King Alfred was born at Wantage in the year 849, and his statue by
Count Gleichen stands in the market place. The exact site of the
palace of the Kings of Wessex, in which he was born, is not known,
probably it was a wooden building. Edward III and Henry VI were both
born at Windsor; Henry I was buried at Reading; Henry VI, Edward IV,
Henry VIII, Charles I, George III, George IV, and William IV were
buried at Windsor; and Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort lie
in the mausoleum at Frogmore, in Windsor Park. King Edward VII was
buried at Windsor May 20, 1910.
The Marshals of Hampstead Marshall were a family of warriors. The most
distinguished of them was William, first Earl of Pembroke. When he
was a child his father, John Marshal, was besieged at Newbury by King
Stephen, 1152, and William was given as a hostage for a truce and the
surrender of Newbury Castle. The father did not keep his terms, and the
child would have been killed had not Stephen taken a liking to him and
saved his life. He became a great soldier and served Henry II, Richard
I, John, and Henry III with the utmost fidelity, becoming Regent of
England during the early part of the reign of Henry III. He died in
1219 at Caversham, and is buried in the Temple Church in London.
In later times another warrior owned Hampstead Marshall. This was
William Craven, Earl of Craven (1606-1697). He fought in the German
wars of 1632-37 and was the faithful champion of Elizabeth Queen of
Bohemia, the only daughter of James I. At the Revolution of 1688,
though over 80 years old, he was in command of the King's Guards,
and Macaulay, in his History of England, describes how unwillingly the
stout old soldier made way for the Dutch troops at Whitehall. Ashdown
Park was another seat of the Earl, and is still in the possession of
his descendant.
Radley belonged to a gallant sailor, Admiral Sir George Bowyer,
Bart. (1740?-1800), who lost a leg off Ushant, June 1st, 1794. Another
Admiral, Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), is buried at Shrivenham. He
served under Hawke and Rodney, and was commander-in-chief in the
West Indies.
The family of Norris or Norreys has long been connected with
Berkshire. Richard de Norreys, a member of a Lancashire family,
held the office of cook to Eleanor, wife of Henry III, and in 1267
the manor of Ockholt, near Maidenhead, was granted to him. One of
his descendants, John Norris, who held office in the Court of both
Henry VI and Edward IV, built the house Ockwells at Ockholt, which
has been already mentioned on page 114. He was buried at Bray in
1467. One branch of the family settled at Fyfield, and another branch
became Norris of Rycote, which is in Buckinghamshire, but they too
held much Berkshire property. Hampstead Norris derives its second
name from this family. Henry Norris was an intimate friend of Henry
VIII, and was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He, however,
fell under the suspicion of being a lover of Anne Boleyn, and was in
consequence executed in 1536. His son, also named Henry, was created
Baron Norris of Rycote in 1572. He died at Englefield, and there is a
monument to him and to one of his six soldier sons, Sir John Norris,
in Yattendon church. Francis Norris, a grandson of Henry Lord Norris,
was born at Wytham, and in 1621 was created Earl of Berkshire. He left
no sons, and the earldom became extinct at his death, 1623. The barony
descended through two ladies, Elizabeth and Bridget, to James Bertie,
who was created Earl of Abingdon 1682. The present peer, whose seat
is Wytham Abbey, is the seventh Earl of Abingdon.
St Edmund (1170?-1240), Archbishop of Canterbury, was born at
Abingdon, and William Laud (1573-1645), also Archbishop of Canterbury,
was born at Reading, the only son of William Laud, a clothier. He
was educated at the Free School at Reading, and he gave a farm to
Reading for charitable purposes. It was sold a short time ago, and
the purchase money invested, producing some £330 a year. Another
charity at Wokingham established by him also still exists.
John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury (1522-1571), was for some time
vicar of Sunningwell. He was a voluminous writer on theological
subjects. Another churchman connected with Sunningwell was John
Fell (1625-1686), Bishop of Oxford, who was born either there or at
Longworth. His father was rector of the parish. In 1648, at the time
of the Civil War, he was turned out of his Studentship at Oxford, but
continued to celebrate the rites of the church in a house opposite
Merton College. He was a distinguished man, but is best known by
the lines referring to him which begin "I do not love thee, Doctor
Fell." Joseph Butler (1692-1752), Bishop of Durham, and the author of
the Analogy of Religion Natural and Revealed to the Constitution and
Course of Nature, was born at Wantage, the son of a retired draper
who lived at the Priory.
Sir Philip Hoby (1505-1558) and his half-brother, Sir Thomas Hoby
(1530-1566), were both distinguished diplomatists. The former
received the manor of Bisham from Henry VIII, and they are both buried
there. Queen Elizabeth was domiciled at Bisham under the charge of
the Hobys for a time during the reign of her sister Mary.
Sir John Mason, another diplomatist of the same period, was the son
of a cowherd at Abingdon. He is described as a paragon of caution,
coldness, and craft, and held high office, diplomatic and political,
under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, being in favour
with all these sovereigns.
Sir Henry Unton, or Umpton, who died in 1596, was both diplomatist
and soldier of the time of Elizabeth. He was born at Wadley Hall,
near Faringdon, where the Queen visited him in 1574. The house
is still standing. There is a fine alabaster monument to him in
Faringdon church.
In 1626 the title of Earl of Berkshire was conferred on the Hon. Thomas
Howard, of Charlton, Wilts. He was a son of the Earl of Suffolk,
and in 1745 the two titles passed to one man, and are so held at the
present day.
William Lenthall (1591-1662), the Speaker of the House of Commons in
the Long Parliament, bought Besselsleigh, the house of the ancient
family of Besils, and his descendants still own it.
William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania,
though London-born, lived at Ruscomb, near Twyford, for some time
towards the end of his life and died there.
Passing now to authors, Henry Hallam (1777-1859), the historian, was
born at Windsor, the son of one of the canons. Catherine Sawbridge
(1731-1791), who became in turn Mrs Macaulay and Mrs Graham, was the
authoress of a History of England. In her later years she lived at
Binfield and is buried in the churchyard there. The antiquary, Thomas
Hearne (1678-1735), was the son of the parish clerk at White Waltham,
and was born at Littlefield Green.
Jethro Tull (1680-1741), a well-known writer on agriculture, was
born at Basildon, and farmed land first near Wallingford, then in
Oxfordshire, and finally near Hungerford. About the year 1701 he
invented a horse-drill for sowing seed. He is buried at Basildon.
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), of the Commentaries, was buried
in St Peter's, Wallingford, at which place he had spent much of
the latter part of his life. John Shute, first Viscount Barrington
(1678-1734), author of the History of the Apostles, lived at Beckett
House, Shrivenham, which was left to him by Sir John Wildman.
Several poets were connected with Berkshire, but chief of them all
was Alexander Pope (1688-1744), whose father owned a small property
at Binfield. Here the poet lived for much of the early part of his
life. His poem Windsor Forest contains many lines dealing with the
district around Binfield. Sir William Trumbull (1639-1716), the friend
of Pope, and Secretary of State in 1695, lived at Easthampstead, not
far from Binfield; and Elijah Fenton (1683-1730), another of Pope's
friends, himself a poet, lived with the Trumbull family during his
last years.
Henry James Pye (1745-1813), though Poet Laureate, wrote but poor
verses. He commuted the tierce of canary to which the Poet Laureate
was entitled for £27 a year. He was a son of Henry Pye of Faringdon,
and at one time was M.P. for Berkshire. Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618),
also a poet, is said to have lived at Lambourn as steward to the
ancient family of Essex, and one of his volumes is dedicated to
Mistress Essex of Lambourn.
Mrs Elizabeth Montague (1720-1800), whose London house was a centre of
intellect and fashion, where the term "Blue-stocking" was first applied
to her conversation parties, lived a good deal at Sandleford Priory,
near Newbury, and built a large house there from plans by Wyatt.
She cannot, however, claim the close connection with Berkshire, both as
regards life and writings, which is so characteristic of Mary Russell
Mitford (1787-1855) who lived for a time at Reading, then at Three
Mile Cross, and finally at Swallowfield, in the churchyard of which
place she lies buried. Her best known work is Our Village, the scenes
in which are laid in the district at and around Three Mile Cross.
Thomas Day (1748-1789), the author of Sandford and Merton, was the
owner of Bear Hill, Wargrave.
John Winchcombe, alias Smalwoode (died 1520), was a pioneer of the
clothing manufacture at Newbury, and acquired thereby great wealth. He
built a house at Bucklebury on land which had belonged to the Abbey
of Reading. His descendant, Frances Winchcombe, married in 1700 the
celebrated Viscount Bolingbroke, who resided at Bucklebury for a
time. John Winchcombe is buried in Newbury church. He was popularly
known as "Jack of Newbury" and many fables are told about him. Thomas
Deloney, a weaver by trade, who lived in the latter part of the
sixteenth century, wrote the ballad "The Pleasant History of John
Winchcomb, in his younger days called Jack of Newbury."