• General Notes

  of Merton, Oxon
  
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  II. Robert D'Oyly, who became of Merton, co. Oxford, and was progenitor of the D'Oylys of that place, and of Adderbury in the same county. See those families.
  
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  Robert D'Oyly, Esq. son of Thomas D'Oyly, Esq. of Greenland House and Eweden, co. Bucks, by his second wife Dame Alice Cotesmore,[544] founded this family.—He was a youth at his father's death in 1545, and remained poorly provided for, till Queen Mary, in the first of her reign, May 1554, granted him the manor of Merton in Oxfordshire[545] and divers other estates; for all which he had doubtlessly to thank his kinsman, John Lord Williams of Thame, who had proclaimed her Majesty Queen in Oxfordshire, (probably the D'Oylys following his example,) the moment Edw. VI. breathed his last.—Merton, prior to the Reformation, belonged to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and, like the rest of the property of the church, was vested in the Crown at the suppression of the monasteries.[546]—Robert D'Oyly then settled at Merton; made the old manor house in the village his chief residence; and appears to have conducted himself with such integrity as to have obtained the general esteem of the neighbouring nobility and gentry.[547] He was twice married; first to his half-cousin Elizabeth, dau. of John Cheyney, Esq. of Woodhays, co. Bucks, Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII. and Deputy of Guienne (bastard-eigne son, or son born before marriage, of Sir Roger Cheyney of West Woodhays); who bore for arms, "Ermine, on a bend sable three martlets or;" by his second wife Jane, sister of the said John Lord Williams of Thame, and daughter of Sir John Williams of Burfield, co. Berks,[548] by his wife Elizabeth, dau. and coheiress of Richard Moore, Esq. of Burfield, sister of the wife of John D'Oyly of Greenland House, and grand-aunt of this Robert. This Cheyney family was a branch of the baronial house of Cheyney of Tuddington, co. Bedford.—In 1559 Robert D'Oyly was one of the executors[549] in the will of his kinsman John Lord Williams, with his lordship's son-in-law, the Lord Norris of Ricote, &c., and as such, trustee for the erection and endowment of a free-school at Thame; and, as Dunkin says, "how scrupulously they (the trustees) performed their charge, was for many years evinced by its flourishing state."[550] In 1562 a family transaction occurs between Robert D'Oyly and Henry Norris, afterwards the said Lord Ricote;[551] and about the same time Robert D'Oyly's name appears in a list of Oxfordshire freeholders, within Bolington Hundred.[552] — By Jane Cheyney Robert D'Oyly had issue,[553
  
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  About 1564 Robert D'Oyly, Esq. of Merton, married secondly, Katharine, daughter of John Tregyan, Esq. of Goulden in Cornwall, whose arms were, "Ermine, on a chief sable three jays or;" and as a provision for her issue, purchased the manors of Browne's and St. Amond's in Adderbury and Milton, near Banbury, co. Oxford; and in 7th Eliz. (1565) levied a fine of those and other lands and tenements to Anthony Clerkson and John Asheby, in trust for himself for life, then to Katharine his wife for life, remainder to his heirs male begotten on her body, remainder to his own right heirs for ever
  in 8th Eliz. (1565-6) he and she were summoned, according to the custom, to show why the said manors should not be seized into the Queen's hands.[559] In 1569 he was an executor to his half-brother John D'Oyly, Esq. of Greenland House; and in 12th Eliz. (1570) two deeds occur regarding his lease of Shobington manor, co. Bucks, to which he was a party, and to which his seal of arms is appendant, exhibiting his arms of Quarterly, 1st and 4th two bendlets, and 2nd and 3rd a blackbird, for D'Oyly and Moore, differenced in fesse point with a crescent; with the demi-dragon crest on a helmet, ornamented with mantling.[560]—Meanwhile he had acquired a degree of consequence in Cornwall, through his second wife, and thus sat M.P. for Bossiney alias Trevena, from 1572 till his death,[561]— In 14 Eliz. a family transaction occurs between himself and Sir Richard Wenman; and in 17 Eliz. a similar affair between himself and Lord Norris.[562] In 1574-5 the Heralds' visitation of Oxfordshire was made, when being the oldest member of his family in the county, and his nephew, the representative, being resident in Bucks, he recorded their pedigree;[563] upon which occasion a long but very incorrect genealogy was compiled, commencing at the period of the Conquest. This being the first official record of his arms, the heralds deemed it prudent to assign him the difference of "Or, two bendlets gules,"[564] as he was admittedly only of a junior branch; but the difference was soon entirely removed, not merely at the Oxon. visitation, 1634, but shortly after that of 1574-5. In 1577 he was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire;[565] and attending the Judge at the Oxford Assizes that year, which were held in July at the old Town Hall in the Castle Yard, Oxford, was seized with the pestilence, which attacked every one present, and died soon after of it. His nephew Sir Robert D'Oyly was present and likewise died of it; as did many of their friends and connections.[566] See D'Oyly of Chislehampton.—Robert D'Oyly, of Merton, had time to deliver a nuncupative will, dated July 1577. He leaves to Katharine his wife, for life, the rectory house and tithes of Merton, saving only the demesne lands; to Robert, his son, the manors and lands of St. Amond's and Browne's, in Adderbury and Milton; to Ralph, Charles, and Daniel his sons, the lease of Shobington, co. Bucks, and other lands; 400 marks a-piece to his daughters Susan and Martha, payable at twenty-one or marriage ; a considerable portion of household furniture to his wife Katharine, excepting brewing leads and tables; two rooms in Merton house to her for life, and a gold chain she was in the habit of wearing; as well as forty cows and a bull, and directs her to choose four geldings from among any of his animals; the remainder of his horses to be divided among his sons, the eldest choosing first, and the rest according to seniority. He directs that certain of his property be sold to pay debts and legacies, and appoints Katharine his wife, and William Place, Gent. (of Lurgas-sells), his executors, who proved it, January 1577-8, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.[567]—Katharine his wife survived him; enjoyed her jointure till her death; and died September 1585.[568] Her inquis. post mortem was made at Burford, co. Oxon., March 1586-7 ; when it was found she died seised of Browne's and St. Amond's manors, &c., and that Robert D'Oyly was her son and heir, and then a minor. In June, 30 Eliz. 1588, the inquis. post mortem of her late husband, Robert D'Oyly, sen. who had died ten years before, was made at Oxford;[569] when it was returned that, as to his lands held in chief, lately held by his said widow, their son Robert D'Oyly, who had attained 21 in September then last past was heir thereto.—By Katharine Tregyan, be left issue,[570]

Details of Robert's family with Katherine Tregyan

Details of Robert's family with Elizabeth Cheyney