CHOLMONDELEY OF VALE ROYAL

Later Barons Delamere of Vale Royal

Vale Royal was founded as a Cistercian house by the future Edward I (1272-1307) who planned to make it the grandest monastery in England. It is said that Edward, while still a prince was in danger of being shipwrecked and swore he would found an abbey if saved. Edward had initially founded an abbey on a royal estate at Darnhall in 1269 with monks who came from Dore Abbey in Herefordshire. Later the house was moved a few miles north to Vale Royal. Darnhall was retained as a grange and park. Edward laid the foundation stone for Vale Royal in 1277 and attended the consecration in 1283. Building work lasted for more than 50 years. The monks moved into the abbey from temporary premises in 1330 but even in 1336 the church was said to be incomplete having no roof or glass and already there was mention that the rents from the abbey land were insufficient for this work or for building monastic quarters in similar style. The Black Death in the 1340s almost certainly delayed work and funding. The Black Prince supported the abbey in 1353 but in 1360 the nave was blown down in a storm. The subsequent history of the abbey was littered with episodes of discord and disgrace.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey and lands came into the hands of the Holford family. An Elizabethan house was built on the site in the late 16th and early 17th centuries but replaced in 1833 by a new house designed by Edward Blore. A south wing was added in 1861 by John Douglas, a local architect. There is now little evidence of the great abbey and the house has been turned into a golf club.

The nearby village of Whitegate is named after the white stone gate to the abbey grounds. The St. Mary's parish church at Whitegate has interior features from the 14th century. It was remodelled in 1728 and between 1874 and 1875 the 2nd Lord Delamere commissioned Douglas to restore it. It has wooden shingles on the spire.

The Cholmondeleys of Vale Royal are related to the Holfords of Holford Hall as described below. The tree starts with Sir Hugh Cholmondeley and his wife, Mary Holford, so as to show the relationship with other branches of the Cholmondeley family that arose from this union. Hugh's fourth son, Thomas was the ancestor of the Cholmondeleys of Vale Royal. Sir Hugh is sometimes mentioned as Sir Hugh the younger; his father, Sir Hugh the elder he died in 1596. The effigy of Sir Hugh the elder and his wife is shown on the Malpas page. (Sources Earwaker and Sir Peter Leicester)

Details of the Cholmondeleys of Cholmondeley are shown on a separate page.

• 1.Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, born 1552; MP for Cheshire, 1585; knighted 1588; Sheriff, 1589; buried Malpas, 18 August 1601.
• +Mary, sole daughter and heiress of Christopher Holford of Holford, Esq. who was born at Holford and baptised at Nether Peover on 20 Jan 1562/3. She died at Vale Royal on 15 August 1625 and was buried at Malpas. She had five sons and three daughters. We follow here the sons but according to Sir Peter Leicester, Mary, eldest daughter, married Sir George Caveley of Lea nigh Eaton-boat; Lettice married Sir Richard Grosvenor, of Eaton-boat, afterwards baronet; and Frances, youngest daughter, was second wife of Peter Venables of Kinderton, Esq. commonly called baron of Kinderton.
  • 2. Robert Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, son and heir, born Crouch End, Middlesex, 17 June 1584; Sheriff of Cheshire 1625. He was created Viscount Cholmondeley of Kells in Ireland in 1628, Baron Cholmondeley of Wich Malbank in England in 1645 and Earl of Leinster in Ireland on 5 March 1646. He died 8 October 1659 and was buried at Malpas. He had no legitimate issue.
  • +Catherine, daughter of John, Lord Stanhope of Harrington. She died 15 June 1657 and was buried at Malpas.
    • 3. Thomas Cholmondeley of Holford (In Peover Church there is a monument to Thomas Cholmondeley late of Holford, Esq., only son of Robert Lord Cholmondeley, Earl of Leinster, son and heir of Mary, daughter and heir of Christopher Holford of Holford, Esq., which said Thomas died 6 January 1667. Thomas was the illegitimate son of Robert Cholmondeley and a Mrs. Goldston. His father gave him the Holford lands that he had obtained from his mother.
  • 2.  Hatton Cholmondeley, 2nd son, born Islington, 17 August 1587 and died without issue.
  • 2. Hugh Cholmondeley, of Knight's Grange, Esq., 3rd son, born at Halford, baptised at Nether Peover 24 July 1591, died Bedville Castle, 11 September 1655 and buried at Malpas. He was the ancestor of the Marquis of Cholmondeley.
  • 2. Francis was the 5th son and died young.
  • 2.Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, 4th son, born Halford, 2 March 1594/5. Sheriff of Cheshire 1638, died 3 January 1652/3 and buried at Minshull.
  • +Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of John Minshull of Minshull, Esq. by Frances, daughter of John Egerton of Egerton and Oulton, Knt. She died at Vale Royal and was buried at Minshull on 25 September 1661. She had seven sons and four daughters of whom six died in infancy. We follow Thomas.
    • 3. Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, 3rd son, born 15 September 1627, Sheriff of Cheshire in 1660; MP, 1669. He died 26 February 1701/2. He married twice.
    • + 1st wife, Jane, dau. of Sir Lionel Tolmache of Helmingham, Suffolk, Knt. She died at Vale Royal on 14 April 1666 and was buried at Minshull. She had five sons and seven daughters.
    • + 2nd wife, Ann, dau. of Sir Walter St. John of Battersea, Bart. She was born 1650, married 20 May 1684, died 1 December 1742 at Henbury, buried at Minshull. She had four sons and a daughter. Of the sons one was still born and one died in infancy and one had no surviving issue. We follow Charles.
      • 4. Charles Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, born Vale Royal 12 January 1684/5, MP for Cheshire in 1710, died 30 March 1765.
        +Essex, the dau. of Thomas Pitt of St. Mary Blandford, Dorset at St. Clement Dane on 22 July 1714. She died at Vale Royal on 7 March 1754. She had three sons of whom the eldest died in infancy and five daughters.
        • 5. Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, 3rd son, born Chevening, Kent, 24 June 1726. He was MP for Cheshire in 1756, died 2 June 1779, and was buried at Minshull.
        • + Dorothy, sole heir of Edmund Cowper, Esq. of Over Legh near Chester who was born at Colne, Lancashire, 14 February 1745/6. She married on 29 October 1764 at St. James Westminster and died at Bristol on 25 May 1786. This couple had six sons and three daughters.
          • 6. Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, eldest son and heir, born Beckenham, Kent, on 9 August 1767. He was Sheriff of Cheshire, MP for Cheshire in 1796 and created Baron Delamere of Vale Royal, 17 August 1821. He died in London on 30 September 1855.
          • + Henrietta Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn of Wynnstay, Denbighshire, Bart. They married at Ruabon on 17 December 1810. She died in 1852. They had four sons: Hugh, Thomas Grenville, Henry Pitt, and Charles Watkin Neville.
            • 7. Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Lord Delamere of Vale Royal was born at Vale Royal on 3 October 1811. He was Colonel of the Royal Cheshire Militia.
            • + 1st wife, Augusta, dau. of the Rt. Hon. Sir George Hamilton Seymour, GCH, GCB, PC.

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