10 Jul Lordship Title of Wantage ID1661
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In 1237–8 Wantage was claimed against Fulk Fitz Warin by Henry III as terra Flandrensium—that is, as the land of Robert Advocate of Béthune, the nephew and heir of Baldwin de Béthune. Gilbert Marshal Earl of Pembroke warranted Fulk in the manor, and he remained in possession, a claim put forward by Robert de Béthune himself in 1241 proving equally unsuccessful. In 1257 Fulk, probably son of the above-named Fulk, leased the manor for five years to Adam Fettiplace of Oxford, who transferred a moiety to Sir William de Valence, the king's half-brother. The latter had a grant of the custody of the manor of Wantage on the death of the fourth Fulk Fitz Warin in 1264, when his son and heir Fulk was a minor. The younger Fulk proved his age in 1273, and was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1295. He was dead in 1315, when the manor of Whittington was delivered to Eleanor wife of his son and heir Fulk, then in France. The lands of the latter came into the king's hands on his attainder in 1330. A rent of 40 marks from the manor of Wantage, with Fulk's house there, was granted to his wife for her support. He seems to have been restored in the next year, and he died in possession in 1349, leaving a son and heir Fulk, a minor. The latter died in 1371–2, when the manor of Wantage was granted to Alice Perrers, the king's favourite, to hold till the heir, another Fulk, should be of age. On her forfeiture it was granted to Fulk Corbet and Philip Fitz Warin. Fulk Fitz Warin was of age in 1383 and died in 1391, having granted the manor for life to Philip Fitz Warin. On account of the minority of his son and heir Fulk, aged three at his father's death, the king claimed the custody, which he granted in 1402 to Elizabeth Lady Botreaux and Robert Thresk, clerk. Fulk died in 1407 without coming of age. His son Fulk Fitz Warin, then aged one year, lived till 1420, when the barony and manor passed to his sister Elizabeth, the wife of Richard Hankeford. Her husband held Wantage for one knight's fee in 1428. He survived his wife and died in 1430–1, leaving by her two daughters and co-heirs, Thomasina and Elizabeth. Elizabeth died unmarried in 1433, and Thomasina became sole heir. She married Sir William Bourchier, who was summoned to Parliament as Lord Fitz Warin in her right in 1448–9. They had settled the manor on themselves in tail in 1442–3. Their son and heir Fulk died in 1479, leaving a son John, created Earl of Bath in 1536. He was succeeded by a son John, whose heir in 1561 was a grandson William. The latter settled the manor in 1619 on his son and heir Edward in tail-male with remainder to his cousin Henry Bourchier. Edward left no surviving sons at his death in 1637. Henry, who succeeded to the earldom of Bath, must, however, have renounced his right to Wantage, which appears before his death in three parts held by Elizabeth, Dorothy and Anne, the daughters and heirs of Edward Earl of Bath. Elizabeth, who married Basil second Earl of Denbigh, died without issue in 1670. The heirs of her sisters then held the manor in moieties. Thomas Earl of Stamford, Dorothy's son and heir by her husband Lord Grey of Groby, Leicestershire, was holding one moiety in 1676–7. The other was in the possession of Sir Bourchier Wrey, bart., son of Anne by Sir Chichester Wrey, her second husband. The two combined in an arrangement with regard to this manor and others in 1685, the effect of which was apparently that Wantage became the property of Sir Bourchier Wrey. His son Sir Bourchier sold it in 1707 to John Doyley, son and heir of Sir John Doyley, bart., who succeeded to the baronetcy in 1709. Owing to financial difficulties he mortgaged this manor for large sums to Mary Countess of Bradford, on behalf of whose lunatic son and heir Thomas Earl of Bradford her executors foreclosed in 1746. They sold the manor in 1763 to Thomas Giles of Wantage, by whose will it passed to his relative Samuel Worthington. The latter was lord of the manor in 1803 and died shortly afterwards. He appears to have left the estate to be held jointly by his two sons Thomas Giles and Charles and his daughter Frances. They received allotments under the Inclosure Award in 1806. In 1820 Thomas Giles Worthington sold the manor to John Bunn, who was holding it in 1824. He sold it in the next year to Sir H. W. Martin, bart., who died in 1842, leaving the manor to his son Sir Henry with remainder if the latter should die without issue to his daughter Catherine Elizabeth wife of the Rev. George May. Sir Henry Martin died childless in 1863, and his sister sold the manor five years later to trustees on behalf of the Wantage Town Commissioners. It is now held by trustees for the benefit of the urban district council. The grant of the manor by Richard I to Baldwin de Béthune gave him also sac and soc, tol and theam, infangentheof and utfangentheof, and made him 'quit of shires and hundreds.' These privileges, with gallows and pillory and ordeal by fire and water, were claimed by Fulk Fitz Warin in the late 13th century, as included in William Marshal's charter to him. He was then lord of the hundred of Wantage.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No