The Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth: the plaque beneath the window says the family was “brought low” by the political unrest in 17th century England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)Patrick Comerford
The political changes brought about by the English Civil War put an end to the new-found prosperity and confidence of the Comberford family. The career of Colonel William Comberford [see Comberford 5: Recusants, royal guests and civil war], the siege of Lichfield and the capture of Stafford and Tamworth by the Parliamentarians, and the course of events that followed eventually saw Comberford Hall pass out of the hands of the Comberford family, despite William’s best efforts to secure the family ownership of the Comberford patrimony. William Comberford’s kinsman, Francis Comberford, a parliamentarian magistrate [see Comberford 7: The Quaker Comberfords of Bradley, Staffordshire], was living at Comberford Hall in 1655, when he joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) after Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill visited Comberford Hall that year.[1] However, Francis Comberford failed to recover Comberford Hall from Robert Comberford when Robert succeeded to the interests of his brother William, including Comberford Hall.
ROBERT COMBERFORD (ca 1592/1594-1669), who has been described as the last of this ancient family in England, is described incorrectly by Shaw, Adams and Stone as the son of Colonel William Comberford and by Stone as William Comberford’s nephew.[2] However, in the pedigree Robert certified at Lichfield in 1663, he states clearly that he is William’s next brother and the second son of Humphrey Comberford.[3][See Comberford 5: Recusants, royal guests and civil war] In addition, Robert’s age in 1663 and at his death in 1669 confirm that his date of birth was 1594, making it impossible for him to be William’s son.
Robert was born ca 1594. Following the death of his brother William Comberford in 1656, he recovered the Wigginton and Comberford estates from John Birch, the last remaining trustee, and his kinsman Francis Comberford, paying off all the debts or mortgages taken on by his William Comberford.[4] By 1657, Robert Comberford and his wife were living at Comberford Hall, when they headed the list of 17 recusants reported as living in Comberford, although they were not molested in any way.[5]
However, Robert Comberford does not appear to have recovered either the Wednesbury estates that once belonged to the Comberford family and he appears to have been forced to sell the Moat House in Tamworth. Between 1657 and 1663, the Manor of Wednesbury was sold to the Shelton family, of whom John Shelton of West Bromwich was a strict Presbyterian. By then, the Moat House in Tamworth had been sold for £160 to Thomas Fox, a former Parliamentary captain and later MP for Tamworth who was one of the bitterest enemies of the Comberford family. Stone says the Moat House was sold by Robert Comberford in 1654, although it is more likely that it was sold by Robert in an effort to clear his debts after William’s death.[6]
Nevertheless, Robert Comberford managed to redeem the sixty-year lease of Comberford Hall made in 1654 by his brother William Comberford to their Quaker kinsman Francis Comberford,[7] and he recovered the other part of the estates leased by William Comberford from the last surviving trustee, John Birch.[8]
In 1663, Robert was 69 and living at Comberford Hall. In Lichfield early that year, on 30 March 1663, he certified the pedigree for the Comberford family of Comberford on the first day of the Visitation of Staffordshire carried out by the antiquarian and the Norroy King of Arms, Sir William Dugdale (1605-1686). Dugdale, who later became Garter Principal King of Arms, had received his MA at Oxford with Robert Comberford’s brother, William Comberford, in November 1642, had been commissioned in 1641 to make a copy of all the monuments in man English cathedrals and churches, including Lichfield Cathedral and Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth. At the visitation in Lichfield in March 1663, Dugdale was assisted by two heralds who were born in Lichfield and educated at Lichfield Grammar School – his clerk, Gregory King (1648-1712), who later became Lancaster Herald and a pioneering statistician, and Dugdale’s son-in-law, Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), who held the office of Windsor Herald and was to become Lichfield’s most noted antiquarian.[9]
Ashmole was born in Breadmarket Street, Lichfield, and like Dugdale was, undoubtedly, familiar with the career of Robert’s brother, William Comberford. During the English Civil War, Ashmole was appointed the King’s Commissioner of Excise at Lichfield in 1644. Soon afterwards, he was given a military post at Oxford, where he devoted most of his time to study and at Brasenose College, although he did not formally enroll as a student. In late 1645, he left Oxford to accept the position of Commissioner of Excise at Worcester. Ashmole was given the additional military posts of Captain of the Horse and Comptroller of Ordnance, though he seems never to have taken part in any fighting.[10]
Robert Comberford furnished Ashmole with many of the details of the Comberford or Cumberford (the spellings are used interchangeably even in one manuscript) family, although Grazebrooke is insightful when he asks why Robert failed to furnish a number of pertinent particulars, including the full name of his father-in-law.[11] In addition, it might be asked why he failed to provide dates of death for his brothers and sisters, or particulars of their marriages and children, some of which ought to have been known to Ashmole and perhaps to Dugdale too.
Robert Comberford and his brother John Comberford leased the Manor of Comberford and Wigginton with appurtenances in Staffordshire to John Birch, William Bromwich and John Hopkins on 23 March 1664 for 20 years.[12] The lease may have been a form of mortgage or a trust for the benefit of Catherine Comberford and the two daughters of Catherine and Robert Comberford, Mary and Ann, for despite this lease Robert and his family continued to live at Comberford Hall. In 1666, he was assessed for 15 hearths at Comberford Hall and two hearths at Comberford Mill. He also had one small property with one hearth in Tamworth, where Thomas Hankes was his tenant.[13] Francis Crathorne, a Benedictine monk from a prominent Yorkshire Catholic family, was living at Comberford as a missionary in 1667.[14]
Robert Comberford made his will in 1668-1670.[15] He died in 1669 at the age of 77, and was buried in the Comberford family vault in Saint Katherine’s or the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth.[16]
Robert must have been in his late 50s or early 60s when he married Catherine Bates of Sutton, Derbyshire, and she appears to have been at least 30 years younger than him.[17] The Bates family was a Catholic family and in the late 17th century they moved to Pipe Hall, outside Lichfield, the former home of the Heveningham family [see Comberford 4: Comberford wealth from Wednesbury].[18] Catherine was still living in 1683, when she filed a renunciation in Lichfield of any interest in the estate of her daughter, Mary Giffard, who had just died.[19]
In 1705, when the Privy Council ordered a return by the parish clergy of papists and reputed papists “with their respective qualities, estates and places of abode,” 55 were counted in Tamworth and its neighbourhood, including Mrs Comberford of Comberford, her three grandchildren (Comberford Brooke, Catherine Brooke, and Mary Grosvenor) and her three servants. 1718.[20]
Catherine Comberford continued to live at Comberford Hall until her death in 1718, perhaps as a tenant of the Skeffingtons of Fisherwick. Her will, written in Latin, was made on 18 January 1716. This shows Catherine still held land in Wigginton, a cottage in Hopwas, and some property in Cawford Meadow, Tamworth, which she divided between her granddaughters, Catherine Brooke and Mary Grosvenor, wife of Sherrington Grosvenor of Tamworth. She named Catherine Brooke, Mary Grosvenor and Richard Nevill of Richardscote as her executors. Probate for the will of Catherine Comberford of Comberford in the Parish of Tamworth was granted in London on 7 November 1718.[21]
Catherine and Robert Comberford were the parents of two daughters:
1, Mary (ca 1654/1655-ca 1683),[22] who married ca 1680 Thomas Giffard of The Lodge, High Offley Park (born ca 1655, aged 25 in 1680).[23] He was the son of Edward Giffard (ca 1624- ) of High Offley and Goat Street, Wolverhampton, and grandson of Peter Giffard (ca 1581-1663) of Chillington in Brewood.[24] Mary died ca 1683, when her mother, Catherine Comberford, filed a renunciation in Lichfield of any interest in the estate of her daughter, Mary Giffard, who had just died.[25]
2, Anne (born 1655),[26] who was baptised in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, in 1655. She married Thomas Brooke of Wolverhampton and Comberford.[27] Their descendants continued the representation of the Comberford family.
With the death of Robert Comberford in 1669, the senior male line of the Comberford family had died out, although a junior branch was living in Shropshire, and Robert’s descendants – as we shall see – continued through female lines in prominent Midlands families, including the Brookes, Giffard, Grosvenor, Mostyn, Parry, Slaughter and Smitheman families, and their descendants, many of them prominent Catholics.
The Comberford plaque in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, dated 1725, claims strong ties of kinship between the Comberford family of Comberford and the Comerford family in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)In 1725, 56 years after Robert Comberford’s death and seven years after the death of his widow Catherine, a memorial tablet was erected in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, with the following inscription:
Hic situm est Monumentum diuturnitare vero
temporis et bellis plusquam civilibus dirutum
familiae non ita pridem florentis. Gentis
amplae et honostae Cumberfordiorum
Qui de hoc Municipio cum in alliistum.
In hoc Templo aedificando optime meruerunt.
Domini Cumberfordiae melaruere annis septigentis.
In Roberto autem novissimo stirpis Angliacae
Staffordiensis viro Gentis extinctum pleratur.
Qui obiit A.D. 1671 et hic cum consorte
Domina Catharina Bates filiisque duabus
Maria et Anna suis Haeredibus Tumulo
conditur Nomen adhuc viger in stirpe
Hibernica, quae Regem Jacobum Secundum
in Galliam secuta est; atque ibi Angluniae
In Provincia de Champagne Dominio
insignitur 1725.[28]
Translated, this inscription reads:
“This place is truly a fitting monument to a family brought low by wars rather than civic affairs, and that no longer flourishes here. The generous and honest family of Cumberfords richly deserve the gratitude of this town in many things, including in the building of this church. The Lords of Cumberford, who survived for seven hundred years, became extinct with the death of Robert, last scion of the Staffordshire branch in England, when he died in AD 1671, and was buried here with his wife Lady Catherine Bates and their two daughters and heiresses, Mary and Anne. Henceforth, the name lives on in the Irish branch of the family, which followed James II into exile in France, and there they became the Lords of Anglunia in the Province of Champagne. Erected in 1725.”
Shaw, Palmer and James Comerford said that above this plaque there was a representation of the Comberford coat-of-arms (gules, a talbot passant argent) impaling those of Bates of Sutton (sable, a fess between three hands erect argent), with the Comberford crest of a ducal coronet and peacock’s head,[29] but this has long since disappeared. The plaque is surprisingly open in its Jacobite sentiments, only a decade after the Vicar of Tamworth was convicted for his Jacobite loyalties. The monument was probably erected in 1725 by Captain Joseph Comerford of Dublin who, in the previous year, had registered a pedigree in Dublin claiming descent from the Comberfords of Comberford for the Comerfords of Kilkenny. Comerford had bought the Anglure estate in Champagne, along with the title of Marquis d’Anglure, and he used the quartered Comberford and Parles arms as his own, placing them on a Comerford monument in Callan, Co Kilkenny.
The Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church Tamworth ... now used for parish coffee mornings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)It is difficult to imagine how – if Robert Comberford was the last of the line and died in 1671 (or, more correctly, 1669) during the reign of Charles II – a branch of the family could later follow James II to Ireland and then into exile into France. The tablet in the Comberford chapel contains a number of other inaccuracies: at the time of Robert’s death in 1671 (recte 1669), the Comberford family had been living in Staffordshire for no more than six rather than seven centuries; Robert’s death did not bring about the extinction of the Comberford line in England; the Comberfords of Comberford were not related to Joseph Comerford of Anglure or to the Comerfords of Ireland, who were descended from the Comerfords of Co Kilkenny, and through them from the Quemerford family who originated in Quemerford in Wiltshire; and Mary Giffard and Anne Brooke are more likely to have been buried with their husbands than with their parents in Tamworth.
Nor did the Comberford family die out with the death of Robert Comberford. When he died, Robert had no sons, but while the Comberford name was continued in the Brooke family through his grandson, Comberford Brooke, the male representation of the Comberford line passed to his distant cousin, Francis Comberford of Bradley, who sued unsuccessfully for the estate. Comberford Hall continued to be lived in by Robert Comberford’s widow, Catherine, their daughter, Anne Brooke, her son, Comberford Brooke, and his children, perhaps as tenants of the Skeffington family, until at least 1718. Undoubtedly, the family was crippled by debts and mortgages, and Comberford Hall eventually passed to Robert Comberford’s cousin and neighbour, Sir John Skeffington, Viscount Masserene and Baron of Loughneagh, a royalist who had actively supported the restoration of Charles II [see Comberford 8: Comberford Hall].
MARY (COMBERFORD) GIFFARD (ca 1654/1655-ca 1683)[30] was the elder daughter of Robert and Catherine Comberford. She was born ca 1654/1655, and was aged eight when Robert Comberford recorded the Comberford family genealogy at the Visitation of Staffordshire in Lichfield in March 1663.[31] She married ca 1680 Thomas Giffard (ca 1655-post 1680), of The Lodge, High Offley Park, Staffordshire (born ca 1655, aged 25 in 1680).[32] He was the son of Edward Giffard (ca 1624- ) of High Offley and Goat Street, Wolverhampton, and grandson of Peter Giffard (ca 1581-1663) of Chillington in Brewood. Robert was aged 25 in 1680.[33]
The Giffard family was the wealthiest of the Catholic families in Staffordshire, and the area around Wolverhampton was widely regarded as “a nest of papists” with families such as the Giffards being persistent in adhering to their Catholicism. By the early 18th century, the 1,200 Catholics in Staffordshire were concentrated mainly at Brewood, close to the Giffard home at Chillngton.[34] Mary died ca 1683, when her mother, Catherine Comberford, filed a renunciation in Lichfield of any interest in the estate of her daughter, Mary Giffard, who had just died, and the administration of the personal estate of Mary Giffard of Comberford was granted at Lichfield to her sister Anne Brooke.[35]
ANNE (COMBERFORD) BROOKE (ca 1655/1656-ca 1705?), was the younger daughter of Robert and Catherine Comberford. She was born ca 1655/1656, and was aged seven in 1663.[36] She married Thomas Brooke of Wolverhampton and Comberford on 14 April 1675, when both were described as “Papists.”[37] At Lichfield in 1683, Anne Brooke, the wife of Thomas Brooke of Comberford, was granted the administration of the personal estate of Mary Giffard of Comberford.[38]
Thomas Brooke was the son and heir of Sir Basil Brooke of Madeley, a leading Shropshire royalist who died in the Tower of London in 1646, where he had been jailed for an alleged royalist plot. Madeley was the subject of further sequestration when Thomas too was accused of treason.
The 1705 return on papists and reputed papists show the three children of Anne and Thomas Brooke were living at Comberford Hall with their grandmother, Catherine Comberford of Comberford.[39] This may indicate that Anne was dead by this time.
Anne and Thomas were the parents of a son and two daughters:
1, Comberford Brooke or “Mr Brooke of Cumberford,” alias Captain Cumberford (ca 1675-1711), of Madeley, Shropshire, of whom next.
2, Catherine, who was living with her grandmother, Catherine Comberford, at Comberford in 1705. She is named in the will of her grandmother, Catherine Comberford, in January 1716, and was one of the executors of her will, along with her sister Mary Grosvenor.[40] After her grandmother’s death in 1718, she married Thomas Purcell of The Hay in the parish of Madeley, Shropshire. She was widowed and living in the Parish of Saint Andrew, Holborn, Middlesex, when she drew up her will on 10 December 1744. She died in mid 1746, and her will was proved on 1 September 1746.
3, Mary, who was living with grandmother, Catherine Comberford, at Comberford in 1705. She is named in the will of her grandmother, Catherine Comberford, in January 1716, and was one of the executors of her will, along with her sister Catherine Brooke. Mary married Sherrington Grosvenor of of Holt, Kingsbury, and Tamworth.[41] They were the parents of:
● 1a, Sherrington Grosvenor of Holt, who married Rose Austen, a niece of Rose Austen of Bexley, Kent, who married Comberford Brooke (see below).[42] In 1771, Sherrington Grosvenor was living in Langley, Buckinghamshire, and he leased and released his last remaining lands in Comberford and Wigginton with Christopher Astley of Tamworth on 29 June 1771 to John Millington of Tamworth.[43]
The Comberford name continued with the only son of Anne (Comberford) and Thomas Brooke:
COMBERFORD BROOKE, or “Mr Brooke of Cumberford,” alias Captain Cumberford (ca 1675-1711), of Madeley, Shropshire, and Comberford Hall, Staffordshire. He was living with his sisters and his grandmother, Catherine Comberford, at Comberford in 1705. He became an English Jacobite and a captain in the German Regiment of Saar. He maintained regular contact with his family and friends.[44] As Comberford Brooke of Comberford he made his will in 1711.[45]
Captain Comberford Brooke married Rose Austen, daughter of Sir John Austen, 2nd Baronet, of Bexley,[46] and aunt of Rose Austen, who married Sherrington Grosvenor of Tamworth (above). Rose and Comberford Brooke were the parents of a son and two daughters:
1, Basil Brooke, who was a child when he inherited the Madeley estate in Shropshire from his father. He was aged 19 and still a minor when he died in 1727. His sister Catherine was his executor.[47] The Manor of Madeley was then divided between Basil’s sisters, Catherine and Rose.
2, Catherine, born ca 1705, aged 13 in 1718. She married John Unett Smitheman of West Coppice and Little Wenlock, Shropshire, and they had two sons and three daughters.[48] Catherine Smitheman died in 1737, and her half of Madeley Manor passed to her husband. When he died in 1744 it descended to their only surviving son:
● 1a, John Smitheman (ca 1733-1809), of the Manor House, Little Wenlock, and West Coppice, Buildwas, Shropshire. John Smitheman and his wife sold Madeley Manor in 1774 to Abraham Darby; in 1781, Darby and his wife sold the manor to Darby’s former brother-in-law Richard Reynolds. John Smitheman married Margaret Ferriday on 27 February 1759. In 1761, John Smitheman was Sheriff of Shropshire. He died on 3 March 1809, aged 76, and Margaret died 7 February 1818, aged 75. They are buried at Holy Holy Trinity Church, Buildwas, Shropshire, and his plaque in the south nave recalls his descent from Comberford Brooke of Madeley and Comberford, Staffordshire. They were the parents of one son, who died in infancy, and five daughters, three of whom survived as co-heirs:
●● 1b, Catherine (1765-1829). She was born in 1765. On 23 March 1799 in Buildwas she married married Major Benjamin Edwardes, second son of the Revd Sir Thomas Edwardes, 7th Baronet, Rector of Frodesley. She died on 31 August 1829, aged 64, and is buried in Buildwas. They had a daughter and a son:
●●● 1c,Margaret Edwardes (1800-1844 ), born 30 March 1800, died unmarried 15 February 1844.
●●● 2c, John Thomas Smitheman Edwardes (1802-1851). He was born on 28 July 1802 and inherited the estate in Little Wenlock, Shropshire, when his grandfather, John Smitheman, died in 1809. He sold that estate with 152 acres to Lord Forester in 1825.[50] He died on 31 October 1851, and with his death this line of the descendants of the Comberfords of Comberford came to an end.
●● 2b, Rose Smitheman (1767-1830). Born in 1767, she married in Buildwas on 20 September 1798 Robert Burton (d.s.p. 1841) of Longner Hall, High Sheriff of Shropshire. She died in 1830, and he died in 1841. They had no children.[49]
●● 3b, Caroline Smitheman (1771-pre 1774). She was born in 1771, was baptised in Holy Trinity Church, Buildwas, and appears to have died in infancy before 1774.
●● 4b, Barbara Mary Anne Smitheman (1773-1830). She was born on 20 January 1773. On 27 December 1798, she married in Buildwas Thomas Harries (1774-1848) of Pontesbury, JP, DL. He was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1802. She died in 1830. They had no children.
●● 5b, Caroline Smitheman (1774-1858), the youngest daughter. She was born on 28 May 1774, and was baptised in Holy Trinity Church, Buildwas, and died on 4 February 1858, aged 83. She is commemorated in a plaque in the north nave in Holy Trinity Church, Buildwas.
●● 6b, John Smitheman (1779- ), born on 19 May 1779, died in infancy.
3, Rose (ca 1708?-1763), of whom next.
The direct line of descent of the Comberford family of Comberford continued with the younger daughter of Rose and Comberford Brooke:
ROSE (BROOKE) GIFFARD (ca 1708?-1763). On 20 June 1733, she married John Giffard, a London merchant and younger brother of Peter Giffard of Black Ladies and Chillington, Staffordshire. His father, John Giffard, was a first cousin of Thomas Giffard who married Mary Comberford (see above). Rose Giffard died a widow in 1763. Rose and John Giffard had four daughters and co-heirs, who inherited equal shares of their mother’s half of the manor:[51]
1, Rose, who married Peter Parry, of Twysog, Denbighshire, Wales.[52] In 1765, Rose and Peter Parry sold their one-eighth share of the manor to Rose’s unmarried sisters Anne and Mary. They were the parents of:
● 1a, Katherine, who married as his third wife Robert Berkeley (1713-1804) of Spetchley Park, Worcester, son of Thomas Berkeley and Mary Davis. He was the author of Considerations on the Oath of Supremacy and Considerations on the Declaration Against Transubstantiation, both addressed to Joseph Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, and influential in the debates that led to the passage of Saville’s Catholic Relief Bill in May and June 1778. His first wife was Anne Wyborne, of Flixton, Suffolk; his second wife was Catherine, daughter of Thomas Fitzherbert of Swinnerton, Staffordshire. Robert Berkeley had no children, and when he died on 20 December 1804, his estates passed to his nephew, Robert Berkeley.[53]
2, Anne. She was unmarried in 1765, when Rose and Peter Parry sold their one-eighth share of the manor to Anne and Mary. In 1774, Anne and her sister Mary Giffard agreed to sell their three-eighths of the manor to Abraham Darby. However, the agreement never took effect and in 1780 the sisters’ three-eighths share were sold to Richard Reynolds.
3, Mary. She was unmarried in 1765, when Rose and Peter Parry sold their one-eighth share of the manor to Mary and Anne. She was unmarried in 1774 when Mary and her sister Anne Giffard agreed to sell their three-eighths of the manor to Abraham Darby. However, the agreement never took effect and in 1780 the sisters’ three-eighths share was sold to Richard Reynolds.
4, Barbara, of whom next.
The direct descent of the senior line of the Comberford family eventually continued through the youngest daughter of Rose and John Giffard:
BARBARA (GIFFARD) SLAUGHTER, married Thomas Slaughter on 15 April 1756 in Madeley, Shropshire. In 1775, as the remaining Giffard heiress, the widowed Barbara Slaughter, sold her one-eighth portion of the manor to William and Edward Elwell, two West Bromwich iron founders, and their brother John, a Westminster ironmonger. In 1778, Abraham Darby bought the Elwells’ one-eighth share, and in 1781 he sold it to Richard Reynolds, a Quaker philanthropist and ironmaster. Reynolds thus reunited the whole manor. Reynolds died in 1816.[54] Thomas Slaughter (born 1732), died in Ingatestone, Essex. Barbara and Thomas Slaughter had three children:[55]
1, (Dr) Henry Slaughter (1756-1823), medical doctor, of Phillimore Place, Kensington, London. He was born in 1756 in Ingatestone, Essex, and died on 1 February 1823 in Worcester, aged 67. He married on 21 May 1800 in Saint George’s, Hanover Square, London, Frances Manbury, Lady Montague, widow of Mark Browne, 9th Viscountess Montague (1745-1774), daughter of Thomas Manbury of Downsell Hall, Essex, and Anne Colegreave. She died on 7 January 1823 in Phillimore Place, Kensington. They had eight children:[56]
● 1a, Henry Robert Slaughter (1801-1826).
● 2a, Edward Slaughter (1802-1862) of Manfield Street, Portland Place, London. In 1844, he married Frances Mostyn, daughter of his cousin Sir Edward Mostyn (1785-1841) of Talacre, Flintshire. Their children included Monsignor Edward Henry Slaughter.
● 3a, Mary.
● 4a, Frances (born ca 1805).
● 5a, Basil Slaughter (1806-1866) of Edward Square, Romford, Essex.
● 6a, Constantia (ca 1808-1872), who in 1836 married as his second wife her cousin Sir Edward Mostyn (1785-1841), 7th Baronet, son of Sir Pyers Mostyn and Barbara Slaughter (see below).
● 7a, Eliza.
● 8a, Charles Slaughter (1812-1884).
2, Barbara (1757-1815), born 1757 in Ingatestone, Essex, and died on 2 October 1815. She married Sir Pyers Mostyn (1749-1823), 6th Baronet, of Talacre, Flintshire, on 21 August 1780 in Spetchley, Worcester. Their children included:
● 1a, (Sir) Edward Mostyn, 7th Baronet (1785-1841), of Talacre, Flintshire, who married his cousin, Constantia Slaughter (see above), and had a large number of children.
3, Basil Slaughter, born ca 1760.
This direct line of descent from the senior branch of the Comberford family of Comberford is probably represented today among the descendants of the Slaughter and Mostyn families.
Meanwhile, the Bradley branch of the Comberford family continued to live in Shropshire after Francis Comberford’s failed efforts to recover from Robert Comberford the family estates he had once leased from William Comberford, including Comberford Hall [see Comberford 7: The Quaker Comberfords of Bradley, Staffordshire].
Footnotes and References:
[1] Penney, pp 229-230, 270; Journal FHS 5/3, July 1908, p. 165.
[2] Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8; Stone, p. 60.
[3] ‘Visitations of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55, where he is named as the first son.
[4] See the will of Robert Comberford, National Archives, Probate 11/332, ff 440-442.
[5] Adams, p. 14.
[6] Adams, p. 12; Stone, p. 60.
[7] See the will of Robert Comberford, National Archives, Probate 11/332, f. 440.
[8] See the will of Robert Comberford, National Archives, Probate 11/332, f. 441.
[9] SHC 2/2 (1881), p. 35; SHC 5/2 (1884), ‘The Visitations of Staffordshire,’ pp viii, 91-92. See Chris Upton, A History of Lichfield, pp 71-74.
[10] Richard Garnett, ‘Ashmole, Elias (1617–1692),’ Dictionary of National Biography (London: Oxford University Press, 1891, repr. 1973); Michael Hunter, ‘Ashmole, Elias (1617–1692),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (London: Oxford University Press, 2004).
[11] H.S. Grazebrooke, ‘Preface,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. xii.
[12] See the will of Robert Comberford, National Archives, Probate 11/332, f. 440; Staffordshire Record Office, Mss Records of the Congreve family of Congreve and Stretton, parish of Penkridge, Family Settlements, Birch Family Settlements, Trusteeships Etc., D 1057/E/3/3.
[13] Adams, p. 12.
[14] Lunn, p. 277.
[15] National Archives, Probate 11/332, ff 440-442; registered copy of will and inventory, Comberford memorial papers, D 5368/3/10/1-7.
[16] Tamworth Par Regs; Comberford memorial in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, transcribed and photographed by Patrick Comerford, 22.3.2007, 26.2.2011, Shaw 1, p. 420; Adams, pp 8, 14.
[17] ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, pp 428, 434; Comberford memorial, transcribed and photographed by Patrick Comerford, 22.3.2007, 26.2.2011; Adams, pp 13-14. However, Adams is mistaken when he gives Catherine’s name as Mary (Adams, p. 14).
[18] Greenslade, ‘The Popish of Lichfield,’ p. 131.
[19] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92.
[20] Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire, pp 179-181; Greenslade, ‘Staffordshire Papists.’
[21] NA Prob 11/565, 11/566; Knight and Son papers, D 4452/1/16/10/1.
[22] ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55.
[23] Notes added to the ‘Visitation of Staffordshire in 1663-1664,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92, where his first name is not given; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8.
[24] ‘Giffard,’ http://genforum.genealogy.com/giffard/messages/1.html (25.8.2007).
[25] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92.
[26] Tamworth Par Regs; ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8.
[27] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; see Visit Staffs, p. 55.
[28] Comberford memorial, transcribed and photographed by Patrick Comerford, 22.3.2007. See Shaw 1, p. 428, Palmer, p. 290 and James Comerford (1902), pp 1-2, where it is transcribed with errors; Adams, pp 13-14; and Stone, p. 60, plate 67.
[29] Shaw 1, p. 428; Palmer, p. 290; James Comerford (1902), p. 2.
[30] ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55.
[31] ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55.
[32] Notes added to the ‘Visitation of Staffordshire in 1663-1664,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92, where his first name is not given; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8.
[33] Notes added to the ‘Visitation of Staffordshire in 1663-1664,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92, where his first name is not given; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8; ‘Giffard,’ http://genforum.genealogy.com/giffard/messages/1.html (25.08.2007).
[34] Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire, pp 179, 184; Upton, p. 49.
[35] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92.
[36] ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; Visit Staffs, p. 55; Shaw 1, p. 434; Adams, p. 8.
[37] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92; see Visit Staffs, p. 55.
[38] Note added to ‘Visitation of Staffordshire,’ SHC 5/2 (1884), p. 92.
[39] Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire, pp 179-181; Greenslade, ‘Staffordshire Papists.’
[40] National Archives, Probate 11/566; Knight and Son papers, D 4452/1/16/10/1.
[41] National Archives, Probate 11/566; Knight and Son papers, D 4452/1/16/10/1.
[42] ‘Austen 2,’ http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/aa/austen02.htm (19.6.2007); John Burke and Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (London: J.R. Smith, 1884), p. 29.
[43] Knight and Son Papers, Stoke and Staffs, D 4452/1/16/10/4.
[44] Calendar of Stuart Papers, vol 4 (London: HMSO, 1910), pp 308, 537, 538; vol 4 (1912), p. 160; Miscellanea, Catholic Record Society (Great Britain), vol 13, p. 9.
[45] NA Prob 11/521.
[46] Shropshire Archives, Madeley Manor Papers, 1681/132/21; John Burke and Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (London: J.R. Smith, 1884), p. 29; ‘Austen 2,’ http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/aa/austen02.htm (19.6.2007); Miscellanea, Catholic Record Society (Great Britain), vol 13, p. 9.
[47] Shropshire Archives, Madeley Manor Papers, 1681/132/21; Lincolnshire Archives, Hawley family papers, Quitclaim 2 Hawley/1/G/44.
[48] Lincolnshire Archives, Hawley family papers, Quitclaim 2 Hawley/1/G/44; Miscellanea, Catholic Record Society (Great Britain), vol 13, p. 9.
[49] Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 297 (s.v. Burton of Longner Hall).
[50] ‘Little Wenlock: Manor and other estates,’ A History of the County of Shropshire: vol 11: Telford (1985), pp 80-81, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18078 (25.6.2007).
[51] VCH Salop, vol 11 (1985), pp 35-40; Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 881 (s.v. Giffard of Chillington).
[52] Burke’s Landed Gentry (1937), p. 881 (s.v. Giffard of Chillington).
[53] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 392; Burke’s Peerage, various eds, s.v. Berkeley; ‘Berkeley 06,’ http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/bb4ae/berkeley06.htm (26.6.2007).
[54] VCH Salop, vol 11 (1985), pp 35-40.
[55] The information on the Slaughter family is from Burke’s Peerage and Debrett’s Peerage, various eds, s.v. Mostyn (1670) of Talacre, Flintshire, and ‘The Slaughter Family of Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire,’ http://www.geocities.com/sjkelsey2000/slaughter/index.htm#TOC (25.6.2007).
[56] ‘The Slaughter Family of Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire,’ http://www.geocities.com/sjkelsey2000/slaughter/pafg26.htm#70661 (13.7.2007).
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