A long-standing feud in the 1590’s between the families of Danvers and Long, resulted in Sir Henry Danvers murdering Sir Henry Long at a house in Corsham in 1594. Henry Danvers was accompanied by his brother Charles, when about seventeen others are reputed to have broken into the house, and fighting broke out in which Henry Long was murdered.
The Danvers brothers escaped, and were given refuge by the 3rd Earl of Southampton, from there they went to France, but some of their followers were caught and subsequently hanged for causing an affray.
The brothers were pardoned on 30th Jun 1598, and they returned to England in the following Aug; but it was not until 1604 that the coroner’s indictment was found to be bad on a technical ground, and the outlawry reversed.
Henry Danvers was created Earl of Danby on 5th February 1626 by Charles I, and died on 20th January 1643 in Oxfordshire.
The property known as ‘Snellings’, and once owned by the Danvers family, is now referred to as ‘Guyers House’. The original property seems to have been demolished and the present dwelling built on the site by one Robert Bayley who acquired the land. It later passed to the Bennet’s and the Dickensons of Hartham Park.