Isabel Middlemore

Isabel de Edgbaston, the daughter and heiress of Sire Richard de Edgbaston, was the last of her line, and married Thomas Middlemore, of Studley.

During the absence of her father at the Scotch Wars, she was attacked by robbers in the woods adjoining Edgbaston Hall. Middlemore, who was on his way to visit her, arrived during the attack, and entirely routed the thieves, slaying more than one of them. (1). [n.b. It appears she was the granddaughter of Sir Richard, not the daughter ...]

THOMAS MIDDLEMORE (2), of Edgbaston, Co. Warw., M Isabel (She M 2nd Richard Clodeshale, of Saltley, whose will was Proved at P.C.C., August 1428. She died c. 1423), d. & heir of Richard de Edgbaston, Esq., of Edgbaston, Co. Warwick . (See EDGBASTON). (2)

Edgbaston Manor

The first tenants in fee seem to have taken their name from the place; Henry de Edgbaston quitclaimed the advowson of the church to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield in 1284, (fn. 43) and he was holding the ½ fee of William de Birmingham in 1291. (fn. 44) In 1343 Henry's son John settled the manor on himself and his wife Isabel in tail, with successive contingent remainders to his sister Alice, Roger de Edgbaston, and Sir Richard de Edgbaston. (fn. 45) John was dead by 1361, when his widow Isabel was dealing with the manor. (fn. 46) It subsequently passed to Isabel, grand-daughter of Sir Richard de Edgbaston, who married Thomas Middlemore, (fn. 47) with whose descendants it remained for three hundred years. (fn. 48) (3)

Edgbaston Hall

Edgbaston Hall was the medieval manor house which was built within a moat of which no trace now survives. In the 15th century the Middlemores, lords of the manor from the 1400s to the 1700s built a new timber-framed hall to replace it just south of the original site. During the Civil War in 1644, as Roman Catholics and royalists, they had their home seized in a raid by Colonel 'Tinker' Fox with sixteen parliamentary troops who were reinforced by two hundred Birmingham metal-workers. The roof timbers of neighbouring Edgbaston church were used to barricade the hall, the roof lead was used for making bullets and the bell metal sold. Both church and hall were held until the end of the war as a fortified base for raids on royalist north Worcestershire.
  Tinker Fox disappeared without trace after November 1646; local legend had it that he was the masked executioner of King Charles I, although there is no evidence to support this.

The hall was burned in the anti-papist riots of 1688 on the accession of William & Mary. After the Middlemores sold the estate, the hall was completely rebuilt in neo-classical style in 1718 for Sir Richard Gough to its present appearance. The park was landscaped by Lancelot Capability Brown for Sir Henry Gough c1776. After the removal of the Gough-Calthorpes to the south of England, the hall was let to various wealthy Birmingham people: William Withering, the discoverer of digitalis lived here 1786-1791, and its last occupant in 1896 was the City's first Lord Mayor, Sir James Smith. (4)

Sources

1. Ballads of Old Birmingham by E. M. Rudland; with introduction by the Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham (alderman W. H. Bowater.) Heraldic illustrations and notes by A. Rodway. Published 1915 by David Nutt in London . Written in English. page 32-33. "Lady Isabel de Edgbaston."
2. Some account of the family of Middlemore of Warwickshire and Worchestershire and supplement.  Phillimore, W. P. W. (William Phillimore Watts) , 1901.  Page 35
3. 'Manors', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7: The City of Birmingham (1964), pp. 58-72. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22962&strquery=... Date accessed: 21 May 2013.
4. Edgbaston - formerly in Warwickshire - one of the Domesday manors of Birmingham and an ancient parish

links

• SGM Subject: Re: A better date for the death of Edward Boughton - 1548 2005