A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Sayeb of Preston. 

 Gules a chcvcron belzoim 

 three sea-pies argent. 



of a moiety was at once given to her,'- and the ward- 

 ship and marriage of William Sayer were granted to 

 John de Wyke, the bi.-hop's chamberlain. '^ William 

 Sayer died in or before 14.00 holding a messuage and 

 5^ oxgangs of land in Preston by a rent of 8/. 5jd'. ; 

 the heir was his son John, aged 

 half a year." The wardship 

 and marriage were granted to 

 Roger de Fulthorp.'-" John 

 S.iyer proved his age in 14.2 i : 

 he had been born at Norton on 

 7 January 1399-1400, and 

 baptized next day by William 

 Laton, vicar of Norton."' His 

 mother Isabel, d.iughter and 

 heir of Roger de Fulthorp, 

 died in 1439 holding 9 acres 

 in Preston by feilty ; her son 

 John was then said to be thirty 

 years of age."^ John Sayer lived 



till 1473, when he was found to have held 'a manor 'of 

 1 1 oxgangs in Preston upon Tees by a rent of 1 9/. o\d. 

 His heir was a son John, aged fifty ; to him and his wife 

 Joan the father had in 1449 conveyed parts of his 

 estate.'* The younger John, who was in 1458 ap- 

 pointed to accompany Lord Fauconberg, then in 

 command of a fleet, but evaded the enterprise,^' died 

 in or before 1496 holding the manor of Preston by the 

 fortieth part of a knight's fee and a rent of 38/. o|d'. — 

 the whole rent payable in 1384 — and two messuages 

 20 oxgangs of land and 9 acres called Websterland, two 

 cottages and a fishery. He left as heir a son William, 

 aged forty ; Joan the widow survived him."* Willinm 

 Sayer of Worsall (Yorks.) was 

 in 1515 found to have held the 

 manor of Preston upon Tecs 

 with a fishery there, with lands 

 and rents in various other 

 places in the county. John, 

 aged thirty, was his son and 

 heir.' John Sayer afterwards 

 made a settlement of this 

 manor,- and in 1525 gave cer- 

 tain lands to his son William 

 and Margaret his wife. 

 William died in 1531 holding 

 the manor of Preston,' and his 

 widow Margaret married John 



Maunsell.'' William's son and heir John Sayer, aged 

 ten at his father's death, died in 1584, leaving a son 

 and heir John, then aged thirty-nine, who had married 

 Frances Conyers.' John Sayer made a feoffment of 

 this manor in 1597," and after his death in 1635 '^"^ 

 manor went to his nephew Lawrence Sayer, son of a 

 brother Richard, by virtue of a settlement made in 



Sa^-er of Worsall. 

 Gules a cheveron betzceen 

 three sea-pies argent 

 zeilh a chief ermine. 



16 10. The next heir, however, was Dorothy wife of 

 William Bulmer, daughter of another brother, George 

 Sayer.' Under the Commonwealth the estates of 

 Lawrence Sayer of Worsall and Yarm were seized as 

 those of a 'Papist delinquent,'* but at that time 

 Preston upon Tees appears to have been mortgaged to 

 Thomas Metham.' Nevertheless the manor was 

 declared forfeit and sold by the Treason trustees in 

 1653 to Gilbert Crouch and Martin Lister.'" Law- 

 rence Sayer, son and heir of Lawrence, appears to 

 have surrendered his right in it to Crouch, and about 

 1673 the estate was purchased by trustees for George 

 Witham of Cliffe (Vorks.)." The manor appears to 

 have come into the hands of Sir 

 William Wyvill, who in 1683 

 conveyed it to the same George 

 Witham, and Sir Marmaduke 

 Wyvill, who acquired a further 

 estate from Robert Sayer, con- 

 veyed it in 1688 to the same 

 George. The new owner in 

 estate in 

 grandson 

 In 1717 



Witham of Cliffe. 

 Or a bend hettcten three 

 eagles close gules. 



1 702 devised his 

 Preston to his 

 William Witham. '- 

 Catherine Witham of Preston 

 upon Tees, widow of Dr. 

 Marmaduke Witham, and 

 Bishop Witham, a vicar apos- 

 tolic, as 'George Witham of Cliffe, gent.,' registered 

 their annuities from Preston. '^ In 1722 William 

 Witham sold the estate to Sir John Eden, bart., of 

 Windleston." 



Sir John Eden died in 1728, and his great-grandson 

 Sir Robert Johnson-Eden,'* who succeeded in 18 12 

 and died in 1844, about 1820 conveyed his Preston 

 estate to David IJurton Fowler, who had previously 

 acquired Witham Hall, another part of the Witham 

 family's former possessions.'^ Mr. Fowler built 

 Preston Hall in 1825 and died in 1828, having be- 

 queathed the estate to a grand-nephew Marshall 

 Robinson, who took the name of Fowler." His son 

 Marshall Fowler sold Preston Hall to Sir Robert 

 Ropner, but continued to reside there till his death. 

 It is now the residence of Mr. Leonard Ropner, 

 youngest son of the late Sir Robert Ropner. 



In 1403 it was found that John son of Lawrence de 

 Seton h.ad held, in right of Joan his wife, a messuage, 

 4 oxgangs of land and 10 acres in Preston, or rather 

 less than William Sayer ; the services were unknown. 

 The heir was a son Thomas, aged twenty-two." 

 About the same time the grandfather's widow, Isabel 

 de Seton, died in possession of her third part ; the 

 heirs were the above-named John Sayer and Thomas 

 de Seton." 



In 1426-7 Thomas made a number of feoffments 



" Dep. Kerper's Rep. xxxii, App. 319. 



''Ibid. 330. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 133 d. 



^■* Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 59. 



^ Dur. Rcc. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 195 d. 



'' Ibid. fol. 294. Dower had been 

 assigned to her in Preston, &c., in 14.01 

 {Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 79). 



'■" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 4, fol. 56. 



" Cal. Pal. 1452-61, pp. 429, 510. 



"" Dur. Rcc. cl. 3, file 169, no. 11. 



■ Ibid. no. 3, fol. 31. 



• Dep, Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 143, 



' Ibid, iliv, App. 504-5. See also the 



Yorkshire inquisition where the will is 

 recited. William desired to be buried in 

 the Friars' church at Yarm (Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. [Ser. 2], Ivi, 46). 



* Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xliv, App. 469. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccviii, 176. 

 The elder John's wife, Dorothy, died 

 before him. 



* Dep. Keeper's Rep. xixvli, App. 133. 

 ' Ibid, xliv, App. 511. 



* Rec. Com. for Comp. (Surt. Soc), 6, 

 7. 57- 



' Ibid. 226. " Ibid. 227. 



" The details are given by Surtees, op. 



cit. iii, 189. Isabel Witham of Preston, 

 widow, was a * Papist ' under a sequestra- 

 tion in 1653 [Rec. Com. for Comp, [Surt. 

 Soc. J, 74). 



^2 Surteei, loc. cit. The Wyvills may 

 have been trustees, for there was a family 

 connexion with Witham- 



" Estcourt and Payne, Engl, Calh, Non- 

 jurors^ 52. '* Surtees, loc. cit. 



'» G.E.C. Baronetage, iv, 54. 



** Surtees, op. cit. iii, 189. 



'" Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 200. 



'* Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 144 



" Ibid. fol. 142. 



360 



