THE STAWELLS – 700 YEARS OF HISTORY
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 1066
The Stawells arrived in England at the time of the Norman Conquest when the first “Stawell”, Sir Adam de Coveston, was granted Cothelstone by William the Conqueror in 1066. They were to remain at Cothelstone until 1792.
At some point between 1166 and 1189 the family, having also been granted the nearby Manor of Stawell by William the Conqueror, changed their name to de Stawell. They remained at Cothelstone until the estate was sold in 1792.
OVERSEAS ADVENTURES
THE CRUSADES & THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
Little is known of the early history of the Stawells but in 1297 Sir Geoffrey Stawell was called for military service “with horses and arms etc, in parts beyond the seas” – it seems likely that he may have gone on the Crusades.
At the end of the 100 years war in 1453 Robert Stawell was taken prisoner at the battle of Guienne and a large ransom had to be found to secure his release.
THE SPANISH ARMADA 1588
Sir John Stawell (1536-1603) was one of the most active men in the country in opposing the Armada, assembled by Philip II of Spain with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I. It was reported at the time that “Sir John, with three others, was made a Colonel in charge of training 1000 men and contributed £100 to the defence of the country”.
THE CIVIL WAR and THE COMMONWEALTH 1642 – 1661
Sir John Stawell (1600-1662) played a significant role in the English Civil War raising five Regiments for Charles I at his own expense in 1642. Having fought the Parliamentarians throughout the West Country, including the siege of Exeter, he was finally captured in 1646.
At the end of the War, on 15 July 1646, Sir John went to London with a copy of his terms of surrender from Sir Thomas Fairfax. He was told he must swear an oath for parliament. However he refused, was committed as a prisoner to Ely House, in Holborn and his estates were sequestered.
On 13 August 1646 he was summoned to the Bar of the House of Commons, where he declined to kneel when ordered to do so by the Speaker and he again refused to take the oath. He was immediately committed to Newgate Prison for high treason. Although orders for his trial at Somerset Assizes were repeated on several occasions, no proceedings followed.
In July 1650 Sir John was removed from Newgate to the Tower of London and on 17 December was brought to trial, but the judges neither acquitted nor condemned him. He remained imprisoned until the end of the Commonwealth and the restoration of the Monarchy in 1661.
ADMIRAL BLAKE and the BOMBARDMENT OF THE MANOR 1646
Following Sir John Stawell’s capture, Admiral Blake, a leading Parliamentarian, born in Bridgwater, was charged by Cromwell with destroying the Manor and ensuring that no Stawell would ever live here again. Cannon were placed on Cothelstone Hill and battered down a large part of it, mainly the north wing. At the end of the bombardment the hordes came out from Taunton looting and destroying what the cannon had left.
In 1651 his lands and estates were put up for sale, although the estate was subsequently restored to Sir John on the Restoration of Charles II.
Two of the Cannon Balls fired from the slopes of Cothelstone Hill by Admiral Blake during the Bombardment of the Manor were found in the walls of Cothelstone Manor during the restoration of the Manor carried out by Edward Esdaile in 1856. They remain in the house today.
KING CHARLES II ENTERS LONDON 1660
On the 29 May 1660 Sir John Stawell was one of the 100 knights who, at Charing Cross, welcomed King Charles II on his first entry into London.
Sir John was again returned to Parliament as Knight for Somerset on 1 April 1661 but his health had suffered through the deprivations of his long imprisonment, and he died aged 62 on 21 February 1662.
SIR JOHN STAWELL’s FUNERAL PROCESSION 1662
A measure of the esteem in which Sir John was held can be gauged from his funeral on April 23 April 1662. An occasion of great pomp started with his body arriving from Ham, some 15 miles from Cothelstone, on a chariot covered with velvet and adorned with his armour, drawn by six plumed horses and a procession of over 200, mainly mounted, people led by two Trumpeters and Sir John’s Standard.
The Funeral itself must have been a remarkable sight, attended as it was, by Knights, Gentlemen, Commoners and Sir John’s servants preceded by Trumpeters and with Officers from the College of Arms, wearing their highly distinctive mediaeval uniform, the tabard, a coat embroidered on its front, back and sleeves with the Royal Arms, bearing Sir John’s armour:
THE BLOODY ASSIZES 1685
The Bloody Assizes were held in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion. The Taunton Assize took place in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle on 18th and 19th September 1685 where Judge Jefferies dispensed summary justice to the rebels. Ralph, Lord Stawell (1641-1669) openly criticised the severity of the Bloody Assizes as recorded at the time “ It is on record that Lord Stawell refused to see or meet that inhuman ruffian, Judge Jefferies. The Judge answered the rebuff in his coarse and brutal way by hanging two of the rebels named Bovett and Blackmore from the entrance gate at Cothelstone”.
END OF AN ERA 1792
Stewkley Stawell’s death from smallpox at Westminster School in 1731 saw the end of the direct line of descent for this branch of the Stawell family. The estate passed into the hands of his sister Mary and her husband, Henry Bilston Legge eventually put it up for sale in 1792.
With acknowledgements to David J. Hinton
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