William Moreton, Esq

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Moreton_Hall#House]

Little Moreton Hall, also known as Old Moreton Hall,[a] is a moated half-timbered manor house 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of Congleton in Cheshire, England.[2] The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the family until about 1610. The building is highly irregular, with three asymmetrical ranges forming a small, rectangular cobbled courtyard. A National Trust guidebook describes Little Moreton Hall as being "lifted straight from a fairy story, a gingerbread house".[3] The house's top-heavy appearance, "like a stranded Noah's Ark", is due to the Long Gallery that runs the length of the south range's upper floor.[4]

The house remained in the possession of the Moreton family for almost 450 years, until ownership was transferred to the National Trust in 1938. Little Moreton Hall and its sandstone bridge across the moat are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,[5][6] and the ground on which Little Moreton Hall stands is protected as a Scheduled Monument.[6][b] The house has been fully restored and is open to the public from April to December each year.

The fortunes of the Moreton family declined during the English Civil War. As supporters of the Royalist cause, they found themselves isolated in a community of Parliamentarians.[20] Little Moreton Hall was requisitioned by the Parliamentarians in 1643 and used to billet Parliamentary soldiers. The family successfully petitioned for its restitution,[21] and survived the Civil War with their ownership of Little Moreton Hall intact, but financially they were crippled.[20] They tried to sell the entire estate, but could only dispose of several parcels of land. William Moreton died in 1654 leaving debts of £3,000–£4,000 (equivalent to about £12–16 million as of 2010[22][e]), which forced his heirs to remortgage what remained of the estate.[23] The family's fortunes never fully recovered, and by the late 1670s, they no longer lived in Little Moreton Hall, renting it out instead to a series of tenant farmers. The Dale family took over the tenancy in 1841 and were still in residence more than 100 years later.[1] By 1847 most of the house was unoccupied, and the deconsecrated Chapel was being used as a coal cellar and storeroom.[24]

Biography

William Moreton, Esq was born circa 1570 in Cheshire, United Kingdom. His parents were John Moreton, Esq. and Anne Moreton.

William married Jane Moreton, of Cheshire in 1590 in Rainhill, Lancashire , England (United Kingdom). Together they had the following children:
John Moreton;
William Moreton;
Rev. Edward Moreton;
Peter Moreton;
Ralph Moreton;
Philip Moreton;
Elizabeth Moreton;
Anne Moreton;
Jane Moreton.

He died in 1654 in Moreton, Cheshire, England (United Kingdom).