10 Jul Lordship Title of Ufton Robert ID1653
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The manor at the date of the Survey was held under Fitz Ansulf by an unnamed knight, the first under-tenant of whom we have record being Ralph de Ufton, who was followed by a grandson William. A William de Ufton died before 1225 and his son and heir Robert was lord of the manor in the 13th century. It descended to William de Ufton, who was holding in 1316, 1321 and 1324. The latter had a son of the same name, who died without issue. His kinsman Peter claimed the manor under a fine of 1321 from John Paynell, who had entered into possession, and the case was tried in the court of the Abbot of Reading. John Paynell evidently made good his claim, since Richard Paynell was holding in 1338, in which year he received a licence to inclose 300 acres of pasture and wood and to make a park at Ufton. Richard left a son Thomas, and from the history of the advowson it seems that Thomas held the manor until his death, between 1406 and 1410, when he was followed by Alice Paynell, who was either his widow or his daughter. In the following year the advowson was in the possession of William Perkyns, who was returned as lord of the manor in 1428. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who left a son and heir John, and Thomas Perkyns, the son of the latter, dying seised of the manor in 1524, was followed by his son Richard. The latter held the manor during the reign of Philip and Mary, and died childless in 1560. By his will, dated 1559, he left a tenement which he had built for a poor man to live in and pray for his soul, this being one of the last records of the foundation of a hermitage. His nephew and heir Francis Perkyns, a recusant, whose manor-house at Ufton was a place of concealment for priests and treasure, followed him, and, dying in 1616, was succeeded by his son of the same name. This Francis Perkyns being also a recusant, two-thirds of his estate was sequestrated. His brother-in-law, William Eyston of East Hendred, though a well-known Roman Catholic, obtained a lease of the manor for twenty-one years. Francis had recovered possession by 1630, but apparently was again in trouble in 1637. In 1650, being then eighty years old, he made a final appeal for a seven years' lease of two-thirds of his estate. He died in 1661, his son Francis having predeceased him, and was succeeded by his grandson of the same name, who was dealing with the manor by fine and recovery in 1674. His son, another Francis, who died in 1736, married the celebrated beauty, Arabella Fermor, the heroine of Pope's 'Rape of the Lock,' and in her day Pope, Steele, Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke, and other men of letter are said to have been guests at Ufton Count. Their sons Francis, Charles and John successively inherited the estate, which, on the death of the last-named in 1769, devolved upon his distant cousin John Jones, the greatgrandson of the Francis Perkyns who died in 1694. He was holding in 1782, and sold the property in 1802 to Mr. Congreve of Aldermaston, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Richard Benyon of Englefield. The latter died in 1854, and bequeathed the manor to his nephew Richard Fellowes, who assumed the name of Benyon. He was succeeded in 1897 by his nephew, Mr. James Herbert Fellowes Benyon, the present lord of the manor.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes