10 Jul Lordship Title of Thatcham or Henwick or Thatcham with Henwick ID1646
Posted at 20:05h
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The manor of THATCHAM belonged to the king in the early 11th century. and was the head of a hundred of that name. Land at Thatcham was left by the Ealdorman Alfeah about 965 to King Edgar. Edward the Confessor held Thatcham, and after the Norman Conquest it remained in the possession of the Crown until the foundation of Reading Abbey by Henry I. Thatcham formed one of the original endowments of the monastery. The grant probably included both the borough of Thatcham and the manor which was afterwards distinguished as the manor of Thatcham alias Henwick. The borough and manor were always held by the same lords, but formed separate tithings in the 14th century. Separate courts for the upland manor of Henwick were not held till some time after the dissolution of Reading Abbey. In the 12th and 13th centuries various grants of land in Thatcham were made to the abbey. The abbey held the manor in frankalmoign until its dissolution. In 1540 it was granted to John Winchcombe of Bucklebury (q.v.). The Winchcombes held Thatcham Manor throughout the 17th century, but on the death of Sir Henry Winchcombe, bart., in 1703, there was no male heir to succeed to the estates or the baronetcy. He had settled the manor of Thatcham on his second daughter Elizabeth and her heirs, but she died unmarried in 1705, and it passed to her two sisters, Frances the wife of Henry St. John afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, and Mary the wife of Robert Packer. On the division of the estates Thatcham was assigned to Frances, who settled it on her husband for life, and in consequence, on his attainder in 1715, the manor was forfeited to the Crown. It was shortly afterwards vested in commissioners appointed for the sale of forfeited lands, but in 1717 Lady Bolingbroke assigned the remainder, after the death of herself and her husband and on the failure of her own sons, to her nephew Winchcombe Howard Packer. By Act of Parliament the Packers were enabled to lay their claim to the Winchcombe estates before the commissioners, but, though they kept Bucklebury Manor, Thatcham was sold by the commissioners in 1720 to the Duke of Chandos, who sold it in the same year to Brigadier-General Waring. The new owner died in 1737 and left the manor to his son William Ball Waring, who died in 1746 and left it to his sister Frances, the wife of Sir Archer Croft, bart. Lady Croft by her will left Thatcham to her son Archer, with remainder on failure of heirs male to her younger son John. On the failure of John's heirs male the estate was to be sold for the benefit of the three daughters of her son Archer and a son and daughter of her daughter Frances. Lady Croft died in 1767, and her son Archer, who had succeeded to the baronetcy in 1753, inherited the Thatcham estate. On his death in 1792 it passed under the terms of his mother's will to his brother John. The latter died childless in 1797, and the manor was put up for auction in 1798, but was bought in, and was sold by the heirs in 1799 to William Mount of Wasing Place. His son, grandson and great-grandson, all of the same name, succeeded him, the last, Mr. William Arthur Mount, M.P., being the lord of the manor of Thatcham at the present day. After the borough and manor of Thatcham had been bought by General Waring he inclosed a large park to surround Dunstan House. On the sale of Sir John Croft's estates Dunstan Park, containing 6,000 acres, was bought by the auctioneer and sold afterwards in separate lots.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes