International Widows Day: The Widows Who Owned Middleton Hall

The 23rd June is International Widows Day. This Day encourages the celebration of the strength of widows. It also aims to draw global attention to the problems that they face, such as poverty, social exclusion, abuse and discrimination in regard to inheritance rights. Furthermore, it seeks to create opportunities for widows to be able to support their themselves and their families. In the spirit of this, this post will highlight the numerous widows who had ownership of Middleton Hall throughout the centuries.

There are three ways that widows came to be in possession of Middleton Hall. The first was that it was theirs by right of their own inheritance. The second was that their husband had changed it into a joint possession with them. Finally, the third method was dower. In dower, a house or manor was granted to the widow of a landowner from his estates in order to provide her with a residence and income for the remainder of her life or to act as a dowry if she chose to remarry.

In all of these three methods, she had full control and responsibility for everything in her possession. Thus, not only did she receive the profits, but she was also responsible for every aspect of its management. The main difference between the three methods was that she had the right to sell the manor if she was owner in her own right, but in joint possession it was restricted by the terms of the deed and, finally, in the case of dower, she could not sell it and upon her death the possession would revert to her husband’s heir.

The first widow known to have been in possession of Middleton was Philippa. She was the widow of Robert IV de Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, who died in 1218. She received Middleton as her dower but this was not without problems as her stepson seized it in 1220 and Bishop Peter des Roches did the same in 1233. Both times Philippa went to court to get it back and both times she was successful. She died in about 1245.

The next widow to receive Middleton, also as a dower, was Mary de Cantilupe. She was the widow of Philip de Marmion, 5th Baron Marmion of Tamworth, who died in 1291. Mary was granted Middleton Hall specifically as her sole dower house and a third of the Middleton Estate. She died in 1313.

At the same time, Joan de Marmion, who was the widow of William de Morteyn and the eldest daughter of Philip, inherited in her own right a quarter of Middleton when she was already a widow. She died in 1295.

Philip’s youngest daughter, another Joan, had similarly inherited in her own right a quarter of Middleton, which was increased to a third after the death of her sister. She became a widow when her first husband, Thomas de Ludlow, died in 1314. Her husband died in debt and Joan had to pay this off to recover his lands and these became additional dower lands for her. However, soon afterwards she was married to Henry Hillary without the King’s permission. A King’s licence for marriage was required for any widow in receipt of a dower, which was viewed as a means to protect her from unscrupulous fortune hunters. However, the lack of the licence meant that all her lands, dower and inherited, were seized by the Crown until Henry paid a fine to recover them in 1321. Joan died in 1340.

Furthermore, there was also Joan de Cromwell, Philip’s granddaughter and another co-heiress who also inherited a fourth of Middleton in 1291, which was increased to a third after the death of her aunt. In 1323, she had converted her ownership of Middleton to a joint possession with her husband, Alexander de Freville, but after his death in 1328, Joan solely owned her share of Middleton until she died in 1339.

Ralph le Boteler had converted his third of Middleton into a joint possession with his wife Hawise de Gobion in 1312. After his death in 1342, she gained sole possession until her own death in 1360.

Brass of Hawise de Gobion (le Boteler) in St Peter's Church, Norbury, Staffordshire, 2024. Photograph taken by Liz Bates.

Joyce de Botetourt was the wife of Sir Baldwin III de Freville who died in 1387. It is thought she had a third of Middleton as a result of a conversion into a joint possession. Soon after her husband’s death she was married to Adam de Peshale, who notoriously married wealthy widows and heiresses and was known to resort to violence, extortion and ransom to take land and property that should have belonged to the woman or her heirs. This marriage was also without the King’s permission and her lands were seized but Adam paid a fine to regain them in 1389. In that year, she sold Middleton to her son, Baldwin IV de Freville, but upon his death in 1400 that same third of Middleton reverted back to her possession in accordance with a charter that her son had made. Adam died in 1419 and she retained possession of that third from 1400 until her own death in 1420.

Margaret de Freville had inherited a third of two-thirds of Middleton in 1418 and her fellow co-heirs of the two-thirds had decided that upon their deaths, their share would be transferred to her or her heirs. Her first husband was Sir Hugh Willoughby and he died in 1448. In 1450, she married Sir Richard Bingham and he died in 1476. She was truly a formidable great matriarch of the family, living a very long life and managing the family and the numerous estates in her possession from Middleton Hall. She died in 1493.

Cassandra Ridgeway, the widow of Sir Francis II Willoughby who died in 1665, received Middleton Hall as her dower. One of the main reasons for a dower was to give the heir possession of his own house. However, their son, Francis Willughby FRS, as well as his family and friends, continued to live with his mother at Middleton Hall. Cassandra retained possession of all aspects of Middleton until her own death in 1675.

Lady Cassandra Willoughby (née Ridgeway). Courtesy of Lord Middleton.

Emma Barnard, the widow of Francis Willughby FRS who died in 1672, was unusually given the freedom to choose her dower estate by her husband. She chose Middleton, despite it still being in dower with his mother at the time. In 1676, she married Sir Josiah Child. As a result of this dower and specifically her subsequent marriage, Middleton Hall was never again the principal residence of the Willoughby family. Sir Josiah died in 1699 and she died in 1725.

The final widow to have possession of Middleton Hall was Georgiana Chadwick, the widow of Thomas Willoughby, 4th Lord Middleton, who died in 1781. In 1783, she established a charity to fund education for the children of Middleton village. She married Edward Miller Mundy in 1788 but she died the following year, 28 days after giving birth to a daughter, her only child.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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