The Baronial Halls, and Ancient Picturesque Edifices of England; Vol. 1 of 2

by S. C. Hall

BENTHALL HALL,
SHROPSHIRE.

enthall Manor,[14] Shropshire, is in that part of Wenlock hundred which was comprised in the Saxon hundred of Patintune; a division which became obsolete soon after the compilation of Domesday Book. Though in the present day Benthall constitutes a parish in itself, it was included in that of Wenlock till the latter end of the seventeenth century. In the reign of Edward the Confessor—and, probably, from a much earlier period—this estate belonged to the priory of Wenlock; and when William, the successor of that pious king, distributed lands among his Norman followers, at the expense of the Saxon nobles, he had too much regard for his reputation to deprive the Church of her possessions. Reconciling, however, his piety to worldly policy, King William made the priory of Wenlock subservient to the abbey of Rheims, and thus contrived to reward the latter establishment for successful prayers made in favour of his expedition, and at the same time to raise a Norman influence over possessions of the English Church. The abbots of Rheims, like modern non-resident landlords, had cause to regret their absence; for we find that in the reign of Richard I. the Prior of Wenlock dealt with his lands as if the Norman abbot had no concern with them: and when, at length, in the reign of Edward III., the Abbot of Rheims obtained the king’s charter, confirming to him and his successors all the English lands which belonged to his abbey, the interposition of the sovereign was ineffectual as far as it related to Benthall, that estate having been in the meantime irrevocably disposed of.

In a series of charters possessed by the Benthall family, some of which are written in the Saxon language, though without date, it appears that the manor was owned many years by a family who took their surname from this estate, and these are referred to in the hundred-rolls of the reign of King Henry III., as having been the ancestors of Phillip de Benethall, then Lord of Benethall, who held certain lands under the Prior of Wenlock. Early in the following reign, however, on Phillip’s forfeiting his lands, Benthall was re-granted to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor, whose annexation of this and numerous other estates to his neighbouring castle of Acton Burnell is not free from suspicion. The chancellor’s object seems, however, to have been the preferment of his family, and, perhaps, an addition to his local influence, rather than an increase to his own revenue, for no sooner had he acquired the manor than he subgranted it to his kinsman, John Burnell, who describes himself Lord of Benethall, and appears to have resided here many years; but on his succeeding his son Henry, as Abbot of Buildwas, his eldest son, Phillip Burnell, received possession of his father’s lands, and, dropping the patronymic of Burnell, assumed the surname of De Benethall.[15] Several acts of liberality on the part of this Phillip towards the fraternity at Buildwas are recorded to his credit; and his father appears to have been a considerable benefactor of the abbey. The descendants of this Phillip de Benethall, and his wife Maude, daughter of Nicholas Forrer, of Lynley, continued to hold the lordship of Benthall, with other lands, upon conditions of feudal service to the elder branch of the Burnell family, namely, the descendants of Sir Hugh, the eldest brother of the chancellor; among whom are included the Handloes and the Lovells, descended from Maud, sister and heiress of Edward Lord Burnell, the grandson of Sir Hugh, until Francis Viscount Lovell, Lord Chamberlain of the Household and Chief Butler of King Richard III., having fought for his sovereign at Bosworth Field, his estates were forfeited to the Lancastrian king, Henry VII.[16]

On the loss of the battle, with which King Richard lost his life as well as his ill-gotten crown, Lord Lovell escaped to Saint John’s Abbey at Colchester, and afterwards to Flanders, where Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, sister to the late King Edward IV., supplied an army of two thousand men; with which, and associated with John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, he invaded England, and was killed at the battle of Newark-upon-Trent, in the third year of King Henry VII. Robert Benthall, the seventh in descent from Phillip Burnell, was owner of the estate at this time, and continued to enjoy it, notwithstanding Lord Lovell’s forfeiture.[17] From this circumstance there can be no doubt that Robert had proved himself of Lancastrian politics; and it is probable that he was one of the party of eight hundred gentlemen and others of Shropshire who were collected by his cousin, Sir Richard Corbet, and accompanied the Earl of Richmond from Shrewsbury to Bosworth.

From this period the family of De Benethall, or Benthall, held the manor immediately under the crown,[18] till the death of Richard Benthall, Esq.,[19] in 1720, who, by his will, gave this estate, together with other lands, to his affianced cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Browne, Esq., of Caughley, who was high-sheriff of the county anno 1567, by Catherine, the daughter and sole heiress of Edward Benthall. By the will of Ann, widow of Ralph Browne, Esq. (who was a son of the before-mentioned Ralph), the manor of Benthall was entailed, in the year 1768, on Lucia, the only daughter and heiress of Francis Turner Blythe, Esq., afterwards the wife of the Rev. Edward Harries, Rector of Hanwood, and Vicar of Cleobury Mortimer, from whose eldest son, Thomas Harries, Esq., of Cructon Hall, the estate has been recently purchased by John George Weld, second Lord Forester.

About twelve miles from Shrewsbury, and three from Wenlock, lies Benthall Hall, built by William Benthall, Esq.,[20] A.D. 1535, on the site of a former house, which, as well as the adjacent manor chapel, is mentioned in the reign of Henry III.,[21] as being then the property of Phillip de Benethall; the chapel, however, which was of early English architecture, remained until A.D. 1666, when it was destroyed by fire, and in its place the modern chapel, now the parish church of Benthall, was erected.

The situation of Benthall has at all times enabled its proprietor to exercise considerable influence over elections in the borough of Wenlock, the franchise of which extends over the whole of this manor; but few of the preceding residents at the Hall have aspired to the office of bailiff, the chief magistrate of this borough—an office which, nevertheless, is of importance, since the liberties of Wenlock are more extensive, it is said, than those of any other borough in England. There is, however, in the Bodleian Library, a curious manuscript account of the honourable reception which Edward Sprott, deputy to Richard Benthall, of Benthall, the bailiff, and Richard Lawley, gave, on the 16th July, 1554, to the Lord President of the Marches of Wales, on his visiting Wenlock with Justice Townsend. Mr. Sprott was a member of an ancient family, who long held a considerable property, called “The Marsh,” in the borough of Wenlock. Richard Lawley was a son of Mr. Thomas Lawley, who had purchased the then lately dissolved priory of Wenlock, and had converted it to a residence for himself. He was the ancestor of the present (anno 1847) Lord Wenlock and Sir Francis Lawley, Bart., to the latter of whom the extensive property of the Lawley family in this neighbourhood now belongs. Richard Benthall was eldest son and heir of William, who has been before noticed. He married Jane, daughter of Lawrence Ludlow, Esq., of the Morehouse in this county.

The Hall stands on one of a chain of wooded hills called Benthall Edge, which rises from a sheet of water in front of the house to a point at some distance in its rear. In this direction the table of the hill is terminated by a precipitous wood, which skirts the river Severn, and, at the left, commands a distant view of mountains in Montgomeryshire, while the Severn is seen winding its course through the vale of Shropshire. In the foreground the river passes beneath the Wrekin hill, and washes the ruined walls of Buildwas Abbey. These objects are presented from a natural terrace raised some hundred feet above the Severn, which here, pent in by opposing hills, glides rapidly towards Bridgnorth.

The oak carving in the hall, dining-room, and drawing-room of the manor-house, were executed by order of John Benthall, Esq. (a grandson of William), about A.D. 1618, and the arms of Cassey were impaled with those of Benthall in the ornamental panels, as a compliment to that family, upon the recent marriage of Lawrence, the heir of Benthall, with the daughter of Thomas Cassey, Esq.,[22] of Whitefield and Cassey Compton, in Gloucestershire.