500 years ago … 1525. King Henry VIII is on the throne and his wife is still Queen Catherine of Aragon. Middleton Hall is owned by Sir Henry Willoughby and it was his principal residence. Sir Henry had been a highly skilled soldier and had been a Knight of the Body to not only King Henry VII but also King Henry VIII. However, Sir Henry was now about 74 years old. In 1911, the Manuscripts Commission published a report providing information on a number of the personal papers be

On 23rd March 1375, Sir Baldwin II de Freville died. To mark the 650th anniversary of his passing, we thought it was an opportune time to tell a brief history of this former owner of Middleton Hall. Baldwin II was born on 15th August 1317 at Tamworth Castle and was the son of Sir Baldwin I de Freville and Elizabeth de Montfort. After his father’s death in 1343, Baldwin II inherited a third of Middleton. This was during the long and very complicated period of Middleton’s owner

In this post we are highlighting a conflict from 700 years ago in which two owners of Middleton Hall were involved and that ultimately led to the overthrowing of the English king. In 1325, Middleton was in its period of divided ownership in which the entire manor and even the Hall itself had been divided equally between the heirs. One third was in the inherited possession of Joan, the youngest daughter of Philip de Marmion and at that time the wife of Sir Henry Hillary. Anoth

The third and final person that our mini-series of posts on people connected to Middleton Hall who served in the Second World War focuses on is Egbert Alexander de Hamel. He was the youngest son of Egbert and Ernestine, who were the tenants of Middleton Hall from 1886 to 1925, and Alexander was born on 30th October 1889 at Middleton Hall. In 1916, Alexander married Evelyn Violet Myddleton-Gavey and soon after moved to Wigginton Lodge in Tamworth. Alexander continued his fathe

The second post in our mini-series of posts about some people connected to Middleton Hall who were involved in the Second World War concerns Arthur White. His name appears on the World War II memorial plaque in Middleton Parish Church. Arthur was born on 8th November 1884 in Birmingham and married May Moore in Tamworth in 1913. In 1921, they were living at 31 East View, Glascote, Tamworth and Arthur was a coal miner at Amington Colliery. The reason Arthur has a relevance to t

2025 is the 80th anniversary of VE Day and to mark this we are posting a series about three people connected to Middleton Hall who served in the Second World War. The first of these is about Michael Guy Percival Willoughby, 11th Lord Middleton. Michael was born on 21st October 1887 and was the second son of Godfrey Willoughby, 10th Lord Middleton, and Ida Ross. He married Angela Hall on 28th April 1920. Following his father’s death on 11th November 1924, and because his elder

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 was dated the 3rd May. It was a payment to Lady Alice Willoughby in order for her to buy “gear” (clothes) for Mistress Jane. The amount was 20 shillings, which was the equivalent of about £441.28 today or, in terms of equivalence at that time, would have been the cost of about three stones of wool or 33 days wages for a skilled tradesman. Mistress Jane was one of Sir Henry’s daughters by his

The next entry in the Middleton accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 again concerned Sir Henry’s activities in relation to his commission from the King to quell the Lammas Day Rebellion in Coventry. This is the last reference to this event in our papers. The entry was dated the 14th August 1525 and it was described as Sir Henry’s costs for going to Coventry on that day with Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and for 140 of Sir Henry’s men that had accompanied him. It ad

On Sunday 13th August 1525, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, Sir Henry Willoughby, Sir Edward Ferrers and Thomas Trye sent another letter to King Henry VIII in regard to their involvement in quelling the Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion of 1525. This also appears on the calendar of State Papers for King Henry VIII. This letter reveals that the Marquess, Henry, Edward and Thomas and their men had travelled from Astley Castle to Kenilworth Castle, a distance of about 12 miles

The next document that we know of that refers to Sir Henry Willoughby’s involvement in quelling the Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion of 1525 is a calendar entry in the State Papers of King Henry VIII. It concerns a letter, dated Saturday 12th August 1525 and was sent from Astley Castle, Warwickshire. This document confirms the information in the Middleton accounts entry from the 11th August that stated that Sir Henry stayed at Astley for two days. This letter was sent to King He

This post contains two entries from the Middleton accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525. The first of these concerned Sir Henry Willoughby’s activity in relation to his commission from King Henry VIII to quell the Lammas Day Rebellion in Coventry. This entry also correlates with the request in the letter by Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, for them to meet in response to receiving their commissions. However, the entry also provides information as to where and when they

The second document in the Middleton Manuscripts that concerns the Lammas Day Rebellion of 1525 in Coventry was a letter sent by Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, to Sir Henry Willoughby. Unfortunately, this letter is undated. However, its contents and later entries in the Middleton accounts and official documents mean that it was probably sent about the 8th August 1525. Thomas addresses the letter to his “loving cousin, Sir Henry Willoughby”. In the letter he informed Sir

The first document in the Middleton Manuscripts relating to the quelling of the Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion was dated the 6th August 1525. It was the commission sent by King Henry VIII to Sir Henry Willoughby instructing him to take part in repressing the riot. The following is a transcription of the letter (some words have been altered to modern English to help legibility): To our trusty and well-beloved servant Sir Henry Willoughby, knight. Trusty and well-beloved, we gre

On Lammas Day in 1525, a rebellion began in Coventry. Sir Henry Willoughby was one of the people sent by King Henry VIII to quell this rebellion. A number of documents relating to this, either in the form of letters in the Middleton Manuscripts or entries within the Middleton accounts, have survived. In a series of posts relating to this event, we will be highlighting these records, but first: What was the Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion of 1525? This rebellion was one of many