Catherine Lowndes Stone originated from Baldwin Brightwell near Thame in Oxfordshire.
Catherine was born in 1722 at Brightwell Baldwin in Oxfordshire, the main road of which formed part of the Icknield Way at the foot of the Chilterns.
Her parents were Francis Lowe and Elizabeth nee Corrance.
The village was just over 1600 acres with 57 households in 1768.
There were two Manors which had combined by 1630 to make the Brightwell Estate to which she was heiress,
She married William Lowndes the elder son of William Lowndes of Astwoodbury on 26th June 1744 at Brightwell Baldwin. Her husband William Lowndes was born in 1712.
In 1755 Catherine inherited the Brightwell Baldwin Estate and as a condition of inheritance her husband had to change his name by an Act of Parliament to “Lowndes-Stone”.
Hunting with the South Oxfordshire Hunt was part of a pleasurable life for them at Brightwell.
They had a daughter named Catherine, then a son, also named William Lowndes-Stone on 9th February 1750.
Her husband William died on 15th December 1772 so she dealt with the Enclosure of North Crawley and her estates there in 1773.
She continued to live at Brightwell Park with her son William and 1780 she employed a butler, a footman, a coachman and a postilion whilst her son William employed a butler, a footman, a gardener and a coachman.
Following the fire that destroyed the Manor House in 1788 three labourers working for William Lowndes-Stone were arrested on suspicion of stealing wine from his cellars. Petty criminals throughout the 1700 were often detained by the parish constables and put in the stocks or sometimes they paid to have the miscreants whipped.
On the death of his grandfather in 1775 William inherited Astwoodbury and on the death of his mother on 5th May 1789 Catherine Lowndes Stone’s Will shows that he inherited Brightwell and the whole estate, her daughter inherited her clothes and jewellery.
William lived on until 1830. After this the Boswell family became the major landowners in the North Crawley – Astwood area.