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Hello form Melbourne Australia.

I am looking for information on Willesley Hall regarding my great-great-great grandmother Patience Sherratt born there in 1811. My great great grandfather William Arthur Ward b 1838 in Greenhill Woulds married Patience's daughter Sarah Wright b 27/4/1840 in Oakthorpe,

I am told that Patience left the Manor House aged 6. Confusion exists on whether family had ownership or lodged at Manor House??

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Brian Hamer.

some background info
Willesley
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Coordinates: 52.729°N 1.497°W
Willesley
Willesley Church.jpg
Willesley Church dates from the 14th century with a tower dated 1845[1]
Willesley is located in Leicestershire
Willesley

Willesley shown within Leicestershire
Population c. 60 in 1830
OS grid reference SK355165
District North West Leicestershire
Shire county Leicestershire
Region East Midlands
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH
Postcode district LE65
Dialling code 01530
Police Leicestershire
Fire Leicestershire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK Parliament North West Leicestershire
List of places: UK • England • Leicestershire

Willesley is a place near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was in Derbyshire but is now part of Leicestershire. In the 19th century it had a population of about 60 and Willesley Hall was the home of the Abney and later the Abney-Hastings family. Willesley is so small that it would be a hamlet except that it has a church.
Contents

1 History
1.1 The Abney and Hastings family
2 The church
2.1 The campsite
3 References

History

Willesley is mentioned as a significant manor in the Domesday book.[2] Willesley is listed among the large number of manors that are owned directly by Henry de Ferrers[3] and its value was assessed as twenty shillings TRE[4] and sixteen shillings in 1086.
Willesley Hall in the 1830s when it was the home of Sir Charles Abney Hastings and just before that his father.

There was once a stately home here called Willesley Hall built of red brick. The hall stood in a park of 155 acres (0.63 km2).[1]

The village has always been small. The population remained around the figure of 60 from 1805 to 1881.[1][5]

Little of the manor, but the church, remains today, but Willesley Lake which has been described as of serpentine design is still used for fishing. The lake was constructed to enable the water level to be controlled for power generation for the nearby Hall.[6]
The Abney and Hastings family

It was the birthplace of notable people including two called Sir Thomas Abney and Edward Abney whose letters were published recently giving an insight into early 17th century life.[7] One of the Thomas Abney's became a mayor of London whilst another rose to be a judge of common pleas. The Abney family required that owners of the manor should be called Abney. Twice there has had to be a special Act of Parliament for people to add the name Abney to their surname. Sir Charles Abney Hastings, a High Sheriff of Derbyshire was the last person descended from the Abney line. The man who might have inherited the hall, after Sir Charles Abney Hastings died without children, was his younger brother, Frank, a veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar. Unfortunately he died prematurly fighting for the Greeks and was buried in Zante.

Willesley Hall was also used as the name of a steam locomotive in the Hall class by the Great Western Railway.

In 1897 the counties of Leicestershire and Derbyshire corrected their boundaries to remove enclaves. Part of Appleby Magna, Chilcote, Measham, Oakthorpe and part of Donisthorpe, Stretton en le Field were transferred to Leicestershire.[8]

The golf course in Ashby had existed since the 1920s and at one time considered buying Willesley Hall, but at the time, the lack of members with cars and financial issues, prevented it.[9]
The church

The church of St Thomas dates from the 14th century with a tower added in 1845. The glass is modern heraldic, but with some older glass too. Monuments in the church include one dated 1505 to John and Maria Abney, another to George and Ellen Abney dated 1571 and a Lt. General Sir Charles Hastings' black and white marble tomb who died in 1823.[1]

The parish register started in 1677. In the 19th century the church could seat 100 after its seats and pulpit were replaced in 1883 by the Earl of Loudoun.[1] The Earls of Loudoun inherited the manor of Willesley after the Second Baronet died without children.
The campsite

The hall fell derelict and was bought by Leicestershire Scout district in 1952 along with a small area of land. The hall was demolished and the land became a Scout campsite, however the hall required seven attempts before it gave way to explosives.[7] Further land was later bought by the Scouts, with other areas becoming a fishing lake or adding to the golf facilities.

Willesley Campsite is located one mile (1.6 km) south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch.[10] It occupies 14 acres (57,000 m2) of the old Willesley Hall estate (part of the original gatehouse is still visible). The camp site has fields, a wood and its own church (St. Thomas's).

Some areas of woodland at Willesley are owned by the Woodland Trust. These areas were surveyed in 2001 for evidence of ancient woodland.[11] The survey showed that there was a continuity of managed woodland cover for at least 200 years, but there was no direct evidence for any continuity of cover since 1600. The site did not therefore qualify as ancient woodland.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Willesley

^ a b c d e Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland, London, 1891, p326, accessed 12 July 2008
^ Domesday Book: A Complete Transliteration. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.745
^ Henry owned a significant number of manors in Derbyshire. Besides Willesley he had Tissington, Hartington, Swarkeston and the new castle at Tutbury.
^ TRE in Latin is Tempore Regis Edwardi. This means in the time of King Edward before the Battle of Hastings.
^ Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835, accessed 12 July 2008
^ National Forest information, accessed 12 July 2008
^ a b Letters to my Father, Abney family history, accessed 11 July 2008
^ At the same time the parishes of Netherseal and Overseal were received by Derbyshire from Leicestershire.
^ Willesley Park Golf Club: history, accessed 11 July 2008
^ Willesley campsite
^ Retson, Ian. "An Investigation into the likelihood of Ancient Woodland existing on the Woodland Trust site at Willesley Leicestershire" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-08-21.

Name: Earl of Loudoun Charles E H Abney-hastings
Birth Date: abt 1855
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1920
Age at Death: 65
Registration district: Ashby de la Zouch
Inferred County: Leicestershire
Volume: 7a
Page: 105

Thanks Maddie. i have seen this info. Looking for specific info regrading my 3xgreat grandmother (Patience Sherratt) and her connection to Willesley Hall Manor house

1841

Name: Patience Wright
Age: 28
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1813
Gender: Female
Where born: Leicestershire, England
Civil parish: Nether and Over Seal
Hundred: West Goscote
County/Island: Leicestershire
Country: England

Registration district: Ashby de la Zouch
Sub-registration district: Hartshorn
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece: 596
Book: 2
Folio: 4
Page Number: 11
Household Members:
Name Age
John Wright 30
Patience Wright 28
Mary Wright 8
Thomas Wright 6
Ann Wright 3
Sarah Wright 1

Do you know who Patience's parents were?

Name: Patience Sherrat
Gender: Female
Baptism/Christening Date: 15 Oct 1815
Baptism/Christening Place: NETHERSEAL,LEICESTER,ENGLAND
Birth Date:
Birthplace:
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race:
Father's Name: Thomas Sherrat
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name: Mary
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C05562-1
System Origin: England-ODM
Source Film Number: 595762
Reference Number:

What info do you have which leads you to think Patience was connected to the 'Manor House'?

Groom's Name: Thos. Sherratt
Groom's Birth Date:
Groom's Birthplace:
Groom's Age:
Bride's Name: Mary Griffiths
Bride's Birth Date:
Bride's Birthplace:
Bride's Age:
Marriage Date: 07 Jul 1810
Marriage Place: Seal, Leicester, England
Groom's Father's Name:
Groom's Mother's Name:
Bride's Father's Name:
Bride's Mother's Name:
Groom's Race:
Groom's Marital Status:
Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
Bride's Race:
Bride's Marital Status:
Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M01319-3
System Origin: England-EASy
Source Film Number: 1752219
Reference Number: No number

name: Miriam Sherratt
gender: Female
baptism/christening date: 23 Jul 1815
baptism/christening place: NETHERSEAL,LEICESTER,ENGLAND
birth date:
birthplace:
death date:
name note:
race:
father's name: Thomas Sherratt
father's birthplace:
father's age:
mother's name: Mary
mother's birthplace:
mother's age:
indexing project (batch) number: C05562-1
system origin: England-ODM
source film number: 595762
reference number:

???????

Name: Miriam Sherratt
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1816
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1891
Age at Death: 75
Registration district: Ashby de la Zouch
Inferred County: Leicestershire
Volume: 7a
Page: 75

My sister was told by my great grandmother Bertha Ward about Manor House.

Ancestry:

Thomas Sherratt 1784 - Mary Griffiths c1790

Patience Sherratt 1811 -John Wright 1809-1975

Sarah Wright 1840 - William Arthur Ward 1838

Bertha Ward 1874 -1970 - Arthur Wood 1871.

As I am oldest living family member, I have no one to confirm the details.

So you don't have any documents to back-up the story............

I'm not saying it's untrue, but one always has to be cautious about handed-down family tales

Netherseal - where Patience was baptised, and her parents married, has its own Church.......St. Peter.

As per the info above, the Church at Willesley is St Thomas

The Abney family had owned the Hall for many, many years pre-1811.

The likelihood is that Patience's father was an estate worker of some sort

Thanks Reggie. I will check with my sister to ask if she has any 'documents'.

1861


Name: Miriam Sherratt
Age: 45
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1816
Relation: Head
Where born: Donisthorpe, Derbyshire, England
Civil parish: Donisthorpe
Ecclesiastical parish: Donisthorpe
County/Island: Derbyshire
Country: England
Street Address:

Occupation:

Condition as to marriage:

View image
Registration district: Ashby De La Zouch
Sub-registration district: Hartshorn
ED, institution, or vessel: 2
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 44
Piece: 2268
Folio: 23
Page Number: 6
Household Members:
Name Age
Miriam Sherratt 45 Unmarried
William Sherratt 16 Son
George Sherratt 14 Son

1891

Name: Mariam Sherratt
Age: 75
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1816
Relation: Head
Gender: Female
Where born: Donisthorpe, Derbyshire, England
Civil parish: Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe
Ecclesiastical parish: Donisthorpe
Town: Donisthorpe
County/Island: Derbyshire
Country: England

Registration district: Ashby De La Zouch
Sub-registration district: Hartshorn
ED, institution, or vessel: 2
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece: 2509
Folio: 37
Page Number: 21
Household Members:
Name Age
Mariam Sherratt 75
George Sherratt 44
Ann Sherratt 45
Lewis B Sherratt 9
Martha A Sherratt 5

AND 1841


Name: Meriam Sherratt
Age: 25
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1816
Gender: Female
Where born: Derbyshire, England
Civil parish: Church Gresley
Hundred: Repton and Gresley
County/Island: Derbyshire
Country: England

Registration district: Ashby de la Zouch
Sub-registration district: Hartshorn
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece: 191
Book: 7
Page Number: 2
Household Members:
Name Age
Meriam Sherratt 25
Emma Sherratt 2 Mo

1851


Name: William Sherratt
Age: 6
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1845
Relation: Son
Mother's Name: Minam Sherratt
Gender: M (Male)
Where born: Netherseal, Leicestershire, England
Civil parish: Nether Seal
Ecclesiastical parish: Donisthorpe St John
County/Island: Leicestershire
Country: England

Registration district: Ashby De La Zouch
Sub-registration district: Measham
ED, institution, or vessel: 6 and 4
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 40
Piece: 2084
Folio: 238
Page Number: 11
Household Members:
Name Age
Minam Sherratt 33
Emma Sherratt 10
William Sherratt 6
George Sherratt 4

I am informed by my sister that she was advised by the curator of the Museum that all records relating to the Manor House were sold to a US collector. My sister says that the connection to the Manor House is via Patience Sherratt's maternal grandfather ?? Griffiths.

That's OK Brian...no need to acknowledge the info about Miriam

Griffiths was probably an estate works.....as suggested earlier re Patience's father

The history of the Hall precludes any chance of there being any other connection.........and you still haven't identified the source of the 'info'