• Wool merchant for Edward I. In 1273, of the 1200 sacks of English wool exported, Shropshire contributed 660. Lawrence de Ludlow used his business skills to amass a considerable fortune, and the power that came with it allowed him to attain the unofficial status of a lord.
• 25 Jul 1272, Waltham. Licence to trade wool,
• 30 May 1274, Westminster. Licence to trade in wool and other goods,
• 30 May 1277, Windsor. Licence
• 1278. Accused of taking a mare worth 40 shillings
• 28 Feb 1280 Down Ampney Court: acknowledges debt of 10 marks to Geoffrey Brun
• 1280.Sued for debts
• 1281 Debt to him acknowledged by Adam de la Bolde.
• 1281 Debts to him acknowledged by Robert Brun and Robert Bodeham
• 24 Oct 1281, Westminster. Licence Free warrent in Stokesay, Neuton, Wotlinton, co. Salop,
• 1283 to 1284. Knight of the Shire for Co. Salop
• 1281 His brother John buys Stokesay Castle. Stokesay takes its name from two sources: "stoke" means "dairy farm"; "say" is derived from the castle's original builders, the de Say family, Normans who were granted ownership of the estates at Stoke and at nearby Clun (which still has its own fine castle). The de Says were, for a time, one of the wealthiest families living on the Welsh Borders. However, by the 1250's their power in the region declined.
• 1282. Debt to him acknowledged by Theobald de Verdun in
• 19 Oct 1291 Stokesay Castle, Salop. Licence to fortify 'crenelate' Stokesay Castle 1 291 Lawrence de Ludlow had licence to strengthen his mansion with a wall of stone and lime, and to crenellate or embattle it.
• 1294 Aldeburgh, Sufffolk died at Sea, Nicholas de Ludlow's second son, John, was also a wool merchant and he set up a subsidiary of the family business in Chipping Campden, Glos. Like his brother, Laurence, John was also involved in the wool trade in Europe. The brothers were hugely successful but both were drowned off the coast of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1294, when the King's wool fleet - heading for Bruges and commanded by Laurence de Ludlow - was hit by a great storm in which many ships and their crews were lost. Laurence de Ludlow's body was recovered and was buried at Ludlow. John also qualified for knighthood.

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"Stokesay Castle" by the Rev. J.D. de la Touche, Vicar of Stokesay, 1878. Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Volume 1, Parts 1-2, pp. 322-326.

Stokesay Castle

"...in the Feodary of 1284 Lawrence de Ludlow is said "to hold the Vill of Stokesay for one knight's fee, under John de Grey, which John held it under Theobald de Verdon, who held of the King." How long the de Verdons held this intermediate position between the feoffee and the King does not appear, but in 1290-1 Lawrence de Ludlow, who, from a Royal Charter of 1281, appears to have been now in full possession of Stokesay, obtained the following patent to enable him to fortify his house, and this fixes the date of the erection of the southern tower:

"Pro Laurencio de Ludelaw. Rex omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis ad quos ore. salutem Sciatis quod concessimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris dilecto nobis Laurencio de Lodelawe. Quod ipse mansum suum de Stoke Say in comitate Salopise muro de petra et calce firmare et kernellare et illud sic firmatum et kernellatum tenere possit sibi et heredibus suis in perpetuum sine occasions nostri vel heredum nostrorum aut ministrorum nostronim quorumcunque In cujus T. Rex apud Hereford xix die Octobr." Patent Roll of the nineteenth year of Edward the First, m. 2.

A question of much interest here arises as to whether the hall was not erected before the tower. It has been observed that the tracery of the windows at Acton Burnell, which was certainly built in 1284, that is, seven years before the tower at Stoke, though very like to those in Stokesay Hall, is of a more florid description ; which affords in itself a presumption in favour of the earlier date of the latter building. Moreover, that a considerable house was in existence here before 1290 is rendered very probable from the fact that in that year Bishop Swinfeld, with a great retinue, made this his resting place on a tour through his diocese. A curious document by his chaplain, John De Kemesey, setting forth the Bishop's expenses, was discovered some years ago in the library at Stanford Court, in Worcestershire, the seat of Sir Thos. Wilmington, and has been published by the Camden Society, in which the following entry occurs:

• || 1290
• II Stokesay || on Thursday at Stoke de Say, April 27.
• In bread 3s. 2d.
• 2 Sextaries of wine 2s. 8d.
• Ale 5s.
• Item 1 pig (or porker) already accounted for.
• Beef and pork 16d.
• 2 calves 22d.
• 3 kids 10d. 2 pigs )
• 10 capons > a present.
• 6 fowls )
• And out of them remains 1 pig.
• Bread 2d.
• Hay given by Master R. de Heyton.1
• Item 2 quarters 5 bushels of oats for 35 horses, given by the Lord
• Abbot of Haughmond. Carriage of the hay 2d. Alms for several days 12d.
• Sum 16s. 2d.

The foregoing considerations, as well as the general opinion of archaeologists, among whom may be mentioned Mr. Hudson Turner, Mr. Blore, and Air. Parker, that the character of the architecture is of an earlier date than that of the tower, render it probable that when John de Verdon came into possession of this manor, which, as we have seen, he did in 1240, he erected this hall, and that the only part of the original mansion of the de Says which he left standing was the lower part of the northern tower.

During the troubled reign of Henry III., de Verdon was active on the king's side, and being one of the Lords marchers, he, and several others, were ordered to reside on their estates to check the incursions of the Welsh. In the 54th of Henry III. (1270) "he was signed with the cross, together with Prince Edward, in order to a voyage to the Holy Land, where he went

For 207 years from the time when Lawrence de Ludlow was recognised as Lord of Stokesay, no event of any great interest in connection with the place has been recorded. Ten generations of de Ludlow held the manor, and this branch of the family ended in coheiresses. In 1497, one of these, Anne, daughter of John Ludlowe, married Thomas Vernon, son of Sir Richard Vernon (of Haddon, in Derbyshire, and Hodnett in Shropshire), and received Stokesay as her portion.1 [1 According to the Vernon pedigree and other pedigrees in Hen. Vis. Shropshire, 1623, Anne, daughter and co-heiress of John Ludlowe, married Thomas Vernon, 2nd son of Sir Henry Vernon, of Haddon, and brother of Sir Richard Vernon, of Haddon and Hodnet. (Edit. Sec.)]

Of Lawrence de Ludlow, who was now the recognised Lord of Stokesay, not much information has been obtained. His name occurs as one of the attestors of a few deeds belonging to the corporation of Ludlow. He would seem, as Mr. Eyton remarks, to have been one of those prosperous merchants who have risen to opulence through their enterprise—one of the first of that numerous order which has so largely contributed to the greatness of England. This remark is founded on the fact that in 1292 he got into trouble with the burgesses of Ludlow, his native town, by selling cloth contrary to the assize; which affords grounds for thinking that the wealth which enabled him to rise to the position of an important land-owner, and the founder of a great and powerful family, was acquired in business. There are other evidences, says Mr. Eyton, that at this period the trade of Ludlow was very prosperous: but it was not till the reign of Edward I. that mercantile wealth could be thus readily exchanged for territorial importance.

Mr. Vernon was living here when Leland visited Shropshire. Leland was appointed by Henry VIII. to report on the state of the religious houses, the Cathedrals, Colleges, and Abbeys, throughout the kingdom. He thus mentions Stoke, which he passed on his way from Ludlow to Bishop's Castle. "There is a pratty stone bridge over Oney a little above Bromfield, and there is alsoe a bridge of stone over Oney at Whishter, two miles above Bromfield, and above this Mr. Vernon hath a place not farre from Oney. Almost four miles from Lucuo, in the way betwixt Ludlo and Bishop's Castle, Stokesay belonging to the Ludlowes, now the Vernons, builded like a castelL" Again he says: "The white grey Friars at Ludlow, a fayre and costly thinge stood without Corve gate by north, one Ludlow a knight Lord of Stoke Castle or Pyle towards Bishop's Castle was original founder of it. Vernon by an Heir general is now owner of Stoke." There is an inaccuracy here, since Stokesay is seven and not four miles from Ludlow.