Robert Dudley and the Wyre Forest

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was granted the manor of Cleobury in 1563 by the Crown and with this came Cleobury Park, an enclosed deer park in Cleobury, Neen Savage and Kinlet and also other associated woods. However, it was unclear as to how far his lands extended. This lead to a court case in 1576, which established that Dudley had ownership of the forest well into Kinlet as it was considered to be part of the manor of Cleobury Mortimer.

Dudley's right to cut timber in the Wyre Forest

Richard Bishop and Thomas Thornton of Cleobury entered the Wyre Forest on 4th April 1574 and cut down 10 oaks worth 2/- each, 16 at 6/- each and 30 carts of underwood worth 4d each in Hedgwick Wood, 10 oaks value of 3/- each and 20 loads of underwood worth 4d each in Hawkyard Wood and 6 oaks value of 3/- each and 6 loads of underwood worth 4d each in Stirtwood, as servants of Robert Dudley.

Since 1 Ed IV, the woods have belonged to Cleobury manor, which was granted to William Paget. In 1Ed IV a contest arose between Paget and Ann his wife on the one part and Thomas Seymour of the other when it was decided that the woods belonged to Seymour as gift of Paget and Seymour should give Paget 400 merks. On attainder of Seymour in 2 Ed IV [he was executed for treason in 1549], the woods reverted to the crown. On 9th June 1563 “the manor, Lordship, park and borough of Cleobury Mortimer, with the appurtenances thereof and all and every lands and woods belonging to the said manor of Cleobury Mortimer or heretofore deemed part or parcel of the same manor” were granted to Dudley. On 8th March 1566 the Queen gave to Rowland Hayward and Thomas Dixon the reversion of all these premises [ie the right to inherit them after Dudley’s death], which they sold to Dudley on the 30th March for 100 merks. As Bishop and Thornton were Dudley’s servants, the case was dismissed. (From Calender of State Papers, volume XXIV, 1566-79 p502)

The Rev Blakeway, vicar of Kinlet at the start of the 19th Century and a pioneering historian of Shropshire, provided more detail of the background to the case.

‘[In] 1 Ed IV 1547… Ernewood manor and woodlands called Ernwood, Stertewood and Hawkeyard wood and divers messuages, parcel of the possessions of the Earldom of March and of the late Abbey of Salop are found to be holden by William Pagitt in capite by the 40th part of a knight’s fee and a rent of 30/- and 11d. This grant was made on the 30th May as appears from a record in Coke’s Entries, in which Stertewood, Hawkyard-wood and Hedgwyke wood are stated to be within the chace or forest of Wyer, in the county of Salop, and from time immemorial parcel of the manor of Cleobury Mortimer, and it was granted to Sir William Paget, K.G. in fee.

… Only 3 months (Aug 21st 1547) after the grant made to him by the King, Sir William alienated [sold] “the house” and manor of Earnwood, with the appurtenances, and the woods aforesaid, to Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, and in Michaelmas term following levied a fine of the said woods (inter alia) by the name of the manor of Ernewood, with its appurtenances in Ernewood, and the advowson of the church of Ernewood [a mysterious clause, almost certainly added in error] and a free piscary in the Severn to the said Lord Sudeley.

…Lord Sudeley did not long continue master of this place. His ambition…. soon brought him to the block. He was beheaded March 10th 1549. On his attainder, the manor devolved to the Crown….

Queen Elizabeth, on the 7th June of 1563, granted to Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, the manor, Lordship, park and borough of Cleobury Mortimer, with the appurtenances thereof and all and every lands and woods belonging thereunto or heretofore deemed part or parcel thereof… This I collect from an information ex-officio filed in the Exchequer, 18 Eliz., 1576, against Richard Bishop and Thomas Thornton, of Cleobury, yeomen, for entering upon the woods called Stertwood, Hawkyard wood and Hedgewyke wood, being within the chace or forest of Wyre, in the County of Salop, in the hands and possession of the Queen, in right of her crown of England.

The defendants [Bishop and Thornton] justify as servants of the Earl. They plead the grant of the woods to Paget, his conveyance to Sudeley, the attainder of the Lord, the present Queen’s grants to Dudley. The point in this case is whether these woods in question passed by the Queen’s grant. The Attorney General contended that the words “and all and every lands and woods belonging to the said manor of Cleobury Mortimer or heretofore deemed part or parcel of the same manor” were “void for infinity” and stated that the said three woods were severed from the said manor sixteen or seventeen years pervious to the date of the grant to Leicester. This alluded to the grant to Paget.

The Earl upon this occasion (for it was against him that the suit was directed) employed our countryman, the famous Plowden [Edmund Plowden, a noted lawyer], who argued that the words in question could not in this instance “be void for infinity” because it was pleaded that at the time of Ed IV’s grant, the said woods were part and parcel of the manor; and in this opinion the court concurred.’

(From "Notes on Kinlet", edited by Mrs Baldwyn Childe, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, 3rd Series, Vol 8, 1908, pp 92-5)