Walter Leveson
Sir Walter Leveson | |
---|---|
Born | 1550 |
Died | 20 October 1602 |
Spouse(s) | Anne Corbet Susan Vernon |
Issue | Sir Richard Leveson |
Father | Sir Richard Leveson |
Mother | Mary Fitton |
Sir Walter Leveson (1550 – 20 October 1602)
Background and education
Walter Leveson was the son of Sir Richard Leveson (died 1560)
Leveson's mother was Mary Fitton (1529–1591),
Walter Leveson had two sisters, Mary Leveson, who married Sir George Curzon of Croxall, Derbyshire,[5] and Elizabeth Leveson, who married William Sheldon (died 1587), second son of William Sheldon (died 23 December 1570) of Beoley and Mary Willington.[1][6]
Sir Richard Leveson died in 1560, when Walter was about 8 years old. As a
Walter Leveson was educated at Shrewsbury School, then a fairly new institution, to which he was admitted in 1562.[2]
Landowner
Leveson's main estates were at Lilleshall and Trentham, although he inherited or acquired many smaller estates and houses. The estates were assessed at £313 at the beginning of his wardship – an income commensurate with landed gentry status. However, Leveson was regionally powerful and influential, not least because he also had lucrative business interests in the North Sea trade – interests which were to prove his undoing. He was ruthless in pursuing his interests in his estates. After a long dispute, he managed to recover possession of Leegomery, near Wellington, Shropshire from his sister Elizabeth and her husband, William Sheldon.[1][6]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/George_Talbot_6th_Earl_of_Shrewsbury_1580.jpg/220px-George_Talbot_6th_Earl_of_Shrewsbury_1580.jpg)
Leveson, like all his family, was a vigorous encloser. He did all he could to establish effective control of marginal or disputed lands around his estates. This was especially so in the Weald Moors, a large, extra-parochial area, stretching west of Lilleshall, where tenants in all the surrounding manors had common grazing rights. The landowners all wanted to maximise their profit from the moors by draining and improving them, and were determined to have defined boundaries. In 1574 Leveson and the lord of Kynnersley agreed on a fixed boundary. In 1582 George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, who was lord of Wrockwardine, sold his interest in the moor to Leveson for a perpetual rent. Leveson then set about enclosing and improving so that he could let out separate holdings.[8] Very soon the whole area from Wrockwardine to Kynnersley was enclosed by Leveson or his tenants, apart from a few remaining areas of marshy soil.[9] On Leveson's estate at Little Wenlock the tenants had access to the woods for timber, although both their tenth and the rest of the woodland were in poor condition because of poor management and constant extraction of timber for building. Leveson enclosed all the woodland, simply abrogating the commoners' rights.[10]
Agriculture and animal husbandry were not the only ways to exploit the estates. By 1580 Leveson had water-powered trip hammers at Lubstree on Humber Brook, on the moors near Kynnersley. It seems that these were operated by successive member of the Dawe family. Leveson had a bloomery by a pool in Lilleshall village. He also installed a blast furnace, one of the earliest in the West Midlands, possibly at Donnington Wood, near Wrockwardine, where both wood for charcoal burning and ironstone were available. This was also an area of coal mining, although coal was used for domestic heating rather than industrially.[8]
Landed property was the essential foundation for public office, and Leveson was wealthy enough to secure such office very quickly after coming into his estates. In 1575 he was made a
Financial problems forced Leveson increasingly to adopt emergency measures after 1590. In that year he sold two of the smaller estates to
Leveson constantly needed ready cash to keep his creditors at bay, and one way of realising the future value of his estates was to sell
Parliamentary career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Wolverhampton_St_Peters_-_Richard_Leveson_01.jpg/220px-Wolverhampton_St_Peters_-_Richard_Leveson_01.jpg)
Leveson represented
Leveson was to sit in parliament only once more: in 1597–98. This time he sat for Newcastle-under-Lyme. The change of constituency was significant. Overwhelmed by debt, he sought the protection of parliamentary privilege for a few months.[15] As he could no longer depend even on his family and in-laws to support him, he quit Shropshire for Newcastle, his local borough, where, as lord of Trentham, he could exercise unrivalled influence.
Decline and fall
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Kristian_IV_av_Danmark%2C_malning_av_Pieter_Isaacsz_1611-1616.jpg/220px-Kristian_IV_av_Danmark%2C_malning_av_Pieter_Isaacsz_1611-1616.jpg)
The vast change in Leveson's fortunes began with a complaint in December 1587 that his men had seized goods from Danish vessels at a port in Norway. The principal complainant was one John Paul, who appears to have suffered considerable losses. Denmark–Norway was a single entity held together by a personal union of crowns at this time, and although correspondence about the case is always said to emanate from Christian IV of Denmark, he was actually a minor, and power resided in a regency council until 1596. The delicate situation in Denmark, and the importance of the country as part of an alliance of Protestant powers, made it imperative that the English authorities respond rapidly and in an exemplary manner. The Admiralty court ordered Leveson to pay compensation of £2300, a vast sum, and committed him to prison pending payment. He came to terms with his creditor, and on 25 August 1588 a letter in King Christian's name – but signed by the governors Kaas, Munck, Rosenkrantz, and Valckendorff – was received by the English ambassador in Copenhagen:
- "Thanking her Majesty for the restitution promised for a spoil committed by Sir Walter Luson upon the King's subject John Paul; and praying that the said John, now coming over to receive satisfaction according to the agreement between him and Luson, may be assisted by her Majesty's favour, should Luson seek to make any delays. Also that he may be relieved of all interest and charges."[16]
Leveson was out of prison in time to take part in the elections of 7 November 1588. However, this cannot have been the end of the matter. There were clearly other letters from Denmark, and as late as March 1590 a draft reply from England made the point that "Sir Walter Leweson, knight, hath been apprehended for payment to be made unto Paulson the Dane" and that "John Paulson complains against Sir Walter Leweson, now in prison, from whom if so much might be paid as would deliver the poor man from prison it would be some satisfaction."[17]
In the meantime there had been further complaints. This time Leveson's crews were among a number accused of attacking Dutch shipping in the North Sea, and the offences predated the attacks in Norway.
- "In August and November, 1586, Sir Walter Lucen's ships spoiled 3 fishing boats and another, all of Holland, off the Scottish coast. Goods worth over 2,850l. sterling taken, and some of the men murdered and buried in the sands near the Isle of Wight, "not as Christians, but as dogs". No redress yet, despite complaints and letters from the States. "One of them, named John Jacobson Decker, died for mere thought and pensiveness of heart, crying out to his last hour against Sir Walter Lucen". Yet Lucen gave satisfaction for a Danish ship spoiled by the same people at about the same time. Despite his promises made before the Lord High Admiral, Lucen will never appear before indifferent judges unless compelled by the Queen or Council's express command."[18]
Once again, this was an attack on the shipping of an allied, largely Protestant nation at a time when England was involved in confrontation with Catholic Spain and the
In March 1598, no longer having parliamentary immunity, Leveson was cornered by his creditors at
- "In extremity of law his property and all monies owing to him are in her Majesty, by reason of some secret outlawries upon malice taken out against him. Although her Majesty does not usually take advantage thereof of her subjects, yet some of his adversaries, because of his last marriage, are confederate to entitle her thereto. For preventing this, prays Essex to move the Queen to grant that property to him (Essex), into whose hands he is willing to put his whole estate, or else to his brother Vernon. Lies imprisoned for debt, but has more money owing to him than his debts amount to, and by suing his own debtors in the Queen's right he can recover the same to satisfy his creditors and pay the fines due for his outlawries."[21]
Leveson had come to the conclusion that all his misfortunes were due to some wide-ranging plot against him, although the motives of his persecutors varied in his telling of the tale. Here it was jealousy of his second marriage to Susan Vernon, who was Essex's first cousin. Later he became convinced that his son and one Ethell[2] were at the root of the conspiracy, as he intimated to Cecil in April 1600:
- "Let not my letters, I beseech you, be troublesome to you, for out of my grieved soul I write. I desire you that my accuser may come to my face, and if it be Ethell, either send for him into England, or give me leave to send for him. Meantime, I desire you to suspend your opinion of me, and if before his face I do not justify myself an honest man, let me receive the extremest punishment that may be inflicted."[22]
By the end of the year, Leveson was telling Cecil that he had "lately fallen ill, which will turn to very great inconvenience, and groweth only by his being closed in a dark melancholy lodging."
Marriages and family
Leveson married firstly Anne Corbet the daughter of
Leveson married secondly Susan Vernon, also known as Susanna, the granddaughter of George Vernon (d.1555), and the daughter of John Vernon (d.1592) of
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g 'Lilleshall: Manor and other estates', A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11: Telford (1985), pp. 153–155. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- ^ a b c d e History of Parliament Online: Members 1558–1603 – LEVESON, Walter (1551–1602) – Author: J.J.C.
- ^ a b c d Keen & Lubbock 1954, p. 216.
- ^ Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 2, Chapter 14: The Abbey of Lilleshall.
- ^ Ussher 1881, pp. 157–60.
- ^ a b Phillimore 1888, p. 128; Keen & Lubbock 1954, p. 216.
- ^ History of Parliament Online: Members 1558–1603 – KNOLLYS, Sir Francis (by 1512–96) – Authors: Alan Harding/M.A.P.
- ^ a b c Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 11, Chapter 56: Lilleshall – Economic History.
- ^ Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 11, Chapter 134: Wrockwardine – Economic History.
- ^ Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 11, Chapter 24: Little Wenlock – Economic History.
- ^ Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 11, Chapter 35: Dawley – Manors and other estates.
- ^ Victoria County History: Shropshire, Volume 11, Chapter 23: Little Wenlock – Manor and other estates.
- ^ History of Parliament Online: Constituencies 1558–1603 – Shropshire – Author: P. W. Hasler.
- ^ a b Corbet, Sir Andrew (1522–1578), History of Parliament. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- ^ History of Parliament Online: Constituencies 1558–1603 – Newcastle-under-Lyme – Author: Alan Harding.
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, 21–25 August 1588
- ^ Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 13: Addenda, 1590.
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, 1–10 March 1589
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, 1–10 July 1589
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Elizabeth, 1598–1601
- ^ Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 8, 1–15 December 1598.
- ^ Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 10, 1–15 April 1600.
- ^ Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 10, 1–15 December 1600.
- ^ Sir Andrew Corbet was the son of Roger Corbet (d.1538) and Anne Windsor, the daughter of Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor; Corbet, Roger (1501/2–1538), History of Parliament. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- ^ Vivienne Larminie, Wealth, Kinship, and Culture: The 17th-Century Newdigates of Arbury (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1995), pp. 131, 213.
- ^ Burke & Burke 1891, p. 546; Howell 2004.
References
- Burke, John; Burke, John Bernard (1891). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland (2nd ed.). London: Scott, Webster and Geary. p. 546. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- Keen, Alan; Lubbock, Roger (1954). The Annotator. London: Putnam. p. 216.
- Harrod, Henry D. (1891). The History of Shavington in the County of Salop. Shrewsbury: Salop Printing Works. p. 25. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- Howell, A. (2004). "Devereux, Walter, first Viscount Hereford (c.1489–1558)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7567. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Phillimore, W.P.W., ed. (1888). The Visitation of the County of Worcester. Vol. XXVII. London: Harleian Society. p. 128. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- Ussher, Richard (1881). An Historical Sketch of the Parish of Croxall in the County of Derby. London: Bemrose and Sons. pp. 157–160. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- Wisker, Richard (2004). "Leveson, Sir Richard (c.1570–1605)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16538. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
- Will of James Leveson, proved 27 October 1547, National Archives. Retrieved 10 April 2013
- Will of Sir Richard Leveson of Lilleshall, proved 28 November 1560, National Archives. Retrieved 9 April 2013
- Will of Dame Mary Leveson, widow, of Lilleshall, proved 29 July 1591, National Archives. Retrieved 9 April 2013