Catalogue description THE CRANFORD INHERITANCE

South Newington was the principal manor of the Cranford family in the 14th century. By 1206 the manor was held by William (I) de Paris, who c. 1212 granted an estate in South Newington to Ralph Ivaus (or Loas, Juas, Jueus, Ives, Sowas) in marriage with his daughter Helewise. Helewise's brother William (II) de Paris died without issue, and in 1255 his lands were divided between his surviving sister Maud de Wyke, and his nephew Ralph (II) Ivaus. Nicholas de Cranford, a canon of Wells, and his nephew Robert acquired a substantial proportion of the inheritance, in particular South Newington. In 1259 Ralph Ivaus and his wife Agnes granted the reversion of property in South Newington to Nicholas de Cranford, but Ralph also granted all his holdings there direct to Robert, in order to have Nicholas's good will: below, BCM/G/4/6/4 [GC 2523]. Ralph died without issue in 1272 when the heir to his portion of the Paris lands (of which he had sold part) was his aunt Maud de Wyke. Maud also sold some of her brother's lands to Nicholas de Cranford, specifically his lands in Dorset and a rent of 4s. in Blackford (Som.), but she retained the lands at 'Stokes' (Som.), Cassington (Oxon.) and in Buckinghamshire.

Robert de Cranford died in 1302 and was succeeded by his son and heir, Robert (II), who died in 1339 holding the manor of South Newington and leaving a widow Joan and a son Robert. [CIPM viii, no. 222; xi, no. 57.] Robert (III) was alive in 1341 but had probably died by Sept. 1349 when his wife Lucy was acting on her own: below, BCM/G/4/6/46 [GC 3234]. Lucy was certainly a widow before her death in 1361, when she was holding two thirds of the manor in jointure, her mother-in-law Joan being still alive and holding one third in dower. [CIPM xi, no. 57.] The heir was Richard, son of Robert and Lucy, who was then aged 22, and it was his son, Robert (IV) Cranford, who married Alice, daughter and apparently heir of Walter Dauntsey, who held the manor of Wyke Farm (Berks.) and lands in Oxfordshire. [Wyke Farm lay by the south gate of Oxford, but evidently west of the River Thames, as it was in Berkshire.] Robert died in or shortly before 1454 leaving two daughters. One, Alice, was married to John Barry in 1454 and her portion appears to have passed to Richard Hall and his wife Elizabeth, who may have been the Barrys' daughter. The other, Anne, married first John Drayton (d.v.p. 1429), son and heir apparent of John Drayton of Botolph Bridge, Cranford and Dorsington, and secondly Thomas Hall (d. by 1454). Her heir was her son William by John Drayton, and thus a moiety of the Cranford and Dauntsey lands passed to the Draytons.