| 61 | DACKOMBE STEPLETON MANOR and the DACKOMBE FAMILY |
STEPLETON MANOR AND THE DACKOMBE FAMILY
Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
Volume Number 37 No. 2 May 2012
by Dr Geoffrey Mann
Bay Trees, Burnham Road, Bookham, Surrey
Stepleton Irwerne lies three miles north of Blandford where a marked detour of the A350 shows how a lord of the manor once diverted the highway around his estate. There is no village there now, just the church and manor house. Thomas DACKOMBE acquired the manor c1370 by marrying Agnes, the heir to the estate - a ploy at which the family excelled - and they remained in possession for over two hundred years.
There is an extensive pedigree of the Dackombes of Stepleton in the 17th C Visitations of Dorset but Thomas is not among them. Instead, the pedigree starts with John, born about 20 years after Thomas died. So what was his connection to Thomas and where did they both come from? And the other later Dackombe families in the Dorset Visitations - how are they connected to Stepleton?
To answer these questions, it is necessary to go back to the earliest records of the family in England. Arriving after the Norman Conquest, the family first settled and derived their name for Daccombe near Torquay, but around 1205 they gave the manor to Torr Abbey and moved to the Isle of Wight. Between 1250 and 1370 nearly all known records of the family are from the Isle.
The family did not return to the mainland until 1370 when Thomas and John Dackombe of Brading IoW, probably brothers, purchased adjacent manors north of Southampton. Thomas sold his manor immediately and married the Stepleton heiress. He soon became important in Dorset: coroner, sheriff, tax collector and escheator. In 1382 he was "too busy to go on the king's business to Portugal" wisely keeping out of the politics of Richard II. He was knighted by1398.
John remained at his manor of Chilworth and also became important in his county serving on juries and collecting tax. But he was associated with the 1400 rebellion against the new King Henry IV and lost some of his privileges.
Thomas of Stepleton and John of Chilworth both
died c1415 and for the rest of the century, most known Dackombe records concern
these two manors, which remained in the possession of their separate families.
At Stepleton, Thomas was followed by three generations named William and then
came John, head of the Stepleton pedigree. Curiously however John's son and
probably John himself also held Chilworth. How did the founder of the Stepleton
pedigree come to possess Chilworth as well? The answer almost certainly, it that
John was not descended from the Stepleton family but was the sone of John and
Christian Dackombe of Chilworth and probably great grandson of the John who
first held Chilworth. The question then is how died John of Chilworth acquire
Stepleton? No evidence of purchase has been found, so perhaps Thomas' Stepleton
line died out and John inherited as next heir. Is this why he named both of his
first two sons Thomas? In any event, his descendants united the ownership of
both manors for the first time
Descendants of John of Stepleton
Besides the Stepleton pedigree the Visitations contain pedigrees of later
Dackombe families at Corfe Castle and Winterborne Kingston in Dorset and
Fishtoft in Lincolnshire. And in Motcombe, eight miles north of Stepleton,
Richard Dackombe had a son John bc1570 who was knighted Chancellor of the Duchy
of Lancaster, and secretary to Robert Cecil (The Greenwood Tree vol
34 (3) p.89). All these families can now be places as descendants of John of
Stepleton's four sons born around 1456-1470.
1) First son Thomas
Eldest son Thomas whould have inherited Stepleton had he not died three
years before his father. So the manor descended to his eldest son and son on
until it came to Thomas' great grandson James c1550-1628. James was a bit of an
amateur scientist and bequeathed all his books and instruments to his servant
CLATWORTHY. Perhaps because of this hobby, he needed money and sold Stepleton to
his cousin Robert before retiring to his other manor of Little Fontmell. Another
of Thomas; sons was a collector or rare books and obligingly insciribed one with
his date of birth 1496, a great help in dating the pedigree.
2) Second son Thomas - of Corfe Castle?
Corfe Castle is 20 miles from Stepleton, and here in early 16th C. a Thomas
Dackombe married the heiress Elizabeth CLAVELL continuing the family trait of
marrying wealth. They lived in the centre of the village in what is now Morton
House Hotel and founded the Dackombe family of Corfe Castle. John of Stepleton
named his second son Thomas - could he be Thomas of Corfe Castle?
The Corfe Castle arms quarter those of Stepleton with the addition of a crescent to the family certainly descended from Stepleton and a crescent is the sign of a second son. Second son Thomas of Stepleton was born around 1460, so if he went to Corfe he would have married at about 40 and died about 80. There are high but not implausible ages so it seems very likely that Thomas of Corfe Castle was the second son of John of Stepleton, though no known source draws this conclusion.
3)
Third son of John of Horton
John of Horton acquired property in Mapouder and Blandford, but in 1527 le
leased a farm at Horton from the Priory there, ten miles west of Stepleton. Only
one son is known, another John born about 1500. In a lawsuit of 1545 he
was called a "most comberous wilful and seditious person" but in 1549
he served under Captain ROGERS of Brianston in the battles near Exeter against
the Prayer Book rebellion and was wounded by an arrow in the face and died
c1556. He probably married Joan HALSWELL of Goathurst in Somerset - another
wealthy family - and this may be how their eldest son Robert was Wealthy enough
to purchase Stepleton in 1600 and still leave £600 in his will.
John and Joan had three other sons: Henry and Francis founded families at Blandford while Richard the father of Sir John Dackombe, married Alice MONTIER of Motcombe. Sir John inherited Stepleton from his uncle Robert in 1610 and sold it to a relation of his wife Melior PITT (formerly MOHUN) thus ending the 230 year Dackombe reign.
4) Fourth son Henry?
There are two other Dackombe families in the Visitations, one headed
by Bryan of Winterborne Kinston in Dorset and the other by his brother John of
Fishtoft in Lincoln. They were descended from the Stepleton family because the
Fishtoft arms were those of Stepleton. But who could be their father? The
Stepleton pedigree names only the three sons of John discussed above and their
descendants are mostly known. The will of the eldest son and other documents
however provide compelling evidence that there was a fourth son named Henry.
There are numerous references to Henry Dackombe in Dorset at this time and he
married Christian (probably MORGAN of Chitterne in Wiltshire) around 15000,
which is a suitable date to be the parent of Bryan of Winterborne Kingston and
John of Fishtoft. Significantly they both named their son and heir Henry.
Conclusions
The Dackombe family settled first in Daccombe, Devon before moving to the
Isle of Wight. Thomas Dackombe from Brading on the Isle acquired Stepleton in
1370. One hundred years later, the manor passed to John Dackombe of Chilworth, a
descendant of Thomas' brother. John's descendants held Stepleton and founded the
Dackombe families at Corfe Castle, Horton, Winterbourne Kingston and Fishtoft in
Lincolnshire.
More detail with references to sources can be found in two recent articles published in SDNQ and on my website hypnosurrey.com/Genealogy
Dr.
Geoffrey Mann
Bay Trees, Burnhams Rd,
Bookham, Surrey
KT23 3AU
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