Lords of the Manor of Headington
(2): The Whorwoods: 1613–1849
Thomas Whorwood I (Lord 1613 to 1634) & Ursula Brome
In 1613 Sir Thomas Whorwood of Sandwell in Staffordshire (1582–1634) became Lord of the Manors of Holton and Headington, winning his court case with the Exchequer to prove his validity of his title to the Brome estates, which he had inherited through his marriage to Ursula, the daughter and heir of George Brome.
At the time of George Brome’s death in 1613, Thomas and Ursula Whorwood were living at Mason’s Farm in Quarry. The medieval Headington Manor House no longer existed, and Quarry was situated conveniently near the Old London Road which led to both Oxford and Holton, while until the late eighteenth century Old Headington could only be reached by footpaths.
It looks as though they may then have gone to live in Cuddesdon, as their eldest son Brome was baptised there on 13 September 1615. Their next son, Thomas, was born around 1619, and they also had a daughter called Elisabeth, who was buried at Holton on 26 September 1633.
Sir Thomas was an aggressive landlord: in the reign of James I his tenants brought a collective action against him for breaches of manorial custom. Although his rents from Headington and Holton were estimated at £1000 a year, he was still paying only £40 rent to the Exchequer for the Manor of Headington. When he discovered that little of the profit derived from the Headington quarries accrued to the lord of the manor, he dug new pits to the east of the old workings, and by 1630 he was said to have removed 500–600 cartloads of stone from them.
Sir Thomas gave St Andrew’s Church its fourth bell in 1624.
Eventually, however, Sir Thomas moved to his principal seat in Holton, and also bought the Manor of Forest Hill from Christopher Brome, son of Edmund Brome. (Nonetheless Alumni Oxonienses in 1635 describes the recently deceased Sir Thomas as being "of Heddington" rather than of Holton.)
Sir Thomas Whorwood died in Holton at the age of 52 on 22 September 1634, according to his memorial, but the parish register states that he was buried in Holton Church on 27 October: it seems likely that the entry should read 27 September. The memorial put up by his widow Ursula in the floor of St Bartholomew’s Church reads:
"Dno Thomae Whorwood de Sandwel in Com. Staf. Militi, chara coniux Ursula filia et hæres Georgii Brome de Halton in Com Oxon, armigeri, e qua tres suscepit filios filiasque duas, hoc sacrum amoris memoriale corde suo prius impressum, iamque lapide hoc memoriale corde suo prius impressum cum perpetuæ memoriæ, voto dicat dedicatque. Obiit 22o die Septembris Anno Doñi 1634 Anno Ætatis suæ 52."
[To Sir Thomas Whorwood of Sandwell in Staffordshire his dear wife Ursula (the daughter and heir of George Brome, Esq of Oxfordshire), by whom he had three sons and two daughters put up this monument.... He died 22 September 1634, aged 52.]
The "Will of Sir Thomas Whorwood of Holton, Oxfordshire" (date of probate 27 September 1634) was deposited at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury: ref PROB 11/166.
Ursula Whorwood, née Brome (Lady, 1634 to 1653)
Because Thomas Whorwood had obtained his estates via his wife’s inheritance, Lady Whorwood (1590–1653) retained the Manors of Headington and Holton when her husband died in 1634.
In the late 1640s during the Civil War, her house, Holton Park, served as Oliver Cromwell’s headquarters. The parish register of Holton Church shows that Henry Ireton married Cromwell’s daughter Bridget on 15 June 1646 "in the Lady Whorwood’s house in Holton".
Lady Whorwood died at the age of about 63 and was buried at Holton Church on 1 January 1653/4 .
Brome Whorwood (Lord 1653 to 1684) & Jane Ryder
Brome Whorwood (1615–1684), elder son of Sir Thomas and Lady Ursula, was baptised at Cuddesdon on 13 September 1615. It appears that he was for a time at Trinity College, Oxford, but on 22 September 1634 (the very day his father died), he took out a licence and married Jane Ryder (or Ryther/Rider) in London: each of them was only 19. Jane was the daughter of the Scot William Ryder, Keeper of James I’s stable; he died in 1617 when she was only two, and her mother then married James Maxwell, Groom of the Bedchamber.
Ursula Whorwood kept the Manors of Headington and Holton for the rest of her life, but Brome was able to get his hands on his father’s estates in Sandwell, Staffordshire immediately, and he an Jane appear to have moved up there by the late 1630s.
Brome and Jane Whorwood had three children: Brome junior (baptised at Holton on 29 October 1635), Elizabeth (born 1638 in London and buried in Holton 23 February 1640/1), and Diana (probably born in Sandwell c.1639).
Brome was created Doctor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford in November 1642.
During the Civil War Jane stayed in the Oxford area while Brome was away on the continent, and by 1647 she had the courtier Sir Thomas Bendish as her lover. Anthony Wood describes Jane as "the most loyal person to King Charles in his miseries as any woman in England", and she is now believed to have been his mistress. For many years Jane lived apart from her husband "without any cause or leave by him given".
On the death of his mother in 1653, Brome Whorwood came into his inheritance and he thereafter spent most of his time in Holton as Lord of the Manors of Headington and Holton.
Anthony Wood regarded Brome Whorwood as of no religion, and a clownish and ill-natured person, and one of his bailiffs described him as "a very passionate man", while his younger brother Thomas was "a hot-headed craz'd person and a violent presbyterian".
Brome Whorwood and Jane’s only son, Brome Whorwood junior, matriculated at the University of Oxford from St Mary Hall on 31 October 1651 when he was 16. On 5 September 1657, when he was 22, wishing to travel with a friend from Hampshire to the Isle of Wight, "did ... hire a vessel that was leaky, which sunk by the time they were half way in their journey", and was tragically drowned. Thus the only legitimate son and heir of Brome Whorwood senior was buried in Holton Church on 19 September 1657. He has a memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral.
Whorwood was elected MP for Oxford in four successive parliaments, covering the years 1661–81.
In the early 1660s, Brome’s marriage to Jane broke down completely. On 16 July 1663 the House of Commons Journal reported that
Upon Information that the Wife of Mr. Broome Whorwood, a Member of this House, having obtained a Decree in the High Court of Chancery, against Mr. Whorwood, for Alimony, in the late Times of Usurpation; and he having brought his Bill of Review, to reverse the Decree; his Wife claims Privilege of Parliament against her Husband, as the Wife of a Member of the House of Commons; and refuses to answer;
Resolved, &c. That no Wife or Servant of any Member of this House ought to have Privilege of Parliament allowed, in any Case, against the Husband of such Wife, or Master of such Servant.
Meanwhile Brome took a long-term "concubine", his servant Katherine Allen, who was the daughter of an Oxford baker, Thomas Allen, and had been baptised at St Peter-in-the-East church on 10 September 1626. In 1664, when he was 50, Whorwood had an illegitimate son, Thomas, by her. Thomas Whorwood ("son of Brome, of London, gent.") was matriculated at the University of Oxford from Hart Hall on 26 September 1679, aged 15: this sounds like the right person, yet Thomas Whorwood ("son of Brome, late of Headington, deceased") was matriculated at the University of Cambridge from Trinity Hall in 1683, when he was 19.
Whorwood’s younger brother Thomas, a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, died on 5 June 1680, leaving him with no family except his illegitimate son. He made his will in 1682, making a bequest to:
my naturall or reputed sonne Thomas Whorwood ... whom I hereby enioyne and require to take upon him and bee called by the name of Whorwood, according to a deed or grant to that purpose heretofore by mee to him made under my hand and seale.
Whorwood left his mistress (described in the will as his "trusty and carefull good servant") some household goods, together with all his corn, hay, cattle and utensils of husbandry, and appointed her as executor, together with Dr Edward Masters, the husband of his daughter Diana.
Brome Whorwood died on 12 April 1684 when he was "about 69 years old" at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, and was buried at Holton on the 24th.
The manor passed initially to Brome’s daughter, Mrs Diana Masters, and then to Brome’s illegitimate son Thomas. Jane Whorwood contested the will, pleading her husband’s insanity, but her attempt failed and she died almost immediately afterwards. She was buried at Holton just five months after her husband on 20 September 1684 .
- For more information on the Whorwoods during the Civil War, see John Fox, Holton, Wheatley and Oxford in the Civil War (John Fox, 2004), especially Chapter 6, " ’sweet Jane Whorwood', the King’s last champion"
Diana Masters (née Whorwood) (Lady 1684 to 1701)
Diana Whorwood had married Dr Edward Masters, Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter, in Exeter in 1677, when she was in her late thirties. She inherited the Manors of Headington and Holton in 1684, and remained Lady of those Manors until her death around the age of 60 in 1701.
Thomas Whorwood II (Lord 1701 to 1706) & Jane Bray
The second Thomas Whorwood (1664–1706), the illegitimate son of Brome Whorwood senior and half-brother of Diana Masters, matriculated at the University of Cambridge as a Fellow-Commoner from Trinity Hall in Michaelmas Term 1683, at the age of 19. During his first year at Cambridge his father died, and he took his father’s surname according to the terms of his father’s will.
Thomas married Jane Bray, daughter of Sir Reginald Bray of Barrington Park, Gloucestershire (c.1643–1688) and Jane (c.1644–1716) the daughter and heir of William Rainton Esquire of Shilton, Berkshire.
The first two children of Thomas and his wife Jane had two children were Brome (buried at Holton on 24 January 1690/1) and Jane, their only daughter. Their baptisms may have taken place in London.
In 1694 Thomas bought the Manor of Tackley from Catherine, wife of Edward Walker, and his next three sons were baptised at Tackley Church: Thomas (8 June 1695), Edmond (11 March 1697), and William (20 September 1698)
Thomas remained in Tackley until his stepsister Diana’s death in 1701, when he became Lord of the Manors of Headington and Holton and moved to Holton Manor House. He and Jane had their two youngest sons baptised at Holton Church: George (born 16 February 1701/2, baptised 3 March 1701/2, buried 11 December 1705) and James (born 23 July 1703, baptised 17 August 1703).
Thomas was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1703–4. Three years later he died at the age of 42 and was buried at Holton on 13 October 1706.
On 2 March 1711/12 his daughter Jane was married at Holton to Christopher Bond of Newland, Glos.
In her will of 9 July 1716 Thomas’s mother-in-law Jane Bray bequeaths legacies to her grandsons Thomas and Edward [=Edmund] Whorwood.
In 1721 Thomas’s widow Jane and his eldest son Thomas sold Tackley Manor to Charles Crispe of Dornford (who in turn sold it to Sir James Dashwood in 1744).
Mrs Jane Whorwood was buried at Holton on 22 May 1726, twenty years after her husband.
Thomas Whorwood III (Lord 1706 to 1736) & Elizabeth
The third Thomas Whorwood (1695–1736), the eldest surviving son of the second, was only eleven when his father died in 1706, so he became Lord of the Manors of Headington and Holton under the guardianship of his mother Jane. He matriculated at the University of Oxford from Wadham College on 10 February 1710/11 at the age of 16.
Thomas Whorwood III was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1718, and in 1721 he and his widowed mother sold the Manor of Tackley to Charles Crispe of Dornford.
Thomas and his wife Elizabeth had four children baptised at Holton: Thomas (b. 29 April 1718, baptised the next day); Anne (born 6 January 1719, baptised 25 January 1719, buried 29 January 1719); Jane (born 16 April 1725, baptised 14 May 1725) and Henry (born 20 April 1727, baptised 4 May 1727). Thomas’s wife Elizabeth was buried at Holton on 13 April 1731.
Thomas Whorwood III died at the age of 41 and was buried at Holton on 3 September 1736.
Thomas Whorwood IV (Lord 1736 to 1771) & Penelope
The fourth Thomas Whorwood (1718–1771), the son of the third, was baptised at Holton and matriculated at the University of Oxford from Wadham College, Oxford on 10 October 1735 at the age of 17. One year later he became Lord of the Manors of Headington and Holton. He is described as "of Holton Park", and was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1745–6.
Thomas married Penelope Schutz of Shotover in 1746, but they had no children.
Thomas Whorwood IV died on 3 September 1771 at Malvern Wells in Worcestershire and was buried at Holton on the 8th.
Henry Whorwood (Lord 1771 to c.1800) & Mary
Henry Whorwood (1727–c.1800) succeeded his older brother Thomas IV on 3 September 1771. Henry had matriculated at the University of Oxford from Trinity College on 17 December 1744, aged 17.
Henry and his wife Mary had three sons: Henry Mayne Whorwood (b.1772) and then twins: Thomas Henry and William Henry Whorwood (born 29 April 1778 and privately baptised at Holton the same day). Their mother died just a week after their birth on 7 May 1778 and was buried at Holton Church on 25 May.
Henry Whorwood himself must have died in his early sixties, as his son Henry Mayne Whorwood had already succeeded him in 1800.
Henry Mayne Whorwood (Lord c.1800 to 1806) & Grace Treacher
Henry Mayne Whorwood (1772–1806), the eldest son of Henry Whorwood and nephew of Thomas Whorwood IV, was an army captain who became Lord of the Manors of Headington and Holton in about 1800. He wasted no time in putting it up for sale, as this advertisement from Jackson's Oxford Journal for 26 July 1800 shows:
In 1801 Henry Mayne Whorwood sold the Manor of Holton to Elisha Biscoe, who pulled the existing manor house down and replaced it with the new manor house that is now part of Wheatley Park School. He ended up holding on to the Manor at Headington, which was very conveniently situated, thanks to the new London Road that had been built in the late eighteenth century. He bought the mansion that had been built by Sir Banks Jenkinson in 1770 and which now became the Manor House.
Headington Manor House (left), bought by Henry Mayne Whorwood in 1801, is now dwarfed by the John Radcliffe Hospital, which was built in its pleasure garden in the 1970s.
Henry Mayne Whorwood was married by his younger brother, the Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood, to Grace Treacher of Henley (the niece of Sir John Treacher) at St Mary’s Church, Henley on 30 December 1802.
In 1804 the Lord of the Manor was granted 585 acres of land in the Headington area under the Headington Enclosure Award, with the result that his land adjoining the immediate Manor House estate stretched from Osler Road (then known as Manor Road) almost to the Marston Road. In addition he was awarded 50 acres in Headington Quarry and 200 acres in the Southfield area beyond Old Road. In that year, Henry Mayne Whorwood made another attempt to sell the manor, this time including the new Manor House:
The Lords of the Manor were the Patrons of St Andrew’s Church, which meant that they appointed the Vicars there, sometimes members of their own family. In 1804 he appointed one of his younger twin brothers, Thomas Henry Whorwood, as Vicar of St Andrew’s Church. He himself was himself the lay rector of the church, but the curate at the time did not think much of him, describing him in a letter to the Bishop of Oxford in 1805 as someone who
from having lived a very debauched life and having been to Germany, that hot-bed of modern infidelity and mental quackery, has imbibed notions so contrary to all religion and everything resembling it that he does not scruple to call in priestcraft and to talk and argue in such a way that I will not stain my paper, or offend your Lordship, by repeating his ideas, which seem to have been raked together from all the heresies which were ever broached. To add to his misfortunes, he has lately married a woman considerably his inferior in point of family, whose upstart pride has disgusted several friends who still adhere to him. His situation, in short, is such that the strictest attention to his behaviour and conduct for twelve or fourteen years to come will scarcely be sufficient to gain him that respect which his birth and station in life entitle him to.
This curate certainly did not mince his words: of Thomas, who was Vicar of St Andrew’s, he wrote: "His brother, the vicar, is in a state of such dependence on him that he cannot differ from him materially without danger of starvation."
Just one year after this letter was written, on 24 October 1806, Henry died at the age of just 34 in Sidmouth in Devon. The report of his death in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 1 November 1806 reads:
Yesterday se'nnight died at Sidmouth, where he had retired for the benefit of his health, in the 35th year of his age, Henry Mayne Whorwood, Esq, of Headington-house, near this city – a gentleman universally respected, and much lamented by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He had for several years held the honourable post of Captain of the Oxford Loyal Troop of Cavalry.
Henry Mayne Whorwood was buried neither at Headington nor Holton. Barely a year after his death, his widow married Joshua Sydney Horton, the Captain of the Princess of Orange, at St George’s, Hanover Square.
Thomas Henry Whorwood I (Lord 1806 to 1835) & Mary Grape
The Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood (1778–1835), second (and twin) son of Henry Whorwood, matriculated at Worcester College on 27 November 1795, aged 17. His elder brother, then Lord of the Manor, appointed him Vicar of Headington in 1804 and Vicar of Marston in 1805, and died a year later. So in October 1806, aged only 28, he unexpectedly became Lord of the Manor of Headington as well; but its estates were inherited by his twin brother, William Henry Whorwood, a captain in the Royal Navy.
On 8 December 1806 Thomas took out a mortgage on the Manor House and Holly’s Farm, Headington, with William Fletcher and John Parsons of Oxford, bankers, indicating that the family finances he inherited were already in a bad way.
Within six months of succeeding as Lord of the Manor, on 22 April 1807, Thomas married Mary Grape, daughter of the late Revd William Grape, at St Michael’s Church in Bedwardine, Worcester, and the marriage was reported in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 25 April 1807. By his marriage settlement dated 16 and 17 April 1807 he made an Indenture of Release relating to the Manor House and 321 acres of its land between (1) himself, (2) Mrs Hannah Grape and her daughter Mary; (3) John Paget Hastings; and (4) the Revd Richard Grape and Revd Benjamin Mence of Worcester.
Despite being a Vicar, Thomas showed no mercy to poachers, as this notice of 1807 shows:
Manors of Headington and Marston. Notice is hereby given that all unqualified persons sporting in the above Manors will be prosecuted to the utmost regard of the Law; and all unqualified persons are requested not to sport thereon. NB: Steel Traps and other destructive engines are set in Headington Copse and the grounds adjoining. T. H. Whorwood.
On 22 April 1807 Thomas, the new Squarson, married Miss Mary Grape, the daughter of the late Revd William Grape of Worcester, in that city. They had two sons: Thomas Henry, born on 11 July 1812 at Headington Manor House and baptised at St Andrew’s Church the next day, and William Henry, baptised on 16 January 1817.
In 1813 the Whorwoods sold 315 acres of the 585 acres of Headington manorial land: they selected the land that was furthest from the Manor House, namely most of Headington Quarry and land to the south-west of Old Road and the north-west of Dunstan Road.
In 1833 Whorwood was obviously preparing for his death, as he handed the vicarage of Marston over to his elder son Thomas as soon as he turned 21: the idea, outlined in his will was that when he died Thomas should take over Headington, leaving Marston free for his younger son William. This never happened, as William disgraced himself and Whorwood defaced his will. Thomas remained Vicar of Marston, and an outsider was appointed Vicar of Headington.
The Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood the elder died at the age of 57 and was buried at St Andrew’s Church on 29 May 1835. His property was distributed between his wife Mary and his two sons as if he had not made a will. Thomas Henry’s twin brother, William Henry Whorwood, who owned the manor lands, died just a few weeks later, and was buried in St Andrew’s churchyard beside Thomas on 18 June 1835. At the time of his death, he had been planning to build houses on part of the manor estate.
Thomas Henry Whorwood II (Lord 1835 to 1849) (unmarried)
The Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood (1812–1884), elder son of the Vicar of the same name, matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 19 October 1829, aged 17. Despite only gaining a fourth-class degree in 1832, he was a Fellow of Magdalen College from 1833 to 1850, Vicar of Marston from 1833 to 1849, and Rector of Willoughby in Warwickshire from 1849 to his death in 1885.
He became Lord of the Manor of Headington in 1835 at the age of 23. Having inherited great debts, he put up the remains of the manor (345 acres) for auction on 3 August 1836, and went with his mother to live at 1 St Clement’s, a Magdalen College house on the site of the present Waynflete Building.
It appears that the Manor House and its lands was not sold at the auction, because by an indenture dated 13 July 1838 the Manor House and 321 acres of land were transferred to George Alexander Peppercorn of St Neots, presumably a partner in Messrs Peppercorn & Wilkinson, the solicitors of St Neots in Huntingdonshire who had handled the attempted sale.
The Manor House was first let out as a ladies seminary, but by 1846 it had been sold to John Matthews. In that year there was another auction of the manor estate, and more land was sold. From that date Whorwood had no lands, and in 1849 when he moved to Willoughby in Warwickshire he sold the title as well, to William Peppercorn. He did, however continue as Patron of St Andrew’s Church (appointing its vicars) until 1879. He was also a Fellow of Magdalen College, and cut a rather sad figure: William Tuckwell describes him and his mother (the widow of the former Vicar of St Andrew’s) thus in his Reminiscences of Oxford (1901):
Whorwood was the last and landless descendant of an ancient line, which had owned for centuries the wide manors of Shotover [sc. Holton] and Headington. His mother, "Madame Whorwood", a stately old lady in antique dress, lived with him in the house overhanging the Cherwell on the north side of Magdalen Bridge; the top of her high cap usually visible to passers-by. They moved afterwards to a house in the High Street [No. 64], over which her ancestral hatchment was suspended when she died [in 1855, at the age of 74]. He was a fresh-coloured, smooth-faced, vivacious, whist-playing, amiable lounger. Later in life he took the College living of Willoughby [in Warwickshire], leading there a lonely, melancholy life, cheated and ruled by five domestics, whose service was perfect freedom.... Alas! The human butterfly in its later stages is a sight more cautionary than pleasing; I met poor Whorwood not long before his death, pallid, weary, corpulent; and he cried as we talked over old times.
At least (according to Tuckwell), he was kindly, unlike many of the Whorwoods who for 236 years were Lords of the Manor of Headington. The 1851 census shows him living at 64 High Street (a bachelor of 38 and described as Vicar of Willoughby and Curate of Marston) with his mother Mary, who was then 70 (born in Henwick and described as a land and tithe owner). They were waited on by a housemaid, cook, and two footmen. The Return of Owners of Land shows that Whorwood still owned 13 acres in Oxfordshire in 1873.
In 1879 the advowson of St Andrew's Church passed from Whorwood to Mrs. Martha Rawlinson (who passed it on to Keble College in 1927).
The last sighting of the last Whorwood is in the 1881 census, when at the age of 68 he was living alone in the vicarage at Willoughby in Warwickshire, waited on - by a housekeeper, butler, groom, valet, cook, and housemaid (the servants whose easy life was described by Tuckwell).
The Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood the younger died in Willoughby at the age of 72 in 1884, and was laid to rest in in St Andrew’s churchyard, Headington in his parents' grave.
Above: Tombstone in St Andrew’s churchyard of Thomas Henry Whorwood, his wife Mary, and son of the same name
Left: The Whorwood family sign away their heritage on 13 July 1838, releasing the trusts of the marriage settlement of 1807 and handing over the Manor House and much of its land to George Alexander Peppercorn.
The first two signatures are those of the Executors of the 1807 marriage settlement, namely the Revd Richard Grape (1778–1840) of Claines in Worcester, who was the brother of Mrs Mary Whorwood; and the Revd Benjamin Mence of Worcester.
The middle signature is that of Thomas Henry Whorwood, elder son of Thomas Henry Whorwood senior and Mary (née Grape).
The last two signatures are those of Mrs Mary Whorwood (née Grape) and her younger son William Henry Whorwood.
The Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood and his sons (PDF)
The other Lords of the Manor of Headington |
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1086–1613 |
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1849–1921 |
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