The Middleton Accounts of 1525: #31

The third entry in December in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby for 1525 was also undated except for the month. It was described as a payment for Chingleton’s costs to go to Leicester Forest to fetch a doe and staying there for three days at the manor of Thomas Grey, 2nd Lord Marquess of Dorset. The amount was 21 pence, which was the equivalent of about £38.61 today. This is the only known record that mentions the servant Chingleton in the Middleton Manuscripts.

Leicester Forest was historically in the possession of the Earl of Leicester, but later returned to the Crown as a royal forest and was then divided between various families. Thomas had a significant amount of land within and adjacent to the Forest, in particular Groby Manor, the ancestral home of the Grey family, and Bradgate Park.

Bradgate was originally part of the manor of Groby and had been turned into a deer park by Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, who was also the 1st Earl of Huntingdon and the 7th Baron Ferrers of Groby. He had additionally begun the construction of Bradgate House. Thomas, 2nd Marquess, finished the construction of Bradgate House in about 1520. Bradgate Park and House was inherited after his death by Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, who was married to Lady Frances Brandon. The Willoughby family of Middleton are known to have visited Bradgate regularly in the decades after its construction and also resided there when in wardship.

The ruins of Bradgate House, 2010. Photograph by NotFromUtrecht, CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Next entry: 28th December

Further Reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p378.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

Please consider supporting Middleton Hall Trust by sending us a donation.