MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
Before the Conquest Auti held 3 hides in Fretherne, which
Thurstan son of Rolf held in 1086. (fn. 17) Like other
lands held by Thurstan, Fretherne apparently
passed to Winebaud de Ballon, whose daughter was
the mother of Henry of Newmarch. (fn. 18) In 1166 Henry
of Newmarch had 2 knights' fees in Gloucestershire
that were held of him by William of Fretherne. (fn. 19)
Hawise, daughter of James of Newmarch, married
Nicholas de Moels, who had 1 knight's fee in
Fretherne in 1235. (fn. 20) Their great-grandson, Nicholas
de Moels, Lord Moels, was succeeded in 1316 as
lord of Fretherne by his brothers Roger (fn. 21) (d. 1316),
and John de Moels, Lord Moels (d. 1337). One of
John's two daughters, Isabel, carried the lordship of
Fretherne (fn. 22) to her husband William de Botreaux,
whose heir was lord in 1353. (fn. 23) The lordship of the
Botreaux family was recorded in 1485, (fn. 24) but in 1545
the manor was said to be held of the Bishop of
Winchester, (fn. 25) whose predecessor had been undertenant of the manor in the 14th century. (fn. 26)
William of Fretherne, the undertenant in 1166,
was succeeded by his son William. John of Fretherne, apparently the king's falconer, (fn. 27) was in 1235
the undertenant of the 1 knight's fee in Fretherne, (fn. 28)
which was described as his manor of FRETHERNE
in 1243. (fn. 29) Walter of Fretherne was lord of the manor
in 1269. (fn. 30) He may have been dead by 1281, when
Hugh son of Otto made the first known presentation
to Fretherne church, for the subsequent presentations up to the 18th century were all made by the
lords of the manor. (fn. 31) Geoffrey of Fretherne, who
presented in 1307, (fn. 32) held Fretherne under Nicholas
de Moels in 1316, (fn. 33) when he was described as one
of the lords of Saul. (fn. 34) Geoffrey was succeeded in
1320 by his son Geoffrey, (fn. 35) whose tax assessment
was much the highest in Fretherne and Saul in
1327, (fn. 36) and who was recorded as holding Fretherne
in 1337. (fn. 37) John of Fretherne settled the manor and
advowson on himself and his wife Elizabeth in 1349 (fn. 38)
and died holding the manor in 1353, when his heir
was his brother Walter. (fn. 39) Elizabeth, with her later
husband, William Motoun, had a life interest in the
manor in 1356 when Walter of Fretherne conveyed
the reversion to William of Edington, Bishop of
Winchester. (fn. 40) Before his death in 1366 (fn. 41) the bishop
conveyed the manor and advowson of Fretherne to
trustees, (fn. 42) but the mention in 1368 of the 'Rector of
Edington' as lord of Fretherne (fn. 43) probably indicated
the bishop rather than his monastic foundation at
Edington (Wilts.). (fn. 44)
James Clifford of Frampton on Severn bought the
manor, perhaps from the bishop's trustees, and he
was in possession c. 1380. (fn. 45) Fretherne manor thereafter descended for almost three centuries with the
Cliffords' estate in Frampton; (fn. 46) in 1424 it was held
by Joan, widow of James Clifford, (fn. 47) and in the late
15th century it was the subject of lawsuits between
Margaret Hyde, the former wife of James Clifford
(d. 1468), and James's grandson, also James
Clifford (fn. 48) (d. 1544). The younger James's wife Anne,
who afterwards married Nicholas Wicks, held
Fretherne manor until her death in 1565. (fn. 49)
In 1655 Richard Clifford sold Fretherne manor
and advowson to William Bayly (fn. 50) of Wheatenhurst.
Bayly died in 1691, and his son William in 1726
leaving as his heirs his sisters, (fn. 51) named in 1683 as
Elizabeth, wife of George Lloyd of Wheatenhurst,
Dorothy, Radegund, Jane, and Mary. (fn. 52) Radegund
died in 1690, (fn. 53) and Dorothy, unmarried, in 1728; (fn. 54)
in 1743 John Lloyd conveyed his interest in the
manor to William Hayward, (fn. 55) Mary's husband or
son, and in 1744 and 1745 the trustees of Walter
Yate bought ¾ of the manor from William Hayward
and ¼ from John Pritchard, apparently Jane's son. (fn. 56)
Two or more of the sisters survived, however, in
1750 when they retained a life interest in the manor
and advowson. (fn. 57)
Robert Gorges Dobyns Yate, the great grandson
of Walter Yate's sister, in 1772 made a settlement of
the estate, comprising Fretherne Lodge and 135 a. in
Fretherne and Saul, and in 1778 he sold it to Henry
Stephens. Under Stephens's will the estate passed
after his widow's death in 1801 to Henry Willis, his
cousin's son, who assumed the name of Stephens. (fn. 58)
In 1804 or 1805 Samuel White bought the estate, (fn. 59) and
he owned 144 a. in 1842 (fn. 60) and was lord of the manor
in 1843. (fn. 61) On his death in 1848 the manor passed to
his wife Jane, who by 1849 had married the Revd.
Henry Robinson. Mrs. Robinson died in 1881 and
her husband, who held the manor for life, in 1886;
in that year Mrs. Robinson's nephew, W. C. Tripp,
sold the manor to Sir Lionel Edward Darell, Bt. (fn. 62)
Sir Lionel's father, Sir William Lionel Darell (d.
1883), Rector of Fretherne 1844–78, had already
built up a considerable estate centred on Fretherne
Court. Most of the estate, amounting to 676 a. and
extending into Arlingham, was sold in 1919,
following the death of Sir L. E. Darell. (fn. 63) The
purchaser, Alfred Daniels, afterwards sold off the
farms. A smaller part of the estate was retained by
Sir Lionel's son, Sir Lionel E. H. M. Darell (d.
1954). (fn. 64)
The medieval manor house of Fretherne may
have been on the site of Fretherne Lodge; the
tradition that 'Fair Rosamund' was born there
ignores the fact that the Cliffords were not lords of
Fretherne in the 12th century. (fn. 65) Fretherne Lodge
was built or rebuilt by James Clifford, apparently
in 1598 and reputedly for the reception of Queen
Elizabeth; it was described as a pleasant large stone
house, with turrets, a noble staircase of freestone, and
two very fine chimney pieces carved in stone. (fn. 66) In
1672 it was assessed for tax on 14 hearths. (fn. 67) The
house, which had been occupied by the lords of the
manor, John Cage and Anthony Clifford successively, in the earlier 17th century and by the Baylys
in the 18th, (fn. 68) was largely demolished c. 1755. (fn. 69) Some
of its ornamental features were removed to Arlingham Court, (fn. 70) which was itself afterwards demolished.
Part of Fretherne Lodge survived as a two story
house which was remodelled in the early 19th
century, with a horseshoe staircase of that period.
The lower story of the south-east front is of ashlar,
and the windows there have dripmoulds with
pentagonal label stops that may survive from before
the rebuilding of 1598. There is also some ancient
stonework in the north-west wall, and the moulded
ceiling beams of the drawing room are presumably
part of the house of 1598. About 1850 W. L. Darell
built for himself Fretherne Court, 150 yds. northeast of the church on the site of the former rectory.
It was a large and ornate house of stone in the
Venetian style, three stories high and with a tower,
and it was sold with the greater part of the estate in
1919. Most of the house was demolished in 1924,
the tower and ballroom in 1966. (fn. 71) In 1967 only
out buildings remained.
Saul is thought to have been included in the
Domesday survey under Standish, (fn. 72) and the chief
estate in Saul was not an independent manor but
part of Gloucester Abbey's manor of Standish. (fn. 73) The
Abbot of Gloucester's manor of SAUL was referred
to by that name in 1243, (fn. 74) and in 1316 the abbot was
named, with Geoffrey of Fretherne, as one of the
lords of Saul. (fn. 75) The abbot's manor of FRAMILODE, mentioned in 1376, (fn. 76) was evidently the
same estate. The grant of Standish manor in 1547
to the Duke of Somerset included the abbey's
possessions in Saul and Framilode, (fn. 77) and in 1558
Thomas Winston, who then had part of Standish
manor, was licensed to grant Saul manor and c.
200 a. to Giles Codrington. (fn. 78) Giles died in 1580 and
his second son Richard, (fn. 79) who made a settlement of
the manor in 1596, (fn. 80) sold it in 1599 to Richard Bird
and his three grandchildren Thomas, Sibyl, and
Anne Lloyd or Floyd. (fn. 81)
Saul was thereafter linked with the Lloyds'
estate in Wheatenhurst. (fn. 82) In 1607 Richard Bird
assured ¼ of Saul manor to Thomas Hinson,
prospective father-in-law of his grandson Thomas
Lloyd, (fn. 83) and in 1608 Richard Bird, Thomas Lloyd,
and a third person unnamed were said to be lords
of Saul manor. (fn. 84) The manor may for a time have
been fragmented: in 1619 Thomas Fogge and his
wife Sibyl, granddaughter of Richard Bird, conveyed ⅓ of the manor to Thomas Lloyd, (fn. 85) and in 1624
John Lloyd of Wheatenhurst, apparently a younger
son, granted a lease of a customary holding in Saul. (fn. 86)
In 1721 Nathaniel Cambridge acquired Saul manor
along with the Wheatenhurst estate, (fn. 87) and the two
remained in the same ownership until 1854 when
George Pickard-Cambridge sold Wheatenhurst but
retained Saul. (fn. 88) George was succeeded in 1868 by
his son Henry (d. 1884) (fn. 89) whose trustees were lords
of Saul up to 1939. (fn. 90) The Pickard-Cambridge family
sold the manor c. 1950 to S. Gardner & Son Ltd.,
who dug the gravel in Sand field but sold most of
the land in 1962 to R. G. H. M. Kirkwood, the
owner in 1967. (fn. 91) The chief house of the manor in
1841 was Saul Farm, (fn. 92) rebuilt in the 18th century as
a large brick farm house with a cornice of angled
bricks.
In 1221 Henry of Bayeux quitclaimed to Walter
of Bayeux one yardland in Saul; (fn. 93) in 1367 Robert
Walsh, Rector of Fretherne, acquired a small estate
in Fretherne and Saul; (fn. 94) and in 1383 Robert Forstall
quitclaimed 80 a. in Fretherne to Thomas Cadul of
Framilode. (fn. 95) One or more of those estates may have
been the forerunner of that which Robert Twissell
held in Framilode and Saul at his death in 1500 or
1501. (fn. 96) John Cowles, perhaps a successor of Toby
Cowles who died in 1630 holding an estate at
Framilode in Wheatenhurst, (fn. 97) conveyed an estate
in Fretherne or Saul in 1691 to Thomas Blanch, a
clothier of Alkerton, whose representatives sold it in
1776 to John Skinner Stock (d. 1793). (fn. 98) Between
1796 and 1803 William Purnell of Dursley bought
three estates in Fretherne and Saul, including
Stock's. (fn. 99) Purnell was dead by 1805, when his heir
was the son of his daughter Anne and her husband
Robert Bransby Cooper, M.P. for Gloucester. The
grandson, Purnell Bransby Cooper, changed his
surname to Purnell, (fn. 1) and he and his father owned
220 a. in Fretherne in 1814. (fn. 2) By 1843 about half of
the combined estate had been sold. (fn. 3) P. B. Purnell
was succeeded in 1866 by his son W. P. Purnell (d.
1869), who was succeeded by his sister Frances Mary
Purnell (d. 1897), and then by his daughter, Emily
Anne, wife of the Revd. David Edwards (later
Purnell-Edwards). Mrs. Purnell-Edwards owned
land in Saul until 1931. (fn. 4) R. B. Cooper's own estate
had passed by 1843 (fn. 5) to another of his sons, the Revd.
R. J. Cooper, on whose death in 1872 at least part
of the property was bought by the Rector of Fretherne, Sir W. L. Darell. (fn. 6)
Darell also acquired an estate that had belonged
to the Morse family, a member of which, George,
had held land in Fretherne and Saul in 1652. (fn. 7) In the
early 18th century Nicholas Morse owned land that
had been bought, apparently in 1682, from Joseph
Morwent, Benjamin Hyett, and his wife Elizabeth. (fn. 8)
Thomas Morse had an estate in Fretherne c. 1790,
when another there belonged to the Saunders
family, (fn. 9) John Saunders having had one of the larger
estates in Fretherne in 1732, (fn. 10) which he or another
John Saunders sold to Thomas Morse. By 1815
Morse had sold that estate to Edward Bloxsome, (fn. 11)
the owner of the advowson of Fretherne, and the
estate presumably passed with the advowson to
Darell. (fn. 12) Morse retained, however, the land that he
had inherited, and in 1843 he or another Thomas
Morse had 170 a. in Fretherne and Saul and an 'old
homestead', opposite Saul Farm, (fn. 13) which had been
demolished by 1880. (fn. 14) Between 1856 and 1863 that
estate also was acquired by Darell. (fn. 15)
The great tithes of Saul formed part of the
rectorial estate of Standish, which was appropriated
by Gloucester Abbey and later passed to the bishops
of Gloucester. (fn. 16) In 1838 the bishop and his lessee
were awarded a tithe rent charge of £115 in place
of the great tithes of Saul. (fn. 17)