Milford Hall

View of Milford Hall, seat of RB Levett Esq., 1848

Grave of Richard Byrd Levett, Lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps , in St. Thomas Church, Walton-on-the-Hill . Coats of arms of the Levets at Milford Hall and the Levetts at Wychnor Park

Milford Hall is a country house in the village of Milford near Stafford in the English county of Staffordshire . The 18th century house is privately owned and English Heritage has listed it as a Grade II Historic Building.

The property came in 1749 in the possession of the family Levett , as Reverend Richard Levett , son of the rector of Blithfield , Lucy Byrd , descendant of the family Byrd from Cheshire and heiress of Milford Hall married. (The Levett family were from Sussex and the Levetts are from Staffordshire have papers of family connection with William Levett , Esq. , Who was the groom of the bedchamber of King Charles I and the king in his prison at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight and eventually accompanied to his execution.).

Also in Milford Hall is a replica of an old bronze seal found near Eastbourne in the 19th century (now in the collection in the Lewes Castle Museum ) bearing the coat of arms of John Livet . The signet is said to have belonged to one of the first family members who was the landlord of Firle in East Sussex in 1316 .

Milford Hall also has an illuminated family tree with crests of the family from their 11th century Sussex and Normandy roots .

From this Sussex family came Sir Richard Levett , a powerful merchant, Lord Mayor of London and owner of Kew Palace , the son of the Reverend Richard Levett (brother of William Levett, the groom of the bedchamber of King Charles I) of Ashwell was, as was Dr. William Levett , Dean of Magdalen Hall and the University of Bristol . The family is of Anglo-Norman descent and derives its name from the village of Livet (now Jonquerets-de-Livet ) in Normandy.

Levett replaced the existing house with a new Georgian style country house . The Hauptostfassade had three floors and four yokes and flanked by two two-story wings with two yokes. An orangery with five bays is connected to the south . There was an ornamental gable above the main entrance, supported by Ionic columns .

In 1817 the house was greatly expanded and rebuilt on behalf of Richard Levett's son, also named Richard ; The pillars and gable were removed and the main entrance relocated to the west side.

The records of the English census of 1881 show that in addition to the Levett family, 14 servants lived at Milford Hall. After the death of Captain William Swynnerton Byrd Levett in 1929, the property fell to his daughter Dyonese Haszard , the wife of Colonel Gerald Haszard , OBE and Royal Marines .

The Levett-Haszard family kept Milford Hall. Dyonese Haszard's only brother, Lieutenant Richard Byrd-Levett of the 60th Rifles, King's Royal Rifle Corps fell in France in 1917 during World War I. Lieutenant Levett, a graduate of Eton College , died in an attack on the city Irles in France on the morning of March 14, 1917. Subsequently, his parents were in the St. Thomas Church in nearby Walton-on-the-Hill to his Place a marble plaque in honor of honor. Lieutenant Levett's grave shows the Milford Hall coat of arms for his father, William Swynnerton Byrd Levett, and the Wychnor Park coat of arms for his mother, Maud Levett.

Coat of arms of the Levetts with that of the Bagots in St Leonard's Church at Blithfield in Staffordshire

The mother of Lieutenant Levett and Dyonese Levett Haszard was Maud Sophia (Levett) Levett , wife of Captain William Swynnerton Byrd Levett, Justice of the Peace, daughter of Major Edward Levett ( 10th Royal Hussars ) of Rowsley in Derbyshire, a descendant of the Levetts of Wychnor Hall, and his wife, Caroline Georgina , daughter of Reverend Charles Longley , Archbishop of Canterbury . (Major Levett's second wife was Susan Alice Arkwright , a descendant of Sir Richard Arkwright .)

Maud Levett, who was descended from Levett on both paternal and maternal lines, was a religious and spiritual writer who published a number of books, as well as the memoirs of her son Lieutenant Levett, a graduate of Eton College who was wounded twice in World War I and then fell in France. (A former Levett who lived at Milford Hall, the unmarried Frances M. Levett , also wrote a number of books, such as "Gentle Influence: or the Cousin's Visit," which were published in London under her initials.)

Col. Gerald Fenwick Haszard served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1952 and Richard Byrd Levett Haszard served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 2009. (The Levett family represented Staffordshire in Parliament in the 18th and 19th centuries.)

Milford Hall Levetts long went to pray in the nearby St. Thomas Church in Walton-on-the-Hill , built in 1842 as an adjacent church to the parish church. There are several monuments to the Levett family in this church. In St. Thomas Church there are also unusual, blue Minton tiles with the Levett's initials in reddish-yellow letters.

There are also family monuments at St. Augustine's Church in nearby Rugeley and the Holy Trinity Church in Berkswich , where the Levett and Chetwynd families had private church seats.

Nearby is Shugborough Hall , the traditional seat of the Anson family , the Earls of Lichfield . The Levett family of Milford Hall is related to the Ansons.

The Levetts and Bagots from nearby Pype Hayes Hall , a branch of the Bagots from Bagot's Bromley and Blithfield Hall , also married into their families.

Another, distant branch of the Sussex Levetts owned Packington Hall and Wychnor Hall, two other country houses in Staffordshire. Eventually, these two branches of the Levett family were reunited by marriage so that the current owners of Milford Hall descended from both branches.

The Milford Hall Levetts have also married into other landowning families. The Levett-Scrivener family e.g. B. lives near Yoxford in Suffolk , where they have owned the ruins of Sibton Abbey , the only Cistercian abbey in East Anglia , for centuries .

Not all Levetts kept their family names. Lieutenant-Colonel Richard WB Mirehouse (1849–1914), 1886 High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in Wales and Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment , was born Richard WB Levett in Milford Hall, but changed his name to Mirehouse, den Name of his mother's family.

Milford Hall is privately owned and neither the country house nor the estate are open to the public.

Individual references and comments

1. ^ Robert Glover, Willam Flower, William Fellows (Editors): The Visitation of Cheshire, in the Year 1580 . John Paul Rylands, London 1882. Entry: Bird of Cheshire . Retrieved January 17, 2017.
2. ↑ The ancestors of Colonel William Byrd I of Virginia came from the same Bird family from Clopton and Broxton in Cheshire . The son of a London goldsmith with roots in Cheshire, the first William Byrd, lived in Broxton until he left England for Virginia in 1676.
3. ^ The Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England . Great Britain Parliament, London 1763. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
4. ^ William Levett, Hampton Court, or the Prophecy Fulfilled . 1844. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
5. ↑ George P. Bacon: The Museum of Lewes Castle, Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County, Sussex Archaeological Society . Volume XVIII. Lewes 1866. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
6. ↑ locust Lyvett, Lord of Firle, 1316 Inquistions and assessments Relating to Feudal Aids . Great Britain Public Record Office, London 1908. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
7. ^ Alfred Williams, Walter Henry Mallett: Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire . F. Brown, 1899. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
8. ^ W. Paley Baildon (editor): Descendancy chart of Levett family, The Home Counties Magazine Devoted to the Topography of London, Middlesex, Essex, Herts, Bucks, Berks, Surrey and Kent . Volume X. Reynell & Son, London 1908. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
9. ^ Levett Tomb and Monument, Saint Anne's Church, Kew . British History Online. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
10. ↑ L. Margaret Midgely (Editor): A History of the County of Stafford, Baswich . Victoria County History, 1959. British History Online. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
11. ↑ Dyonese Levett Haszard was a diligent amateur historian who contributed to the Victoria County History of Staffordshire. She also wrote a book about the Levett family that also honestly pointed out the family's weaknesses and strengths. A Levett family home, as she wrote, was known for its "gloomy" atmosphere. In another, the dining table was spanned with a net in which the abundantly consumed bottles were caught. Alderman Richard Levett of London (1728), son of the Lord Mayor, was, according to Haszard, a good-for-nothing who squandered the enormous fortune that his father left him.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Blackboard for Col. Gerald Haszard in St. George's Chapel of St. Thomas Church in Walton, Staffordshire. Berkswich.org. ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2017. 
13. ^ Second Lieutenant Richard William Byrd Levett in Eton School Rolls of Honor, Roll of Honor for the Men of the Kings Royal Rifle Corp killed in the Great War . Wakefield Family History Society. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
14. ↑ grave of Lt. Richard Byrd Levett, fallen in France, 1917, St. Thomas Church, Walton on the Hill, Staffordshire. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
15. ↑ Alabaster plaque to Lieutenant Richard Byrd Levett, King's Royal Rifles, St. Thomas Church, Walton on the Hill, Staffordshire. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
16. ↑ William Swynnerton Byrd Levett was named in part after his Swynnerton ancestors from Swynnerton and Butterton in Staffordshire. In 1873 she was also a graduate of Eton College. [2] . Retrieved January 17, 2017.
17. ↑ 454 Marquis of Ruvigny: The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal . Mortimer-Percy Volume, Reprinted from Heritage Books, 2001. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
18. ↑ Joseph Jackson Howard, Frederic Arthur Crisp: Visitation of England and Wales . College of Arms. Volume 7. Self-published, 1899. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
19. ↑ Frances M. Levett: Gentle Influence; or, the cousin's visit . Joseph Masters, London 1852. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
20. ↑ Col. Gerald Fenwick Haszard CBE DSC , Deputy Lieutenant, (1894–1967), son of Captain HF Haszard of the Royal Navy , married in 1928 Dyonese Rosamond Levett , daughter and heiress of Captain WSB Levett , Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace from Milford Hall, and had two sons, the elder of whom ( Richard Byrd Levett Haszard ) inherited Milford Hall. His son, also Richard Byrd Levett Haszard , married Sarah , the daughter of Thomas Michael McNair Scott of Highfield House , Jersey , in 1990 , currently lives in Milford Hall and was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 2009 . The couple has three children.
21. ^ Staffordshire The High Sheriffs' Association of England and Wales. ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 18, 2017. 
22. ↑ St. Thomas' Church, Walton, Wall Plaques and Tablets . www.berkswich.org.uk ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
23. ^ The Parish of Berkswich, the History of St. Thomas Church . www.berkswich.org.uk ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
24. ^ Lynn Pearson: Minton Tiles in the Churches of Staffordshire . Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
25. ↑ Chetwynd and Levett family pews , Holy Trinity Church, Baswich, Staffordshire Past Track, staffspasttrack.org.uk ( Memento of the original of May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
26. ↑ L. Margaret Midgley: Baswich or Berkswich, The Hundred of Cuttlestone, A History of the County of Stafford . Volume 5. Victoria County History. 1959. British History Online. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
27. ↑ The Ansons and Levetts married into the same families; B. that of the Lords Byron of Newstead Abbey .
28. ^ John Burke Esq .: A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland . Volume I. Henry Colburn, London 1835. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
29. ↑ The marriage of Maud Sophia Levett, descendant of the Levets of Wychnor Hall, and William Swynnerton Byrd Levett, offspring of the Levets of Milford Hall, led to this.
30. ^ Sibton Abbey Account Book, Saxmundham, private collection of JE Levett-Scrivener, Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music . diamm.ac.uk
31. ↑ The Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk, was awarded Sibton Abbey by the Crown when the English monasteries were dissolved . Sibton Abbey and Sibton Manor were sold to Ralph Scrivener, Barrister in Ipswich, in 1610. The abbey is in ruins, but the refectory and the southern wall of the nave have been preserved, even if the ruins are heavily overgrown. [3]
32. ↑ Richard Mirehouse, formerly Levett in The Eton Register . Part III. Old Etonian Association. Spottiswoode & Co., Eton 1906. Retrieved January 18, 2017.

swell

• A History of the County of Stafford. Volume 5. 1959. pp. 1-11. British History Online

Web links

• YeOldSussexPages . History of Sussex.
• Levett of Milford Hall in Bernhard Burke: A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain . 1863.
• Official website of Kew Palace.
• Lewis Christopher Loyd: The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families . 1951.
• Rev. Richard Levett of Milford Hall .
• Alfred Williams: Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire . 1899. Packington Hall.
• Parliament Fine of William Levett, Ghent. in House of Lords Journal . 1647. British History Online.
• Photo of the grave of Lt. Richard Byrd Levett, fallen in France, 1917, St. Thomas Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire
• Photograph of the Elizabeth Mary Levett Memorial, 1915. St. Thomas Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire.
• Photo of the plaque of Rev. Richard Levett, + 1843. St. Thomas Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire.

literature

• Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry . Volume I. 1847, p. 724.
• Dyonese Levett Haszard: The Levetts of Staffordshire . Self-published.

Coordinates: 52 ° 47 '17.2 "  N , 2 ° 3' 11.2"  W.