[Illustration] "Stonor is a 3 miles out of Henley. Ther is a fayre
parke and a warren of connies and fayre woods. The mansion place
standithe clyminge on a hille, and hathe 2 courtes buyldyd withe
tymbar, brike, and flynte; Sir Walter Stonor, now possessor of it,
hathe augmentyd and strengthed the howse. The Stonors hathe longe
had it in possessyon syns one Fortescue invadyd it by mariage of an
heire generall of the Stonors, but after dispocessed." Thus wrote
Leland in his Itinerary, (vii. fo. 62a.): to which it may be added
that the family has the reputation of being very ancient, and may
certainly be traced to the twelfth century as resident at Stonor. In
the reigns of Edward II. and III., Sir John Stonor, Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas, (whose tomb is preserved in the chancel of
Dorchester church in this county,) was the representative and great
advancer of the family.
See Magna Britannia, iv. 425; and the first edition of Burke's
Commoners, ii. 440; see also Excerpta Historica, p. 353, for some
curious letters of the Stonors of the time of Edward IV.
ARMS.--_Azure, two bars dancetté or, a chief argent_. Monsieur John
de Stonor bore, _Azure, a fess dancetté and chief or_, in the reign
of Edward III. (Roll.)
Present Representative, Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys.