Description:The Marquis of Stafford became the Lord of the Manor of Stone in 1798
when an Inclosure Bill led to the Leveson-Gower family acquiring considerable land and property in Stone which had once belonged to the Crompton family.
The Crompton family were very important in the history of Stone. The family has its origins in London, but in the early sixteenth century William Crompton acquired the lands of Stone Priory, establishing the Crompton family in Stone Park. William’s eldest son, also named William Crompton served as the Sheriff of the County of Stafford in 1597.
William’s younger brother Thomas Crompton became the Member of Parliament for the County of Stafford in 1614, and in 1645 King Charles I lodged at Stone Park. From their beginnings as London merchants, the Crompton family became wealthy and influential in Stone and the County of Stafford.
The Sutherland Papers contain the will of Elizabeth Crompton, a descendant of Thomas Crompton. Elizabeth had inherited her Father’s (another Thomas Crompton) lands in Stone yet lived in Broseley, Shropshire where her Grandmother Sarah Adams of Broseley had owned lands. On her Father’s death, Elizabeth had inherited these lands in Staffordshire and Shropshire.
Elizabeth died unmarried in 1747 when she was sixty. Her will describes her as ‘Elizabeth Crompton of Brosely in the County of Salop Spinster’.
Elizabeth’s will reveals that she owned a considerable amount of property in Broseley and Stone, including land which was utilised for its minerals. Her will refers to her ‘Mannors Messuages Lands and tenements Royaltys Tythes adowsons and Hereditaments’ as well as ‘coal mines and other mines’ at Broseley ‘and Stone in the County of Stafford’.
The will refers to no surviving immediate family, and Elizabeth leaves all of her property and land to ‘Mary Browne of Benthall in the County of Salop’ who was also a ‘spinster’.
Mary Browne also played a significant role in the history of Stone, particularly Stone’s Parish Church to which she subscribed a donation using money left to her by Elizabeth Crompton. Her subscription ensured that the Crompton family remained associated with Stone and the Church there after Elizabeth’s death.
Contextual Information from: Norman A. Cope Stone in Staffordshire: The History of a Market Town (1972, Wood Mitchell & Co. Ltd)