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41 PART III EARLY HISTORY OF HADDON HALL BY S. RAYNER
Only a moiety of the manor of Haddon was held by the Vernons till long after their
original settlement there. As to this point some writers have fallen into strange
misconceptions. Pilkington says that the first Sir R. Vernon of Haddon purchased his
brother-in-law’s share of the property. The Author of a notice of Haddon Hall in “The
Topographer” asserts that “this seat became in the time of Edward III [reigned 1327-
1377] the seat of Sir William Vernon, Chief Justice of Chester, in right of his marriage
with Alice, Daughter and co-heir of William de Avenel of this place.” Mr. Lysons, after
mentioning the division of the property, more correctly states that “the Bassets continued
the moiety of Nether Haddon, in the reign of Edward III but in before the reign of Henry
VI [reigned 1422-1461] the whole became vested in the Vernons, who had purchased the
Bassets’ moiety.”
It seems extremely probable that from the time Sir Richard de Vernon obtained an
estate at Nether Haddon, he and his descendants made it their family seat and chief
residence. They may also possibly have become provisional tenants of that portion of the
manor which had not originally fallen to their share; but there is sufficient evidence, from
existing records, that the Bassets retained full possession, as tenants in chief of the Crown,
of their property at Haddon, till near the middle of the reign of Edward III; when a transfer
of it was made to a new proprietor. From a roll of Fines in the Exchequer, we learn that
“Robert Basset de Rishton passed a fine to the King of 40 shillings, that he might have a
royal licence to enfeoff his son Thomas with certain tenements in Nether Haddon.” The
licence for this conveyance was enrolled in 1305 (33 Edward I), and it merely identifies the
ownership of the property. A roll in the Exchequer of the reign of Edward III contains the
ensuing entry relative to the alienation of the manor of Haddon. “John Basset passed a fine
to the King of 100 shillings, that he might have a licence concerning his manor of Haddon,
with its appurtenances, which he holds of the King in capite, to allow him to enfeoff
Thomas de Beyghlay with it, to hold for himself and his heirs.”
The descent of the Manor of Haddon from Sir Richard de Vernon, through a long series
of proprietors, for more than three centuries and a half, may be traced by means of the
annexed genealogical table. [PEDIGREE OF VERNON OF HADDON at the end of PART I on
page 36. It is noted that this table does not always agree with Rayner’s narrations.] But
the degree of consanguinity [blood relation] between some of the individuals who
successively held possession of this estate in the course of the thirteenth century cannot
always be exactly ascertained. William, the son of Sir Richard de Vernon, is mentioned in
a Writ directed to the Bailiffs of the High Peak, entered on the Close Roll of 7th Henry III
[1222], as holding land in Haddon and Basselawe, of the honour of Peverel, subject to
homage and service due to William de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, under a grant from King
John; and from another Writ addressed to the Sheriff of Buckingham, it appears that he
held in the same manner, land at Adistock, also of the honour of Peverel.