Shilton, Gloucestershire - Genealogy Notes

Location and general description

Lying some 3 Km SSE of Burford and on the Shill Brook, Shilton is in the Hundred of Farringdon and thus in the section of Oxfordshire that was until the 20th Century in Berkshire. This is a attractive little village with a pub and an ancient church.
Shilton may be called Shulton in older documents.

Buildings

Holyrood Church

People

The HATTON family

The marriage licence of Thomas HATTON suggests that he married Elizabeth JORDAN in the village, presumably at Holyrood Church (see above).

The HORDE family

Giles (1848, Pgs 14-15) mentions that Sir Thomas HORDE retired to his manor of Shilton in 1657 when he ceded Cote House and the manor of Aston with Cote to his son Thomas. He died at Shilton in 1662.

The RAINTON family

Jane RAINTON (1841-1716), married Reginald BRAY of Great Barrington, Oxon. She was daughter of William RAINTON of Shilton and his wife Barbara (nee TRINDER). Barbara later married Thomas HORDE (c1623-c1716) of Cote House, nr Bampton, Oxon., to whom, jointly with Richard SACKVILLE, the TRINDER's at one point jointly devised their farm at Holwell (ORO, Hey/X/xii/1). The possibility that William RAINTON was related to Sir Nicholas RAINTON Alderman of London is suggested by TRINDER connections with Bibury, Gloucestershire. The 1636 Will of Sir Thomas MOULSON, Alderman and Grocer of London mentions Sir Nicholas RAINTON as his Brother in Law and one William RAINTON of Bybury as his cousin. He also refers to a Cousin Robert GURDON (=JORDON) and his wife. The 1657 Will of Charles TRINDER (ORO, Hey/X/i/17) mentions his son in law William RAINTON (deceased), grandaughter Jane RAINTON and grandson John SACKVILLE. The latter was the son of Richard SACKVILLE who married Charles' daughter Joyce TRINDER in Burford (Joyce was eventually buried in Bibury, Gloucestershire, where Bibury Court was the seat of the SACKVILLE family). In an assignment dated 14 Dec 1703 Jane BRAY (formerly RAINTON) was a joint party with Henry SACKVILLE of Bibury. Sir Nicholas RAINTON built Forty Hall in Enfield, an area that had other connections to the Burford, Oxon., area via John HOWELL of Lincolns Inn (a major landowner in Enfield). William JORDAN of Burford, Oxon., married Jane's Aunt Jane TRINDER (d1703).

Peter HEYLYN the prebendry of Westminster, was born in Burford, Oxon., to Henry HEYLIN and had an uncle by the name of RAINTON (first name not mentioned) who lived in Shilton and was at one point High Sheriff of Berkshire. Jane RAINTON's Grandmother was Jane HEYLIN daughter of one Henry HEYLIN of Burford, Oxon. So these two are likely to be related. Other members of the HEYLYN family lived in Minster Lovell, Oxon.

A possible link between the RAINTON family and the RODOWAY family is suggested by a bundle of fragmentary manuscripts dealing with an indenture dated 2 June 1625. The catalogue entry is fairly cryptic but lists 'CHARLES to ALLEN, DUCIE, WHITMORE, RAYNTON, MOULTON [=MOULSON?], PARKHURST, Ct these, NEAVE, RODOWAY, BRIGGS, CROPLEY &c.' (Corporation of London Records Office: Royal Contract Estates, CLA/044/05/011)

The BRAY family

In 1702 an assignment of lease for the Manors of Great and Little Barrington, Glos (SHC, G85/13/546) involved the following parties

Thomas HORDE of Cote, Bampton, Oxon, Oxon, esq
Jane BRAY of Shilton, Berks, widow of Reginald Bray of Great Barrington, Oxon, Glos, and Edmund BRAY their son;
Isaac TULLIE of St Paul's, Covent Garden, Middx, mercer, and Edmund BRAY of New College, Oxford

At the time, Little Barrington, Oxon was one of the sites of paper making in the Windrush valley

There is also a connection between the BRAY family of Shilton and the FETTIPLACE family of Swinbrook, Oxon.

The ELLINS / ELLYNS family

On 20th February, 1678 one Symond ELLYNS of Brize Norton, Oxon, yeoman purchased rights to land in Shilton from Charles FETTYPLACE of Earles Court (in Lamborne parish), Berks, gent (ORO, Hey/VIII/iv/2). The witnesses were to this transaction were Francis KEBLE. Robert OSBALDESTON. Hen. GODFREY. This excluded land in the tenure of TURFREY for the lives of certain family members. The 1680 settlement for Symon's marriage to Ann FARR involved one John WYATT of Standlake, Oxon, gent.
On 26 Apr 1735 one William ELLINS of Shilton, Berks, yeoman gained agreement from Richard GRIFFITHS of Burford that he could levy a fine on land in parish of Bampton belonging to the Manor of Hinton Wallrich [sic:Waldrist], Berks together with land in Shilton. William was son and heir of Symon ELLINS decd. Witnesses were John JORDAN senr. Mary JORDAN. Willm. MONK.

William ELLINS appears to have been the son of Symon ELLYNS. It is also of note that Daniel MONKE married the widow Frances OSBALDESTON in Fulbrook, Oxon (Jan 1698/99). Furthermore one William OSBALDISTON of Chadlington and Nethercote was the second husband of Catherine WENMAN, daughter of Sir Frances WENMAN of Carswell (1st Bart). That Sir Frances WENMAN married Mary FETTIPLACE, sister of Sir John FETTIPLACE of Childrey (1st Bart and father of the FETTIPLACEs of Swinbrook, Oxon).

William ELLINS is involved in several transactions with one Daniel KEMP of the Tower of London, monyer. (Hey/VIII/iv/9, 11, 13 & 14) some being witnessed by Thomas KEMP.

Bibliography

Giles, John Allen, History of the parish and town of Bampton., 1848, published on his own press in Bampton
ORO refers to papers in the collections of the Oxford Records Office
SHC refers to papers in the collections of the Surrey History Centre