80 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Walter Bishop, and his successors. It is recorded in the curious 

 hundred-roll in the time of Henry III. "that the Bishop of Chester 

 held this manor with its members, and the town of Lyth (Lichfield), 

 in barony, of the King-, and had there a free Court, and held plea of 

 all things usual, together with that of forbidden distress ; and had 

 waif and view of frank pledge, without the cognizance of the sheriff. 

 And the Bishop and his bailiff were wont to attend at the two great 

 hundred courts, and there to demand his own free court, till the 

 coming of the Bishop Alexander (about 1224), who withdrew him- 

 self from thence."* 



In 1292, the ancient family of Tromyn, of Cannock, held Beau- 

 desert under the Bishop. On the 29th of September, 1546, the 

 Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry surrendered to Henry VIII. his 

 manors of Longdon and Heywood, with their appurtenances, and 

 accepted in their stead <183. a-year. The King, by his letters 

 patent, bearing date the 26th of October the same year, granted 

 the same to Sir William Paget, Knight. 



According to a curious rental of Sir William Paget's estate, made 

 in 1549, this manor of Longdon produced a clear rent ofo78. 18s. 8d.; 

 Longdon itself being about <40. which then consisted of the manor 

 of Beaudesert, with appurtenances, valued ato13. 10s. particularly 

 a mine of coal then valued at =?4. per annum, and a smith-mill situ- 

 ated in the ancient park, and 48 messuages, with the appurtenances, 

 and a mill called Longdon-mill. 



Beaudesert, formerly the palace of the Bishops of Chester, and 

 now the mansion of the Marquis of Anglesea, is situated on the 

 side of a lofty eminence, in an advanced part of the forest of Can- 

 nock, about a mile south-west from Longdon church. The mansion 

 is a magnificent edifice of stone, built in the form of a half H ; it is 

 sheltered in the rear by rising grounds, adorned with a variety of 

 trees, and enveloped in groves of the most perfect and luxuriant 

 growth. The greatest part of it was re-built by Thomas Lord 

 Paget, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and various additions have 

 been since made by hia successors. The principal entrance is under 

 a light gothic portico, which leads into a large and handsome hall, 

 eighty feet by twenty-one, with a lofty arched ceiling, a large music 

 gallery at the east end, and a beautiful gothic window at the west 

 end, and adorned with the arms of the first Sir William Paget, and 

 Preston, whose daughter he married. 



* Tenure Roll of the Hundred of Offlow. 



