Manors
In 1086 COGGES, assessed at 5
hides, was held of Odo of Bayeux by Wadard, (fn. 94)
who is depicted, armed and mounted, on the
Bayeux Tapestry. The core of Wadard's extensive sub-barony under Odo lay in Wootton
hundred, and Cogges may already have been the
caput. (fn. 95) Wadard evidently fell with Odo, for by
the early 12th century Manasser Arsic was
established on Wadard's former barony, described in 1166 as 18 ¼ fees held of the ward of
Dover Castle. (fn. 96) In 1101 Manasser was a hostage
in the treaty between Henry I and the Count of
Flanders. (fn. 97) Shortly before 1103 he gave his
house at Cogges to Fecamp abbey to found a
priory, suggesting that Cogges was his principal
manor. (fn. 98) He died after 1122 (fn. 99) and was succeeded
by his son Robert Arsic, who witnessed charters
of King Stephen. (fn. 1) By the mid 1150s Manasser
(II) had succeeded and was ordered by Henry II to desist from invading lands of Cogges priory
laid waste during the Anarchy. (fn. 2) Cogges remained his caput: in 1165–6 he directed that
rent from land at Swindon (Wilts.) was to be
paid at Cogges. (fn. 3) He died between 1171 and
1190 (fn. 4) and was succeeded by his son Alexander
Arsic, lord of Cogges until his death in 1201,
whose successive heirs were his sons John
(d. s.p. 1204–5), (fn. 5) and Robert. (fn. 6)
Robert Arsic died in 1229–30 and was succeeded in the barony of Cogges by his daughters
and coheirs Joan, wife of Eustace de Grenville,
and Alexandra, wife of Thomas de la Haye; (fn. 7)
Robert's relict Sibyl de Crevequer, who retained
dower in Cogges as elsewhere, was dead by
1242. In 1241 Joan Arsic sold her moiety to
Walter de Grey, archbishop of York, who immediately acquired portions of Alexandra's moiety, a garden, 3 a., the manorial fishpond, 34 a.
land, and 200 a. wood. (fn. 8) One effect of his transactions was to create the curtilage of the archbishop's court, later Manor Farm, and to reduce that
of the old manor house by the river. (fn. 9) In 1242–3,
therefore, Cogges was divided between the archbishop and the de la Hayes. (fn. 10) In 1279 the de
Grey portion comprised 2 demesne carucates
and c. 15 tenant yardlands, the former de la
Haye portion only ½ carucate of demesne and 3 ½
tenant yardlands. The tenants of both were
bound to do ward at Dover Castle five times
every two years, each time providing between
them four knights for 40 days; the de Grey
moiety had then been commuted for 20s. a
year. (fn. 11) The two parts, together with Wilcote
(then a member of the de Grey holding), made
up 3/8 of a knight's fee: in 1284–5 the de Grey
holding was assessed at ⅓ of a fee, and later as ¼
of a fee. (fn. 12)
By 1245 the archbishop had given his estate in
Cogges to Sir Walter de Grey, son of his brother
Robert. (fn. 13) Walter died in 1268 and the estate
passed in the direct male line to Sir Robert de
Grey (d. 1295), (fn. 14) Sir John (d. 1311), (fn. 15) and John,
1st Lord Grey of Rotherfield (d. 1359). (fn. 16) The
Greys regularly used Cogges as a dower manor:
Sir Walter's relict Isabel of Duston was holding
it in 1279; it was assigned to Sir John's relict
Margaret d'Oddingseles on his death in 1311;
and Avice Marmion, relict of the 1st Lord Grey,
had it after 1359. (fn. 17) Margaret probably lived at
Cogges, since she is almost certainly commemorated by a lavish tomb and chapel in the
church. (fn. 18)
The remains of the de la Haye moiety of
Cogges descended on Alexandra's death to her
daughter Alexandra, wife of William de Gardinis. (fn. 19) In 1279 Thomas de Gardinis, William's
son and heir, was holding the manor during his
father's lifetime for 1/8 of a fee. (fn. 20) He succeeded on
his father's death in 1287 and was one of the
lords of Cogges in 1316; (fn. 21) in 1293 he claimed
exemption from jury service on the grounds that
he held the barony of Cogges. (fn. 22) In 1328 he died,
holding a capital messuage, lands, and rents in
Cogges, together with property in Somerton and
Fringford, for ⅓ of a knight's fee, paying 52s. 6d.
for ward at Dover Castle. His heir was John
Giffard the younger of Twyford (Bucks.), son of
his daughter Alexandra. (fn. 23) In 1338, John, Lord
Grey, was licensed to enfeoff John Giffard with
land in Fringford in exchange for most of his
Cogges property. (fn. 24) Cogges was effectively reunited in the hands of the Greys, although the
remains of the Giffard lands comprised a separate estate until the 18th century. (fn. 25)
John, 2nd Lord Grey, succeeded to the reunited manor in 1359. (fn. 26) He died in 1375, leaving
as heir his son Bartholomew, who died the same
year. (fn. 27) Cogges was still held by the dowager
Avice Marmion, relict of the first Lord Grey, in
1379, when Bartholomew's brother Robert,
Lord Grey, settled the lands. (fn. 28) Robert died
seised in 1388; his heir was his daughter Joan,
who later married Sir John Deincourt, Lord
Deincourt, and died in 1408, (fn. 29) but Cogges was
assigned in dower to Robert's second wife Elizabeth, relict of John of Birmingham and later
wife of Sir John Clinton, Lord Clinton (d.
1398), and of Sir John Russell. Elizabeth died in
1423 seised of the manor, (fn. 30) which passed to
Joan's daughters and coheirs, Alice wife of William Lovel, Lord Lovel, and Margaret wife of
Sir Ralph Cromwell. (fn. 31) It remained divided between them until Margaret died without issue in
1454, leaving Alice as her heir. (fn. 32) William, Lord
Lovel, died in 1455; (fn. 33) Alice married secondly
Sir Ralph Butler, later Lord Sudeley, and held
Cogges until her death in 1474. (fn. 34)
The heir to the de Grey estate in Cogges was Alice's grandson Francis, Lord Lovel; (fn. 35) he was
attainted in 1485, and the manor escheated to
the Crown. (fn. 36) In the same year Henry VII
granted Cogges, along with other Oxfordshire
manors, to his brother Jasper, duke of Bedford. (fn. 37) When Jasper died without legitimate
issue in 1495 (fn. 38) the manor passed back into royal
hands and in 1509 Anthony Fettiplace, squire
for the body, was made steward of Cogges and
other manors in Oxfordshire. (fn. 39) In 1514 all the
manors were granted by Act of Parliament to
Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, in tail male,
and in 1517 Thomas leased Cogges to William
Bryan for 21 years. (fn. 40) Thomas's son and heir
Thomas inherited Cogges in 1524, and sold it to
the Crown in 1540. (fn. 41) In 1543 the Crown granted
the manor to Lord Audley, the Lord Chancellor, and Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity
College, Oxford; (fn. 42) Audley immediately quitclaimed to Pope, and in 1545 the manor was
confirmed to Pope alone. (fn. 43)
John Pope, brother of Sir Thomas (d. 1559), (fn. 44)
inherited the manor and was succeeded in 1583
by his son William, created earl of Downe in
1628. (fn. 45) When William died in 1631 his heir was
his grandson Thomas (d. 1660), baptized at
Cogges in 1622, and the Crown granted Cogges
to William Murray during the minority; the
manor house was held during the 1630s by
Elizabeth Peniston, widow of Thomas's father
Sir William Pope (d. 1624), and her husband Sir
Thomas Peniston. (fn. 46) Thomas, earl of Downe,
suffered badly during the Civil War and sold
most of his lands; Cogges, one of his four
remaining estates, was granted in 1660 to Sir
Francis Henry Lee of Ditchley on his marriage
to Thomas's daughter Elizabeth. (fn. 47) In 1660 and
1665 most of the demesne was leased to one
man, Thomas Collier, who lived in the manor
house. (fn. 48) In 1667 the Lees sold the manor to
Francis Blake and his son William. (fn. 49) The Blakes
were a London family; William, a woollen
draper, may have been interested in the Witney
blanket industry. His charitable ventures in
London brought financial troubles, but in Oxfordshire he prospered, became sheriff in 1689,
and at his death in 1695 left substantial charities,
notably for Blake's School at Cogges. (fn. 50) William
was succeeded by his brother Sir Francis Blake
of Ford Castle (Northumb.). (fn. 51) His relict, Sarah,
who was to have half the manor-house, quarrelled with her brother-in-law over William's
arrangements for Cogges. (fn. 52) Sir Francis died
childless in 1717 and the manor passed to his
cousin Daniel Blake, a woollen draper; he fell
into financial difficulties, mortgaged the manor
in 1720, and sold it to Simon Harcourt, Viscount Harcourt, in 1726; at that date the manor
house was occupied by Henry Franklin and
Edward Wilts. (fn. 53) Lordship of the manor then
descended in the Harcourt family, (fn. 54) and Manor
farm was leased, first to Thomas Beconsale and
then, from the 1740s until 1877, to the Hollis
family. (fn. 55) In 1877 the farm was leased to Joseph
Mawle of Worminghall, whose family remained
the principal farmers in Cogges, bought Manor
farm in 1919, and sold it to Oxfordshire county
council in 1974. (fn. 56)
The PRIORY or RECTORY manor originated in Manasser Arsic's grant to Fécamp
abbey, shortly before 1103, of his house of
Cogges, the church of the vill with its land, 2
ploughlands, firewood, a garden, 40 a. of
meadow, William of Wilcote's meadow, and all
tithes. (fn. 57) In the 14th century Cogges, as an alien
priory, (fn. 58) suffered temporary seizures and was let
at farm from 1375 onwards. (fn. 59) In 1441 Henry VI
granted the land, the priory house, and the
living to the newly founded Eton College, (fn. 60)
which continued to farm the estate to a succession of local tenants. (fn. 61) In 1859 Oxford diocese
bought the Priory and its curtilage for use as a
vicarage, (fn. 62) but the rest of the estate, by then
centred on Northfield Farm, was retained by
Eton College.
Following the reunification of the main manor
in 1338 an estate of c. 200 a., called a manor in
1345, was retained by the Giffards; (fn. 63) in 1361
possessions entailed by John Giffard the younger on his son Thomas included 30s. rent in
Cogges. (fn. 64) The estate descended with Twyford
(Bucks.) until the death in 1550 of Thomas
Giffard, when it passed to his daughter Ursula,
wife of Sir Thomas Wenman; (fn. 65) thereafter it
descended with the Wenmans of Thame Park. (fn. 66)
In 1753 it was among several estates mortgaged
by Philip Wenman, Viscount Wenman, on whose
death in 1760 it was devised to trustees for payment of debts. In 1784, following a dispute in
chancery, it was sold to George Simon Harcourt,
Earl Harcourt, and was thereafter reunited with
the main manor. (fn. 67)