| Admin History | These papers relate to one family line of descent through several female lines, starting with the Revd Head Pottinger of Compton (whose mother was a Head). His only child, his daughter Eliza Head Pottinger, married the Revd James Wilkes Best of Chieveley in 1807.
Their son Head Pottinger Best married firstly Maria Duffield in 1839 (d. 1845) and Jane Stratton in 1846 (d.1885).
Marmaduke Head Best (1847-1912) married Mary Leigh Bennett in 1877, and his sister Rosamond Head Best married Lieutenant Colonel W L S Stucley.
The Bagnor estate
Head Pottinger Best purchased the leasehold of Bagnor Manor House (also previously held by William Brummell of Donnington Grove since 1783) in 1861. The Best family purchased Bagnor Manor from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster in 1871.
The estate included Bagnor Mill (now the Watermill Theatre).
Donnington Grove estate, Shaw-cum-Donnington
Donnington Grove was built by Joseph Pettit Andrews of Shaw House in c.1763-1772, and sold to William Brummell in 1783. Brummell extended the estate by judicious purchases, and converted the house into a grand country house, where his son George, the famous dandy ‘Beau’ Brummell, grew up. In 1795 it was sold to John Bebb, and in 1850 the estate was purchased by Head Pottinger Best. Mary Leigh Best, widow of Head Pottinger Best’s son Marmaduke, sold the estate in 1936, and the house later became a hotel.
Winterbourne estate, Chieveley and Didcot
This estate was inherited via the Head family. Fee farm rents charged on property in Wallingford were acquired by the Heads in the 18th century. |