, and his wife, Anne.  August 9, of the same year, of Anna, daughter of Mr William Danvers, of Paternoster Row, and on November 8, 1650, is the entry of the burial of Mrs Danvers, wife of Mr Danvers, of Paternoster Row, silkman.

Death of William Danvers

William Danvers died in the year 1660, and was buried in the church or churchyard of St Faith’s on April 25, 1660.  He desires in his will that Mr Shute may preach his funeral sermon and leaves to him 40s.

Will of William Danvers

His will12.22 was made in May, 1660, and proved by his executors, his sons Samuel and Daniel, on the 26th of the following July.  He mentions his sons, George, Samuel, Daniel, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and William, and his daughters, Mary, wife of Lawrence Maydewell, and Jane, wife of Robert Austin (married 22 February 165212.23). He leaves legacies to his cousin, John Pollard (husband of his brother John’s daughter, Susan), to the poor of St Faith’s, and to Mr Shute.  His property and plate he divides amongst his children, constitutes his sons Samuel and Daniel his executors, and enjoins them ‘on his blessing’ to be careful in the performance of their duties, specially to have care of their brother William.

SAMUEL DANVERS OF LONDON

Marriages

William died in the year 1660, and that year his son Samuel, bachelor, aged twenty-five, of Dowgate, skinner, had leave to marry (from Vicar-General of Archbishop of Canterbury) Abigail Arnold, aged eighteen, daughter of Stoughton Arnold, of St Andrew’s, Holborn.  As we learn from the register of the Skinners’ Company, Samuel Danvers was at the time on the livery of the company.  The marriage took place on 27 October 1660.12.23  Abigail died when young, and in 1667 we find Samuel again licensed to marry—‘Samuel Danvers, of St Clement Danes, widower, about thirty-two, to Beata Bridges, of Fulham, spinster, about twenty-two, with her mother’s consent.’  This marriage took place 1 October 1667.12.23

There can be little doubt that the Samuels of these two marriages are one and the same individual, for the ages given in the two licenses tally, and in one of the notices of the later marriage the bridegroom is called citizen of London, which Samuel, son of William, undoubtedly was.  The register of St Faith’s for July 1666 states a child of Mr Samuel Danvers, silkman of Paternoster Row, buried; and on July 28 Elizabeth, wife of the same, buried.  The fact that in 1666 Samuel Danvers had a wife Elizabeth may be thought to cast doubt upon the opinion expressed that the Samuel who married (1) Abigail Arnold and (2) Beata Bridges was Samuel son of William Danvers, more especially as the age of the bridegroom of both marriages agrees with that of Samuel, son of Anthony Danvers of Horley, who, as we now know, was on the livery of the Skinners’ Company.  But William Danvers was on the livery of that Company, which renders it likely that his son was so also, and the bridegroom in question was first of Dowgate, where Samuel, son of William, had property, and second of St Clement Danes, Strand, where, as Chancery proceedings show, he settled after the destruction of Paternoster Row by the Great Fire.

Beata Danvers (Bridges)

Beata Bridges,12.24 was third daughter of Sir John Brydges, of Wilton Castle, Hereford, who died in the year 1651.  Sir John was succeeded by his son, Sir James, who was his Majesty’s ambassador to Constantinople, and became by inheritance Lord Chandos.  Sir John died in the year 1714, and in 1719 his son James was created Duke of Chandos.

Beata seems to have lived in Kensington, where, in March of the year 1723, we find Beata Danvers administering to the estate of her mother, Beata Bridges, widow.12.25

Family of Beata Danvers

Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel and Abigail, was baptised 5 June 1664.  John, the son of Samuel and his second wife, Beata, was baptised 30 May 1676.12.23

GEORGE DANVERS

Plague and Fire

At the period of which we are writing, two terrible calamities happened to the city: these were the Great Plague of the year 1665, and the Great Fire of September, 1666.  The brothers Samuel and George Danvers escaped the plague, but their fortunes must have been materially altered for the worse by the fire, which burnt down their houses in Paternoster Row and in Kerry Lane.

Death of George Danvers

George, the elder brother, was admitted to Winchester College as founder’s kin—‘1636, George Danvers, C. F., aged 13, St Faith’s, London.’.  He died in the year 1669.  In his will12.26 he leaves the ground on College Hill (the houses had been burnt down) and his gold seal ring with his coat-of-arms thereon to his brother Samuel, and to Samuel’s wife his father’s feather bed and bolster.  He leaves legacies to his sisters Austin and Maydwell, amongst other things a diamond and emerald ring and his father’s and mother’s mourning rings.  His brothers Daniel and Samuel are his executors.  George was a lawyer who belonged to the parish of St Giles, Cripplegate, and his burial is entered in the parish church register on February 7, 1668-69.

DR DANIEL DANVERS

Daniel Danvers, the second son of William, matriculated at Oxford, and became a B.A. from Trinity College on July 5, 1651, a Fellow of the College in the year 1654, and Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine in the year 1666.  He seems to have been well known in his time at Oxford as a clever speaker and a wit.  He married Jane, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Knightley, Vicar of Charwelton and Byfield, and established himself as a physician at Northampton, where he became distinguished both in his profession and as a citizen.  We learn from the Culworth parish register and from his will that Dr Daniel had a house at Culworth, and that he maintained kindly relations with his cousins there.  Daniel, son of Sir Pope, was his godson and namesake.

Death and Will of Daniel Danvers

Dr Daniel died on May 12, 1699, about seventy years of age.  His will is in the Probate Registry, at Northampton, made May 10, 1699, proved in the August following.  The seal bears the impression of the old Danvers arms—the chevron and mullets.  In it he mentions his wife, his daughter Jane, his son Knightley, his godson Daniel, and his nieces and god-daughters, Mrs Anne Adams, Mrs Sarah Knightley and Mrs Anne Hyne.  He was buried in the parish church of Northampton, where his monument remains.

Widow of Daniel Danvers

His wife survived him many years, outliving her daughter Jane and her husband, John Rushworth, a surgeon.  She died in the year 1739, aged ninety six.

Will of Thomas Knightley

The will of the Rev. Thomas Knightley, who died on the 15 October 1688, aged 90, mentions his Danvers son-in-law and grandson.12.27  Part of the will runs—‘Item I give to all the rest of my Grand children (the rebellious Knightley Danvers only excepted for his unparralelled undutifullnesse) twenty shillings apiece to buy them Rings.’

The will also mentions ‘my Sonn Dr. Danvers, my Sonn Adams, my Sonn Hind and my Sonn Knightley’ the names of the families mentioned in the will of Daniel Danvers.

Knightley Danvers

Knightley Danvers,12.28 Dr Daniel’s son, was well known in his time as a barrister, and the author of one or more law books.  He became Recorder of Northampton, and died in January, 1740, leaving no children.  In his will12.29 he leaves legacies to his nieces, Rushworth and Vintner, to many old friends, and to the poor of Byfield, where, as he states, he was born.  Jane, his sister, married after her father’s death John Rushworth, surgeon, of Northampton, by whom she had a large family.  One of them, Alice, married Charles Watkins of Badby, Northamptonshire, whose son, Charles Watkins, married Sarah Lord.  Their daughter Sarah Watkins married Richard Miles Wynne, of Exarth, Denbigh, and their daughter and heiress, Mary Miles Wynne, married James Pitt Goodrich of Everglyn, Glamorgan.12.30  There is a tablet to Jane and to her husband’s memory on the wall of the south aisle of All Saints’ Church, Northampton.

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWELVE

12.1 Harrison’s Elizabethan England.  Furnivall’s edition.

12.2 Beesley’s Banbury, p. 196.

12.3 Cf. ibid., p. 77.

12.4 Warton’s Life of Sir T. Pope; Baker’s Northampton, vol. i, p. 707; Harleian Society, vol. v, p. 151; Croke’s Croke Family; Burke’s Extinct Baronetages; Oxon Fine, 25 Edward III (1351), Roger Pope and his wife Cecilia had land near Dorchester.

12.5 Exchequer Escheats, series 2, file 795.  William Pope died March 16, 15 Henry VIII (1523).  His heir is his son Thomas, aged 16 and more.

12.6 Clutterbuck’s Herts, vol. ii, p. 359.

12.7 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 280.

12.8 Deeds in possession of Macnamara (1895).

12.9 Daniel Danvers is present with Samuel Danvers in Northampton Lay Subsidy Rolls of 30 (1587), 35 (1592), and 39 Elizabeth I (1596), and in parish accounts of years 1589, 1595 and 1598.

12.10 Bright’s England, vol. ii, p. 574.

12.11 See Culworth parish accounts.

12.12 Northampton Tracts, Taylor and Son, 1878.

12.13 Furnivall’s edition of Harrison’s England, Camelot Series, p. 121.

12.14 Ibid., p. 155.

12.15 Oxon Fine of the year 1594, Hilary, 37 Elizabeth I.

12.16 Jakman v. Cox.

12.17 Visitation of Wiltshire, p. 19, edited by G. W. Marshall, LL.D.

12.18 Harleian Society’s vol. v, pp. 204, 305.

12.19 Wood MSS., E., i, p. 190, Bodleian Library.  Figured in J. H. Parker’s Architectural Antiquities of Oxfordshire.

12.20 Oxon Fines, 13 James I (1616), Mich.

12.21 Ibid., 15 James I, Mich.

12.22 William Danvers’ will, Nabbs, 177.

12.23 These dates are from the LDS International Genealogical Index.

12.24 Collins’ Peerage, vol. vi, p. 728.

12.25 Macnamara’s original text seems confused. It ran as follows: ‘At the time of Beata’s marriage her mother was living at Fulham, but she seems to have removed to Kensington, where, in March of the year 1723, we find Beata Danvers administering to the estate of her mother, Beata Danvers, widow.’

12.26 George Danvers’ will, Penn, 90.

12.27 The will of the Rev. Thomas Knightley quoted in the text was published in Northamptonshire Notes and Queries (Nos 576 and 596) and supplied by ‘F.K.H.’ a direct descendant of the Rev. Thomas.

12.28 See Forster’s Alumni Oxoniensis, edition of 1891.

12.29 Knightley Danvers’ will, Browne, 6.

12.30 This is from a pedigree in the possession of H. St A. Goodrich, Esq., son of James Pitt Goodrich.

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Digital edition first published: 1 Mar 2020             Updated: 12 Jul 2023                garydanvers@gmail.com