page_title: Offchurch Bury
section_title: Wightwick (Knightley)
hierarchical_section_title: Offchurch Bury / Descent / Wightwick (Knightley)
caption_attribution_description: English: Master John Wightwick Knightley of Offchurch Bury, Warwickshire.
context_page_description: Offchurch Bury is a manor house one mile north-west of the centre of the village of Offchurch, Warwickshire, England. It is supposed to represent the site of a palace of the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia, after which Offchurch is named, "bury" being a corruption of "burh" meaning a fortified place. William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire stated concerning the manor of Offchurch:
  In one part of the lordship is a place called "the Berry" which signifies no less than "burgus" or "curia" and accordingly 'tis said that Offa King of Mercia in the Saxon Heptarchy had here a palace".
  The Latin word burgus signifies "small fortified position or watch-tower usually controlling a main routeway", which suits the position of Offchurch, situated almost adjacent to the Fosse Way, an important Roman road linking the large Roman camps of Cirencester and Leicester.
  Parts of the manor house dated from the reign of King Henry VIII and were said to be connected with Coventry Priory, but most is 19th century.
context_section_description: On his death in 1689 the 2nd Baronet bequeathed the manor to his 9 year-old step-grandson John Wightwick (his wife's grandson by her first husband), who in accordance with the terms of the bequest adopted the surname and arms of Knightley. The senior line of Knightley was still extant at Fawsley, but the 2nd Baronet quarrelled with his male relatives whom he excluded as his heirs. In 1699, at the age of 19, in Whitehall Chapel, Middlesex, with the consent of his aunt and guardian Mary Wastaney, John Wightwick Knightley I (born 1680) married 22 year-old Mary Marow (1677-1750), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Samuel Marow, 1st Baronet (c. 1652-c. 1699) of Berkswell Hall, Warwickshire.
  His son and heir was Thomas Wightwick Knightley (1718-1789) of Offchurch Bury, the father of John Wightwick Knightley (1765-1814) of Offchurch Bury  (husband of Jane Musgrave (1759-1841)), whose mural monument survives in St Gregory's Church in Offchurch. The latter's son was John Wightwick Knightley (1804-1830) who died aged 26 at Terracina in Italy, where he had gone for the sake of his health - or possibly to avoid his creditors. His mural monument survives in Offchurch Church. Having married Jane Willes (1807–1833), a daughter of Rev. William Willes of Astrop House in Northamptonshire, he left a daughter and sole heiress Jane Wightwick Knightley (1827-1911) who married Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford (d.1871).
caption: Master John Wightwick Knightley, portrait by Robert Byng (1666-1720). He inherited the estate aged 9 from his step-grandfather
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