Manor and estate of South Stoneham (990–present)
A charter dating from 990 relates to the manor of South Stoneham, and archaeological evidence of a Saxon settlement was found during building works in the area immediately around the current South Stoneham House.[1] The manor of South Stoneham was originally called Bishop's Stoneham, and was held by the Bishop of Winchester at the time of the Domesday Book. Other than St. Mary's Church (which is close to South Stoneham House but predates it considerably) and a few adjacent houses, there was no village of "South Stoneham"; instead adjoining, as it does today, Swaythling "now practically a suburb of Southampton, and [a] favourite residential quarter." which became the generally used name for all the rest of the parish.[2]
The tenants of the manor apparently took their name from it; a Gregory de South Stoneham (or Gegory de Stoneham) is recorded there in 1236 and 1249, and in 1315 the manor was held by Nicholas de South Stoneham (son of Guy de South Stoneham). In 1348 Thomas de Stoneham and his wife Alice were lord and lady of the manor, and five heiresses of theirs – possibly daughters – held the manor in 1367. However, that year they quitclaimed it to Adam le Chaundle.[2]
The history is somewhat incomplete after that point, but records do exist of the manor being passed from Nicholas Fitz John to William Nicholl in 1436 and from John Langhorn to Thomas Payne in 1478. After Payne's death the manor passed to John Langhorn's son William, and it remained in the Langhorn family until Stephen Langhorn, or Langher, sold it to John Capelyn for £140 in 1553.[2] The Langhorn family's name remains familiar to present-day residents of the Swaythling area due to the presence of Langhorn Road.[3]
Capelyn sold the manor to William Conway in 1600, who sold it to Edmund Clerke in 1612; Clerke's son inherited the manor in 1634 but only survived for a further two years, at which point the manor passed to Edmund Clerke's 8½-year-old grandson, another Edmund. This Edmund Clerke was the Sheriff of Hampshire and clerk to the Signet in 1671.[2] Clerke the younger married the daughter of Giles Frampton, who took control of the manor after Clerke's death and sold it to Edmund Dummer, a former Surveyor of the Navy, in 1705.[4]
South Stoneham House was constructed in 1708 as the Dummer's family home, and has been attributed to Nicholas Hawksmoor.[5][6] Dummer was from nearby North Stoneham and had been baptised in St. Nicolas' Church there. As of 1915 the grounds of the house comprised 110 acres, with 5 acres of water,[7] and were laid out after 1722 by Capability Brown[8] (though very little of the original landscaping remains).
Edmund Dummer was declared bankrupt in 1711 and he died in debtors' prison two years later. His cousin Thomas, a lawyer who had acquired the manor on Edmund's behalf, fought a lawsuit attempting to gain control of the property; however in 1716, Edward Nicholas of Newton Valence took ownership of South Stoneham. William Sloane, whose brother founded the British Museum,[9] purchased the manor from Nicholas in 1740,[4] and it was subsequently owned by his son Hans Sloane, Jean Louis Bazalgette, and John Lane. Lane was declared bankrupt and the manor was put up for sale in 1815 after which it was bought by John Willis Fleming, who also owned the manor of North Stoneham where a new house was being built for him at North Stoneham Park.[6]
When the new North Stoneham House was completed, John Willis Fleming moved there and leased South Stoneham House to General Joseph Gubbins until the general's death in 1832. In 1831 there was a major fire at North Stoneham, and John Willis Fleming returned to live in South Stoneham House again after Gubbins' death while North Stoneham was rebuilt. When this was completed in 1834 South Stoneham House was again advertised to let, and again in 1843. Mrs Charlotte Maria Beckford leased the property and died at South Stoneham House in 1854, after which Thomas Willis Fleming (second son of John) moved in. He purchased the property from his elder brother in 1857 and lived there until 1861. The Willis Flemings sold South Stoneham House for £20,000 in 1875 (or 1878 according to some sources), to Captain Thomas Davison (or Daveson).[2][6] Included in the sale catalogue issued on 23 November 1875 was Wood Mill (still standing and operating as an outdoor activities centre as of 2013), Gascon Cottage, and land for building.[10] "Gascon's Meadow with house thereon in South Stoneham" was reconveyanced the next year.[11]
In 1888 South Stoneham House was purchased from Davison by Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling.[2] Eleven years later he also purchased Townhill Park House for his son Louis, who continued to live at Townhill after Samuel's death in 1911. By 1915 the estate's grounds consisted of 110 acres, with 5 acres of water, compared to the much larger parish (1,296 acres, 26 of water).[7]
South Stoneham House was acquired, with South Hill (some two miles to the northwest), in 1920 to house male students at University College Southampton, later to become the University of Southampton, who still own the building as at January 2015.[12]
