Madeley Old Manor

Last updated
Remains of Madeley Old Manor, for which Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford (1301-1372), received a licence to crenellate in February 1347/8, together with Stafford Castle, "and to make castles of them". Red Sandstone ashlar blocks with external doorway with portcullis groove and chamfered arch at its north end. This fragment is believed to have formed part of the 1st Earl's castle, namely the west external wall and gateway Old Madely Manor remains, Staffordshire.jpg
Remains of Madeley Old Manor, for which Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford (1301-1372), received a licence to crenellate in February 1347/8, together with Stafford Castle, "and to make castles of them". Red Sandstone ashlar blocks with external doorway with portcullis groove and chamfered arch at its north end. This fragment is believed to have formed part of the 1st Earl's castle, namely the west external wall and gateway
Madeley Old Manor and parkland, with mediaeval fishpond Old Madeley Manor - geograph.org.uk - 409386.jpg
Madeley Old Manor and parkland, with mediaeval fishpond

Madeley Old Manor (in the 14th century Madeley Castle), was a medieval fortified manor house in the parish of Madeley, Staffordshire. It is now a ruin, with only fragments of its walls remaining. The remnants have Grade II listed building status and the site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. [3] The Tudor manor house is illustrated by Michael Burghers as it appeared in 1686 in Plot's History of Staffordshire, together with the formal gardens and a later east frontage. [4] It is situated a short distance to the south of Heighley Castle, a mediaeval seat of the Audley family.

Contents

Descent

Stafford

Madeley was one of the 131 English manors held by Robert de Stafford (c.1039–c.1100) (alias Robert de Tosny/Toeni, etc.), 1st feudal baron of Stafford, [5] an Anglo-Norman nobleman who arrived in England during or shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and was awarded by King William the Conqueror extensive territories in his newly conquered kingdom, predominantly in the county of Staffordshire. [6] He built Stafford Castle as his seat. His 131 landholdings are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.

In 1341 his descendant (via a female line) Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford (1301-1372), was granted a charter by King Edward III to hold weekly markets at Madeley on Tuesdays and two annual fairs on St George's day and St Leonard's day. In February 1347/8 the same king granted him royal licence to crenellate "his dwelling places of Stafford (Castle) and Madeley, in Staffs., to make castles of them". [1] Shortly afterwards King Edward did him the great honour of creating him one of the founder Knights of the Garter.

Madeley was forfeited by the Stafford family in 1521 [7] following the execution of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (1477–1521), and his posthumous attainder in 1523, when all the estates escheated to the crown. Reginald Whitacres was appointed parker to Madeley Great Park by the king following the execution. [8] The 3rd Duke's descendants managed to regain some of their ancient estates, but the family never recovered its powerful position and the senior male line ended in poverty with the death of Roger Stafford, 6th Baron Stafford (c. 1573–1640).

Poyntz

Following the death of the 3rd Duke, the manor of Madeley was granted to Sir Francis Poyntz (d.1528), [9] 3rd son of Sir Robert Poyntz (died 1520), [10] lord of the manor of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire, chancellor to Queen Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), first wife of King Henry VIII. Following his death in 1528 his wife (Jane or Joan Browne, daughter of Sir Matthew Browne of Betchworth, Surrey [11] ), continued the lease, and was succeeded by his nephew. [12]

Offley

In 1547 it was sold by Sir Edward Braye and Joan Browne his wife, daughter and heiress of Sir Matthew Browne, [13] (apparently the widow of Sir Francis Poyntz) to Thomas Offley (d. 1582), a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, who became Lord Mayor of London in 1556. His wife was Joan Nichols. Five generations of Offleys lived at the manor including three John Offleys who served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire. [14] Sir Thomas Offley's son, Henry Offley, married Mary White, a daughter of Sir John White of Aldershot, Lord Mayor of London (1563-64). [15] Henry Offley's son and heir was Sir John Offley, [16] who married Anne Fuller, a daughter of Nicholas Fuller M.P., [17] and several of their children married into notable families: William Offley married Frances, a daughter of John Lane of Bentley, MP; [18] Elizabeth Offley married Sir Robert Jenney, son of Sir Arthur Jenney of Knodishall, Suffolk; [19] and Katherine Offley married firstly Thomas Willis, son of Thomas Willis, Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, and secondly his cousin William Willis. [20]

Crewe

Thomas Offley's great-great-grandson John Offley (b. 1649) married Anne Crewe, heiress of Crewe Hall, Cheshire. Their son, John Offley, changed his name by a 1708 Act of Parliament to John Offley Crewe when he inherited his mother's estate. [21] Their grandson was John Crewe, 1st Baron Crewe (1742–1829). [22]

Madeley Manor was abandoned and fell into ruin following the building of the second Madeley Manor (O.S. Map Reference SJ 7759 4591). The family eventually made Crewe Hall their principal seat.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquess of Crewe</span>

Marquess of Crewe was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the Liberal statesman Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe. He had already been created Earl of Crewe, of Crewe, Cheshire, in 1895, and was made Earl of Madeley, in Staffordshire, at the same time as he was granted the marquessate. These titles were also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Lord Crewe was the only son of the noted Victorian literary personage Richard Monckton Milnes. The latter had been raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Houghton, of Great Houghton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1863. Lord Houghton married the Honourable Annabella Crewe, daughter of John Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe. Their son, the second Baron, succeeded to the Crewe estates on the death of his maternal uncle Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe, in 1894. Lord Crewe's two sons both predeceased him and the titles became extinct on his death in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford</span> 14th-century English nobleman

Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, 2nd Baron Stafford, KG, of Stafford Castle and Madeley Castle in Staffordshire, was an English nobleman and a notable soldier during the Hundred Years' War against France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Crewe</span> Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Crewe, of Crewe in the County of Chester, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 25 February 1806 for the politician and landowner John Crewe, of Crewe Hall, Cheshire. This branch of the Crewe family descended from Sir Ranulph Crewe (1558–1646), Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was the brother of Sir Thomas Crewe, also Speaker of the House of Commons and the father of John Crew, 1st Baron Crew. Sir Ranulph's grandson John Crewe was the father of Ann Crewe, who married John Offley, of Madeley Manor, Staffordshire. Their son John assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Crewe in lieu of his patronymic in 1708. He sat as a Knight of the Shire for Cheshire. His son John Crewe also represented Cheshire in Parliament. The latter was the father of the first Baron Crewe. Lord Crewe died in 1829 and was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He was a General in the British Army. The title became extinct on the death of his son, the third Baron, in 1894.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester</span>

Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester, 1st Baron Audley of Stratton Audley in Oxfordshire, and of Gratton in Staffordshire, served as Sheriff of Rutland and was the English Ambassador to France in 1341. He was buried in Tonbridge Priory.

Sir Stephen Jenyns was a wool merchant from Wolverhampton, Merchant of the Staple and Master Merchant Taylor who became Lord Mayor of London for the year of the coronation of King Henry VIII. An artistic, architectural and educational patron, he founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, and took a leading part in the rebuilding of the church of St. Andrew Undershaft in the City of London.

Sir Thomas Browne was a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Browne's tenure as Chancellor occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the Great Slump in England. He was executed for treason on 20 July 1460.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wychnor Hall</span>

Wychnor Hall is Grade II Listed early 18th-century country house near Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, formerly owned by the Levett Family. The hall has been converted to a Country Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley family</span> English noble family

The Stanley family is an English family with many notable members, including the Earls of Derby and the Barons Audley who descended from the early holders of Audley and Stanley, Staffordshire. The two branches of the Audley family were made Barons Audley but both ended in the male line in the 14th century, after which their considerable estates were passed to a number of female heiresses, while the Stanleys would be elevated in the 15th century first to Barons Stanley and then Earls of Derby, a title they continue to hold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford</span> English Baron

Edmund de Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford, was the son of Nicholas de Stafford, who was summoned to parliament by writ on 6 February 1299 by King Edward I. He was a signatory of the Baron's Letter to Pope Boniface VIII in 1301.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Poyntz</span> English diplomat

Sir Anthony Poyntz was an English diplomat and naval commander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Wise (died 1630)</span>

Sir Thomas Wise, KB, of Sydenham in the parish of Marystow and of Mount Wise in the parish of Stoke Damerel in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1612 and in 1621 served as a member of parliament for Bere Alston in Devon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Wise (died 1641)</span> English politician

Thomas Wise of Sydenham in Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England at various times between 1625 and 1641.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Fogge</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Sir John Fogge was an English courtier, soldier and supporter of the Woodville family under Edward IV who became an opponent of Richard III.

Sir Clipsby Crewe was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1624 to 1626.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Littleton (died 1629)</span>

Sir Edward Littleton was a politician from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family and an important Staffordshire landowner of the Jacobean era and the early Caroline era. Although loyal to the monarchy, he seems to have been of Puritan sympathies and was a close ally of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. He represented Staffordshire in the English parliament of 1624.

The historic manor of Iron Acton was a manor centred on the village of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire, England, situated about 9 miles (14 km) north-east of the centre of the City of Bristol. The manor house, known as Acton Court is a Tudor building which survives today, situated at some distance from the village and parish church of St Michael. It was long the principal seat of the prominent Poyntz family, lords of the manor, whose manorial chapel is contained within the parish church.

Sir Nicholas Woodroffe (1530–1598) was a London merchant of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, who, through the English Reformation, rose in the Alderman class to become a Master Haberdasher, Lord Mayor of London and Member of Parliament for London. Through the complexities of his family's relationships, and the position and security which they afforded, he lived to establish his family among the armigerous houses of late Elizabethan Surrey.

Sir Thomas Offley was a Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Queen Mary I of England. A long-serving alderman of London, he was a prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, thrice Mayor of the Staple, and a named founding Assistant of the Muscovy Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Poyntz (died 1520)</span> Lord of the manor of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire

Sir Robert Poyntz, lord of the manor of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire, was a supporter of the future King Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He was buried in the Gaunt's Chapel, Bristol, in the magnificent "Chapel of Jesus", a chantry chapel built by him.

Crewe Offley (1682–1739) of Wychnor Hall, Staffordshire, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1706 and 1734.

References

  1. 1 2 Cokayne, The Complete Peerage , new edition, vol. XII, p.175[ volume & issue needed ]
  2. ↑ See listed building text
  3. ↑ English Heritage: photograph and architectural description of listed building
  4. ↑ R. Plot, The Natural History of Stafford-shire (Oxford: printed at the theater, 1686), Table XVI, at p. 223. See Staffordshire Past Track, Madeley Manor House: engraving.
  5. ↑ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.81
  6. ↑ Saxon owner or governors, – Leofric, Algar; – notices in Domesday Book, – Edwin and Morcar's revolt. – Robert De Stafford and his property
  7. ↑ Madeley Village Website
  8. ↑ Madeley Village Website
  9. ↑ Madeley Village Website
  10. ↑ Maclean, Sir John & Heane, W.C., (Eds.), The Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot as Deputies to William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms, etc, London, 1885, pp.129,133 (pedigree of Poyntz)
  11. ↑ Pollard, Albert. "Poyntz, Francis"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 46. pp. 277–278.
  12. ↑ Madeley Village Website
  13. ↑ Feet of Fines (Staffordshire), Trinity term, 1 Edward VI, cf. G.C. Bower and H.W.F. Harwood, 'Pedigree of Offley' The Genealogist XIX, 1903, pp. 217-231, at p. 218, note 1.
  14. ↑ History of Madeley village Archived 2008-12-27 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ A.M. Mimardière, 'White, Sir John (d. 1573), of London and Aldershot, Hants.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558-1603 (Boydell & Brewer 1981), History of Parliament Online.
  16. ↑ A. Thrush, 'Offley, Sir John (1586-1645) of Madeley, Staffs. and London', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament; 1604-1629 (Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament online
  17. ↑ Bower and Harwood, 'Pedigree of Offley', at p. 218. A. Thrush, 'Fuller, Nicholas (1544-1620), of Gray's Inn, London and Chamberhouse, Thatcham, Berks.', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629 (Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament online.
  18. ↑ J.E. Bailey, The Life of Thomas Fuller: With notices of his books, his kinsmen, and his friends (Basil Montagu Pickering, London 1874), p. 12, note.
  19. ↑ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (1847), p. 648.
  20. ↑ H.S. Grazebrook (ed.), The Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire made by Sir Richard St George, Norroy, in 1614, and by Sir William Dugdale, Norroy, in the years 1663 and 1664 (Mitchell and Hughes, London 1885), pp. 224-26. (Hathi Trust.)
  21. ↑ Deed Poll Office: Private Act of Parliament 1708 (7 Ann.). c. 3
  22. ↑ The Peerage website
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.