Thomas de Abberbury Lord of Demford & Ledwell

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁹⁸
The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archæological Journal, Volume 4
"Donnington Castle and Its Ancient Lord"
By F.N. MacNamara

"The earliest notice that I have of Walter (Adderbury) is of the year 1285, when he acted as attorney for his brother Thomas (Adderbuty) going abroad. Other notices I have of him in connection with Berkshire property, and in the time oft Edward II. He bought of the King for 100 shillings the Castle of Donnington, from which it would appear that till that time the Castle itself had remained in possession of the lords of the Honour of Wallingford. We have no record of Walter's death; he appears to have had a younger brother Richard whose son Richard followed Walter in possession of the family estates in Donnington and elsewhere, this we conclude from the fact that the latter Richard had a brother Thomas and that this Thomas is mentioned in a Berkshire fine as son of Richard. This view is supported by pedigrees recorded in Vincent's collections at the College of Arms, vol. 79, pp. 8 and 30, and in vol. 10, p. i. Further, according to these pedigrees Richard and Thomas had a sister Agnes, who married (Richard ?) Dominus de Coleshull, while one of the Richards just mentioned married Agnes' daughter and heiress of William de Shareshull, and by her had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married John Beaufoy, of Burford.

Richard, son of Richard, was a notable man at Court and also in his county which he represented in the Parliament of the second and third years of Edward II.; he was on the Commission of Peace for Oxon and Berks. In January, 1296, he went abroad on the King's service with John Bishop, of Winchester, and in 1322 made the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella. In 1316, he was lord of Donnington in Berks and Steeple Aston in Oxon, and in the Lay Subsidy Roll of 1 Edward III. heads the list in Donnington. This Richard died in the year 1333; his post mortem inquisition [8 Ed. iii., No. 38] shows that at the time of his death he held the Manor of Donyngton, land in Thatcham and manors and lands in Northampton, Oxon and Sussex; his heir was his son John, aged 16 years and more. John died young, and his inquisition [No. 28 of 20 Ed. 3] taken in 1346, the year after his death, shows that he held at the time nearly the same possessions as his father; his heir was his Uncle Thomas, aged 40 and more. Thomas the uncle was one of the lords of Dernford and Ledwell in Oxfordshire, in 1316 (Parliamentary Writs), and in Berks fine no. 12 of 18 Ed. 2, he, Thomas de Abburbury, son of Richard, buys land in East Henreth. We have no notice of his death, but Richard de Abburbury, whom we next find in possession of the family estates, was in all probability his son. Richard was followed at Donnington by his son [Evidence that he was his son is not clear; he may have been a nephew. History of Oxford, vi. calls this Richard son of Thomas brother of the previous generation's Richard Abberbury] Sir Richard Abburbury, junr., who about the year 1382 married Alice, widow of Edmund Danvers, of Chilton, dau. and heiress of John, son of Ric. Cleer, of South Denchworth.