aspirations to greatness: the wilmots of hartlebury

Aspirations to Greatness: the Wilmotsof HartleburyBy JEFF WILMOT and PETER KING

There seems to be a desire amongst Wilmots generally to be connected to the earls of Rochester.Even the descendants of John Wilmot, a Quaker watchmaker transported to Australia in 1832,speculate occasionally on the possibility that that other John Wilmot, the second earl of Rochester,poet and notorious libertine might also be an ancestor. A family of Wilmots, in which the thoughtbecame action, flourished at Mitton (now part of Stourport) in Worcestershire in the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries. Victoria County History noted under Kidderminster, ‘In the seventeenthcentury there were several fulling-mills on the Stour near Lower Mitton, in the occupation ofdifferent members of the Wilmot family, who appear to have been successful, as they registeredtheir pedigree in the visitation of 1682’.1 That was the year after the Rochester branch of Wilmotsterminated and this Mitton branch of Wilmots claimed the Rochester coat of arms. This articleintends to explore the history of this family and its association with land and industry.

The noble WilmotsThe noble branch of Wilmots were an Oxfordshire family, who can perhaps be traced back to JohnWilmot of Chislehampton (d.1498), whose son leased the manor of Came (later Camoys Court)that year.2Amemorial brass in Stadhampton Church records his burial in 1508. His son Edward (stilla minor in 1517) lived atWitney, but owned the manors of Newent and Pauntley in Gloucestershire,as well as lands in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. His sixth sonArthurWilmot ofWield (Hants.)was made a baronet in 1621 but died unmarried in 1629. Edward’s second son was Edward Wilmotof Culham (Oxon.), whose son Charles served as a soldier in Ireland in the war at the end ofElizabeth’s reign, and was made a viscount in 1621.3

In 1640, Henry Wilmot (later the second viscount) was elected to Parliament to representTamworth, Staffordshire, but he was expelled in 1641 and committed to the Tower of London forsupporting a plot to bring up the army to overawe Parliament. The Civil War began in 1642 andHenry LordWilmot was appointed Muster-master and Commissary-General, and led the cavalry onthe king’s left wing at Edgehill. In April 1643, he was made lieutenant-general of horse in theRoyalist army and in that capacity was responsible for the Royalist victory at the Battle ofRoundway Down that July.4

The two branches were both represented in the vicinity of Dudley in June 1644. Dudley, adetachment of Worcestershire surrounded by Staffordshire, was a small town clustered around acastle that was the seat (though no longer the home) of the Lords Dudley. At the beginning of thewar it had been one of the few Royalist garrisons within Staffordshire. Most of the others soon fellto the Parliamentarians (the Roundheads), but Dudley, protected by its castle, remained Royalist.On 2 June 1644 it was besieged by the Roundheads under the Earl of Denbigh, the commander-in-chief of all the Parliamentary forces in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. King Charlessent Lord Wilmot from Worcester at the head of cavalry and 1000 footsoldiers to relieve the siegeand the two sides met at Tipton Green nearby. From the skirmish that followed both Lord Wilmotand the Earl of Denbigh were credited with victory:5 Denbigh won the battle but he had alreadyabandoned the siege upon hearing that Lord Wilmot was coming.

On the opposite side of the Civil War to Lord Wilmot was a certain Robert Wilmot, born inHartlebury in 1604. He had copyhold property called Luckcocks not far to the east of Dudley in the

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then rural village of Smethwick, but he held the significant post of treasurer to the CountyCommittee at Stafford, through which Parliament administered that county. One of its functionswas to collect the weekly pay and other money to maintain the Parliamentary army.6 Robert wentwith the earl of Denbigh’s army to Rushall and Dudley to collect ‘contributions on the public faith’,that is, loans made to Parliament in the perhaps optimistic expectation that some day they would berepaid.7

The two Wilmots were again in the same district during Charles II’s escape after the Battle ofWorcester in 1651, when LordWilmot was, like Charles, in hiding north ofWolverhampton. Unlikethe king, Lord Wilmot disdained disguise and insisted on riding, so that the king often encouragedWilmot to travel separately. Six weeks after the battle they escaped together to France where CharlespromotedWilmot to be earl of Rochester in 1652. In 1656, he took command of an English Royalistregiment in Spanish service (which subsequently became the Grenadier Guards), but died at Sluysthe following winter. He had outlived the son of his first marriage, but left a widow (who lived until1696) and a son John aged about 10. John, the second earl, was a courtier and poet, but died in1680, followed by his widow within a month and their only son Charles a little over a year later.With Charles’ death the peerages became extinct.8

The Hartlebury familyIt was Robert’s third son James, then living in Hartlebury, who claimed the Rochester coat of armson 22 August 1682, arguing that his line and the Rochester’s were both branches of an ancientWilmot family ofWorcestershire to which the arms actually belonged.9 The occasion was a visitationto Worcestershire by heralds of the College of Arms, an institution begun by Henry VIII to verifycoats of arms that were in use and register the pedigrees of the families entitled to them. Being onlythe third son James did not claim the arms for himself, but he paid 27s 6d, the fee for a gentleman,‘in behalf of his brother John Wilmot, and of his nephew Mr Pinson Wilmot, of KidderminsterForeign in Co. Worcs.’ This was for registering the family pedigree ‘in the present Visitation Bookof Worcestershire, made in pursuance of His Majesties commission under the Great Seal ofEngland’.10 John was James’ eldest brother and Pinson was his eldest son and so denominated onthe pedigree as the family’s heir apparent. But James could not prove the relationship, so that thearms were not allowed, though the pedigree was registered.11

There were about 100 applications at this visitation. Other claimants included Richard Avenantwhose father Edward was a half brother of James’ father Robert. Their claim seems to have beensuccessful.12 James’ sister Hester had married into the Ouldnall family who owned a fulling mill atHillpool in Chaddesley Corbett. They claimed to be armigerous, but their claim was ‘respited’pending proof.13 In spite of the refusal by the heralds the Wilmot family continued to believe in thealliance and probably continued to use the Rochester arms. In the early nineteenth century, adescendant wrote (making several mistakes):

‘[The coat of arms] is the arms of the ancient Wilmot family, before Henry Wilmot, a branch ofit, was created Earl of Rochester, Decr. 13th, 1645. Succeeded by his son, John Wilmot; his sonCharles died in infancy. Henry, or John Wilmot who died July 26, 1680, was said to be the 3rd

generation from the Worcestershire family.’14If there was a connection between the two families, it must have been a very long way back. This

branch of the Wilmots was certainly well established in Hartlebury by the 1470s, while (asmentioned) the Rochester branch was entrenched in Oxfordshire by 1498, five generations beforethe first earl.15

Several earlier generations of the family had lived at Hartlebury. They were not in a position toregister pedigrees at earlier visitations, being at most yeomen. The earliest traceable member of thefamily is Richard who overburdened the common at Torton in 1474. The same year, aWilliam died;so his widow Elizabeth had freebench (the right to enjoy her husband’s property while sole andchaste) in his messuage and a virgate and a half in Titton.16AHughWilmot who was on the manorial

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jury in 1489, 1496, and 1497 may be the same HughWillmot who had a messuage and two virgatesof land according to an undated survey. This survey comes from ‘Bishop Carpenter’s RegisterBook’, so called because it ends with the will of that bishop (who died in 1476), but the will isentered in the register after a lease of 1511, and the survey may therefore be early sixteenth century.Hugh Wilmot (not necessarily the same) had two messuages and a virgate and a half in Lincombecalled Hawes and Donnes or Somerez, late in the tenure ofWilliam Ballard.17 This property (thoughlater called a messuage, virgate, and nook) belonged to the family, who rose to be gentlemen andwhom this article concerns.

In 1522, when Henry VIII was preparing for war with France, commissioners were appointed tosurvey each county and make a new tax assessment, and to list the men over sixteen, fit for serviceas soldiers. Thomas Wilmot (d. 1548) was listed as having no land and goods worth only fortyshillings. Few people in Hartlebury were assessed for land, suggesting the copyhold tenements wereregarded as worth little beyond the rent and fines due to the bishop of Worcester as lord of themanor. RichardWilmot of Hartlebury (connection unknown) had neither land nor assessable goods,but was considered fit to serve the king as a billman.18 There seems to have been a third person ofthe name, who was not in the list: John Willmot of Lincombe was presented as owing suit of courtin 1529 and for not ringing his pigs in 1531.19 This suggests that he was of age in 1529, but undersixteen at the military survey of 1522, implying that he was born between 1504 and 1508. He wasprobably son of Hugh Wilmot who had the Lincombe property in the Carpenter survey. This Johnprobably died between 1554 and 1560 when there was a gap in both the parish register and manorrolls. He and his wife Elizabeth had at least two daughters and one surviving son, the eldest beingJohn, the grandfather of Robert the County Treasurer.

This John was probably born in the 1530s, shortly before the start of the parish register ofHartlebury, which did record the baptisms of several siblings from 1542. He married Joyce in about1562 and all their six children were born in Hartlebury, of whom only Robert (b.1565) andAnthony(b.1573) survived. The visitation pedigree states that Joyce’s maiden name was Middlemore,suggesting a relationship with the gentry family of Edgbaston and of Hawkeslowe and Haselwellin Kings Norton. However, it also states (probably wrongly) that she remarried Avenant, whichcertainly refers to Joyce’s daughter-in-law Alice. Joyce died in 1574/5. When John died – ‘JohnWilmot of Lyncombe buried 27 December 1577’ – the administration of his will was committed toWilliam and Hugh Yarnold for the use and benefit of his two sons Robert andAnthony during theirminority.20 John’s death was presented in the manor court in 1578, and Robert was admitted tenantaccording to a copy (of court roll), granting him the reversion, dated October 1566 (when he wasbut one year old).21 Two years later, he was in trouble for his house being out of repair.22

The elder son Robert married Alice in about 1590. They had three surviving daughters and twosons, John (b. 1592) and Robert (the Treasurer – b. 1604), all baptised at Hartlebury. In 1594 Robertarranged for Edwin and Urban Ayre (who had a reversionary interest in the Lincombe propertyfrom 1579 – evidently in trust for himself) to surrender it to his son Robert, his brotherAnthony andJohn Yarrington of Yarrington in Astley (across Redstone Ferry from Hartlebury).23 Robert seniordied in 1605.24 He left free land in Kidderminster to his wife Alice until John turned 21, then toJohn and heirs of his body, and to Robert on the failure of such heirs. Robert and the three daughtersMargery, Margaret and Mary were given a legacy of £20 each.25 Alice was given the residueof his goods, cattle and corn, and appointed as executrix. In a codicil he gave a ewe and lamb to hismaid Joane Willmot. The extant remnant of the inventory taken after his death lists a hall andparlour, with chambers over each, a corn garrett, and a kitchen.26 Robert’s death was presented incourt on the day of his burial, Alice the widow having her freebench in the land at Lincombe andalso a tenement and toft called Swaines ground in Stour (also called Stourside), but she forfeitedthis within eighteen months by remarrying Alexander Avenante of Kings Norton.27 However, Johnthe heir was not formally admitted until 1616 to his toft and virgate called Swainesground (still inthe tenure of Alice Avenant), with John Giles of Astley and Walter Donne taking reversionaryinterests.28

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The wills both of Robert in 1605 and of his son John in 1618 refer to ‘free land in Kidderminster’.John described this as mills that he had leased to John Burford and Edwyne Rowley. Later deedsand maps enable the mill in question to be identified with what became Upper Mitton Forge, whichwas (confusingly) actually in the township of Lower Mitton in Kidderminster parish (see Fig. 1).In 1547, this property was given by Sir John Coote to the Salters Company of London and then soldbyWilliam Maynard to William Sheldon and Francis Savage in 1553. On the latter occasion, it wasdescribed as:

Messuage tenement and toft and all those fulling mills called “lez fulling milles” now calledBulle Mylles with six lez stockes whereof 2 were long stockes and 4 were short [brevvia] stockestogether with more and meadow belonging in Nether Mitton in parish of Kidderminster and all thatffundum tenement or pasture land called Swaynes ground in parish of Hartlebury … late inoccupation of Edward Insall.29

A settlement of 1654 refers to the land as pastures called Great Moore and Back Moore; a parcelof land called the Bylett [meaning a small island] and eight fulling mills or walkstocks called BullMills.30 Lower Mitton (now part of Stourport) was a township in Kidderminster parish, unlike UpperMitton, which was an independent manor (but without any mills) in Hartlebury parish. TheSwainesground property was a toft and virgate; a toft is a piece of ground for a house, implying therewas no house. The land was probably farmed from Bull Mills. William Insall is mentioned in 1538in connection with floodgates.31 In 1546, Sir John Coutes surrendered a toft and virgate in Stour,which Edward Insall took. Alis Insall occurs in 1549 and 1550.32 Unfortunately it is not clear howeither this property or the mill came to Robert Willmott.

John, the heir, was buried in January 1619, leaving no ‘heirs of his body’. In ill-health he madehis will on 16 December 1618, which gives his occupation as yeoman and reveals his Puritansympathies: ‘I… committ my soule to the mercie of God my Savior and Redeemer by which I doeassuredly trust to be of the number of his elect and chosen’. The main beneficiary of his will washis brother Robert. He provided for his free land to Robert (as his father had provided), payingtwenty marks per year to their mother Alice, as their father had directed; and to his own wifeElizabeth the thirds of his free land in Kidderminster ‘according to the custom of the manor’(actually according to common law). This was much as he could give her, since he had not barredthe entail. John Burford and Edwyne Rowley were to quietly enjoy the mills and theirappurtenances, paying the rent. John’s will also directed Walter Dunne, Walter Farley of Astley,and John Gyles to surrender their reversionary copyhold estates in a messuage, yardland, and nookin Lincombe in Hartlebury parish to Robert when called upon by him or his friends. Dunne andGyles were to do the same with a toft and yardland called Swaynesground in Stourside in the parishof Hartlebury. If Robert had died, their sister Mary was to have it. There were also legacies toAlexander Avenant ‘my father in law’ and Edward and John Avenant ‘my brothers in law’ (whomwe would today called step relatives), to his sisters Margery, Margaret and Mary, and to severalothers. His wife Elizabeth was appointed executrix and to have the rest of his goods, cattle andmoveable household stuff.33 Edward Avenant was the father of Richard, who managed ShelsleyForge at Shelsley Walsh (probably by 1659), for Thomas Foley, then for his son Philip. Later hebecame a partner of Philip and others in many ironworks, but latterly retained Shelsley Forge as hisown, outside the partnership.34

John’s death was presented in court for the Lincombe property, and Elizabeth (his widow) wasgranted her freebench in it.35 She was still a widow in 1639, when the property was sold. She wasthen given a life interest, with Francis and John Simcockes and Stephen Ward taking reversion,36but she died in January 1640. The Parliamentary Survey of 1648 stated that Francis Simcox andStephen Ward held it to the use of John Pooler. It comprised 6 acres of meadow and 28 acres ofpasture and was worth £15 per year beyond the rent.37 The description and rent of 13s ½d enablethis to be identified with property at Lincombe held in trust for William and then Philip Ballard inthe 1730s and for William Glazebrook of Norchard (in Ombersley) from 1777. This was measuredas just under 47 acres in 1802, but advertised as nearly 52 acres in 1806.38 This in turn identifies it

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Fig. 1 Extract from Hartlebury Parish Map, 1826: showing the mills on the lower River Stour, withhatching added to indicate the location of the associated property. Freehold land is coloured yellow;copyhold, green; and leasehold, blue. (Worcestershire Archive Service BA 7105)


with an estate called Glazebrooks belonging (with two other copyhold estates) to Samuel Croft in1821 when a parish map was prepared in connection with the inclosure of the commons, when theestate was found to contain 59¾ acres, including an allotment of 5 acres from Lineholt Common.Samuel Croft had a total of 135½ acres, dispersed throughout Lincombe, no doubt reflecting howearlier owners had had lands scattered in its common fields.39

Robert Wilmot as County TreasurerThe other family property in Hartlebury, the ‘toft and virgate with appurtenances in Stower calledSwains ground’was dealt with at the same time as the Lincombe property. Despite having forfeitedit over thirty years before, Alice Avenant in 1639 surrendered possession of it and Robert Wilmott‘gen.’ took it in accordance with a grant of reversion in September 1631. EdwardAvenant of King’sNorton and Christofer Chambers of Halesowen surrendered their reversions to Robert Willmot‘iun[ior]’, John Willmot, and Mary Wilmott, Robert’s three oldest surviving children, then agedbetween eight and two. Robert’s description as ‘gentleman’ is interlineated.40 He was evidently alawyer and his subsequent position as Recorder of Stafford ought to indicate that he was a barrister,but no admission was registered at any of the four Inns of Court.41 His Hartlebury property in 1648was only a messuage and virgate containing 15 acres and a parcel called Little More containinghalf an acre, but did not show his copy. It was said to be worth £4 per year above the rent due forit.42 Once again, this copyhold can be followed forward, and identified with a farm of 31¼ acres in1784 and about the same in 1821, with a further 6¼ acres allotted on Hartlebury Heath. This was adiscrete block of land, south of his mill, between another discrete block of land (belonging to LowerMitton Mill – of which more below) and the common.43 Both look as if they began life as largemedieval assarts from the common.

Robert Wilmot became treasurer of the Staffordshire County Committee on 23 March 1643.Stafford was captured from the Royalists on 4 May. He had limitations as treasurer: many of thecolumns of figures in his accounts had two totals, his own and the correct one. And in 1645, whencasting up accounts that totalled £16,000, he found he should have in hand £54 1s.4d, but there wasonly £22 11s ‘and noe more the rest is some way mistaken and uppon my Oath I have not knowinglymystaken anythinge nor taken benyfit in any respect more then is before set down’. Then he thoughtof sums of money that others had acknowledged having received, but he had not recorded. Thesenow made the total outgoings £27 7s.8d. more than he had received ‘which is in some way a mystakefor I confesse as before I have in my hand £22 11s. 0d. and noe more.’He was also a very reluctanttreasurer: ‘I have Tenne tymes petitioned to bee eased of my Charge offeringe to refer my self andEstate to the Censure of the Commyttee but could never bee released’. 44 With the huge demand forhorses from the two rival armies of the Civil War theft was common. Robert had his horse stolenand so the Committee gave him one, ‘a useless horse about 10s pryce … which might abide thecavilers [cavaliers’] malice’. He was also given an allowance to keep it. ‘My sadle hors did eat thepublique hay but not since I had paye to keep one’.45 And he did need a horse: while he was atStafford, his family had moved to Halesowen, some twenty-five miles away.

The armies of the Royalists and Parliamentarians both were a plague on the inhabitants whereverthey were quartered. Robert complained of ‘my owne goods being totally lost and my estate andRents seized by the enemye. … I have lost … at least £250 in goods and the whole profit of my landand leases worth about £120 per annum. My children have been left naked’.46 Robert had beenconcerned about the possibility for some time, with some justification because Kidderminster wasat the junction of three roads and suffered both armies passing through. During the siege of Dudley,Robert raised his concern with the Earl of Denbigh who was a member of the County Committee,47as well as being commander of the local Roundheads. As a result, on 7 June 1644 Denbigh issuedan order ‘to all commanders, etc. in the service of King and Parliament [i.e. to the Parliamentaryarmy] to forbear to plunder the cloth in the fulling mills in Kidderminster and Hartlebury belongingto Robert Willmott, treasurer for the committee for the county of Stafford’.48 It was a forlorn hope,

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because only a week later LordWilmot passed nearby on his way fromWorcester to relieve Dudley.When the Parliamentary Major-General William Waller entered Kidderminster next day he foundit ‘little better than an empty farm’.49

The eldest of the ‘naked’ children was Sarah, from his first marriage to Anne Rotton at Yardleyon 6 November 1622. She was the daughter of John Rotton of Balsall Heath, and was buried atYardley on 23 September 1628, aged twenty-two.50 Robert noted: ‘I have receyved security for 100li signed by four of the commyttee in the name of Sarah Willmott my daughter which was moneyowing by mee, to her before’51 so he was investing her portion ‘on the public faith’. Then therewere eight children by his second wife Mary, daughter of Henry Partridge. Before the war, he hadevidently lived in Harborne parish, probably on his copyhold property at Smethwick. The first fourchildren were christened there, including John (b. 1632), Robert (b. 1636), and Mary (b. 1637).52When Robert became treasurer at Stafford, Mary and the children had already moved to Halesowenwhere James was baptised in 1642, followed by Thomas (1644), probably Hesther then, andRebecca.53 In September 1648 Robert was appointed Recorder of Stafford ‘only for keeping thesessions of peace for the Borough’;54 his function was to preside at the Borough Quarter Sessions.As recorders were normally practising barristers of at least five years standing,55 this appointmentwas unusual, but perhaps because he was prominent and available.

Robert Wilmot at MittonBy 1654 he had left Stafford and was living at Lower Mitton arranging his affairs. That October hesettled his property in Lower Mitton on himself for life, then on Jane (daughter of William Pynson– a Wolverhampton lawyer – and the wife of eldest son John) for life, then on eldest son John forlife, then on the heirs of their bodies, and then on the right heirs of Robert. The property includedthe messuage tenement and dwelling house where he lived and eight fulling mills or walkstocks.At the same time Robert covenanted to ensure that the property at Smethwick went to John andJane and their heirs. The property consisted of a cottage land and meadow called Luckcockscontaining a hempleck, a barn and shop, and fields called Ballfield, and Tysleys, together with aparcel that he had recently purchased called the Pingle. He had also recently purchased a farm ortenement and yardland in Hartlebury held by John Kinges in the names ofWilliam Pinson and JohnSimcox. He covenanted to ensure that half its value went to John and Jane and the other half or £80each to his younger sons Robert, James, and Thomas.56 His wife Mary as his widow was to have anannuity of £10, but in the event she died before him – at Hartlebury in 1667.57 On 29 August 1668Robert married a third time, to widow Isabel Mugg, née Newey at Beoley. He died in KidderminsterForeign in 1678, aged 74.

In 1661AndrewYarranton promoted a proposal to Parliament to make the Stour River navigablefrom the River Severn to Stourbridge on the edge of the Black Country to access the coal there. TheBill took over a year to go through Parliament and clauses were inserted to protect the interests ofmany objectors.58 This included a provision that the final stretch of the river from Hucks Poundshould not be improved but a footrail (railway) should be made from a wharf there down to theSevern, unless the Clothiers Company of Worcester consented. In 1666, Samuel Baldwin (who hadbought a share in the navigation) agreed that John and Robert Wilmot should have £40 per year forthe damage to their mills, to be paid by a toll of 2d per ton on coal going through the lock.59 Thiswas an important issue for the clothiers, because much of their broadcloth was finished at fullingmills in the Stour valley. Hucks Pound was evidently the millpound for a fulling mill. The cloth wasbrought up the river and landed at the ‘Staking house’ (also called Cloth House) near RedstoneFerry, and then taken to the mills, including Robert’s Bull Mills. The cloth barge had been inoperation by 1546, when Hartlebury manor court ordered that the ‘Cloth Bardge’ should not tobreak the hedges at ‘Radston’.60 It is mentioned again in 1565, whenWorcester Corporation objectedto its use on Sundays. The Staking House had been bought by Worcester Corporation to let to theClothiers’ company in 1635.61

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Like many engineering works since, the navigation enterprise had proved much more expensivethan planned. Lord Windsor (another proprietor) was very suspicious of Yarranton, and thoughtthat Yarranton was ill-using him on the riverAvon. The solution was to sendYarranton off to Saxonyto find out how to make tinplate, and to appoint another manager. InApril 1667, RobertWilmot wasproposed as manager. He was to use his own money to pay the navigation’s debts (after £300advanced by the proprietors), being repaid from its profits, and to have a salary of £30 per year.Thomas Foley (the important ironmaster, who owned most of the ironworks on the river) offered aguarantee; and Lord Windsor offered to sell Robert shares in the river, but Robert thought them tooexpensive. Foley, Baldwin, and Lord Windsor all tried to persuade him, but it was in vain. Heconsidered the risks were too great unless his sons would join in, ‘but they refuse[d] aleadging theywill run no hazard without expectant profit.’ He therefore feared to borrow on his own credit lestothers should suffer by this and he did ‘not desire any employment’. The letters were of great lengthand cannot be quoted in full here.62 This left the river without a manager and underlings in day-to-day charge were struggling.WhenYarranton returned he tried to get a trade going and coal from nearStourbridge was sold in Worcester in late December 1667, but it did not go well. Yarranton put alot of his own money into the project in the early 1670s, then some new entrepreneurs did so laterin the decade, but it was not enough to complete the river navigation and get it working, this timewith the railway to bypass the Mitton Mills. Robert Wilmot’s fears were probably fully justifiedbecause the scheme was abandoned in April 1680.63

By 1661 Treasurer Robert had already provided for his eldest son John in the settlement of 1654.The youngest, Thomas had just matriculated at Oxford University preparatory to entering theChurch;64 he subsequently became vicar of the vast parish of Bromsgrove and King’s Norton from1669 to his death in 1699, whereupon he was followed by his son (also Thomas). In 1661, TreasurerRobert provided for his second son Robert by surrendering to him his interest in Swaynesground.At the same time eldest son John, and their sister Mary (with her husband William Penn) joined inso that second son Robert’s son Robert could have the first reversionary life interest (in front oftheirs, granted in 1639).65 Robert outlived his father the former treasurer by only about five years,dying in 1683. He had married Jane, daughter of William Hunt of Hartlebury, at All Saints,Worcester on 1 December 1656. They had five daughters and four sons, Robert (1657), Love (1665),John (1668) and William (1675).66 Robert’s executors were his widow and his brother Thomas.Thomas was reluctant to join in proving the will but was eventually persuaded to do so.

Robert (the second son) had a leasehold interest in Middle Mills, the third mill up the river Stour(see Fig. 2). This had a mill house ‘wherein one John Hooke dwelt’, presumably the Huck of HucksPound, and six fulling mills under one roof. This had been leased by the bishop to William Seagarand others in 1661, and they renewed the lease in 1679. Immediately after that, they underlet themill to Robert, perhaps renewing an underlease. The mill thus passed to his executors; Jane managedthe executorship and agreed in 1685 to sell the lease and the freehold of Hen Meadow in OverMitton for £400 to Thomas Lowbridge ofWilden, whom his opponents claimed to be a nominee forThomas Foley. However Thomas Wilmot refused to join in the necessary deeds, saying that he wasoffered £450 by James Wilmot and £451 by Pinson Wilmot. Robert’s personal estate amounted tothe substantial sum of £688.67 It should be explained that Wilden Forge, the mill above MiddleMills, had long been managed by Lowbridge’s father for the ironmaster Thomas Foley. By thistime, Wilden Forge was owned by Foley’s eldest son (another Thomas – and Lowbridge’s allegedmaster), but was in fact run for the younger Thomas’ tenants, John Wheeler and Richard Avenant,previously managers for the ironmaster’s youngest son Philip Foley.68 The outcome of the ensuinglitigation is not clear, but Middle Mills probably remained a fulling mill until 1740, when it wasconverted to a tin mill.

By 1740, theWorcester broadcloth trade was in severe decline. The main market for ‘Worcesters’was Turkey, and the Worcester clothiers were concerned at the decline in the trade of the LevantCompany (which had a monopoly). In 1719, they petitioned Parliament that the Company might berestrained from sending bullion there.69 In 1727, they sought (and obtained) a restraint upon the

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importation of the coarser sorts of raw silk from Italy,70 evidently to encourage its import fromTurkey, and so English exports there to pay for it. In 1729, they suggested that inhibition on Italiansilk was mistaken, but asked that the Turkey trade might be laid open to all. The silk prohibition wasrepealed, but that was all they achieved. Joseph Turner told the Commons Committee that themerchants were buying worse cloth from elsewhere and exporting it as Worcesters. Thomas Bridge(who had been apprenticed in London) confirmed this had been the practice for four or five years.71However, the Gloucestershire clothiers issued a pamphlet – probably of this date – explaining thatthey finished their cloths (which the Worcester clothiers did not) and hence were more able to selltheirs. However the French were producing what were known as mockWorcesters.72 Unfortunately,the printed case of the Worcester clothiers (to which this was a reply) has not been identified.Certainly the problem was French competition in Turkey, the one remaining export market forWorcester broadcloth, much more than the export of less good cloth made in other regions.73 TheWorcester trade was not quite dead in 1744, when the Worcester and Gloucestershire clothierssubmitted identical petitions for the Turkey trade to be opened up.74 When two Gloucestershire

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Fig. 2 ‘AView of the Bishop of Worcester’s fishery on the River Stour and Severn, adjoining and belongingto the Parish & Manor of Hartlebury’, 1752. (Worcestershire Archive Service BA5403/20 No. 8825/8)


districts (and others) petitioned in 1753, none came from Worcester,75 whose cloth trade hadpresumably sunk into insignificance. Sir James Porter in 1771 recorded that cloth had been madefor Turkey inWorcestershire and Gloucestershire twenty years before,76 but in the case of the former,it may have been longer before.

The decline is reflected by the fate of the Staking House. Its rent was in arrears in 1724, when itwas let to a city alderman. In 1731, it was let to John Hooke ‘millman’, who presumably now ranMiddle Mills.77 Hooke (who had married Pinson’s daughter Mary in 1717) was probably the lastfuller at Mitton, running the mill until about 1740. In his will, dated 1754, he called himself acombmaker and divided the premises he held under the ‘Chamber of the City ofWorcester’ betweenhis sons, giving John ‘the part of the premises called the ware house’, which evidently thenceforthbecame a house.78 The warehouse was certainly a house by 1780.79

In contrast the Swainsground property remained in the family. John Willmott and Mary Pennsurrendered their reversions in 1680 to Robert’s sons Love, John, andWilliam.80 Love, a gentleman,died in 1706, leaving a widow Eleanor, but apparently no children.81 However a widow (possiblyLove’s mother) had freebench.82 John came into possession in 1726, when Robert (aged 26 –presumably John’s son) had the reversion (for his own use). Robert transferred his reversion toSamuel Smith of Pershore in 1736 (perhaps as a mortgage), whilst working as an excise officer atPershore.83 John surrendered this to PinsonWilmot (vicar of Halesowen), who thus became entitledto it in his own right in 1741, but Pinson sold it to Joseph Smith of Hunnington in Halesowen in1746.84 This passed to Richard Gill in 1774 and then to others, enabling it to be identified with aproperty of 31¼ acres in 1823, as mentioned above.85

James Willmot and Lower Mitton ForgeThe treasurer’s third son James, baptised at Halesowen on 10 February 1642, married at Astley on26 October 1664 Katherine, daughter of Edward Cooper, the minister of Hampton Lovett. Theyhad twelve children between 1665 and 1685; the first four, of whom only James (1665) and Mercy(1669) survived, were baptised at Kidderminster, the fourth in 1671.86 In 1670 James bought fromFrances Button the lowest mill on the river Stour, then containing six fulling mills, (but earlier fivefulling mills and one corn mill) with a nook of land (though earlier and later documents call it avirgate).87 The family evidently moved into the mill as the rest were baptised at Hartlebury, thesurvivors being Robert (1673), Edward (1675), Hester (1678), Olive (1679), and Thomas (1683).88

A decade after purchasing the mill, James decided to convert it for use in the iron trade. TheBlack Country had long been one of the country’s premier iron manufacturing regions, but had fora considerable time been dependent on iron made elsewhere.89 The Foleys had developed thepractice of making pig iron in the Forest of Dean and bringing it up the river Severn to be fined andmade into bar iron in forges in the Stour valley.90 James was evidently seeking to join in that aspectof the business. In 1685, he wrote to the Earl of Plymouth (as LordWindsor had become) explainingthat he wished to improve the river up to Mitton, probably to bring barges right up to the mill; heexpected to spend £50 on this, or less.91 This probably marks the conversion of the mill to a forge,which certainly had happened by 1686/7, when he bought a hammer for the forge fromWheeler andAvenant’s Wilden Forge.92 In 1690, he had 40 tons of pig iron from the Duke of Beaufort’s Tinternironworks.93 In later years, be bought small amounts of pig iron from Wilden or more probablyfrom its storehouse at Clothouse.When he died in 1695 there was a debt of £463 owing to the FoleyIronworks in Partnership, on which his sons were paying interest.94

This was not his only interest in the iron industry: in 1691 Thomas Lowbridge and JamesWillmottleased the right to mine ironstone in Earnstrey Park, on the west side of Brown Clee.95 This pointsto their having a blast furnace nearby, most probably Charlcotte Furnace (east of Brown Clee),whose history remains obscure until Richard Knight bought it and the surrounding farm in 1712.96The furnace certainly existed earlier as Longnor Forge (Shrops.) received 61 tons pig iron from itin two years 1700–2.97 Knight’s purchase could have coincided with the expiry of a 21–year lease

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131

HUGH WILMOT(d.1551) Hartlebury JOHN ==ELIZABETH

of Lincombe (d.1546)(1504/8–1553/60)

MARGERY(b.1542) EDWARD

(b.1544)JOHN==JOYCE (MIDDLEMORE?)

of Lincombe ( d. 1575)(c. 1540–1577)

(1)ROBERT==ALICE == (2)ALEXANDER AVENANT(1565–1605) of Edgbaston of Kings Norton (d.1622)

(1570–1638)

ANTHONY(1573–1612/3)

JOHN == ELIZABETH(1592–1619) (d.1640)

ALICE (Margery?)(b.1595)

MARGARET(1598–1623)

MARY (b.1600)

(1)ANNE ROTTON== ROBERT ==(2) MARY PARTRIDGE ==(3)ISABEL MUGGof Kings Norton (1604–1678) of Harborne née Newey (1605–1628) County treasurer (d.1667)

EDWARD == DOROTHY ROTTONof Kings Norton of Balsall Heath(b.c.1606)

RICHARD == ANNE FORDof Shelsley Forge of Worcester(c.1631–1709)

JOHN ==JANE PINSON(1632–1682) of Kinver

(1628–1682)MARY==WILLIAM PENN(b.1637) of Agborough

(b.1635)

ROBERT==JANE HUNT(1635-1683) of Worcester

(b.1637)JAMES ==KATHERINE (1643–1695) COOPERRochester of Hampton Lovettarms (d.1709)claimant

HESTER(b.c.1647)==FRANCIS OULDNALLof Worcester

REBECCA(b.c.1649)

THOMAS==JOSUA SMITH(1645–1699) of WorcesterVicar of (b.1647)Bromsgrove

Thomas5 others

SARAH

Robert (1657)Love (1665–1706)John (b.1668)William (b.1675)4 daughters James (1665–1701)

Robert (b.1673)to Yorkshire?

3 daughters2 other sons

(1)MARTHA JELLIONS==PINSON ==(2) ANN WOODof Dudley (1661–1727) of Ribbesford (1663–1699) ‘Heir apparent’ (b.1673)

PINSON(1705–1784)Vicar of Halesowen

THOMAS==MARY(1684–1729)

MARY==JOHN HOOK(b.1696)

4 daughters4 others

JANE==EDMUND(b.1665) DARBY

6 others

JOHN

ELIZABETH(1655–1660)

ROBERT (1709–1750)Tewkesbury

Fig. 3 The Wilmots of Hartlebury


granted to Willmott and Lowbridge in 1691. If so, Lowbridge may have been a partner at Mittontoo. Their names are also associated at Mathrafal Forge in Montgomeryshire, where the forge was‘new built’ (probably rebuilt) in Willmott’s time and subsequently rented by Thomas Lowbridge.This must all be before 1698, when it was let to Charles Lloyd of Dolobran.98 Lowbridge was apartner of Richard Knight in Ruabon Furnace in Denbighshire, which was let to them in 1695.However, Thomas Lowbridge bought Knight’s share 18 months later,99 probably to release Knight’scapital, so that he could buy the Bringewood ironworks in north Herefordshire.100

In 1693 James had reorganised the reversionary interests after his life in the copyhold, so that liveswere successively, Robert, Sarah wife of the younger James and then this James. The property wasnow described as a messuage, a virgate, and two ironmills – a forge and a rod mill. At that time, thesteward noted in his notitia:

Nota: Mr Ja. Willmott. This rod mill stands on the old funnel of the walk mill. Forge stands on anew funnel. Copy. One grist mill on his own free land which is on the same head with the old walkmills and has brought water from the old pound of the old walk mills by a cutt across the road wayto his free land where he has set up several walk mills and intends to have 3 grist mills.101

James died in 1695 leaving all his land tenements and hereditaments, freehold, copyhold andleasehold and all his goods, chattels, stock and debts equally to his two eldest sons James (aged 29)and Robert (aged 22). This included the lease of his woodland called Birchwood (in Wolverley),which was in son James’name. He made them executors and charged them ‘to see the same honestlyperformed and to love one another and bee dutiful and obedient to their Mother and a comfort andhelp to the rest of their fellowes’. The remaining two sons Edward and Thomas were to have £300each and the three surviving daughters Hester, Olive and Mercy £250 pounds each. Katherine wasto have £60 per year for the rest of her life. ‘Mrs Catherine Wilmot’ was buried in 1709.102 Jamesthe eldest son died at Hartlebury in 1701, leaving Robert as his heir.

In 1694, the elder James had been granted licence to demise his copyhold property, perhaps tolet it to Thomas Lowbridge, who bought the forge (already in his tenure) in 1703, though not themessuage and virgate of land.103 He was certainly operating a forge somewhere before that, as hebought 62 tons of Tintern pig iron in eighteen months in 1697–8 and a further 10 tons of pig ironfrom there in the year 1699/1700. In that year, he supplied Tintern with 3t. 13cwt. of hammers andanvils to those works, as well as supplying 22 tons of pig iron to the Foley partnership’s WildenForge and three tons Whittington, all furnace products.104 Lowbridge died in 1722, leaving adaughter Mary, who had married John Wheeler at Dowles in November 1709. John and MaryWheeler became the owners of the forge and ‘John Wheeler of Mitton’ bought pig iron for it in1723/4 from the Foley Forest Partnership’s Redbrook Furnace in the lower Wye valley.105 MaryWheeler sold the forge to Richard Knight in 1733, after which it was included in the Stour Ironworksbusiness of Edward Knight & Co. for many years. The sale included the stream to the new fullingmills and freehold lands called Clents Grounds and Moors, which were in Hartlebury parish, southof the mill. The corn and walk mills were the subject of a 1726 lease to John Baxter junior.106 EdwardKnight’s accounts refer to some of the tools of the forge having been bought from Mr Kendall,probably Edward Kendall of Stourbridge, who had the Cradley ironworks, and may therefore haverented the forge from John and Mary Wheeler.107

The copyhold messuage and virgate of land excluded from the 1703 sale remained in the nameof the elder James’widow (Katherine). It subsequently passed to Sarah (the younger James’widow).The property apparently was dealt with again in 1709 when reversion was granted to various trusteesfor Sarah Porter widow. By 1722 she was married to John Turford.108 By 1757, it belong to MaryTipper on the trusts of Sarah’s will, and passed in 1797 to George Harris ofAlveley, whose propertyit was when the Parish Map was prepared in 1823.109

It is not clear what happened to Robert, the second son of the older James, but it is possible thathe was the ironmaster of that name who subsequently occurs inYorkshire.ARobertWillmot marriedMary Dickin, the sister of Thomas Dickin, a Yorkshire ironmaster on 19 October 1703. On Thomas’premature death in 1701, Mary and her sisters were his heirs, and in consequence of his marriage

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Robert became entitled to part share in Kirkstall Forge (at Leeds). This Robert also in 1700 builtHolme Chapel Furnace between Todmorden and Burnley, a furnace that had accumulated substantiallosses by the late 1730s.110

Pinson Willmot and Mitton Upper ForgeJohn, the eldest son of Robert the Civil War county treasurer had married Jane Pinson atWolverhampton in 1654. Jane, born in 1628 at Kinver, was the daughter of William Pinson (anattorney-at-law) and his wife Elizabeth.111 Their first child, Elizabeth was born in Wolverhamptonin 1655 but died in April 1660 in Ribbesford parish (probably at Bewdley where John was livingby 1665). From 1657 to 1671 The remaining seven children were born there, the survivors beingPinson (1661), Jane (1665), Rebecca (1666) and Matthew (1671).112 When his father Robert diedin 1678 John and family moved to the property they inherited in Lower Mitton, including the mill.The deaths of both John and Jane are recorded in the Lower Mitton registers: ‘Mr JohnWilmot wasburied August 25 1682’. John died intestate and his eldest son Pinson entered into the usualadministration bond for a substantial estate of £260. The inventory, signed by brothers Robert andJames and two others indicates that he was a well-to-do farmer.

Pinson, the eldest son and the heir apparent in James’ heraldic pedigree, married Martha Jellionsat Dudley on 15 May 1682 and they lived at Smethwick. Martha’s maternal grandmother (MarthaDudley otherwise Tomlinson) was the youngest daughter of Elizabeth Tomlinson, mistress ofEdward Sutton, fifth Lord Dudley and therefore sister of Dud Dudley, the pioneer of smelting ironwith pitcoal. The grandmother’s husband, Thomas Wilmer was also a grandson of the fourth LordDudley.113 Martha Jellions was thus a second cousin of John Darby of Wrens Nest, the father ofAbraham Darby of Coalbrookdale.114 Pinson’s sister Jane married Edmund Darby at Dudley in1693, perhaps another relative.

When John died three months after the wedding Pinson inherited the property at Smethwickalong with the mill and house at Lower Mitton. Pinson and Martha’s first two children were baptisedat Dudley: Thomas in 1684, and Elizabeth in 1688. The next two daughters were baptised at LowerMitton,115 but the two children after that, Mary (who married John Hook in 1717) and a son Jellions,were baptised at Dudley, where Martha had presumably returned so that her relatives could help overher confinement. Dudley parish register recorded on 11 June 1699 that Jellions was baptised, adding:‘son of Pinson Wilmot of Mitton (and Martha his wife the same day buried)’.116 Pinson remarried18 months later toAnnWood at Ribbesford. They had five children by 1710: a son (Pinson, baptisedin 1705 and vicar of Halesowen from 1732 to 1784) and four daughters. Pinson Willmott is listedin 1703–4 as a gentleman landowner in Kidderminster Foreign.117 He died in 1727.

It is not clear when Pinson converted part of his mill to a forge, but it was certainly by 1701, ashe bought substantial quantities of pig iron from the Foley Partnership: 235 tons in the year 1701/2and 226 tons in 1702/3, but much less in the two subsequent years. Most of this was delivered atClothouse.118 By 1706 (when Pinson and his son Thomas mortgaged their property for £300), UpperMitton Forge had two forges, three fineries, and two chafferies on the bylet. The mortgage wastransferred and increased to £800 in 1710.119 At some point he let the forge from three years to threeyears to George Draper at £80 per year.120 Draper was already buying pig iron in 1707 and thuspresumably had the forge by then.121 However Pinson’s circumstances were much reduced: in 1709he borrowed £100 on bond and in 1714 he had to ask Draper to help him clear this debt, whichDraper agreed subject to having a seven-year lease at a rent of £40.At the same time Pinson retainedfulling mills and a corn mill on the same head, and they were each to pay half the costs of repairingthe floodgates and so on. In 1715, Pinson and his son Thomas (on whom it was settled) had to selltheir property to Henry Wood of Droitwich (perhaps Pinson’s brother-in-law), having back a leasefor life from the purchaser, of the whole property except the forge with the promise of a lease of theforge after Draper’s lease expired. Almost inevitably a conflict arose over sharing the water, partlybecause Draper altered the forge so that he had a second hammer, and partly because the water

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10_Worcs23-Wilmots (COLOUR)_121-138 15/8/12 10:38 3

supply was not enough for both of them.122 The outcome of this is not known, but it is likely thatDraper (with one James Gilbert) bought the whole property from Henry Wood, Thomas Willmottand their wives. Draper then probably removed the other mills. He certainly continued as anironmaster until his death in about 1736. His son (another George) with some trustees sold thewhole property (and also Middle Mills) to Richard Knight in 1740.123 Knight let the forge to his sons(trading as Edward Knight & Co.), while Middle Mills was converted to a tin mill, which was runby a separate partnership with a blackplate rolling mill and the rest of the family ironworks atBringewood.124 Despite the sale of his property Thomas Willmot remained at Lower Mitton untilhis death in 1729, two years after his father. Thomas’ eldest son Robert became perpetual curate ofWalton Cardiff, near Tewkesbury.125 He also had the sinecure rectory of Sezincote (worth £8), wherethere was no church, though the tithes were worth £50 per year. 126 He died in 1740 and he and hiswife Phillipa (née Hayward) are buried in St. Margaret’s Chapel in Tewkesbury Abbey.127

ConclusionThe Wilmotts of Hartlebury were a family of humble origin, who can be traced back into thefifteenth century as yeoman copyholders. By the Civil War, Robert Wilmot (the Civil WarStaffordshire county treasurer) had a fulling mill at Lower Mitton. The terms of his agreement withthe Navigation proprietors suggest that he controlled all three fulling mills there; if so, this may thesource of his significant wealth. By the visitation of 1682 his sons John, Robert, and James hadrisen to become wealthy and respected as gentlemen, designated Mr, and their wives Mrs, in parishregisters, while their youngest brother Thomas was vicar of Bromsgrove. James in particular hadacquired property in his own right and was active in iron manufacture. He evidently aspired to havea coat of arms and thus to be an esquire, not merely a gentleman. However, in the following periodthe Worcester broadcloth industry went into severe decline, and the family fortunes also declined,despite forays into the iron industry. Thereafter, various sons entered the Church – that refuge forgentle-born men without independent means.

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the archivists and staff in the various record offices and libraries in England andWales (cited in the footnotes) and at a Family History Centre inAustralia for their assistance in ourresearch. Dr King is also grateful to the late MrA. T. Foley of Stoke Edith for permission to examinehis family archives (at Hereford) over many years prior to his death and to the Duke of Beaufort inrespect of his family’s documents deposited at the National Library of Wales.

Notes1. Victoria County History [hereafter V.C.H.], Worcestershire III (1913), p.165.2. Internet, http://www.disnorge.no/slektsforum/viewtopic.php?t=68866 citing (inter alia) PCC wills: 25

Horne; 5 Bennett and 9 Welles.3. Oswald Barron, ‘The Wild Wilmots’, The Ancestor XI (1904), pp. 1–4 15–21.4. Ronald Hutton, ‘Wilmot, Henry, first earl of Rochester’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,

(Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29621, accessed 24 July 2008];M. Wanklyn and F. Jones, A military history of the English Civil War, 1642–1646: strategy and tactics(Pearson Longman, London 2005), pp.103–7.

5. D. H. Pennington & I. A. Roots (ed.), The Committee at Stafford (Manchester University Press 1957),p. lxviii.

6. Ibid., pp. xxix–xl.7. Ibid., p. 320.8. Barron, ‘The Wild Wilmots’ in note 7, pp. 8–14 23–5.9. H. S. Grazebrook, Heraldry of Worcestershire (1873), p. xlviii.

134


10. Ibid., p. xlvi.11. Thomas May et al., Visitation of the County of Worcester, 1682–83, ed. W. C. Metcalfe (Exeter 1883),

p.104.12. Ibid., p. 4.13. Ibid., p.75.14. Grazebrook, Heraldry in note 9, p. 630, quoting family papers, formerly in the possession of J. W. B.

Willis- Bund, a descendant of Rev. Pynson Wilmot of Halesowen; cf. Barron, ‘The Wild Wilmots’ innote 3.

15. Barron, ‘The Wild Wilmots’ in note 3.16. Worcestershire Record Office, [hereafter W.R.O.], 009:1 BA 2636/169, 92372, 13 Jul. 14 Ed. IV.17. W.R.O., 009:1 BA2636/169, 92372, 8Apr. 4 Hen VII; 7 Oct. 12 Hen. VII; 5Apr. 12 Hen VII; BA2636/37,

43806, 78.18. M.A. Faraday (ed.),Worcestershire taxes in the 1520s (Worcestershire Historical Society, n.s. 19, 2001),

pp. xiii 27.19. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/177 92509, 20 Apr. 20 Hen. VIII; BA 2636/178 92510, 22 Oct. 21 Hen. VIII.20. W.R.O., Hartlebury Parish Register; Consistory wills, 1605 no. 108; Visitation 1682–83 in note 11, p.104.21. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/181, 92536, 16 Apr. 20 Eliz. The 1566 court roll does not survive.22. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/181, 92537–8, 21 Sep. 22 Eliz.23. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/183, 92550, 8 Apr. 36 Eliz. The 1579 court roll does not survive.24. W.R.O., Hartlebury Parish Register.25. The visitation pedigree names another daughter, Elizabeth Pritchard of Solihull, but it was evidently

mistaken.26. W.R.O., Consistory wills, 1605/108.27. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/184, 92568, 3 Apr. 3 & 38 James; 23 Sep. 4 & 39 James; Visitation 1682–83 in

note 11, p.104; will of John Willmott in note 30.28. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/187, 92584, 25 June 1616.29. Herefs. R.O., T74/75, deeds of 1548 and 1553.30. Will of John Willmott: The National Archives [hereafter T.N.A.], PROB 11/133. [image 676/1310].31. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/18, 43765, 9 Oct. 30 Hen. VIII.32. W.R.O., 009:1 BA2636/169, 92371/1, 14Apr. 1 Ed. VI; BA2636/19, 5 Oct. 3 Ed. VI and 9Apr. 4 Ed. VI.33. Will of John Willmott in note 30.34. Visitation 1682–83 in note 11, p. 4; R. G. Schafer; ‘Genesis and structure of the Foley “Ironworks In

Partnership” of 1692’Business History 13 (1971), pp. 31–38; idem (ed.), A selection from the records ofPhilip Foley’s Stour valley iron works 1668–74, part 1 (Worcestershire Historical Society, n.s., 9, 1978),passim; Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/KAc/38–39; E12/VI/DEc/1; E12/DEf-DFf, passim. His son Caleb wasbaptised there in 1659:W.R.O., Shelsley Beauchamp Parish Register (from http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp).

35. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/187, 92587, 8 Apr. 17 & 52 James.36. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/189, 92609, 34 Sep. 15 Chas.37. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/50, 44004.38. Ibid., 46998, copy 90; 43996, copy 91.39. Ibid., 44002, p. 39; s009:1 BA 7105.40. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/189, 92609, 24 Sep. 15 Chas.41. The only admission for a person of his name is for Robert Wilmot late of Staple’s Inn, son and heir of

Robert Wilmot of Chaddesden, Derbs, gent., who was admitted to Gray’s Inn on 8 Feb. 1623, but hebelonged to a family settled at Chaddesden over 80 years before, three of whose Derbyshire descendantswere created baronets in the 18th and 19th centuries: J. Foster (ed.), Gray’s Inn: Register of Admissions1521–1889 (London 1889), 143; Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, s.v. Wilmot of Chaddesden; Wilmotof Osmaston; and Eardley-Wilmot of Berkswell.

42. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/50, 44004.43. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/40, 43815, copy 41 (changed to 93); 46998, copy 93; 43996, copy 94. b009:1

BA 2636/50, 44002, p.60; s009:1 BA 7105.44. Pennington and Root, Committee in note 5, pp. 325–326.45. Ibid., p.325.46. Ibid., p.324.47. Ibid., p.356.

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48. Historical Manuscripts Commission, 4th Report, p.267.49. V.C.H. Worcs. III, 12.50. Visitation, 1682–3, 104; Birmingham City Archives, Yardley Parish Register.51. Pennington and Root, Committee in note 5, p. 324.52. Visitation, p. 104; Birmingham City Archives, Harborne Parish register.53. W.R.O., Halesowen Parish register and W.R.O., Bishops Transcripts. There is a gap in the Halesowen

registers from 1643 to 1652.54. Stafford Borough Order Book 1648–90, quoted in Pennington and Root, Committee in note 5, p. xxvi.55. S. Friar, The Batsford Companion to Local History (Batsford, London 1991), p. 307.56. Herefs. R.O., T74/75.57. W.R.O., Hartlebury Parish register.58. For this scheme generally, see P.W. King, ‘AndrewYarranton’ and ‘Robert Yarranton’ inA.W. Skempton

et al., Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers: 1 1500 to 1830 (Thomas Telford, London 2002),808–813.

59. Staffs R.O., D(W) 1788/P59/B3, 2 Oct. 1766.60. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/19, 43766, 19 May 38 Hen. VIII.61. A. D. Dyer, the City of Worcester in the sixteenth century (Leicester University Press 1973), 102; F.

Llewellyn, ‘The Staking House, Hartlebury’ in R. Whittaker (ed.), Studies in Worcestershire History 7(1994), 11–18; cf. S. Bond, The Chamber Order Book of Worcester 1602–50 (Worcestershire HistoricalSociety, n.s. 8, 1974), 293.

62. Staffs. R.O., D(W) 1788/P61/B7, articles 25 Mar [16]67; letters in P61/B6; P61/B7; P59/B3; P61/B5.63. P. W. King, ‘Andrew Yarranton’ and ‘Robert Yarranton’ in note 58.64. J. Foster, Alumni Oxoniensis, 1500–1714, IV (1891), pp. 1653–4.65. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/189, 92609, 24 Sep. 1639; 009:1 BA 2636/20, 34 (9 Oct. 1661).66. W.R.O., Hartlebury Parish Register.67. T.N.A., C 9/100/51; C 9/416/46.68. Schafer, ‘Genesis and structure’ in note 34, pp. 31–2.69. Journal of House of Commons XIX, p. 88 (5 Feb. 1718/9).70. Journal of House of Commons XX, p. 808 (21 Mar. 1726/7).71. Journal of House of Commons XXII, pp. 240 291 (26 Feb. and 24 March 1728/9).72. Reasons humbly offered by Gloucestershire clothiers touching the making of cloth (undated but fitting this

context).73. R. Davis, Aleppo and Devonshire Square: English Traders in the Levant in the eighteenth century

(Macmillan, London 1967), pp. 100–103; J. de L. Mann, The Cloth Industry in the West of England from1640 to 1880 (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1971), pp. 40–43.

74. Journal of House of Commons XXIV, 570 (16 Feb. 1743/4).75. Journal of House of Commons XXVI, 588 (14 Feb. 1753).76. Sir James Porter, Observations on the religion, law, government, and manners of the Turks. To which is

added, the state of the Turkey trade, from its origin to the present time (2nd edn 1771), 422.77. Llewellyn, ‘The Staking House’ in note 61;W.R.O., x496.5 BA9360/A14, Chamber Order Book 1722–42,

27 102; A12 box 3, Good Friday and St Thomas accounts 1722–30, passim; W.R.O., x496.5 BA 9360/A21, lease book 3 (1726–44), 217.

78. W.R.O., 008:7 BA 3585/776, no. 132.79. W.R.O., x496.5 BA 9630 CAB11/41/1/1.80. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/21, 43772, pt. 2, 114 (6 Jun. 32 Chas. II); b009:1 BA 2636/40, 43815, copy 93

(in list after copy 40).81. W.R.O., 008:1 BA 3585/777, no. 1.82. W.R.O., 009:1 BA2636/36, 43802, copy 93: this notitia gives the date as 28Apr 1708, but there is no such

court in the manor court books. What widow this was is not clear.83. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/24A, 43779, 16 203.84. W.R.O., b009:1 BA2636/25, 85–6 275–6; cf. J. Foster, Alumni Oxoniensis, 1715–1886 IV (1891), p. 1580.85. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/37, 43804, copy 94; b009:1 BA 2636/50, 43996, copy 96; 44002, p.60; s009:1

BA 7105.86. W.R.O., Kidderminster Parish register. [FHL 435259].87. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/21, 43772, pt. 2, 17.88. W.R.O., Hartlebury Parish Register.

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89. M. B. Rowlands, Masters and Men in the West Midlands Metalware Trades before the IndustrialRevolution (Manchester University Press, Manchester 1975).

90. B. L. C. Johnson, ‘The Charcoal Iron Industry in the early Eighteenth Century’Geographic Journal 117(1951), 167–177.

91. Staffs R.O., D(W) 1788/P59/B3, 23 Mar. 1684[5].92. Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/KH/7.93. National Library of Wales [hereafter N.L.W.], Badminton MSS, 8575.94. Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DEf/1–6.95. Shrops. R.O., 5735/2/2/2.96. N. Mutton, ‘Charlcotte Furnace’ Transactions of Shropshire Archaeological Society 58(1) (1965), 84ff.97. T.N.A., E 112/880, Shrops. 9.98. H. Lloyd, The Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution (Hutchinson, London 1975), 39–40, N.L.W.,

Powis Castle MSS, 11446–8.99. Herefs. R.O., T74/680.100. R. Page, ‘Richard and Edward Knight: ironmasters of Bringewood and Wolverley’ Transactions of

Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club 43(1) (1979), 10; L. Ince, The Knight Family and the British IronIndustry 1695–1902 (Merton Priory Press, Cardiff 1991), 2. The precise date is indicated by the Foleyaccounts: Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DEf/4–6; and by the bankruptcy of Job Walker: N.L.W., Powis Castle17883; N.L.W., Cilybebyll MSS, 416.

101. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/4, 23399 f.122 (copy 64–5) and 127; BA 2636/21, 43774, f.29.102. T.N.A., PROB 11/428/194.103. W.R.O., 009:1 BA 2636/21, 43774, f.34; BA 2636/22, 43775, 27.104. N.L.W., Badminton MSS, 8580 9940; Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DEf/9–11.105. Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DGf/36/5. This JohnWheeler was probably not closely related to the JohnWheelers

who were successively partners in the Foleys’ Forest ironworks.106. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/24A, 43779, f.168; Herefs. R.O., T74/73; Ince, Knight Family in note 100,

passim.107. Dudley Archives, DE/4/3, Rowley leases, 1724 and 1752; N.L.W., Hawarden deeds, 919; T.N.A.,

E112/957/107, Answer of Edward Kendall.108. W.R.O., b009:1 BA2636/22, 43776, 73 (17 Oct 1709); b009:1 BA2636/23, 226 (29 Oct 1722 concerning

the forge); b009:1 BA 2636/36, 43802, copy 64.109. W.R.O., b009:1 BA 2636/50, 46998, copy 64; 43996, copy 65; 44002, p. 59; s009:1 BA 7105.110. B. G. Awty, ‘Charcoal ironmasters of Cheshire and Lancashire 1600–1785’ Transactions of the Historic

Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 109 (1957), pp. 90–1.111. H. S. Grazebrook, The Barons of Dudley (Staffordshire Historical Collections IX(2), 1888), p.145.112. W.R.O., Ribbesford parish registers, cf. 009:1 BA 2636/20, 43771, 101.113. H. S. Grazebrook (ed.), The Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire in 1614 and 1663–64 (Staffordshire

Historical Collections V(2), 1884), p.117; idem, Junior Branches of the Family of Sutton alias Dudley(Staffordshire Historical Collections. X(2), 1889), p.27.

114. Carl Higgs, ‘Dud Dudley andAbraham Darby; Forging New Links’The Blackcountryman 38(3) (2005),73–6; and (more fully) ‘Dud Dudley and Abraham Darby; Forging New Links’ Internet,http://www.blackcountrysociety.co.uk/articles/duddudley.htm.

115. W.R.O., Lower Mitton parish register.116. Dudley Archives, St. Thomas Dudley parish register.117. Grazebrook, Heraldry in note 9, App. XII, p. 736.118. Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DEf/10–13.119. Herefs. R.O., T74/75, 1706 and 1710 mortgages.120. T.N.A., C 11/469/25.121. Herefs. R.O., E12/VI/DFf/3–6 10–13.122. T.N.A., C 11/469/25.123. Herefs. R.O., T74/80.124. Ince, The Knight Family in note 100, pp. 9–21.125. Grazebrook, Heraldry in note 9, p.629. The reference says he was vicar of Walton.126. Gloucester Diocesan Registry, 282A, subscription book; Gloucs. R.O., Tithe books and papers, GDR/T2/1.127. Ralph Bigland, Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections, part 3, p. 1263.

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aspirations to greatness: the wilmots of hartlebury

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