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Entries updated by Debbie Lawley
This project is a study of the Lawley family, primarily situated in Shropshire. The earliest mentions of the Lawley (sometimes spelt Lauleye or referred to as De Lawley) are from the 1100s.
To start the project, I have added documents from those mentions I have collected recently. Before David Lawley, we have a number of very old mentions of Lawleys and then the start of a series of names that can be formed into a tree.
The earliest couple in this tree is Agnes Wyvil and John Lawley. They married around 1390. I will add more documents over the coming days/weeks that will fill in some of the detail surrounding this couple and their children, most notably two sons, one of whom is probably the Grandfather (or Great Grandfather) of David Lawley, born c. 1485.
Update on 8th May 2011 : Jon will soon upload a doc with the drawn tree for the earliest Lawley and Wyvill family members. I have been working my way through the Patent Rolls - royal letters which are a great source for historians, and have quite a few records of the Wyvills, including knights who really did particpate in jousts! They appear to have had quite a few roles as judges and similar from those times. One Robert de Wyvil was Bishop of Salisbury! I will add these records as documents shortly. My next job will be to try to relate these entries to those on the National Archives
Update on 20th May 2011 : Jon has now uploaded the document that displays the earliest Lawleys and shows how David Lawley fits in. We don't have a proven link but we do have a highly probable one as there is nowhere else he can fit in! If you zoom in on David you can see the details. I have placed a more detailed explanation in David's "About me".
Update on 22nd May 2011: Jon has been loading up the results of our research on the earliest Lawleys. This has resulted in the link being made to John Lawley and Mary Cressett and their descendants which inculdes many Barons and Knights. In the last few centuries this led to marriages in Westminster Abbey as well as links to very illustrious families such as the Grosvenor family and the Cunard family.
My most recent research is focused on the Wyville connection - see Agnes Wyville and her marriage to John Lawley. It seems very likely that our line and probably most if not all Lawleys are descended from that couple. So the Wyvilles are very important in the story. My job now is to join up those earliest members of that family!
Update on 20th June 2011: Jon took over my job in the archive centre recently and found a very interesting record in the Canterbury probates of those who died intestate. It was the record for Arthur Lawley and records the fact that Robery Lawley of Wenlock administered his estate. On consideration, this suggests that Arthur died without any children to inherit and that his nearest kin was Robert. Jon and I then had to go back to the drawing board as far as this detail was concerned.
We had Arthur as the son of David and father of Francis, Thomas and David as he was the correct age and date. This seems then not to be the case. In the search for the replacement son of David and Father of Francis, Thomas and David we have searched the records and have found the existance of a Francis. The only way we know of him is through the fact that he was murdered! But he is the right age/date to be the Father. The oldest son is also called Francis which is usually a pretty good indicator too. There are no birth records at this stage which makes creating the tree very challenging when you get back this far. Nonetheless, this looks like the best option we have as the candidate for son of David and father of the three Lawley males in Alveley at this time.
Update 16th September 2012: I have started creating a small document to document the relationship between Baron Wenlock and John Lawley. I will upload this but, please note, I have just started this and so it is a work in progress!