MANOR AND OTHER ESTATES.
Three hides
at Leonard Stanley, held in 1066 by Godric and
Wisnod, had passed by 1086 to Ralph of Berkeley. (fn. 69)
Ralph's nephew Roger of Berkeley held the manor of
STANLEY c. 1131 when he founded the priory
there. (fn. 70) Roger died soon afterwards and the manor
passed to his son Roger (d. 1170) and his descendants the Berkeleys of Dursley. (fn. 71) Roger son of the
second Roger was dead by 1191, and his son, also
Roger, some of whose land at Stanley was mortgaged to the Jews in 1207, (fn. 72) was dead by 1221 when
his son Henry (fn. 73) granted dower in the manor to his
widow Letuaria. Henry died the same year, and
Engelard de Cigogne, as guardian of his son John,
was recorded as holding Leonard Stanley c. 1228. (fn. 74)
John of Berkeley came of age c. 1240 but was dead by
1245. John's son Henry held the manor in 1285 (fn. 75) and
died c. 1287, (fn. 76) when it passed in dower to his widow
Joan who held it in 1316. (fn. 77) By 1327 it had passed to
her grandson, John of Berkeley, (fn. 78) who died in 1349,
when the manor was held for the few months she
survived him by his widow Hawise. (fn. 79) It then passed
to their son Nicholas, who died in 1382 and was
succeeded by his sister Maud who married Robert
de Cauntelo. (fn. 80) Maud died c. 1403 and was succeeded
by Elizabeth, daughter of her son Robert and wife of
Richard Cheddar. (fn. 81) Jane, daughter of Elizabeth and
Richard, married Thomas Wykes who held the
manor in 1442 and died in 1473 (fn. 82) when it passed to
his son John (d. 1485). (fn. 83) John's son Edmund
(d. 1514) succeeded to the manor; (fn. 84) it then passed
to his son Nicholas (fn. 85) (d. 1558) and to Nicholas's
grandson, Robert Wykes, who held it in 1568, (fn. 86) but
apparently sold it soon afterwards. (fn. 87)
The manor had passed to the Crown by 1611 when
it was bought by Sir William Whitmore (fn. 88) (d. 1649).
It passed to Sir William's son, Richard Whitmore of
Lower Slaughter (d. 1667), (fn. 89) and was held in 1671
by Richard's widow Catherine who married John
Wheeler, but by 1674 the manor had passed to her
son Richard Whitmore. Richard was dead by 1690
when his wife Anne held the manor during the
minority of her son William, who had succeeded by
1700 and died in 1725. (fn. 90) William's widow Elizabeth
held the manor in 1726. Her son William Whitmore (fn. 91) sold the estate between 1736 and 1738;
it was divided among more than twenty purchasers
but the manor and a large part of the land
were bought in 1738 by Robert Sandford of the
Priory. (fn. 92)
Robert Sandford died in 1769, and was succeeded
by his son, also Robert (d. 1804), (fn. 93) who devised the
manor to Robert Timbrell (d. 1811). It passed to
Robert Timbrell's sisters, Rebecca Holland (d. 1815)
and Amy Timbrell (d. 1818). (fn. 94) Land-tax for the
estate was paid until his death c. 1825 by the Revd.
Richard Denison Cumberland, the husband of a
third sister Susannah, and until 1832 by his widow, (fn. 95)
but in 1830 the estate was said to be held by trustees
under the will of Amy Timbrell and Rebecca
Holland, who were the owners at inclosure in 1834. (fn. 96)
In 1856 it was owned by the Revd. John Price Jones
who had married Susannah Willet Cumberland, the
daughter of Richard and Susannah. Jones was dead
by 1863 and his widow held the estate until her death
c. 1875. The manor passed to her son Richard
Denison Jones (d. 1903), (fn. 97) whose son Richard
Denison Cumberland Jones (d. 1916) was succeeded
by his sisters Katherine Anna (d. 1940) (fn. 98) and Lucy
Elizabeth who c. 1959 sold Priory Farm with 310 a.
to F. E. Pullin, the farmer since 1932. (fn. 99)
Leonard Stanley Priory was granted to Gloucester
Abbey in 1146. It was leased to Sir William Kingston from 1538, (fn. 1) and in 1544 the Crown granted it to
his son Sir Anthony Kingston, (fn. 2) who sold it in 1548
to Anthony Bourchier. (fn. 3) Anthony Bourchier sold it
the next year to John Sandford, (fn. 4) a Stonehouse
clothier, (fn. 5) who in 1554 made it over to his son
William (d. 1570). (fn. 6) The estate, which included the
rectory of Leonard Stanley, had been leased to
Richard Selwyn before 1548; in 1558 William
Selwyn was the lessee and in 1563 and 1572 Leonard Burge. (fn. 7) The freehold passed to William Sandford's son Anselm (fn. 8) (d. 1611), and to Anselm's son
William (fn. 9) who died in 1632 having settled it on his
second son John. (fn. 10) John Sandford died in 1684 and
was succeeded by his son Robert (d. 1719), (fn. 11) whose
son, another Robert, acquired the manor, as mentioned above, in 1738. (fn. 12)
A house belonging to the manor was recorded in
1287 and 1486, (fn. 13) but not, apparently, later; it may
have stood in the field to the west of the priory site
where indications of a moated site were visible in
1967. The Whitmore family apparently never lived
at Leonard Stanley. (fn. 14) The former house of the
priory, which became the manor-house in 1738, had
19 hearths in 1672. (fn. 15) It was rebuilt by Robert
Sandford c. 1750, (fn. 16) and is a three-story house with
wings projecting to the rear. The front is faced with
ashlar and has a central pediment bearing a prominent blazon of the Sandford arms, a pedimented
doorway, and sash windows. The rest of the house is
of rubble with ashlar quoins and a facing of roughcast on the rear walls, and has stone-mullioned
windows with dripmoulds, perhaps re-used from the
earlier house. Robert Sandford (d. 1769), described
as of Stratton, (fn. 17) and his son, described as of Cirencester, (fn. 18) perhaps never lived there; the interior of
the house was still unfinished c. 1775. (fn. 19) From 1856
and probably earlier the house has been occupied by
the farmer of Priory farm. (fn. 20)
In 1738 Charles Brown, the tenant, bought the
estate known as DOWNTON LIVING from
William Whitmore. (fn. 21) In 1792 and 1798 it was owned
by Giles Brown, (fn. 22) and after inclosure in 1834 Samuel
Brown had an estate of c. 100 a. in the north-east of
the parish. (fn. 23) Between 1856 and 1870 the estate was
owned by the Misses Brown, (fn. 24) and in 1967 it was
owned and farmed by Mr. H. G. Godsell. The house,
which was called Downton Farm in 1967, stands at
the corner of the road to Beard's Mill, (fn. 25) and was
described in 1736 as a large farm-house in very bad
repair; (fn. 26) it was rebuilt in stone in the late 18th or
early 19th century.
A house called TOWNSEND HOUSE, facing
the north end of the Street, apparently belonged to a
branch of the Clutterbuck family in 1580. (fn. 27) In 1672
it was occupied by John Barnes (fn. 28) and in 1695 by
William Holbrow. By 1729 it had passed to John
Holbrow (fn. 29) who bought part of the manorial estate in
1736, (fn. 30) and was presumably the John Holbrow who
died in 1747. (fn. 31) In 1778 the estate was owned by
another John Holbrow (d. 1780), who was succeeded
by his son William (d. 1803), who devised the estate
to his brother Samuel (d. 1814). Samuel's son
William Holbrow succeeded him (fn. 32) and owned c. 50
a. in 1834. (fn. 33) By 1852 the estate was owned by
William Marmont of Peckstreet, King's Stanley,
whose trustees sold it after his death in 1862. (fn. 34) The
house, renamed the Grange, was occupied from
1889 by the Jones family, owners of the manor; (fn. 35) in
1967 it was occupied as flats. It is a late-16th- or
17th-century stone house comprising a block with
two gables and a gabled cross-wing on the west;
the east and north sides are faced with rough-cast.
In the 18th century sash windows were added on the
two lower floors on the south and west, but the other
sides and the gables on the south retain the original
stone-mullioned windows with dripmoulds.
A small farm-house, later called STANLEY
DOWNTON FARM, west of the road at Downton,
apparently occupies the site of the house of Richard
Clutterbuck of Downton, yeoman (d. 1629), (fn. 36) and
was apparently rebuilt in the 1660s by his third son,
John Clutterbuck (d. 1677). (fn. 37) By 1701 it had
probably passed to John's nephew, Richard Clutterbuck of Peckstreet House, King's Stanley, who then
had property in Leonard Stanley, (fn. 38) and in 1830
Richard's descendant, John Clutterbuck of Peckstreet House (d. 1839), owned Stanley Downton
Farm with 68 a. (fn. 39) The house is of coursed rubble
with a gable and some stone-mullioned windows on
the west; the windows on the east were replaced in
the 19th century. In the late 19th century extensive
stables in variegated brick were built north of the
house.