WILLEY. 73 



many witnesses did homage and fealty," and acknow- 

 ledged himself to hold the place of the lord prior by 

 carrying his frock to parliament. They succeeded 

 too, after several suits, in establishing their rights to 

 the advowson of the Church, founded and endowed 

 by the lords of the place. 



By the middle of the 16th century Willey had 

 passed to the hands of the old Catholic family of the 

 Lacons, one of whom, Sir Roland, held it in 1561, 

 together with Kinlet ; and from them it passed to 

 Sir John Weld, who is mentioned as of Willey in 

 1666. He married the daughter of Sir George 

 AYhitmore, and his son, Greorge Weld, sat for the 

 county with William Forester, who married the 

 daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, and voted with 

 him in favour of the succession of the House of 

 Hanover. 



Who among the former feudal owners of Willey 

 built the old hall, is a question which neither history 

 nor tradition serves to solve. Portions of the base- 

 ment of the old buildings seem to indicate former 

 structures still more ancient, like spurs of some 

 primitive rock cropping up into a subsequent forma- 

 tion. Contrasted with the handsome modern free- 

 stone mansion occupied by the Right Hon. Lord 



