The Danvers of Dauntsey; the Longs of Draycot Cerne.
The Danvers family lived at Dauntsey House from the C15 to late C17; the Longs at Draycot Cerne House from C15 to mid C19. Both families were full of MPs, JPs, High Sherriffs and other appointments and many were knighted.
Dauntsey House
Draycott Cerne House
Unfortunately, the families also had a long running feud which came to a head at the end of the C16. After committals of servants for robbery and murder Sir John Danvers had Sir Walter Long locked up in the Fleet Prison. On his release he and his son Henry provoked various brawls between followers and verbally abused Sir John’s son Charles Danvers, Henry Long calling him ‘Asse, Puppy, Foole and Boy’ and threatening to whip him. In response brothers Charles and Henry Danvers went to an inn in Corsham where the Longs were dining and Henry Danvers shot and killed Henry Long.
The Danvers brothers fled on horseback to the home of their friend, the Earl of Southampton, in Titchfield, from where they were helped to escape to France.
Tichfield
They were given refuge by Henry IV of France and served with distinction in his army while he interceded on their behalf with Queen Elizabeth. The brother’s father had died two months after the shooting in 1594 and in 1598 Lady Danvers remarried Sir Edmund Carey, son of a cousin of the Queen, possibly in order to obtain a pardon for her sons. At the end of 1598 the Queen pardoned both brothers on payment of £1500 to Sir Walter Long.
On their return to England they served in various posts in Ireland, Charles befriending Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and supporting him in his rebellion against the Queen. Essex was tried for treason and confessed everyone involved before being beheaded at the Tower.
Charles Danvers offered £10000 for his life but was also executed and his lands seized by the Crown. Henry wasn’t involved in the rebellion and in 1601 James I gave him the Danvers estates and made him Baron of Dauntsey and a peer of the realm.
In 1626 Charles I made Henry Earl Danby, a member of the privy council and Knight of the Garter. Henry succeeded to his mother’s estate at Dauntsey in 1630 and is buried in Dauntsey Church.
Henry’s title of Earl of Danby lives on in the name of Dauntsey, Earl Danby School, now amalgamated with Brinkworth under that name.