10 Jul Lordship Title of Shinfield ID1608
Posted at 20:05h
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In the time of King Edward the Confessor SHINFIELD was held in alod of the king by Sexi, and in 1086 formed part of the royal demesne. It was an important manor and had a mill worth 5s. and 150 eels and five fisheries worth 550 eels. It is not improbable that although in the king's hands in 1086 the manor had once formed part of the fee of William Fitz Osbern Earl of Hereford (who gave the church to his abbey of Lire) and had been forfeited by his son Earl Roger in 1174 (see Swallowfield). Before 1166 Shinfield had been granted to one of the Earls of Warwick, and in that year was held under William de Newburgh Earl of Warwick by his tenants the St. Johns. The manor seems to have been regarded as part of the St. Johns' manor of Swallowfield (q.v.), from which it was apparently not separated until the middle of the 16th century. In 1560 Queen Elizabeth granted the manor of Shinfield to William Marquess of Winchester, owner of Stratfield Mortimer. This was probably in trust for Edward Martin, who in 1561 settled it on himself and his wife Katherine and the issue of Edward, with remainder to William Martin, his natural brother. Edward Martin's much mutilated monument in the church records that he was at one time a royal surveyor. He died in 1604 seised of the manor of Shinfield. His daughter and heir Anne had married William Wollascott of Woolhampton, and the manor afterwards followed the descent of Brimpton (q.v.) until about 1786, when it was sold by the Earl of Fingal to Alexander Cobham, who was Sheriff of Berkshire in 1790. He died suddenly in 1810, owing to a fall from his horse, and the manor passed to his great-nephew Alexander Cobham Martyr, who afterwards took the name of Cobham. He died in 1902, leaving the property to his son Captain Alexander William Cobham, late of the 44th Regiment, who died in 1913. Captain Cobham took part in the Crimean war and received the Order of the Medjidie (5th class). His son Mr. A. B. Cobham is now owner.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes