The Goldsborough moiety, apparently held in dower in 1395, descended through the male line to Richard Goldsborough (d. 1504), and to his son Richard (d. 1508) and grandson Thomas (d. 1566). Some lands and rents were held by relatives in the 14th century, and in the earlier 15th the manor was apparently leased. Thomas settled the moiety in 1564 on his son Richard, who in 1570 sold it to Charles Matthew of Oxford; from him most of it passed presumably by sale to Thomas Reed in 1571, and in 1576 to Thomas Yate, who in 1588 conveyed it to Leonard Yate of Witney. An agreement between Leonard Yate and Michael Jobson in 1596 to divide the manorial profits referred apparently to a subdivision of the moiety, since in 1624 Jobson's relict Margaret vested her right in Richard Blower, who held the moiety in common until 1658. The other share was held probably in 1609 and certainly in 1620 by presumably another Thomas Yate, who with his wife conveyed it in 1635, evidently much diminished, to John Palmer of Bampton. On Palmer's death in 1650 it was divided between his nieces Elizabeth, Katherine, and Ruth, who with their husbands John Young, William Nabbs, and Thomas Tremaine partitioned it in 1660.
The Meaux moiety passed on John de Meaux's death after 1331 to his son Thomas (d. 1361), whose grandson and heir Thomas, a minor, entered on it in 1370, and in 1395 it was held by that Thomas's relict Alice. (fn. 94) In 1428 it was held by John Anthony, perhaps a lessee, (fn. 95) but before 1439 it passed apparently through marriage to the Spanby family of Spanby (Lines.), descending to Arthur Spanby (d. 1509), and to Arthur's sister Joan and her husband James Saunders or Standish (d. 1557). They seem to have conveyed it c. 1510 to the Haydock or Haddock family, which in the mid 16th century let all or part of it. (fn. 97) In 1595 William Haydock conveyed it to his relative Thomas Smallpage (d. 1597) of Gray's Inn, who left it to his nephew Percival Smallpage (d. 1616); in 1617 Percival's sister Anne Smallpage and others sold it under earlier agreements to Thomas Ward and Thomas Willear of Bampton and possibly other tenants, who sold much of it piecemeal.
No houses were provided under the vicarage ordination, suggesting that early 13th-century clergy may have lived in the Deanery, but by the late 13th century two and probably all three vicars had acquired houses respectively north, east, and south of the churchyard, rented from the cathedral chapter. In 1288-9 William of Coleshill, vicar, agreed to pay the farmer 20s. a yeare for 'houses' opposite the farmer's (i.e. the Deanery) gate, evidently on or near the site of Cobb House north of the churchyard; the holding was later described as a 'court' or 'manse' built on the site of two earlier cottages, and during the 15th century or later the curtilage was extended eastwards by piecemeal incorporation of 4 adjoining tenements. Rent for the house itself was paid in the early 15th century but not, apparently, by the 17th. About 1500 there was a dovecot, presumably that later belonging to Wood House, in the newly-appropriated curtilage on the east, and in 1685 the house included 6 ground-floor and 4 upper rooms, a study, and 2 lofts, with attached outhouses, rickyards, and commons.
In 1781 it needed substantial repairs, and in 1799 it was mostly rebuilt by the vicar George Richards to designs by Daniel Harris of Oxford. Buildings in the early 19th century included a 'handsome, substantial and spacious mansion house' with barns, stables, a dovehouse, and oxpens. At the inclosure of Bampton, Weald, and Lew the vicars each received c. 200 a. for tithes, and equal shares in an £85 corn rent from Lower Haddon to be re-assessed every 14 years. Vicarial tithe rents awarded from lands in Aston and Cote, Shifford, Chimney, Brighthampton, and Clanfield between 1839 and 1849 totalled over £1,000.
The northern boundary in the 18th century followed furlongs and old inclosures, the division in the north-west chiefly corresponding to that between demesne closes owned by Exeter cathedral (in Bampton), and closes attached to Bampton Earls manor (wholly or partly in Lew); some sections may have corresponded with the boundaries of an estate at Bampton granted in the 10th century, though the inclusion in Lew field in 1298 of 'Hangindelonde', presumably Hanging Lands, later in Bampton, suggests adjustment in the later Middle Ages. The open-field section of the boundary was revised at inclosure between 1812 and 1821, and by the later 19th century three closes in the north-west, belonging to Bampton Earls manor and perhaps formerly in Lew, were included in Bampton civil parish.
A straight section southwest of Aston village resulted from partition of Aston's West moor between Aston and Bampton before the later 17th century, and the boundary west of Aston village may reflect a similar partition of shared pasture at Truelands. Straight artificial boundaries in the south-east between Bampton's and Aston's meadows and around Shilton parish's detached lot meadow seem to have been established before inclosure, though a map of 1789, perhaps in error, showed the later Bampton Inmead south of Isle of Wight brook as belonging to Aston.
The chief southerly route by the mid 18th century was that to Buckland and Abingdon, which crossed Isle of Wight brook by a ford and the Thames by a recently built wooden bridge at Tadpole or Kent's weir; it flooded frequently. Heavy traffic passed presumably over Radcot bridge to the west or Newbridge to the east, so that from the later Middle Ages Bampton was bypassed both by the chief north-south routes, and by east-west ones between London and the Cotswolds, though traffic westwards to Lechlade and beyond was mentioned in the 16th century and later. In the late 18th century there were reportedly no stoned roads to any of the surrounding hamlets, travellers 'striking across the common by which the town was surrounded and finding their way to Witney, Burford [or] Oxford ... in the best way they could'. The name Bampton in the Bush, however, recorded from the 17th century, referred probably to extensive heath and scrubland in the north of the parish rather than to its inaccessibility, and there is no evidence that Bampton's roads were worse than elsewhere.
Gilbert's son Richard, Lord Talbot, died seised in 1396. (fn. 50) His son Gilbert, a minor, had possession by 1405 and died in 1418, leaving an infant daughter, Ankaret. Gilbert's relict Beatrice (d. 1447) received a third in dower and married Thomas Fettiplace, living at Bampton in the 1430s; in 1419 she received custody of the other two thirds, but following Ankaret's death in 1421 she surrendered her dower in return for a tenancy. Gilbert's lands and titles passed to his brother John (d. 1453), created earl of Shrewsbury in 1442 and of Waterford in 1446, to John's son John, killed at the battle of Northampton in 1460, and in 1464 to his son John, who died seised of a third in 1473, the rest being held by dowagers. John's son George, a minor in 1473, entered on the reunited manor probably in 1486. On his death in 1538 it seems to have passed to his relict Elizabeth (d. 1567) as jointure, and by 1569 to his grandson George Talbot (d. 1590); he settled it for life on his wife Elizabeth (d. 1608), who leased it. By 1609 it had reverted to George's son Gilbert (d. 1616), from whom it passed with the earldom to his brother Edward. (fn. 58) Edward died in 1618, and following a series of disputes the manor was apparently divided between, among others, his sister Grace, relict of Henry Cavendish, his sister Mary's grandson Sir George Savile Bt. (d. s.p. 1626), and Earl Gilbert's daughter Elizabeth (d. s.p. 1651) and her husband Sir Henry Grey (d. 1639), earl of Kent; Henry and Elizabeth held courts as lords of Bampton in 1623. Before 1640 Elizabeth acquired an interest in Grace's share, which she granted in reversion to Sir William Savile Bt. (d. 1644) of Thornhill (Yorks. W.R.), Sir George's brother and heir; the Savile share, later two thirds, passed thereafter to Sir William's son Sir George (d. 1695), and before 1660 to Sir William's brother-in-law Sir William Coventry (d. 1686), the other third having passed by 1654 to Francis Talbot (d. 1668), earl of Shrewsbury. The manor was formally partitioned in 1660.
The Talbots' third passed to Francis's son Charles (d. s.p. 1718), created duke of Shrewsbury in 1694, who settled his Oxfordshire lands on his cousin George Talbot (d. 1733), brother of the 13th earl. From him they passed to his son George (d. 1787), earl of Shrewsbury, and, with the earldom, to George's nephew Charles (d. 1827), Charles's nephew John (d. 1852), and John's cousin Bertram Arthur (d. 1856), who devised the family estates to Lord Edmund Bernard Howard (later Talbot), son of the duke of Norfolk. (fn. 64) In 1870 the estate, then c. 570 a. in Bampton, Weald, and Lew, was sold by trustees established under an Act of 1803; Ham Court or Castle Farm including the former castle or manor house, was bought by Jesus College, Oxford, and the land in Lew by Christ Church, Oxford, the rest being divided among many purchasers. (fn. 66) Manorial rights were sold with Weald Manor.