10 Jul Lordship Title of Speen or Church Speen ID1623
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By a forged charter of Kenulf, King of Mercia, the entire wood which is called Speen was confirmed to the abbey of Abingdon. SPEEN was held in the reign of Edward the Confessor by Carlo of the king, and in 1086 by Humphrey Vis de Lou, also of the king. Between these dates it seems to have been held by Bernard son of Geoffrey de Neufmarché, who about 1079 gave the church of Speen to St. Mary of Aufay. Humphrey or his immediate successor apparently lost this manor, as he did Benham (q.v.), for in 1166–7 Bernard's grandson, William de Braose, rendered I mark on account of this manor. In the 13th century the overlordship was held by William de Braose as part of his honour of Brecknock, and passed to Humphrey de Bohun, who married Braose's daughter Eleanor. It probably remained in the family of the Bohuns, and passed to the Staffords, coming to the Crown on the attainder of the Duke of Buckingham, but no reference has been found to show that the Bohuns or Staffords claimed the overlordship of Speen after the middle of the 13th century. It seems that early in the 13th century the manor was granted to William Marshal, first Earl of Pembroke, for in 1218 he had licence to hold a weekly market at Speen on Mondays, provided it was not to the detriment of the merchants there. William Marshal died in May 1219, and the manor presumably passed to his eldest son William. He died in April 1231 and was succeeded in the title by his brother Richard, though there are reasons for believing that this manor was held, for a year at least, by the king. Richard died, also without issue, on 16 April 1234, and was succeeded by his next brother Gilbert, who was killed in a tournament on 27 June 1241, leaving no children. Walter the next brother succeeded him, and is returned as holding the manor, but he died childless on 24 November 1245 seised of the manor of Speen and lands and tenements in Speenhamland and Wood Speen. His brother Anselm succeeded him, but died on 5 December 1245, also childless, before he had done homage for the manor. Meanwhile Eleanor, the widow of William the eldest brother, held a considerable amount of the land and rents as dower. At the death of Anselm the manor and rents were divided among his sisters and their heirs. The manor itself went to the eldest sister, Maud Countess of Surrey and widow of Hugh Bigod, third Earl of Norfolk, but considerable lands and rents fell to the share of the other co-heirs: the heirs of Joan wife of Warine de Monchensey, of Isabel wife of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Hertford and Gloucester, of Sybil wife of William de Ferrers Earl of Derby, and of Eva wife of William de Braose, Lord of Brecon and Abergavenny. Several of these heirs obtained additional lands in 1275, on the death of William Marshal's widow Eleanor Countess of Leicester, and each of these shares is subsequently described as a manor. The Countess of Surrey's original manor passed to her son Roger Bigod, fourth Earl of Norfolk, who died childless on 4 July 1270 seised of the manor of Hampstead Marshall with its grange of Speen, held of the king in chief by service of the marshal's rod. At his death the manor seems to have come into the hands of the king, but soon passed to Bigod's nephew Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk, who received as his share at the death of William Marshal's widow the Countess of Leicester lands and rents in Newbury to the value of £5 6s. 2d. He is returned as having free warren here in 1275–6, as well as gallows and assize of bread and ale. His manor seems to have been taken into the king's hands in 1277, but he was holding it in 1278–9. In 1279, by way of settling a dispute with William de Valence, another of the co-heirs, Roger Bigod granted to William £50 yearly of land here, and it seems probable that with this grant went most that was valuable in the manor. Roger was still, however, nominally holding the manor in 1306, and died childless on 11 December in that year, when under a surrender of 1302 his honours and lands passed to the king. William de Valence Earl of Pembroke died in 1296, and the manor descended to his son Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke, who died childless in 1324. The manor then passed to John son of his sister Isabel wife of John Hastings Lord Hastings and Abergavenny. He died a few months later, when the manor descended to his son Lawrence, then a minor in the custody of the Bishop of Worcester. In 1339 there was a dispute between Lawrence and the bishop as to the possession of the lands, and in October of that year Lawrence had licence to enfeoff Sir Thomas West of the manor. In 1341 it was decided that the bishop was entitled to the profits up to 5 May 1341, when Lawrence proved himself to be of full age. Lawrence, who was created Earl of Pembroke, died in 1348, when the manor passed to William Hastings, surnamed le Neveu, an illegitimate son. He had already held the manor before Lawrence's death, for on 28 October 1347, when about to start for foreign parts, he granted the manor to Robert de Eleford and Theobald de Mounteney, on condition that if he died abroad they should pay his debts and found a chantry for his soul. He returned shortly afterwards, and died on 9 March 1349. Robert and Theobald seem then to have seized the manor, but were dispossessed, as it had been alienated without licence, and William was a bastard and had no heirs. On 3 June 1350, however, it was restored to them. Agnes, widow of Lawrence Earl of Pembroke, who had married as her second husband John Hakelut, died 25 July 1368 seised of dower in the manor, when her heir was her son John Earl of Pembroke. He seems to have granted these lands to Walter Amyas, John Abraham and others to hold in trust for his wife Anne, and died in 1375. At Anne's death the king seized the estate as guardian of the infant heir. This heir, John last Earl of Pembroke, died under age on 30 December 1389. From an inquisition taken on 31 May 1399 it would seem that Robert de Eleford and Theobald de Mounteney did not succeed in obtaining possession of the manor, but that it was granted by King Richard II to Ingram, lord of Couci, who had married Isabel the king's aunt. Ingram granted it for life to Henry Alemayn and Agnes his wife, and on 5 October 1397 the king granted the reversion in fee to John Champ and Joan his wife. This grant was confirmed by Henry IV on 14 October 1399. In 1437–8 John Champ and others sold the reversion of the manor, now called CHURCH SPEEN, to Reginald West and others, and died on 14 February 1440 seised of the manor, held of the king as onethirtieth of one-fiftieth of a knight's fee. Reginald West Lord de la Warr and his co-trustees had licence on 11 February 1445 to sell the manor to John Roger the younger and his trustees. John Roger had already purchased the adjoining manor of Benham Valence, and for a time this manor passed with the manor of Benham Valence (q.v.). When in 1543 Church Speen came by exchange into the hands of the king it was attached to the royal manor of Donnington, and Thomas Cawarden, a groom of the Privy Chamber, was made steward and bailiff here, while in 1545 the manor was leased to him for twenty-one years. Soon after the expiration of this lease Queen Elizabeth, in 1567–8, granted the site of the manor to Thomas Henneage and Anne his wife, and the heirs of Thomas, to hold of the queen in chief, and they in the autumn of 1568 sold the manor to Thomas Dolman, sen., and Thomas Dolman, jun., lords of the manor of Shaw. Church Speen then followed the descent of the manor of Shaw (q.v.) until in 1784 Sir Joseph Andrews, bart., and Elizabeth his wife sold it to William Brummell and Joseph White. After the death of Brummell the manor was sold to John Bebb of Donnington Grove, and after the death of his widow was purchased from her heirs by Charles Hopkinson, whose sons Aurelius Arthur, Charles Caesar and George Henry were joint owners of the manor in 1892.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes