Shropshire Routes to Roots - Shropshire places - Wem
by Samuel Garbet
The Boundaries, Extent, Soil, Tenure and Valuation of Lacon.
This is the only town in England called Lacon, and therefore it is my conjecture that the ancient family of the Lacons took their name from it. It is a manor, but no court leet or court baron is kept for it; the constable is sworn at the county court at Wellington: he is the only inhabitant that appears there, but the other tenants send for him eight pence each for their non appearance. It is bounded on the north by Edstaston and Cotton ; on the east by Dogmore, in the parish of Prees, and by Soulton; on the south by Aston ; and on the west by Wem and Edstaston. Its length from the confines of Cotton to those of Aston is a mile and a quarter; and its breadth from Astley's of the Brook to the borders of Soulton is a mile. The soil is of different natures, being in one place sandy, in another gravelly, in a third clayey, and in a fourth mossy ; according to this variety the farmers sow wheat, muncorn, or rye, on the lands suitable to each; in their mosses they find fir-wood; and in the pasture ground they keep good store of cattle for the dairy as well as other uses; muck and marle are their chief manure. In respect to the land tax, this township is valued at £124. 13s. 2d. per ann. which at 2s. in the pound, the assessment would be £12. 9s. 4d.
In all probability the Lacons were anciently lords of this manor; for the principal families generally took their names from the places of their residence or inheritance. In the reigns of Edward IV. and Richard III. Ralph Bannister or Bannistre was lord of this manor. He had been tenderly brought up by Humphrey Stafford, the great Duke of Buckingham, who loved, favoured, and trusted him above all his servants. To his house the Duke retreated when he was deserted by his army in 1483: he was proclaimed a traitor by the king, and one hundred pounds a year in land, and one thousand pounds of ready money was offered for his discovery; the hopes of gaining so great a reward, or the fear of losing his goods and life, tempted Bannister to betray his master to John Mytton, esq. then high-sheriff of Shropshire; who coming suddenly with a strong body of armed men, apprehended the. Duke, disguised like a peasant, in a little grove near to the house, either at Lacon or Milford; for both belonged to the Bannisters. Tradition reports that the Duke, falling on his knees, cursed Bannister and his posterity to the tenth generation; but the king rewarded him with the manor of Ealding, in Kent, which lately belonged to the Duke. Carte, from the continuation of the history of Croyland, asserts, that the daily carrying of an unusual quantity of victuals to Bannisters house gave occasion to the discovery of the place where the Duke was concealed. But the history of Sir Thomas Moore, whose father was a judge and co-temporary with Bannister, is. much more credible than the relation of an annonymous monk, who lived very remote from the scene of action. Kennet, Echard, Rapin, Guthrey, and Tradition are against him, Kennet has been to assign the peculiar reward of Bannister's treachery; and Sir Thomas Moore, in his history of these times, takes notice of the vengeance of heaven which soon after fell on this family, viz: "Bannister's son and heir lost his senses, and died mad in a hog-stye; his eldest daughter, of excellent beauty, was suddenly striken with foul leprosy; his second son became a deformed cripple; a younger son was drowned in a small puddle; he, himself, in his old age, was arraigned and found guilty of murder, and saved only by his clergy."
At the last survey of the manor of Wem, Edward Bannister, esq. was in possession of his lordship.
Lawrence Bannister, esq. seems to have been son or younger brother of the former; he was high. steward of Wem, and as such servant to the Duke of Norfolk, who became seized with the barony of Wem, as guardian to the young Lord Dacre, whose mother he had married. Bannister was his ordinary counsellor in matters of law,and one of his chief confidents in his most secret affairs, particularly in the conspiracy of Ridolphi. When Browne, the Duke's servant, delivered to Queen Elizabeth's counsel the French Ambassador's money, that he was to have carried to Bannister, at his country house near Shrewsbury, i. e. at Wem, and which Bannister was to have forwarded to Mr. Lowther, on the frontiers of Scotland, the Duke and several of his servants were committed to the tower. Bannister on his examination confessed nothing, but being presented to the torture or rack, owned that he had been concerned in his Graces intelligence with the Queen of Scots; and confessed the little he knew of other matters, particularly of Ridolphi's affairs. At length he obtained his liberty, and continued high steward of. Wem until the time of his death, in 1588. This gentleman obtained a lease of Wem Pools, which he drained by means of a wide and deep canal, now called the Strinde; he left a son, Richard Bannister, of---, gentleman, who inherited his father's copyhold tenement in Tilley, and two burgages in Wem. Elizabeth Bannister, I suppose his daughter, married Reginald, a younger brother of Sir Richard Newport, of High-Ercall.
Rowland Bannister, esq. in the beginning of the reign of James I. was possessed of this lordship, and died May 10, 1610.
Richard Bannister, of Lacon, esq. son of Rowland, was eighteen years old at his father's death. He had a son, Rowland, born in 1615, and Robert in 1618, but survived them both, and was succeeded in his estate by his brother.
Joseph Bannister, of Lacon esq., who was the last of the family that resided in, or was possessed of this lordship, which, before the civil war, he sold to his relation Sir Richard Newport, of High-Ercall, then high-steward of Wem; for Sir Richard was charged for it to the subsidy in 1642. Joseph Bannister died at London about the year 1681, in the 73d year of his age, having left fifty pounds to the poor of Wem parish, and as much more to the school of Wem. Not only the manor, but all the farms within it have continued in the family of the Newports, from the first baron of High-Ercall, to the present Earl of Bradford.
Lacon Hall was the seat of the Bannisters, where-in they resided from 1560, and perhaps from the reign of Edward IV; here they show the hole where the Duke of Buckingham was hid, but it is not probable that he was ever in it; his keeping close in the house, and being disguised when he ventured out, was thought a sufficient concealment. At Milford, near Baschurch, is a large half-timbered house which belonged to the Bannisters, and is a more private place than Lacon: I have been formerly told that the Duke in his distress fled thither; the tenants had such a tradition. If I may be allowed to conjecture, I should think that Milford was the ancient seat of the Bannisters, and that when they sold the manor of Ealding, in Kent, (which was a reproach to the family) they bought with the money the manor of Lacon, which lay near them, and thereupon made it the place of their residence. Half the present messuage at Lacon is built of brick, and seems to be of no long standing; the farm consists of large fields, and generally firm and good land.
The farm formerly leased to Robert Hill, and now held by Roger Ireland, consists of cold, moist land, which agrees best with wheat.
George Weaver holds two farms, in one of which, at the survey, there was a wood, then called Shetenhurst; the trees have long since been felled, and the proper name has been forgotten, but the ground is still called the wood; in the mossy parts of it oaks and firs have been found, and in one place three firs lying one upon another.
Arthur Calcot's tenement has some mossy ground which affords firs; between this and Weaver's farm, there is a small pool about an acre in extent ; the water is shallow and not well stored with fish.
Page created 21 April 2008 and last updated 21 April 2008
