Re: Quartermans at Chalgrove

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>]

>I've often wondered many of the same things, but know no more than you do.

>It seems odd that the manor-owning family were knights throughout the 
>middle ages, became yeomen in Tudor times, were gentry again during the
>seventeenth century, and then seemed to vanish during the next. Did they
>emigrate, expire, or just fade into obscurity?

Some of their descendants live there still.
John W. Steel-Clark of the Chalgrove Local History Group
is a Quatremain descendant; his mother is a Quatremain;
I met her briefly once.

> And for how long did the Younger Branch remain one large family in
> the same location? Did they branch off almost immediately,
> or did they stick together thoughout the middle ages and beyond?

Here's where we could use a copy of Carter's Quatremains of Oxfordshire.
 http://www.quarterman.org/books/carter.html

There is a copy in the Oxford County Library, if you're near there.

>Regarding to the land that was excavated, I was wondering: is there any
> fragment of a manor house remaining, or was it completely demolished
> (if there was anything left to begin with, that is)? If there is a house
> extant, I think I may have discovered it. Whilst browsing the internet
> recently, I happened upon some pictures of the "Chalgrove manor":

><A href="http://www.cem.ac.uk/campus/bconexams2002/exams2002.htm">
http://www.cem.ac.uk/campus/bconexams2002/exams2002.htm</A>

Oh, very good catch.  Nice pictures.  I've added a link to them
from New on the front page:
 http://www.quarterman.org/

>It was featured in a Building Conservation Diploma exam. I recall reading
>elsewhere, however, that there were <EM>two</EM> manor houses in the vicinity
>of Chalgrove, one of which belonged to a family by the name of "de Plessis"
>(or something like that). So, this one might not have belonged to the
>Qua(r)terma(i/y)n(e)s.

That's right; there were two manor houses.

As mentioned in the book, Quarterman Family of Liberty County, Georgia....,
``The Quatremains of the plaque lived at Langley Hall
which was rebuilt in 1980, and very little of the original
building still exists.  Some materials from it were used for
restoration work elsewhere in the village.
It has been owned since 1906 by the Nixey family.''

Here is contact information for the Nixey family's Langley Hall:
 http://www.oxfordshire.co.uk/data/015749.html

 R & A Nixey
 Address: Langley Hall Farm
 Mill Lane
 Chalgrove
 Oxford
 Oxfordshire
 OX44 7SL
 Phone: 01865 890222

It appears to be a three diamond B&B:
 http://www.southerntb.co.uk/Consumer/Wheretostay/Serviced/Oxon.htm

The manor in the pictures you found is apparently the other manor.
We were told that an earlier version of that Chalgrove Manor
was owned by John de Plessis, Earl of Warwick.

There was an Earl of Warwick by that name, 1242-1263:
 http://www.warwick-castle.co.uk/castle/earls_of_warwick.html

There was also another manor, which is the one that was excavated
in 1976-1979 by the Chalgrove Local History Group in the field
behind the church.  That one was owned by the Barentyne family.

Hm, the Barentyne family and their Chalgrove manor appear in
something called the Chronicles of Purley, in an entry for 1451:
 http://www.purley.demon.co.uk/6-lochist/G6600KZ1450.htm

The Barentynes were apparently the family that had the walls of the
church decorated.  Barentyne manor may have been destroyed because
of the Black Death.  See the above-mentioned Quarterman book.

>Concerning the Foliots, there was a man called Robert Foliot,
> who lived during the twelfth century, whom a historian
> -- Tony Molyneux-Smith, quite recently -- claimed to be the
> real figure behind the Robin Hood legends!

><A href="http://www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/candidates.html">
http://www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/candidates.html</A>

Very interesting.

>Perhaps this Foliot was a close relative (brother, cousin,
> uncle, nephew?) of the Richard Foliot whose daughter married
> Herbert Quatremains, and/or of the Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London,
> who, as a supporter of Henry II, was excommunicated by Thomas Becket
> shortly prior to the archbishop's demise.

Interesting supposition.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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