10 Jul Lordship Title of Curridge or Courage or Priors Court ID1440
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Baldwin held this manor of Ralph at the time of the Domesday Survey, and another Baldwin was holding it in 1189–90. Roger de Curridge was holding it in 1225, when he had a dispute with the abbey of Abingdon respecting rights of common pasture between his manor and that of Oare, and a few years later his son Roger granted the manor to the priory of Poughley, to whom it was confirmed by the king in 1248. Roger also granted three tenements here to the Knights Hospitallers. The priory was holding this manor later in the 13th century, and is referred to as holding it in 1315–16, 1360, 1398, 1424 and 1428. The priors attached several of their neighbouring manors to this and held their courts at the principal messuage here, which thus received the name of Prior's Court. The priory was dissolved in 1524, when it was found to be holding this manor, which was granted in 1525 to Cardinal Wolsey. The following year the cardinal granted it to his new college at Oxford, but on his attainder it reverted to the king, and was granted in 1531 to the Abbot and convent of St. Peter's, Westminster, and transferred in 1542 to the dean and chapter, who received a grant of further privileges here in 1560. The dean and chapter leased the site of the manor in 1543 to Edward Fettiplace for fifty years, and in 1556 let it or the manor for seventy years to William Weston, who in 1564 granted his right in it to Richard Weston. In 1649 the manor was held of the dean and chapter by Sir Edward Ernle, whose lease had fourteen years to run when he was deprived of it by the Parliament, which sold it in the same year to Alexander Constantine. The house of Prior's Court, which had been held by Walter Groveley, was at the same time sold to William Godwin. In 1654 Alexander Constantine and Anne his wife sold the manor to Richard Fincher, a major in the Parliamentary army, who died at Prior's Court in 1684 and was buried at Chieveley. At the Restoration the dean and chapter regained possession, though Major Fincher seems to have been allowed to remain as their tenant. It was usually let on lease by the dean and chapter, and in the 18th century was held by the family of Barton. It seems to have passed from Dr. Barton, warden of Merton College, Oxford, to his sister Mrs. Batchelor, and to her daughter the wife of Lewis Buckle, who was holding it in 1806, but by 1824 it had passed into the hands of John Thomas Wasey, who was holding it in 1839. The estate has since passed with the adjoining estate of Bradley Court (q.v.), the copyhold being redeemed in 1871. The present proprietor is Mr. E. J. S. Wasey.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No