OVERVIEW | HISTORY | FAMILY | FAMILY TREE
Stonor first appears as
Stanora Lege (stony hill) in a charter of the Mercian
King Offa dated A.D. 774. The first member of the Stonor
family recorded as living in the Stonor Valley was Robert
de Stanora (around 1150-1185) who paid a fine to Henry
II's exchequer.
Through the next approximately 300 years to 1500,
the Stonor family were owners of many manors in counties
throughout England. Members of the family fought at
battles including Crecy, Bosworth and Flodden, and many
were officers for the King in both Oxfordshire and Berkshire.
The family fortune grew steadily as a result of successful
involvement in high judicial office, and in the wool
trade, and also as a result of the family policy to
marry heiresses.
After Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, the Stonor family became "Popish Recusants" for refusing to accept the monarch as head of the Catholic church in England. Dame Cecily Stonor (whose husband Sir Francis had died in 1564), for example, in 1577 paid the modern equivalent of £50,000 in fines for failure to conform to certain of the Penal Laws. She was later imprisoned for her part in harbouring St. Edmund Campion at Stonor in 1581. Her son, John Stonor was exiled to France for life as a result of the same episode.
By 1650 all estates except that surrounding Stonor had been sold to pay recusancy fines. Thomas Stonor (1677-1724) inherited the Estate at the age of 10, and a quieter recusancy life began. His son Thomas (1710-1772) was only 14 on the death of his father, and his guardian was his uncle Bishop John Talbot Stonor, who continued to live here until his death in 1756. He was a remarkable man who not only ministered to, and travelled widely among the very small number of Catholics in the huge Midland District, but also began the task of preparing Catholics for the acceptance of the Hanoverians as monarchs. This was a key first step in preparing the ground for Catholic Emancipation.
Subsequent generations of the Stonor family were closely involved in the lobbying for the Catholic Emancipation Act passed in 1829, which formally ended recusancy and permitted Catholics to take a role in public life. Thomas Stonor, 3rd Lord Camoys (1797-1881) quickly took advantage of this development by becoming Whig Member of Parliament for Oxford in 1832. He had a full public life, being also High Sheriff for Oxfordshire, Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, founder-Chairman of the Henley Royal Regatta, and benefactor for many Church and educational buildings both Catholic and Protestant.
The Stonor family have continued in public life ever
since. The current Lord Camoys was Lord Chamberlain
to the Queen in 1998-2000 following a long career as
a banker, including a role as adviser to the Patrimony
of the Holy See. His son William Stonor is a diplomat
in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
|
