(598) Norreys and Bertie of Rycote and Wytham Abbey, Barons Norreys and Earls of Abingdon - part 1

Bertie, Earls of Abingdon 

Unusually, in this post I consider two families who were successive owners of the same estates and country houses, and who were united through marriage. The story begins in the 16th century with the Norreys family (the name is often spelled Norris, but the form Norreys is preferred in this account as it is the form now used by the family), who died out in the male line in the early 17th century. Their estates and their peerage passed in two successive generations through the female line, coming in 1645 to Bridget Wray, Baroness Norreys, who married, as her second husband, Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey. Their eldest son, James Bertie (1653-99), succeeded his mother as 5th Baron Norreys in 1657, and in 1682 was made Earl of Abingdon.  His descendants waxed and waned in prosperity, but held the family estates until the early 20th century, when the failure of the long-lived 7th Earl to limit his expenditure or manage his debt led to the gradual sale of all the remaining properties. The post has been divided into two parts, with this introduction and the description of the family's houses in part 1, and the genealogical account of the family in part 2.

The origin myth of the Norreys family is that they descend from from Ivo 'le Norreys' - the Norseman - a messenger from the King of Norway at the Court of King Henry I in the early 12th century. The first historical references to the family connect them with Lancashire and Berkshire. The Lancashire branch (who will be the subject of a future post), first recorded in the later 13th century, came in 1396 into the ownership of Speke Hall, and retained it until the early 18th century, when their male line died out and the property passed to the Beauclerks. However another branch had long roots in Berkshire, where the first who can be identified is Richard le Norreys, chief cook to Queen Eleanor of Castile, who rewarded him with the gift of the manor of Ockwells at Maidenhead in 1283. In the mid 15th century, they built the very splendid timber-framed Ockwells Manor, which I have described in a previous post. By then, they were amongst the leading gentry families in Berkshire, and Sir William Norreys (1433-1507) fought for Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field and commanded the king's army at the Battle of Stoke two years' later. That was perhaps the high point of the family's influence. Sir William was succeeded by his grandson, Sir John Norreys (d. 1563), who was convicted of murdering John Enhold of Nettlebed (Oxon) in 1517. He escaped with his life after his brother Henry secured a pardon from the king, but he forfeited Ockwells and paid a large fine instead. Any royal displeasure was very short-lived, however, for just three years later, in 1520, he entertained King Henry VIII at his house at Yattendon (Berks). His brother Henry was a great friend of the king, and also a supporter of Queen Anne Boleyn, but when she fell out of favour charges of adultery were fabricated against her and several courtiers, including Norreys, and after a show trial he was executed on Tower Hill in 1536 and posthumously attainted, meaning his lands were forfeited to the Crown.

At his death, Norreys left a young son and heir, Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), who, as he grew to manhood, was quickly restored to some of his father's estates and established a position at court. His career prospered particularly after Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne, apparently because she honoured his father's defence of her mother, Anne Boleyn, but also because his wife became a close friend of the queen.

Beckley Park: rear elevation. Image: Vivian Garrido. Some rights reserved.

She was the daughter and heiress of Sir John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, on whose death in 1559 the couple succeeded to his estates at Rycote and  Wytham, and to his hunting lodge at Beckley Park. Beckley, which was built at much the same time as, and in association with, Williams' house at Rycote, c.1540, is a moated building of diapered red brick, with a relatively plain entrance front but a striking rear elevation with three tower-like projections that emphasise the verticality of the house.

The inheritance of the Williams estates in 1559, of Yattendon from his uncle, Sir John Norreys, in 1563, and of Weston Manor in about 1588, after the death of Lord Williams' widow, made Norreys an important local figure in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and he further cemented his position by the purchase of Cumnor Place (where the Earl of Leicester's wife had recently fallen downstairs to her death in suspicious circumstances, conveniently leaving the earl free to pursue his romantic relationship with the queen) in 1574. By then he had been raised to the peerage as Baron Norreys of Rycote, a peerage which was created by writ of summons (allowing its descent to heirs general, not just heirs male) and which remains a subsidiary title of his descendants. Lord Norreys and his wife produced six sons and one daughter. His sons all pursued military careers, fighting on the continent and in Ireland, and his second son, Sir John Norreys, has been called 'the Drake of the army' for his pre-eminence among Elizabeth soldiers, although his reputation is marred today by his reputed responsibility for a massacre of women and children on Rathlin Island in 1575. Ultimately five of the six sons died while on campaign, either of wounds or fevers, and the Queen took pity on the family's losses and recalled the last surviving son, Sir Edward Norreys (c.1550-1603) from his dangerous post as Governor of Ostend to provide comfort to his ageing parents.

On the death of Lord Norreys in 1601, the peerage and estates passed to his grandson, Francis Norreys, who was the only son of Lord Norreys' eldest son, Sir William Norreys (c.1545-79). Francis' title to the estates was challenged by his uncle, Sir Edward Norreys, but the latter died in 1603 before the matter could be decided in the courts. Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys seems to have been a hot-tempered and quarrelsome young man, who separated from his wife after just seven years of marriage, and maintained a feud with Sir Peregrine Bertie (1585-1639), with whom he twice fought duels, leading the king to issue a proclamation against duelling. In 1618 he killed a servant in a drunken affray and was convicted of manslaughter. He was pardoned for this offence and eventually restored to royal favour, being promoted in the peerage to the Earldom of Berkshire (a peerage created by patent and limited to heirs male) in January 1620/1. Soon afterwards, however, he was jailed for an insult offered to Lord Scrope within the Palace of Westminster, and is said to have been so mortified that he committed suicide with a crossbow, making a bad end to an unedifying career.

The Earl's only legitimate child was his daughter Elizabeth (c.1600-45), who succeeded him as Baroness Norreys, but not in the earldom, as only the barony could descend in the female line. Francis did have an illegitimate son, who was not eligible to inherit either of the peerages, but who was left the Weston Manor estate, while the Earl's other property passed to his daughter, who had eloped with and married a fairly junior courtier, Edward Wray (1598-1658). They also had only one child; a daughter, Bridget Wray (1627-57), who at the age of eighteen succeeded her mother as Baroness Norreys. As a significant heiress with a title in her own right, she was a highly eligible woman, and within a few weeks of her mother's death had married the Hon. Edward Sackville, a younger son of the Earl of Dorset. Sackville was killed in or after the Battle of Kidlington in 1646, and Lady Norreys took, as her second husband, Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey, who had large estates in Lincolnshire: for his family see my previous post. Lord Lindsey already had five sons by his first wife, and it was the eldest of these who inherited his peerages and most of his lands at his death. However, he and Lady Norreys had a second family, and their eldest son, James Bertie (1653-99) succeeded his mother in 1657 as 5th Baron Norreys and came into the Rycote, Wytham and Cumnor estates. He came of age in 1674 and his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire in the same year was a recognition of his importance as a landowner and consequently his influence in the county. The same factors may have underlain the king's decision to make him Earl of Abingdon in 1682, which is not otherwise explained. Politically, the 1st Earl moved into opposition to the pro-Catholic policies of James II, and helped bring William of Orange to England as a mediator between the king and his subjects; but he opposed William's decision to seize the throne, although he was evidently soon reconciled to William after the coronation.  The 1st Earl married twice, having six sons and three daughters by his first wife, who also brought him estates in Wiltshire. His eldest son, Montague Bertie (1673-1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon, took the additional surname Venables on his first marriage to a Cheshire heiress, but failed to produce a surviving heir by either of his two wives. In 1736, he therefore settled his estates on his nephew Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), the son of his younger brother, the Hon. James Bertie (1674-1735) of Stanwell (Middx).

Willoughby Bertie, who succeeded his uncle as 3rd Earl of Abingdon and owner of the Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire estates in 1743, cannot have expected to succeed, although it must have become increasingly likely as his uncle failed to produce an heir. He spent much of the 1720s travelling on the continent for health reasons, and in 1728 he married the pretty daughter of a Scottish Catholic innkeeper who ran a hotel in Florence, although the family subsequently went to considerable trouble to obscure her humble origins. From 1733, he rented part of Gainsborough Old Hall (Lincolnshire) as his home, and he may have chosen a residence in that part of the country in order to cultivate his connections with the Dukes of Ancaster (as the Earls of Lindsey had become). His succession to the Abingdon estates in 1743 inevitably refocused his attention on Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Gainsborough was given up, and he moved to Rycote. Unfortunately, just two years later, tragedy struck, for there was a major fire at Rycote which destroyed much of the house and caused the death of his eldest son and heir. For a time, Rycote was uninhabitable, and the family seem to have moved to Wytham, but Rycote was gradually reconstructed to a simplified and modernised design. By the 1760s, however, the 3rd Earl was in financial difficulties, and several Oxfordshire manors were sold to meet his debts.

The 4th Earl of Abingdon (seated) as a composer, by J.F. Rigaud.

At his death in 1760 he was succeeded by his second son, Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon, who came of age a year later and soon afterwards set off on the Grand Tour with his younger brother, Peregrine Bertie (1741-90). The 4th Earl was described by the French resident in Geneva as 'a very petulant young man', who had been taught nothing but hunting and music. Music indeed was his great passion, and he became a significant patron of Haydn and other composers and wrote music himself, which was well-regarded at the time and remains tuneful today. Unfortunately, acting as a patron proved to be rather expensive, and combined with commissioning Capability Brown to landscape the grounds at Rycote (at a cost of at least £3,000), a liking for foreign travel, and a tendency to wild behaviour and intemperance, he quickly diminished the estate which he had inherited. He sold parts of the Wiltshire and Berkshire estates in 1761-62, and most of the rest of the Wiltshire property in a series of sales after 1777. In 1790 he inherited the Weston Manor estate from his younger brother Peregrine, but he had only a life interest in it, as it was entailed on his younger sons.  Around 1779, he gave up Rycote House, and although the estate was not sold he stripped the furniture from the house and sold it at auction. The house itself seems to have stood empty and decaying for nearly thirty years.

When the 4th Earl died in 1799 he was insolvent. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon, whose efforts to recover the family fortunes led him to demolish Rycote House in 1807 and sell the last part of the family's Wiltshire estates. Some of the building materials from Rycote were reserved and reused in remodelling the house at Wytham (which was renamed Wytham Abbey) in the Gothic style, to the designs of Thomas Cundy. Cundy's work was widely regarded as not very satisfactory, and in the late 1820s the house was remodelled again, giving it much of its present appearance. By 1835, the financial position of the family had recovered sufficiently for the 5th Earl to purchase the manor of North Weston (Oxon): the first time the estates had expanded rather than contracted for a century or more.

Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon belonged to a generation that approached the life of a gentleman with a much more serious spirit than their fathers and grandfathers. He became an officer in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry Cavalry and a long-serving MP in the reformed House of Commons, and after succeeding to the peerage replaced his father as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. He married the daughter of a fellow Oxfordshire MP and they had six sons and three daughters. Four of his younger sons had notable careers in public service: one as a diplomat (who was eventually made a peer as Viscount Bertie of Thame); two in the army; and one in the church. His eldest son and heir was Montagu Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, who commanded the Royal Berkshire Militia after his father became Lord Lieutenant. In 1858 he married Caroline Towneley, a member of one of the leading Lancashire recusant families, and was himself received into the Roman Catholic church in the same year. They produced one surviving son and three daughters before Caroline died in 1873. The 7th Earl waited a decade before marrying again, and his second wife was more than thirty years his junior. She brought him two further sons and two daughters, the last of whom was born as late as 1901, when he was sixty-five. He had the misfortune to live in a period when the financial and social certainties which had sustained the privileged position of the aristocracy and gentry for centuries were rapidly breaking down, and he seems to have either failed to recognise the way the world was changing or to have been unable to adapt to it.

Oaken Holt, Cumnor, built in 1890.

At all events, his accumulating debts forced him to sell land, and prevented him investing in the estate in ways which might have increased the income it generated. In the late 19th century he sold plots on the Cumnor estate for the building of large detached houses for successful Oxford tradesmen and university leaders, and in the early 20th century he was obliged to sell the Rycote estate in 1911. Wytham Abbey was let during the First World War to Col. Raymond ffennell, who bought the freehold in 1919. After living for some years in the 19th century house at Cumnor Place, he spent his last years at Oaken Holt, one of the houses built on land he had formerly owned at Cumnor.

The heir apparent to the earldom was the only surviving son of the 7th Earl's first marriage, Montagu Charles Francis Bertie (1860-1919), Lord Norreys, who took the additional surname Towneley. He was an army officer who served in the Boer War but had retired well before the First World War, when he was employed as commandant of a Prisoner of War camp on the east coast. Some combination of the exposed situation of the camp, poor quality accommodation, and ill health among the prisoners caused him to contract an illness to which he succumbed in September 1919. On the death of the 7th Earl in 1928 the family honours therefore descended to Lord Norreys' son, Montagu Henry Edward Cecil Towneley-Bertie (1887-1963). After a short career in the army, he commenced training for the Roman Catholic priesthood before the First World War, but on the outbreak of the war he gave this up and returned to the army in 1915. He was wounded in 1918 and retired in 1919, but either because the war had profoundly affected his outlook on life or because the death of his father left him heir apparent to the elderly 7th Earl, he does not seem to have considered returning to a career in the church. Indeed, a few months after the death of his grandfather and his succession as 8th Earl of Abingdon in 1928, he renounced his Catholicism and married a divorcee. He and his wife lived in London but had no children. In 1938 he also succeeded his distant kinsman, Montagu Peregrine Albemarle Bertie (1861-1938) as 13th Earl of Lindsey, uniting the branches of the family descended from the first and second wives of the 2nd Earl of Lindsey in the mid 17th century.

When the 13th and 8th Earl died in 1963, both earldoms (and the barony of Norreys) passed to his half-first cousin, Richard Henry Rupert Bertie (b. 1931), the present 14th Earl of Lindsey and 9th Earl of Abingdon. For nearly forty years he was a Lloyds underwriter and City businessman, but on his retirement he moved to Gilmilnscroft House at Sorn (Ayrshire), a home of his wife's family, which was sold in 2011. His son and heir apparent, the present Lord Norreys, still lives on the Gilmilnscroft estate.

Rycote House, Oxfordshire

There was a medieval house on this site, of which the freestanding chapel survives. The chapel was built for Richard and Sybil Quatremain, and consecrated in 1449, and the structure has been very little altered since. It is very like a small parish church, and consists of a battlemented west tower, nave and chancel, which were all originally rendered. The main doorway was on the north side, facing the house, and has an arch with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a hood with shields. 

Rycote House chapel from the south. Image: Howard Stanbury. Some rights reserved.

Rycote House chapel: interior looking east. Image: Peter Reed. Some rights reserved.

Inside, the pointed wagon roof survives intact, with traces of later, early 17th century, decoration. Much remains of the original furnishings, including the lower part of the rood screen, many of the pews in the western part of the nave, the stalls in the chancel, with poppyheads and traceried fronts, and the font cover.  There was, however, a significant internal refit in the early 17th century, when the two great pews flanking the steps to the chancel were introduced. That on the north, the Norreys family pew, is a two-decker affair, with a musicians' gallery over the pew, while that on the south (which may have been constructed for Charles I's visit to Rycote in 1625) has a great ogee canopy with crocketed ribs, originally surmounted by a carved Virgin and Child, and figures of the four Evangelists at the corners (two of which remain). Also of the 17th century are the dado in the chancel, the unusual square Jacobean canopied pulpit, the west gallery of c.1610, and the communion table. Later additions include the reredos and communion rails, of c.1682, and an 18th century reading desk. The chapel was conservatively restored by William Weir, c.1912, alongside the remodelling of the house, and again in 2013-17 by Donald Insall Associates. It is now regularly open to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons (as of 2025).

Rycote House: drawing from the south-west by Henry Winstanley, c.1695. Image: Bodleian Library.

Rycote House: engraving by John Kip, c.1710.

The size and quality of the chapel makes it likely the medieval house was equally impressive, and a Time Team excavation in 2001 found some foundations and building materials, including carved capitals, but nothing much can be said about its appearance or layout except that it occupied a moated site. The first house of which much is known was a mid-16th century mansion, almost certainly built in the 1540s or 1550s for Sir John Williams, later Lord Williams of Thame, and constructed within the moated site of its predecessor. Views by Winstanley, of c.1695, and Kip, of 1707, show that it was an unusually large building for its time, arranged around two main courtyards, with extensive outbuildings to the west. In the 1660s, it was assessed on 41 hearths, making it one of the largest houses in the county. The south-west facing entrance front was elaborately composed, with octagonal corner towers rising to ogee cupolas, a central gatehouse flanked by half-octagonal buttresses, an oriel window over the front door, and two-storey bay windows on the end bays, under crowstepped gables. The central entrance led into a great hall. 

Rycote House: engraving of the south-west front as rebuilt after the fire of 1745. The chapel is on the right.

Rycote House: watercolour of the house from the north-east in about 1750 by J.B. Malchair of Oxford. Image: Bodleian Library.

Unfortunately, although we have several visual records of this house, it was largely destroyed by a fire in 1745 in which the heir to the estate was killed. Rycote was at least partially rebuilt in a simplified form, with some £5,000 being spent on ''amending, improving, and furnishing' the mansion between 1747 and the later 1760s. However, a financial crisis in the late 18th century and early 19th century led to the house being stripped of its furniture (sold at auction in 1779), and then being dismantled and sold for the building materials in 1807. All that remains are the lower stages of the south-west corner tower and some of the walling adjacent to it. This is built of diapered red brick, similar to the materials used by Sir John Williams in building his surviving hunting lodge at Beckley Park (Oxon). This corner of the house evidently had some post-demolition use, for a lugged stone doorway was inserted into the old work after 1822, apparently reusing a late 17th century window.

Rycote House: the surviving fragment of the house and the stables and outbuildings at the time of the estate sale in 1911.

Rycote House: a view of the remodelled house c.1928, from a broadly similar angle to the 1911 view above. Image: Country Life.

The stables and service ranges of the 16th century house were excluded from the demolition sale of 1807 and became a tenanted farmhouse for a century or more. In 1911, the Bertie family sold the estate, and the 16th century buildings were restored and remodelled by William Weir and George Jack for Alfred Hamersley c.1912. They inserted the straight-headed mullioned windows on the first floor of the former stable range, added a canted bay and gable, and inserted a fine Elizabethan-style fireplace in what was then the entrance hall. Weir's canted bay was removed in 1938 when H.R. Goodhart-Rendel remodelled the house for Cecil Michaelis. The present gable and battlements, and a two-bay extension containing a barrel-vaulted dining room with plasterwork in early 17th century style, were designed by Nicholas Thompson of Donald Insall Associates for Bernard and Sarah Taylor in 2001-05. Behind and parallel to this range is a section built of rubble stone and red brick by Goodhart-Rendel, which links the former stable block to the stone courtyard ranges. The south end of the west side of the courtyard including the carriageway entrance, and the balustraded central water feature are part of the work of 2001-05. 

Rycote House: the south-east front of the house today.

Sir John Williams had licence to create a park in 1539, so the original setting was presumably created alongside the building of the Tudor house. Today, however, the appearance of the park is largely due to Capability Brown, who was paid nearly £3,000 for landscaping work in the late 1770s. The Time Team excavation in 2001 showed that he drained the moat and created the lake, which was dredged and restored in 2001-05. He may also have made the ice house, originally buried under a mound but now sheltered by a brick and thatch structure, designed by Francis Maude of Donald Insall Associates and built in 2014-16. The formal gardens on both sides of the house were laid out to the designs of Elizabeth Banks before 2009.

Descent: Richard Fowler (d. 1502); to son, Richard Fowler who sold the reversion to Sir John Heron (d. 1522); to son, Giles Heron, who sold 1539 to Sir John Williams (d. 1559), 1st Baron Williams of Thame; to daughter, Margery (d. 1599), wife of Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys of Rycote; to grandson, Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire; to daughter, Elizabeth, Baroness Norreys (c.1600-45), wife of Edward Wray; to daughter Bridget (1627-57), Baroness Norreys, wife of the Hon. Edward Sackville (d. 1646) and later of Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey; to son, James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (later Venables-Bertie) (1673-1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon; to nephew, Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon; to son, Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montague Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, who sold 1911 to Alfred St. George Hamersley (d. 1929); sold 1935 to Cecil Michaelis (d. 1997); sold after his death in 2000 to Bernard & Sarah Taylor.

Wytham Abbey, Berkshire

The house is essentially a late 15th century mansion built around two small courtyards for Sir Richard Harcourt (d. 1486), but it was much altered in the Tudor style in two campaigns in the early 19th century, when the south court was roofed over. There was never an abbey on the site, and the present name is a romantic coinage of the same period; it was formerly known as Wytham House. 

Wytham Abbey: a modern aerial view of the house from the east. Image: Dave Price. Some rights reserved.

The three-storey gate tower on the east-facing entrance front is the least-altered part of the medieval house. It is built of coursed limestone rubble, and has two embattled polygonal stair-turrets on the inner side. The turrets, which frankly look rather odd when seen rising behind the tower, originally faced into the courtyard that was roofed over in the 19th century. The doorway under the tower has a straight-sided pointed arch and continuous mouldings in a manner familiar from several Oxford college gate towers, but the angle buttresses to either side and the rather curious oriel windows on the upper floor seem to be early 19th century, as they do not appear on the earliest views of the house. The original layout of the house does not seem to have been recorded in any detail, but the hall lay on the west side of the south court, while north court was surrounded by service buildings. The work of different dates is unified by the mellow roofs of Stonesfield stone slates.

Wytham Abbey: the earliest known view of the house, late 17th century. Image: Bodleian Library.

Wytham Abbey: detail of Kip's engraving of the house from 1707.

In 1807, the 5th Earl of Abingdon decided to make Wytham his principal seat and pulled down most of the family's former residence at Rycote. He reserved some of the building materials from Rycote for re-use at Wytham, and in 1809-10 he employed Thomas Cundy to reface the west, south and east fronts of the house in a castellated style, and to roof over the main courtyard to form a new principal staircase. 

Wytham Abbey: sketch ground plan of Thomas Cundy's alterations of 1809-10, made by his son about ten years later. Image: RIBA.

Wytham Abbey: the staircase c.1900, photographed by Henry Taunt. Image: Historic England.

Cundy completely altered the principal interiors, creating a new outer hall or vestibule with minimally Gothick detailing, leading into the staircase hall which rises the full height of the house to an oval lantern. The staircase itself rises in a single long flight against the west wall to a half-pace, from which a shorter flight across the hall leads to a gallery along the east wall. The staircase has a simple handrail with two turned balusters per step. The upper parts of the walls were formerly hung with large canvases of family portraits, recorded in Henry Taunt's photographs of the house. Beyond the staircase, Cundy remodelled the former hall as a new drawing room (later used as a dining room), which is now panelled in Tudor style. To the north of this, along the west front, was a library with a canted bay window, while to the south were a dining room (now drawing room) and breakfast room (now living room/kitchen), with an ante-room between them.

Wytham Abbey: modern sketched copy of a now lost drawing of the south front after Cundy's alterations of 1809-10. Image: Historic England.

A drawing formerly at Wytham but now known only in a mid 20th century hand-drawn copy, shows that Cundy added a battlemented canted bay window and octangular turrets with cross-loops to the angles of the south end of the east front and built a new flat south front to its west with a battlemented canted single-storey bay window in the centre and another octangular turret at the south-west corner. The tops of the walls were battlemented, and the windows were uniform sashes with applied cusping and Tudor-style hood moulds. The work was all rather thin in detailing, and evidently failed to give satisfaction, for less than twenty years later the exterior was remodelled again. 

Wytham Abbey: watercolour by Vice-Adm. Lord Mark Kerr showing work in progress on the further remodelling of the house, 1828.
Image: Private Collection.

A watercolour of 1828 by Vice-Adm. Lord Mark Kerr shows work in progress, and in 1829 Buckler drew a view showing the house in its present form, although work may have continued into the early 1830s. The architect, who is unknown but could have been Buckler himself, removed Cundy's turrets and bay windows, and built out a big new square-sided bay window from the room at the south-west corner.

Wytham Abbey: the east front c.1900, photographed by Henry Taunt. Image: Historic England.

Wytham Abbey: aerial view of the house from the west, 1953. Image: Historic England.

Wytham Abbey: the south front today, showing the loggia added c.1925. 

Later changes to the house have been modest. The 7th Earl sold Wytham to Col. & Mrs Raymond ffennell in 1919, and they added a round-arched loggia to the south front in c.1925. The ffennells were philanthropists, and devoted some 260 acres of the estate to a pioneering experiment in countryside education for town children in the 1930s. Col. ffennell bequeathed the house to the University of Oxford in 1943, and the Nuffield Trustees bought most of the estate, including the extensive Wytham Woods, which became a vigorously protected site for ecological and zoological study in the late 20th century. The house itself was divided into fourteen flats in the 1950s, but suffered from a lack of maintenance and was sold in poor repair by the University in 1991. The purchasers, both novelists, converted the house back into a single dwelling, but sold it a charity called the Effective Ventures Foundation in 2022. The charity, which appears to have intended to use it as a conference venue and apartments, put it on the market in 2024, and it was for sale at the time of writing.

Kip's view shows the house surrounded by a moat and formal gardens, with the entrance front approached through an outer court flanked by outbuildings with stepped gables, similar to the outbuildings at Rycote. The 5th Earl changed this setting, draining the moat, demolishing the southern set of outbuildings and replacing those on the north by the present coachhouse and stables, and he rebuilt the parish church in 1811-12, reusing some Gothic materials salvaged from the demolition of Cumnor Place (Berks).

Descent: sold 1459 to Sir William Harcourt (d. 1486), who built the house; to widow, Katherine for life and then to son, William Harcourt; to son, Francis Harcourt (d. 1535); to son, Robert Harcourt, who sold 1538 to Leonard Chamberlain, who sold the same year to Sir John Williams (d. 1559), later 1st Baron Williams of Thame; to daughter, Margery (d. 1599), wife of Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys of Rycote; to son, Sir Edward Norreys, who exchanged it for other lands with his nephew, Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire; to daughter, Elizabeth (c.1600-45), Baroness Norreys, wife of Edward Wray; to daughter Bridget (1627-57), Baroness Norreys, who married the Hon. Edward Sackville (d. 1646) and later Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey; to son, James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (later Venables-Bertie) (d. 1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon; to nephew, Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon; to son, Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montague Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, who sold 1919 to Col. & Mrs ffennell; bequeathed 1943 to University of Oxford, which sold 1991 to Michael Stewart and Martine Brant; sold 1992 to Effective Ventures Foundation; for sale, 2025.

Cumnor Place, Berkshire

The site of Cumnor Place, where Anthony Forster entertained Amy (Robsart), Lady Dudley, and where she met her end by falling down the stairs in mysterious circumstances, is immediately south of the churchyard. The building originally belonged to the monks of Abingdon, and was 'kept in the hands of the abbot in case of infirmity or plague in the town of Abingdon.' The last abbot had it as his residence after the surrender of the abbey, and during most of the 16th century it was used as a dwelling-house. The death of Lady Dudley, though a jury decided that it was not due to foul play on the part of her husband or of Anthony Forster, nevertheless gave the house a very uncomfortable atmosphere, and after it ceased to be the residence of the lords of the manor the ghost of the lady was said to haunt the place, and particularly the staircase where she met her death.  

Cumnor Place: engraving of the partly ruined house prior to demolition in 1810.

Cumnor Place was a quadrangular stone building with an outer courtyard on the north, entered from the road. The house was mainly 14th century, but was considerably altered for Lord Norreys after he purchased the estate in 1574. The gate of the courtyard was dated 1575, and what was probably its postern now forms the entrance to Wytham churchyard. The main building had a gate-house with a vaulted roof in the centre of the north side, and the upper floor of this range was occupied by a single apartment forming the 'Long Gallery.' At the north end was a chamber containing a window, which was reused after the house was demolished as the east window of the new church at Wytham. The west range was mainly taken up by the 14th-century great hall, 44 ft. by 22 ft., and having the screens passage at the north end. The windows from here were also removed to Wytham Church, and the 16th century entrance doorway is built into the porch there. The hall roof had large curved principals similar to those of The Abbey at Sutton Courtenay. The south range had at the east end a small chapel, 22 ft. by 15 ft., and the east range included an entrance from the churchyard. The base of the outer wall of this range is the only part of the structure now standing. It forms the boundary of the churchyard, and contains a fireplace with a stone head, ornamented with a series of sunk quatrefoils. Traces of the terraces and gardens of the house are still visible to the west of the site on LIDAR surveys and to some extent on the ground. 

Already in 1658 Anthony Wood described Cumnor Place as "the ruins of a manor house", and Thomas Hearne in 1717 said the west end of the south wing was in ruins; a good part of the Place was still standing "but much altered, especially the north part of it which was adorned about a year since by Mr Knapp Gent who now lives in the house". Tighe, writing in 1821, says that the Place "having long been untenanted, was repaired about a century ago" for a farmer and his family. This tallies with an indenture of 1727 which tells us that in 1699 Lord Abingdon rented Cumnor Place and the Rectory to John Knapp, gentleman, of Woolly Farm, Chaddleworth (Berks). In 1713 the manor passed to his son on his marriage; but part of the house was reserved for John Knapp the elder to live in. He died later in the year, but his son's right to go on living there was confirmed in 1727. A survey of the Abingdon estate in 1728 shows that Cumnor Place was still much the biggest house in the village.

In 1759 Buckler said the Place was in a ruinous condition with one corner only inhabited; the Hall was used as a granary and its painted windows had been vandalised. But it still seems to have been a going concern as a farm. In 1770 it was sub-let by Dudson Rawlins of Abingdon, presumably a tenant of the Earl, to John King of Cumnor, a yeoman farmer. He was to have the "mansion house … and farm with the Malthouse, Barns and Stables, Dovehouse, orchard and garden" for 14 years. How far these farm buildings were original, purpose-built ones or adapted from parts of the main building is not clear. Bartlett says the west end of the south wing became a malthouse; and the chapel, with its paving and seating removed, a cow house. King also rented some land, including the fishponds associated with the house. Rawlins would keep the buildings, gates and walls in repair, but John King was to keep the glass windows in repair and to keep the pigeon house and fishponds stocked. The Gentleman's Magazine says that the farmer at some stage left and the building "was parcelled out in small tenements and let by the lessee at Abingdon to the poorer classes". William Stone owned all the 25 acres around Cumnor Place in 1808. When the lease expired around 1810 Lord Abingdon decided to take down the ruinous building, and the material was used for the rebuilding of Wytham Church. 

Cumnor Place: the present house of that name, which is largely late 19th and 20th century in date

Cumnor Place: the garden front of the present house of that name.

The house now known as Cumnor Place, south-east of the church, incorporates an old building, perhaps originally of 17th-century date, but was much altered and extended in the 19th century and c.1909-11. It was used by the 7th Earl of Abingdon as an occasional residence in the early 20th century. It was bought in 1967 by the art historian, Dr Oliver Impey, and his wife and further restored and modernised.

Descent: Abingdon Abbey to dissolution of the monastery; seized by Crown and leased to last abbot of Abingdon (d. by 1541); sold 1547 to George Owen (d. 1558); to son, William Owen, who leased it to Anthony Forster (d. 1572) (tenant at the time when Lady Dudley fell down the stairs in 1560), who bought the freehold in 1561; bequeathed to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who sold 1574 to Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys of Rycote; to son, Sir Edward Norreys, who exchanged it for other lands with his nephew, Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire; to daughter, Elizabeth (c.1600-45), Baroness Norreys, wife of Edward Wray; to daughter Bridget (1627-57), Baroness Norreys, who married the Hon. Edward Sackville (d. 1646) and later Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey; to son, James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (later Venables-Bertie) (d. 1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon; to nephew, Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon; to son, Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon; to son, Montague Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, who was occasionally resident in the new house; sold 1909 to Amy & Katherine Jervoise... sold 1967 to Oliver Impey (1936-2005) and his wife Professor Jane Mellanby (1938-2021); sold 2022. 

Weston Manor, Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire

The house has a long and complex history, made more confusing by the importation on several occasions of genuine historic features from other places. In essence, this was the site of a moated medieval manor house belonging to Oseney Abbey, which was largely rebuilt, around a courtyard, after 1540 for Sir John Williams (d. 1559), 1st Baron Williams of Thame.  The house was considerably altered in the 18th century and then refronted c.1825, while further significant changes were made in the 1850s. It has been an hotel since 1949.

Weston Manor: the house as depicted on the 1st edn 25" map of 1875, showing the medieval moat. 

The medieval manor house was the home of Oseney Abbey's bailiff for the bailiwick of Weston. Two sides of its 13th-century rectangular moat were existing, and a third side could be traced, until 1908, when they were largely filled in; they are visible on the 1st edition 25" map above. The principal survival of the medieval house is the structure of the early 16th century great hall, although the visible features are almost all later additions. A staircase turret was added on its south side in the late 16th or early 17th century to provide access to a gallery at its east end, which may have been adapted from the earlier solar. Inside, the hall has oak linenfold panelling and above that a fine carved frieze of c.1520, showing some classical influence, and a Latin inscription which can be translated as "Fear God and depart from evil. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom", with the name of Richard Rydge, the last Abbot of Notley (Bucks.), between the two sentences. Peregrine Bertie (1741–90) moved this panelling from Notley to Weston in about 1780, and it resembles contemporary work at Thame Park. The five bay timber roof with arch-braced collars and curved windbraces also came from Notley, but was only moved here and rested on Victorian angel corbels in 1851 by the Rev. F.A. Bertie, after being used on a barn at Chesterton. 

Weston Manor: the south front, with the medieval hall on the left.

Weston Manor: the medieval hall, looking east towards the gallery. Image: Country Life.

As rebuilt in the 16th century, the house is roughly rectangular and encloses a courtyard. The family apartments lay in the south and east ranges; the service accommodation on the north and west. There are 16th century fireplaces in the entrance hall and the gallery of the medieval hall, but otherwise the internal details are all later. The stables and outbuildings stood detached from the house across a paved stable-yard, through which may once have lain the main approach. The house was assessed on 20 hearths in 1665, making it one of the county's larger mansions. 

Weston Manor: ground floor plan in 1928. Image: Country Life.

Weston Manor: engraving of the east front in 1823, from Dunkin's The history and antiquities of the hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley.

An engraving of about 1823 shows the east front before it was rebuilt in the 1820s, when it was of two storeys and essentially symmetrical in composition. There was a gable at either end with a blind window below. An unpretentious low wall or paling separated the house from the landscape beyond, and farm outhouses lay on both sides. The sash windows, two-storey canted bay windows, and central doorcase with a broken segmental pediment tell a story of extensive piecemeal alteration in the 18th century. Inside, the chief surviving features of interest are the the bolection-moulded panelling of c.1700 in the drawing room, with an acanthus frieze on top, the bow window of this room, and the early 18th century staircase, which divides into two flights near the top. The central courtyard has a central well surrounded by a low wall bearing the arms of the Bertie family, and against its west wall two doors from the Jacobean chapel of Exeter College. They bear the arms of George Hakewill, rector of the college, at whose cost the chapel had been built; and were probably brought here when the chapel was rebuilt in 1856.

Weston Manor: the east (entrance) front today.

In about 1825, the east front of the house was completely rebuilt to a more imposing design intended to make more explicit the Tudor origins of the house. The new front is of seven bays, and battlemented, with a thin three-storey entrance tower in the centre, and broader towers at each end, which are gabled on all four sides.  The fenestration is almost uniformly of two-light mullioned windows with arched heads, but these frame sliding sashes not casement windows, and the left-hand bay of the centre has single-light windows, presumably because of constraints imposed by the underlying Tudor fabric. 

The house passed out of the Bertie family in 1918, but remained in private ownership for another thirty years. It was photographed for Country Life magazine in 1928. Conversion to hotel use after the Second World War has inevitably meant compromises with the historic furnishing and use of the house, but the most significant change has been the rebuilding of the former stable block in Cotswold style in 1988 as a block of additional bedrooms, to the designs of Norman Machin & Associates of Bicester.

Descent: Oseney Abbey; seized by the Crown at the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, and granted 1540 to Sir John Williams (d. 1559), later 1st Baron Williams of Thame; to widow, Margery (d. c.1588), later wife of Sir William Drury (d. 1579) and James Croft, and after her death to Williams' son-in-law, Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys, who let it to James Croft; to grandson, Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire; to illegitimate son, Francis Rose (later Sir Francis Norreys, kt.) (d. 1669); to son, Sir Edward Norreys, kt. (1634-1713); to son-in-law, Hon. Henry Bertie (c.1656-1734); to grandson, Norreys Bertie (d. 1766); to great-nephew, Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1741-90); to brother, Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon; to younger son, Peregrine Arthur Bertie (1790-1849); to brother, Rev. Frederick Arthur Bertie (1793-1868); to widow, Georgina Bertie (d. 1881) for life and then to his son, Capt. Frederick Arthur Bertie (1837-85); to widow, Rose Emily Bertie, who sold 1918 to David Margesson (1890-1965), 1st Viscount Margesson; sold 1922 to Charles Beresford Fulke Greville (1871-1952), 3rd Baron Greville; sold 1934 to Stuart James Bevan (1872-1935); to widow, Clair Margeurite Bevan (1885-1984), who sold 1936 to Philip Lyle (1885-1955), who let it during the Second World War and sold 1946 for use as a country club; sold 1949 as an hotel.

Continue to part 2 of this post.

Principal sources

G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, pp. 739-41; S. Bradley, Sir N. Pevsner & J. Sherwood, The buildings of England: Oxfordshire - Oxford and the south-east, 2023, pp. 717-20;

https://users.ox.ac.uk/~djp/cumnor/articles/inman-robsart.htm.

Can you help?

• If anyone can offer further or more precise information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 March 2025. I am grateful to Lord Norreys for his assistance with this family.

(598) Norreys and Bertie of Rycote and Wytham Abbey, Barons Norreys and Earls of Abingdon - part 2

This post has been divided into two parts. Part 1 consists of my introduction to the family and its property, and a description of the houses they owned. This second part gives the biographical and genealogical details of the family. 

Norreys family of Rycote and Wytham, Barons Norreys

Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys 

Norreys, Henry (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys. Only son of Sir Henry Norreys (d. 1536) and his wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Fiennes, 8th Baron Dacre of the South, born about 1525. His father had been accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn, summarily executed, and posthumously attainted, but in 1539 an Act of Parliament restored him in blood and returned such of the family's property as had not been forfeited to the Crown. He was an official of the royal stables by 1546; gentleman of the privy chamber by 1547; and butler of the port of Poole, 1553. His career accelerated after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, who honoured his father for his defence of her mother's honour. He was JP for Berkshire from 1558 and for Oxfordshire, 1561-91; High Sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, 1562-3; MP for Berkshire, 1547-52 and for Oxfordshire, 1571-72; Ambassador to France, 1566-70; Porter of the Outer Gate and Keeper of the Armoury at Windsor Castle from about 1580; an officer in the Queen's bodyguard (Capt., 1588) and Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, 1587-99. He was knighted in 1566, raised to the peerage as Baron Norreys by writ of summons, 6 May 1572, and fully restored in blood by a second Act of Parliament in 1575/6. He married, by 1544, the Hon. Margaret (1521-99), daughter and co-heiress of Sir  John Williams (d. 1559), 1st Baron Williams of Thame, and had issue:

(1) Hon. Sir William Norreys (c.1545-79) (q.v.);

(2) Hon. & Rt. Hon. Sir John Norreys (1547-97), born 1547; the most acclaimed English soldier of his day, participating in the Wars of Religion in France, in Flanders during the Eighty Years' War of Dutch liberation from Spain, in the Anglo-Spanish War, and above all in the Tudor conquest of Ireland, where he became infamous for the massacre of women and children on the island of Rathlin in 1575; MP for County Cork, 1585 and for Oxfordshire, 1589; a member of the Privy Council of Ireland; died of gangrene at the house of his brother, Sir Thomas, in Mallow (Co. Cork), 3 Jul 1597 and was buried at Yattendon (Berks); administration of his goods was granted in October 1597;

(3) Hon, Sir Edward Norreys (c.1550-1603), born about 1550; MP for Oxford, 1572 and for Abingdon, 1584-85, 1588-89; fought in the Netherlands, Ireland and Portugal; knighted 1586; sewer of the household, 1590; Governor of Ostend, 1590-99, when he was recalled to comfort his parents, whose other sons had all been killed; clerk of the petty bag by 1600; JP for Berkshire, 1598-1603 and Oxfordshire, 1601-03; custos rotulorum for Berkshire, 1601-03; married, 1600, Elizabeth (d. 1621) (who m3, 1604, Thomas Erskine (1566-1639), 1st Viscount Fenton and later 1st Earl of Kellie), daughter of Sir John Norreys (d. 1612) of Fyfield (Berks) and widow of Thomas? Webb of Salisbury (Wilts); died 8 September 1603 and was buried at Englefield (Berks);

(4) Hon. Catherine Norreys (b. c.1553-1602); married, c.1583, Sir Anthony Paulet (1562-1600), Governor of Jersey, and had issue at least two sons and three daughters; died 24 March 1602 and was buried at Hinton St. George (Som.);

(5) Hon. Sir Henry Norreys (c.1554-99), born about 1554; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1571); fought with his brothers John and Edward in the Netherlands 1586, knighted after the Battle of Zutphen 1586; MP for Berkshire 1589, 1597-98; served in Ireland as Col-General of Infantry 1595 and in the campaign in Munster 1599, where he died following the amputation of a wounded leg, 21 August 1599; his corpse was brought to Bristol in May 1600 and perhaps buried at Rycote;

(6) Hon. Thomas Norreys (1556-99), educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1571); MP for Limerick, 1585-86; knighted 1588; granted 6,000 acres in Munster, 1588; President of Munster and Lord Justice of Ireland, 1597; married Bridget Kingsmill, daughter of Sir William Kingsmill of Sydmonton (Hants), and had issue one daughter; died at his house in Mallow from a wound in the neck, 16/20 August 1599; his corpse was brought to Bristol in May 1600 and perhaps buried at Rycote;

(7) Hon. Maximilian Norreys (c.1557-93); served in Brittany under his brother John, where he was killed, September 1593.

He inherited the Rycote, Weston Manor and Wytham estates in right of his wife in 1559, and Yattendon (Berks) in 1588 under the will of his uncle, Sir John Norreys (d. 1563). He purchased Cumnor Place in 1574.

He died 27 June 1601 and was buried at Rycote, 10 August 1601, but is commemorated by a colossal freestanding monument, some 24 feet high, in Westminster Abbey, which was erected by his grandson after 1606; his will was proved in July 1601. His wife died in December 1599.

Norreys, Hon. Sir William (c.1545-79). Eldest son of Henry Norreys (c.1525-1601), 1st Baron Norreys, and his wife Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, born c.1545. He was a soldier (Capt. of Horse) who campaigned in Ireland, 1573-76 and again in 1579; Marshal of Berwick. Receiver for Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex and the City of London, 1579. He married, 1576 (settlement 1 June), Elizabeth (d. 1611), daughter of Sir Richard Morrison of Cassiobury (Herts), and had issue:

(1) Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire (q.v.).

He died of a fever while on campaign in Ireland in the lifetime of his father, 25 December 1579. His widow married 2nd, after 1586, as his second wife, Henry Clinton (1540-1616), 2nd Earl of Lincoln, and died about 4 July 1611.

Portrait, said to be of Francis Norreys,
1st Earl of Berkshire, from a stained glass 
panel formerly at Wytham Abbey.
Image: Bodleian Library.

Norreys, Francis (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire. Only child of the Hon. William Norreys (c.1550-79) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Morrison of Cassiobury (Herts), born 6 July and baptised at Wytham, 19 July 1579. In February 1597/8 he went to France in the train of Sir Robert Cecil, Ambassador Extraordinary. In August 1599 he was serving in the fleet hurriedly assembled to repel a threatened Spanish invasion. He proclaimed the accession of King James I at Oxford in 1603, and journeyed to the Scottish borders to accompany Queen Anne of Denmark to London. Between 1603 and 1605 he accompanied an English embassy to Spain, but his return to England was delayed by a serious illness which kept him in Paris for some months. He was present at the investitures of Prince Henry and Prince Charles as Princes of Wales in 1610 and 1616, and was Cupbearer at the installation of the Elector Palatine as a Knight of the Garter, 1615. He seems to have possessed an impetuous and quarrelsome disposition, and quarrelled both with his wife and with the Hon. Sir Peregrine Bertie (1585-1639). In 1612 he fought a duel with Bertie in which the latter was seriously wounded in the shoulder; after he had recovered, the two men fought again in 1613, leading King James I to issue a proclamation against duelling. In 1615 the two men were involved in an affray in a churchyard in which he killed a man called Winwood, servant to Bertie's father, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and he was convicted of manslaughter, but pardoned by the king. In February 1620/1 he was imprisoned in the Fleet prison for an insult offered to Lord Scrope in the presence of the Prince of Wales. He succeeded his grandfather as 2nd Baron Norreys, 27 June 1601, was made a Knight of the Bath, January 1604/5, and was promoted in the peerage to be Viscount Thame and 1st Earl of Berkshire*, 28 January 1620/1. He married, about 28 April 1599 at Chenies (Bucks) (but sep. 1606), with £8,500, Lady Bridget (1584-1631?), daughter and co-heir of Edward de Vere (1550-1604), 17th Earl of Oxford, and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Norreys (c.1600-45), Baroness Norreys (q.v.).

He also had a mistress, Sarah Rose (who later married Samuel Hayward), and had issue by her:

(X1) 

Sir Francis Rose (later Norreys) (1609-69), inherited the manors of Weston-on-the-Green and Yattendon from his father in 1622 and came of age in 1631; knighted 1633; High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, 1635-36; MP for Oxfordshire, 1656-58; married Hester, daughter of Sir John Rouse (d. 1645), kt., and had issue; died 1669.

He inherited the Rycote and Wytham estates from his grandfather in 1601, and £3,000 from his grandmother, Bridget, Countess of Bedford, in 1603. His title to his estates was challenged by his uncle, Sir Edward Norreys, but the latter died in 1603, whose estates also passed to Lord Norreys.

He committed suicide with a crossbow in the Fleet Prison, 29 or 31 January 1621/2, when his earldom and viscountcy became extinct, and his barony devolved upon his only legitimate child; an inquisition post mortem was held 9 October 1623, and his will was proved 11 January 1623/4.  His widow appears to have died between December 1630 and May 1631.

* It was reported on 13 January 1620/1 that 'Lord Norris is to be Earl of Thame, on marrying his daughter and assuring his land to Wray of the Bedchamber', so his promotion in the peerage was evidently due to Wray and his influence with the Duke of Buckingham, who was at this time Wray's close friend.

Norreys, Elizabeth (c.1600-45), Baroness Norreys. Only legitimate child of Francis Norreys (1579-1622), 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire, by his wife Lady Bridget, daughter and co-heir of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, born about 1600. She succeeded as Baroness Norreys suo jure, after her father committed suicide, 29 January 1621/2, leaving her one of the richest and most sought-after heiresses at court. Christopher Villiers, brother of the Duke of Buckingham, sought her hand with royal encouragement, and to avoid being forced into a marriage with him she eloped with and married, 27 March 1622 at St Mary Aldermary, London, Edward Wray (1589-1658)*, groom of the bedchamber to King James I and MP for Oxfordshire, 1625, third son of Sir William Wray, 1st bt., of Glentworth (Lincs). They had issue:

(1) Bridget Wray (1627-57), Baroness Norreys (q.v.).

She inherited the Rycote and Wytham estates from her father in 1622, and carried them in marriage to Edward Wray.

She died shortly before 10 October 1645 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, 28 November 1645. Her husband died at Fritwell (Oxon) on 20 March, and was buried at Wytham, 29 March 1658; administration of his goods was granted 10 July 1658.

* As a result of the king's displeasure, Wray was dismissed from the bedchamber and imprisoned for some months, his release being reported on 15 February 1622/3.

Wray, Bridget (1627-57), Baroness Norreys. Only child of Edward Wray (1589-1658) of Rycote Park and his wife Elizabeth (c.1600-45), Baroness Norreys, only legitimate child of Francis Norreys, 2nd Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Berkshire, born 12 May and baptised at Hackney (Middx), 15 June 1627. She succeeded her mother as Baroness Norreys suo jure, October 1645. She married 1st, 24 December 1645, Hon. Edward Sackville (d. 1646), second son of Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, and 2nd, between 1646 and 1652, as his second wife, Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey, and had issue:

(2.1) James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(2.2) Hon. Edward Bertie (b. c.1654), born about 1654; died young;

(2.3) Lady Mary Bertie (1655-1709), born 1 September 1655; married, between 1678 and 1680*, as his second wife, Charles Dormer (1632-1709), 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, of Ascott House (Bucks), but had no issue; died 30 June 1709;

(2.4) Hon. Henry Bertie (c.1656-1734), born about 1656; educated at University of Padua (Italy) (admitted 1674); an officer in the army (Capt., 1678-85); Tory MP for Westbury, 1678-80, 1701-15, New Woodstock, 1681, and Oxford, 1685-87, 1689-95; deputy Constable of the Tower of London, 1702-05; inherited Nutley manor, Long Crendon (Bucks) from his father; married 1st, by 1687, Philadelphia (d. 1701), daughter of Sir Edward Norreys (1634-1713)**, kt., of Weston-on-the-Green (Oxon) and had issue three sons and two daughters; married 2nd, 1716 (licence 28 Sept.), Catherine (d. 1736), daughter of Sir Heneage Fetherston (1627-1711), 1st bt., of Stanford-le-Hope (Essex), but had no issue; died at Boulogne (France), 5 December 1734 and was buried at Chesterton (Oxon); will proved in the PCC, 19 December 1734.

She inherited the Rycote and Wytham estates from her mother in 1645 and came into possession on her marriage a few weeks later.

She died 24 March 1656/7 and was buried with her mother in Westminster Abbey. Her first husband was killed at the Battle of Kidlington, 11 April 1646, and was buried at Wytham (Berks), 18 May 1646. Her second husband died at Campden House, Kensington (Middx), 25 July 1666, and was buried at Edenham where he and his father are commemorated by a double monument erected by his sons; his will was proved 31 July 1666. 

* Lord Carnarvon's first wife died 15 or 30 July 1678, and Mary signed a book in her possession as 'M. Carnarvon', 1 October 1680.

** Son of Sir Francis Rose alias Norreys (1609-69) (q.v.), the illegitimate son of the 1st Earl of Berkshire.

Bertie family of Rycote and Wytham Abbey, Earls of Abingdon

1st Earl of Abingdon, by Kneller 

Bertie, James (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon. Eldest son of Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey, and his second wife, Bridget, Baroness Norreys, daughter of Edward Wray and Elizabeth, Baroness Norreys, baptised at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), 16 June 1653. He was known as the Hon. James Bertie until he succeeded his mother as 5th Baron Norreys, 24 March 1656/7. After coming of age, he was summoned to Parliament as Baron Norreys of Rycote, 1675, and was promoted in the peerage to the Earldom of Abingdon, 30 November 1682. Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 1674-87 and High Steward of Oxford, 1687. In 1688 he was active in inviting Prince William of Orange to mediate between King James II and his people, and contributed £30,000 to the Prince's expenses. However, on discovering William intended to seize the throne, he opposed him, and exerted all his influence against declaring the throne vacant; but after William and Mary were crowned he seems quickly to have been reconciled to the new regime, and resumed his post as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 1689-97. Chief Justice in Eyre south of the Trent, 1693-97. His political career was materially assisted by his close friendship with his half-sister's husband, Sir Thomas Osborne (later Duke of Leeds), who often visited him at Rycote for the hunting on that estate, and he was more vulnerable to attacks by the Whig junto after the Duke was dismissed from office in 1695. By then he was in increasingly poor health, probably due either to asthma or a heart condition. His portrait was painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. He married 1st, 1 February 1671/2 at Adderbury (Oxon), Eleanor (1658-91), eldest daughter and eventual sole heiress of Sir Henry Lee (1637-58), 3rd bt., of Quarrendon (Bucks), and 2nd, 1698 (licence 15 April), probably at Stanwell (Middx), Catherine (c.1659-1742), eldest daughter and co-heir of the Rev. Sir Thomas Chamberlayne (c.1635-82), 2nd bt., of Wickham (Oxon), and widow of Richard Wenman (1657-90), 4th Viscount Wenman and 1st Viscount Wenman of Tuam, of Thame Park (Oxon), and had issue:

(1.1) Montagu Bertie (later Venables-Bertie) (1673-1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(1.2) Hon. James Bertie (1674-1735) (q.v.);

(1.3) Hon. Henry Bertie (1675-1735), born 4 May 1675; he was ‘bred to the understanding of trade and merchandise’ under the merchant Sir Joseph Herne, but did not embark on a career in business; freeman and bailiff of Oxford, 1702 and a freeman of Hertford, 1703; Tory MP for Beaumaris (Anglesey), 1705-27; a commissioner for the public accounts, 1711-14; he acquired (when is unclear, but probably not until the 1720s) Sir William Berkeley's share in the ownership of the Carolina colony, as one of the eight Lords Proprietors, and sold this to the Crown in 1729; married 1st, 17 July 1708, Annabella Susanna (1667-1708), daughter of Hugh Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Glenawly, and widow of Sir John Magill (d. 1700), 1st bt. of Gill Hall (Co. Down) and of Marcus Trevor (1669-1706), 3rd Viscount Dungannon, but had no issue; he married 2nd, 3 October 1712 (with £10,000), his cousin Mary, second daughter and co-heiress of Hon. Peregrine Bertie of Waldershare Park (Kent) and widow of Anthony Henley (1667-1711) of The Grange (Hants), and had issue one daughter; died at Boulogne (France), 18 December 1735;

(1.4) Hon. Robert Bertie (1677-1710), born 28 February 1676/7; lived at Benham Valence (Berks); married, 1709 (licence 13 January 1708/9), Hon. Catherine (d. 1736) (who m2, Sir William Osbaldiston (c.1687-1736), 4th bt., of Chadlington and Nethercote (Oxon)), eldest daughter of Richard Wenman (1657-90), 4th Viscount Wenman and 1st Viscount Wenman of Tuam, of Thame Park (Oxon), but had no issue; died 6 August, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 10 August 1710; his nuncupative will was proved in the PCC, 15 September 1710;

(1.5) Vice-Adm. the Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1678-1709), born 2 February 1677/8; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1697; Capt., 1701; Vice-Adm. of the Red, 1707); captured at the Battle of the Lizard, 10 October 1707 and died unmarried while a prisoner of war in France, May 1709;

(1.6) Rev. the Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1679-1747); educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1695; BA 1699; MA 1703) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1700); Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford from 1703-27 (BCL 1706; DCL 1711); Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Oxford, 1720-41*; rector of Kenn (Devon), 1726-47 and also of Holborough (Devon), 1739-47 and Honiton (Devon), 1740-47; married Elizabeth (d. 1759), daughter of Rev. John Cary, rector of Tredington (Worcs), and had issue one son and one daughter; died 15 February and was buried at Kenn, 26 February 1746/7; will proved in the PCC, 30 September 1747;

(1.7) Lady Bridget Bertie (1681?-1753), said to have been born 13 March 1680/1; married, 13 February 1702/3, with £8,000, Richard Bulkeley (1682-1724), 4th Viscount Bulkeley of Cashel, of Baron Hill (Anglesey), Tory MP for Anglesey, 1704-15, 1722-24 and Jacobite sympathiser, and had issue two sons and five daughters; died 13 June, and was buried at Beaumaris (Anglesey), 11 July 1753;

(1.8) Lady Anne Bertie (1682?-1718), said to have been born 7 March 1681/2; married, 20 July 1704, Sir William Courtenay (1675-1735) of Powderham Castle (Devon), de jure 6th Earl of Devon, and had issue five sons and seven daughters; died 31 October 1718 and was buried at Powderham;

(1.9) Lady Mary Bertie; died young.

He inherited the manors of Rycote, Albury, Wendlebury, Chesterton, Dorchester, Thame, Beckley and Horton (all Oxon), and Wytham, Cumnor and Frilsham (Berks) from his mother in 1657 and came of age in 1674. His first wife brought him an interest in the estates of the Danvers family, and after legal disputes, a partition of the estates was agreed in 1681 which left him and his wife as sole owners of West Lavington, Marden and Patney (Wilts), and with shares in the manors of Westbury and Bradenstoke (Wilts). In 1688 he bought Littleton Pannell (adjacent to West Lavington).

He died of a fever at his house in Westminster, 22 May, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 29 May 1699; his will was proved in the PCC, 3 February 1699/1700. His first wife died 31 May and was buried at West Lavington, 6 June 1691, where she is commemorated by a monument. His widow married 3rd, Francis Wroughton (d. 1733) of Estcourt (Wilts), died 9 February 1741/2, and was buried at Long Newnton (then Wilts but now Glos); her will was proved 5 March 1741/2.

* Thomas Hearne records that he was a legal scholar and had no particular expertise in natural philosophy. He was appointed to this chair to provide him with an income from which he could repay All Souls College money defrauded from it by the man he had installed to deputise for him as bursar of the college, Barzillai Jones.

2nd Earl of Abingdon

Bertie (later Venables-Bertie), Rt. Hon. Montagu (1673-1743), 2nd Earl of Abingdon. Eldest son of James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon, and his first wife, Eleanora, daughter of Sir Henry Lee, 3rd bt., of Quarrendon (Bucks), born 4 February 1673. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (admitted 1685). A precocious political career, founded upon his father's influence as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, saw him made a Freeman of Woodstock, 1686; freeman and bailiff of Oxford, 1687, 1689; freeman of Chester, 1712; high steward of Malmesbury, 1699-1701 and of Oxford and Woodstock, 1701-43; Tory MP for Berkshire, 1689-90 and Oxfordshire, 1690-99; JP for Berkshire and Oxfordshire from 1701. He took the additional surname Venables by royal licence after his first marriage, 10 November 1687 and was known as Lord Norreys from 1682 until he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Abingdon, 22 May 1699. A member of the Privy Council, 1702-07, 1711-14, and 1714-43. Constable and Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 1702-05; Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, 1701-02, Oxfordshire, 1702-06, 1712-15 (DL from 1689); Chief Justice in Eyre south of the Trent, 1702-06, 1710-15, and one of the Lords Justices of the Realm between the death of Queen Anne and the arrival of King George I from Hanover, 1714. In 1736 he conveyed some of his real estate to trustees who were charged with the payment of his debts. He married 1st, 22 September 1687, Anne (1674-1715), Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne, 1702-05, 1712-14,  daughter and sole heir of Peter Venables (d. 1679) of Kinderton (Ches.), and 2nd, 13 February 1716/7 at Beaconsfield (Bucks) or West Lavington (Wilts)*, Mary (1677-1757), daughter of James Gould of Minterne (Dorset) and widow of Gen. Charles Churchill MP (1656-1714) (brother of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough), and had issue:

(2.1) James Bertie (1717-18), Lord Norreys, born 14 November and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), 26 November 1717; died in infancy of smallpox in the lifetime of his father, 25 February 1717/8, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote.

He inherited the Rycote, Wytham Abbey and Westbury (Wilts) estates from his father in 1699. He bought the manor of Godstow (Oxon) in 1702 but sold it in 1710 to the Duke of Marlborough. Later, he bought the manor of Littleton Auncells (Wilts) adjacent to his estate at West Lavington, and in 1738 he sold Bradenstoke (Wilts). His second wife had houses at Minterne and Dorchester (Dorset). He settled his remaining real estate on his nephew for life and thereafter on his great-nephews in order of seniority in 1736, and by his will he excluded any who did not conform to the Church of England.

He died 16 June, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 27 June 1743; his will was proved in the PCC, 1 July 1743. His first wife died 28 April 1715 and was buried in the chapel at Rycote; administration of her goods was granted 25 June 1715. His widow is said to have accidentally burnt to death, 10 January 1757 and was buried at St Peter, Dorchester (Dorset); by her will, proved 20 June 1757, she left her real and personal estate (estimated at £70,000) to her kinsman Nicholas Gould of Frome (Dorset).

* The marriage appears in the register of both parishes, and also in that of Rycote.

Bertie, Hon. James (1674-1735). Second son of James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norreys and 1st Earl of Abingdon, and his first wife, Eleanora, daughter of Sir Henry Lee, 3rd bt., of Quarrendon (Bucks), born 4 February and baptised 13 March 1673/4. Tory MP for New Woodstock, 1695-1705 and for Middlesex, 1710-34. Freeman and bailiff of Oxford, 1695 and a freeman of Hertford, 1704. A Commissioner for Sewers in Tower Hamlets, 1710, and for the Trent Navigation, 1714, as well as being one of the Commissioners for building 50 new churches, 1711-15; Duchy of Lancaster steward of Grosmont, Skenfrith and White Castle, 1714-20. He married 1st, 5 January 1691/2 at Stanwell (Middx), Elizabeth (1673-1715), only surviving daughter and eventual sole heir of George Willoughby (1638-74), 7th Baron Willoughby of Parham, and 2nd, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. George Calvert (d. 1696) of Stanwell (Middx), and had issue:

(1.1) Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(1.2) Edward Bertie (1694-1733), born 25 November 1694 and probably baptised at Stanwell; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1712; BA 1716; MA 1719) and Grays Inn (called 1727); barrister-at-law; died unmarried, 21 September and was buried at St James, Paddington (Middx), 22 September 1733;

(1.3) Elizabeth Bertie (1695-96), baptised at Stanwell, 23 December 1695; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 24 January 1695/6;

(1.4) Bridget Bertie (1696-1734), born 13 December and baptised at Stanwell, 14 December 1696; married, before 1719, Robert Coetmor (c.1691-1725) of Coetmor and Bodwrda (Caernarvons.), and had issue one son and two daughters; buried 9 August 1734;

(1.5) Elizabeth Bertie (b. & d. 1701), baptised at Stanwell, 22 January 1700/1; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 25 January 1700/1;

(1.6) James Bertie (b. & d. 1702), baptised at Stanwell, 14 January 1701/2; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 29 January 1701/2;

(1.7) Peregrine Bertie (1703-08), baptised at Stanwell, 10 January 1702/3; died young and was buried at Stanwell, 19 June 1708;

(1.8) Richard Bertie (1704-13), baptised at Stanwell, 11 May 1704; died young and was buried at Stanwell, 30 March 1713;

(1.9) Rev. the Hon. William Bertie (1705-67), baptised at Stanwell, 13 January 1705; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1723; BA 1727; MA 1730; BD 1742; DD 1752); rector of Albury (Oxon), 1740-57 and Wytham (Berks), 1742-57; married his first cousin, Hon. Anne Bulkeley  (d. 1778), third daughter of Richard Bulkeley, 4th Viscount Bulkeley, and had issue; died August 1767 and was buried at Albury; will proved in the PCC, 14 March 1767/8;

(1.10) George Bertie (1707-08), baptised at Stanwell, 15 May 1707; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 17 March 1707/8;

(1.11) Henry Bertie (1709-43), born and baptised at Stanwell, 20 April 1709; educated at Westminster; died unmarried and was buried at Bombay (India), 26 August 1743; will proved in the PCC, 3 December 1746;

(1.12) Anne Bertie (1710-11), baptised at Stanwell, 17 June 1710; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 7 December 1711;

(1.13) Rev. John Bertie (1711-74), born 22 November and baptised at Stanwell, 3 December 1711; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1731; BA 1735; MA 1738); ordained deacon, 1737 and priest, 1738; rector of Yattendon (Berks), 1744-47 and Kenn (Devon), 1747-74, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, 1763-74; married, 7 May 1734 (a clandestine marriage in London), Mary (c.1720-1803), daughter of Clark Nichols or Nicholas, and had issue; died 'of a mortification in his feet', 1 February and was buried at Kenn, 3 February 1774;

(1.14) Peregrine Bertie (b. & d. 1715), born and baptised at Stanwell, 26 September 1715; died in infancy and was buried at Stanwell, 12 October 1715.

He lived at Stanwell, in which his first wife inherited a life interest under the (disputed) will of her great-uncle, John Cary. She gained possession after a decision of the House of Lords in her favour in 1698. On her death in 1715, the estate passed to Viscount Falkland, and Bertie lived subsequently in Westminster.

He died 18 October 1735; his will was proved in the PCC, 17 March 1735/6. His first wife died 26 September and was buried at Stanwell, 2 October 1715. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

3rd Earl of Abingdon

Bertie, Willoughby (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon. Eldest son of Hon. James Bertie (1674-1735) of Stanwell (Middx) and his wife Elizabeth, only surviving daughter and eventual sole heir of George Willoughby, 7th Baron Willoughby of Parham, born at Lindsey House, Westminster (Middx), 28 November 1692 and probably baptised at Stanwell. Said to have been educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford or Cambridge (matriculated 1707), but does not appear in the Alumni volumes for either university. A Tory in politics, in 1715 he stood for Parliament in the Westbury constituency, where his family had a strong interest, and although initially declared elected, the result was overturned on petition, and he never stood for Parliament again. He went abroad for his health in the 1720s and lived in Florence (Italy), c.1722-27, while also visiting Rome and Naples and returning to England through Switzerland. At the time of his marriage he allegedly had 'a very weakly decayed constitution', but he survived for more than thirty years and produced a large family. He declined to join the Oxfordshire association in defence of the Hanoverian succession at the time of the 1745 uprising, and may therefore have had Jacobite leanings. He succeeded his uncle as 3rd Earl of Abingdon, 16 June 1743. High Steward of Abingdon and Wallingford, 1743. In Florence, he was closely associated with John Collins*, a Scottish Catholic who 'keeps a publick house in this town for the English Gentlemen that travel', and whose 'very pretty' daughter, Anna Maria (d. 1763), he subsequently married. The service is said to have been performed by a Church of England minister in Switzerland (and not in Florence), about August 1727. They had issue:

(1) Lady Elizabeth Bertie (1728-1804), said to have been born in 1728; married, 23 February 1763 at St James, Westminster (Middx) (but later sep.), Giovanni Andrea Battista Gallini (k/a Sir John Gallini) (1728-1805), an Italian dancer, choreographer and impresario resident in London, and had issue two sons and two daughters; died in London, 17 August 1804;

(2) Lady Jane Bertie (1732-91), born 23 March 1731/2 and baptised at St Anne, Soho, Westminster, 29 March 1732; married, 29 September 1760 at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury (Middx), as his third wife, Thomas Clifton (1728-83) of Lytham Hall (Lancs), and had issue one son and three daughters; died 14 February and was buried at Lytham, 18 February 1791;

(3) Lady Bridget Bertie (1734-60), born 9 January and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 18 January 1733/4; died unmarried, 9 December, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 15 December 1760;

(4) James Bertie (1735-45), Lord Norreys, baptised at Gainsborough (Lincs), 25 September 1735; known as Lord Norreys from 16 June 1743 until he was killed in the fire which burned down Rycote House, 12 November 1745; buried in the chapel at Rycote, 14 November 1735;

(5) Lady Anne Eleanora Bertie (1738-1804), baptised at Gainsborough, 15 July 1738; married, 7 July 1766 at St Marylebone (Middx), Philip Wenman (1742-1800), 4th Viscount Wenman, of Thame Park (Oxon), MP for Oxfordshire, 1768-96, but had no issue; died in London, 19 April 1804 and was buried in the chapel at Thame Park;

(6) Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(7) Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1741-90), born 13 March and baptised at Gainsborough, 16 April 1741; educated at Westminster; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1759; Cdr., 1762; Capt., 1762); MP for City of Oxford, 1774-90; inherited Weston-on-the-Green and Chesterton (Oxon), Notley Abbey (Bucks) and Yattenden and Hamstead Norris (Berks) from Norreys Bertie (d. c.1766); married, May 1790 at Frilsham (Berks), Elizabeth Hutchins (d. 1833) of Yattendon (Berks); died without issue at his seat at Frilsham, 20 August, and was buried at Weston-on-the-Green, 28 August 1790; will proved in the PCC, 23 September 1790;

(8) Charles Bertie (b. & d. 1742), baptised at Gainsborough (Lincs), 3 April 1742; died in infancy and was buried at Gainsborough, 24 April 1742;

(9) Lady Mary Bertie (1746-1826), born 12 November 1746; married, 27 April 1772 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, as his second wife, Miles Stapleton (1742-1808) of Clints, Marske (Yorks WR) and Drax (Yorks WR), second son of Nicholas Stapleton (d. 1750) of Carlton (Yorks), and had issue at least two sons and two daughters; died 22 July and was buried at Carlton-by-Snaith (Yorks WR), 28 July 1826;

(10) Lady Sophia Bertie (1748-60), born 6 November 1748; died young, 12 October, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 17 October 1760.

He leased the east wing of Gainsborough Old Hall (Lincs) from 1733 until he inherited the Rycote, Wytham Abbey and Westbury (Wilts) estates from his uncle in 1743. Rycote burned down in 1745 and he reconstructed it to a modified design. By 1764 he was evidently in financial difficulties, and his trustees sold the manors of Wendlebury and Chesterton (Oxon) and Marden and Patney (Wilts).

He died 10 June, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 16 June 1760; his will was proved in the PCC, 9 July 1760. His widow died of a stroke while visiting the Venetian ambassador at his residence in London, 21 December 1763; her will was proved in the PCC, 17 March 1764.

* The humble origins of John Collins (c.1689-1763) were carefully obscured by the family to make him appear a gentleman. He is said to have been a Scottish Catholic who obtained a post as valet to the Florentine ambassador in London. The ambassador arranged a pension for him from the Grand Duke on his recall to Italy. This enabled Collins to set up his hotel in Florence, which also became the home of the first masonic lodge in Italy. He may well have been a Jacobite. On his monument at Rycote he is described as Sir John Collins, and if this was a not wholly fictional dignity, it may signify a Jacobite knighthood. He was buried in a leather coffin with sword and armour resting on it, suggesting a possible military career before entering Florentine service. He is sometimes identified as John Collins of Chute Lodge (Hants), but had no connection with that family.

4th Earl of Abingdon

Bertie, Willoughby (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Willoughby Bertie (1692-1760), 3rd Earl of Abingdon, and his wife Anna Maria, daughter of Sir John Collins, born 16 January and baptised at Gainsborough (Lincs), 18 February 1739/40. Educated at Westminster School, Geneva and Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1759; created MA 1761), where he was one of three students chosen to address the Earl of Westmorland on his installation as Chancellor of the University, 1759. He was known as Lord Norreys from the death of his elder brother in 1745 until he succeeded his father as 4th Earl of Abingdon, 10 June 1760. He came of age and took his seat in Parliament, 1761, and was appointed High Steward of Abingdon and Wallingford in the same year. In 1763-66 he went on a Grand Tour with his brother Peregrine, and is known to have visited Rome (twice) - where his portrait was painted by Batoni - Naples, Turin, and Florence, but he spent much of his time in Geneva (Switzerland), where the French resident described him as 'a very petulant young man', who had been taught nothing except hunting and music. After a brief return to England he was again in Geneva in 1766-67, and he was in Florence again in 1770. In 1769 he funded the construction of the Swinford Toll Bridge (probably designed by Sir Robert Taylor) across the River Thames near Eynsham (Oxon), and obtained an Act of Parliament prehibiting the construction of new bridges within three miles of it, and making the income from tolls tax-free*. He became a noted patron of music, was in contact (through his brother-in-law, Sir John Gallini) with J.C. Bach and C.F. Abel, and was encouraged by Haydn to compose; he is the author of 120 known works, and was an accomplished performer on the flute and violin. That was one side of his character, but he seems also to have been a rather wild young man, prone to extravagant intemperance and eccentric behaviour. He had the reputation of being a political maverick, defending the liberties of the American colonies, but condemning the  French Revolution as a threat to "the Peace, the Order, the Subordination, the Happiness of the whole habitable Globe", and arguing that the movement for the abolition of the slave trade was simply the result of a "new philosophy" inspired by the new French republic. An obituarist noted that "his frequent speeches in the House of Peers were peculiarly eccentric", and Lord Charlemont in his memoirs calls him "a man of genius, but eccentric and irregular almost to madness". Horace Walpole found him "not quite devoid of parts, but rough and wrong-headed, extremely underbred but warmly honest" in 1777. He eventually dissipated his family fortune so much that he was obliged to sell the furniture from Rycote in 1779, as well as much of his property at Westbury (Wilts), to reduce his debts. Although he retained ownership of the burgages in Westbury, and thus control of the town's parliamentary seats, he sold the nomination of members there at each election after 1786 to gain extra income. In 1794-95 he was convicted of libelling a Mr. Sermon of Grays Inn, who had been his solicitor, fined £100, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. He was insolvent at the time of his death. He married, 7 July 1768, Charlotte (1749-94), daughter and co-heir of Adm. Sir Peter Warren (1703-52), kt., of Warrenstown (Ireland), MP for Westminster, and had issue: 

(1) Lady Charlotte Bertie (1769-99), born 12 October and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 2 November 1769; died unmarried, 11 January 1799, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote;

(2) Lady Amelia Bertie (1774-84), born 6 January 1774; died young and was buried at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 22 May 1784;

(3) Willoughby Bertie (b. & d. 1779), Lord Norreys, born 8/10 February and was baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 20 February 1779; but died in infancy later the same day, 20 February 1779;

(4) Willoughby Bertie (b. & d. 1781), Lord Norreys, born 9 April and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 17 April 1781; died in infancy and was buried at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 1 May 1781;

(5) Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(6) Lady Louisa Anne Maria Bertie (b. & d. 1786), born 8 March and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 6 April 1786; died in infancy and was buried at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 31 May 1786;

(7) Hon. Willoughby Bertie (1787-1810), born 24 June and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 26 July 1787; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., by 1808; Cdr., 1810); married, 26 November 1808 in Guernsey, and again 10 October 1810 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Catherine Sloane Saunders, an actress known as Miss Fisher or 'the Young Roscia', and had issue one son (born posthumously and died in infancy); drowned when his vessel, HMC Satellite, was wrecked in the English Channel off Cherbourg (France), 19 December 1810; commemorated with his son by a monument in Salisbury Cathedral; will proved 21 June 1811;

(8) Lady Caroline Bertie (1788-1870), born 18 October and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 3 November 1788; married, 23 January 1821, Charles John Baillie-Hamilton (1800-65), MP for Aylesbury, 1839-47, second son of Ven. Charles Baillie (later Baillie-Hamilton) (1764-1820), Archdeacon of Cleveland, and had issue including two sons and two daughters; died in Genoa (Italy), 12 March 1870; will proved 14 April 1870 (effects under £1,500);

(9) Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1790-1849), born 30 July and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 1 September 1790; educated at Westminster and Jesus College, Cambridge (matriculated 1811; MA 1815); evidently emigrated to the United States of America, where he died unmarried, 17 October 1849 and was buried at Philadelphia (USA);

(10) Rev. the Hon. Frederic Bertie (1793-1868), born 12 February and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 1 April 1793; educated at Westminster and Jesus College, Cambridge (matriculated 1814; MA 1816); ordained deacon, 1816 and priest, 1817; rector of Wytham (Berks), 1817-68, perpetual curate of South Hinksey (Berks), 1820-68; rector of Albury and Wheatley (Oxon), 1820-68; JP for Oxfordshire; married, 17 October 1825 at Shiplake (Oxon), his brother's sister-in-law, Lady Georgina Anne Emily Kerr (1806-81), second daughter of Vice-Adm. Lord Mark Robert Kerr, and his wife Charlotte, Countess of Antrim suo jure, and had issue five sons and four daughters; died 4 February 1868; will proved September 1868 (effects under £7,000).

He inherited the Rycote, Wytham Abbey and Westbury (Wilts) estates from his father in 1760 and came of age in 1761. He sold West Lavington (Wilts) in 1761 and Frilsham (Berks) in 1762, and most of his remaining Wiltshire estate in a series of sales after 1777. In 1790 he inherited Weston-on-the-Green (Oxon) from his brother Peregrine, but it was entailed on his younger sons and eventually passed to the Rev. and Hon. Frederic Bertie (1793-1868).

He died 26 September 1799 and was buried in the chapel at Rycote; his will was proved in the PCC, 15 May 1800. His wife died 28 January, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 8 February 1794.

* The bridge continues to charge tolls to this day, but is no longer owned by the Bertie family.

Bertie, Montagu (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon. Third, but eldest surviving, son of Willoughby Bertie (1740-99), 4th Earl of Abingdon, and his wife Charlotte, daughter and co-heir of Adm. Sir Peter Warren, kt., MP, of Warrenstown (Ireland), born 30 April and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 8 May 1784. He was known as Lord Norreys until he succeeded his father as 5th Earl of Abingdon, 26 September 1799. Cupbearer at the coronation of King George IV, 19 July 1821; Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, 1826-54; High Steward of Abingdon, 1826. He received an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1810 (DCL). He married 1st, 27 August 1807 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Emily (1776-1838), daughter of Gen. the Hon. Thomas Gage (1719-87) and sister of Henry Gage, 3rd Viscount Gage; and 2nd, 11 March 1841 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Lady Frederica Augusta (1816-64), fifth daughter of Vice-Adm. Lord Mark Robert Kerr and his wife Charlotte, Countess of Antrim suo jure, and had issue:

(1.1) Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(1.2) Lady Charlotte Margaret Bertie (1809-93), born 23 July and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 19 August 1809; died unmarried, 7 November and was buried at Leamington Spa (Warks), 11 November 1893; will proved 11 January 1894 (effects £21,231);

(1.3) Lady Emily Caroline Bertie (1810-81), born 11 August and baptised at St Marylebone, 19 August 1810; married, 31 July 1830 at Wytham, Rev. the Hon. Charles Bathurst (1802-42), Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and later rector of Siddington St Mary (Glos), fifth son of Henry Bathurst (1762-1834), 3rd Earl Bathurst, but had no issue; died 18 March and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 23 March 1881; will proved 5 April 1881 (effects under £18,000);

(1.4) Hon. Albemarle Bertie (1811-25), born 26 September and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 31 October 1811; educated at Eton; died young, 4 February 1825; buried in the chapel at Rycote;

(1.5) Rev. the Hon. Henry William Bertie (1812-94), born 16 September and baptised at St Nicholas, Brighton, 29 October 1812; educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1830; BA 1833) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1833); Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1836-94 (BCL, 1840; DCL 1847); ordained deacon, 1836, and priest, 1837; rector of Stanford-on-Teme (Worcs), 1840-44 and of Great Ilford (Essex), 1844-81; died unmarried, 31 December 1894; will proved 2 February 1895 (effects £9,007);

(1.6) Hon. Augusta Georgina Bertie (b. & d. 1815), born 14 April 1815; died in infancy, 4 May 1815 and was buried in the chapel at Rycote;

(1.7) Hon. Vere Peregrine Bertie (1817-18), born 23 November 1817 and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 13 February 1818; died in infancy, 21 March 1818, and was buried in the chapel at Rycote;

(1.8) Hon. Brownlow Charles Bertie (1819-52), born 19 August and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 25 September 1819; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1837); an officer in the army (Cornet, 1839; Cornet & Sub-Lt, 1840; Lt., 1846); DL for Berkshire, 1850; died unmarried on board a steamer between Panama and San Francisco (USA), while on his way to participate in an expedition to Japan, 30 December 1852.

He inherited the Rycote, Wytham Abbey and the remaining part of the Westbury estates from his father in 1799 and came of age in 1805. In 1807, he pulled down the main house at Rycote and sold the building materials, reserving some to reuse in remodelling Wytham Abbey, and in 1810 he sold the burgages in Westbury. By 1835 his finances had recovered somewhat and he purchased the manor of North Weston (Oxon) to add to his Rycote and Thame estate.

He died at Wytham Abbey, 16 October, and was buried at Rycote chapel, 24 October 1854; his will was proved in the PCC, 17 May 1855 (effects under £10,000). His first wife died 28 August 1838 and was buried at Rycote. His widow died in London, 26 November 1864.

Bertie, Montagu (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon. Eldest son of Montagu Bertie (1784-1854), 5th Earl of Abingdon, and his first wife, Emily, daughter of Gen. the Hon. Thomas Gage and sister of Henry Gage, 3rd Viscount Gage, born 19 June and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 30 July 1808. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1827; MA 1829; DCL 1834). An officer in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry Cavalry (Lt., 1827; Capt., 1831; Maj., 1847; retired 1855). Tory MP for Oxfordshire, 1830-31, 1832-52 and for Abingdon, 1852-54. He was known as Lord Norreys until he succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Abingdon, 16 October 1854. High Steward of Oxford and Abingdon; Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, 1855-81 (DL, 1831-55). He married, 7 January 1835 at Nuneham Courtenay (Oxon)*, Elizabeth Lavinia (1815-58), only daughter and heir of George Granville Venables Vernon (later Harcourt) (1785-1861), MP for Lichfield, 1806-31 and Oxfordshire, 1831-61, and had issue:

(1) Montagu Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon (q.v.);

(2) Lady Elizabeth Emily Bertie (1838-1923), born 5 November 1838; was received into the Roman Catholic church, 1874, and lived latterly in Florence (Italy); died unmarried in Livorno (Italy), 4 May 1923; will proved 29 November 1923 (estate in England, £335);

(3) Lady Lavinia Louisa Bertie (1839-1928); married, 16 January 1883 at St Stephen, Kensington (Middx), Robert Bickersteth (1847-1916) of Downgate House, Wadhurst (Sussex), MP for Newport, 1885-86, eldest son of Rt. Rev. Dr. Robert Bickersteth DD (1816-84), Bishop of Ripon, but had no issue; died in Oxford, 5 July 1928; will proved 22 November 1928 (estate £18,237); 

(4) Rt. Hon. Francis Leveson Bertie (1844-1919), 1st Viscount Bertie of Thame, born 17 August 1844 and baptised at Nuneham Courtenay (Oxon), 25 March 1845; entered the Foreign Office 1863 (Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1874-80; Acting Second Secretary in the Diplomatic Service at the Berlin Congress 1878; Acting Assistant Clerk at the Foreign Office 1880-81; Assistant Clerk 1881-82; Acting Senior Clerk 1882-85; Senior Clerk 1889-94; Assistant Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1894-1903; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Rome 1903-05 and at Paris 1905-18); Chairman, Uganda Railway Committee 1896-1903; he was sworn of the Privy Council, 1903, and appointed KCB 1902; GCVO 1903; GCMG 1904 and GCB 1908, before being raised to the peerage as Baron Bertie of Thame, 28 June 1915 and promoted to be 1st Viscount Bertie of Thame, 2 September 1918; inherited the family's lands in North Weston (sold 1913), Beckley and Horton-cum-Studley (sold 1919); married, 11 April 1874, Lady Feodorowna Cecilia (1840-1920), eldest daughter of Henry Richard Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, and had issue one son; died 26 September 1919 and was buried at Thame (Oxon); will proved 28 November 1919 (estate £15,803);

(5) Rev. & Hon. Alberic Edward Bertie (1846-1928), born 14 November 1846 and baptised at Nuneham Courtenay, 5 April 1847; educated at Merton College, Oxford (matriculated 1865; BA 1869; MA 1873); rector of Albury (Oxon), 1879-87 and Gedling (Notts), 1887-1923; married, 26 April 1881 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster, Lady Caroline Elizabeth (c.1855-1930), daughter of Mark Kerr (later McDonnell) (1814-69), 5th Earl of Antrim, and had surviving issue four sons and three daughters; died 20 March 1928 and was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford; will proved 31 May 1928 (estate £8,819);

(6) Lady Frances Evelyn Bertie (1848-1929), born 23 April and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 31 May 1848; received into the Roman Catholic church, 1881, and became a nun at the Convent of the Visitation, Harrow-on-the-Hill (Middx) as Sister Frances Magdalen; died 29 August 1929; will proved 18 March 1930 (estate £143);

(7) Hon. George Aubrey Vere Bertie (1850-1926), born 2 May and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 7 June 1850; an officer in the Coldstream Guards (Ensign & Lt., 1868; Lt. & Capt., 1871; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1881; Maj. & Lt-Col., 1885; retired 1885), who served in the Zulu War, 1879; a keen yachtsman, he was member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, 1900-26; married, 13 October 1885 at Great Bookham (Surrey), Harriet Blanche Elizabeth (1850-1923), daughter of Sir Walter Rockcliffe Farquhar (1810-1900), 3rd bt., and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Nice (France), 8 November 1926, and was buried in the Cimetière Communal de St. Marguerite there; will proved 5 February 1927 (estate £1,319);

(8) Hon. Charles Claude Bertie (1851-1920), born 31 August and baptised at Nuneham Courtenay, 19 October 1851; an officer in the Royal Berkshire Militia (Lt., 1871) and later in the army (Lt.; resigned 1876); married, 29 April 1890, Adelaide (1841-1903), youngest daughter of Rev. Jeremiah Burroughes of Lingwood Lodge (Norfk), but had no issue; died in Oxford, 4 September 1920;

(9) Hon. Reginald Henry Bertie (1856-1950), born 26 May and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 16 July 1856; educated at Eton; an officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (Lt., 1874; Capt., 1883; Maj., 1891; Lt-Col., 1899; retired as Col., 1903) who served in Crete, 1898 and China (mentioned in despatches) where he took part in the relief of Peking, 1900; appointed CB, 1901; married, 18 October 1892, Lady Amy Evelyn (1865-1948), daughter of Henry Reginald Courtenay (1836-98), Lord Courtenay, and sister of Charles Pepys Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon, but had no issue; died 15 June 1950; will proved 3 October 1950 (estate £26,133).

He inherited the Rycote and Wytham Abbey estates from his father in 1854.

He died 8 February and was buried in the chapel at Rycote, 13 February 1884; his will was proved 31 March 1884 (effects £36,670). His wife died 16 October 1858 and was buried at Wytham.

* Their marriage was quite an occasion, being celebrated by the Archbishop of York, and with the Dukes of Bedford and Wellington, the Earl of Sandwich and Lord Leveson among the witnesses.

7th Earl of Abingdon

Bertie, Montagu Arthur (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon. Eldest son of Montagu Bertie (1808-84), 6th Earl of Abingdon, and his wife Elizabeth Lavinia, only daughter and heir of George Granville Harcourt MP, born 13 May and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 29 June 1836. Educated at Eton. An officer in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry Cavalry (Cornet, 1856; Lt., 1860) and the Royal Berkshire Militia (Lt., 1858; resigned 1860 but re-apptd as Major, 1861; Lt-Col., 1863; retired as Hon. Col., 1880). JP and DL for Berkshire and JP for Oxfordshire. His first wife was a member of a leading recusant family and he was received into the Catholic church in the year of his marriage. He was known as Lord Norreys from 1854 until he succeeded his father as 7th Earl of Abingdon, 8 February 1884. High Steward of Abingdon, 1884-1928, representative of Towneley family among the trustees of the British Museum, 1885-1928, and a Governor of Abingdon School, 1901-15. He married 1st, 10 July 1858 at the Royal Bavarian RC Chapel, Warwick St, Westminster (Middx), Caroline Theresa (1838-73), eldest daughter of Col. Charles Towneley (1803-70) of Towneley Hall (Lancs), MP for Sligo, and 2nd, 16 October 1883 at Portsmouth RC Cathedral, Gwendoline Mary (1867-1942), eldest daughter of Lt-Gen. the Hon. Sir James Charlemagne Dormer KCB (1834-93), and had issue:

(1.1) Lady Mary Caroline Bertie (1859-1938), born 11 August 1859; married, 5 August 1879, Sir Edmund Bernard Fitzalan-Howard KG (1855-1947), 1st Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent, of Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1921-22, second son of Henry Fitzalan-Howard (1815-60), 14th Duke of Norfolk, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 21 April 1938 and was buried in the RC cemetery at Arundel (Sussex); will proved 12 July 1938 (estate £2,571);

(1.2) Montagu Charles Francis Bertie (later Towneley-Bertie) (1860-1919), Lord Norreys (q.v.);

(1.3) Arthur John Bertie (1861-62), born 26 December 1861; died in infancy, 10 January 1862;

(1.4) Lady Alice Josephine Bertie (1865-1950), of Dyneley, Burnley (Lancs), born 3 March 1865; JP for Lancashire; married 1st, 1 February 1890 at the British consulate and All Saints RC church, Cairo (Egypt), Sir Gerald Herbert Portal KCMG (1858-94), diplomat, second son of Melville Portal (1819-1904) of Laverstoke House (Hants), and 2nd, 5 October 1897, Maj. Robert Florent Joseph Nicolas Ghislain Reyntiens (1853-1913), an officer in the Belgian army, son of Maj. Robert Reyntiens of Brussels (Belgium), ADC to HM King Leopold II of the Belgians, and had issue one daughter; died 7 May 1950; will proved 4 January and 28 February 1951 (estate £114,996);

(1.5) Lady Cecil Josephine Bertie (1873-95), born 22 July 1873; married, 18 July 1895 at Ootacomund (India), Brig-Gen. Paul Aloysius Kenna VC DSO (1862-1915), son of James Kenna of Liverpool (Lancs), but had no issue; died of typhoid fever at Bolarum (India), 3 October 1895;

(2.1) Lady Gwendoline Theresa (k/a Goonie) Bertie (1885-1941), born 20 November 1885; married, 8 August 1908, Maj. John Strange Spencer Churchill DSO (1880-1947) of Holworth House, Warmwell (Dorset), stockbroker, younger son of Lord Randulph Churchill (1849-95) and brother of the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), and had issue two sons and one daughter (Clarissa, later the wife of Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, Prime Minister); died 7 July 1941; administration of goods granted 12 September 1941 (estate £310);

(2.2) Hon. Arthur Michael Cosmo Bertie (1886-1957) (q.v.);

(2.3) Lady Elizabeth Constance Mary (k/a Betty) Bertie (1895-1987), born 12 March 1895; appointed OBE, 1938; an officer in the ATS, 1938-42; married 1st, 21 April 1914 at the Brompton Oratory, Maj. Sigismund William Joseph Trafford (1883-1953) of Wroxham Hall (Norfk), eldest son of Edward Southwell Trafford (1838-1912), and had issue one son and three daughters; married 2nd, 5 September 1956 in South Africa, Col. Henry Antrobus Cartwright CMG MC (1887-1957), son of Rev. Arthur Rogers Cartwright of Clevedon (Som.); died 29 July 1987; will proved 8 September 1987 (estate £38,540);

(2.4) Hon. James Willoughby Bertie (1901-66), born 22 September 1901; an officer in the Royal Navy Reserves (Lt-Cdr.), who served in the First World War, 1917-19 and Second World War; a Knight of Honour and Devotion in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; married, 12 June 1928 at Mount Stewart (Isle of Bute), Lady Jean DGStJ (1908-95), younger daughter of John Crichton-Stuart (1881-1947), 4th Marquess of Bute, and had issue two sons; died on Malta, 11 May 1966; will proved 11 April 1967 (effects in England, £30,074).

He inherited the Rycote, Cumnor and Wytham Abbey estates from his father in 1884, but sold parts of the Cumnor estate from the 1880s, Rycote in 1911 and Wytham Abbey in 1919. He lived at different times at Wytham, Cumnor Place (sold in 1909) and Oaken Holt, Cumnor. According to his great-grandson, he burnt through his inheritance with an "après moi, le déluge" attitude, but lived long enough to be swept up in the flood! His widow lived at Oaken Holt, Cumnor (Berks).

He died aged 91 at Oaken Holt on 10 March, and was buried at Abingdon, 14 March 1928; his will was proved 12 May and 5 July 1928 (estate £226,970). His first wife died 4 September 1873. His second wife died 16 September 1942; her will was proved 19 April 1943 (estate £6,360).

Bertie (later Towneley-Bertie), Montagu Charles Francis (1860-1919), Lord Norreys. Elder and only surviving son of Montagu Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, and his first wife, Caroline Theresa, eldest daughter of Charles Towneley of Towneley Hall (Lancs), born 3 October 1860. An officer in the army (Capt.) and later in the territorials (Capt.) who served in the Imperial Yeomanry in the Boer War, 1899-1900, and as commandant of a prisoner of war camp, 1915-19. JP and DL for Berkshire and JP for Oxfordshire. A Roman Catholic in religion. He married, 25 July 1885 at St Raphael's RC Church, Kingston-upon-Thames (Surrey), Hon. Rose Riversdale Glyn (1860-1933), daughter of Vice-Adm. Hon. Henry Carr Glyn (1829-84) and sister of the 3rd and 4th Barons Wolverton, and had issue:

(1) Montagu Henry Edmund Cecil Bertie (1887-1963), 8th Earl of Abingdon and later 13th Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);

(2) Lady Alexandra Rose Alice Bertie (1886-1952), born 17 October 1886; granted rank of an earl's daughter, 1928; died unmarried, 21 April 1952; will proved 23 July 1952 (estate £16,052).

He died of heart failure resulting from illness contracted during his wartime employment, in the lifetime of his father, 24 September 1919; his will was proved 15 May 1920 (estate £19,090). His widow died 21 December 1933; her will was proved 13 February 1934 (estate £4,590).

Bertie (later Towneley-Bertie), Montagu Henry Edmund Cecil (1887-1963), 8th Earl of Abingdon and 13th Earl of Lindsey. Only son of Montagu Charles Francis Bertie (later Towneley-Bertie) (1860-1919), Lord Norreys, and his wife the Hon. Rose Riversdale (d. 1933), daughter of Vice-Adm. Hon. Henry Carr Glyn (1829-84) and sister of the 3rd and 4th Barons Wolverton, born 2 November 1887. Educated at Eton. An officer in the Royal Anglesey Engineers (2nd Lt., 1905; Lt., 1905). He is said to have intended to become a Roman Catholic priest, and was in his novitiate when war broke out in 1914, after which he returned to the army, joining the Grenadier Guards (Lt., 1915; Capt., 1918; wounded; retired 1919) and also serving in the Royal Naval Air Service (temp Flight Sub-Lt., 1916). He was employed briefly in Egypt after the First World War. He took the courtesy title Lord Norreys after the death of his father in 1919 and succeeded his grandfather as 8th Earl of Abingdon, 10 March 1928, and his distant kinsman, as 13th Earl of Lindsey, 2 January 1938. High Steward of Abingdon from 1928. He also succeeded his father as representative of the Towneley family among the trustees of the British Museum, 1928-63. He is said to have renounced the Roman Catholic church shortly before his marriage in a registry office, 11 August 1928, to Elizabeth Valetta (k/a Bettine) (1896-1978), a Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur, daughter of Maj-Gen. the Hon. Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley CB CMG DSO MVO (1857-1934) and divorced wife of Capt. Alastair Edward George Grant (1892-1947). They had no issue.

He lived at 3 Seymour St., St. Marylebone in 1939 and later at 2 Curzon Place, Mayfair.

He died 11 September 1963, and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery (Surrey); his will was proved 8 November 1963 (estate £165,700). His widow died 24 October 1978 and her will was proved 19 January 1979 (estate £1,665,508).

Bertie, Hon. Arthur Michael Cosmo (1886-1957). Elder son of Montagu Arthur Bertie (1836-1928), 7th Earl of Abingdon, and his second wife, Gwendoline Mary, eldest daughter of Lt-Gen. the Hon. Sir James Charlemagne Dormer KCB, born 29 September 1886. Educated in Austria and at Balliol College, Oxford (matriculated 1904). Honorary Attaché at Petrograd (Russia). He served in the First World War as an officer in the Rifle Brigade (Maj., 1917; acting Lt-Col. commanding 11th Battn, 1918) (twice wounded and twice mentioned in despatches) and in the Second World War with the South African Defence Force and the Control Commission for Germany, 1945-48; awarded the DSO, 1917 and MC, 1918. A Roman Catholic in religion. He married 1st, 15 May 1929, in Rhodesia, Aline Rose (1888-1948), elder daughter of George Arbuthnot-Leslie of Warthill (Aberdeens.) and widow of Hon. Charles Fox Maule Ramsay MC (1885-1926), and 2nd, 7 May 1949, Lilian Mary Isabel (1902-2000), eldest daughter of Charles Edward Cary-Elwes (1869-1947) of Staithe House, Beccles (Suffk) and widow of Lt-Cdr. Frank Dayrell Montague Crackenthorpe RN (1900-44), and had issue:

(1.1) Richard Henry Rupert Bertie (b. 1931), 14th Earl of Lindsey and 9th Earl of Abingdon (q.v.).

He lived at Selwood, Mells (Som.) and later at Crepping Hall, Stutton (Suffk).

He died 1 February, and was buried at St Mary's RC church, East Bergholt (Suffk), 6 February 1957; his will was proved 30 May 1957 (estate £6,037). His first wife died 5 July 1948 and her will was proved 9 March 1949 (estate £2,434). His widow died aged 98 on 25 September 2000; her will was proved 31 October 2000.

Bertie, Richard Henry Rupert (b. 1931), 14th Earl of Lindsey and 9th Earl of Abingdon. Only child of the Hon. Arthur Michael Cosmo Bertie (1886-1957) and his first wife, Aline Rose, elder daughter of George Arbuthnot-Leslie of Warthill (Aberdeens.) and widow of the Hon. Charles Fox Maule Ramsay MC, born 28 June 1931. Educated at Ampleforth. He succeeded his cousin as 14th Earl of Lindsey and 9th Earl of Abingdon, 11 September 1963. After service in the army (2nd Lt., 1952; Lt., 1954; retired 1957) he became a broker and an underwriting member of Lloyds, 1958-96;  Chairman, Dawes and Henderson (Agencies) Ltd, 1988–92; Chairman of the Anglo-Ivory Coast Society, 1974-77. High Steward of Abingdon since 1963. A Roman Catholic in religion. He married, 5 January 1957 at St Mary's RC Church, Cadogan Sq., Westminster (Middx), Norah Elizabeth (b. 1932), younger daughter of Mark Oliver (later Farquhar-Oliver) OBE of Edgerston, Jedburgh (Roxburghs), and had issue:

(1) Henry Mark Willoughby Bertie (b. 1958), Lord Norreys, born 6 June 1958; educated at Eton and Edinburgh University; styled Lord Norreys from 11 September 1963, and heir apparent to his father in the earldoms of Lindsey and Abingdon; a Knight of Honour and Devotion in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 1995; a Knight of Justice in Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, 1998; and a Knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 1998; he and his wife ran a gallery in Andalucia (Spain) for twelve years before moving to The Old Dairy, Gilmilnscroft; he married, 8 December 1989, Lucinda Sol (b. 1960), shoe designer, second daughter of Christopher Stewart Moorsom, and has issue two sons; now living;

(2) Lady Annabel Frances Rose Bertie (b. 1969), born 11 March 1969; educated at St Mary's, Ascot and Edinburgh University (MA 1991); interior designer; now living;

(3) Hon. Alexander Michael Richard Bertie (b. 1970), born 8 April 1970; educated at Eton and Queen's College, Oxford (BA 1992); marketing consultant; married, 17 April 1998, Catherine Davina (k/a Katy), daughter of Prof. Gordon Campbell Cameron (1937-90), Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and has issue one son and one daughter; now living.

He lived at Gilmilnscroft House, Sorn (Ayrshire), a seat of his wife's family, until it was sold in 2011 and now at Blairston Mains (Ayrshire).

Now living. His wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 2348-52; A. Collins, Peerage of England, 1812, vol. 3, pp. 628-36; J. Ingamells, British and Irish travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 1997, pp. 2, 85-86; personal communications from Lord Norreys, 2024-25.

Location of archives

Bertie, Earls of Abingdon: deeds, estate and household papers, 1639-1919 [Bodleian Library, MS DD Bertie]; estate papers, 1760-80 [Royal Berkshire Archives, D/EDb]; deeds and papers relating to Notley Abbey, Long Crendon (Bucks), 17th-18th cents [Buckinghamshire Archives, D52]

Coat of arms

Argent, three battering rams fesswise in pale proper, headed and garnished azure.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further or more precise information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 March 2025. I am grateful to Lord Norreys for his assistance with this family.