General Notes

The manor of Church-end in Shenley was demised to Isabel de Albini, Countess of Arundel, the overlord. By her, it was then granted together with the custody of the heirs of Thomas Maunsell during their minority, to Richard de la Vache, who was therefore the lord of Shenley in 1278, and who acquired land there in that year.  Thomas Maunsell had left two daughters, Mabel and Alice. Mabel was married to the son of Richard de la Vache, also called Richard. --- Alice married Robert Verdon in about 1283 without her guardian's permission, and entered on certain lands in Shenley which Margery, widow of Thomas Maunsell held in dower (widow's share of her husband's estate). This led to trouble with Richard de la Vache the elder, against whom the Verdons brought a suit in 1284. This was to obtain possession of their moiety (half) of the manor, and both Richard de la Vache the elder and the heirs of Thomas Maunsell laid claim to the manorial rights in Shenley that year. In 1285 both sisters and their husbands redeemed their father's lands from William de Aette and divided Shenley between them. The moiety appertaining to the Vaches was settled by them in the following year on Robert de Broughton. It was later seized by The Crown for their default against Thomas Poyle, and an attempt to regain it in 1290 evidently succeeded, for in 1294 Richard de la Vache was dealing with land in Shenley. In 1308 he settled his Shenley property on himself for life, with remainder successively to his sons Matthew and Richard and his daughter Maud and their heirs.  Matthew succeeded to Shenley before 1316. In 1326 a settlement was made by Walter de la Vache of a messuage (dwelling house and adjacent buildings) and 24 acres of land in Shenley on himself for life, with remainder successively to William, son of Wymark of Shenley, to Joan, sister of William, to Walter, son of Matthew de la Vache, Thomas his brother and Walter's heirs. The Vache's moiety of Shenley Maunsell Manor; as it was called in the 14th and 15th centuries, descended with their manors in Aston Clinton and Chalfont St. Giles with which it was included in the settlements in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. It passed with Aston Clinton to the Kirkham's, and after the death of Anne Kirkham in 1427, then a widow, it was held by a John Kirkham, who is described as of Shenley