Manners

It is possible, if not probable, that only one member of the Manners family  had any direct contact with Chewton Mendip and he never even visited the place. However, this was at a pivotal time and it is why this image taken from the internet of Roger Manners,  the 5th Earl of Rutland shown on the left, has been is used as the icon for the Tudor era.

Records held in the Hampshire archives confirm that the patron of the Rev Anthony Eglesfield on the 18th of October 1588 was the uncle of the Roger Manners shown. Confusingly he  was also called Roger he is normally referred to as Roger Manners of Uffington.

Roger Manners of Uffington  was the third son of the 1st Earl of Rutland so he had to make his own way in life. He had an eventful life and served Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I which took some political acumen and contrasts with the fate of Sir Edward Waldegrave.

Sir Edward was rewarded by Mary I  with the manor of Chewton Mendip for being faithful to their Catholic faith but was imprisoned by Elizabeth I for the same strength of belief.

The previous owners of the rectory lands  of Chewton Mendip was Sheen Priory which  was acquired by the Grey Family at the time of the dissolution. It was briefly refounded  by Mary only to be dissolved again by Elizabeth. She used the priory lands to reward, or buy, the loyalty of people like Roger Manners who had been close to Mary. The Bishop of Bath & Wells retained an interest of one-third of the value of the income from the rectory lands paid as a pension.

Roger Manners of Uffington was the kind of person who would have built an ‘E’ shaped house on what became Chewton Priory  in honour of Elizabeth I and gratitude for the land in Chewton Mendip. He died in 1607 without any children but he previously sold the rectory lands and the advowson to the Kingmills who kept most of the land untill the 19th century.

The Roger Manners shown, the 5th Earl of Rutland, was a Ward of Court under the ‘protection’ of Sir William Cecil. This was around the time that Richard Kingsmill was active as the Surveyor of the Court of Wards in Somerset.

One of this Roger Manners claims to fame is that he is suggested as one of the contenders for the real author of William Shakespeare’s work. Roger Manners, the 5th Earl of Rutland was succeeded by his brother Francis, when he died on  26 June 1612.

Francis Manners, the 6th Earl of Rutland  is infamous for his treatment of the so-called Witches of Belvoir in 1632 who he blamed for the death of his children so he was and was succeeded the third brother, George. The Manners family are still the earls of Rutland today.