Manors
The 5-hide vill of STRETTON [UPON
DUNSMORE], held in the reign of Edward the Confessor by Ailmund, was in
1086 the property of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, whose tenant was
Rainald de Bailleul. Its value had increased from £3 to £5 and in 1086 to £6. Earl Roger, amongst his other estates and
dignities, held the castle and earldom of Arundel, and Stretton appears to have been regarded as
an appendage of this earldom in its various creations. In 1235 it was reckoned
with Wolston and Church Lawford at 2½ knight's fees held of John Fitzalan, Stretton by itself being a half-fee held of
the same overlord by the heir of Ralph Strange (Extranei) in 1242. A quarter of a fee in Stretton and Princethorpe
was in 1428 stated to have been formerly held of the Earls of Arundel.
The next recorded tenant of the manor after Ralph Strange
was Thomas de Garshale, who with his wife Maud in 1262, for a consideration of
20 marks silver and an annual rent of 1d. or a pair of white gloves,
passed property in Stretton and Princethorpe consisting of 2 messuages, 2½
virgates of land, and 10 acres of wood to Robert Heriz of Stretton. Though not
specifically described as a manor it included demesnes, homages, rents of
freemen, wards, reliefs, escheats, and other manorial appurtenances and
represented the whole of the Garshales property in the two vills. Robert Heriz soon regranted the estate, at the
same rent but for a consideration of 30 marks, to Henry de Hastings, son and heir
of Sir Henry de Hastings. He or his son
Sir John subinfeudated Thomas de Bray, who held a fifth of a knight's fee in Stretton
of the latter in 1313, and in 1282 had
made a settlement of his estates in Warwickshire and Bedfordshire on himself
and his wife Alice, with remainder to his son Thomas and his heirs, his sons
Henry, Roger, and Richard, and their heirs successively. The Bray family continued to be tenants of the
Hastings (later Earls of Pembroke). This
fifth of a fee in Stretton was identified in the inquisitions on Joan widow of
Sir William Beauchamp (1435), who inherited through the entail made by the
second Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, on his cousin William de Beauchamp, and on Sir Edward Neville (1476), her grandson.
The last of the Brays in the male line
was Richard (temp. Henry VI), one of whose daughters and coheiresses, Helen,
married Edmund Starkey. His descendant, William Starkey (died 1555), left two
sons, Thomas, who died in 1557, and William, aged 18 at that time; the latter was dealing with his share in 1560,
perhaps as a settlement on his coming of age, and sold it two years later to
Anne, widow of Sir Thomas Longueville, on whose death in 1564 it came to her son by a
former marriage, Bartholomew Tate of Delapré (Northants.). The latter conveyed it in 1581 to his younger
brother Anthony, of Sutton Bonington (Notts.) and it was sold by Anthony's son
George to Richard Taylor of Binley in 1620. This manor remained in the Taylor family for
over a century, Samuel Taylor being
returned as lord between 1715 and 1742. A Samuel Taylor was dealing with it in
association with William Butler and his wife, probably his brother-in-law and
sister, in 1750, and William Butler was
lord up to at least 1759, when with his wife Mary, son William, and several
other members of the family he sold it to George, Earl of Halifax. The latter died without surviving male issue
in 1771, when this half of the manor
disappeared as a separate entity, becoming merged with the half already held by
the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, who was distantly related to the Earl of Halifax and
in the previous year had acquired manorial interests in Stretton through his
marriage with the heiress of the Montagus.
The descent of the other half of the manor, which is not
noticed by Dugdale, is very obscure. A fine was levied on a half-manor between
Clement Cave, third son of Richard Cave of Stanford (Leics.) and Margery his wife and Edward Mountague and
John Croke in 1527, and between Nicholas
Charnell and Gabriel Chambers in 1571. Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, was
lord of Stretton in 1656 and his
daughter and coheir Elizabeth with her husband Jocelyn, Lord Percy (later Earl
of Northumberland), were dealing with the manor in 1668 and she with her second husband Ralph, Baron
Montagu of Boughton in 1673. John, Duke
of Montagu, and Mary his wife were dealing with the manor in 1711; no members of this family are mentioned as
lords of the manor in the Gamekeepers' Deputations, but there is little doubt
that the two halves of the manor became merged after 1771
The Dukes of Buccleuch remained lords of the manor, the Manorial
rights established under the law and property act in 1925. The rights were subsequently held in the court of Lord Fothergill. These rights
were transferred to the current title holder in 2013. The current title holder
recognised under the Law and Property Act 1925 is Niel Morley. Lord of
Stretton.
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