Stokesay Castle is one of the finest surviving fortified manor houses in England, and situated at Stokesay in Shropshire. It was largely built in its present form in the late 13th century by Laurence de Ludlow, on the earlier castle founded by its original owners the de Lacy family, from whom it passed to their de Verdun heirs, who retained feudal overlordship of Stokesay until at least 1317. Laurence 'of' Ludlow was one of the leading wool merchants in England, who intended it to form a secure private house and generate income as a commercial estate. Laurence's descendants continued to own the castle until the 16th century, when it passed through various private owners. By the time of the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1641, Stokesay was owned by William Craven, the first Earl of Craven and a supporter of King Charles I. After the Royalist war effort collapsed in 1645, Parliamentary forces besieged the castle in June and quickly forced its garrison to surrender. Parliament ordered the property to be slighted, but only minor damage was done to the walls, allowing Stokesay to continue to be used as a house by the Baldwyn family until the end of the 17th century.
Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford, lord of Clare, Tonbridge, and Cardigan, was a powerful Norman nobleman with vast lands in England and Wales.
Theobald le Botiller, also known as Theobald Butler, 2nd Baron Butler was the son of Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler and Maud le Vavasour. He had livery of his lands on 18 July 1222.
Halesowen Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey in Halesowen, England of which only ruins remain. Founded by Peter des Roches with a grant of land from King John, the abbey's official year of inauguration was 1218. It acquired two daughter abbeys and a dependent priory. It also acquired a considerable range of estates, mostly concentrated within the region, and a number of churches, which it appropriated after being granted the advowsons. The abbey's manorial court records have survived in large part, portraying a discontented community, driven to many acts of resistance and at one point to challenge the abbey's very existence. The abbey played no great part in the affairs of its order, although it was represented at all levels. At least one abbot attracted serious criticism from within the order, which attempted to remove him. Its canons observed the Rule of St Augustine to a varying degree, with some serious lapses, at least in the late 15th century, when the order's visitor uncovered widespread sexual exploitation of local women. The abbey was moderately prosperous and survived the suppression of the lesser monasteries. It was dissolved in 1538.
Bertram de Verdun was the name of several members of the Norman family of de Verdun, native to the Avranchin.
Robert de Stafford was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, the first feudal baron of Stafford in Staffordshire in England, where he built as his seat Stafford Castle. His many landholdings are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Robert Puleston was a brother-in-law and supporter of Owain Glyndŵr, at the time of his rebellion against King Henry IV of England in the early 15th century and afterwards.
This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire.
The Baronetcy of Gresley of Drakelow was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for George Gresley of Drakelow Hall, Derbyshire who was later High Sheriff of Derbyshire and Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme. The Gresley Baronetcy was the sixth oldest baronetcy in Britain until it became extinct on the death of the 13th and last Baronet in 1976.
Wrottesley Hall is a 1923-built Grade II listed house in the civil parish of Perton, and historically part of Tettenhall in Staffordshire, England.
The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests is a position established by the Normans in England.
Sir Roger de Pulesdon from Puleston in Shropshire, was the son of Sir Roger de Pyvelesdon, who was commemorated by his son and namesake with a Market Cross in Newport, near the family's home. He is found recorded as Sheriff of Staffordshire and Salop in 1285.
Goldstone is a small hamlet in eastern Shropshire, England, in the civil parish of Cheswardine. It lies in an isolated rural area north of Hinstock and Ellerton, around 5 miles south of the nearest town, Market Drayton.
Sir Walter Wrottesley, was a Captain of Calais.
Sir Edward Aston built and resided at Tixall House, Staffordshire. He served four terms as Sheriff of Staffordshire.
John Ipstones was an English soldier, politician and landowner. He fought in the Hundred Years War and in John of Gaunt's expedition to win the Crown of Castile. He represented Staffordshire twice in the House of Commons of England, including the Merciless Parliament of 1388, in which he supported the measures of the Lords Appellant. A member of a notoriously quarrelsome and violent landed gentry family, he pursued numerous property and personal disputes, one of which led to his murder while in London, serving as a Member of Parliament.
Henry Audley or Aldithel or Alditheley was an English baron.
Walter Devereux of Bodenham and Bromwich was an Anglo-Norman knight and sheriff of Herefordshire living during the reigns of Henry III of England and Edward I of England. The Devereux were a prominent family along the Welsh Marches during the thirteenth century, and integral to the control of this region during the Second Barons' War.
Sir John Wadham (c.1344–1412) was a Justice of the Common Pleas from 1389 to 1398, during the reign of King Richard II (1377–1399), selected by the King as an assertion of his right to rule by the advice of men appointed of his own choice, and one of the many Devonians of the period described by Thomas Fuller in his Worthies of England, as seemingly "innated with a genius to study law".
Sir Roger de Pyvelesdon was recorded as being Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire in 1285.