Rowner

Rowner is a small settlement which forms part of the borough of Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire, England. thumb|St Mary The Virgin Church, Rowner

==History== As Roman burial shrouds were found in the grounds of the church, it would seem to indicate there was a presence in the area at the time. However, it is more generally accepted that a small hamlet was established between 700 and 900AD. The spelling of the place name differs slightly from its mention in The Anglo Saxon Charter and Domesday Book. At the time of Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of Rowner was held by William Mauduit. The family of Mauduit seems to have been of considerable importance at this time as the possessor of large estates in Hampshire, and its members were among the chamberlains of Henry I and Henry II. Bonn's edition of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle confirms that King Henry I, visited Rowner in 1114. In the 13th century Rowner passed out of the Mauduit family, and in 1240–1 Elias de la Falaise was holding land in Rowner. He died in 1254, and his brother William died in possession of the manor in the same year. Before 1277 the property had escheated to the Crown by the felony of William de la Falaise, grandson of William, and was granted in that year to Sir William le Brune, chamberlain to the king. The manor then stayed solidly in the Brune family until the death of Charles Brune in 1769, when the family became extinct in the male line. By his will his estates eventually devolved onto his grand-nephew the Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune of Prideaux Place, Padstow, Cornwall, and it remained in the possession of the Prideaux-Brune family into the 20th century.