Extracts from the last Will and Testament (dated the 3rd day of November, 1805) of George Forester, late of Willey, in the County of Salop, Esquire.
“I desire that all my just debts and funeral expenses, and the charges of proving this my Will, may be paid and discharged by my Executors hereinafter named, with all convenient speed after my decease, and that my body may be interred in a grave near the Communion table in the Parish Church of Willey aforesaid, or as near thereto as may be, in a plain and decent manner. And it is my Will that eight of my Servants or Workmen be employed as Bearers of my body to the grave, to each of whom I bequeath the sum of One Guinea, and I desire my Cousin Cecil Forester, of Ross Hall, in the County of Salop, Esquire, Member of Parliament for the Town and Liberties of Wenlock, in the same County, the eldest son of my late uncle, Colonel Cecil Forester, deceased, to fix upon and appoint six of those of my friends and companions in the neighbourhood of Willey aforesaid, whom he knew to have been intimate with, and respected by, me, to be Bearers of the Pall at my funeral, and I request that my body may be carried to its burial-place in the dusk of the evening.
“And I do hereby direct that my chestnut horse, commonly called the Aldenham horse, shall be shot as soon as conveniently may be after my decease by two persons, one of whom to fire first, and the other to wait in reserve and fire immediately afterwards, so that he may be put to death as expeditiously as possible, and I direct that he shall afterwards be buried with his hide on, and that a flat stone without inscription shall be placed over him. And I do hereby request my Cousin Cecil Forester and the said John Pritchard, as soon as conveniently may be after my decease, to look over and inspect the letters, papers, and writings belonging to me at the time of my decease, and such of them as they shall deem to be useless I desire them to destroy.”
His wishes, we need scarcely say, were carried out to the letter. He was buried by torchlight in the family vault in Willey Church, beneath the family pew, to which the steps shown in our engraving lead. Founded and endowed by the lords of Willey at some remote period, this venerable edifice has remained, with the exception of its chancel, the same as we see it, for many generations past. It stands within the shadow of the Old Hall, and might from its appearance have formed the text of Gray’s ivy-mantled tower, where
“The moping owl does to the moon complain;”
being covered with a luxuriant growth of this clinging evergreen to the very top. Standing beneath, and peering through the Norman-looking windows, which admit but a sober light, glimpses are obtained of costly monuments with the names and titles of patrons whose escutcheons are visible against the wall. The Squire’s tomb remains uninscribed; but in 1821 Cecil Weld, the first Lord Forester, erected a marble tablet near, with the simple record—“To the memory of my late cousin and benefactor, George Forester, Esq., Willey Park, May 10, 1821.”
A NEW HUNTING SONG.
Written for the present Work by J. P. Douglas, Esq.
Away we go! my mare and I,
Over fallow and lea:
She’s carried me twenty years or nigh—
The best of friends are we.
With steady stride she sweeps along,
The old Squire on her back:
While echoes far, earth’s sweetest sound,
The music of the pack.
Ah! how they stare, both high and low,
To see the “Willey chestnut” go.Full many a time, from dewy morn
Until the day was done,
We’ve follow’d the huntsman’s ringing horn,
Proud of a gallant run.
Well in the front, my mare and I—
A good ’un to lead is she;
For’ard, hark for’ard! still the cry—
In at the death are we.
My brave old mare—when I’m laid low
Shall never another master know.The sailor fondly loves his ship,
The gallant loves his lass;
The toper drains with fever’d lip,
His deep, full-bottom’d glass.
Away! such hollow joys I scorn,
But give to me, I pray,
The cry of the hounds, the sounding horn,
For’ard! hark, hark away!
And this our burial chant shall be,
For the chestnut mare shall die with me!
Strutt, quoting from the book of St. Alban’s the sort of birds assigned to the different ranks of persons, places them in the following order:—
The eagle, the vulture, and the melona for an emperor.
The ger-falcon and the tercel of the ger-falcon for a king.
The falcon gentle and the tercel gentle for a prince.
The falcon of the rock for a duke.
The falcon peregrine for an earl.
The bastard for a baron.
The sacre and the sacret for a knight.
The lanere and the laneret for an esquire.
The marlyon for a lady.
The hobby for a young man.
The gos-hawk for a yeoman.
The tercel for a poor man.
The sparrow-hawk for a priest.
The musket for a holy-water clerk.
The kesterel for a knave or a servant.
Of some of the later and milder measures taken to protect the hawk, it may be remarked that the 5th of Elizabeth, c. 21, enacts that if any person shall unlawfully take any hawks, or their eggs, out of the woods or ground of any person, and be thereof convicted at the assizes or sessions on indictment, bill or information at the suit of the king, or of the party, he shall be imprisoned three months, and pay treble damages, and after the expiration of three months shall find sureties for his good abearing for seven years, or remain in prison till he doth, § 3.
The last statute concerning falconry (except a clause in 7 Jac. c. 11, which limits the time of hawking at pheasants and partridges) is that of the 23rd Eliz. c. 10, which enacts that if any manner of person shall hawk in another man’s corn after it is eared, and before it is shocked, and be therefore convicted at the assizes, sessions, or leet, he shall pay 40s. to the owner, and if not paid within ten days he shall be imprisoned for a month.
Mr. Eyton, to whose learned and valuable work on the “Antiquities of Shropshire” the author again acknowledges his obligations, as all who follow that painstaking writer must do, with regard to the holding at the More, says, “The earliest notice of this tenure which occurs in the Roll of Shropshire Sergeantries, is dated 13th of John, 1211, and merely says that Richard de Medler holds one virgate of land, and renders for the same annually, at the Feast of St. Michael, two knives (knifeulos). A second contemporary roll supplies the place of payment, viz., the Exchequer; a third writes the name, Richard le Mener. In 1245 Nicholas de More is said to pay at the Exchequer two knives (cultellos)—one good, the other very bad—for certain land which he holds of the King in capite in More. In 1255 the Stottesden Jurors report that Nicholas de Medler holds one virgate in More, in capite of the Lord King, rendering at the Exchequer two knives, one of which ought to cut a hazel rod, and he does no other service for the said land. In that of 1274 Jurors of the same Hundred say at length that Nicholas de la More holds one virgate in that vill of the Lord King, in capite, by sergeantry, of taking two knives to the King’s Exchequer, at the feast of St. Michael in each year, so that he ought to cut a hazel rod with one knife, so that the knife should bend (plicare) with the stroke; and again, to cut a rod with the other knife. The record of 1284 describes Nicholas de la More as holding three parts of a virgate and two moors, by sergeantry, &c. The Jurors of Oct. 1292 say that William de la More, of Erdington, holds one virgate in the More, by sergeantry of taking two knives to the King’s Exchequer on the morrow of St. Michael, and to cut with the same knives two hazel rods.”
This bold projecting rock is called, from Major Thomas, “Smallman’s Leap,” from a tradition that the major, a staunch Royalist, being surprised by a party of Cromwell’s horse, was singly and hotly pursued over Westwood, where, finding all hope of escape at an end, he turned from the road, hurried his horse into a full gallop to the edge of the precipice, and went over. The horse was killed by falling on the trees beneath, but the major escaped, and secreted himself in the woods. Certain historical facts, showing that the family long resided here, appear to give a colouring to this tradition. Thus, in the reign of Henry III. (57th year) William Smallman had a lease from John Lord of Brockton par Shipton, Corvedale, of 17½ acres of land, with a sytche, called Woolsytche, and two parcels of meadow in the fields of Brockton. John Smallman possessed by lease and grant, from Thomas de la Lake, 30 acres of land in the fields of Larden par Shipton, for twenty years from the feast of St. Michael, living 4th Edward II. (1310) 41st Edward III. (1367), Richard Smallman, of Shipton, granted to Roger Powke, of Brockton, all his lands and tenements in the township and fields of Shipton, as fully as was contained in an original deed. Witnesses—John de Galford, Sir Roger Mon (Chaplain), Henry de Stanwy, John Tyklewardyne (Ticklarton), of Stanton, John de Gurre of the same, with others. 1st Henry VI. (1422), John Smallman was intrusted with the collection of the subsidies of taxes payable to the Crown within the franchise of Wenlock. Thomas Smallman, of Elton, co. Harford, and Inner Temple, barrister-at-law, afterwards a Welsh judge, purchased the manor of Wilderhope, Stanway, and the teg and estates, and had a numerous grant of arms, 5th October, 1589. Major Thomas Smallman, a staunch royalist, born 1624, compounded for his estate £140.
Underneath this bold projecting headland, sometimes called “Ipikin’s Rock,” is Ipikin’s Cave, an excavation very difficult of approach, where tradition alleges a bold outlaw long concealed himself and his horse, and from which he issued to make some predatory excursion.
The term hope, both as a prefix and termination, is of such frequent occurrence here that it is only natural to suppose that it has some special signification; and looking at the positions of Presthope, Easthope, Millichope, Middlehope, Wilderhope, Hopesay, and Hope Bowdler, that signification appears to be a recess, or place remote between the hills. Easthope is a rural little village about two miles beyond Ipikin’s Rock, pleasantly situated in one of these long natural troughs which follow the direction of Wenlock Edge.
It appears to have been within the Long Forest, and is mentioned in Domesday as being held in Saxon times by Eruni and Uluric; it was afterwards held by Edric de Esthop, and others of the same name. There was a church here as early as 1240, and in the graveyard, between two ancient yews, are two tombs, without either date or inscription, in which two monks connected with the Abbey of Wenlock are supposed to have been interred.
Near Easthope, and about midway between Larden Hall and Lutwyche Hall, is an enclosure comprising about eight acres, or an encampment, forming nearly an entire circle, surrounded by inner and outer fosses. The internal slope of the inner wall is 12 feet, and externally 25, while the crest of the parapet is 6 feet broad. The relief of the second vallum rises 10 feet from the fosse, and is about 12 feet across its parapet. There is also a second ditch, but it is almost obliterated. It is supposed to have been a military post, forming an important link in the chain of British entrenchments which stretched throughout this portion of the county. Near it a mound resembling a tumulus was opened some years since by the Rev. R. More and T. Mytton, Esq., and in or near which a British urn of baked clay was discovered, on another occasion, while making a drain.
“Proavus meus Richardus de isto matrimonio susceptus uxorem habuit Annam Richardi dicti Forestarii filiam qui quidem Richardus filius erat natu minor prænobilis familiæ Forestariorum (olim Regiorum Vigorniensis saltûs custodum) et famoso Episcopo Bonnero a-Secritis Hic Suttanum Madoci incolebat, et egregias ædes posuit in urbicula dicta Brugge, sive ad Pontem vel hodie dictas Forestarii Dementiam,”
In his “Sheriffs of Shropshire,” Mr. Blakeway in speaking of the Forester family, says: “They were originally Foresters, an office much coveted by our ancestors, which latter seems probable, from the fact, that on the Pipe Rolls of 1214, Hugh Forester accounts for a hundred merks that he may hold the bailiwick of the forest of Salopscire, as his father held it before him.” King John, however, remits thirty merks of the payment in consequence of Hugh having taken to wife the niece of John l’Estrange, at His Majesty’s request. It does not seem clear, however, that Hugh, the son of Robert, can be traced to have been in the direct line of the Willey family, he having been ancestor to Roger, son of John, the first of the king’s six foresters. The other, Robert de Wellington, the late Mr. George Morris, in his “Genealogies of the Principal Landed Proprietors,” now in the possession of T. C. Eyton, Esq., to whose kindness we are indebted for this extract, says was the earliest person that can certainly be called ancestor of the present family of Forester. His sergeantry is described as the custody of the King’s Hay of Eyton, of which, and several adjoining manors, Peter de Eyton, lineal ancestor of the present Thomas Campbell Eyton, of Eyton, and grandson of Robert de Eyton, who gave the whole of the Buttery estate to Shrewsbury Abbey, was the lord.
Thomas, a son of Robert Forester of Wellington, in the Hundred Rolls, in 1254, is said by the king’s justices itinerant to hold half a virgate of the king to keep the Hay of Wellington. Roger le Forester of Wellington, who succeeded Robert, appears to have died 1277–8, and to have left two sons, Robert and Roger. Robert had property in Wellington and the Bailiwick of the forest of the Wrekin, and is supposed to have succeeded his father, whom he did not long survive, having died the year following, 1278–9. Roger his brother succeeded to his possession, and held also the Hay of Wellington, of which he died seized in 1284–5. Robert, the Forester of Wellington, Mr. Blakeway says, occurs in the Hundred Roll of Bradford in 1287, and is shown to have held the Hay of Wellington till 1292–3, when Roger, son of Roger, proving himself of age, paid the king one merk as a relief for his lands in Wellington, held by sergeantry, to keep Wellington Hay, in the forest of the Wrekin, &c. This is the Roger de Wellington before-mentioned, as one of King Edward’s foresters by fee, recorded in his Great Charter of the forests of Salopssier, in the perambulation of 1300. He died 1331.
John le Forester, as John, son and heir of Roger le Forester de Welynton, succeeded to the property, and proved himself of age in the reign of Edward III., 1335. With John de Eyton he attested a grant in Wellington, and died 24th of Edward III., 1350.
William le Forester succeeded his father, John, in 1377, and died 19th of Richard II., 1395.
In 1397 Roger Forester de Wellington is described as holding Wellington Hay and Chace. He died in 1402.
Roger, his son and heir, was in 1416 appointed keeper of the same haia by the Duchess of Norfolk and the Lady Bergavenny, sisters and co-heiresses of the great Thomas Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel.
His son and successor, John, died 5th of Edward IV. 1465, seized of the lands, &c., in Wellington, and the custody of the forest of the Wrekin. He had two sons, William and John, also a son Richard; and William, son of the above, appears to have been the father of another John, the former John having died without issue. John, in 1506, witnesses a deed of Thomas Cresset, as John Forester the younger; he married Joice Upton, the heiress of Philip Upton, of Upton under Haymond, and obtained the estate of that place, which is still inherited by his descendants.
This John Forester first resided in Watling Street, where his ancestors for several generations had lived, in the old timbered mansion, now occupied by Dr. Cranage, but he afterwards removed to Easthope, whilst his son William resided at Upton; and Richard Forester, alias Forster of Sutton Maddock, secretary to Bishop Bonner, who built the old mansion in Bridgnorth, called “Forester’s Folly,” which was burnt down during the siege of the castle, when the high town became a heap of ruins, appears to have been a son of John Forester, of Easthope; and Anthony Forester or Foster of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, who was born about 1510, was a son of his.
In the 34th of Henry VIII., 1542–3, Thomas Foster and Elizabeth his wife, account in the Exchequer for several temporalities in connection with the monastery of St. Peter’s, Shrewsbury. Sir William Forester, KB., married Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of James, third Earl of Salisbury. He was a staunch Protestant, and represented the county with George Weld, as previously stated, with whom he voted in favour of the succession of the House of Hanover, and the family came into possession of the Willey estates by the marriage of Brook Forester of Dothill Park, with one of the Welds, the famous George Forester, the Willey Squire, being the fruit of that marriage. George Forester left the whole of his estates to his cousin, Cecil Forester, of Ross Hall, who was allowed by George the Fourth, whose personal friendship he had been permitted to enjoy for many years, to add the name of Weld in 1821. Cecil Weld Forester, Esq., was ennobled the same year by George the Fourth, who, when Prince of Wales, honoured him with a visit at Ross Hall. He married Catherine, daughter of His Grace the fourth Duke of Rutland, and was not less renowned than his cousin, as a sportsman. His eagerness for the chase was happily characterised by the late Mr. Meynell, who used to say, “First out of cover came Cecil Forester, next the fox, and then my hounds.” A famous leap of his, thirty feet across a stream, on his famous horse Bernardo, has been recorded in some lines now at Willey which accompany the portrait of the horse. He is supposed to have been one of the first who instituted the present system of hard riding to hounds, and a horse known to have been ridden by him, it is said, would at any time fetch £20 more than the ordinary price. Speaking of the classic proportions of a horse, and the perfection of the art of riding in connection with his lordship as a sportsman, Colonel Apperley, remarked some years ago, “Unless a man sits gracefully on his horse, and handles him well, that fine effect is lost. As the poet says, he would be incorporated with the brave beast, and such does Lord Forester appear to be. His eye to a country is also remarkably quick, and his knowledge of Leicestershire has given him no small advantage. On one occasion he disregarded the good old English custom of ‘looking before you leap,’ and landed in the middle of a deep pool. ‘Hold on,’ a countryman who saw him, shouted to others coming in the same direction. ‘Hold your tongue—say nothing, we shall have it full in a minute,’ said Lord Forester.” The Colonel added, “In consequence of residing in Shropshire, a country which has been so long famous for its breed of horses, he has a good opportunity of mounting himself well. He always insisted on the necessity of lengthy shoulders, good fetlocks, well formed hind legs and open feet; and knowing better than to confound strength and size, his horses seldom exceeded fifteen hands. On anything relating to a hunter his authority has long been considered classic, and if Forester said so it was enough. Lord Forester will always stand pre-eminent in the field, whilst in private life he is a very friendly man, and has ever adhered to those principles of honour and integrity which characterise the gentleman.” He died on the 23rd of May, 1828, in his 61st year. He had, as we have said, ten children, the gallant Frank Forester, as Colonel Apperley styles him, being one. The oldest was the present Right Hon. J. G. W. Forester, whose popularity in connection with the Belvoir Hunt is so well known.
His lordship, whose portrait we give at the commencement of this work, and who is now in the 73rd year of his age, has added very much to the Willey estates, both by purchase and by improvements, and is very much esteemed by his tenantry.
The Right Hon. General Forester, who succeeded his brother in the representation of Wenlock, has sat for the borough for forty-five years, and is now the Father of the House of Commons. Whether out-door exercises, associated with the pleasures of the chase, to which the ancestors of the Foresters have devoted themselves for so many centuries, have anything to do with it or not we cannot say; but the Foresters are remarkable for masculine and feminine beauty, and the General has frequently been spoken of by the press as the best looking man in the House of Commons. Neither he nor his elder brother, the present Rt. Hon. Lord Forester, are likely to leave behind them direct issue. The younger brother, the Hon. and Rev. O. W. W. Forester, has one son, Cecil, who has several sons to perpetuate the name of Forester, which we hope will long be associated with Willey.
Abbot of Leicester, 15
,, Salop, 6
„ Tavistock, 15
Addison, 80
Albrighton red-coats, 30
Aldenham, 32
Alfred, 19
Algar, 19
Apley, 32
Apperley, Col., 84
Arrows, 22
Bachelors’ Hall, 104
Badger, 52
Barons’ War, 25
Barrow, 32
Battle of Worcester, 26
Baxter, 65
Beacons, 168
Beaver, 4
Bellet’s, Rev. George, Antiquities of Bridgnorth, 66
Belswardine, 32
Benson, M., Esq., 48
Benthall, 32
Benthall Edge, 53
Bernard’s Hill, 23
Bishop Bonner, 66
,, Percy, 65
Bittern, 5
Black Toms, 182
Bold, 32
Boney, 167
Bowman’s Hill, 26
Bow, the weapon of sport and of war, 22
Brock-holes, 52
Brown Clee, 96
Brug, 40
Buck, 16
Buildwas, 100
Cantreyne, 32
Castellan, 23
Castillon, 14
Cask of wine, 24
Castle, 22
Caughley, 32
Chace of Shirlot, 31
Chaucer, 46
Chesterton, 18
Chester, Earl of, 25
Chetton, 31
Childers, 88
Christmas Day, 38
Claverley, 25
Clee Hills, 39
Cliffords, 40
Coalbrookdale, 40
Coed, 19
Colemore, 32
Collars of gold, 9
Constable, 45
Coracle, 6
Corbett, 24
Corve Dale, 51
Cox Morris, 115
Craft of Hunting, 16
Cressage, 49
Creswick, 45
D—n the Church, 116
Danesford, 19
Dastardly devils, 157
Dawley, 58
Dean, 32
Deer Leap, 36
Dibdin, 141
Ditton, 39
Dodos, 4
Domesday, 71
Dothill, 65
Drury Lane, 144
Duke’s Antiquities, 28
Duke of York, 171
Early features of the country, 8
Earl of Derby, 26
Earl Dundonald, 171
Easthope, 49
Egret, 5
Elk, Gigantic, 11
England, The, of our ancestor, 79
Evelith, 66
Eyton, 58
Eyton, Sir H, 63
Eyton, T. C, 63
Falcon, 9
First iron barge, 170
Fishing a recreation for the sick, 7
Fishing an attractive art, &c., 6
„ practised by primitive dwellers, 5
Forest Lodge, 28
Forest Roll, 58
Forester, Brook, 76
„ George, 76
,, Hugh, 58
„ John, 63
„ Roger, 63
„ Squire, 76
„ William, 73
Forester’s Folly, 66
Forster, Richard, 64
Foster, Anthony, Lord of the Manor of Little Wenlock, 64
Foster, Anthony, a different character to what Sir Walter Scott represents him, 67, 68
Fox-holes, 52
Fox-hunters’ Christening, 120
Fox-hunting Moll, 121