The Diddington List

The following list provides a record of names connected with the ownership or administration of the Manor of Diddington. It develops into a list of the Lords and Ladies of the manors of Knowle, Diddington and Kinwalsey, eventually with the manor of Nuthurst.

Map of Diddington from the first edition Ordnance Survey Map of Warwickshire, 1886

The Prioresses, Abbotts and Priors listed did not hold titles of lordship. They are included for a sense of the timeline.

• Leofwin held lands in Hampton-in-Arden (Hantone) in the time of Edward the Confessor, under Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lady Godiva 
• Geoffrey de la Guerche (Geoffrey de Wirce), a Breton Baron and his wife Aelfeva held the lordship of Hampton-in-Arden in 1086 
• Nigel d’Aubigny granted the lands of Geoffrey and Aelfeva by King Henry I 
• Sir Roger de Mowbray (c.1120-1188), son of Nigel, an Anglo-Norman magnate with substantial landholdings. He took part in the Second Crusade (1147-1149) and left for the Holy Lands again in 1186. Mowbray was a significant benefactor and supporter of several religious institutions
• Markyate Priory, Bedfordshire, established 1145 by:
• Christina of Markyate (c.1097-1155, birth name Theodora) 
• Prioress Isabel, Diddington and Kinwalsey leased from 1190 to William de Arden
• Prioress Joan (mentioned 1212 and 1238) sold the Manors: 
• Hugh de Arden, son of William de Arden and Amice de Traci; purchased the Manors in 1231 
• William de Arden (d.1276) m. Agnes (from 1276 Lady of the Manors of Knowle, Diddington and Kinwalsey). From 1280 Queen Eleanor had wardship with several manors inherited by ‘Richard de Arderne, an idiot’ 
• Amice de Arden m. John le Lou; sold the manors to the Crown in 1284 
• Queen Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) ‘received the manors as a gift from King Edward I of England (1239-1307)’ - part of her royal demesne, an estate of 200 manors and properties. Queen Eleanor acquired Amice’s inheritance from Richard de Arden of the manors of Hampton-in-Arden, Grafton, Knowle, Wootton, Solihull, Longdon, Kinwalsey and Diddington 
• Given to the Abbott and Priors of Westminster Abbey as an endowment for a chantry, erected in the memory of Queen Eleanor, maintained for 250 years until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540-41 
• Walter de Wenlok 1283-1307 
• Richard de Kedyngton 1308-1315 
• William de Curtlyngton 1315-1333 
• Thomas de Henley 1333-1344 
• Simon de Bircheston 1344-1349 
• Simon Langham 1349-1362 
• Nicholas de Litlyngton 1362-1386 
• William de Colchester 1386-1420 
• Richard Harweden 1420-1440 
• Edmund Kyrton 1440-1462 
• George Norwich 1463-1469 
• Thomas Mylling 1469-1474 
• John Esteney 1474-1498 
• George Fascet 1498-1500 
• John Islip 1500-1532 
• William Benson 1532-1540 
• Edmund Bonner (c.1500-1569), Bishop of London, tried heretics under Henry VIII’s Act of the Six Articles, deprived of Office 1549 
• Nicholas Ridley (c.1500-1555), Bishop of London and Westminster, signed the letters patent giving the English throne to Lady Jane Grey, deprived of Office in 1553, martyred by Queen Mary for his Protestant teachings and his support of Lady Jane Grey 
• Edmund Bonner (c.1500-1569), Bishop of London, restored by Queen Mary 1553, known as ‘Bloody Bonner’, deprived of office by Queen Elizabeth in 1559 with the grant of the Manor revoked to the Crown 
• Queen Elizabeth of England (1533-1603), as part of the Royal Demesne 
• Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588), granted in 1573, m. 1578 Lettice Knollys (1543-1634). Diddington Hall and Farm built ca. 1580 
• Reverted to the Crown 1588: Queen Elizabeth of England (1533-1603) 
• Held by the Crown: King James VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland (1566-1625) m. 1589 Anne of Denmark (1574-1619) 
• Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke (1554-1628), granted Warwick Castle in 1604, raised to the Peerage in 1621. The Manors of Knowle and Diddington counted among several estates Greville purchased from the Crown in 1622. Greville built Knowle Hall, design by Inigo Jones, and established it as his main seat after Warwick Castle. 
• Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke (1608-1643, killed during the Siege of Lichfield) m. 1629 Catherine Ann Russell (1618-1676). Adopted son and cousin of the 1st Baron 
• Francis Greville, 3rd Baron Brooke (1631-1658). Eldest son of Robert 
• Robert Greville, 4th Baron Brooke (1638-1676). Brother of Francis 
• Fulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke (1643-1710) m. 1664 Sarah Dashwood (1646-1705). Brother of Robert, divided the estate between his sons with Warwick Castle and the Barony inherited by his grandson 
• The Hon. Algenon Greville of Beauchamps Court, MP (1677-1720) m. 1711 Mary de Beaufort-Somerset (1692-1769), MP for Warwick, second surviving son of the 5th Baron, inherited Knowle, Diddington and Kinwalsey
• Fulke Greville of Wilbury House (1717-1806) m. c.1743 Frances Macartney (1726-1789), son of Algernon, sold Knowle Hall and Manors in 1743 to: 
• William Smith of Tettenhall (1705-1747), Architect and Freemason of Warwick, m. Henrietta who sold Knowle Hall and Manors in 1754 to: 
• Benjamin Palmer of Olton End, Sheriff of Warwickshire (1711-1772) m. 1749 Elizabeth Knight (1730-1812). Purchased the Lordship of the Manor of Nuthurst from Pudsey Jesson before 1745
• David Lewis of Malvern Hall (1714-1773) m. 1744 Mary Greswold (1724-1757) daughter of Marshall Greswold of Malvern Hall in the Manor of Longdon (1676-1728) and Martha Makepeace (1696-1755, cousin of Benjamin Palmer)
• Henry Greswolde Lewis of Malvern Hall (1754-1829) m. 1784 the Hon. Charlotte Sarah Bridgeman (1761-1802)
• Jane Ann Eleanor Harries of Knowle Hall (1745-1827) m. 1763 Capt. William Richard Wilson (1737-1808), descendant of Benjamin Palmer’s cousin Ann Doley through a maternal line, joint ownership of Knowle Manor with Henry Greswolde Lewis and two-thirds ownership of the Manor of Greet 
• Rev. William Richard Wilson of Knowle Hall (1774-1831) m. 1803 Martha Bowen Jordan (1778-1844), inherited the Manor of Knowle with titles and hereditaments according to an entail in the will of Benjamin Palmer 
• William Henry Bowen Jordan Wilson of Knowle Hall (1808-1887) m. 1831 Louisa Editha Le Hunte (1808-1864), inherited Knowle Hall and the Manors in 1831 after his father’s accidental death whilst out shooting. Inherited Jordanston and Waterston in Pembrokeshire and property in Carmarthenshire. He was known as Squire 'Gumley' Wilson after Gumley Hall in Northamptonshire which he leased. Declared bankrupt in 1849, sailed to New York aboard the Baltic as W. H. Williams in 1852. Autobiography Green Peas for Christmas published in 1924 by his nephew 
• John Wilkes Unett of the Woodlands, Harborne (1770-1856) m. 1795 Elizabeth Unett (1770-1860), acknowledged as Lord of the Manor of Knowle in 1850 
• George Unett of Broadward Hall, JP (1809-1881) m. 1843 Elizabeth Frances Letitia Unett (1826-1910), titles sold in 1863 to: 
• Edward Westwood of the Laurels, Oldswinford-in-Stourbridge, Lord of the Manor of Rowington (1811-1885), Birmingham Solicitor, m. 1848 Elizabeth Pitt Owen (1823-1907), titles sold by Elizabeth in 1887 to:
• Maria Clarke née Brown (1849-1908) m. 1870 Joseph Bennet Clarke of Little Aston Hall (1845-1925), Birmingham Solicitor 
• Charles Neville Clarke (1878-1933) m. 1902 Lilian Edith Ashley (1872-1953), titles sold in 1924 to: 
• Major Sydney George Everitt of Knowle Hall, JP (1860-1932) m. 1908 Mary Fanny Marion Bell Gibson (1888-1981). Major in the Regiment of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, son of George Allen Everitt FRGS, JP (1823-1905) who bought Knowle Hall in 1865 
• Horace George Everitt of Knowle Hall (1909-1982) m. 1949 Patricia Jefferson (1921-2016); titles, estate and contents sold in 1982 to: 
• Edgar Sidney Phillips of Knowle Hall (1933-2003) m. 1969 Margaret Taylor McFarlane Smith (1939-2018), the Lordships of the Manors of Nuthurst, Kinwalsey and Diddington sold separately in 2007. The Lordship of the Manor of Knowle sold in 2017.
• The Manors of Knowle, Diddington, Kinwalsey and Nuthurst remain individually in private ownership