Description:The Leveson family first became associated with Trentham in 1540. In 1536 Trentham Priory was dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A successful wool merchant from Wolverhampton, James Leveson took advantage of the secularisation of old monasteries by purchasing Trentham Priory and the lands and properties associated with it.
The document above is an Indenture made on 10th April 1540 (the 31st year of the reign of Henry VIII) ‘betwene Syr Thomas Pope Knyght’ and ‘James Leveson of Wolverhampton in the Countie of Stafford’. The Indenture concerns James Leveson’s purchase of ‘the house and Scite of the late priory or monastery of Trentham’ from Sir Thomas Pope. In buying the Priory, Leveson also acquired ‘all the houses and edifices barnes duffehouses watermylles gardens orchardes pondes rivers lande and Soyle’ which came with the Priory, ‘the parsonage of the parisshe’ and ‘the said churche or Chapell of Barleston’.
The Indenture tells us about the history of Trentham Priory and provides details of the agreement made between Sir Thomas Pope and James Leveson. The document states that ‘the said Syr Thomas Pope’ sold ‘the said late priowry or monastery of Trentham’ to James Leveson ‘for the som of one thowsand markes sterling’.
This document signifies the beginning of the Leveson family’s association with Trentham, when James Leveson purchased Trentham Priory and the house there became the first Trentham Hall.
Contextual Information from: Richard Wisker ‘The First Trentham Hall’, Staffordshire History, Volume 24, pp. 6-14 (Autumn 1996)