237 



and positively never met him at Whorlton, if she herself ever went 

 there, of which I can find no record. The only possible basis that 

 occurs to me for the tradition is that the letters written in Septem- 

 ber and Octobei', 1561, by the Countess of Lennox to Mary, 

 l)roposing the Darnley match, may have been addressed from 

 Whorlton. Indeed, I am under the impression that I have seen 

 ' Northallerton ' on one of these letters. 



" The Castle and Manor were granted to the Lennoxes on the 

 l"2th July, 1544, the keeper.'^hip and custody having been given by 

 the King to Hugh Askew in the previous year on the death of the 

 owner. Sir J. Strangways. I do not find the Meynells in connection 

 with the place until long after, and I believe that Whorlton was 

 one of the actual residences of the Lennoxes until their disgrace and 

 attainder. It is likely, therefoi'c, that Darnley and his father may 

 have halted at the house on their respective journeys to Scotland, 

 and may have corresponded with Mary from there. It is possible 

 also that some confusion may have arisen from the fact that 

 INIary actually did pass a night at Walton Hall, near Chesterfield, 

 on her way South, 1568. You can however most confidently 

 contradict the assertion that ' the fateful lines that bound Mary to 

 Darnley,' were signed in one of the Chambers of AVhorlton Castle. 

 They were signed at Stirling." 



Graves says, quoting from Kirkby's Inquest (1285), " all lands 

 belonging to the ]Meinills Avere exempt from the payment of 

 Danegekl, and that Nicholas de Meinill, in the reign of Edward I., 

 obtained a Charter for keeping a fair here, and also had a grant of 

 free-warren, free chace, and divers other privileges within the 

 Manor." 



An Inquisition " Post-mortem " was taken, 30 Edw. III., on 

 th<^ death of John Lord D'Arcy, and showed that the Castle and 

 Manor of Whorlton, with other lands, had come to him by 

 marriage with the sole daughter and heiress of Nicholas de Meinell, 

 and had been granted to Thomas Swinford and John Charteray in 

 trust, etc. 



A second Inquest was taken at Yarm (42 Edw. III.) "by 

 which it was found that Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of 

 Nicholas de i\Ieynell, held at time of her death the Castle and 

 Manor of AVhoilton in demesne, as of fee together with the 

 villages of Whorlton and Swainby, etc., and that the Castle at the 

 time was of no annual value, 'ultra reprisas,' etc." 



