| Located At | Staffordshire Record Office |
| Level | Section |
| Alt Ref No | D641/2 |
| Title | Stafford-Howard Family |
| Administrative History | In 1637 Henry, Lord Stafford, the ward of the Earl of Arundel, died unmarried and aged 16. His cousin and heir male was Roger descended from a younger son of Henry, Lord Stafford, the successor to the third Duke of Buckingham. Aged 60 - 65 Roger was denied the title and accession by Charles I on the grounds that he was of "very mean and obscure condition" but he died in 1640 before this view could be contested.
The sister of Henry Lord Stafford (died 1637) was married to William Howard, second surviving son of Thomas Earl of Arundel and Altheia daughter and co-heir of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1640 they were created Baron and Baroness Stafford in their own right, with remainder to heirs general and also William was created Viscount Stafford (descent via heirs male). In 1678 he was "purjured" into the Popish Plot and in 1680 beheaded, his titles being forfeit. His wife, of course, remained Baroness Stafford in her own right until her death in 1693 - 4. Shortly before her death she was created Countess of Stafford, by James II and her eldest son, Henry was created Earl of Stafford at the same time. He did not, however, succeed to the barony forfeited in 1680. In 1719 he was succeeded by his nephew William who in his turn was followed by his son William Mathias in 1734. In 1751 John Paul, his uncle succeeded but on his death in 1762 he had no male heirs and the title became extinct. The property descended to the Jerningham family of Costessey (see D641/3); of John Paul's daughters Mary Apollonia who was married to Rohan de Chabot died without heirs in 1769 and the other two, Anastasia and Anne were both nuns.
The family were of course recusants, they were abroad for much of the Interregnum and after 1690 the family seems to have been largely domiciled in France, marrying into the French aristocracy fairly consistently. During the first forty years, the Howard connection, brought about by the marriage of the Stafford heiress, referred to above, has considerable influence on the papers.
The marriage with the Howard family brought property, particularly as far as documents are concerned, at Shifnal in Shropshire which was added to the remnants of the medieval estates of the Stafford family around Stafford and around Thornbury in Gloucestershire. Although the former remained with the family and passed to the Jerninghams, the Thornbury estate was sold to the Duke of Norfolk in 1727. |
| Arrangement | Arrangement
The present order is entirely artificial, except where stated in the list, as some documents were found in bundles which tallied with the Reverend Frith's initial list, and some were in new groups which he was in the process of preparing after this had been made out. Seldom did the order of the documents represent any "archive group". |
| Date | 16th cent-1775 |
| Description | In addition to the period following the accession of the Stafford-Howards to the title in 1640, this section of the collection contains the fragmentary documentary remains of the period c. 1575-1640. This course was decided upon, not merely because all the main series of records of the medieval Stafford family, with possible exception of the Thornbury court roll series, die away c. 1550 - 75, but because the records which survive for the period c.1575 - 1640 are very frequently legal papers relating to a topic for which a series of legal actions continues into the late 17th century, or may well have been prepared for or preserved in the context of these actions.
Unlike the survivals for the medieval period all series of documents in this section are at the best discontinuous and normally fragmentary. Nevertheless, there are individual documents and groups which have considerable interest in themselves.
This section is terminated c.1760 with the accession of the Jerningham family to the property (see Jerningham section).
Title deeds
There are very few of these indeed, though one or two do record sales of part of the remnants of the medieval estate around Caurs and at Rendcombe and other outlying areas of the main Gloucestershire estates.
Settlements
There are a number of these, a few relating to the widowhood of the Countess Mary Stafford, 1681 - 90. More numerous are those relating to the Howard estates including Shifnal, but also other properties of the Howard family which passed to Viscount Stafford but which are otherwise unrepresented among the surviving documents in the collection.
Legal
There are a number of papers on the sequestration of the estate during the Interregnum. More numerous are those relating to various law suits between Viscount Stafford and his relatives (c.1650 - 80). The most considerable series of papers however relate to the property in Gloucestershire including the sea walls of the River Severn at Oldbury and manorial customs including villenage and inheritance at Thornbury. A few cases relate to legal problems in Staffordshire and Shropshire including liability for the repair of the Green Bridge, Stafford as well as a case of "contempt" of the manorial court by Goldsmyth.
Estate records
There are a number of leases both of the Staffordshire and the Shropshire estates.
The manorial documents for the Staffordshire estate although they contain one or two useful surveys are sparse and the same can be said for the Shifnal property. For Gloucestershire however there is the nearest which the section of the collection achieves to a coherent set of documents, but even here there are considerable gaps in the sequence and there is nothing like the continuity and completeness of the 15th and early 16th century records, though the records of the honour of Gloucester and honour of Hereford do continue spasmodically. In addition to the Thornbury property the family had some property at Oldland, parish Bitton in Gloucestershire and there are a small group of documents relating to this property.
The financial records, rentals and accounts, of both the Staffordshire and the Shropshire estates are sparse though those concerning the working of Stafford mill, probably the main mills in Stafford and not those at Eastgate as although the latter belonged to Lord Stafford they are known to have become ruinous; so the surviving documents probably refer to the main mills which were presumably held from the Borough; in any case there are a few papers about a major reconstruction of the mills c.1661 (2/B/1/3). The Gloucestershire financial records are equally fragmentary.
Other families connected with these papers
Paddy:- There are documents relating to this family also in the Jerningham papers (D641/3) and they seem to have continued to act as agent for the family in the Shifnal area as they had done for the Stafford-Howards.
Colclough:- These do not seem to be directly related to the North Staffordshire family of this name; the surviving records relate to a generation earlier than those which have survived for the Paddy's, nevertheless there does seem to be some reason to believe that they were a connection of the Paddy family and hence the survival of the records in this collection. This possibility requires confirmation and further investigation. |
| Extent | (20 boxes) |