Lords Cottesloe – The Lords in the family tree. Family tree charts are by Linda Rodgers Five generations of the Swanbourne Fremantle family have a Lord Cottesloe.  They are indicated within the family tree below, and starting with Thomas Francis Fremantle, the son of the Napoleonic War hero of the same name.  He was born […]

Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Woburn Abbey ownerships and the transfer of power at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. By Clive Rodgers 1066 Harold Godwinson owned part of Swanbourne as one of four manors, but may have held its overlordship. CLICK HERE to link to Anglo-Saxon Swanbourne, AD600-1066 1066 After the conquest, William initially took over the Overlordship of […]

The Adams Family of Swanbourne – Overlords of the Manor, 1624-1775 By Clive Rodgers The surname Adams has been local to the Winslow area and North Bucks since the Middle Ages, and in 1588 Theophilis Adams was granted land to rent in Swanbourne by Sir John Fortescue (the cousin of Queen Elizabeth 1 and Overlord […]

Manor House Names Notes on some historic manorial property names:- OLDER NAME  Swanbourne House = The Old House CURRENT NAME OLDER NAME The White House =The Manor House = Swanbourne Old People’s Home = Swanbourne House School Pre-Prep CURRENT NAME OLDER NAME The Stone House = Deverill’s Farm CURRENT NAME OLDER NAME Adam’s Farm = […]

The Deverell Family BELOW:- Reproduced from ‘Swanbourne – History of an Anglo-Saxon town’ by the late Ken Reading (reproduced by permission of his relatives). The Deverells (alt. spelling Deveral, Deverill) Of  leading importance in Swanbourne,  from the time that records began  in the 16th Century,  until the Fremantles finally  bought them  out in the 19th Century,  […]

The Askew Family By Clive Rodgers The Askew family are first linked to the Lords of the Manor after the murder of Thomas Adams.  The Widow of Thomas, Elizabeth Adams, married Thomas Askew of Swanbourne in 1627, moving in to the Manor House from the Askew Close in Nearton End. He took on the four […]

Sir John Fortescue By Clive Rodgers In 1580 Sir John  Fortescue, cousin and personal advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, became the owner of the Manor of Salden, near Mursley.  He built a magnificent palace at a cost of £33,000 (which would be hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money) where he enjoyed entertaining Royalty and the Nobility. […]