I am the direct descendant of Robert Wickson who was born in 1706 in the village of Eynsham.The village was ungoing a lot of change during Johns lifetime, and after the civil war seige of Bleinham Palace, private landlords moved into the former abbey grounds.

Eynsham abbey site covered a wide area on the south side of Eynsham village: land between Station Road on the west and the Wharf stream on the east, the church and High Street on the north, and the Chil brook on the south seems to have been kept in hand by the abbey for much of the Middle Ages, and was later known as the Parks.

At the Dissolution the abbey and grounds were sold to Sir George Darcy and were then retained by successive lords of the manor until the mid 17th century. The eastern part of the site, comprising in 1650 Abbey Court and Upper, Middle, and Lower Parks was sold from the manor in the later 17th century and by 1700 was mostly in the hands of John Bartholomew. The bulk of the Bartholomew family's property passed before 1762 to Edward Ryves and so to the Holloway family, whose trustees at inclosure in 1802 held 27 a. of the Parks, including the whole central area. The Outlying portions of the former abbey grounds, towards the Wharf stream in the east and along the Chil brook, were held in the 18th century by the Arnatt and Stevens families respectively.

In the late 16th century and early 17th the Stanleys resided in part of the abbey. In 1657 the ruins included two high towers at the west end of the church and part of the north wall; the remains, together with an 'entrance or lodge', were sold for building stone soon afterwards. The Marlborough family was rebuilding its power, and towards the end of Johs life was re-establishing its hold over the village.

In 1710 John Bartholomew owned a building in the Abbey Court called 'the little tower or study', which may have been the recently built tenement on that site mentioned in 1714. Certainly Thomas Hearne in 1706 had seen no abbey remains except an outer gate on the west side. Almost certainly it was that gateway which was removed before 1783 by the duke of Marlborough for 'some business at Blenheim'. It may have been intended to form part of the plan to gothicize Blenheim Park in the 1760s.

John Married Ann Curtis on July 20, 1731, the daughter of Richard Curtis, and they had five children

first to be born was Ann, on february 27 1732. She had an illigitamate child, Thomas Wickson on January 6, 1758, before marrying Joseph Gunnis of Coomb on April 13, 1758.

the second child was Mary born on June 18, 1732. she married a Judge, William Browne.

the third child was my direct ancestor, John Wickson, born August 25, 1734.

The forth Child is Robert, who married Sarah Wastie at Ensham on May 22, 1767.

Martha, the last child was born in 1744

Robert died on April 4, 1770, and Ann followed on January 24, 1781.