Patsell in the Countie of Stafford Gentleman, that wheareas one John Romsall late of Lutteley in the sayd Countie was seased in his demeasne as of fee of and in a mease wyth appurtenances and one lesowe or pasture in Lutteley aforesayd and the same held of Walter Worseley (sic) Esquyer feather to your sayd orator, and lord of the manor of Lutteley by ij shyllings yerely, fealtie and sute to his Courte of Lutteley aforesayd, in chyff, and the sayd John Romsall so beying seased about three yeres last past at Gatacre in the Countie of Salop comytted a felonyous acte and thereupon was apprehended, indyted, arreyed, found gyltie, and putt to execucyon, by reason whereof the same mese with the appurtenaunces, lesowe, and pasture came into the handes and possess yon of the late Kynge Philipp and Quene Mary for one year and a day next after, and after that to the said Walter Wrottesley (sic) beying lord of the said maner of Lutteley, by the way of Eschete wiche Water Wrottesley by vertue thereof dyd entre into the seyd lesowe or pasture so of hym holden as lawful was for hym to do, by force whereof he was seased in his demeane as of fee by the way of Eschete, and so beying seased by his dede suffycyent in the law and redye to be shewed, as well for a certeyne somme of money to hym in hand payd, as for other good causes and consyderations him specyally movynge, dyd infeffe your orator, sonne and heyre apparaunt of the sayd Walter of and in the said mese wyth appurtenaunces and other the premysses, to have and to holde the sayd mese, lesowe, and pasture and other the premysses with the appurtenaunces unto your orator and his heyres for ever, by force wherof he was seased accordyngly and so (some words omitted here) good and gracyous lord that one Rychard Sywode of Hylpole in the Countie of Worcester, John Marten, Thomas (sic) and Thomas Marten beynge evylle dysposed persons and indendyng to dysinheryte your orator of the premysses came unto the sayd mese and other the premysses and then and there poled up fyve or syx . . of sawed pales fast sett abowt the sayd mese and xiiii other lyke posts and the same wythe dyvers bordes and . . . from the sayd mese dyd roon and take away, some into the Countie of Worsester, and some into the Countie of Salop, and into other places to your orator unknowen to the greate hurt and losse of your orator, and also then and there toke from the sayd mese dyvers and sundry evydences, muniments and charters concernynge the sayd mese wythe appurtenaunces, and other the premysses to the intente to dysinheryte your orator of the premysses and for the cause the nombre and pleyntie of the sayd evidences, myniments and charters to your orator are unknowen and whether they be in Bagge or Boxe, sealed your orator knoweth not, wherefore he is thereby wythout remedy by the due order of the commen lawes. In consideration whereof may yt please your good lordshipp to graunt unto your orator the Quenes highness wryt of subpena to be directed unto the sayd Richard, John, Thomas and Thomas comaundyng them thereby personally to appeare before your Lordshipp at a certeyne day and under a certeyne payne by your Lordshippe to be lymytted

there to answere to the premysses accordyng to right and conscyence and at there apparaunce not onely to injoyne them to make delyverye of the sayd evidens so taken away unto your orator, but also to make to (him) recompense for the sayd pales posts, bordes and gyestes so lykewyse taken away, and your orator shall dayly prey unto Almyghty God for your Lordshipp in honor longe to endure.

The above petition is undated, but must have been drawn up between the years 1558 and 1563, for Sir Nicholas Bacon was appointed Lord Keeper in the former year and John had succeeded his father Walter before the latter year.

John Wrottesley served the office of High Sheriff for Staffordshire in 1564, the year after he had succeeded his father.

a

In 1568 Walter, his eldest son, was married to Mary, the daughter and sole heir of Hugh Lee, of Woodford, co. Stafford, and by this marriage the family obtained eventually considerable accession of property. By an indenture made on the 15th May 10 10 Elizabeth (1568) on the marriage of Walter Rotesley (sic), Gentilman, sonne and heir appaurant of John Wrotesley, of Wrotesley, co. Stafford, Esquire, with Mary Lee, daughter and sole heyre of Hugh Lee, of Woodforde, co. Stafford, Gentilman, the latter settled on Walter and Mary, and the heirs of the body of Mary, lands in the city of Lichfield, Longdon, Fulfen, Curburgh, Elmhurst, Wolverhampton and Bilston, together with the reversion after the death of Elizabeth, the wife of Hugh Lee, of the manor of Woodford and the tythes of Womburne and Orton. John Wrottesley, on his side, covenanted to convey an estate to Gilbert Astley, Esq., and John Talbot, Gentilman, in order to make a settlement upon Walter and Mary, with remainder after the death of Mary, upon the heirs of their bodies. It was, doubtless, in pursuance of this covenant that John that John Wrottesley levied a Fine 14 Elizabeth (1572), by which, in conjunction with Walter, he enfeoffed Gilbert Astley and John Talbot in the manor of Wrottesley. In this Fine the manor is said to have consisted of eight messuages, a cottage, two tofts, twenty gardens, twenty orchards, five hundred acres of arable land, two hundred acres of meadow, five hundred acres of pasture, four hundred acres of wood, and 5s. of rent. This corresponds very closely with the acreage of the present day, but the small amount of rent named shews that the manor had been already depopulated and was held almost entirely in demesne. Woodford and the tythes of Womburne and Orton had formerly belonged to the Priory of Dudley, a cell of Wenlock Abbey, and on the dissolution of that house had been granted

in

in 32 Henry VIII to Sir John Dudley (afterwards Duke of Northumberland). In the following year Sir John Dudley gave a lease of them to Hugh Lee for ninety-nine years. On the attainder of the Duke in 1553, they fell to the Crown, and Queen Mary granted them to Thomas Rees and George Colton. On the 7th July, 2 Mary (1554) the lastnamed feoffees conveyed to Edward Leveson and Humfrey Dickens, the Grange of Woodford and all tythes belonging to the same, which they held by the grant of Queen Mary, dated 21st June, 1 Mary (1554), and Edward and Humphrey granted them to Hugh Lee by deed dated 10th July, 2 Mary (1554).1

In 13 Elizabeth (1571) with a view of providing for one of his numerous daughters, John Wrottesley purchased from Gilbert Astley, of Patshull, his brother-in-law, the wardship and marriage of Richard Whettell, a minor, and the son and heir of Richard Whettell, of Great Sheepy, co. Leicester, deceased. By an Indenture made between the two parties, Gilbert covenanted further:

"That yf yt shall happen the seyd Rychard Whetell to deceasse att any tyme within the space of one year and a half next after he shall accomplysshe and be of the ffull age of fowretyne yeares, and before he shall be marryed by the consent and appoyntment of the seyd John Wrottesley, his executors and assigns, & hys heyre or heyres then being wythin age, that then he the seyd John Wrottesley, his executors, &c., were to have the custodye wardshypp and marryage of the bodye or bodyes of the same next heyre or heyres for and during the mynorytye of the same, and untyll such tyme as the same heyre or heyres shall accomplysshe and come to theyre full age or ages of consent and agreement to maryage, and by the space of one year and a halfe then next after, and so from heyre to heyre until such tyme as the seyd John Wrottesley his executors or assigns shall or maye have the full comodyte, benefyte and advantage of the marryage of the seyd Richard Whetell or any one his heyre or heyres."

After which follows a clause giving power to John to sell the custody and marriage of the said Richard. The deed, however, ends as follows:

"but as well that he the seyd John Wrottesley his executors &c. shall and will by the sufferance of God bestowe the marryage of the seyd Rychard Whetell wyth or upon one of the doughters of the seyd John Wrottesley and nother (no other) wyth nor

1 Original deeds at Wrottesley, abstracted 1860-62. The tythes are described in the Priory deeds as those of Womborne, Orton, Trysull, Seisdon and Wulmore. They were usually put out to farm by the Priors.

upon eny other as also that he the seyd John Wrottesley his executors &c. shall att all tyme or tymes after the sealyng of these presents att hys or theyre owne proper coste and charge fynde and maynteyne as well the seyd Rychard Whetell and such wyffe as he the seyd Rychard shall fortune to marrye by the appoyntement and consent of the seyd John Wrottesley, meate, drynke, lodgyng and appayrell meete and convenyent for them for and untyll such tyme as he the seyd Rychard Whettell shall accomplysshe and be of the full age of xxi years."

This Indenture was witnessed by John Talbot and Humfrey Gyfford.

The price paid by John Wrottesley for the promotion of his daughter was £63 6s. 8d.1

The age of consent for marriage was fourteen years, and it appears by the terms of this Indenture that in the case of these infant marriages it was usual to consummate the marriage as soon as the parties reached the age of puberty, the object being to entitle the bride to her dower, in the event of her husband dying under age, and before he could make a settlement upon her. On the 30th July 1577 Richard Whettell covenanted with John Wrottesley on his marriage with Dorothy, the daughter of John, but he does not appear to have come of age until shortly before the 10th February 24 Elizabeth (1582). At this date John was dead, and the parties to the marriage settlement were Richard Whetell, of Great Shepey, co. Leicester, Gentilman, on the one part, and Elizabeth Wrottesley, widow of John Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Esq., and Walter, son and heir of the said John, on the other part. The over lordship of Great Sheepy had passed to the Astleys of Patshull, as heirs of the elder line of the Harcourts."

2

In 1576 the Queen having decided to take the part of the Netherlanders against the King of Spain, a muster was made of the armed force of the Kingdom. In this muster, which is printed in the Staffordshire Collections, John Wrottesley was returned as liable for a lance and a light horseman.* A lance at this date signifies a mounted man-at-arms clothed in armour. In musters of later date they are styled cuirassiers. In November 1578 John was on his death-bed, and the following document was produced and proved in February 1578-9 as his last will :—

Original deed at Wrottesley, copied 1860-62.
Ibid.

Sir Thomas Astley, living temp. Richard II, had married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, co. Oxon, but most of the landed property passed by settlement to the male line, a younger branch of the house (see the pedigree in The Genealogist, N.S., vol. xvii, p. 175).

Vol. iii, Staff. Collections, part ii, page 18.

U

"Certain wordes spoken by the right worshipfull John Wrottesley Esq. the 28th day of November a little before his death (21 Elizabeth) 1578. The said John Wrottesley Esquire being asked of Mr. Walter Wrottesley his son and heir what he would bestow upon his two sisters towards their preferment, and he said 300 marks apiece. Then the said Walter Wrottesley demanded where the 600 marks was or whether he would charge his executors with the payment thereof. And he said I cannot tell. Also the said Walter asked what he would give his brother that was in London. And he said, he hath 100 marks already, and I will give him 20 pounds more. Being asked where that was to be paid, and he said out of my landes at Butterton, then answer being made that it could not be paid out of those landes for that it was Mistres Wrotteslies her jointure, then the said John Wrottesley said, I will devise some other way. Also being asked what he would give his two youngest brethren and he said 10 pounds a piece of annuity. John Smith, Roger Onyons (his mark), W. Dunn, Richard Chillerton (his mark)."

Proved 10th February 1578, by Elizabeth Wrottesley, the relict.1

John Wrottesley was buried in the Wrottesley Chancel at Tettenhall, where a very fine altar tomb, erected by his widow, still exists to his memory (see plate annexed). The tomb has effigies of John, in plate-armour of the time of Elizabeth, with a coat of mail protruding from under the cuisses. A heavy gold chain is wound twice round his neck, and he is shewn with beard and moustache, and with ruffs on the neck and wrists. Elizabeth Wrottesley is dressed in the closelyfitted velvet robe, with slashed sleeves and pomander, which is familiar to us from the portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots. She also wears ruffs round the neck and wrists. The bodice is not pointed as shewn in the pictures of Queen Elizabeth. The inscription, which is in Gothic letters (except the number of the years) is as follows:

Here yeth the bodies of John lrottley Esquire and Elyzabethe his wyle, which John died the xxviii daye of November anno d'ni 1578, which Elyzabethe being wydowe, caused this tombe to be made anno domini 1580.

On the north side of the tomb are the effigies of eleven children, of which two being dead, are represented in shrouds. In Ashmole's time the names of all these children were printed above their effigies, but they are now illegible. Ashmole has preserved their names as under :-Walter Wrottesley, son and heir, Thomas, Edward, John, Isabell, Mary,

Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The orthography has been modernised by the copyist. The legal year did not end till the 25th March at this period.