Lords of the Manor of Headington
(3): 1849–1917
William Peppercorn (Lord 1849 to c.1874; his Trustees to 1911)
The solicitors who handled the abortive auction of the Manor House and its estate in 1836 were Peppercorn & Wilkinson of St Neots. By an indenture dated 13 July 1838 the Manor House and 321 acres of land were transferred to George Alexander Peppercorn of St Neots (who died there in 1853). It seems very likely that the William Peppercorn who was Steward of the manor in 1848 and who bought the Lordship of the Manor of Headington from Whorwood in 1849 was a relation of George (probably his son).
William Peppercorn is listed in directories as one of the major landowners in Headington from about 1850, and the rent book of that year showed that he then owned the following land, some of which had been sold in the second sale of the manor in 1846: the 120-acre Manor Farm, a brickyard comprising 129 acres on the Marston Road (formerly Tilehouse Farm), and other smaller properties, such as a house and land of 35 acres on Headington Hill.
Peppercorn did not, however, own the Manor House or live in Headington: in 1858 he is described as being of Eaton Socon in Bedfordshire.
Peppercorn remained Lord until the 1870s. By 1883 he was dead, and from that date until 1911 his Trustees are listed in directories as Lords of the Manor of Headington. On 20 May 1911 his Trustees auctioned the remnant of the manorial rights at the Golden Cross Hotel in Oxford. They were purchased by Colonel James Hoole, who thus became Lord.
Colonel James Hoole (Lord 1911 to 1917; his Executors to 1929)
James Hoole (1850–1917), only surviving son of the Yorkshire squire Francis Hoole of Edgefield, Bradfield and Moor Lodge Sheffield, was serving in the 3rd Battalion of the Prince of Wales' Own Yorkshire Regiment from 1874 when he bought Headington Manor House (right) in 1895.
Hoole is described as a Colonel in the register of St Andrew’s Church when he and his wife, Mary Violet Hickman, baptised their son James Percival Richard Hoole there in 1900. Colonel Hoole was awarded the CMG in the Boer War in 1901, and became commander of the regiment in 1902. In civilian life at the Manor House he became a Justice of the Peace and was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1916.
In 1911 Hoole purchased the Lordship of the Manor of Headington from the Trustees of William Peppercorn, reuniting it with the house, from which it had been separated since 1936.
Hoole died on 8 August 1917, leaving three sons and a daughter, and was buried in Headington Cemetery. The Manor House and its immediate grounds were sold to the Trustees of the Radcliffe Infirmary, with the rest of its remaining land bought for housing.
From 1917 to 1929 the "Executors of Col. Hoole" are listed in directories as the Lords of the Manor of Headington.
In 1929 Headington became part of the City of Oxford, and the Manor fades from the records.
The other Lords of the Manor of Headington |
||
 |
1086–1613 |
|
|
1613–1849 |
|