CO
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SHROPSHIRE HOUSES
PAST ^ PRESENT
ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS
BY
STANLEY LEIGHTON, M.P., F.S.A
WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS
BY THE ARTIST
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LONDON : GEORGE BELL AND SONS
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1 90 1
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CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
PREFACE
IN this illustrated record of the *' Houses of Shropshire," the remnants of
old habitations will appear side by side with residences which have only
just left the builders' hands. There is no definite point of separation
between ancient and modern, and so gradual has been the process of decay
and renewal, that there is no incongruity in their association.
Changes, similar to those of to-day, were taking place nine hundred
years ago. The Normans ousted the Anglo-Saxons, but they did not make
a clean sweep, nor was the new order of things effecfled by force only.
Marriage had a great deal to do with the harmonious relations which grew
up between the Norman, the Saxon and the Celt.
The passing away of Feudal Society is indicated by the ruins of the
Feudal Castles. The displacement of old names by new, marks a course of
natural development which nothing can resist, and which has always pre-
vailed. Of the fifty houses represented in this first volume, eight only can
claim a date earlier than 1500, and of these, four are uninhabited;
five are of the sixteenth century ; six of the seventeenth ; fifteen of the
eighteenth; and sixteen of the nineteenth.
How have the present owners come into possession ?
The greatest transmitters of inheritances are heiresses. Twenty-six of
these estates have passed, often more than once, by female descent. The
new-comers frequently disguised the break of continuity by assuming the
name of their wives, a custom much to be deprecated.
But ever and anon, the ranks of landowners are recruited from the
representatives of successful trade. Shrewsbury, London, Birmingham, the
industrial centres of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire, have done much
to establish and maintain a substantial landowning class in Shropshire.
v b
Thirty-five at least of these fifty houses, have been bought and sold
since they were first built, and certainly not less than seventeen owe their
foundation dircdtly to trade.
Families do not remain in the same position from generation to
'generation. They all have their ups and dov^ns, to whatever social degree
they happen to belong. The process of elevation and declension is constant.
The history of tlie English peerage exemplifies this law. The peerage of
Shropshire is no exception to the rule. The Norman Earldoms and Baronies
of the county are all extind. The Salopian peerage is essentially of late
Georgian and Vidorian creation. And this is the fad:, although the premier
Earl takes his title from this county, and the premier Duke is Baron of
Clun and Oswestry, and the Barony of Strange of Knockyn is annexed to the
Dukedom of Athol. The same observation applies to other ranks. Mr.
Evelyn Shirley, in 1866, could only find twenty-one Shropshire owners of
land whose ancestors in the male line, held land in 1500, and of these one-
third have since disappeared. The common belief that there are yeoman
families of great antiquity, will not bear close investigation. A yeoman
family seldom lasts more than three generations. The law of movement,
the impossibility of standing still, the necessity of rising or sinking applies
to all sorts and conditions.
Trade, as has been said, is the most potent fador in the creation and
maintenance of a landed aristocracy, and very early in the feudal period
began to assert its influence. Stokesay is an example — Laurence, the
clothier of Ludlow, built Stokesay in the thirteenth century, and founded
an important family. Early in the seventeenth century, the estate was sold
to a man of commercial pursuits. Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor of
London, whose son was created an Earl. Again in the nineteenth century,
Stokesay was sold by the Earl Craven, to Mr. Allcroft, M.P. for Worcester,
who owed his position to success in trade. It may be said, without fear
of contradidtion, that every landed family is indebted to commerce for some
of its wealth, and every family which has existed for three hundred years,
has the names of some of its members enrolled on the Trade guilds of our
towns.
VI
Some houses are founded by lawyers. Four such foundations will be
noted in this volume.
In the accounts which accompany the illustrations, the origin, as well
as the devolution of the estates, will, as far as possible, be noted.
A century seldom goes by without some alteration being made in a
country house, either by addition or diminution. Old buildings suffer
more from the wealth than from the poverty of their owners, and the simple
arrangements of former days may often be best observed in the manor
houses, which have long been occupied as farmhouses.
There are often ancient muniments to be found in houses, new as well
as old, but furniture, books, silver, armour and personal ornaments, which
have been in the same house for two hundred years, are rare.
Such are some of the considerations which suggest themselves to the
student of the local history of a county, upon which the hand of time has
been so gently laid, that the memorials of the past have not been obliterated,
but rather framed in a more attra(5tive setting, by the steady progress of
material development.
Stanley Leighton.
Jprily 1 90 1.
This volume of the "Houses of Shropshire" was complete and in the
printers' hands when the unlooked for summons of death called its author
out of this life.
The final revision of the proof sheets has fallen to me, and on me
must rest the responsibility if any errors or small inaccuracies be found in
these pages.
The author had in preparation five more similar volumes, to form a
fully-illustrated county history, but " L'Homme propose, Dieu dispose."
Jessie Leighton.
Sweeney Hall,
June J 1 90 1.
Vll
CONTENTS.
SUBJECT
Shrewsbury Castle.
Acton Burnell.
PiTCHFORD.
The Moat Hall, Stapleton.
Lythwood Hall.
Marrington Hall.
Wallop.
LoTON Park.
Onslow.
Attingham.
Apley Castle.
Albright Hussey.
MoRETON Corbet.
Hardwicke Grange.
Berwick House.
Yeaton-Peverey.
Adcote.
Stanwardine.
Soulton.
Hodnet Hall.
Brogyntyn.
Whittington Castle.
Llanforda.
Aston Hall.
Park Hall.
Halston.
owner
PAGE
Lord Barnard
• •
I
Sir J. Walter Smythe, Bart.
•
2
Colonel James Cotes
• •
• 3
R. P. Llewellin, Esq.
• •
• 4
W. E. Montagu Hulton-Harrop, Esq.
• 5
Stafford Davies Price Davifis^
Esq.
6
Mrs. Severne .
• • I
7
Sir Bryan B. M. Leighton, Bt.
8
C. Ralph B. Wingfield, Esq.
• •
• 9
Lord Berwick
• •
lO
Sir Thomas Meyrick, Bart., C.B.
II
Rev. G. Corbet
• •
12
Sir Walter O. Corbet, Bart.
. • ■
13
F. Bibby, Esq.
•
. 14
Mrs. Phillips .
• • <
15
Sir Offley Wakeman, Bart.
.
16
Mrs. Darby .
•
17
Elhs Brooke Cunliffe, Esq.
• • 4
18
Viscount Hill
, •
■ 19
Algernon Heber Percy, Esq.
4
20
Lord Harlech
• * •
21
Colonel F. Lloyd .
• • •
22
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn,
Bart. .
23
Colonel F. Lloyd .
• • <
24
Mrs. Wynne Corrie
• ■ <
25
Miss Wright .
.
26
ix
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SUBJECT
OWNER
PAGE
Hardwicke.
Rev. W. C. K. Kynaston
27
Oteley.
C. Francis Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq.
28
Shavington.
Henry H. Heywood-Lonsdale, Esq.
29
BUNTINGSDALE.
John Tayleur, Esq.
30
WOODCOTE.
Colonel James Cotes
31
Weston.
Earl of Bradford
32
Pef>per Hill.
Earl of Dartmouth .
33
Ar'LEY Park.
W. H. Foster, Esq.
34
Hatton Grange.
Colonel William Kenyon Slaney, M.l
3
3S
VVlLLEY.
Lord Forester
36
Aldenham.
Lord A<5lon ....
37
Whitton Court.
Miss Mills ....
38
Henley, Ludlow.
J. Baddeley Wood, Esq. ,
• 39
Court of Hill.
Capt. Hill Lowe
. 40
Burwarton.
Viscount Boyne
41
K inlet.
Mrs. Childe ....
42
Clun Castle.
Duke of Norfolk
• 43
Plowden.
William Francis Plowden, Esq.
44
HopTON Castle.
Sir Henry Ripley, Bart. .
• 45
Bedstone Court.
Sir Edward Ripley, Bart.
46
Stokesay.
H. J. Allcroft, Esq.
47
Benthall Hall, Broseley.
Lord Forester ....
48
Bourton Cottage.
T. H. A. Whitley, Esq. .
. 49
The Prior's Lodge, Wenlock.
C. C. Milnes Gaskell, Esq.
50
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
W. J. S. Barber-Starkey, Esy.
P. Arthur Beck, Esq.
A. J. Beesley, Esq.
P'rancis Benthall, Esq. (2 copies).
Viscount Boyne.
The Earl of Bradford.
Lt.-Col. James R. Bramble, F.S.A.
The Rev\ Ernest R. O. Bridgeman.
W. C. Bridgeman, Esq.
The Misses Bridgeman.
Lady Wilhelmina Brooke.
The Rev. T. M. Bulkeley-Owe.v.
Mr. Alfred Bult (2 copies).
Miss M. J. Burnk.
Mrs. Baldwyn Childe.
H. Ker Colville, Esq.
Edward Corbett, Esq.
Charles Cotes, Esq.
C. Beaumont Cottam, Esq.
Stephen Donne, Esq.
J. Freeman Dovaston, Esq.
Miss Eddowes.
The Hon. Mrs. W. Feilding (2 copies).
G. W. Ferrington, Esq.
Henry T. Folkard, Esq., F.S.A.
Lord Forester.
James Foster, Esq.
W. H. Foster, Esq.
Lewis Fytche, Esq., F.S.A,
The Rev. W. B. Garnett-Botfield.
Mrs. Godman.
Lady Grant.
Messrs, H. Grevel & Co.
Lawton Hamer, Esq.
Miss Teresa Harley.
Alan W. Heber Percy, Esq.
The Rev. Henry V. Heber Percy.
R. W. Henry, Esq.
Sir Robert Herbert, G.C.B.
Sir Clement Lloyd Hill, K.C.M.G., C.B.
Capt. Hill-Lowe, R.N.
Edward Hodges, Esq.
Mrs. Hope Edwardes.
Miss Hope Edwardes.
Capt. J. Horner.
R. Hovenden, Esq., F.S.A.
J. R. Howard-McLean, Esq.
W. E. Montagu Hulton-Harrop, Esq.
Capt. Cecil Hunt.
Richard Jebb, Esq.
Mrs. Robert Jenkins.
Daniel Jones, Esq.
Heighway Jones, Esq.
J. Parry Jones, Esq.
J. V. Jones, Esq.
The Hon, George Kenyon, M.P.
R. Ll. Kenyon, Esq.
Col. Kenyon-Slaney, M.P. (2 copies).
Thomas Frederick Kynnersley, Esq.
(2 copies).
Col. Ralph Leeke.
Sir Bryan Leighton, Bart.
Capt. F. Leighton.
Miss Leighton.
Mrs. Leslie.
Thomas Longueville, Esq.
The Rev. Canon Maddison.
John Martineau, Esq.
G. H. Maw, Esq.
Mrs. Pierrepont Mundy.
Charles R. Moore, Esq.
Miss Moseley.
C. R. Mostyn Owen, Esq.
Viscount Mountgarret.
Mrs. Naylor.
W. E. Nealor, Esq.
H. S. Newill, Esq.
W. G. NoRRis, Esq.
E. C. Peele, Esq.
Mrs. Algernon Perkins.
W. P. W. Phillimore, Esq.
Mrs. Pigott,
Messrs. W. N. Pitcher &c Co. (2 copies).
VV. F. Plowden, Esq.
Robert Pool, Eso.
Edward B. Potts, Esq.
S. D. Price-Davies, Esq.
Miss Roddam.
Sir C. H. Rouse-Boughton, Bart.
The Misses Rouse-Boughton'.
Maj.-Gen. F. Salusuury, C.B.
Alfred Salwey, Esq.
Humphrey Sandford, Esq.
Mrs. Seymour (6 copies).
Mrs. Frederick Sladen.
Hubert Smith, Esq.
Mrs. Robert Smith.
Capt. Sir John- Walter Smythe, Bart.
A. Percy Spencer, Esq.
Messrs. Spencer & Greenhough.
Edward J. Stanley, Esq., M.P.
Lord Stanley of Adderley (2 copies).
Mrs. Swann.
John Tayleur, Esq.
The Rev. Edward J. Taylor, F.S.A.
Archdeacon Thomas, F.S.A.
The Rev. Canon R. Trevor Owen, F.S.A.
F. R. Twemlow, Esq.
The Hon. and Rev. G. H. F. Vane.
Rowland George Venables, Esq.
Lt.-Col. Edward M. Wakeman.
Sir Offley Wakeman, Bart.
Capt. P'rank Wallace,
F. W. Wateridge, Esq.
Barrett Wendell, Esq.
Henry T. Weyman, Esq.
James Whitaker, Esq.
T. H. A. Whitley, Esq.
Miss Williams.
Miss M. C. L. Williams.
Mrs. Bertie Williams Wynn (2 copies).
The Hon. Henrietta Windsor Clive.
C. R. B. Wingfield, Esq.
Edward Wood, Esq.
John B. Wood, Esq.
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SHREWSBURY CASTLE.
LORD BARNARD.
THE Castle stands in a commanding position, on the isthmus, not more than 300
yards wide, which forms the neck of the encircling loop of the Severn round
Shrewsbury. Built by Earl Roger of Montgomery, about 1080, this place has been
continuously inhabited ever since, but little remains of the original stru<5lure. It
consists of a redangular building, supported by two round towers ; the whole space
between the towers was probably once occupied by a hall, the handsome seven-
teenth century timbers of which, may still be seen above the modern plaster ceilings.
The upper range of windows, facing the courtyard, were no doubt inserted about
1 643, when extensive repairs were made. The middle range of windows with wooden
mullions are a poor imitation of Gothic architedure, which, together with a small tower,
standing apart from the main building, were designed for Laura, Countess of Bath, by
the great road engineer, Telford, about 1806. An acre of ground is inclosed within
the courtyard.
After the fall of the 3rd Norman Earl of Shropshire in the reign of Henry I.,
the Castle lapsed to the Crown, and was attached to the Shrievalty, for which reason
the eledions for the Knights of the Shire were formerly held within its walls.
In 1663, Charles II. granted this Crown estate to Francis, Lord Newport, whose
father, Sir Richard Newport, was created a Baron in 1642, on presenting the king
with ^6,000 towards the expenses of the war. Lord Newport was raised to a
Viscounty in 1675, and to an Earldom in 1694. He was Treasurer of the Household
to Charles II. He was Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire, and was removed by James II.
to make room for Lord Jeffreys of Wem, the Lord Chancellor. His son Richard,
Lord Newport was M.P. for the county in 1678, and was Lord Lieutenant from 171 2
to 1723. He left two sons, who succeeded to the title, which became extind on the
death of Thomas, 4th Earl, in 1762.
In 1783 Mr. Newport, the illegitimate son of the 3rd Earl, died, and the Castle,
together with the older estates of the Newports, passed, not without litigation, to
Frances Pulteney, the wife of Sir William Johnstone (who assumed the name
of Pulteney), M.P. for Shrewsbury, 1774-1805. Her daughter Laura, created
Countess of Bath, married Sir James Murray (who also assumed the name of Pulteney).
Lady Bath resided in the Castle, and died in 1808 without issue. The estates had
already devolved under the limitations of General Harry Pulteney's will upon William
Harry Vane, Earl of Darlington, on whom a Marquisate was conferred in 1827, and
the Dukedom of Cleveland in 1833, in recognition of his political services to Lord
Grey during the Reform Bill struggle. His three sons succeeded to his titles and all
died without issue, and the Dukedom became extindl in 1891, when Shrewsbury Castle
and the other great estates passed by will to Henry de Vere Vane, Lord Barnard, the
present owner.
The Earl of Darlington, the son of the first Duke, was M.P. for South Shrop-
shire from 1832 to 1 841.
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ACTON BURNELL.
SIR J. WALTER SMYTHE, BART.
THE house is a plain Georgian, porticoed building, and stands apart from the ruins
of the Castle (which will form the subjed: of another sketch), backed up by a
hilly and most pi6luresque park. The ruinous gable on the right is the remnant of
the hall, in which the House of Commons sat in 1282, when the Parliament of A6lon
Burnell was held here.
Edward Smythe of Eshe in the county of Durham, acquired this inheritance,
together with Langley, by his marriage with Mary, daughter and co-heir of Sir Richard
Lee, Bart., who died in 1660, In the same year Edward Smythe was made a Baronet.
The Lees were of an old Shropshire stock. In 1387 Robert atte Lee was Sheriff, and,
in 1479, ^^^ grandson Richard filled the same office. In 1620 Humphrey Lee was
made a Baronet; and his son Sir Richard was M.P. for Shropshire in 1640, and was
fined ^3,7 1 9 in addition to an annuity of ^169 by the ParHamentary sequestrators.
This place is associated with the name of Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the
famous Chancellor of Edward I., by whom the Castle was built or re-edified. From
the Burnells the estate passed by inheritance to the Lovells, whose adherence to
Richard III. entailed the forfeiture of their property. Their lands were granted to
Jasper Tudor, Earl of Bedford, from whom they passed in rapid succession to Thomas
Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and then to Sir John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland,
by whom they were sold to the Lees, the owners of the neighbouring estate of Langley,
in the reign of Henry VIII.
The Smythes are one of the old Roman Catholic families of Shropshire; in
1793 Sir Edward Smythe, 5th Baronet, gave a home here to a company of Benedidine
monks, driven from France by the Revolution. His son, another Sir Edward, Sheriff
in 1 83 1, was a famous sportsman, and master of the Shropshire hounds. In the parish
church are some fine family monuments. A domestic chapel is attached to the house.
There are here portraits of the Lees as well as of the Smythes, and a large number of
ancient deeds.
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PITCHFORD.
COL. JAMES COTES.
WILLIAM OTTLEY, a younger son of the Ottleys of Oteley, near Ellesmere,
engaged in the clothing trade in Shrewsbury, established a house in Calais,
and was so successful that, in 1743, he purchased Pitchford, built the house and founded
a family, who lived here for three centuries. William Ottley was Sheriff in 1 500. Sir
Francis Ottley was the Royalist Governor of Shrewsbury in the Civil Wars, was Sheriff in
1645, and was fined £ i ,300 by the Parliamentary sequestrators. His descendants were
Sheriffs in 1738 and 1767. On the death, in 1807, at the age of ninety, of Adam
Ottley, and of his son three months later, this ancient family became extind, and the
estate was bequeathed to a kinsman, Hon. C. C. C. Jenkinson, second son of the ist
Earl of Liverpool. The daughter and co-heir of the 3rd Earl, Lady Louisa Jenkinson,
married, in 1839, J^^n Cotes of Woodcote, M.P. for North Shropshire 1832-5. Her
second son, James, succeeded to the property.
Some alterations, or rather restorations, have lately been made. The courtyard
in front has been thrown open, by taking away a modern brick passage, which formed
an entrance vestibule between the wings. A new entrance has been made on the side
opposite the courtyard ; the bridge shown in the sketch has been removed to a situation
lower down the stream. The hall has been restored to its original dimensions of fifty
feet. Eledric light relieves the sombre shade of the dark paneUing.
Pitchford is rich in varied interests. The quaint pidluresqueness of the red brick
clustered chimney-stacks, rising from a stone roof, covering the " black and white "
walls, laid on a foundation of stone ; the moat and the bridge ; the pitch well,
mentioned by Camden, which gives the name to the place ; the ancient lime tree,
amongst the spreading branches of which a miniature summer house has been built ;
the many family portraits, amongst them Sir Francis Ottley and his family, painted by
Troueil, a pupil of Vandyke, and Prince Rupert, given by the Prince to his companion
in arms; the manuscripts of the Civil War period, the books and the family papers;
the hereditary armour ; the adjacent church, in which is the recumbent figure of an
early owner of Pitchford, and three flat stones, with elaborated representations of the
Ottleys in the sixteenth century; the park made in 1638, the deer being brought from
Lord Newport's park at High Ercall, disparked in 1790: all these make up a
combination of attractive incidents, which few country houses possess in the same
degree.
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THE MOAT HALL, STAPLETON.
R. P. LLEWELLIN, ESQ.
THE Stapletons, who also possessed Thonglands in Corvedale, were the early
owners of this manor. One of them was Sheriff in 139 1, another in 1441, and
one was Knight of the Shire in 1421. Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir John
Stapleton in the fifteenth century, married Edward Leighton of Stretton-in-le-dale,
and in his descendants the estate remained, till, in 16 14, Robert Leighton of Wattles-
borough leased *' Stapleton with the capital messuage called Moate Hall in the
occupation of Elizabeth Leighton his mother" to Lord Keeper Egerton, who
accumulated a great estate in Shropshire, and is said to have bought more land than any
lawyer either before or since ; he assumed the motto of" munda manus," or the " clean-
handed." His son, John Egerton, was M.P. for Shropshire in 1601. The lease to
the Lord Keeper was probably followed by a re-lease, and so amounted to a purchase.
Subsequently, in the eighteenth century, the family of Powys became the owners
of Stapleton by purchase. Ann Catherine, the daughter and co-heir of Thomas Jelf
Powys of Berwick, married in 1791, Viscount Feilding, the eldest son of the Earl of
Denbigh, and to the second son of that marriage, Hon. Henry Wentworth Feilding,
who assumed the name of Powys, Stapleton, together with Berwick, passed. Dying
in 1875 unmarried, he was succeeded by his nephew, the Earl of Denbigh, who sold
Stapleton to Mr. R. P. Llewellin, the present owner.
Stapleton is a fair specimen of the smaller class of media?val residences. The cluster
of buildings stands on very fiat ground, and is protected by the moat, which incloses a
small garden. On the inside the house and offices form three sides of an irregular
square. In the more ancient rooms there are some very stout oak beams, well moulded.
The place has been occupied as a farmhouse for nearly three hundred years.
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LYTHWOOD HALL.
W. E. MONTAGU HULTON-HARROP, ESQ.
MR. HULTON-HARROP represents a younger branch of an ancient Lan-
cashire family, and assumed the additional name of Harrop, on succeeding,
in 1866, to the estates of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Harrop of Bardsley. The
Gatten property lying on the southern slopes of the Stiperstones, was purchased in the
earlier half of the nineteenth century by Mr. Harrop. In 1877 Mr. Hulton-Harrop
purchased Lythwood from Mr. Hornby. In 1885 he served the office of Sheriff, and
for some years he was the Master of the Shropshire Hounds.
Lythwood stands on high ground about two miles from Shrewsbury. The house
was built about 1782 by Mr. Blakeway, who having been the lucky winner of a lottery
of j^2o,ooo, spent most of his capital in the eredion of this house. ** Athenian "
Stewart was the archited, so called from his successful designs in the classical style.
He was the architedl of St. Chad's Church in Shrewsbury, and of Attingham in this
neighbourhood. The interior decoration and embellishments of Lythwood are, as is
usually the case with Georgian houses, more effedtive than the outside elevation.
Mr. Blakeway having outrun his income, sold this place to Mr. Parr, who, sold
again, about 1850, to Mr, Hornby, who as has been already stated, sold in 1877 to
Mr. Hulton-Harrop.
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MARRINGTON HALL.
STAFFORD DAVIES PRICE DAVIES, ESQ.
THE house stands on the borders of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, on the
edge of the beautiful dingle of Marrington, through which passes the Camlot,
the only river which flows from England into Wales.
The hall was built by Richard Lloyd in 1595. The former owners of the place
were the Bowdlers in the thirteenth century, and the Middletons in the fifteenth, from
whom the Lloyds acquired the estate in the sixteenth by marriage.
In 1633 Richard Lloyd sold Marrington to the first Lord Craven, in 1733
William, Lord Craven, sold to Thomas Powys, of Berwick, near Shrewsbury. Towards
the close of the eighteenth century, John Davies, descended from the family of Davies
of Gwysaney, co. Flint, who had already some landed interests in the neighbourhood,
bought Marrington from the Powyses.
The grandson of the purchaser dying in 1877 without issue, the estate passed in
the female line through Margaret Davies, the wife of Stafford Price, of Hendon
House, Middlesex, to the present owner, Stafford Davies Price, who assumed the
patronymic of Davies in 1882. Mr. Price Davies was in the Royal Artillery, and has
filled the office of Sheriff of Montgomeryshire.
The arms of Bowdler, Broughton, Lloyd, and Middleton are represented on a
somewhat defaced stone over the porch. An interesting sundial, with quaint devices,
which will be the subjed of another sketch, stands in front of the house.
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WALLOP.
MRS. SEVERNE.
WALLOP lies at the head of a little valley, on the south-eastern slope of the
Long Mountain. It is closed in by overshadowing trees ; a rivulet dammed
up makes a succession of fish ponds in the garden. The house was built about 1870,
and took the place of a small shooting box. The property extends into Montgomery-
shire, and includes the wooded site of Caus Castle.
The family of Sever ne, originally of Shrawley, in Worcestershire, came to Shrop-
shire in the seventeenth century. John Severne, whose father had married Mary,
daughter of Richard Langley of the Abbey, Shrewsbury, was mayor of the town in 1 675,
and was the first who is designated as " of Wallop." His son was Sheriff of Mont-
gomeryshire in 1697 : and his grandson was General Severne, Col. of the 8th
Dragoons, who was present at Culloden. There is a good portrait of the General
at Wallop. Dying without issue in 1787, the estate passed to his kinsman, Samuel
Amy Severne, who was succeeded by his son, John Michael, owner of Thenford, near
Banbury, as well as of this Shropshire property. He was Sheriff of Montgomeryshire
in 1824, and of Northamptonshire in 1829.
He was succeeded by the late John Edmund Severne, M.P. for Ludlow,
1865-8, and for the Southern Division of Shropshire, 1876-85. He was Sheriff of
Northamptonshire in 1861.
There are here some valuable books, part of the library formed by Mr.
Woodhale at Thenford : and a number of rare Bartolozzis. There are also some
interesting relics of Charles I., which came into the possession of the Severne family
through Sir Edw. Walker, the King's private secretary, of whom there is a portrait
here.
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LOTON PARK.
SIR BRYAN B. M. LEIGHTON, BART.
THIS sketch represents the north front, built in 171 2, by Sir Edward Lelghton,
2nd baronet, who removed the family residence from Wattlesborough Castle,
the remains of which are about a mile distant. The south front of the house is of
rather earlier date, having been built about 1630. An additional wing was ereded in
1875. T^^ road, in the last century, passed in front of the house, and the village of
Alberbury clustered round the hall on the ground now occupied by shrubberies and
kitchen garden.
John Leighton, of Stretton-in-le-dale, descended from Richard Lelghton of
Leighton, M.P., 131 2-18, acquired the Wattlesborough estates by his marriage with
Ankoret, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Burgh. He was M.P. in 1460, and
thrice Sheriff. His son, Sir Thomas, created a Knight-banneret at Tourney, was
Sheriff in 1495, and also M.P. Sir Edward Leighton was M.P. 1563, twice Sheriff
of Shropshire, and twice of Montgomeryshire ; he was also Custos Rotulorum of the
County, and member of the Court of the Marches. His brother, Sir Thomas, was
Governor of Jersey ; a number of his letters to Robert Cecil, Lord Burleigh, amongst
the Hatfield manuscripts, are printed by the Hist. MSS. Com. He was M.P. for
Northumberland, in 1572, and for Worcestershire, in 1 601, in which county he
obtained a grant of Feckenham from Queen Elizabeth. Sir Edward's cousin,
William Leighton, of Plash, was Chief Justice of North Wales, and both he and
Sir Thomas were members of the Court of the Marches. In the restoration
Parliament, 1661-78, Robert Leighton was M.P. for Shrewsbury, and was nominated
for the proposed order of " Knights of the Oak." His son. Sir Edward, created a
Baronet in 1693, was M.P. for Shropshire in 1698, and for Shrewsbury in 17 10.
Col. Daniel Leighton, of Bausley, his second son, commanded a regiment at
Fontenoy, and was M.P. for Hereford in 1747. Sir Charlton Leighton was M.P,
for Shrewsbury in 1780-5. Sir Robert, his brother, who succeeded him, entertained
at Loton, in 1805, the Prince Regent and the Duke of Clarence. He was succeeded
by his cousin. General Sir Baldwin Leighton, who was wounded in the American W^ar
of Independence, was a Brigadier in Portugal, and was Governor of Jersey. His son,
Sir Baldwin, was M.P. for South Shropshire, 1859-65, and was Chairman of the
Quarter Sessions in Shropshire, and also in Montgomeryshire. Dying in 1 871, he
was succeeded by his son. Sir Baldwyn, M.P. for South Shropshire 1877-85.
There are here a number of family portraits, from Sir Edward Leighton, the first
baronet, downwards, and amongst them three good half lengths by Allan Ramsay, one
by Gardner in pastile, two by Watts and one by Lord Leighton, P.R.A.
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ONSLOW.
C. RALPH B. WINGFIELD, ESQ.
THE first member of the ancient family of Wingfield, who settled in Shropshire,
was Thomas, mayor of Shrewsbury in 1640. His son Samuel bought Preston
Brockhurst, which he rebuilt, from Sir Vincent Corbet, and his grandson was sheriff
in 1692. Rowland Wingfield, sheriff in 1753, purchased Onslow in 1780, and died
at the age of 9 1 , in 1 8 1 8 ; his son. Col. John Wingfield, sheriff in 1 8 24, died at the age
of 93, in 1862, and was succeeded by Charles George Wingfield, sheriff in 1873,
colonel of the Shropshire Yeomanry.
Of the earlier owners of Onslow, may be mentioned Humphrey Onslow, sheriff
in 1566, whose family is now represented by the Earl of Onslow, but their connedion
with Shropshire ceased on the sale of this estate, in 16 17, to Thomas Harris of
Shrewsbury. The property was sold by the Harrises to the family of Fownes, and
again by them to the Morhalls, of whom Richard Morhall was sheriff in 1770; they
sold to Rowland Wingfield, of Preston Brockhurst, in 1780.
The present house, the main portion of which is of Grinshill stone, was built, in
1820, by Col. John Wingfield, from designs by Haycock, of Shrewsbury. Consider-
able additions have been lately made by Col. Charles Wingfield.
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ATTINGHAM.
LORD BERWICK.
THIS fine house, one of the largest in the county, was built in 1780, the architedl
was " Athenian " Stewart. The former house. Tern Hall, was inclosed within
the new mansion and the name of Attingham given to the place. Repton laid out
the grounds, and in his book. — on landscape gardening, devotes several pages to the
consideration of the principles which should be applied in dealing with the flat
expanse of the park and the sluggish windings of the Tern.
In 1680 Thomas Harwood, of Shrewsbury, married Margaret, the sister of the
Rt. Hon. Richard Hill, the builder of Hawkestone, an eminent statesman and diplo-
matist. He conveyed Tern Hall to the Harwoods, and greatly promoted their
interests. His nephew, Thomas Harwood, assumed the name of Hill in 1727, and
was M.P. for Shrewsbury 1749-68. He married a daughter and co-heir of William
Noel, judge of the Common Pleas, and was father of Noel Hill, M.P. for Shrewsbury
1768, and for Shropshire 1774-84, who was raised to the peerage under the title of
Baron Berwick of Attingham in 1784. He was the builder of the present house.
His second son, Hon. William Noel Hill, was M.P. for Shrewsbury, and was the
successful candidate in a famous contest for the representation of the borough against
his cousin, John Hill, of Hawkestone, in 1796, which is said to have cost ^100,000.
He was afterwards Minister at Naples, assumed the name of Noel in addition to Hill,
and eventually succeeded his elder brother in the title.
The 5th Lord Berwick was a man of great mechanical genius, and invented an
improvement in the military rifle. He was also the owner of a celebrated herd of
Short-horns and Herefords. Dying in 1861, he was succeeded by his brother. Col.
Hon. William Hill, distinguished in the Burmese War, and Col. of the Shropshire
Militia.
A fine collection of pi6lures and books were sold in 1826, but there remain many
good pi6lures and portraits, among them an interesting portrait of Sir Rowland Hill,
the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, one of Pitt by Hopner, two fine full-length
family portraits, and others.
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APLEY CASTLE.
SIR THOMAS MEYRICK BART., C.B.
THE history of Apley Castle takes us back to Feudal times. " Charlton Castle,
built in 13 1 6, was the work of the ist Lord Cherleton de Powys, a man of
humble origin, but who owed his great advancement to an early friendship with the
weakest, though not the most fickle of the Plantaganets, Edward II. Nor was the
family thus favoured by his father negleded by Edward III. One of the earUest
records of that king's reign (1327), is a license to Alan de Cherleton to creuellate or
embattle the two manor houses of Apley and Withyford." [Eyton's " Castles of
Shropshire."]
The page and companion of Edward II. married Hawlce, daughter and heir of
Owen ap Griffith, Prince of Powysland, and owner of Powys Castle. In 13 13 he
was summoned by writ to Parliament as Lord Cherleton de Powys. In 1425 the
daughter and heir of the Cherletons de Powys carried the estate and Barony to the
family of Grey. The Lords Grey de Powys became extind in the male line in the
reign of Henry VIII., and the Barony, which was unsuccessfully claimed by Sir John
Kynaston Powell in 1 800, remains in abeyance. Powis Castle was sold to the
Herberts in the reign of Elizabeth.
Of the same stock spring the Charletons of Apley Castle. Alan de Cherleton
married the daughter and heir of Hugh Fitz-der, and thus acquired Withyford,
and as has been said, obtained licence to castellate Apley and Withyford in 1327.
His grandaughter and heir, about 1400, carried these estates to her husband William
Knightly of Fawsly, who assumed the surname of Charlton, and in their descendants
the inheritance remains.
In 1472 Robert Charlton was Sheriff, as were his successors in 1527, 1626,
1665, 1757' 179OJ 1807, 1845 and 1877. William Charlton, M.P. for Shropshire
in 1554, was the son of WilHam Charlton, who, in 1513, was engaged in the expedi-
tion against France. In the Civil wars Robert Charlton, uncle of Francis, the owner
of Apley, who was a minor, took a leading part on the Parliamentary side. The
mother of the owner was on the king's side. In consequence the Castle was garrisoned
for the king, taken by the Parliament, and dismantled. Richard Baxter was closely
related to the family, having married a sister of Robert Charlton.
In 1820 St. John Chiverton Charlton married the daughter and heir of Thomas
Meyrick of Bush, near Pembroke. He left two sons. The eldest, St. John of the
1st Royal Dragoons, was one of the survivors of the Balaclava charge, and died un-
married. The second, Thomas, the present owner, Colonel of the Shropshire Militia,
M.P. for Pembroke, 1868-74, was created a Baronet in 1880.
The present house, which stands a short distance from the old Castle, now converted
into stables, is a block of Georgian brickwork, with a portico. In 1859 considerable
additions were made. The inside is well contrived and convenient. There are here
some good family portraits, and amongst them one of Richard Baxter.
Leland says : " The hedde House of the Chorletons now is Apley, half a mile
from Welington. Howbeit Chorleton Castel seemeth in time past to haue bene
principal. There be divers of the Chorletons gentilmen of Shropshire."
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ALBRIGHT HUSSEY.
REV. G. CORBET.
THE piduresque remains of this old hall are about three miles from Shrewsbury,
on the Sundorne estate. The " black and white " portion is an excellent bit of
Tudor work, and the date 1524 was formerly legible on the porch. There is an oak
roof with Tudor mouldings in the principal room. On the wainscot of the parlour
there was carved "made by me, Edward Huse. 1601." Some decayed walling in an
adjacent field represents the situation of the chapel. The stone bridge and a portion
of the moat still exist. Much of the brick part of the house must have been removed.
The family of Huse or Hussey, whose pedigree was entered in the visitation of
1623, built the house, and gave to it their name.
Either by purchase or marriage the Corbets of Leigh succeeded them early in
the seventeenth century.
The following incident of the Civil Wars is told by Gough in his " History of
Myddle." " The Governor of Shrewsbury placed a garrison at Albright Hussey, and
Scoggan was Governor of it. A party of horse of the Parliament side came on a
Sunday, in the afternoon, and faced the garrison, and Scoggan standing In a window,
in an upper room, cryd aloud, that the others heard him say, * Lett such a number goe
to such a place, and so many to such a place ' and ' lett twenty come with me ' (butt
he had not eight in all in the house). And Scoggan, seeing one Phillip Bunney
among the ennemys, who was a taylor borne at Hadnall, he tooke a fowling gun, and
said ' Bunny have att thee ' and shott him through the legge and killed his horse. The
Parliament soldiers took up Bunny and departed. Soone after, this garrison was re-
called at the request of Mr. Pelham Corbett, who feared the Parliament soldiers
would come and fire his buildings."
In 1 741 Corbet Kynaston of Sundorne, dying without issue, bequeathed his
estates to his cousin, Corbet of Leigh and Albright Hussey, and thus the estates
became merged.
In 1864, on the failure of Mr. Corbet's descendants, the property passed by the
devise of his cousin Andrew W. Corbet, to the Rev. Dryden Piggott of Edgemond,
who assumed the name of Corbet, and whose brother is the present owner.
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MORETON CORBET.
SIR WALTER O. CORBET, BART.
WRITING in the time of Elizabeth, Camden in his " Britannia " says : " Then
upon the same river (Tern), Moreton Corbet, anciently an house of the
familie of Turet, afterward a castle of the Corbets, sheweth itself, where, within our
remembrance, Robert Corbet, carried away with the affedionate delight in architedure,
began to build in a barraine place, a most gorgeous and stately house, after the
Italian's modell : but death prevented him, so that he left the new work unfinished,
and the old castle defaced. These Corbets are of ancient nobility in this shire and held
lordships by service of Roger Montgomery, Earle of this county about the coming in
of the Normans. ... In later ages this familie farre and fairly propagated, received
increase, both revenue, and great alliance, by the marriage with an heir of Hopton."
It is doubtful whether the house was ever finished. Tradition relates that a Puritan
preacher in the time of James I., whom the owner failed to save from being carried to
Shrewsbury gaol, prophesied that the house he was building should not be dwelt in
from generation to generation, and shortly afterwards it was destroyed by fire. In the
civil wars, however, it was garrisoned for the King, and taken by the Parliamentary
party. Its owner. Sir Vincent, created a baronet in 1642, was fined ^1,588 and _^8o
a year by the sequestrators. His granddaughter and heiress carried Moreton to her
husband, John Kynaston, in 1688, and his son, Corbet Kynaston, sold the estate back
to his kinsman, Andrew Corbet, of Shawbury Park, in 1734.
Roger Fitz Corbet, the Domesday founder of this family, came from Pays de
Caux in Normandy, built Caus Castle, and called it after his Norman home. The
Castle and Barony of Caus passed to Ralph de Stafford in 1350. The lesser Corbet
estate of Wattlesborough Castle passed by marriage before the close of the same
century to John de Mowthe. But about 1240 Richard Corbet, of Wattlesborough,
married the heiress of Bartholomew Turet, one of the few Saxon owners of the soil
whom the Norman conquest had left, and Moreton Turet has since been known as
Moreton Corbet. In 1431 Roger Corbet, of Moreton, married the heiress of Thos.
Hopton, of Hopton Castle, which remained in the family till the co-heiress of Robert
Corbet carried it to the Wallops in the sixteenth century.
Since 1 249, when Thomas Corbet was sheriff, twenty Corbets have held that office ;
since 1309, when Roger Corbet was Knight of the Shire, eighteen Corbets have
represented the county, and twelve Corbets boroughs in the county. In addition to
the Edwardian Barony by Writ, four extind baronetcies have been held by the family,
and in 1679 ^^^ widow of Sir Vincent Corbet was made a viscountess for life. The
estates of A6ton Reynald and of Adderley are still held in this county by descendants
in the male line of Roger Fitz Corbet, the Norman. The estates of Longnor and of
Sundorne have passed by female descent, their owners having taken the old patronymic.
13 H
HARDWICKE GRANGE.
F. BIBBY, ESQ.
THIS place was bought, about 1725, from Mr. Littlehales, by Rowland Hill, who
succeeded in 1727 to the Hawkestone estates on the death of his uncle, the
Rt. Hon. Richard Hill, a distinguished diplomatist, and the builder of the house at
Hawkestone ; in the same year he was created a baronet.
His grandson, the younger son of Sir John Hill, Bart., was Rowland, ist Viscount
Hill, G.C.B., the companion in arms of Wellington, and commander-in-chief from
18^28-42; he lived here, and is buried in the parish church of Hadnall.
The estate was sold, in 1868, by the 2nd Viscount Hill, the nephew of the
commander-in-chief, to Mr. J. J. Bibby, who was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1882, and
his son is the present owner.
The house was reconstrudled in the early part of the nineteenth century in the
modern Gothic style. It stands on flat ground, well timbered. The present owner
has made extensive alterations and additions.
14
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BERWICK HOUSE.
MRS. PHILLIPS.
THE house, of the early Georgian period, is well placed on the bank of the Severn.
The frontage retains much of its original design, but the side in shadow has
been almost entirely re-edified. Till lately, this place presented a good example of
eighteenth century landscape gardening, and the mansion stood in the midst of the
park, without any surrounding flower garden, shrubbery or terrace. The kitchen
garden was some way off. The grounds are handsomely timbered, and the Wreken
and the spires of Shrewsbury are in full view from the windows.
There is a tradition that on the eve of the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, Harry
Percy slept at Upper Berwick, and on the morning of the fight, calling for his
sword, was told that it had been left at " Berwick," upon which he exclaimed, " my
plough is drawing to its last furrow, for a wizard of Northumberland told me I should
die at Berwick, which I thought to be Berwick in the North," and he was slain that
day.
The early owners of this estate were the Leybournes. In the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and part of the seventeenth centuries the Bettons, a Shrewsbury family, lived here. The
Luceys succeeded them, from whom Isaac Jones, brother of Thomas Jones, Sheriff in
1625, belonging to a rich burgher family, purchased the place. His son, Sir Samuel,
Sheriff in 1663, founded the almshouses in the park. Sir Thomas Jones, Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas in James II. 's reign, was a cousin of Sir Samuel ; the Tyrwhitts
of Stanley Hall represent in the female line the family of the Chief Justice.
The Joneses sold to the Hosiers, from whom Berwick was bought in 1728, by
Thomas Powys — the first of his name who settled in Shrewsbury — who built the
present mansion, repaired the Chapel, and was Sheriff in 1763. He was succeeded
by his cousin, Thomas Jelf Powys, Sheriff in 1776, who had married the daughter
and heiress of Thomas Jelf of Bristol, merchant.
Catherine his daughter and heiress married in 1 79 1 Viscount Feilding. The second
son of that marriage, Hon. Henry Wentworth Feilding, who assumed the name of
Powys, succeeded to the estate, and dying unmarried in 1875, his nephew and heir,
the Earl of Denbigh, sold Berwick to James Watson of Warley Hall, Birmingham,
M.P. for Shrewsbury 1885-92, who made large alterations in the house, and whose
daughter and heiress Florence, the present owner, married Mr. W. W. Graham Phillips.
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YEATON-PEVEREY.
SIR OFFLEY WAKEMAN, BART.
THIS house, built in 1890, on a new site, represents the style and finish of the
later Vidorian architeifture. The material is stone, with the exception of some
*' black and white " timber work. There is a forecourt with arched alcoves at the
angles. The details are quaint and elaborate. Aston Webb was the archite6l.
The situation, at present, is deficient in trees and foreground, but the distant
views of the Breidden, and all the Shropshire hills are fine. The Perry flows through
the grounds.
The Wakemans are a Worcestershire family, and lived at Perdiswell, near
Worcester. Sir Henry Wakeman, who was created a Baronet in 1828, married, in
1797, Sarah, daughter and heir of Richard Ward Offley of Hinton Hall, Pontesbury,
and thus acquired Rorrington in Chirbury. His grandson, Sir Offley Wakeman,
Sheriff in 1887, and Chairman of Quarter Sessions, disposed of his Worcestershire
property, and built Yeaton-Peverey, on an estate which he purchased from Colonel
Kenyon-Slaney.
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MRS. DARBY.
THIS house was built by Mrs. Darby, tke widow of Mr. x'Vlfred Darby, of Coal-
brookdale, in 1879. Norman Shaw was the archited, and it is a good example
of his method of adapting mediasval forms to modern requirements. The hall is
unusually large.
The grounds from which the Breidden range and the Stiperstones are seen to
advantage across the plain of the Severn, are prettily laid out.
The family of Darby have been intimately associated, since the end of the seven-
teenth century, with the industrial development of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. They
also established very large works at Ebbw Vale in Monmouthshire. In 1777 Mr.
Abraham Darby construdled the iron bridge over the Severn, which has given the
name of " Ironbridge " to the surrounding distridl, and in 1795 the Coalbrookdale
Company, of which the Darbys were the principal partners, construded from designs
of Telford, the iron bridge at Buildwas.
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STANWARDINE.
ELLIS BROOKE CUNLIFFE, ESQ.
(c ^TANWARDINE in the Wood," as it used to be called, Is situated on high
^^]3 ground, but there are few trees about it now. The house was built by Robert
Corbet, a younger son of the family of Corbet, of Moreton, who was Sheriff in 1530,
and married the daughter and heiress of Roger Kynaston, of Walford and Stanwardine,
whose great grandfather, Griffin Kynaston, acquired the estate of Stocks by marriage
with the daughter and heiress of John Hord, in the fifteenth century.
Thomas, son of Robert Corbet, enlarged the house and made a park. His son
Robert, Sheriff in 1636, was " a very eminent person in the county in his time, he was
Justice of the Peace and the Quorum, Custos Rotulorum, and a Master in Chancery"
(Cough's " History of Myddle "). He was M.P. in the Commonwealth Parliament of
1654, and took a leading part on the Parliamentary side. It is interesting to note,
that while the head of the Corbet family, Sir Vincent, and his relative Pelham Corbet,
fought for the King, the other branches of the family, the Corbets of Adderley, of
Stanwardine, and of Auston near Pontesbury fought for the Parliament. The son of
Robert Corbet was Thomas, a friend of Nonconformist ministers. Phillip Henry
writes in his diary: "July 12,1671. With wife at Stanwardine. Much made of
there, but little good done by reason of a vayn, unfixt, unfruitful heart. I accompanied
them, killing a buck in their own park, far from being taken with any great delight or
pleasure in ye sport ; they sent part of him to Broad-Oke after us."
In 1 701 Stanwardine was sold to Sir John Wynn, of Wattstay; and this branch
of the Corbets disappeared, and their fine old hall has since been used as a farmhouse.
About I 8 1 8 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn sold the property for ^40,000 to William
Sparling, of Petton, and it is now merged in the Petton estate. The granddaughter and
eventual heir of William Sparling married Mr. Ellis Brooke Cunliffe, the present
owner.
The building is of Grinshill stone. There is some good panelling, with the date
1588: some of the original window-fastenings and door-handlings remain. The Corbet
emblems of the raven, the squirrel, and the elephant and castle are represented on the
gables. The sundial has been taken to Petton.
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SOULTON.
vise. HILL.
THOMAS HILL, of Soulton, built this house in 1668, and was Sheriff in 168 i,
the first of his family who filled that office. The Hills of Hawkestone derive
their descent from the Hills of Court of Hill, in the parish of Burford, now extind: in
the male line, and became associated with the north-eastern part of Shropshire by the
marriage of Hugh Hill, with the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas de Wonkeslow.
In the Herald's Visitation of 1623, Rowland Hill is mentioned as of Hawkestone in
1592. A member of the family was, in 1549, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of
London, " a grave and worthy father of the Citie," and the great estates he acquired
in this county passed to his sisters and co-heiresses, one of whom married a Barker of
Haughmond, the other a Gratewood of Adderley.
The families of Soulton and Hawkestone were united by cousinhood, and the
properties are now merged.
The modern founder of the fortunes of the Hills, who exercised great political
and social influence in Shropshire in the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth century,
was the Right Hon. Richard Hill, paymaster to the forces, and an eminent diploma-
tist in the reigns of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George I. He died un-
married in 1727, having procured a baronetcy for his nephew. Sir Rowland, Sheriff in
1732, and M.P. for Lichfield, 1734, for whom he built the house of Hawkestone.
From 1780 to 1806, Sir Richard Hill was M.P. for Shropshire, his brother John
was M.P. for Shrewsbury, 1784-96. General Hill, G.C.B., who was M.P. for
Shrewsbury in 1812, was raised to the peerage as Baron in 18 14, and created a Viscount
in 1842, and was for fourteen years commander-in-chief. Sir Rowland Hill, who
succeeded his uncle as 2nd Viscount, was M.P. for Shropshire, 1821-42, and was
Lord Lieutenant of the county. His son, Hon. Rowland Clegg Hill, was M.P. for
North Shropshire, 1857-65, and became 3rd Viscount. The famous dissenting
minister, Rev. Rowland Hill, was of this family.
Soulton is a good example of a seventeenth century house, when the gabled style
was going out, but mullioned windows were still in fashion. It also presents an
example of the walled garden in front of the principal entrance. A flight of steps
leads up to the garden gate, and a small terrace and another flight of steps lead up to
the hall door.
The place has been for many years tenanted by farmers.
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HODNET HALL.
ALGERNON HEBER PERCY, ESQ.
HODNET is one of the estates which has passed by hereditary succession from
Norman times to the present, though often by female descent. The family of
Hodnet took their name from the place, held under the Norman Earl Roger by
serjeantry, and were stewards of his Castle of Montgomery ; William de Hodenet, in
1298, was the Knight of the Shire. In the fourteenth century, Sir William de
Lodelowe, of Stokesay, married Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir William de
Hodnet. The Lodelowes held the office of Sheriff in 1379, 141 7, 1443, and 1478 ;
and were Knights of the Shire in 1307, 1328, 1361, 1373, 1377, 1389. Early in the six-
teenth century, Thomas and Humphrey Vernon, younger sons of Vernon of Haddon,
married two sisters, the daughters and co-heiresses of John Ludlow. Humphrey had
for his share of the estates, Hodnet, and here his descendants in the male line lived for
more than two centuries. In 1620, Sir Robert Vernon was M.P. for Shropshire. In
1660, Sir Henry Vernon, was M.P., and was made a baronet. The baronetcy became
extinft early in the eighteenth century, and Elizabeth Atherton (granddaughter of
Elizabeth Vernon, who married Robert Cholmondeley, of Vale Royal in 1675),
carried Hodnet to her husband, Richard Heber, of Marton in Craven, Yorkshire.
The grandson of that marriage, Richard Heber, of Hodnet, Sheriff in 1821, M.P.
for the University of Oxford, was a man of great literary eminence, and his enormous
library was sold after his death, in 1833, ^^^ more than ^50,000. Emily, his niece,
and eventual heir, was the daughter of Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, equally
eminent with his brother in literature. She married, in 1839, Algernon C. Heber
Percy, son of Hon. Hugh Percy, Bishop of Carlisle, and on the accession of his
cousin, the 2nd Earl of Beverley, in 1865, to the Dukedom of Northumberland,
succeeded to the Ayrmine estates of the Percys.
The present house was built on a new site in 1870. The low-lying and incon-
venient Tudor house of the Vernons was at the same time pulled down. The
pigeon house (1650) and the barn (16 10), however, remain. The more ancient
castle of the Hodnets and the Ludlows is represented by a mound and a ditch. There
was once a park here. There are portraits of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
Oueen Elizabeth's favourite, and of Elizabeth, Countess of Southampton, both by
Zucchero; of John Veron, died 1592, of Sir Robert, died 1623 ; of Sir Henry, died
1676. There are also portraits of Hebers, Athertons and Percys.
20
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BROGYNTYN.
LORD HARLECH.
PENNANT ["Tour in Wales," 1784] says, "The place takes its name from a
singular intrenchment in a neighbouring field called Castell Brogyntyn. The
name of the house was soon altered, for, in 1218, it was called Porkington." The
older name has been lately revived.
The family of Lacon were the owners in the sixteenth century. Margaret,
daughter and heiress of John Wynne Lacon, married in the reign of Elizabeth, Sir
William Maurice, of Cleneuny, and his granddaughter Ellen, who died in 1626, carried
the estate to John Owen, a younger son of the Owens of Bodsilin, in Anglesey, who
was secretary to Walsingham, and father of two notable cavaliers. Sir John, the
eldest, was vice-admiral of N. Wales, Governor of Conway, wounded at the storming
of Bristol, condemned to death by the parliament in 1648, together with the Duke of
Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, Lords Goring and Capel, but afterwards pardoned.
There is a rapier at Brogyntyn with these words inscribed, " Ld. Capel the day before
his execution presented this sword to Sir John Owen, by whom, he said he was
convinced it would be worn with honour." William, the brother of Sir John, was
governor of Harlech Castle, the last stronghold in N. Wales which surrendered to the
Parliament.
The family of Owen were more associated with the counties of Merioneth and
Carnarvon, for which they often served as sheriffs and knights of the shire, than with
Shropshire. On the death, in 1792, of Robert Godolphin Owen, his sister, Margaret,
the wife of Owen Ormsby, of Willowbrook, co. Sligo, succeeded. Her daughter and
heiress, Mary Jane Ormsby, married, in 18 15, William Gore, of Woodford, co.
Leitrim, who was M.P. for N. Shropshire 1835-57. His son, Ralph, M.P. for
N. Shropshire 1858-76, was raised to the peerage as Baron Harlech.
" The family mansion, it appears, from having been erected at three different
periods, formerly presented curious specimens of each ; this diversity, however, was
entirely removed by the heiress of Owen Ormsby, who caused its beautiful uniformity,
and had the strudure ereded upon the chaste and pure Grecian style." [Calvert's
** Piduresque Views of Shropshire, 1831."]
The sketch hardly does justice to the house, because the fine cedar entirely hides
the handsome Georgian portico. Large additions were made about 1870. The
grounds and shrubberies are extensive, and command distant views of the plain of
Shropshire and the hills of Wales. There is much ornamental timber in the park.
Among the portraits is one of Sir John Owen, and one of Mrs. Siddons, by Lawrence.
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WHITTINGTON CASTLE.
COL. F. LLOYD.
A GATEWAY and a detached tower on the roadside in the village of Whittington,
are all that remain of the castle, which lies low and is surrounded with water.
In Blakeway's MSS. in the Bodleian is a description of the place as it was in 1545,
but even then it had ceased to be the residence of its owners. From that account
there appears to have been a gallery running from the two gatehouse towers, with
walls of stone covered with shingle, with windows opening on to the moat, 6§ ft. x 5 ft.,
thus uniting the entrance with the second tower, at the back of which was the "old "
hall, 45 ft. X 28 ft., with buttery and pantry. Adjoining the old hall was another
round tower, and a " faire chappie," 34 ft. x 24 ft. ; then came another hall of timber,
40 ft. X 36 ft., at the upper end of which was a chamber 26 ft. x 14 ft., then a
fourth round tower, from which ran a gallery, 66 ft. x 6 ft., to the gate house towers.
The inclosed court was 160 ft. x 140 ft. The kitchen of timber was 30 ft. x 25 ft.
Outside the inclosure was another gate house and two small stables.
The Norman Earl Roger w^as the Domesday owner. The rebellion of Robert de
Belesme, his son, brought it into the king's hand, and William Peveril, of Dover, was
the grantee of the Crown, his nephew William was owner in 1 138. Another forfeiture
for rebellion brought it again into the king's hands, and Stephen granted it to Geoffrey
de Vere about 1164. Again, however, the king resumed possession, and Roger de
Powys had livery of the castle in 1171. His family attached to, and favoured by
Henry II., were the owners of three generations. But in the meantime the Fitzwarrens
of-Alderbury were laying claim to the estate as feoffees of the Peverels, and in
1 204, Fulk Fitzwarren the third, established his title, not without a heavy fine, for
reinstalment. This Fulk was with the rebellious barons at Brackley, in 121 5, was
excommunicated by Innocent III,, and in 1245 was deputed by the barons at Dunstable,
to give notice to Martin, the Pope's nuncio, to quit the kingdom. He founded
Alberbury Priory about 1220. Fulk the fourth, conveyed Alberbury to his brother
Fulk Glas ; and was drowned at the battle of Lewes in 1264, Fulk the fifth, joined
in the famous letter of the barons to Pope Boniface VIII. in 1301, and obtained the
privileges of market and free warren at Whittington in 1282. Fulk the sixth, obtained
a pardon in 131 8 for his adherence to the Earl of Lancaster. For all these details
Eyton's "Antiquities of Shropshire " are the authority.
A century later, in 1420, Fulk the ninth, or the eleventh, the last of the name,
died without issue. Elizabeth, his sister, married Richard Haukford. Thomasine,
their daughter and heiress, married Sir William Bouchier, his descendant, John, Earl
of Bath, exchanged the manor with Henry VIII. Edward VI. granted it to Henry
Grey, Duke of Suffolk, Queen Mary granted it to Henry Fitalan, Earl of Arundel,
who sold it to William Albany, merchant tailor of London, whose son, Francis, was
Sheriff in 1595, and whose great granddaughter carried it to her husband, Thomas
Lloyd, of Aston, in the seventeenth century, and in his descendants the estate remains.
The*'Gestes Fitzwarin," in Norman French, of the fourteenth century, translated
and edited by Mr. Wright, is a mediaeval romance which describes, in unauthentic
fashion, the doings of the Fitzwarrens.
22
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LLANFORDA.
SIR WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN, BART.
EARLY in the sixteenth century branches of the family of Lloyd lived at
Llanfordaand Llwynymaen, and a third branch afterwards settled at Trenewydd.
They are now all extindt. Edward Lloyd, of Llanforda, a captain in the King's army,
sold his estate in 1675 to his "cosen," William Williams, whom he describes in a
curious volume of MSS. letters, now at Sweeney Hall, as "the Leviathan of our lawes
and lands." He left an illegitimate son, Edward, a most distinguished antiquary and
philologist. It is remarkable that another Edward Lloyd, of Trenewydd, who died in
17 1 5, should have followed the same pursuits, and colle6led MSS. for the history of
Shropshire.
William Williams, who thus became owner of Llanforda, was born in 1634.
His father was Revd. Hugh Williams, D.D., a younger son of William Williams, of
Chawaen Isar, Anglesey, and his mother was Emma, daughter and heiress of John
Dolben, and niece of Bishop Dolben. He married in 1664 Margaret, daughter and
heiress of Watkin Kyffin, of Glascoed. In 1667 he was recorder of Chester ; in 1675
M.P. for Chester; in 1679 and 1680 he was Speaker of the House of Commons. At
first he adhered to the country party and opposed to the court party, and was fined
j^iOjOOO for fixing his name as Speaker to a resolution of the House, a judgment
which was afterwards declared illegal. After the accession of James II. he seems
to have changed sides, for in 1687 ^^ ^^^ Solicitor-General, and in that capacity
prosecuted the seven bishops, and in 1688 he was created a baronet. He was M.P. for
Beaumaris and also for Carnarvon : he died very rich in 1 700, and is buried at Llansilin,
where his epitaph is to be seen.
His son. Sir William, was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1704; and his son, the first Sir
Watkin Williams Wynn, acquired through his wife the great Vaughan estates of
Llwydiarth and Llangedwyn, and through his mother, the daughter of Edward
Thelwall, of Plas-y-ward, the estates of Wynnstay.
In 1780 his son, the second Sir Watkin, commenced building a very large house
at Llanforda, which was burnt down before it was completed. He was M.P. for
Shropshire in 1770.
In 18 13 the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry W. W. Wynn, K.C.B., a younger brother
of the 3rd Sir Watkin, who was for twenty-six years minister at Copenhagen,
reconstructed the house as it now appears, and lived there when not engaged in
diplomatic duties.
The situation commands very extensive views of the plain of Shropshire, and there
is plenty of timber. The stables, which are all that escaped the fire of 1780, are an
example of excellent brickwork. Nothing is left of the habitation of the Lloyds.
23 N
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ASTON HALL.
COL. F. LLOYD.
THE family of Lloyd, of old Welsh descent, first appears in Shropshire towards the
close of the Elizabethan period. In the visitation of Shropshire (1623) Thomas
Lloyd, 4th son of Robert Lloyd, is notified as of Owston (Aston), and the chapel
here was built, in 1594, by Richard Lloyd. Col. Andrew Lloyd, of Aston, took a
prominent part on the Parliamentary side in the civil wars. In 1640 he was an
unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the county, and petitioned against the
return of Humphrey Edwards. In 1644, as one of the Parliamentary Committee for
the county, he was a signatory to the order for the capture of Shrewsbury. In 1656
he was M.P. His son Thomas married the daughter and heiress of Francis Albany,
of Whittington Castle. In 1705 and again in 17 10 Robert, his grandson, was M.P.
for the county, and his great grandson, another Robert, represented the county in the
Parliament of 1721, both in the Tory interest. By the second Robert, the famous
Dr. Sacheverel was presented to the recflory of Selattyn in 17 13. On his death without
issue in 1734 the estates became vested in Elizabeth, granddaughter of Col. Andrew
Lloyd, who married Fulke Lloyd, of Foxhall, co. Denbigh. From 1754 to 1803 the
owners of Aston were clergymen. The Revd. John Robert Lloyd was Re6lor of
Whittington and Selattyn, as well as owner of family estates. He was Mayor of
Oswestry in 1795. He received the gold medal of the Society for the Encouragement
of Arts, for planting 60,000 oak trees. He kept a pack of harriers, and he built the
present house in 1800. His son William was Sheriff in 18 10, contested the county
in the Whig interest in 1831 unsuccessfully. He also kept a pack of harriers. He
married the daughter and heiress of Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, G.C.B., of Rolls
Court, Essex, His son, Richard T. Lloyd, was Sheriff in 1874, and Colonel of the
Shropshire Yeomanry.
There is here a good succession of family portraits, among them Humphrey
Lwyd, the celebrated antiquary, M.P. for Denbigh; Sir Nathaniel Lloyd, Master of
Trinity Hall, died 1704; Robert Lloyd, M.P., died 1709; Robert Lloyd, his son,
M.P., died 1734; Hervey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood; Lady
Louisa Hervey, by Lawrence, and many others unnamed. There are also some good
cabinet pictures, including a Claude.
The extensive demesne is covered with large timber, and the piece of water in
front of the house is a resort of wild fowl. The chapel, built in 1594^ was rebuilt in
1742, by Thomas Lloyd, and renovated, in 1887, by Col. R. T. Lloyd in memory of
Lady Frances, his wife, the daughter of the Earl of Kinnoul.
24
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PARK HALL.
MRS. WYNNE CORRIE.
IN 1563, Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, sold to Thomas Powell, of Whittington,
the land on which the present house was shortly afterwards built. His grandson
or great grandson was Sheriff in 1647, and adhered to the Parliament in the Civil
Wars. The next in succession was the Rev. Dr. Powell, described as '* Esquire," who
was Rector of Whittington, Canon and Chancellor of St. Asaph, Rector of Hodnett,
Archdeacon of Salop, and King's Chaplain. His son Thomas, Mayor of Oswestry,
1690, Recorder 1698, Sheriff 17 17, sold Park in the latter year to Sir Francis
Charlton, Bart., of Ludford. Sir Francis was the eldest son of Sir Job Charlton,
Speaker in 1673 ; he was M.P. for Ludlow in 1678, Sheriff in 1699, and dying in
1729, was succeeded at Park by his eldest son by his second marriage, Job, who died
without issue in 1761, when the estate vested in his sister Emma, who married for
her third husband, John Kinchant. The father of Kinchant was of French Huguenot
descent, and was killed at Fontenoy in 1745. John Charlton Kinchant was Sheriff
in 1775, and died in 1832. His nephew and heir was killed at Waterloo, and the
estate subsequently passed to a cousin, Richard Henry Kinchant, Sheriff 1846, after
whose death it was sold, about 1870, to the present owner, Mrs. Wynne Corrie,
by the mortgagees.
The "Black and White" facade is artistically designed. A small domestic
chapel occupies one wing ; a long low hall fills the centre, in which is an oak table of
a single plank, 4 ft. X2i ft. Quaint Latin mottoes, after the sentimental form of
Tudor decoration, are engraved above the doors. Such as
" Quod tibi fieri non vis
Alteri non feceris."
" Murus aheneus
Sana conscientia."
There is a handsome oak staircase, a panelled gallery, and some plaster work of
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on the ceiling of the drawing room. There was
formerly here a gatehouse, mentioned by Evelyn in his '* Forest Trees," as an example
of a beam of extraordinary size, which supported the upper storey, and upon which
was carved the following verses :
" En ego, que firmis steteram radicibus olim
Silvarum dominus fertilitate mea,
Idlibus heu crebris cecidi pulcherrima quercus,
Incumbo saxis pondere pressa domus —
Sexaginta pedes fuerant in stipite nostro
Excepta coma, que speciosa fuit.
25 O
Non facics Formosa potest produccrc vitam,
Non genus egrcgium cum fcra fata vocant : —
Quarc nc rebus nimium tu fide secundis
Felix quiquis agis : tempore cunfta ruunt."
A raised terrace formerly ran at right angles to the side of the house, and on it
was a sundial, with the following verses :
" Practerlt stas
Ncc remorantc
Lapsa rccedunt
Sascula cursu
Ut fugit astas
Utquc citatus
Turbinis instar
Volvitur annus
Sic quoque nostra
Precipitanter
Vita reccdit
Ocyor undis."
Great additions have been made of late to the garden side of the house, but the
entrance front has not been altered.
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HALSTON.
MISS WRIGHT.
ALSTON, originally a foundation of the Knights Templars, suppressed by
Henry VIII., was sold to Alan Horde, who in the reign of Elizabeth sold it
again to Edward Mytton.
The Myttons are said to have come from Wiltshire, according to the Visitation
of 1623, but Blakeway suggests that they may have come from Mitton in the parish
of Fitz. However that may be, Reginald Mytton was settled in Shrewsbury in 141 3,
and was able to lend a considerable sum of money to Richard II, The fortunes of
the family were rapidly increased by marrying heiresses in three successive generations.
Reginald married Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Hamo Vaughan, and assumed his
coat of arms, the " Spread Eagle." Thomas, his son, married Cicely, daughter and
heiress of William Burley, who represented the Shrewsbury families of Pride and Tour.
Thomas, his son, married Elinor, one of the daughters and coheiresses of the wealthy
Sir John Burgh of Wattlesborough, and obtained through her Habburley, and the
lordship of Dinas-mawddwy. He was Sheriff in 1483, and arrested the Duke of
Buckingham, who was executed by Richard III. In 1472 he was M.P. for Shrewsbury,
and was ten times BaihfF. In 149 1 — 1504, William Mytton was M.P. for the
borough. Richard Mytton was M.P. for Shropshire in 1553, and was Sheriff in
1544. He died in 1591. "Gentle Maister Mytton, an alderman of Salop, 6 times
bailiff of the towne, was solemnly buried, being about 100 years old." [Taylor MSS.]
His widow, a devout woman, died in 1602, aged 90. Sir Adam Mytton, an uncle
of the last-named Richard, was Sheriff of Shropshire, 1554, was seven times Bailiff,
and four times M.P. for Shrewsbury, and was a member of the Court of the Marches.
It was Edward Mytton, son of "Gentle Maister Mytton," who bought Halston; his
grandson, Richard, was Sheriff in 1610; and to him succeeded the famous Parlia-
mentary officer, Thomas Mytton, Major-General in North Wales, Sheriff 1645, M.P.
for Shropshire, 1654, Richard, his son, was Sheriff in 1686, and M.P. for Shrews-
bury in 1690. Another Richard was M.P. for Shrewsbury, 1698- 1708. William
Mytton, the antiquary, was a younger son of this house, and was buried at Habburley
in 1 74 1. John Mytton, of sporting celebrity, whose extravagancies are recorded by
"Nimrod," was M.P. for Shrewsbury in 1820, Sheriff in 1823, contested the county
in the Whig interest in 1831, unsuccessfully, and died a prisoner for debt in the
King's Bench in 1834, under the age of forty. His son, John Fox Mytton, equally
extravagant as his father, sold the estate in 1847 ^^ ^^- Edmund Wright of
Mauldeth Hall, county Lancaster, whose son, Edmund, was Sheriff in 1858.
The older house stood near the " Black and White " Chapel in the meadows
beyond the sheet of water through which flows the Perry. The present house was
built in 1690 ; the circular arcade was arranged about 1850 in the place of the offices,
which flanked the main building on either side. There is here a heronry. The timber
is large, especially the beech trees. Among the cabinet piAures are some from the
colledion of King Louis Phillipe.
26
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HARDWICKE.
REV. W. C. E. KYNASTON.
THE Kynastons came of Welsh descent, but were settled in Shropshire in 13 13,
and were first designated as of Stocks in the parish of EUesmere. Since that
time branches of the family have spread themselves over the western and northern
parts of the county, at Hordley, Oteley, Pontesbury, Walford, Morton, Melverley,
Ruyton, Shotton, Haughmond, and other places, which accrued to them through
heiresses, and in many cases passed away in like manner.
Madoc Kynaston was killed at Battlefield, fighting on the side of the Percys, in
1403. Roger Kynaston slew the Lancastrian general. Lord Audley, at Bloreheath in
1458, and received an augmentation to his coat of arms. He was sheriff in 1462,
Constable of Harlech Castle, and life sheriff of Merioneth. Sir Thomas Kynaston of
Hordley was Sheriff in 1508. In the reign of Henry VIIL flourished Humphrey
Kynaston, called '^ The Wild," a sort of highwayman who escaped hanging. He first
lived at Middle Castle, of which he was Constable, and afterwards took refuge in
" Kynaston's Cave," on Nesscliff Hill, where he died. In 1599, Edward Kynaston,
of Oteley, was Sheriff of Shropshire, and in 1623, of Montgomeryshire. Two Roger
Kynastons were Sheriffs of Shropshire in succession in 1603 and 1640, and the latter
was fined ^^921 by the parliamentary sequestrators. In 1682, Edward, and in 1690,
John Kynaston, were Sheriffs.
Towards the close of the seventeenth century up to the early years of the nine-
teenth, this family was most intimately associated with the political representation of
the county. In the earlier parliaments two only had sat, Francis, in 1554, and Sir
Francis in 1620. But from 1678 to 1822, a period of 144 years, members of the
family were in the House of Commons — viz., seventy-four years for Shropshire, forty-
four years for Shrewsbury, and twenty-seven years Montgomeryshire.
Edward Kynaston, of Hordley, who was M.P. for Shrewsbury in 1678, and
afterwards for the county, married Amy, daughter and heiress of Thomas Barker, of
Haughmond Abbey ; his son John further augmented his estates by marrying the
daughter and heiress of Sir Vincent Corbet, Bart., of Moreton Corbet. The son of
this marriage, Corbet Kynaston, M.P., was crippled by speculation in the *' South Sea
Bubble," and sold Moreton to his cousin, Mr. Corbet, of Shawbury Park, and left
Haughmond to his kinsman, Mr. Corbet, of Leigh. His half brother, Edward, how-
ever, succeeded to the older Kynaston estates of Hordley and Hardwich, and was
M.P. for Montgomeryshire 1747-74. He married the daughter and heiress of Sir
Charles Lloyd, Bart., of Garth ; and his son married the sister and heiress of John
Powell, of Worthen, represented Shropshire from 1784 to 1822, and was created a
baronet.
27 P
In 1 73 1, and again in 1800, the Kynastons unsuccessfully preferred a claim to
the dormant barony of Grey de Powis.
The baronetcy became extind on the death, in i 866, of Sir John Roger Kynaston,
the nephew of the first baronet, and the estate passed, on the death of Mrs. Sutton, his
sister, in the following year, to his maternal kinsman Rev. W. C. E. Owen, who took
the name of Kynaston.
The house was built in 1733 by John Kynaston, on a new site, in the usual style
of the period, the offices flanking the main building. The older residence of Hordley,
about three miles distant, is now occupied by two modern farm houses.
There are here two portraits by Allan Ramsay, and two by Sir Joshua. There
is some good ornamental timber, especially beech trees and larch, and there are some
specimen conifers in the shrubbery.
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OTELEY.
C. FRANCIS KYNASTON MAINWARING, ESQ.
OTELEY was once the residence of a family of the same name, of whom the
Ottleys, of Pitchford, were a branch. Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of
William Oteley, married Humphrey Kynaston, of Stocks, in the parish of Ellesmere,
in the reign of Henry VIII. Sir Edward Kynaston, of Oteley, was Sheriff in 1599,
and his son, a distinguished scholar, Sir Francis, was esquire of the body to Charles I.
On the death, in 178 i, of Edward Kynaston, the estate passed to his sister Mary, the
wife of James Mainwaring, of Bromborough, co. Chester, one of the barons of the
exchequer. His grandson, Rev. Charles Mainwaring, eventually succeeded, and died
in 1807, whose son, Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, was Sheriff in 1829, ^^^ ^^^ so^"'>
Salusbury Kynaston Mainwaring, in 1870.
The Mainwarings are a branch of the families of Peover and Ightfield, both
extind in the male line, and of the family of Whitmore, which claims to be the senior
branch.
The Park at Oteley, which is one of the old parks of Shropshire, was the scene
of the execution of some prisoners by Prince Rupert, in retaliation for the execution
of Irish Roman Catholic prisoners by the parliamentary party. The vidlims were
seleded by lot, and after this reprisal no more Irishmen were executed by the parlia-
ment.
An older house stood somewhat nearer the mere, and was pulled down about
1840 by Charles Kynaston Mainwaring when he built the present mansion in the
Tudor Gothic style, and laid out the gardens and terraces.
28
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SHAVINGTON.
HENRY H. HEYWOOD-LONSDALE, ESQ.
THE first recorded owner of this estate was Dodo, who was succeeded by the
Domesday Nigellus. In the thirteenth century a family called after the place
resided here. In 1461 John Needham purchased Shavington : he was Common
Serjeant of London, M.P. for the City 1450, and afterwards Chief Justice of the
Palatinate of Lancaster and of Chester. About 1506, Sir Robert Needham, Sheriff of
Shropshire 1529, built the house. His son. Sir Robert, Sheriff 1556, was Vice-
President of the Court of the Marches. His son, also Sir Robert, was M.P. for
Shropshire 1592- 1603, and was created Viscount Kilmorey in the peerage of Ireland
in 1625, for services rendered in that country. During the seventeenth century the
annals of Shavington are a record of an hereditary feud between the Needhams and the
Corbets of Adderley. Reginald Corbet, a judge of the Queen's Bench in the reign of
Elizabeth, became the owner of Adderley through his wife, the daughter and heiress
of John Gratewood. Shavington was held of the manor of Adderley. Hence all
sorts of questions as to feudal superiorities and rents. The two properties adjoined,
hence all sorts of questions as to rights of way. The Church of Adderley, of which
the Corbets were patrons, was the parish church of Shavington, hence quarrels as to
seats. The disputants often appealed to the courts of law, and as often took the law
into their own hands. The quarrel culminated in the time of the first viscount. Sir
John Corbet had given great offence by saying " that an English baronet was as good
as an Irish viscount;" and occupying, together with the re<5lor, the whole of the
chancel of the church, objeded to Lord Kilmorey building a chapel for his own use,
preferring that he should sit with the rest of the congregation in the nave. At length
the Lady Kilmorey died, and was buried in the chancel. Not long after died Darby
Maghkillary, an Irish footboy of the Corbets, and he was buried, by order of Sir John
Corbet, without a coffin, in a shroud, on the top of Lady Kilmorey. An appeal was
made to the Court of the Earl Marshall, of which the Earl of Arundel was the
hereditary president, and Corbet was required to dig up the body of his servant and
bury him elsewhere. In 1637 Archbishop Laud sandlioned the addition of a Kilmorey
chapel to Adderley Church, and in 1641 Lady Corbet sent "four serving men of
meane condition to occupy the seats in the chapel ; and there was a fight and blood-
shed in the church." The Civil War closed for a time the prosecution of these disputes.
Lord Kilmorey took the side of the King, Sir John Corbet of the Parliament. Capt.
John Needham was killed at the taking of Shrewsbury, and the sequestrators put a
fine of ^^3,560 on Lord Kilmorey 's estate. After the restoration a minority occurred,
and the fortunes of the family were repaired, so that in 1679 Thomas, 6th Viscount
Kilmorey, reconstruded the house on a magnificent scale. Robert, the nth Viscount,
succeeded his relative William in the great Irish estates of Newry and Morrie towards
the end of the eighteenth century; and his son Francis was made, in 1822, Earl of
29 Q
Kilmorey and Viscount Newry. The 2nd earl, a singular charader, left Shavington
in 1839 and never revisited the place, and dying in 1880, was succeeded by his grand-
son Viscount Newry, Colonel of the Shropshire Yeomanry, who sold the estate to
Arthur Pemberton Hey wood Lonsdale, in 1885.
The Tudor house was built in two courtyards, some panelling of the "linen pattern"
is all that remains of it. The house of 1679 was in the E shape. The entrance was
towards the park, and a great hall occupied the space between the wings up to the
roof, and a gallery with pillars and arches ran along the whole length. This remark-
able interior was re-arranged in 1822, when bedrooms were constructed over the hall,
access to which was obtained through the gallery, and the entrance was removed to the
opposite side, the original hall being converted into the dining room. A further
diminution of the dining room was made by Mr. Lonsdale in 1885.
The house is of red brick with stone coigns, the scale of the building and the
extent of the park, which is seven miles round, give a certain sombre dignity to the
place.
There are here a number of ancient deeds in good preservation. Mr. Arthur P.
Heywood Lonsdale was Sheriff of Shropshire, and for some years was master of the
Shropshire hounds.
He greatly improved the house and the grounds, and added largely to the
estate.
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BUNTINGSDALE.
JOHN TAYLEUR, ESQ.
AS early as the thirteenth century a family of the name of Taylor was associated
with Rodington, In 1516 William Tayleur of Longden upon Terne is
mentioned. His great great grandson William, of Rodington, was Sheriff in 1 69 1. His
son William, Sheriff in 1733, purchased Buntingsdale from the family of Mack worth.
Another William, Sheriff in 1744, took an adlive part with his brother-in-law. Sir
Rowland Hill, in establishing the Salop Infirmary. In 1797, William Tayleur, of
Buntingsdale, was Sheriff, as was his grandson in 1827. William Tayleur, the son of
the last mentioned, was M.P. for Bridgewater in 1833, and dying unmarried in 1873,
was succeeded by his nephew, John Tayleur.
In the sixteenth century Buntingsdale belonged to one of the branches of the Hill
family, and passed by the marriage of Beatrix, daughter and heiress of William Hill,
to William Bulkeley, of Wore, before 1600. It again passed, by the marriage of the
daughter and heiress of William Bulkeley with Thomas Mackworth, Sheriff in 1669,
into the family of Mackworth, of Betton Strange. After the death, in 1730, of
Bulkeley-Mackworth, Sheriff in 17 14, the estate was sold by Sir Humphrey Mack-
worth or his nephew. Sir Herbert, to William Tayleur, whose mother was a daughter
of Thomas Mackworth by his second marriage with a daughter of Gen. Mytton, the
Parliamentary leader in these parts.
The house was rebuilt by the Mackworths about 1730. "Smyth of Warwick "
was the architedt. The initials H.I.M. on a piece of carving are probably those of
Herbert and Juliana Mackworth. The date stone, somewhat obliterated, appears to
be 173 I. It is a good example of the Queen Anne style. A large addition was made
in i860 by William Tayleur from designs of Pountney Smith of Shrewsbury.
The windings of the Tern through a wooded glade, with the ridge of Hawke-
stone in the distance, are seen to great advantage from the terraced garden.
30
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WOODCOTE.
COL. JAMES COTES.
THE family of Cotes are of old descent in Staffordshire, and take their name from
the hamlet of Cotes, which is still in their possession. Humphrey Cotes is
mentioned as of Woodcote, in Shropshire, about 1450. His son, John, was Sheriff
of Staffordshire, 2S Henry VI. ; and his grandson, Humphrey, was killed at Bosworth
field. In 15 13, John Cotes, of Woodcote, was a captain in the army which went into
France, and his great-grandson was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1614. Fifth in descent
from him was John Cotes, an eminent agriculturist, who was M.P. for Wigan from
1784 to 1806, and for Shropshire from 1806 to 1821. His son, John, who repre-
sented north Shropshire in the Whig interest in 183 2- 1834, married Lady Louisa
Jenkinson, a daughter and co-heir of the third Earl of Liverpool, through whom the
Pitchford property came into the family. His son, Charles Cecil Cotes, was M.P.
for Shrewsbury, i 879-1 885, and was a junior Lord of the Treasury. On his death,
unmarried, in 1898, he was succeeded by his brother. Col. James Cotes, of Pitchford.
A Georgian house with a portico, which stood on the site of an older Tudor
house, was burnt down in 1875, when the present mansion was built from designs by
Cockerell.
There is a fine bit of woodland scenery, rich with rhododendrons, not far from
the house.
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WESTON.
EARL OF BRADFORD.
WESTON gave its name to the De Westons, its earliest recorded owners. By
heirship or purchase, the Peshales succeeded them, of whom one was Sheriff
of Shropshire and Staffordshire in 1333, and another in 1379. ^Y Margaret, daughter
and heiress of Sir Adam de Peshale, M.P. for Shropshire in 1403, the estate was
carried to her husband, Sir Richard Mytton, of Shrewsbury, about 1410. William
Mytton was Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1443, and M.P. for the same county in 1446.
His son, John, was Sheriff in 1495, and his grandson in 1507. Joyce, daughter
and heiress of John Mytton, married John Harpesfield^ and their son assumed the
name of Mytton about 1 540. Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Edward Mytton [of
the Elarpesfield family], married, in 165 1, Sir Thomas Wilbraham, of Woodhey, co.
Chester, and his daughter and co-heir married Richard Newport, second Earl of Brad-
ford, in 168 I. Lady Anne Newport, eventual heir to her brother Thomas, fourth
Earl of Bradford, married Sir Orlando Bridgeman, whose son. Sir Henry Bridgeman,
succeeded his maternal uncle at Weston in 1762.
The family of Bridgeman became conne6led with Shropshire in the seventeenth
century by marriage with the heiress of Kynaston, of Moreton. Since that time, by
purchase, and by marriage with the heiresses of Blodwel and of Weston, they have
largely increased their estates in this county. The family originally came from Devon-
shire. Edward Bridgeman was Sheriff of that county in 1578. His grandson was
Bishop of Chester, and acquired the estate of Great Lever, in Cheshire. He was
removed from his see by the Parliament, and dying at his son's house of Moreton,
was buried in Kinnerley Church in 1652. The younger son of the bishop was Bishop
of Sodor and Man, the elder, Orlando, succeeded Clarendon as Lord Keeper of the
Great Seal in Charles II. 's reign. He is said to have refused a peerage, and accepted
only a baronetcy for himself, but he procured a second baronetcy for his son by his
second wife, which is now extindl. His eldest son purchased Castle Bromwich in
1657, and was included in the list of Warwickshire " Knights of the Oak." He
married the daughter and heiress of George Cradoch, of Cavershall Castle. The third
baronet added still further to his Shropshire estates by marrying Ursula, daughter and
heiress of Roger Mathews, of Blodwell Hall, in 1694. His son, Sir Orlando, M.P.
for Shrewsbury, 1 721- 1727, married Lady Anne Newport, the eventual heiress of
Weston. Sir Henry, the fifth baronet, M.P. for Ludlow and Wenlock, 1748 to
1794, was raised to the peerage as Baron Bradford in 1794. He married Elizabeth,
daughter and heiress of Rev. John Simpson, of Stoke. His son, who had been
M.P. for Wigan, 1 784-1 800, was raised to the rank of Earl and Viscount in 18 15.
The third Earl of Bradford of the new creation was M.P. for South Shropshire,
1 842-1 865, and filled the office of Lord Chamberlain and Master of the Horse; he
32
was also Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire. In 1898 he was succeeded by the present
earl, who was M.P. for North Shropshire 1867- 188 5.
Weston House is in Staffordshire, though a portion of the park is in Shropshire.
Its earlier owners were associated with the former county, its more recent owners, the
Newports and the Bridgemans, with the latter.
Although the mansion itself represents no particular style of architefture, yet its
scale, with the church and surrounding outbuildings, give it a certain dignity of
appearance which is greatly enhanced by the beauty of the park, the timber, the water,
and the gardens.
There are here some good pidtures, a number of family portraits, a library, some
historical manuscripts, and some fine tapestry.
The Wilbrahams built a new house in 1671, but since that time many recon-
strudions have taken place.
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PEPPER HILL.
EARL OF DARTMOUTH.
THE famous house of Talbot have no longer any proprietary interest in Shrop-
shire. But the title of the great Earl, the monument to him at Whitchurch,
and this remnant of a residence at Pepper Hill, with its quaint canopied fountain, are
links which conned the name with the county.
Leland, writing in the time of Henry VIII., says in his ''Itinerary" : " Sir John
Talbot his house standeth in the Parke called Pepper hill," — " Sir John Talbot, that
married Troutbek's heire, dwelleth in a goodly logge on by the hy toppe of Albrighton
Parke. It is on the very egge [edge] of Shropshire, three miles from Tunge."
It would be impossible even to catalogue the great preferments in the Church
and the State which have been held by the Talbots. The early pedigrees are confused,
like those of most ancient families, until the appearance on the scene of John Talbot,
created Earl of Salop in 1442. It is to be noted that his title is taken from the
county, and not from the county town in the patent of creation. This distinguished
soldier inherited through Ankoret, daughter and heiress of Lord Strange of Blackmere,
his great grandmother, the Barony and Castle of Blackmere, close to Whitchurch, of
which not a stone remains. He became Baron Furnival in right of his wife, Maude
Neville, daughter and co-heiress of Lord Furnival in Yorkshire. He was slain in
France at the age of eighty in 1453. His body after being buried "in a faire tomb
at Roane in Normandie," was removed to the porch of the parish church at Whit-
church, where he desired to be laid, so that Whitchurch men, who had fought with
him in all his battles, might walk over his body. His son was slain at the battle of
Northampton in 1460. On the death of the eighth Earl, in 16 18, Blackmere passed
away from the male line, and the Earldom reverted to the Albrighton branch. On
the death, in 17 18, of the twelfth Earl and first Duke of Shrewsbury, who was buried
at Albrighton, a younger branch again succeeded. On the death of Bertram, seven-
teenth Earl, in 1856, the earldom yet again passed to a younger branch, which had
already been ennobled.
The public offices held in Shropshire by members of this family are the following.
Christopher Talbot, M.P., 1442, Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sheriff 1485, Sir John Talbot,
Sheriff in 1528, the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant in Queen Anne's reign.
Pepper Hill has lately passed by exchange from the Earl of Shrewsbury to the
Earl of Dartmouth, and the last territorial association of the Talbots with Shropshire
has been extinguished.
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APLEY PARK.
W. H. FOSTER, ESQ.
THIS fine place, the rival of Hawkestone in the pi<5luresque beauty of the park, on
one side of which rises a red sandstone ridge, called the Terrace, and on the
other flows the river Severn, was the seat of the Whitmores for 250 years. Towards
the close of the reign of Elizabeth, Sir William Whitmore, a citizen of London, bought
Apley from the Lucys, and built a house here. A coat of arms was granted to him in
1594, and in the Herald's visitation of 1623 the family is derived from Thomas
Whitmore, of Madeley, co. Stafford. Sir William was sheriff in 1620, and M.P. for
Bridgnorth, 1620- 1625. His brother, Sir George, was Lord Mayor of London in
1 63 1. His son, Thomas, was created a baronet in 1641, but the title expired on the
death of the second baronet in 1699.
Apley was garrisoned for the king in the Civil Wars, and its owner was fined
j^5,ooo, by the sequestrators. At the restoration. Sir Thomas Whitmore became M.P.
for the county. The Borough of Bridgnorth has always been regarded as a ** pocket
borough " under the influence of the Apley family. On the death of Sir Thomas, the
2nd baronet, the estate devolved on his kinsman, William Whitmore, of Lower
Slaughton, co. Gloucester, and from him passed to Sir Thomas Whitmore, K.B., who
dying in 1773, was succeeded by his nephew and son-in-law Thomas, who was drowned
in a well in the garden at Apley in 1795. His son, another Thomas, succeeded, was
Sheriff in 1805, M.P. for Bridgnorth, and the builder of the present mansion, in the
castellated style of modern Gothic. His son, Charlton Whitmore, removed to a
smaller house at Stockton, and his grandson, Douglas Whitmore, eventually sold the
whole estate, in 1867, to Mr. W. Orme Foster, M.P. for South Staffordshire.
Mr. Henry Whitmore, for some time a Lord of the Treasury, retired from the repre-
sentation of Bridgnorth in 1869, and Mr. W. H. Foster, the present owner of Apley,
sat in his place till the Borough was disfranchised in 1885.
Mr. W. Orme Foster, the purchaser of Apley, became in 1853 the head of the
great firm of Stourbridge ironmasters known under the name of " John Bradley
and Co.," and he was largely instrumental in the development of the Shropshire and
Staffordshire iron works.
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HATTON GRANGE.
COL. WILLIAM KENYON SLANEY, M.P.
THIS place is prettily situated about four miles from ShifFnal, the Clee hills and the
Wrekin are seen from the windows, and a wooded dingle with pools and sand-
stone rocks, adds a feature of unusual interest to the shrubberies. In former times
Hatton was a grange of Buildwas Abbey.
Robert Slaney, of Rudge and Hatton, was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1707. The
family were landowners in the counties of Warwick and Stafford before they resided
in Shropshire. Sir Stephen Slaney, mentioned in the " Herald's Visitation " of 1623,
was Lord Mayor of London in 1595. Plowden Slaney built the present house in
1 747, and his arms may be seen on the south front. His descendant, Robert Aglionby
Slaney, was M.P. for Shrewsbury in 1826, and represented the borough in eight
parliaments. Dying in 1862, he left three daughters and co-heirs, one of whom,
Frances Catherine, married Col. William Kenyon, grandson of Lord Kenyon (Chief
Justice 1 788- 1 802), and son of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, of Pradoe, for many years
chairman of the Shropshire Quarter Sessions, who held the rich sinecure office of
Filayer and clerk to the outlawries in the Court of Queen's Bench. He was Sheriff in
1 87 1, and assumed the additional name of Slaney in 1862. Col. William Kenyon-
Slaney, M.P. for North Shropshire since 1886, the present owner, is his son.
The house and grounds have been greatly improved and enlarged by him. The
original plaster ornamentation of the interior, which is good, has been preserved.
There are here some excellent cabinet pidlures and many family portraits.
35
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WILLEY.
LORD FORESTER.
THE present mansion was built about 1815 on a site half a mile distant from the
older house, the stables of which are still standing, by Cecil Weld Forester, who
was raised to the peerage in 1821, The architedt was Louis Wyatt. The central
hall or saloon, lighted from above, and extending through the house, is much admired.
The drive from Brosely, about two miles in length, is richly timbered, and the wood-
land scenery of Shirlot Forest, which lies opposite the house, is as fine as any in
Shropshire.
The Foresters inherited Wijley by the marriage, in 1748, of Brooke Forester, of
Dothill, with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of George Weld of Willey. The family are
of ancient origin in this county. In 141 6 Roger Forester was *' keeper of the haia of
Welington." In 1520 John Forester, of Welington, had a license from Henry VIII.
" to use and were his bonet " in the royal presence. A timbered house close to the
Watlingstreet was their residence till Francis Forester, Sheriff in 1652, married Mary,
daughter of the ist Lord Newport and widow of John Steventon, of Dothill, whose
son dying without issue, left that estate to his step-father. Sir William Forrester, K.B.,
of Dothill and Watlingstreet, married Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of the Earl of
Salisbury, and his grandson, Brooke Forester, married, as stated above, Elizabeth
Weld, the heiress of Willey.
Of the earlier owners of this place, it is said, that the daughter and heiress of Sir
Warner de Willey married a Harley, Sheriff in 1301, from whose family it passed to
the Peshales, of whom Adam de Peshale was M.P. for Shropshire, 1401 ; Elizabeth,
daughter and heiress of Hamo de Peshale, married Richard Lacon, M.P. 1414, Sheriff
in 141 5. Of the Lacons, another Richard was Sheriff in 1540, Rowland, Sheriff in
1 57 1, and Sir Francis Lacon, who inherited Kinlet from the Blounts, was Sheriff in
1612, and M.P. for Shropshire in 1614, and sold Willey to Sir John Weld about
1620.
Sir John Weld, nephew of Sir Humphrey, Lord Mayor, was Town Clerk of
London, and Sheriff of Shropshire in 1642. His son was fined ^^757 by the Par-
liamentary sequestrators. His descendant, George Weld, Sheriff in 1746, was the last
heir male of the family. The several famdies who have owned Willey have generally
represented Wenlock. From 1678 the Foresters almost continuously held one of the
seats till the disfranchisement of the borough in 1885. George Forester, who died in
181 1, unmarried, was known as " Squire " Forester, and kept a famous pack of hounds,
with a still more famous huntsman, Tom Moody. He was succeeded by his nephew,
the ist Lord Forester, who married Lady Catherine Manners, a daughter of the Duke
of Rutland, and his son was for many years the master of the Belvoir hounds.
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ALDENHAM.
LORD ACTON.
THE house is so plain on the outside that it looks almost like an institution,
having been badly reconstruded in the nineteenth century. A portion, however,
of the mansion ereded by Sir Edward A6ton in 1691 may be seen on the side opposite
the stables, together with some mullioned windows of an earlier date. There is here
a Roman Catholic chapel, a great library, colledted by the present peer; and there are
some interesting pidlures and family portraits. The avenue is half a mile in length,
and the disparked park is pidluresque.
Edward A6lon, of Aldenham, was Sheriff in 1383, and M.P. for Shropshire in
1378 and 1384. Walter Adlon, eighth in descent from him, according to the Herald's
Visitation, was Sheriff in 1630, and was M.P. for Bridgnorth in 1625, His son,
Edward, was created a baronet in 1643, was M.P. for Bridgnorth in 1640, and was
fined _^2,ooo by the Parliamentary sequestrators. Sir Walter, the 2nd baronet, was
M.P. for Bridgnorth in 1660, and his son again was M.P., and also Sheriff, in 1685.
Sir Whitmore Adton was M.P. in 1727, and Sheriff in 1728, and with his son. Sir
Richard, the elder branch of the family became extin(5l in 1791.
But from the 2nd baronet's second son a race distinguished through a succession
of generations descended, and eventually succeeded to the title and estates.
Edward A(5lon, a banker, the grandson of Sir Walter, died in 1728, having had
two sons ; the younger became commodore-in-chief of the Germanic Imperial navy in
the Adriatic. The elder married Catherine, daughter of Francis Bois de Gray, of
Burgundy. He left, with other issue, two sons, the second of whom, Joseph Edward,
was a general in the Neapolitan service, and married Eleanora, Countess Berg de
Trips, of Dusseldorf, while the eldest, John Francis Edward, born in 1736 (who
eventually became 6th baronet), was for twenty-nine years prime minister and
commander-in-chief of the land and sea forces of the kingdom of Naples.
"It was in 1775, that on the occasion of the ill-condu6led attack of Spain against
Algiers, he was employed to cover the retreat of that unfortunate expedition, and with
his single frigate sunk two, and captured another, of the five Moorish vessels, thus
displaying the native valour of his ancestors on that element which is most congenial
to a British spirit." [Blakeway, " Sheriffs of Shropshire."] He married, by Papal dis-
pensation, his niece, the daughter of his brother above mentioned. He died in i 8 1 1.
At his funeral in Palermo a terrific storm burst over the city, the mourners fled,
leaving the body in the street, until the tempest subsided. The son of the Neapolitan
prime minister. Sir Ferdinand, married Marie Louise Pelline, daughter and heiress of
the Duke de Dalberg. His second son became a cardinal, and died in 1847. Sir
John Dalberg Adon, the eldest, created Lord Adon in 1869, married the Countess
Arco-Valley. He was returned for Bridgnorth in 1865, but was unseated on petition,
and afterwards represented an Irish constituency. He is a scholar of European repu-
tation. Professor of History at Cambridge, and has colleded an immense library at
Aldenham.
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WHITTON COURT.
MISS MILLS.
IN a hilly and inaccessible region, midway between Ludlow and Tenbury, stands this
manor house, lending an air of dignity to a somewhat dreary landscape. Two
dates on the pinnacles of the gables, 1611 and 1635, certify the period when the front
was rebuilt by Robert Charlton. There is, however, much in the inside and rear of
the house of more ancient work. The centre is filled by a hall, the Tudor mullioned
windows of which look into a " Black and White " courtyard. A very massive
panelled screen of black oak, with deep mouldings, separates the hall from the passage
entrance. Over the fireplace is a rough fresco of a hunting scene, with the house and
the park paling. In the room above the hall the ceiling is handsomely decorated in
plaster patterns, and there are some coats of arms in colours, with the Charlton coat
in the centre. There is also some old tapestry. The remains of the gardens sloping
towards the fish ponds can be traced ; the deer park, long since disparked, surrounded
the house in former times.
Robert Charlton, of London, merchant, purchased Whitton about 16 10; he was
a grandson of Robert Charlton, of Tern, descended from the family of Apley Castle.
He married a daughter of Sir Job Harby, also an eminent goldsmith, and was father
of Sir Job Charlton, Knight and Baronet, Speaker of the House of Commons 1673,
Chief Justice of Chester and of the Court of the Marches, Judge of the Common
Pleas. His son. Sir Francis, was M.P. for Ludlow 1679, and Sheriff in 1699. The
baronetcy expired in 1784, when the estate passed to the nephew of Sir Francis fourth
and last baronet, Nicholas Lechmere (son of Edmund Lechmere, M.P,, of Severn
End, and Elizabeth Charlton), who assumed the name of his mother. His son,
Edmund Lechmere Charlton, M.P. for Ludlow 1835, an eccentric character, who was
imprisoned for contempt of the Court of Chancery, sold Whitton Court for _^ 1,900 to
Thomas Botfield, of Hopton Court, whose nephew, Beriah Botfield, M.P. for Ludlow,
sold it in 1857 for ^20,000 to Mr. Samuel Mills, of Darlaston.
In 1884 Miss Mills greatly improved the house and grounds.
38
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HENLEY, LUDLOW.
J. BADDELEY WOOD, ESQ.
THE original house, of which little remains, was doubtless built by Thomas
Powys, Serjeant at law, described as of Henley, or by his father, Thomas
Powys, described as of Ludlow, about 1600. Serjeant Powys married a daughter of
Sir Adam Littleton of Stoke St. Milburgh, Chief Justice of Chester, and was father
of two Judges, Sir Littleton of Henley, Baron of the Exchequer, and Sir Thomas, of
Lilford, Judge of the King's Bench. In 1770, Thomas Powys of Lilford, M.P., for
county Northampton, created Baron Lilford in 1797, sold Henley to Ralph Knight,
fourth son of the eminent Shropshire ironmaster, Thomas Knight of Downton. The
date on the pipes, *' 1772," indicates the period of the Georgian reconstrudion of the
house by the Knights.
In 1873, Thomas Knight sold Henley to Edmund Thomas Wedgewood Wood,
of Brownhills, co. Stafford. Enoch Wood, of Burslem pottery fame, was of this
family, which was nearly conneded by marriage with the Wedgewoods.
Considerable additions have lately been made to the house and gardens. The
terrace, shown in the sketch, has not long been finished ; and a bridge has been thrown
over the Ledewich, which flows through the grounds.
The double avenue of elms, by which the house is approached, is very perfect,
and was planted in the beginning of the nineteenth century. There is here a small,
but very pretty park, with many ancient oaks, and a herd of red and of fallow deer.
A quaint old-fashioned summer house, and an odagonal dovecot of brick, add interest
to the place.
Mrs. Lybbe Powys, in her Diary of 1771, lately published, makes the following
note of a visit to Henley from Court of Hill, where she was staying with her relatives
the Hills.
" Friday morn, a large cavalcade, set forth to see Henley, a seat of their uncle's,
Sir Littleton Powys, two miles from Ludlow. Mr. Powys, of Lilford, has just sold
it, rather to the concern of the family, particularly of the Hills, who were most of them
brought up there. They think it a pity to go out of the name, that has been in
possession such a number of years. It is really a fine old place, badly situated; the
house and furniture of Henley are quite antique. In the gallery are the portraits of
our family (not yet removed) for some generations, down to the present possessor of
Lilford ; among them, that of the famous Lord Keeper, Littleton."
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COURT OF HILL.
CAPT. HILL LOWE.
THE family of Hill or Hull lived here for many generations. Sir Rowland
Hill, first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, and the Hills of Hawkestone
are said to descend from this stock.
The present house was built in 1683, by Andrew Hill, who married Anne,
daughter of Thomas Powys of Henley, near Ludlow, serjeant at law, and sister of Sir
Littleton Powys, Baron of the Exchequer. The Hill and Powys arms are displayed
over the entrance. His grandson, Thomas Hill, M.P. for Leominster, dying in
1776, left two daughters and co-heiresses, Lucy, married to Thomas Humphrey
Lowe, of Bromsgrove, and Anna Maria, married to Theophilus R. Salwey, of Moor
Park. Mrs. Lowe, whose eldest son was Dean of Exeter, was succeeded in 1855 by
her grandson, Arthur Charles Lowe, who assumed the name of Hill.
The panelling, plaster work, oak staircase, oak bedsteads, are of the date of the
house. The dovecot was eredled in 1776. There is a good " Weenix " in the
dining room.
In the ** Diaries of Mrs. Phillip Lybbe Powys," lately edited by Emily J.
Climenson, there is the following description of a visit to Court of Hill in 1771.
" Court of Hill is an ancient building, spacious, not uncomfortably so, situation
particularly fine. The house stands on a steep knoll, which is laid into a paddock,
from three sides of which it is impossible to conceive a prosped more beautiful, except
for water. You look from a vast eminence, down on valleys so sweetly diversified ;
then the country rising mountain above mountain, almost reaching to the clouds ;
Malvern's famed hills just in front; and as you look round, eight counties are at once
in view — Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire; beyond these the Welsh
ones of Brecknock, Radnor, Monmouth, and Montgomery. Behind the house is a
fine grove, bounded by a vast mountain called Clee Hill [Titterstone, the highest of
the Clee Hills, is 1,780 ft.], which produces stone, lime, and coal in great abundance.
This rock or hill is dreadfully steep to ascend, but dismally so to descend, though they
make nothing of it in their coach or on horseback. At the top indeed one is rewarded
for all the frights and trouble in the view around you . . . Their manner of living
as I've heard before, is always in the superb style of ancient hospitality ; only their
winters are spent in London. They have a vast fortune, and only two children, both
girls, one ten, the other five. Their house, Mrs. Hill says, is ever full of company,
as at present. Our present party is sixteen, all relations, but they have nine good spare
chambers . . . The Miss Hills have each a servant ; I've already seen eight maids ;
how many more there be, I know not. The roads here are wonderful to strangers.
Where they are mending, as they call it, you travel over a bed of loose stones, none of
less size than an ocftavo volume ; and where not mended, 'tis like a staircase . . .
They appear unfit for ladies travelling, but they mind them not. So I mounted
* Grey,' Mr. Powys's great horse, luckily a native of Shropshire, and up I went the
tremendous hill before mentioned. The fashion here is to ride double. How terribly
vulger I've thought this ! but what will not fashion render genteel ! As to carriages,
they make nothing of going a dozen miles to dinner, tho' own to being bruised to
death and quite * deshabbillered ' by jolts they receive."
40
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BURWARTON.
VISCOUNT BOYNE.
THE house is large and comfortable, severely plain, and without any special
architedural feature, but the laying out of the grounds and the landscape
gardening of the slopes of the Brown Clee make Burwarton a very fine place.
The hall stands near to the church and village of the same name, midway between
Ludlow and Bridgnorth, about nine miles from each. The ridge of the Clee Hill is
some two miles off, and extends for four miles or more, separating Corvedale from
Burwarton. Some thousand acres of the hill sides have been planted ; and, what is more
rare than judicious planting, the woods have been judiciously thinned. The result
is that the oaks, beech, larch, and firs show themselves to the best advantage. On the
moorland spur of the hill grouse are to be found, and in the fir woods there are black
game.
Amongst the earlier owners of Burwarton were the Hollands; Alice, daughter
and heiress of Francis Holland, married Henry Baugh, of Aldencourte, early in the
seventeenth century; and Harriet, daughter and heiress of Benjamin Baugh, married
Gustavus, 6th Vicountess Boyne, towards the close of the eighteenth. The 7th
viscount married Emma Martha, daughter of Mathew Russell, of Brancepeth, M.P. for
CO. Durham 1828, who eventually succeeded her brother in the Brancepeth estates,
hence the assumption of the name of Russell.
The Hamiltons, Viscounts Boyne, are a branch of the Hamiltons, Dukes of Aber-
corn, and descend from Claude, second son of the Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland,
who was created Lord Paisley in 1587. Sir Frederick Hamilton, his younger son,
served under Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, hence the name of Gustavus generally
borne by his descendants. His son distinguished himself at the battle of the Boyne,
received a grant of land in Ireland, and was raised to the peerage of Ireland as Baron
in 17 1 5 and Viscount in 17 17. An English barony was conferred on the family in
1866.
There are a great number of Hamilton portraits at Burwarton.
41
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KINLET.
MRS. CHILDE.
KINLET HALL was built in 1727 by William Lacon Childe, M.P., from
designs by "Smith of Warwick." The date and letters on the pipes are
"vv.^c. 1729," which represent William Childe and his wife Catherine Pytts, of
Kyre. The arms of Childe impaling Pytts are in the hall. The main block of
building is supported on either side by two courts of offices and stables. An older hall
stood near the church in the present shrubberies. The eighteenth century fashion for
long approaches has been carried out by diverting the main road. One entrance lodge
is a measured mile from the house, the other is three miles.
From Saxon times the successive owners of Kinlet have held an important
position in Shropshire. The manor once formed the appanage of Edith, Queen of
Edward the Confessor. After the Conquest, Bernard Fitz Ospac and his descendants
the Bryans de Brampton, or Brompton, are clearly identified by Eyton, as lords of
Kinlet, through a series of charters. The grant of free warrant was made in 1252.
Half a century later Margaret and Elizabeth, daughters of the last Brian de Brampton,
were left co-heirs. Elizabeth brought Kinlet to her husband, Edward de Cornwall,
grandson of Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, brother to Henry III.
In 1369 Brian de Cornwall was M.P. for the county, and in 1378 Sheriff. Sir John
Cornwall was M.P. in 1420. William Lichfield, who married the daughter and
heiress of Sir John Cornwall, was Sheriff 1428, but dying without issue, Kinlet reverted
to the heir of a sister of Sir John Cornwall, who had married a younger son of Blount,
of Sodington. Sir Humphrey Blount having succeeded to Kinlet, was Sheriff in 1461,
and his son, Sir Thomas, in 1480. Sir George Blount, his grandson, the last heir male
of the Blounts, was M.P. in 1547 and Sheriff in 1564. Rowland Lacon, of Willey,
the son of a sister of Sir George, became heir by will, and was Sheriff in 1571. Thus
the Lacons were seated at Kinlet, of whom Sir Francis was Sheriff in 161 2 and M.P.
in 1 6 14.
His granddaughter and heir, Anne, married, in 1640, Sir William Childe, son of
Childe, of Northwick, co. Worcester, a Master in Chancery, and thus the Childes suc-
ceeded the Lacons as owners of Kinlet. Thomas, Sir William Childe's second son,
lived at the Birch, a house on the estate, and was Sheriff in 1705. Sir Lacon Childe,
the elder brother, who, like his father, was a master in Chancery, founded Cleobury
Mortimer school in 17 14, and died without issue. In 1727 his nephew, William
Lacon Childe, the builder of the house, was M.P. for the county. In 1757 his
daughter and heiress, Catherine, married Charles Baldwyn, of Aqualate, M.P. for
Shropshire 1 768-1780. Their son William adopted the name of Childe only. He was
a great agriculturist and sportsman, and was called " The flying Childe," from his hard
riding in Leicestershire, and he kept a pack of hounds at Kinlet. His son William
Lacon Childe was M.P. for Wenlock 1820-26, Sheriff in 1828, and died in his ninety-
42
fifth year in 1880. His grandson, Charles Baldwyn Childe, of Kinlet, was captain in
the Blues, and was killed in South Africa, major in command of the South African
Light Horse, in 1900.
In 1832 the family possessions were increased by the succession of W. L. Childe
to the Kyre estate of the Pitts ; and in 1848 Millichope (since sold), was bequeathed
by Rev. Norgrave Pemberton to his cousin, C. Orlando Childe, who took the name of
Pemberton.
Of the Bromptons and the Cornwalls little remains excepting what may be learnt
from ancient records ; of the Blounts there are several handsome monuments of the
sixteenth century in the church, and there is an Elizabethan portrait on panel of Sir
George Blount. There is also a portrait of Rowland Lacon, and portraits of the
Childes. The family pidures formerly at Millichope are now at Kinlet.
There was once a deer park here. The great extent of the oak woods and the
immense size of some of the trees gives dignity to this ancient inheritance.
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DUKE OF NORFOLK.
THE Honour of Clun was an independent Jurisdidion in the Marches of Wales,
and was held by the family of Say and afterwards by the Fitzalans, Lords
Marches. It was not incorporated with Shropshire till the reign of Henry VIIL
From the Inquisitions of Henry III., Eyton quotes the following description of
the place in 1272: ''The Castle was small but pretty well built. The roof of the
tower wanted covering with lead ; the bridge wanted repair. Outside the Castle was
a Bailey enclosed with a foss, and a certain gate in the Castle walls thereabouts had
been begun but not finished. In the Bailey was a grange, a stable, and a bake-
house."
Three centuries later Leland thus describes the Castle : " Clun is somewhat
ruinous. It hath been both strong and well builded. By Clonne is a great forest of
redde deere and rooes."
The sketch shows the condition of the Castle in the present day.
Alan Fitz Flaad, whose traditional genealogy need not here be discussed, was
endowed by Henry I. with the Norman Shrievalty of Shropshire, to which was
attached the great Fief of Oswaldstree, comprising nearly forty knights fees. Alan
Fitz Flaad had two sons. From the elder descended the Shropshire Fitzalans,
Barons of Oswaldstree and Clun, and afterwards Earls of Arundel, now represented
in the female line by the Duke of Norfolk. From the younger descended the
hereditary stewards of Scotland, who founded the Stuart dynasty.
William Fitz Allan married, about 1140, Isabel, daughter and heiress of Helias
de Say, Baron of Clun, and thus the Barony of Clun was added to the Barony of
Oswestry.
The history of the Fitzalans, interwoven as it is with the history of the English
monarchy, can only be slightly indicated here. Their connedion with Shropshire
lasted from the reign of Henry I. to the reign of Elizabeth. They granted charters
to Oswestry and to Clun. One of them founded Haughmond Abbey. Another
was with the Barons in rebellion against King John at Brackley in 121 5. Another
married the sister of Hugh d'Albini, Earl of Arundel, in the thirteenth century, and
thus Arundel and its Earldom passed to his descendants. Another married Alice,
daughter and heiress of John Plantagenet, Earl of Warren and Surrey. Two of them
were beheaded. After giving an account of eight successive representatives of Alan
Fitz Flaad, Eyton makes the following observation : " Not one of these eight Fitz
Alans attained the age of sixty years; only two passed the age of fifty; three died
between forty and fifty ; one between thirty and forty ; the two others died under
thirty."
Camden in his Britannia, says, *' about the beginning of the year 1580, Henry
43 z
Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, rendered his soul to God, in whom was extin(5t the surname
of this noble family, which had flourished with great honour for three hundred years
and more."
Lady Mary Fitzalan, his daughter and heiress, carried the titles, but not the
Shropshire estates, of her father to the posterity of her husband, Thomas Howard,
fourth Duke of Norfolk.
Henry Fitzalan, the Earl mentioned by Camden, sold a large portion of his
estates in this county. His grandson, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, by the
attainder of his father lost the Howard titles and estates, but succeeded to those of
his mother, and amongst them to Arundel and Clun. But he too was attainted in
1590, and died in the Tower in 1595. Clun was granted to his uncle, Henry
Howard, Earl of Northampton, v/ho founded a hospital there in 1608, and died
without issue. The estate passed to his nephew Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, and has
eventually been distributed among many owners.
After the lapse of three centuries, the present and fifteenth Duke of Norfolk has
renewed, in some measure, the link of ancestral interest with Shropshire, by purchasing
the ruins of this feudal Castle of Picot de Say.
It is said that Clun was the scene of Sir Walter Scott's novel of " The
Betrothed."
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PLOWDEN.
WILLIAM FRANCIS PLOWDEN, ESQ.
THIS curious manor house, nestling under an oak wood in the hilly ground
adjacent to the Longmynd, lies about three miles from Bishop's Castle, and
under the Bishops of Hereford by military service of forty days ward at Bishop's
Castle, in war time, the manor was held by the Plowdens.
Eyton derives their coat of arms from the arms borne by their suzerains, who as
Bishops of Hereford were mitred Barons. Others derive them from a grant by Richard
I. at the siege of Acre in 1191. William Plowden, in 1203, is the first whom Eyton
identifies, but the Plowden Chapel at Lydbury North shows work of the twelfth
century. Fourth in descent from William was John de Plowden, living in 1342,
But the fame of the family rests not so much on its antiquity, as on the distinction of
Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer, who was born in 15 17. He is said to have been
offered the Chancellorship on condition of conforming to the Reformed faith, and to
have refused. He was the author of learned "commentaries." He was Treasurer of
the Middle Temple, when the great hall was built in 1572, and his arms are in one of
the windows. He was appropriately buried, in 1584, not near his own Shropshire
home, but in the Temple Church, where his recumbent effigy may still be seen. Of
other members of the family, Edmund was the founder, in 1620, of the State of New
Albion in America, Francis was comptroller of the Household to James II. William
was Colonel of the 2nd regiment of guards on King James's side at the battle of
the Boyne. The family have always remained Roman Catholic, and not till 1848
has any member served the office of sheriff, nor has any Shropshire constituency ever
been represented by a Plowden.
The house is Elizabethan, and was built by " Lawyer" Plowden ; it has not been
much altered since the date of its construction. It contains two hiding places, and a
secret staircase, which runs from the top storey to the basement, alongside of the
chimney stack.
There are here many family portraits, and some good pidures, an old library,
some old embroidery, and needle work, seals, trinkets, parchments, indeed everything
which you would expe(5t to find in a place which has not changed hands for seven
centuries or more. There is here a domestic Roman Catholic Chapel, in which are
some memorial brasses which were once in the Church of Lydbury North or Bishop's
Castle.
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HOPTON CASTLE.
SIR HENRY RIPLEY, BART.
IN 1268 Walter de Hopton was SherifF of Shropshire. He was a Judge of the
Exchequer, and was the first of the name associated with Shropshire. Hopton
was held as a knight's fee in the Fitzalan's Barony of Clun. In 1337 and in 1364
Hoptons were Knights of the Shire, and in 1430 Thomas Hopton was SherifF, His
daughter and heiress married Sir Roger Corbet, of Morton, and in the family of
Corbet the castle remained till Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Robert Corbet, of
Moreton, married Sir Henry Wallop, Sheriff in 1606.
His son, Robert Wallop, M.P. for Hampshire, was a staunch Commonwealth
man, was one of the king's judges, and after the restoration was imprisoned for life in
the Tower.
It was during his ownership that the castle was garrisoned for the Parliament and
defended by Col. Samuel More in 1644. After a gallant resistance it was surrendered
to Sir Michael Woodhouse, and all the garrison, with the exception of Col. More,
thirty-one in number, were put to the sword.
Since that time the place has been dismantled and uninhabited. Robert Wallop
sold it in 1655 to Bartholomew Beale, whose descendant was Sheriff in 1734. The
estate was sold by the Beales about 1890 to Sir Henry Ripley, of Bedstone Court, the
present owner.
The castle stands in a secluded spot among the hills.
45
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BEDSTONE COURT.
SIR EDWARD RIPLEY, BART.
BEDSTONE in Norman days belonged to the family of De Jay or Gay ; Eyton
records their descents for several generations ; the manor was held as a knight's
fee under the Barony of Clun. " Brian de Jay was the last Master of the English Knights
Templars; at least he occurs in that office just before the dissolution of the Order by
Edward II." [Eyton.]
The present house was built from designs of Mr. Harris, by Sir Edward Ripley,
Bart., M.P. for Bradford, who purchased the estate, and was created a baronet in i 880.
It stands not far from the Radnorshire border, in the parish of the same name ; it is
situated in a hilly woodland country, and is in itself a handsome elevation.
46
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STOKESAY.
H. J. ALLCROFT, ESQ.
ROGER DE LACI was the Domesday owner of Stoke. About i lOO he en-
feoffed Theoderic de Say, a cadet of the house of Picot de Say of Clun, who
gave his name henceforth to the place. In 1 274 John de Verdon was the owner. He
sold to John de Grey, and he, in 1281, to Laurence de Ludlow. So in the two
hundred years after the Conquest Stokesay had five owners of different families.
'* The reign of Edward I. shows an influence coming into operation, which in
after times was to affedl the destinies of England more powerfully than either the toga
or the sword. The moated house, now known as Stokesay, was formed in the year
1 291, and represents the advance of mercantile genius. Its founder, Lawrence de
Ludlow, had made a fortune by successful trading in the town, from which he took
his name, and had purchased Stokesay manor from its former Lords." [Eyton.]
Members of this important family were Sheriffs in 1379, 1417, 1433, and 1478.
They were Knights of the Shire eight times in the fourteenth century.
By the marriage with the heiress of Hodnet they added that estate to Stokesay.
In 1497 Anna, daughter and co-heiress of John Ludlow, married Thomas Vernon,
whose son was Sheriff in 1524.
Leland writes : ^' Stokesay [be]Ionginge sometime to the Ludlos now to the
Vernons, builded like a castle, five miles from Ludlo. Sir Richard Ludlo had two
daughters, one was married to Humphrey Vernon, the other to Thomas Vernon,
bretherne to the late Sir Henry Vernon of the Peke."
The grandson of Thomas Vernon sold Stokesay to Sir George Mainwaring, and
he sold again, about 1620, to Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor of London 161 1.
Stokesay thus for a second time passed to a representative of *' mercantile genius,"
The son of the Lord Mayor greatly distinguished himself in foreign wars, was made
a baron in 1626 and an earl in 1663. The family, however, were but little associated
with Shropshire. In the Civil Wars the castle was occupied under a long lease by the
Baldwyns of Elsick, was garrisoned for the king, surrendered in 1645, and was happily
saved from destrudion. In 1869 the 9th Lord Craven and the 3rd Earl of the
creation of 1801 sold this castle to John Derby Allcroft, M.P. for Worcester 1878, a
partner in the eminent firm of Dent and Allcroft, glove manufacfturers at Worcester,
and thus for a third time Stokesay was identified with that influence which, as Eyton
says, affeds the destinies of England more powerfully than either the toga or the
sword.
Stokesay is minutely described in Parker's "Domestic Architedure " as one "of
the most perfed and interesting thirteenth century buildings which we possess."
The hall is 5 1 ft. x 31 ft. The moat is well defined. The gateway is a good
example of Elizabethan wood and plaster work. The double odlagonal arrangement
of the tower is effedive. The river Ony flows near ; the surrounding hills group well
with the church and the castle masonry.
Although the place is unoccupied, the roof and the buildings are kept in good
repair, and Stokesay is the best example in Shropshire of a fortified manorhouse of
feudal eredion.
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BENTHALL HALL, BROSELEY.
LORD FORESTER.
THIS is a stone house, date about 1600, with oak staircase, fittings, panelling,
plaster decorations on the ceilings, heraldic emblems, all of about the same period ;
a small but very perfed example of Elizabethan architefture.
William Benthall is said to have built a house here in 1535, but the present work
is of a rather later date.
The heiress of the Benthalls in the fourteenth century married a Burnell of A6lon
Burnell, who adopted his wife's name. One of the Abbots of Buildwas is said to have
been of this family.
In the Civil Wars the Benthalls were on the King's side. Laurence Benthall was
fined £12^ by the sequestrators, and Casey Benthall, his son, was made a prisoner at
the taking of Shrewsbury, and was afterwards slain at the battle of Stow-in-the-Wold.
Ralph Browne of Caughley, Sheriff in 1687, married the daughter and heiress of
Edward Benthall. The estate eventually passed by bequest from the Brownes to
Lucia Blythe, who married, in 1771, Rev. Edward Harries of Cruckton. In the
nineteenth century Francis Blythe Harries of Cruckton sold Benthall to Lord Forester,
in whose family it remains.
The church, which stands close by, was built in 1667 in the place of an older
chapel which was destroyed in the Civil Wars. It is a quaint example of the later
ecclesiastical style.
48
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BOURTON COTTAGE.
T. H. A. WHITLEY, ESQ.
THE charter of Edward IV. (1468) to Wenlock, states that it is granted " at the
request of our well-beloved and trusty Counselor, Sir John Wenlock, Lord
Wenlock," and in recognition of the loyal services of the residents in the town. By
this charter Wenlock was made a Parliamentary Borough, with the privilege of
returning one member to Parliament, a privilege extended to two members by Henry
VIII. It is said that Francis Lawley, Sheriff in 1578, was declared to be cousin and
next of kin to this Sir John Wenlock, who was a Knight of the Garter, and was
killed at the battle of Tewkesbury. Duke, in his " Antiquities of Shropshire," says that
a Lawley married the heir of Sir John Wenlock, but no notice of this marriage is
made in the Visitation of 1623.
In 1428 a William, and in 1450 a John, Lawley, were M.P.'s for Bridgnorth,
From 1547, when Wenlock was represented by Richard and Thomas Lawley, to
1685, no less than twelve members of the family were M.P.'s for the borough. In
1 66 1, Sir Francis Lawley, Bt., was Knight of the Shire. His father, Sir Thomas, of
Spoonbill, had been created a baronet in 1641. During the eighteenth century there
appears to have been a break in the tenure of any public office in Shropshire by any
member of the family.
Sir Robert, the fifth baronet, married the daughter and heiress of Beilby
Thompson, of Escrich, in Yorkshire, and died in 1793. His son was created Lord
Wenlock in 1831, and died without issue in the following year. In 1839 the title
was revived in the person of his brother, who had assumed the name of Beilby
Thompson, and had represented Wenlock in 1826-32. His son, the second Baron,
resumed the name of Lawley, and was Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of
Yorkshire. The present and third Baron was Governor of Madras.
The old house of the Lawley s, Spoonbill, four miles from Wenlock, has been
dismantled, and a farm house occupies its site.
Bourton Cottage was built from designs by Norman Shaw, and is a good example
of his style.
In 1 90 1, Lord Wenlock sold his Shropshire estates to Mr. Whitley.
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THE PRIOR'S LODGE, WENLOCK.
C. C. MILNES GASKELL, ESQ.
" "1 ^ /"ENLOCK was the oldest and most privileged, perhaps the wealthiest and
Y V JTiost magnificent of the religious Houses of Shropshire." [Eyton.]
Founded in the eighth century by St. Milburga, daughter of Merewald, King of
Mercia, and granddaughter of Penda, this nunnery, despoiled by the Danes in the
ninth century, had fallen into decay at the time of the Conquest, and was re-estab-
lished by Roger the Norman, Earl of Shropshire, and " replenished with monks of the
Cluniac Order." At the Dissolution the minster and conventual buildings were dis-
mantled, with the exception of the Prior's house, one of the oldest habitations in the
county.
A corridor, loo ft. in length on the ground floor, and another on the first floor,
lighted by trefoiled couplets, formerly unglazed, and united by a wide staircase,
open into the rooms. On the ground floor is the oratory with an altar, and a stone
reading desk with foliated ornamentation. The dining room or refedory upstairs has
a high-pitched timber roof. The date of the building, according to Parker (" Domestic
Architecture "), is late fifteenth century.
When the Abbey was dissolved its revenues were £4-4-1. Cardinal Wolsey's
physician, Augustine de Augustine, was the first lay Impropriator. He sold the
estate to the family of Lawley. Late in the seventeenth century the daughter and
heiress of Sir Edward Lawley married, first, Hon. Sir R. Bertie, Kt., of the Ancaster
family, and, secondly. Sir J. Penruddock, whose daughter and heiress married Joseph
Gage, father of first Viscount Gage. Wenlock thus devolved upon Lord Gage, who
sold it to Sir John Wynn, of Gwydyr and Watstay, a kinsman of the Ancasters; Sir
John Wynn dying in 17 19, bequeathed Wenlock, together with Watstay, to his
kinsman, Watkin Williams, the son of Sir William WiUiams of Llanforda, who
adopted the name of Wynn in addition to his own. In 1770, Sir Watkin WiJliams-
Wynn was M.P. for Shropshire. His son sold the Abbey about 1830 to James
Milnes Gaskell, of Thornes House, Wakefield, M.P. for Wenlock 1832-68, Lord
of the Treasury 1841-46, who married Mary, daughter of the Right Hon. Charles
W. W. Wynn, M.P. His son, C. C. Milnes-Gaskell, M.P. for the Wakefield
Division of Yorkshire, 1885, is the present owner.
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