‘He wrought harde to finde his wiffe and Children, having seaven Sonnes, bread and water, and scarsly could doe that.’
– Roger Symonds, 1596
– Roger Symonds, 1596
Hampton Poyle lacked a grand manor in the style of Water Eaton or Yarnton. Land here was owned or leased by several individuals among them the Rathbones, yeoman farmers who also held lands in Bletchingdon and who went on to acquire the Manor at Shipton-on-Cherwell. The Rathbone brothers were on Bartholomew Steer’s list but despite that they sat as jurymen at an assize hearing before the treason trial that condemned men to death.