The manor of EARLEY REGIS or EARLEY WHITEKNIGHTS (Herlei, xi cent.; Erleye, Ere, Erlegh, xiii cent.; Early, Erleigh, xiv cent.; Arley, xvi cent.)
1066 – was held before 1066 by Almar in alod of King Edward the Confessor, and at the time of the Survey was part of the royal demesne and was assessed at 4 hides. (fn. 72) Two fisheries and a close in Reading were among the appurtenances of the manor.
In the latter part of the 12th, in the 13th and part of the 14th centuries the manor was held of the king by a family of knightly rank, the Earleys, who took their name from the place. The family had also large possessions in the county of Somerset, for which they owed the service of acting as royal chamberlain, (fn. 73) and from the 12th century at least to the time of the extinction of the male line their principal residence seems to have been in the west of England, while they also possessed considerable interests in Ireland.
1150 – The first Earley known to us is John de Earley, (fn. 74) who married Adela and died between 1161 and 1165.
He was succeeded by William his son, apparently the William who exchanged land in Sonning Park with the Bishop of Salisbury for a hide of land within the manor of Sonning called ‘the hide of Ailmar the Priest.’ (fn. 75) He was the husband of a wife named Aziria and well known as the founder of Buckland Priory. His active life lay in the reign of Henry II. (fn. 76)
His heir John, who held one knight’s fee in Berkshire, (fn. 77) married a wife named Sybil. (fn. 78) In 1197 John de Earley received from Maud daughter of Robert de Earley a quitclaim of 2 hides of land in Earley, Reading and Sonning. (fn. 79)
He was succeeded at his death by a son also named John, (fn. 80) who died without issue in 1231. Both of these Earleys were in the service of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, (fn. 81) and one of them, probably the elder, was his executor and possibly furnished material for the poetic story of his patron’s life. (fn. 82)
The next holder was Henry de Earley, (fn. 83) a younger brother of John. A Henry de Earley was living in 1251 (fn. 84) and there was a Henry who died in 1272 leaving a son Philip and widow Clemencia. (fn. 85)
But the appearance of a ‘Sir Richard de Earley’ as witness to a charter of Gilbert Bullock (c. 1250) (fn. 86) looks as if there may have been a Richard between an elder and younger Henry.
Philip de Earley only held the manors in Berkshire and Somerset from 1272 to 1275
and at his death his son John by his wife Roesia was a minor. (fn. 87)
In 1276 the Bishop of Hereford, on the ground that he was frequently obliged to come to the court on business and had no convenient lodging at which to stay on his journeys to and from his distant diocese, asked for a grant of the manor during the minority of the heir and this he duly received. (fn. 88)
John having come of age did homage early in 1292, (fn. 89) and at the close of the century is found serving in the army in Scotland. (fn. 90) He appears to have been known as the ‘White Knight,’ (fn. 91)
and is thus distinguished from a John de Earley who in 1316 was holding the manor of Earley Bartholomew, and from a sub-tenant of the same name in his own manor of Earley Whiteknights. John de Earley died in 1324 and was succeeded by his son John. (fn. 92)
John the younger died in 1337,
leaving a son John, then aged two. Before his death he had granted the manor of Earley to Humphrey de la Rokele and Maud his wife for their lives. (fn. 93)
In 1362 licence was given to the younger John de Earley to grant two messuages and 19 acres of land to Robert de Earley and Joan his wife, retaining a messuage and 2 carucates. (fn. 94) These he probably sold shortly afterwards to Henry de Aldrington, who appears to have settled the manor on his wife Elizabeth, with remainder to his son John. (fn. 95) After his death his widow Elizabeth married first one Loveday and then John Shilford.
In 1378 John son of Henry de Aldrington sold his reversion of the manor to John de Olney of Weston and another, (fn. 96) who before 1392 released their interest to John Shilford and Elizabeth. (fn. 97)
They in 1393 settled the manor on themselves in fee-tail, with remainder to Thomas Overy and his wife Constance and the heirs of Constance. (fn. 98)
In 1401–2 John Shilford is returned as holding thirty-nine-fortieths of a knight’s fee in Earley Whiteknights, (fn. 99)
Robert de Earley being responsible for the remaining one-fortieth.
In 1413 Thomas Overy and Constance settled the manor on themselves for life, with remainder to John Beck (Bek, Beke) and Agnes Overy, their daughter, and the heirs of John Beck. (fn. 100) Thomas Overy died in 1431, when his daughter Agnes was married again to William Bisshopeston. (fn. 101) She with her husband quitclaimed the manor to Thomas son of John Beck in 1443. (fn. 102)
In 1446 Thomas Beck settled the manor on himself and his wife Isabel, (fn. 103) and again made settlements in 1458 and 1464. (fn. 104) Isabel survived her husband and died seised of the manor in 1501. (fn. 105)
Her son Marmaduke having also predeceased her, her heir was her grandson Thomas Beck, who died at Whiteknights seised of the manor in 1546, (fn. 106)
leaving a son and heir Marmaduke. Marmaduke Beck died without issue, and the manor descended to Henry his nephew, son of Hugh Beck. (fn. 107)
On the death of Henry Beck in 1580 (fn. 108) the property was inherited by his daughter Elizabeth, who afterwards married Hugh Speke. (fn. 109) She with her husband conveyed Whiteknights in 1606 to Francis Englefield (fn. 110) of Wootton Bassett, Wilts., created a baronet in 1611, who died in 1631. (fn. 111)
He settled the manor on his fourth son Anthony, (fn. 112) who died in 1667. (fn. 113) Anthony, his son and successor, died in 1711. His fourth son (fn. 114) and ultimate heir Henry left a son and heir also Henry, who in 1728 succeeded his cousin Sir Charles Englefield as sixth baronet. (fn. 115) He died in 1780. (fn. 116) By his will dated 1778 he left the manor to his sons Henry Charles and Francis Michael in fee-tail successively, with remainder to his daughter Teresa Ann, who married Francis Cholmeley of Brandsby Hall, Yorkshire. (fn. 117) Sir Henry Charles Englefield, a well-known antiquary and astronomer and a Roman Catholic, succeeded his father. His brother Francis died without issue, and in 1798 he, being also childless, conveyed the estate to William Byam Martin, who released it to George fifth Duke of Marlborough. (fn. 118) The duke spent large sums of money upon the house, gardens and park, and then became involved in financial difficulties. The mortgagees seized the costly contents of the house and caused them to be sold. Sir Francis Cholmeley of Brandsby Hall, Yorkshire, son of Francis Cholmeley and Teresa Ann Englefield, laid claim to the ruined estate. Protracted litigation ensued, judgement being finally given in 1824 in favour of the plaintiff. (fn. 119) But misfortunes befell the family. Francis Cholmeley and Barbara his wife broke the entail in 1822, (fn. 120) and in 1839 mortgaged the estate to James Wright-Nokes of Upminster, Essex. In 1840 John Beardmore of Dean Street, Soho, purchased it from J. Wright-Nokes, who had removed to Twickenham and became involved in financial difficulties. (fn. 121) In 1839 parts of the estate had been put up for sale at the Crown Inn, Reading, among the purchasers of outlying portions of the estate being Charles Henry Foyle, John Weedon of Reading, Edward Weedon of Gloucester, John Alliston and S. H. Sutherland. Later John Richards, a solicitor, of Reading, in conjunction with John Weedon, became involved in the speculations that were being made in the Whiteknights estate, and the former became a bankrupt in 1842, and complications continued. Two years later a deed was drawn up conveying the manor from John Beardmore and John Weedon to Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, bart., who finally obtained possession in 1849. (fn. 122) He died in 1859, and was succeeded by his son Sir Francis. (fn. 123) Sir Julian Goldsmid, nephew of Sir Francis, succeeded to the manor in 1878 and died in 1896, when the manor passed to Mr. Osmund Elim d’Avigdor of Somerhill, Tonbridge, Kent, who assumed the name and arms of Goldsmid and is now lord of the manor. (fn. 124)
