Robin Ludlow's Research

LUDLOW FAMILY RESEARCH A SUMMARY OF VOLUMES 1 – 4 IN DATE ORDER & INDEX VOLUME 5 COMPILED BY ROBIN LUDLOW OF WARMINSTER, WILTSHIRE DATE: August 2006 Copy N o: LUDLOW FAMILY RESEARCH VOL ONE - 1242-1449 in date order without index VOL TWO - 1450-1998 in date order without index VOL THREE - GENERAL INFORMATION & RESEARCH (contents listed by subject) VOL FOUR - GENERAL INFORMATION & RESEARCH (contents listed by subject) VOL FIVE - SUMMARY OF VOLS 1-4 IN DATE ORDER AND INDEX Distribution: The College of Arms, London The Society of Genealogists, London The Ludlow Historical Research Group, Ludlow Local history libraries & Record Offices at Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Worcester, Staffordshire and Bristol LUDLOW FAMILY RESEARCH WEBSITE: www.ludlowfamilytree.org ROBIN LUDLOW – 2006 Email: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Compiling this volume has taken a long time, it is a summary of volumes 1-4 with an index both general and by individual Ludlow names. My thanks to Douglas Ludlow, Anthony Ludlow, Margaret Ludlow, Brian Ludlow and in particular Primrose my wife, who have always given me enthusiastic support. A special thanks to Helen Waters who very kindly took on the task of typing the manuscript and index. Without her un-failing support this project could not have been completed. The Ludlow Family A short summary Contents: Early Years Stokesay in Shropshire Spreading out Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire Hill Deverill in Wiltshire William’s descendants Shipton Moyne in Gloucestershire Early Years The first Ludlow I have found was alive in 1150 and living in Shrewsbury. Other Ludlows are mentioned but not in any great detail until 1250 or thereabouts. Nicholas de Ludlow, wool merchant to Edward, son of Henry II, and later Edward I, is then mentioned frequently and acknowledged at the time as the richest wool merchant in England. His son, Laurence de Ludlow, the King’s wool merchant and builder of Stokesay Castle, was declared even wealthier than his father. DNA testing indicates that those who subsequently named themselves ‘de Ludlow’ were of Celtic origin, dating back some 9,000 years (Welsh Marches). It is not known how the family started (the name Ludlow was not mentioned in the Domesday Book). After the Norman Conquest, Walter de Lacy, of Lassy in Normandy, was granted land and estates in the west of England, including what is now Stanton Lacy, Salop, an estate on which Ludlow Castle and the town were subsequently built. The Castle building is thought to have been started around 1090 and would have taken several years to complete. It would have been around this time that the castle and small town were named Ludlow. The construction of the castle would have been managed by someone other than the owner, Lacy, and I believe that that is where the Ludlow family begins, although I have no factual evidence. The first member of the family was probably known only by one name, John, perhaps, and he might have been appointed steward of the castle building programme and manager of the Lacy family affairs in their absence. A steward’s appointment gave the appointee an opportunity to accumulate wealth and, once the building was completed, John could have moved to Shrewsbury, called himself John de Ludlow, and used his newly-found management skills to prosper as a free enterprise businessman in the wool trade. Stokesay in Shropshire Nicholas de Ludlow of Shrewsbury (where the headquarters of the family business was located) had three sons, Laurence, John and Thomas (all three are mentioned at the top of the Stokesay pedigree). Laurence purchased Stokesay; he fortified it and today the castle is known as the finest example of an early English medieval moated and fortified manor house. Apart from being international, Laurence also managed the family wool business in Ludlow. Laurence de Ludlow qualified for knighthood. The Ludlow family possessed Stokesay, Salop, for 217 years (nine generations) from 1281-1498 and, during this period, nine Ludlows were made Knights of the Shire and four members of the family were appointed Sheriffs of Shropshire twelve times. The Ludlows were an established Shropshire family; wealthy, property and landowning, and influential in the county as well as at Court. Many Ludlows fought for King and Country against the French, the Scots and the Welsh. Some died, others were wounded and some taken prisoner by the French. As there was no organised withdrawal or repatriation from the theatre of war, many made their own way home. It took months or even years to make the journey, sometimes to find that their families had presumed them dead and their properties had been sold. Many became Justices of the Peace, Members of Parliament, Commissioners, Oyers and Termors, and County Escheators. The Stokesay Ludlows owned many other properties, including Hodnet and Westbury, where there were dwelling houses which was not on the scale of Stokesay but nevertheless quite large, so the family was usually spread between them. In about 1450 a branch of the Stokesay family moved to the More House (now called More Hall) at Shipton in the Corvedale Valley. The family lived at Shipton for many years and the branch flourished. I will shortly be working on this part of the pedigree because it will take us into the 19 th century. I will then, hopefully and with the help of the late Keith Ludlow’s list, pick up some descendants of this branch alive today. I shall encourage a male Ludlow to take a DNA test and then we will know whether all three published pedigrees are a DNA match. There is a small memorial in the Shipton Church to a Laurence Ludlow and his ten children. Spreading out The Ludlows that did not inherit Stokesay – and there were many – went into the church and the army (there were continuous wars in the British Isles and France and crusades to the East). Others sought their fortunes in London and Bristol, or in trade. One very popular way of getting on in the world in those days was to seek a position in one of the great households, the Royal Household being the most selective and the most sought after. In the early part of the 14 th century, Ludlow Hall was established at Oxford and this was probably financed by the Ludlow family wool trade. Two centuries later it was amalgamated with University College (William de Ludlow was Chancellor of Oxford University in 1255). Thomas Ludlow was Abbot of Battle Abbey, Sussex, from 1417-1434 and another Thomas Ludlow was Abbot of Shrewsbury Abbey, Salop from 1433-1459; he died in office. John Ludlow was appointed Abbot of Haughmond Abbey, Salop, in 1464. Several Stokesay Ludlows were killed during heated confrontations, including William de Ludlow in 1340, his elder brother Sir Laurence de Ludlow, in Ludlow in 1353, and Sir Laurence’s second son William de Ludlow in 1381. Several Ludlows misbehaved and several were outlawed. Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire Nicholas de Ludlow’s second son, John, (see Stokesay pedigree) was also a wool merchant and he set up a subsidiary of the family business in Chipping Campden, Glos. Like his brother Laurence, John was also involved in the wool trade in Europe. The brothers were hugely successful but both were drowned off the coast of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1294, when the King’s wool fleet – heading for Bruges and commanded by Laurence de Ludlow – was hit by a great storm in which many ships and their crews were lost. Laurence de Ludlow’s body was recovered and was buried at Ludlow. Both Laurence and John qualified for knighthood. John de Ludlow’s heir, Bogo de Ludlow, inherited the Chipping Campden estate which continued to flourish for several generations. John had married Isabel, the widow of Richard Borrey, a Shrewsbury wool merchant. Isabel had had two or three sons by Richard Borrey. After John’s death, Isabel left Chipping Campden to her son, Bogo de Ludlow. She then returned to Shrewsbury and her Borrey sons, changing her name back to Borrey and becoming a very influential and wealthy woman in her own right. She entertained Edward II when he visited Shrewsbury. Some time later there was a dispute in Shrewsbury between the Ludlows and the Borreys, probably over an inheritance, and a Borrey son murdered his stepbrother, Bogo de Ludlow. Ludlows continued to own property in Chipping Campden until 1426 when it passed to Sir Baldwin Strange through marriage to the heiress Margaret Ludlow. Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire Nicholas de Ludlow’s third son, Thomas, was also in the wool trade and established a trading station in the Lincolnshire wolds. He married Joan, daughter and co-heiress of Philip Marmion and, through this marriage, acquired the manor of Scrivelsby, Lincs. On Philip Marmion’s death, Thomas also inherited the title of King’s Champion. This title subsequently passed (by marriage of Thomas de Ludlow’s only daughter and sole heiress) to the Dymock family, who have held the title to the present day. Thomas de Ludlow was knighted (Knight of Bath) by Edward II in 1306 and also qualified for knighthood in Surrey, where he held several properties in Mitcham and Weybridge. Hill Deverill in Wiltshire William Ludlow (1395-1478) founded the Hill Deverill branch of the Ludlow family in 1438 when he acquired the manor of Hill Deverill, Wilts. Before his move to Wiltshire he was very involved in the wool and cloth industry in London and Middlesex. He was a member of the Royal Household and served Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI. He was a King’s Serjeant (the rank falls between a knight and an esquire).

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