10 Jul Lordship Title of Marlston or Marteleston ID1556
Posted at 20:05h
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The first recorded subtenant of the manor was Geoffrey Martel, who is mentioned in a document relating to the church of Bucklebury between the years 1189 and 1199. The Geoffrey Martel who held land of the priory of Noyon at fee farm in the early 13th century was probably the Geoffrey son of Gilbert Martel who in 1240 claimed common of pasture in Hawkridge in right of his tenement in 'Erleston Martel.' The tenant of the manor in 1271 was Richard Martel, who appears to have been followed by his son Adam; on the marriage of the latter with Nubia daughter of Geoffrey Gacelyn, Ralph Gacelyn granted him the manor in free marriage, but there is no explanation of the manner in which Ralph had obtained it. Geoffrey Gacelyn had the right of free warren there in 1275. After this a difficulty occurs in the descent of the manor. In 1316 Humphrey de la Rokele and Thomas Rydewarde were holding Frilsham with Marlston, and twelve years later the former was called to give warranty in a law-suit unsuccessfully brought by Adam son of Adam Martel to recover the manor from Richard de Walden. A settlement was made in 1338 on Richard de Walden and his wife Alice and the heirs of Richard, but from this time the history of the manor is again obscure. In 1417 it was in the hands of John Jardyn and his wife Anne, and before 1481 it had descended to two heirs, Anne the wife of Thomas Soper and Agnes the wife of William Knottysford, who in that year quitclaimed the manor to Sir William Norreys and his heirs. Sir William died seised in 1506–7 and left it to his son Lionel, who died in 1536. It then appears to have passed to Sir William's daughter Jane, who married John Cheyney of West Woodhay. Her second son Humphrey was in seisin of the manor in 1549 when he made a settlement on the occasion of his marriage with Martha Yate, by which he and Martha were to hold it for their lives with reversion to his direct heirs. On the death of Humphrey his widow married James Braybrook, and as her first husband had left no children a new settlement was made; the manor was divided between the Norreys and Braybrook families. One moiety of the manor passed to Henry Lord Norreys of Rycote, the descendant of Sir William Norreys by his second wife, and he settled it on his third son Edward Norreys. It passed to Francis Norreys, afterwards the first Earl of Berkshire, the nephew and heir of Edward, and he sold it in 1608 to Richard Wightwicke, one of the founders in 1624 of Pembroke College, Oxford. Wightwicke gave his moiety of Marlston Manor to the college, but is said to have reserved a lease of it for 500 years to himself and his successors in the estate. In the meantime an annuity of £70 was granted to the college, payable from the manor. He died about 1631, and his interest in the manor seems to have passed to his distant cousin Samuel Wightwicke who died in 1662 and was buried in Marlston chapel. Samuel was succeeded by his son John. John, son of another John, matriculated at Pembroke College in 1713. The last heir male, who was presumably this John Wightwicke, died in 1728, leaving two daughters as heirs. Mary, the survivor of these heirs, married — Wyld and in 1766 she held a moiety of the manor of Marlston. At that time she was a widow and having no issue she 'bequeathed her interest to a female friend,' from whom it passed to Mr. Ouchterlony, and in 1813 Mrs. Sarah Ouchterlony was in possession of Marlston. It was bequeathed by her to Mr. Benjamin Bunbury, a relative of her husband, from whom it passed to his son Mr. H. M. Bunbury. The latter sold it about 1896 to Mr. G. Palmer of Reading, father of the Rt. Hon. George W. Palmer, whose widow now holds it for life.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No