de Verduns / Wrottesleys of Wrottesley

The de Verdun (Verdon) family of Wrottesley, Tettenhall, Staffordshire 

- the Wrottesleys of Wrottesley, Baronets and Barons Wrottesley

(Note: this section is currently uncompleted, 

but will be updated in due course)

There is another branch of the de Verdun family who settled at Wrottesley in Tettenhall Parish, Staffordshire and became the Wrottesley of Wrottesley family, Baronets and Barons Wrottesley. The specific line of descent from the main de Verdun line of Alton has not yet been able to be established by historians, although a close relationship with Bertram III de Verdun is strongly hinted at. The inclusion of quite a few de Verduns alongside Bertram III in the earliest charter record to mention this family of Wrottesley is evidence of the importance of this branch.

In an old history of Tettenhall there is some helpful information about the family including the following brief early family tree:

William de Verdon of Wrottesley above is the same person as 'William de Wrottesley' whose coat of arms appears in the same book, as shown below:  

At the bottom of the coat of arms is an inscription that reads: 

SIR WILLIAM DE WROTTESLEY

Married Joan, daughter of Sir Roger Bassett, son of Ralph,

Lord Bassett, of Drayton 

Some old seals from old deeds at Wrottesley, including one for Sir William and his son Hugh displaying their original de Verdun coat of arms are also shown in the Tettenhall book:

A devastating fire on the night of 16th-17th December 1897 gutted the older Wrottesley Hall. Sadly, many priceless and historically important manuscripts that had been in the family's muniments room were lost in the fire, but thankfully a member of the family who was an enthusiastic historian and antiquarian had already transcribed and recorded many of the medieval deeds and charters, and these were published by him. This 'saviour' of de Verdun / de Wrottesley of Wrottesley heritage was Major-General The Hon. George Wrottesley, whose 'A History of the Family of Wrottesley of Wrottesley, Co. Stafford' was published in The William Salt Archaeological Society's 'Collections for a History of Staffordshire' (New Series, Volume VI, Part 2, published 1903), reprinted from the pages of 'The Genealogist' (New Series, Volumes XV-XIX). The General recounts that he first began to study the Wrottesley deeds in 1860, they comprised a complete series of family documents identifying the successive owners of the property from the reign of Henry II down to the above date (1897). The Wrottesleys, historians of Staffordshire, the de Verdun family and others owe the Major-General a huge debt of gratitude for having delved into the old muniments at Wrottesley and rescued them from obscurity before the originals were destroyed.

The deed by which Adam the Abbot and monastery of Evesham enfoeffed Simon, the son of William of Coctune with the manors of Wrottesley and Levinton, in Staffordshire was dated sometime between 1160 and 1167. The witnesses to this deed were: Pagan the clerk, Philip the Steward, William de Tywe (tenants of the monastry), Enguerrand de Humez, his brother Jordan de Humez, Bertram de Verdun, Alexander de Claverley, Robert Pincerna, Walter Bret (or Brito), Ralph de Meilnil, Roelend de Verdun and Gwiot or Wido de Verdun. Wido is a name otherwise found cited in another of its forms as 'Guy' and was the name of one or more of the de Verduns of Norfolk. Wido or Guy de Verdun of Bressingham in Norfolk had a son called William who married a daughter of William de Valeines (see Dugdale's Monasticon). However, the 'Wido' who witnessed the Wrottesley deed may have been another Wido/Guy de Verdun who was unrelated to the Norfolk family.

The de Humez brothers were the sons of Richard de Humez, Hereditary Constable of Normandy. Bertram III de Verdun had been brought up in the household of Richard de Humez, as his Ward. Jordan and Bertram accompanied King Richard I on crusade - Jordan became constable to Richard's army and Bertram was made castellan of Acre when the King advanced towards Jerusalem. 

'Coctune', otherwise 'Cocton' is the place in Warwickshire found on modern maps as 'Coughton', located a few miles north of Alcester and Kinwarton. Major-General Wrottesley did not manage to work out how William de Coctune fitted into the de Verdun family. Wrottesley wrote the following about Simon de Verdun's elder brother Ralph:

living 1166 and 1184… lineal descendant of a former Ralph, the Domesday tenant of the Abbot at Kinewarton and Morton… 

Ralph also obtained (probably by marriage), the manor of Cocton or Coughton, in Warwickshire, and taking up his abode there, became known as Ralph de Cocton. In the next generation, i.e., in the reign of Henry I, all the lands of Ralph, pursuant to a custom which was very common in the reign of that monarch, appear to have been equally divided between two sons. Early in the reign of Henry II, Adam the Abbot of Evesham enfeoffed Simon, a younger son of William de Cocton ['Simoni filio Willelmi de Coctuna'], in the manors of Wrottesley and Loynton, co. Stafford, and this Simon is the undoubted progenitor of the present family of Wrottesley.

In 1166, Ralph was recorded in the Liber Niger where he was returned as holding a knight’s fee of the Abbot of Evesham.

Simon and Ralph's father William de Cocton (de Verdun) had a brother called Robert, and they both are described by Wrottesley as 'occurs circa 1149'. William and Robert's father is shown by Wrottesley as having been called 'William', who succeeded circa 1129, and who also had a brother called 'Robert' who 'succeeded circa 1129, ancestor of the family of Kinewarton'. The father of these two brothers who jointly succeeded in 1129 was Ranulf / Ralph de Cocton, who Wrottesley wrote was Domesday tenant of the Abbot of Evesham at Kinewarton and Morton, and brother of Walter the first Norman Abbot of the house ['Radulphus frater Abbatis Walter']. Kinewarton is found cited in Domesday as 'Chenewertone', in the Warwickshire Hundred of Fernecumbe. Domesday also records that Rannulf held Mortune i.e. Abbots  Morton in the Hundred of Ash, Warwickshire. Wrottesley tells us that The Evesham Cartulary records that:

‘Radulphus frater Abbatis Walteri habet in Withelega [Weethly, Warwickshire] iii hidas de dominico. In Kinewarton iij hidas de doininico. In Stoke [Stoke, Gloucestershire] ij hidas de dominico. In Litelton ij hidas et dimidiam de dominico. In Bretferton iij hidas et i virgatam dono Walteri Abbatis contradicente capitulo’. 

Wrottesley tells us this about 'Walter' the first Norman Abbot of Evesham:

According to the chronicle of Evesham, being a young man at the date of his accession [in 1077] and not endowed with much worldly wisdom, he refused to accept the homage of many worthy tenants of the monastery, and bestowed their lands upon his own relations. Amongst these was a brother Ralph, who obtained in this way several manors in the Counties of Warwick, Worcester and Gloucester. This Ralph also obtained (probably by marriage), the manor of Cocton or Coughton, in Warwickshire, and taking up his abode there, became known as Ralph de Cocton. 

Walter Died on 20th January 1104, according to the historian Florence of Worcester. As mentioned, Walter granted feoffments to his brother Ralph, who received from Abbots Walter, Robert & Maurice: Withelega (Weethly) & Kinewarton in Warwickshire, and Stoke in Gloucestershire, and Litelton (Littleton) & Bretferton (Bretforton) in Worcestershire. 

In his History, Maj-Gen. Wrottesley presents proof of the descent of the two families of Cocton and Kinewarton from Ralph the Abbot’s brother. He suggests that Ralph may have had two daughters, between whom his lands were divided, and in 1166 a younger Ralph de Cocton is cited, along with a ‘Ralph de Kinewarton’. He then provides a postulated pedigree showing Ralph, the Abbot’s brother with two sons: one called William, who succeeded to Cocton, father of Robert de Cocton d.s.p. and William de Cocton, father of two brothers - Ralph de Cocton, and Symon, ancestor of the Wrottesley family; and the other brother called Robert, who succeeded to Kinwarton and was ancestor of the Kinwarton family. 

However, this does not explain how and why Simon became ‘Simon de Verdun’. It makes more sense that Simon’s father William was a de Verdun and married a daughter of Ralph, the brother of Abbot Walter. Unless Abbot Walter and his brother Ralph were de Verduns themselves. Ranulf and his brother Walter the Abbot would seem to have been of the same generation as Bertram I de Verdun, and his son Norman de Verdun of the same generation as William de Cocton (de Verdun) father of Simon de Verdun. Perhaps Simon's father William was the son of Norman de Verdun, making Simon and his brother Ralph 1st cousins to Norman's eventual heir Bertram III de Verdun, and nephews to the 'Roelend de Verdun' who is mentioned in the deed enfeoffing Simon in Wrottesley, or that Roeland's son also called Roeland. Or perhaps Simon's father William was a son of Norman de Verdun's brother William? 

Simon de Verdun appears on the Staffordshire Pipe Roll 1166-67. Major-General Wrottesley tells us he also appears with Bertram de Verdun in Kenilworth charters:

Simon de Verdun ; in concert with Bertram de Verdun, the head of his family, he occurs as a witness to all the deeds of Henry de Clinton in the Kenilworth Chartulary. 

An example is a deed of 1174, where Henry de Clinton mortgages his mill of Kibbeclive to Ralph de Cocton, which was witnessed by:

Bertramo de Verdun, Roberto de Curli, Osberto de Clinton, Rogero filio Willelmi, Ruelan de Verdun, Simone de Verdun, Willielmo de Clinton, Rogero filio Henrici 

[Harleian MS. 3650, fol. 139]. 

Another is witnessed by (amongst others): Symon et Henrico, de Curia Bertrami de Verdun (Simon & Henry of the Court of Bertram de Verdun), Magistro Willelmo de Verdun, Roberti filio Bertrami, and L. fratre Ade de Aldithel (Liulf, brother of Adam de Audley, the sons of Liulf de Audley). In 1181 he appears on Warwickshire Pipe Roll of 27 Henry II as Simonem de Verdun. Simon was succeeded by his son William de Verdun, before the year 1199. 

The charter evidence would suggest that the relationship between Simon de Verdun and Bertram III de Verdun was close. Old and original manuscript sources may help us by revealing the family's genealogy with greater certainty and clarity, and show whether they were de Verduns who married a de Cocton heiress and therefore assumed that toponym, or that the earliest recorded de Coctons, including the Abbot Walter, were brothers or cousins of Bertram I de Verdun. Whatever the answer, Simon's descendants assumed the toponymic surname of 'de Wrottesley' from these lands and the name continues in the family to this very day. 

Long after the time of Simon de Verdun de Wrottes;ey, a Wrottesley was made a Baronet and then Sir John Wrottesley Bart was elevated to become the 1st Baron Wrottesley of Wrottesley. His coat of arms (shown below) illustrates how the Wrottesleys changed their arms to those of Bassett, with the same core design as shown above impaled with de Verdon, but with a different colour combination.

Sir Walter Wrottesley of Wrottesley was made a Baronet in 1642. In 1838, his descendant Sir John Wrottesley, 9th Baronet was made Baron Wrottesley, thereby becoming the founder of a third baronial branch of the de Verdun family in England. The Wrottesleys successfully retained their estate of Wrottesley from the 12th to the 20th century, up until Richard Wrottesley, 5th Baron Wrottesley sold the estate including Wrottesley Hall in 1963, when he moved to live in South Africa. The grounds around the Hall have been the home of Wrottesley Golf Club since 1965, when it was opened by the 5th Baron. The Hall that was built in 1696 and destroyed by a fire in 1897 was rebuilt in 1923 as a smaller but still impressive and elegant Georgian style by Victor Alexander Wrottesley, 4th Baron Wrottesley. 

After the estate was sold in 1963, the ownership of the Hall became separate from that of the club, and it was later divided into three properties, owned by the same family. All three were sold in 2016, having been advertised for sale in 2014 - 'Historic hall on market' (Shropshire Star, 29 September 2014: link).

The Barony and Baronetcy continues in the current head of the family, Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, 14th Baronet and 6th Baron Wrottesley.

_______________