Io8 ARCH^OLOGICAL GLEANINGS. 



The castle and estates were sold by the Zouch family in 1634, 

 and it is very doubtful indeed whether any of the lords of Codnor 

 ever inhabited the castle after that date. The property after- 

 wards passed to the family of Neile by purchase, and eventually 

 it was purchased by the family of Masters of Kent, in the year 

 1692. Sir Strenysham Master, stated to have been of Codnor 

 Castle, knight, was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1712, but it 

 must have been as owner of the estate, and not as a resident 

 that he was appointed. 



There exists a view of Codnor Castle by Buck, printed in 1727 

 (see "Journal," Vol. XIV., p. 16), and dedicated to the knight's 

 son, Leigh Master, Esquire, and it seems hardly credible that 

 twenty-five years before the view was taken, the place should be 

 inhabited by the Lord of the Manor with his retinue, though it is 

 stated in Glover's " History of Derbyshire," Vol. II., p. 307, 

 "that Sir Strenysham Master resided here." Lysons, however, 

 from whom Glover probably copied, does not say so. 



It would probably be of interest, when dealing with this sub- 

 ject, to give a few notes with reference to the title of the Ormonde 

 Fields estate, upon which the old chapel stood. This property, 

 no doubt, formed part of the estates of the Warners, lords of 

 Codnor, soon after the Norman survey, whose family appear to 

 have ended in an heiress Isolda,* who carried the estate to her 

 husband. Sir Henry Grey, knight, who lived at Codnor Castle in 

 1208, and the property probably remained in that family till it 

 was alienated by one of the Greys to the family of Clarke. The 

 date of this alienation is uncertain, but it was probably at the 

 time or soon after the decay of the chapel. It is certain that the 

 heirs of the Greys in the Castle estates had no footing here, and 

 the Clarkes were no doubt retainers or dependents of the Greys. 

 It is recorded that Henry Lord Grey, who owned the castle from 



Loscoe ill 1650. They resided at one time in a farmhouse about half a mile 

 from the castle, and were registered at Heanor as " ofCodjior Castle,^'' meaning 

 the Liberty of Codnor Castle. It is said that John Woolley, the original 

 clockmaker of Codnor was apprenticed to John Wild, of Nottingham, who 

 probably might be of the family of the Wilds of Cod)wr. — Ed. 

 * See "Journal," Vol. XIV., p. 20. 



