The Selbys were granted the manor of Biddlestone in 1272. In 1346, Sir Walter Selby of Biddlestone, Royal Constable and Governor of the castle at Liddel Mote was captured by the Scots whilst defending the castle and he and two sons were executed.
A fortified manor house was recorded at Biddlestone in 1415 and a survey in 1541 disclosed a pele tower with a barmkin in good repair in the ownership of Percival Selby. In 1715, the house was described as in the ownership of Thomas Selby and comprised a cruciform four winged structure with a central battlemented tower.
The family were Catholics with Jacobite sympathies. Ephraim Selby was involved in an uprising at Rothbury in 1715.
In 1796, a later Thomas Selby replaced the old house with a much grander structure which became known as Biddlestone Hall. The new house was remodelled by architect John Dobson in 1820 to incorporate a private Catholic chapel.
The Biddlestone estate was sold by Walter Selby to the Forestry Commission in 1914 and the Hall was demolished in 1957. The chapel however was preserved and still stands as a Grade II* listed building. The arms of the Selby family, (Barry of eight, or and sable), are depicted in stained glass in the chapel.
Selby of Newcastle and Whitehouse
Anthony Selby of Selby, Yorkshire moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and his son Walter (b. 1444) married into the prominent Brandling of Newcastle family. Other marriages to Anderson and Fenwick further established the standing of the Selbys.
Marriages between members of the different branches of the Selby family were not uncommon. In 1602 George Selby of Newcastle married Margaret Selby of Twizell Castle. In 1600, he became Mayor of Newcastle, an honour he received on three further occasions. He was knighted in 1606, was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1608 and Deputy Lieutenant of the county in 1611.
Shortly thereafter he acquired an estate at Whitehouse, Ryton, County Durham. He was elected Member of Parliament for Northumberland in 1614 but his election was rejected by the House of Commons as by then he had lost his residential and property owning qualification in Northumberland. He was appointed High Sheriff of Durham in 1624.
George Selby (b. 1627) became the first of the Selby baronets in 1664 but the baronetcy was short-lived. It became extinct when both the first and second baronets died in the month of September 1688.
Selby of Twizell Castle
A pele tower at Branxton, Northumberland then in the county of Islandshire, owned by William Selby was destroyed by the Scots in 1496 and was rebuilt by his son John (d 1565). It did not remain the main family home as William had purchased Twizell Castle from Heron in 1520 and that estate was developed in preference to Branxton.
John Selby was Gentleman Porter of Berwick Castle as was his son John who was knighted by Elizabeth I in 1582. Sir John Selby died in 1595 and an inventory was made of his goods at Twizell and elsewhere.[1] Sir John's son, Sir William Selby (d. 1612) was also Gentleman Porter of Berwick and Member of Parliament for that city in 1592, 1597, and 1601. Sir William inherited the Twizell estate on the death of his father in 1595 and also purchased the estate of Ightham Mote, in Kent in 1592. His estates went to his nephew William Selby (died 1638), and on his death his northern estate passed to his brother Sir Ralph Selby (d. 1646).
Sir Ralph's granddaughter married a Selby cousin from Cornhill and Twizell remained with that junior branch until sold in 1685 to Sir Francis Blake.
Selby of Ightham Mote, Kent
Sir William Selby (d. 1611) of Twizell bought Ightham Mote in 1591 and on his death in 1611 bequeathed it to his nephew, also Sir William Selby (d. 1637) of Twizell Castle.
In 1644, the estate came into the ownership of a nephew, George Selby of London, who was appointed High Sheriff of Kent in 1648.
In the 18th century, the estate passed via the female line when Dorothy Selby married John Browne. On the death of the 9th Viscount Montague in 1797 the Browne successors and descendant Thomas Selby of Ightham made an unsuccessful claim to the Viscountcy.
The marriage of Lewis Marianne Selby of Beal into the Bigge family in 1833 led to the creation of Selby-Bigge ( see Selby-Bigge baronets) and the estate remained in the family until sold in 1889 to Sir T C Fergusson.
In 1865, Elizabeth Selby of Ightham (1839–1906) married William Court Gully who upon accession to the Peerage took the title Viscount Selby.
Selby of Beal
Grindon Rigg, Northumberland was in the possession of Roger Selby in 1512 and John Selby in 1545. Oliver Selby, son of John, purchased half of the Manor of Beal, Northumberland in 1588 and land at neighbouring Lowlin in 1629. His brother William married Agnes Selby of Twizell Castle.
The Selbys moved from Beal when George Selby (1724–1804) bought Twizell House,( not to be confused with Twizell Castle), Addestone, near Bambrough. His son Prideaux John Selby (1789–1867), was an eminent naturalist who improved the Twizell property and sold the Beal estate in 1850. His daughter Lewis Marianne married Charles Bigge (1803–1846) son of Charles William Bigge in 1833. After his death she remarried Robert Luard at Ightham Mote in 1850.
Richard Selby (d 1690) of Beal, purchased property on Holy Island in the 17th century. His grandson son George married a daughter of Prideaux Selby of Beal. A great grandson, also named Prideaux Selby (1747–1813) became a colonial administrator in Canada, Another great grandson Henry Collingwood Selby (d 1839) bought an estate at Swansfield, near Alnwick where he built Swansfield House to a design by architect John Dobson in 1823. The house was demolished in 1975. Selby also commissioned the Camphill Column, possibly as a reaction to locals thought to be supportive of the French Revolution.
A later Prideaux Selby of Swansfield, a barrister, High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland, was also of Pawston.
Selby of Pawston
Gerard Selby of Branxton, Northumberland purchased the neighbouring village of Pawston, Northumberland ( sometimes referred to as Paston) and built there a pele tower of which he was in occupation in 1541. The property was replaced with a manor house known as Pawston Hall in the 18th century.
The Selbys prospered there for over three hundred years.
By 1860, ownership of the estate had passed to the Beal/Holy Island branch of the family whose Prideaux Selby (1810–1872) had married in 1840 Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor. On his death the estate passed to his son Beauchamp Proctor Selby .
William Selby (1738–1798), British-American composer, organist and choirmaster
Related Research Articles
Prideaux John Selby FRSE FLS was an English ornithologist, botanist and natural history artist.
Ightham Mote, at Ightham, is a medieval moated manor house in Kent, England. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county".
Cornhill-on-Tweed is a small village and civil parish in Northumberland, England about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of Coldstream, Scotland. The hamlets of West Learmouth and East Learmouth are located to the south and west of the village respectively. In 2011 the parish had a population of 347.
Prideaux Selby was an English soldier and political figure in Upper Canada.
This is a list of the high sheriffs of the English county of Northumberland. The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now largely ceremonial. The High Sheriff changes every March.
Charles William Bigge was an English merchant and banker in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Sir Arthur Edward Middleton, M.P., 7th Baronet was a British MP for the City of Durham.
There have been four baronetcies for persons with the surname Blake, one in the Baronetage of Ireland, two in the Baronetage of Great Britain and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Two of the creations are extant as of 2010. The Blake Baronetcy, of Menlough in the County of Galway, was created in the Baronetage of Ireland on 10 July 1622 for Valentine Blake, Mayor of Galway in 1611 and 1630 and a member of the Irish House of Commons for County Galway. His grandfather Thomas Blake had preceded him as Mayor. The second Baronet was a member of the Irish Parliament for Galway Borough. The third Baronet represented both County Galway and Galway Borough in Parliament. The sixth Baronet was a member of the Irish House of Commons for County Galway. He was the first Catholic gentlemen of distinction to join William of Orange. The twelfth Baronet represented Galway Borough in the British House of Commons. The fourteenth Baronet was high sheriff of County Galway in 1872. See also the Blake Baronetcy of Twizell Castle below.
Twizell Castle is a Grade II* listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument which stands on a bend of the River Till at Tillmouth Park, Northumberland, northern England. Below it, the medieval Twizell Bridge spans the river. It is located 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Berwick Upon Tweed. The site is visible from a public footpath, which passes the castle from the road. The gardens of the castle contain the earthwork remains of the once lost medieval village of Twizell, whilst the massive ruin presents the remains of an 18th-century castle which was never completed.
Sir Francis Blake, 1st Baronet, FRS was a Northumbrian landowner who was created 1st Baronet of Twizell in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 25 May 1774.
Sir Francis Blake was a High Sheriff of Northumberland (1784), a major land owner of that county, and a political writer.
The Ogle family were prominent landed gentry in Northumberland, England. The earliest appearances of the family name were written Hoggel, Oggehill, Ogille and Oghill.
The Tempest family was an English recusant family that originated in western Yorkshire in the 12th century.
The Shafto family is an alternative surname for the Ffolliot family, who were established in the 14th century at Shafto Crag, Northumberland and adopted the alternative surname of Shafto.
Captain Sir Thomas Liddell, 1st Baronet (1578–1652) was an English politician, a member of the Liddell family which monopolized the local government of the North of England during the 16th and 17th centuries. He was one of the leading supporters of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Sir William Selby was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1597 to 1601.
Sir George Selby (1557–1625) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1611.
Thomas Hanway Bigge was an English banker in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Bigge family were gentry based at Longbenton in the later 18th century, and are well documented; but Thomas Hanway Bigge has been confused with another member of the family, Thomas Bigge (1766–1851), who had moved to the London area by about 1810.
William Bigge (1707–1758) was an English lawyer, landowner and colliery owner.
William Selby, was an English member of parliament and soldier at Berwick upon Tweed.
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.
