In the reign of Henry II., Sir William de Gatacre had a suit with one Walter, about half a hide of land in Great Lye: this was subject to a Wager of Battle, and apparently Gatacre proved himself the better man, for Great Lye is even now held by his descendant. This same William appears in another record as one of the four "Visors," who in July 1194 had to report to the Courts of Westminster on the validity of the "essoign of Cecilia de Cantreyn, a litigant. Gatacre's associates in this duty—to which knights only were usually appointed—were Henry Christian, Philip Fitz Holegod, and William de Rudge, all his neighbours and of equal rank with himself."[[4]]
[[4]] Ibid.
He was succeeded by Sir Robert, his son; who sat on a Jury of Grand Assizes in April 1200, to try a question of right in relation to lands at Nordley Regis, at the "Iter of the King's Justices."[[5]]
[[5]] Ibid.
The tenure of the estates was in great jeopardy in the life of Thomas de Gatacre; for it is told how a certain Philip de Lutley, the King's Escheator, did "seize the estates of Gatacre, Sutton, and Great Lye into the King's hand, on the ground that Thomas de Gatacre had entered upon these estates without doing homage and fealty to the Crown, and without paying his relief, so that he had occupied the same unjustly for twenty-two years and more."[[6]] At this unfortunate moment Thomas died, leaving Alice, his widow, to fight for herself and their son Thomas. She appealed to the King (Edward III.) in Chancery, in the Michaelmas Term 1368. There was a trial by twenty-four jurors, being knights and others in the visnage of Sutton not being kin to Alice. She herself appeared in person at Westminster, and won her cause, for a "King's writ of the same year commits to the same Alice, widow of Thomas de Gatacre, custody of the Manor of Gatacre and the hamlet of Sutton with their appurtenances."
[[6]] See Eyton's Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 90, 91,
The grandson of the younger Thomas was called John; he flourished in the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., and was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1409. In a contemporary stained-glass window now in the hall at Gatacre there is a portrait of the same John, who is described as "Groom of the body to Henry VIth." He was succeeded by his son John, who was Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth in the twelfth year of Edward IV.
The ancient house
The house at Gatacre stands in the parish of Claverley, and is about two miles distant from this village. Inside the church—a red sandstone building full of interest to the archæologist—are many monuments, of which the most ancient are two incised marble slabs inlaid in the eastern wall; these are about six feet high. On one is shown a man in armour, elaborate and perfect in all its detail, commemorating William Gatacre, who died in 1577, and his wife and eleven children; and on the other his successor Francis, 1599, is depicted in civilian dress with his wife at his side.