By John Batten. 



205 



and also of the Honour of St. Valerie. 1 Zeals continued for many 

 generations in the de Ailesbury family, and in 1417 Sir Thomas 

 j de Ailesbury, two years before his death, settled it on his daughter 

 I Isabella, the wife of Sir Thomas Chaworth. 2 Sir Thomas Ohaworth 

 died about the year 1460, and it was found by inquisition that he 

 held the manor of " Zeals Ailesbury " as tenant by the curtesy 

 after the death of his wife Isabella, of the inheritance of William 

 Chaworth, her son and heir, then twenty-eight years old, and also 

 chat the manor was held of William, Bishop of Winchester, as of 

 I his manor of Ambresbury, but was formerly the manor of the Earl 

 I of Salisbury. 3 In 1483, on the death of Thomas, son and heir of 

 William Chaworth, without issue, the manor came to his sister and 

 heir, Joan, the wife of John Ormond, Esq., of Alfreton, Co. Derby, 

 and in the Church of that place there are brasses to their memory. 

 Joan Ormond died in 1507 and left three daughters only, and by a 

 settlement made by her, the manor was divided amongst them 

 equally in tail, with remainder to her own right heirs. Joan, 

 the eldest daughter, was married to Sir Thomas Dynham, Kt., of 

 Sythorpe, Bucks ; Elizabeth, the second daughter, to Anthony 

 j Babington, of Dethick (grandfather of Anthony, the conspirator 

 against the life of Queen Elizabeth) ; and Anne, the third daughter, 

 ] to William Meringe, Esq. Anne died without issue, by which 

 j event her one-third vested in her two surviving sisters. Joan and 

 I Elizabeth, but Joan seems to have acquired the share of her sister 

 Elizabeth also. She survived her husband, Sir Thomas Dynham, 

 and was married to Sir William Fitz William, Kt. Afterwards 

 i she and her husband levied a fine of the entirety of this manor, and 

 j in 1534 granted a lease of certain parts of it to Thomas Chafyn, 

 I Esq., for the lives of himself, Margaret, his wife, and Thomas, 

 their son. Joan died in 1540, leaving two sons, George and Thomas 

 Dynham, between whom were conflicting claims to the property. 

 Thomas, the younger, sold all his rights (including the reversion of 

 Chafyn' s leasehold) to one Percy, but Chafyn refused to pay rent 



1 Dugdales Warwickshire, reprint 1765, p. 580. 

 2 Esch. 6 Hen. V. 

 3 Esch. 37 Hen. VI. 



