Download - Haddon Hall

8 PART I RECENT HISTORY OF HADDON HALL BY S. RAYNER
Sir Richard Vernon, Knt., the eldest son and successor of Sir Henry Vernon, married
Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Dymoke. By this lady, he left an only son at his death,
which occurred August 14, 1517; Sir Richard thus surviving his father Sir Henry [died
1515] a little more than two years. He was interred at Tong, where, at this period, seems
to have been the family sepulchre.
Sir George Vernon, the son and sole heir of the preceding, was but nine years old at
the time of his father’s decease. “He was,” says Camden, “the last male of this branch
whose chief seat was at Haddon, by the river Wye, in Derbyshire, the seat for many years
of the Vernons; who, as they were very ancient, so they were no less renowned in those
parts, in so much as this Sir George Vernon, who lived in our times, for his magnificent
port and hospitality, was called by the multitude, Petty King of the Peak.”
The rank and distinction which Sir George Vernon maintained in the county in which
he resided, may be inferred from a paper preserved among the manuscripts in the British
Museum. It contains “The names of such as are specially written unto from the Lords of
the Counsel, to take care in the good assessing of the Subsidy, 1565.” Doubtless the
persons thus employed by the government 0f Elizabeth, in the execution of an honourable
but onerous duty, were selected from among the great landed proprietors of the realm
who were considered as the most loyal and devoted subjects of the Queen. The list is
arranged by counties. The names for Derbyshire are the Earl of Shrewsbury, Sir George
Vernon, Knt., and Thomas Cockan, or Cockayn, Knt.
Sir George Vernon died the same year, 7th Elizabeth [1565], seized of no less than
thirty manors. He was twice married: first to Margaret, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbois;
and after her death to Matilda [or Maud], daughter of Sir Ralph Longford, of Longford, in
the county of Derby, Knt., and sister and co-heir of Nicholas Longford, Esq. of the same
place. He was interred in the parish church of Bakewell [and can still be visited], where
also lies his first wife. The second survived him, and took for her second husband Sir
Francis Hastings, of North Cadbury, in Somersetshire, Knt., fifth son of Francis, Earl of
Huntingdon: she lived till 1596. Sir George Vernon left two daughters, his co-heiresses,
Margaret and Dorothy; the former probably, if not both, by his first consort.
These ladies were both married at the time of his decease: Margaret, the elder, aged
twenty-six being then the wife of Sir Thomas Stanley, Knt., of Winwick, in Lancashire,
second son of Edward, Earl of Derby; and Dorothy, aged twenty-one, the wife of Sir John
Manners, Knt., second son of Thomas Baron Roos, and Earl of Rutland, the first of his
name and family who held that earldom. In the division of the property of these coheiresses,
Sir Thomas Stanley obtained Harleston, Tong, and other estates in
Staffordshire; and Sir John Manners received, as his lady’s dowry, the Derby estates,
including Haddon Hall. Thus Haddon, which for a long series of years had been held by
successive owners in a direct line belonging to one family, was transferred, by marriage
with an heiress, to new lords of a different race, in whose possession it still remains.