Rowner

At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Rowner was held by William Mauduit. The pre-Conquest holder was Coleman. The survey records 14 households (10 villagers, 2 smallholders and 2 slaves), 4 ploughlands, 1 acre of meadow and woodland yielding 4 swine. The manor was valued at £3 10s. in 1086, the same as before the Conquest. The value when acquired was £1 10s. (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 218-219; Domesday Book, Hampshire 35,1).

William Mauduit, who died in 1171, served as Chamberlain of the Exchequer. By 1240 Elias de la Falaise held three and a half virgates and 63 acres, having exchanged land with the prior of St Swithun's. In 1247 Elias granted five and a half virgates to the abbot of Quarr, a grant confirmed by Henry III in 1266. Elias died in 1254 holding the manor from the king by serjeanty: the obligation was to provide one armed man for forty days yearly for the defence of Winchester Castle. His brother William de la Falaise died seised of Rowner land with the same service obligation (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 218-219).

The property escheated to the Crown through the felony of William de la Falaise (grandson of Elias) before 1277. In that year the Crown granted it to Sir William le Brune and his wife Isolde. William served as chamberlain to the king and Isolde was lady-in-waiting to the queen. William received a grant of free warren in 1284 and died in 1301. Isolde held until her death in 1307, when their son Maurice succeeded. Maurice's son William obtained the property in 1355 and in 1358 obtained licence to convey the manor to his daughter Joan and her husband Thomas de Overton in tail. In 1371 Joan released her rights to her mother and brothers Ingram and Richard (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 218-219).

Between 1390 and 1392 Sir Robert de Marny transferred the manor to Ingram Brune. Ingram died seised in 1400 and the manor passed to his wife Elizabeth under a 1392 settlement. Elizabeth died in 1403 and their son Maurice came of age in 1407. Henry Brune died in 1461 and the manor reverted to Maurice Brune. Maurice died in 1468 and was succeeded by his son Thomas, who died in 1497. Thomas's son William succeeded, and in 1512 William was succeeded by his nephew Sir John Brune, who died in 1559. Henry Brune died in 1594. His son John died in 1639 and was succeeded by his nephew John (son of his brother Charles), who died in 1645 without male heirs. John's brother Charles succeeded and died in 1703. Charles's grandson, also Charles Brune, died in 1769, extinguishing the male line (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 218-219).

In 1769 the estates devolved to the grand-nephew Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune of Padstow, Cornwall, who died in 1833. At the time of VCH publication his grandson Charles Glynn Prideaux-Brune held the manor. Henry I was detained at Rowner in 1115 awaiting a fair wind to France, an early reference to the settlement's role as a staging point on the south coast (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 218-219).