By Buffy Heywood
John was the son of Thomas and Sarah Churchill. Thomas, being a youngest son and therefore not inheriting any land, had moved to the Parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square in London in approximately 1755 when he was 18, where he practised as a butcher for over 30 years, though he must have kept in touch with Deddington for he returned in 1759 to marry Sarah Dolley at Souldern. In further evidence that Thomas still kept ties with Deddington and that he wished his family to have the opportunity to return there, he acquired copyhold land in Clifton in 1771 for the lives of himself and his eldest son. Thomas died in London in 1781. but the land that he had acquired was in fact handed down from father to son for the next 150 years. John was this eldest son, and he lived in London marrying Eleanor Pugh at St. George’s in 1785, and thereafter returning to Deddington in 1786. Apart from farming the land in Clifton and a further area there which he rented from Christ Church, he was assigned in 1788 the lease of Grove Farm based on Grove House in High Street, Deddington, the two adjoining cottages and the land attached thereto. He and Eleanor lived in Grove House with their family (4 children) until John’s death in 1818, with the Churchill family occupying it thereafter for a total of 60 years.
John was related to Samuel Churchill of Leaden Porch House.
Frederic Gwynne was their youngest son and John bought from Christ Church Manor a cottage at Castle End, Deddington, in which Frederic lived and to which Eleanor moved after John’s death, living there until her death in 1837.
(The above information was taken from “The Churchill Chronicles” by Major General T.B.L. Churchill – available in Deddington Library.)