A CLEARING IN THE VALLEY copyright John Denley Barnes F.R.I.C.S. A study of the Denley family since 1200.
1 Origins.
2 Pastures New.
3 John The Martyr c.1511-1555.
4 The Effect of the Martyrdom.
5 Settling Down.
6 The Stonemasons of Sevenhampton.
7 Denley and Son, Builders, Tewkesbury.
8 The Flannel Manufacturer s of Newtown Powys.
9 Whittington, Withington, Dowesdwell and Coberley
10 The Gamekeepers.
11 The Railway Contractors.
12 The Denleys of Dursley, Gloucestershire.
13 The Denl(e)ys of Wiltshire.
14 The Denleys of Newmarket, Whalley, Newport and Bolsover
15 The Denlys of Surrey.
16 The Denleys of London District.
17 The Denleys of Devon and Cornwall.
18 New Zealand Connections.
19 Australians Families.
20 Relations in the United States of America.
Appendix One:
Books of Interest.
Appendix Two:
Currency.
COVER. DENLEY in Burke's Peerage
The surname was principally confined, until the mid 18th century.to a few Southern English counties. Today there are Denleys living in many countries around the world , An attempt has been made to discover where they lived and why they moved.
ORIGINS
The surname and medieval references.
The surname Denley is an Old English word, 'ley' meaning a wood clearing, so 'a clearing in the valley'. Searches reveal possible early locations in Hertfordshire, Shropshire, Lancashire and Oxford. Kent records reveal that in 1214 twenty acres appurtenances in Denelee, near Graveney, existed. Later in 1598 a lease granted to John P in Graveney Marsh and Denley Wood. Today the area is on the OS map as Denley Hill.

The Calendar of Patent Rolls in Hertfordshire shows a man named John Lawrence residing at Denley Temple in 1440. The Archivist for Hertfordshire suggests that this was Temple Dinsley near Preston, Herts., which has been variously spelt over
the years with 'Temple' as either a prefix or suffix. The 'Temple' part of the Manor's name seems to have come from the
fact that the Knight's Templars possessed the property from 1142 until their suppression in 1312.

A record in 1286-89 gives the Shropshire clue as seven bushels of corn were delivered to Dryslwyn Castle, in the Marches, from
Denles being in payment of rent to the value of 3s-6d.

In Lancashire the locational name of Dernylegh appeared in the Middle Ages. The word originally derived from Old English
meaning the dweller at the hidden and solitary clearing. This place was in the parish of Rochdale, first recorded in 1374.
However the Denley form of the name was not recorded until the second half of the 18th century (see chapter 14).

Dely End, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Over time the spelling changes to Denelegh in 1316 and 1387.

Commencing around the beginning of C13th variants of the name as we now know them were beginning to be used.

Henry de Dinilegh of London. An order addressed to The Burgesses and good men of Suthwerk instructed them to be
intendant on Henry de Dinilegh whom the King (Edward 1) had committed during the pleasure of the Bailwick of Suthwerk.

Knowing that the surname's origin was derived from a hamlet near Witney records confirmed that people with that surname existed there, two sources, one a survey of 1279 / 80 and the other the estate records for the Manor of Witney.

The first account arose from an order from Edward 1 for a survey of England known as the Hundred Rolls (Rotuli Hundredorum) undertaken in 1279-80 and recorded all English counties subdivided into Hundreds and parishes. Only five county Rolls exist today and one is for Oxfordshire. The Rolls are not a census of people but a register of land, rents and services of nearly all categories of landholders, at that time from King to cotter (cottager).

The second aid, The Bishop of Winchester's Witney Manor Rolls provides evidence of people named Denle inhabiting Hailey.

Witney gradually developed through the influence of the Church. Witney's trading prospered and was greatly strenghtened being on
the main trade route between London and Gloucester.

Manor records state that in 1245 John, son of Henry Delly, paid a fine of 2s-8d on land at Ermodeseye transferred to
him from his father for which a rent of eight pence was paid. Denle involvement with reclaimed land is mentioned several times.
The earliest is found in the Witney Manor records in 1253 when a Robert Benes of Ramsden acquired 2 acres 1 rod of assarted land at Ramsden, near Hermodeseye, from Henry son of Henry Denle. A fine of 4s-6d being paid.

The Rotuli Hundredorum is the second source when reference in the parish of Ramsden was made to Thorn' de Denley renting four acres of assarted land at an annual rent of two shillings. The next entry for Delly End was again for Thorn' de Denle, probably the same person. It stated Thom' was the freeholder of a messuage and ten acres of land at a rent of five shillings per annum.
It appeared that the Lord of the Manor granted rights to clear parts of the manorial wastelands and for this privilage a small yearly rent was payable.

Holders of assarted land were generally accepted as Freemen and could come and go as they pleased without being tied to the
Lord's land. The Hailey tenants named in the Hundred Rolls were listed as 36 freeholders, 29 villeins and 9 cotters all of whom would be classified then as peasants. Two of those named were Thomas (mentioned before) and Alan de Denle. Alan was a freeholder
holding a messuage and three acres at a rent of 18 pence a year.

Today, Delly End is a delighful hamlet nestling around a typical English village green. Hailey and Delly End today form one village.

The family name appears in a list of entry fines, 1334 - 1345. The first entry was in Deily End in 1336 when Johanna, daughter of John Goodwyne, paid 20 shillings for ten acres with buildings part of which lay between the tenements of Henry Delly and John Wyley.

The second entry occurs in an order issued (1334-45) to search the Rolls to discover the conditions on which John Denley, who called himself a freeman, held a messuage and virgate (about 30 acres) at Witney.

In 1348, and at intervals during the following two centuries outbreaks of the Plague were recorded, but none as devasting as
the Black Death in 1348. One Denley who survived the great plague, John de Denlegh, occupied a tenement in Witney in
1368. (Reference the Calendar of Close Rolls) .

It seems likely that the appointment, in 1387, of Robert Denley to the position of Chaplain of New College. Oxford, was influenced by the Bishop at Witney. New College was one of the earlier Oxford Colleges being founded in 1387 by the Bishop of Winchester. New College archive 9303 shows Robert's attendance was recorded at the College from 29 December 1386 until 28 September 1387. The spelling of his surname in the entries varied as Denle, Denlee, Denley, & Denleye. Robert did not remain at New College for long as in 1389 he was appointed Vicar of Purton, Wiltshire, a small town five miles north west of Swindon - a church under the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Malmesbury.

The following entry found at the Public Record Office may relate to a Denley.... "Oliver de Den~, parson of the church of Stoke by Eye (probably in Suffolk) being granted, after supplication to the king by William de Lound, all the tithes both greater and
lesser from lands and tenements pertaining to the priory of Eye, in the kings hands etc., being within the limits of the parish of the church of Eye to have so long etc., rendering for the same to the king 20s-6d a yea r etc. Dated in the year 25 January, 1346 to 24 January, 1347."

More follows.