The Marmion family served the Dukes of Normandy and came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. William made them Barons of Tamworth and gave them land and manors in Oxfordshire.

Marmions were living in Thame by the fourteenth century. Some of the Oxfordshire family apparently used a crest with a Saracen’s head, believed to mark their involvement in the Crusades. This explains why the Rev. Lee (who wrote a history of the church) associated the Saracen’s Head Inn with the Marmion family.