Sir William Middleton of Stockeld
was the eldest son and heir of Peter Middleton and Anne Vavasour, daughter of SIR HENRY VAVASOUR of Haslewood. He was the grandfather of GRESHAM CLAPHAM, ESQ.
Sir William was hisself married three times:
(1) Jane Dudley (died 1500), daughter of Edward Lord Dudley; from this marriage there were at least four children.
(2) Isabella Dighton (by licence on 13. November 1508); from this marriage there were at least six children, including GRESHAM CLAPHAM's mother Margaret Middleton.
(3) Joan Robinson; still living in 1549; according to Visitation Yorkshire, 1563-4, Mydelton, there was from this marriage at least one daughter.
Wikipedia's listing of sheriffs revealed that he was the High Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1526-1527. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. It was a powerful position in earlier times, especially in the case of Yorkshire, which covers a very large area. The sheriffs were responsible for the maintenance of law and order and various other roles.
Sir William Middleton's will was dated 2. August 1549 and proved 11. March 1552. He requested to be buried under the stone where his ancestor Sir Peter Middelton lay in Ilkley Church.
Sir William was hisself married three times:
(1) Jane Dudley (died 1500), daughter of Edward Lord Dudley; from this marriage there were at least four children.
(2) Isabella Dighton (by licence on 13. November 1508); from this marriage there were at least six children, including GRESHAM CLAPHAM's mother Margaret Middleton.
(3) Joan Robinson; still living in 1549; according to Visitation Yorkshire, 1563-4, Mydelton, there was from this marriage at least one daughter.
Wikipedia's listing of sheriffs revealed that he was the High Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1526-1527. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. It was a powerful position in earlier times, especially in the case of Yorkshire, which covers a very large area. The sheriffs were responsible for the maintenance of law and order and various other roles.
Sir William Middleton's will was dated 2. August 1549 and proved 11. March 1552. He requested to be buried under the stone where his ancestor Sir Peter Middelton lay in Ilkley Church.
The Middeltons had become the dominant family in the Yorkshire parish of Ilkley within a hundred years of the Norman Conquest. Over the years they consolidated their power and their ownership of land until by 1750 the whole of the township of Middleton, most of Ilkley, Nesfield-with-Langbar, Stockeld, and further extensive estates in Wharfedale, Yorkshire and beyond were their exclusive freehold. The original Middelton line came to an end in 1763 though, with the death of William Middelton (b.1707), when the estates passed through the female line to his (great-) nephew William Constable, who adopted the name and arms of Middelton.
(Source: 'Ilkley: Ancient and Modern' by Robert Collyer, 1885)
The Middletons originated from Braham, near Tadcaster, and held lands in the township, from which they took their name before the date of the oldest deed, which does not relate to the purchase of the estates, but only to their transfer to a younger son.
Deed of Henry, son of Apolitus de Braham, 13 Henry II., 1167, A.D.
" Let all present and to come know that I, Henry, son of Apolitus de Braham, have granted, and by this my present deed have confirmed, with assent and consent of my father, unto Hugo, son of Apolitus de Braham, for humblage and service rendered by him, four carucates offit,*nd in Middleton, and in Stubb, to him and to his heirs, to be held from me and my heirs, in fee and inheritance. As the deed of my father attests for this confirmation, the aforesaid Hugo has given to me, and one binding Liard by way of recognition to these witnesses, viz: to William Trussbut, to Galfrid his son, to William land, situate in Phophe a Capellanus, to John Dauile, "c * Follifoot."
However these Middletons have to be distinguished from those ones, who already lived before in the parish and were, not for sure, but in all probability not related to Apolitus de Braham:
(1) "Unto all the faithful servants of Christ who are here and see this writing: " Robert, son of Hugo, son of Apolitus de Middleton, greeting. Be it known that I have given unto Robert, son of Bernard de Middleton, for homage and service by him rendered, one acre of land in Middleton. Witnesses: Dom. Malgro Vavasore, Dom. Patrick de Westwick, and Walter Honley." According to Robert Collyer this Robert was the first tenant of the Middletons, whose name had been recorded, "and as there is a certain pomp about the witnessing, we may presume he was a godson or poor kinsman of the third lord."
This Bernard de Middleton had more children though:
(2) "[Michaelmas Term, 1291]: Alan son of Thomas son of Bernard de Midelton seeks against William de Burgh of Lonesdale one messuage and eight acres of land and three acres of meadow in Midelton in Lonesdale the parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, co. Westmorland], which he claims by a grant from Ralph de Berburne. ..."
(3) Hull University Archives, 13th century: "Gift. Alan de Milnebrun to Agnes daughter of Bernard de Midelton - 2ac. under Hellerrig (one headland on Merebec and the other on Morrig): Rendering 2d. yearly. Witn. Adam son of Adam de Midelton, Adam de Midelton, Gilbert his son and John his brother, Gilbert son of Adam de (Betoru?), William [_]annesher, Richard the clerk."
Sir Peter de Middleton, viz. temp. Henry III, was still alive, when Kirkby's Inquest was made in 1284, and held Middleton then for the fourth part of a knight's fee from the heirs of Percy. A second entry in the same Inquest, to which Walter de Hawksworth, Walter de Middleton, and others were sworn on the Sacraments, enlarges the first record and throws a gleam of light on the relation of the two great families. In possession of the Vicars Choral of York Minster was or still is a paper Sir Peter left behind him, about a forlorn battle he fought in his time against the Knights
Templars. "To all the faithful in Christ who shall see or hear the present writing, Peter son of Robert de Middleton, eternal salvation in the Lord. A controversy having arisen respecting various contentions and offences violently committed against me by the Master and Brethern of the Order of the Temple in England, and by their tenants and men, it has been amicably settled. In as much as I know that in part I have been guilty toward the house of the said order, I have sworn that as long as I live I, nor any one for me, shall presume to go against the said Master and Brethern, or their tenants and men, in any court, civil or canonical. And if it chance, which God forbid, that I should not observe this pledge, and as often as it can be proven by two trustworthy men, I bind myself for the satisfaction of the Master and Brethern to come and pay xxs. as a penalty without any clamour in a court of justice, toward the fabric of the Church of the Blessed St Peter, at York. And I will and grant that if I fail in the payment of this penalty the Archbishop's officers may compel me as he may choose to observe all these things firmly andiica advantage to me and against the said Brethern. And if their tenants offend against me let it be set right by means of writ before the said Brethern in their court at Whitkirk. In testimony of which I have set my seal Witnesses : Dom. William de Boston, Chaplain; Gilbert de without fraud, renouncing all appeal, canonical or civl, whh my be of Scalewra, and Thomas, his brother."
An memorial with an effigy stone in the church of Ilkley, dedicated to All Saints was ascribed to be that one of Sir Peter's son, Adam de Middleton, but it now seems to be generally agreed that it commemorates rather his grandson, Sir Peter Middleton, who was married to Eustachia, daughter of SIR ROBERT DE PLUMPTON, knight, and died in 1336, though it may well have been made some time before his death. This Peter was born c. 1290 having been the son of William de Middleton and Agnes (or Ameria), daughter of Nigel (or Robert) de Boteler of North Deighton. "In 1290 Robert lord of Woolston exchanged land in Woolston for other land between Helecroft on the east and the Outlone on the west, with William de Midelton and Ameria his wife, daughter of Robert le Boteler, of whose inheritance it was." In May, 1316, commissioners were sent to investigate a complaint by John de Goldesburgh that Adam de Middelton, Peter de Middelton and many others had assaulted him at Stockeld, killed three of his horses to the value of £100, and carried away his goods and assaulted his men and servants. Later that year a further commission investigated the death of John Folbaroun of Goldesburgh [possibly the 'John de Goldsburgh'] which was said to have been caused by Peter and others, several of whom had been involved in the earlier offence. Sir Peter was later acquitted. A payment of 10 marks, in part payment of 100 marks, to Alice, widow of John Folbaroun, from the executors of the will of Adam de Middelton, recorded in Nov. 1318, was perhaps related to this murder. In 1317, a further complaint was made against Peter by John de Stockeld that with others he had burned his houses, hedges, and hays at Stockeld, and three horses to the value of £10,'broken his park there', and felled and carried away his trees. Peter's uncle Adam de Middelton was lord of Middleton, and joint lord of Draughton and Askwith. He also became the lord of Stockeld, near Wetherby, after a series of transactions in the last decade of his life. Adam was a justice of the king, and rector of Arncliffe, and other public positions he held included the offices of keeper of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, custodian of the Abbey of Furness, warden of the Hospital of St. Leonard in York, and keeper of the seal of the bishopric of Durham. Sir Adam died on or about 24 February, 1317, leaving Sir Peter as his heir. Peter's services to the king seem to have been judicial and administrative as well as military. After Robert the Bruce led the Scots incursion into Yorkshire in 1319, when Ilkley and many other places were badly burnt, he was ordered in November of that year to raise arms against the Scots. It is unlikely that any further fighting took place that year, as shortly afterwards King Edward II agreed to peace terms with the invaders. He became Justice Itinerant for Bedfordshire in 1330. In the same year he was appointed with others by Henry de Percy, at his manor of Spofforth, to array all men-at-arms and men on foot, and to bring them to him suitably equipped to go on the King's service, giving him power to punish rebels and contrariants. Three years later, in May 1333, King Edward III ordered Peter de Middelton and William de Mohaut to raise twenty light horsemen and two hundred foot soldiers, either bowmen or others, to fight the Scots and in June was ordered to take them to Richmond or Northallerton. A grant by Edward I of Scotland [Edward Bailiol] to Sir Peter of several manors in Scotland, was probably made as a result of Sir Peter's role at the battle of Halidon Hill near Berwick, on July 19, 1333, when David II, King of Scotland, was defeated by Edward III in support of Bailiol. He was appointed Justice of the Forests in Yorkshire in 1334, and Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1335. By 1335 Sir Peter was back in Scotland as is shown by an order to the Exchequer to pay Sir Peter and his household their expenses and wages to cover their recent trip from York to Edinburgh and back to attend the king. A receipt for monies paid by his executors shows us that he was dead by 24 October 1335 leaving vast possessions of Stubham, Stockeld, Sicklinghall, Newsam-by- Spofford, and Ireby in Cumberland.
Not much is known about coming generations of the Middletons in and around Stockeld. Sir Nicholas Middleton, son of Sir Thomas, was born in 1348 the year when the Black Death reached England and killed nearly half the population dying down until 1350. But it is not handed down in how far it might have affected the Middletons. The Border Scots though saw the pestilence in England as a punishment of God on their enemies. An army gathered near Stirling to strike while England lay defenseless. But before the Scots could march, the plague decimated their ranks. Pursued by English troops, the Scots fled north, spreading the plague deep into their homeland. By the end of 1350 the Black Death had subsided, but it never really died out in England for the next several hundred years. There were further outbreaks in 1361-62, 1369, 1379-83, 1389-93, and throughout the first half of the 15th century.
On the 18th of June, 1474, William Middleton, Esq. of Stockeld made his will. He was the grandson of Sir Nicholas Middleton by his son, John Middleton and wife Alice, daughter and co-heiress of SIR PETER MAULEVERER of Beamsley. "William Midelton, of Stockeld, Esquire,To be buried in the Chapel of St Ann, underneath the parish church of Spofforth. I leave £5 for the building of the bell tower of my parish church of Spofforth. And I will that Robert Calverley, the Chaplain, have each year an income of "4 6s. 8" from my lordship of Ilkley, to the end of his life, to pray and celebrate specially for me and my wife Margaret And I will that after the decease of the said Robert, another Chaplains hall take upon himself this burden, and so on for ever. And I will that the reversion of my lordshipin Ilkley shall be divided between my sons Nicholas and Richard, with remainder to Thomas my son. And I wish that one silver plateddish, one large brass vessel, and another large vessel of lead, and my two-wheeled carriage and my best goblet be left in my house at Stockeld as hereditary property. I also name as my executors Thomas, Nicholas, and Richard Midelton, my sons. And as the Supervisors of my will James Hamerton, Esquire, and Bro. Adam Barton of the Order of Preachers."
Sir John Middleton, the eldest son and heir, married Matilda, daughter of Sir John Thwaits of Lofthouse and aunt of WILLIAM THWAITES. Beyond this, all known about him is that he was present with his brother Richard at the Coronation of Richard III. in July 1483 and that three children were born of this marriage.
Peter, his eldest son and heir, was married to Anne Vavasour, daughter of SIR HENRY VAVASOUR of Haslewood. Both were the parents of SIR WILLIAM MIDDLETON, who was hisself the grandfather of GRESHAM CLAPHAM, ESQ.
In 1490 "Anne Meddilton, wife of Peter Middilton, knight, was granted the messuage of Scalewray, then
in the tenure of Constant Curtays, and newly enclosed, as her dower." 'Myddelton Lodge' was built on the site of this medieval hamlet under its old name of 'Stubham Lodge', and came in 1550 to John Myddylton of Stubham Lodge, when he was granted the inheritance of various manors by his grandfather Sir William Myddylton of Stockeld, near Wetherby, and Dame Joan (Robinson), who moved to the Lodge short after her husband's death in 1552, where she lived until she died in c. 1583. From a very early date the Lodge was a centre of the Catholic religion. During the days of persecution the recusant population of the county (those that refused to attend the services of the Established (Source: Ilkley Gazette on 11. November 1993)
Church) was to be found in small groups, at the centre of each of which was to be found "a gentleman's household". Joan Middelton, mentioned above, was listed as a recusant c. 1580, and the Middelton family remained true to the "ancient faith" despite the many tribulations it brought them, including heavy fines and imprisonment. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Lodge seems to have served as a 'second home' or hunting lodge, with a Catholic priest in residence, with the Middelton's main home being at Stockeld Park, near Wetherby. But from onwards the time, when, like mentioned above, William (Constable) Middleton moved to Ilkley, 'Myddelton Lodge' became the main residence of the family until end of the 19th century.