executed a power of attorney, authorizing George Lea to receive the rents specified and to pay them to the Pendrells and descendants of Francis Yates. This deed, which was formerly at Wrottesley, was signed by all the Pendrell family mentioned in the Letters Patent. Of these one only, Mary the widow of Richard Pendreli (trusty Dick), was able to write her name. William Pendrell signs with his initials, W.P.; the three others, John, Humfrey and George Pendrell, all sign with a cross. In view of the various spellings of this name it well to mention that Mary signs be may her name as Mary Pendrill. as Sir Walter died in 1686. When he certified to the Wrottesley Pedigree at the Visitation of 1663 he described himself as thirty-two years of age. He would be therefore fifty-five years of age at the date of his death. In his will, which is dated the 30th October 1685, he described himself as "Sir Walter Wrottesley of Purton in the county of Stafford," and as the house at Wrottesley was rebuilt by his son and successor, it was probably in such a state of decay at this time as to be uninhabitable. Most if not all of the ancient manor houses in Staffordshire were timber framed, and if the main timbers decayed there was no resource but to pull them down. He bequeathed to his eldest son Walter, on whom he stated that he had already settled a plentiful estate in lands, his lease of the tithes of Trescott Grange, which he held of the Vicars Choral of Lichfield, and also the farm of Trescott Grange which were lately purchased of John Finch, Esqr., and Sarah his wife, to be held by him and his heirs male in tail in the same way as his manor of Wrottesley and his other lands were settled upon him. To his daughter Anne he left £1,000, to be paid her on the day of her marriage, or on reaching the age of twentyone, which should first happen. To his son Harry 5s. and no more, because he had received already £1,300. To his son Gray Wrottesley £1,000. To his daughters Ursula and Anne, all the furniture in the house at Purton; and the rest of his goods, chattels and money to his son Walter. The will was proved in London on the 24th June 1686. Of the sons and daughters of Sir Walter, Henry died unmarried in 1726. Gray likewise died unmarried in 1692, when letters of administration of his effects were granted to his brother, Sir Walter Wrottesley, the third baronet. Ursula, 1 Tettenhall Register. 2 the eldest daughter, married Thomas Crompton, Esq., of Stone Park, CO. Stafford, by whom she had an only daughter, Elizabeth, who died unmarried.1 SIR WALTER WROTTESLEY, THIRD BARONET, 1686-1712. Walter, son of Walter Wrottesley of Wrottesley, co. Stafford, Baronet, matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on the 18th March 1675-6, aged seventeen. He was therefore born in 1659. In 1678, when only nineteen years of age, he was married to Eleanora, the daughter of Sir John Archer, Kt., of Coopersale, co. Essex, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. The marriage allegation was dated 28th June 1678, and was to the following effect:-Walter Wrottesley of Wrottesley, co. Stafford, Esqr., batchelor, about twenty, with consent of father, Sir Walter Wrottesley of the same, Baronet, and Mrs. Eleanora Archer of Coopersale in the Parish of Theydon Garnon, co. Essex, about eighteen, with consent of father, Sir John Archer, Kt., of St. Clement's Danes, Middlesex.? In the marriage settlement made on this occasion Sir Walter Wrottesley, the father, conveyed to trustees for the benefit of the young couple, saving his own life interest, his manor of Wrottesley, a moiety of the manor of Oaken, the manor of Tettenhall Clericorum, the manor of Tresley and Seisden, the manors of Wombourne and Orton, Woodford Grange and Perton and Trescott, all his lands in Wrottesley, Oaken, Oaken Park, Codshall, Billbroke and Wightwike, the tithes of Wrottesley, Oaken, Codshall, Billbroke, Wightwike, Wombourne, Swindon, Orton and Chaspell, co. Stafford, a forge called the Heath forge in Wombourne and Orton, and the tithes of Perton and Heath forge. Sir John Archer on his part settled a sum of £6,000 upon Walter and Elianora and their issue.3 4 Elianora died in January 1693-4 when only thirty-three years of age, and shortly after her death Sir Walter married Anne, the daughter of Mr. Justice Burton of Longnor, co. Salop.5 About the same time he pulled down the old hall at Wrottesley, filled up the moat, and built 1 Notes by H. S. Grazebrook to the Staffordshire Visitation of 1663, vol. v, Staffordshire Collections, p. 332. 2 Harleian Society Publications. 3 Wrottesley Muniments. 4 Tettenhall Register. She was buried on the 28th of January 1693-4. 5 Wotton's Baronetage. a new house upon the same site None of the accounts or correspondence respecting the new house were preserved at Wrottesley, but from intrinsic evidence there can be no doubt of its having been designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It was built of red brick with stone dressings, and the details of the stone work correspond in all respects to those of Chelsea Hospital, which had just been completed by the same architect. The double architrave to the windows, the stone quoins, and the block cornice were the same as those of the Hospital. In the case of some of the windows and doors there was a change in the design of the architrave, a torus moulding having been introduced into it, and the same variation is to be found at Chelsea Hospital. As originally designed the house must have been a handsome building. The great banquetting hall or saloon was 43 feet in length, 28 feet in width, and the same in height, running through two stories, and with two tiers of windows. At the west end there was a minstrel gallery, to which access was obtained from the main staircase. The latter was a very fine feature in the house, occupying a space of 26 feet by 20 feet, with a massive oak balustrading and dado. At the back of the house were open cloisters formed by arches springing from columns. These extended the whole length of the house between the wings, and were 88 feet in length and 16 feet 6 inches in width. Above the cloisters there was a gallery of the same dimensions, lighted by seven windows, divided by mullions and transoms, in which were some ancient coats of arms in colored glass, which had been taken out of the old house. Dr. Wilkes, the antiquary, writing about the year 1740, says, "At Wrottesley is a most magnificent house with stables, outhouses, gardens, etc., begun by this young gentleman's grandfather and tis a great pity they are not finished according to the original design." In a note, added about fifty years later, Dr. Wilkes says, "The house was built about 100 years ago in the style of King William, of brick with white stone cornices in the form of an H, large and commodious but not handsome." Between these two dates the aspect of the house had been completely changed, all the characteristic features of it having been obliterated by the eighth Baronet. The dormer windows had been removed from the roof, the cloisters bricked up, There is an old Tudor window with stone mullions and transoms covered by the stone work of the new house, on the east side. 2 "The young gentleman was Sir Richard Wrottesley, who was under age at the time Dr. Wilkes wrote. and the great gallery which was the glory of the house had been destroyed to obtain additional bedrooms. at this date also that additional flues were cut in the walls of the house, one of which, by communicating with the woodwork of the floors, was the cause of the destruction of the house by fire in 1897. The tradition in the family is that the house was built from money which Sir Walter obtained with Elianora Archer, and this is likely to be true, for the Archer arms were impaled with those of Wrottesley in the pediment on the front of the house, though his first wife had been dead several years before the building was completed.' 2 During the rebuilding of the house Sir Walter lived at Somerford, which he had bought from the mortgagees of John Somerford, and he died there in 1712,3 aged fifty-three. His will was dated the 14th November 1707, and was proved at London on the 18th March 1712-13 by Dame Anne Wrottesley, the relict and executrix. It states: 66 Imprimis, whereas I did some short time after the death of my first wife, grant an annuity or yearly rent charge of seven hundred pounds to be issuing and going out of all and every my mannors, messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments that I was then seised of in the County of Stafford during the time of my natural life upon trust for the maintenance and raising of portions for the younger children of my said deceased wife, whereby considerable portions and provisions have been, and will be raised for them for their respective preferments; and therefore I do give and devise to my eldest son Mr. John Wrottesley and to all and every of my younger children by his mother, that shall be living at my decease, the summe of twenty shillings a piece to buy them respectively mourning rings to wear in remembrance of me. Item, I give and devise all and every the messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments whatsoever I have purchased or am in any way intituled unto either in law or equity in the Parish of Brewood in the County of Stafford unto my loving wife the Lady Anne Wrottesley and her assigns for and during the term of her natural life, and from and after her decease I give and devise the same unto my son Walter Wrottesley and his assigns for and during the term of his natural life without impeachment of or for any manner of waste, and from and after his decease to the use and behoof of such person and persons and for such estate and estates as I have caused the mansion house called Somerford Hall wherein I now live, to be settled unto, and my will is that the said messuages, lands, etc., by me purchased as aforesaid of William Challoner, Edward Jellicoe1 1 The date on one of the leaden hopper heads of the rain water pipes was 1698. 2 Parke's "History of Brewood," pp. 80 and 103. 3 He was buried at Brewood on the 4th of April 1712 (Brewood Register). On 22nd January 1704 Edward Jellicoe of Standeford surrendered the |