Description:Amongst papers relating to Eccleshall in the Sutherland Papers is a survey of Chapel Chorlton made in 1591, when Sir Walter Leveson (1550-1602) owned lands in the area. ‘A note taken of Sir Walter Leveson lands in Churldon w[i]thin the County of Staffs the xxvyth dey of December Anno Dom[ine] 1591’ lists the tenants who lived on Sir Walter’s lands in Chapel Chorlton.
The document states that ‘William Hasselles holdethe one Tenemente’ in Chapel Chorlton, and ‘Roger Coope[r] holdethe one tenement or Cottage’. John Sandells held ‘one Cottage in the Meare’, whilst John Hunte, a Gentleman rented ‘a tenement called the Forde’.
Below the list are a number of items of ‘memorand[um]’ which were added to the survey relating to lands in Eccleshall. The memorandum tells us about the history of the Leveson lands in Chapel Chorlton, and the lives of the tenants who lived on the lands in the late sixteenth century. The document states that ‘all the tenants in Charldon seye, that all the lands in Charldon…and other lands theare, was in oulde tyme one Mr Dottens Lands’. Memorandum records that ‘the tenants in Charldon’ attended ‘the Lo: Bishoppes Courte at Ecleshall’.
The document tells us that ‘after the deathe of Mr Jhames Leveson’ in the 1540s, ‘three heryotts’ of land in the area had been ‘leased and taken awaye’. The heryotts had been obtained again and the memorandum on the lease indicates that they were an important acquisition, stating ‘never more sell of them’.
The memorandum relating to the Leveson family’s lands in Chapel Chorlton tells us that Sir Walter had been tenant on the lands synce Sir Rich[ar]d Leveson’, his father had ‘dyed’.
David Vincent writes that ‘the dominant institutional presence’ in Eccleshall was the Church, with the Bishops of Lichfield exercising ‘immense influence over both the spiritual and secular life of the parish’. Beneath the Bishops, on ‘the next rung of local society’ were a number of families, including the Broughtons and below them, more families, including the Skrymshires. This document from 1591 refers to ‘Jhames Skrymshew’ who was a considerable landowner in Chapel Chorlton, reflecting the importance of this survey in tracing the history of Eccleshall.
Contextual Information taken from: David Vincent, Victorian Eccleshall (Keele University, 1982)