The Mystery of the Manor House

THE MYSTERY OF THE MANOR HOUSE

Now, let’s talk about that manor house.  The Crown & Cushion is definitely NOT a manor house. 

 

 

(photo of original front of C&C)

 

 

In the 1960’s, a new front was put on the Inn.  Prior to that it definitely had a center cut archway for the horses and carriages to enter through.  Beyond the entry are the stables, attached to the building. So the back of the building does not look like the back of the house in photo brought by Franklin in WI.

 However, all of the rest of the history, per the Cade Insall book, could fit with the family legend.  The Crown & Cushion was definitely in the family for a good long while.  It was run by the Shortland family prior to Dorothy Shortland’s marriage to Thomas Insall.  So while it may or may not have been an Insall running the Inn, certainly it was in the family for an unknown period.

 Also, the Crown & Cushion is now about 500 years old.  The report of Frank Insall in WWI (about 100 years ago) was that the house over 400 years old  and as good as new.  It has the same name as it did in the 1700’s when Thomas Insall the Elder and John Insall were the innkeepers.

Jan and Lynne, my CN historians, immediately said that the house in our photograph was too new to be 500 years old.  However, they speculated that it might have been the back of a house built by Chipping Norton’s most famous son, William Bliss, of the Bliss Mill.  Unfortunately, this house was torn down in the 1960’s to make way for a new housing estate.  All that remains now are the two pillars from the front of the house which now leads to a park.  He built a similar house across the street for his two sons.  Remember that the mother of William Bliss was Ann Insall, who might have accounted for this connection in the Frank Insall WWI story, if this was indeed the house.

The house built for the two Bliss sons still stands and we photographed it on our walk around CN.

 

(House pic)

 

You can see by the two porticos that this was built to be semi-detached (side-by-side dwellings.  If the house that Bliss built for himself was similar, but as ingle structure with one portico in back, could this be our missing manor house?

This leads us to Mr. David Nobbs and the CN Historical Society, which he graciously opened for us on the morning of December 29.  Mr. Nobbs obtained a copy of a photo of the Bliss house and, it is obvious that it is not the house in Frank’s WWI photo.  

(Dunstan House)

 

Dunstan House – the latter name of the house built by William Bliss.

 

(back of Dunstan house)

 

 

All three of the CN historians, Lynne, Jan and David, assured me that the Insalls would never have had the means to live in a house like this.  And if they had, they would never have been forgotten in CN, which is the case.  Insall is not a name currently known there.  Jan and Lynne thought the house in our photo was more likely a Victorian, built in the 1800’s.  I do not dispute their knowledge on the subject!

While explaining the story of the manor house to Mr. Nobbs and my theory that it might be seven miles down the London road from CN, he had a speculation.  Perhaps our relation from WWI did bring a photo of a house seven miles south of London, just not a family house.

In those days, many country manor style houses were conscripted for use as hospitals and rehabilitation facilities for soldiers (think Downtown Abbey).  So perhaps our frank Insall found himself in England, in a manor house being used as a hospital, seven miles south of London.  Knowing his family history of Chipping Norton, made his way there to see the Crown & Cushion. This might explain both the story of the manor house and uphold his story of the old family home in Chipping Norton.  This is now my theory.

I attempted to look up other homes used as hospitals, but had no luck matching anything to Frank’s photo.

So, unfortunately, the manor house is still a mystery. 

No disrespect to the Cade Insall book, but I believe that a manor house never belonged to the Insalls of Chipping Norton.  They did, however, own the Crown & Cushion, which was a very big deal in its day.  Only the more elite of the public traveled by coach, so an inn catering to that group was very highly thought of in its day.  The inn had been in the family through the Shortland line that Thomas the Elder married into. 

However, the Crown & Cushion was NEVER in the line for our Thomas Holifield Insall.  His father, William, did not inherit, but William’s brother, John did.  It was mortgaged and sold after John’s death.

I do feel, somehow, that the Inn was such an important thing for the family to have been associated with, that the story came to America with him.  And made its way into an obscure post on ancestry.com and led me on this quest.