05 Dec Lordship Title of Earley Bartholomew ID14126
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Under the Giffards the manor was held by a second family of Earley. The first who can be identified with certainty is a Thomas de Earley, kt. He is probably the Thomas de Earley who held successively the offices of verderer of Windsor Forest and coroner of the country. His heir Giles de Earley had probably succeeded his father by 1237, when he acted as collector of an aid for Berkshire. Giles died at Easter 1251, leaving, it would appear, two sons, Roland and Bartholomew. If Sir Roland de Earley was the elder he possibly died without issue, since in 1316 the manor is found in the hands of John son of Bartholomew. John de Earley appears to have sold the manor before 1327 to Robert de Charney. In 1344 a life interest in it was held by Adam de la Glorie and his wife Joan for the life of Joan. They at that date quitclaimed their right to Andrew Saddok and Richard Hanard. In 1355 the manor was in the hands of a certain Adam de Louches and his wife Joan, who in 1361 conveyed the manor to Henry de Aldrington. Settlement of the manor with two messuages and 3 carucates of land with appurtenances in Earley, Whitley, Reading, Englefield, Shinfield and Sonning was made on Henry de Aldrington and Elizabeth his wife, with remainder to their son John, in 1364. Earley Bartholomew then followed the descent of Earley Whiteknights until the death of Thomas Overy in 1431. It then apparently did not descend to the Becks, but to a Walter Waryng, possibly son of Agnes Overy by another husband. Elizabeth grand-daughter and heir of Walter Waryng married William Fettiplace, and in 1488 was holding the manor with her husband. William Fettiplace called of Childrey received a quitclaim of the manor from William Waryng of Sherfield in 1509. Alexander Fettiplace, son of Anthony brother of William (who died without issue), succeeded under settlement to the manor at his uncle's death in 1528. It descended in the Fettiplaces of Childrey until as late as 1706, when it was held by Sir Edmund Fettiplace, bart. He then suffered a recovery of the manor, perhaps preparatory to a sale, for it was apparently bought from him by Sir Owen Buckingham, a rich London merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1705. He died in 1713, and was succeeded by his son Owen Buckingham, gentleman of the privy chamber of George I, M.P. for Reading, who was killed in a duel fought with Richard Aldworth in 1720. The estate then passed to the Manleys, a Cheshire family. Richard Manley, who married the niece of Sir Owen Buckingham, was in possession when he unsuccessfully contested the Parliamentary seat of Reading against his neighbour Mr. John Blagrave in 1739. His daughter and heir Elizabeth, who succeeded him, sold her estate in Shinfield and Burghfield and purchased additional land at Earley and Sonning. In 1751 she married Sir John Powell Pryce, bart., a descendant of the Pryces of Newtown Hall, Montgomery, who brought into the settlement the Newtown estate, which together with the Earley estate was settled to his own use and that of his wife, with remainders to their issue in tail-male. It was discovered that the Welsh estates were heavily mortgaged to Lord George Bentinck, and when Sir John came to Earley his estates were in the hands of the mortgagees. In order to free the property from debt his wife consented to mortgage the Earley estate for £5,000, and conveyed it to two trustees, John Pottinger and Richard Simeon, in order to preserve the equity of redemption. In 1761 Sir John and his wife made a further conveyance to Nathaniel Bernardiston. Eventually Sir John lost his sight and entrusted his affairs to a man named Francis Skryme. He was hopelessly plundered, and as a result suffered confinement in the King's Bench debtors' prison. Skryme induced him to sign a document which afterwards proved to be an authority to sell the estate. In 1765 the sale took place in a room at Earley Court, when John Bagnall purchased the manor and estate for £9,250. Sir John died in the King's Bench prison in 1777. His wife survived him until 1806, and then died within the rules of the King's Bench. Their only child, Sir Edward Manley Pryce, died in extreme poverty in 1791, and with him the male line of the family became extinct. John Bagnall, who resided at Donnington Castle House and was described as 'a learned and rich philosopher,' died in 1802, but owing to legal complications the property was not conveyed to him before his death. It was not until 1830 that the sale of the estate was ratified, when Bagnall's executors were ordered to pay £5,000, the amount of the original mortgage, and to invest the balance of the purchase in funds to be placed to the Bagnall v. Pryce cause. This balance remained in Chancery till 1845, and with money saved from the wreck of the Pryces' Welsh estate and accumulated interest reached the sum of £29,000. To this fortune a descendant of the Pryces, a clergyman named Evors, laid claim, and sought also to recover the estate, but died before the suit came before the courts. Evors devised his interest to Mr. Arthur Briscoe, who died without issue, and his brother Mr. Wastel Briscoe, late tenant of Southcote Manor, Reading, in 1849 at length received the £29,000, the judge in Chancery advising that any claim to the estate of Earley Manor should be abandoned. The manor and estate on the death of John Bagnall in 1803 were inherited by his two daughters, one of whom, Frances, was married to the Hon. Thomas Windsor and the other, Maria Anne, to Sir William Scott, created Lord Stowell, judge of the high court of Admiralty in 1798. Lord Stowell spent the latter part of his life at Earley Court, died there in 1836 and was buried at Sonning Church. His daughter Maria Anne, wife of Henry Addington, the Statesman and friend of William Pitt, inherited the property. Addington, who resided at Woodley, close to Earley Court, raised a troop of horse, the Woodley cavalry. He was high steward for Reading, was created Viscount Sidmouth in 1805 and died in 1844. He was succeeded by his son William, and the estate is now owned by the fourth viscount, Gerald Anthony Pellew Bagnall Addington.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes