The Baronetcy of Gresley of Drakelow was created in the

Baronetage of England Baronets are a rank in the British aristocracy. The current Baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier but existing Baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Great Britain. Baronetage of England (1611–1705) King James I ...

on 29 June 1611 for George Gresley of Drakelow Hall,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

who was later

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

. The Gresley Baronetcy was the sixth oldest baronetcy in Britain until it became extinct on the death of the 13th and last Baronet in 1976.

Background

The Gresleys were an ancient

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

family, descended from Nigel de Stafford, the son of

Robert de Stafford Robert de Stafford ( 1039 – c. 1100) (''alias'' Robert de Tosny/Toeni, etc.) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, the first feudal baron of Stafford in Staffordshire in England, where he built as his seat Stafford Castle. His many landholdings are li ...

, scion of one of the most powerful families in England. Nigel's son, also named Nigel, took the name Gresley after he acquired

Castle Gresley Castle Gresley is a village and civil parish about southwest of the centre of Swadlincote in South Derbyshire, England. The population was 1,566 at the 2001 Census increasing to 1,799 at the 2011 Census. The village is about west of the villag ...

in Derbyshire. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

recorded Nigel de Stafford holding the Manor of Drakelowe near the conclusion of the 11th century, and his descendants, the Gresleys, continued to hold it for nine hundred years – as long as any family in England is said to have owned the same manor. The family established the Priory of Gresley near their castle in Gresley before the year 1200. Drakelowe Hall, latterly the family seat, was a large

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

mansion. A subsidiary branch of the family had a seat at Netherseal Hall,

Netherseal Netherseal (or 'Netherseale') is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire,OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

The two branches of the family were reunited by the marriage of the sister of the 8th Baronet to Rev. William Gresley, Rector of Netherseal, and the succession of their son William Nigel Gresley as 9th Baronet. The last of the Gresley family vacated Drakelowe Hall in 1931 after 28 generations had lived there. The Hall was demolished three years later, in 1934, when the site was redeveloped as

Drakelow Power Station Drakelow Power Station refers to a series of three now decommissioned and demolished coal-fired power stations located south of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England, on the River Trent. However, the station was ac ...

, which itself was later demolished. Netherseal Hall was demolished in 1933.

Gresley of Drakelow (1611)

* Sir George Gresley, 1st Baronet (–1651) *Sir Thomas Gresley, 2nd Baronet (–1699)

1663 *Sir William Gresley, 3rd Baronet (1661–1710)

1704 *Sir Thomas Gresley, 4th Baronet (–1746)

1724 * Sir Thomas Gresley, 5th Baronet (1722–1753)

for

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

1753. * Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet (c. 1727–1787)

High Sheriff of Staffordshire This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities ass ...

in 1759. *Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet (1753–1808)

1780 *

Sir Roger Gresley, 8th Baronet Sir Roger Gresley, 8th Baronet (27 December 1799 – 12 October 1837) was an English author and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1837. Gresley was the son of Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet and his second wife M ...

(1799–1837)

for

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The population of the local authority at the 2011 Census was 94,611. It contains a third of the National Forest, and the council offices are in Swadlincote. The district a ...

*Sir William Nigel Gresley, 9th Baronet (1806–1847) * Sir Thomas Gresley, 10th Baronet (1832–1868)

for

*Sir Robert Gresley, 11th Baronet (1866–1936).

in 1906 *Sir Nigel Gresley, 12th Baronet (1894–1974). Unmarried. *Sir William Francis Gresley, 13th Baronet (1897–1976), m. 1924 Ada Mary Miller (1902–2001). No issue.

Extended family

* Sir Robert Gresley (1866–1936) married Lady Frances Spencer Churchill (1870–1954), eldest daughter of George, Duke of Marlborough, and had three sons. There was only one grandchild Janet Gresley (1934–1996), daughter of Antony Gresley (1903-1954). *

Sir Nigel Gresley Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Rail ...

(1876-1941) was a noted railway engineer. * Wilmot Maria Gresley, daughter of Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet, married Rev. Thomas Levett of

Packington Hall Packington Hall is a 17th-century mansion situated at Great Packington, near Meriden, Warwickshire, England the seat of the Earl of Aylesford. It is a Grade II* listed building. History It was built in 1693 for Sir Clement Fisher on whose ...

in Staffordshire.Thomas Levett and Wilmot Maria Gresley Levett are buried at St. Giles Church,

Whittington, Staffordshire Whittington is a village and civil parish which lies approximately 3 miles south east of Lichfield, in the Lichfield district of Staffordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,591, increasing to 2,603 at the 2011 C ...

, where there are memorials to them in the chancel. ''The Gresleys of Drakelowe'' (1899) by

Falconer Madan Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. Early life and education Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at ...

is the accepted history of the family. It mentions Charles Francis Gresley who married Clara Phillips, and states that the couple had no issue. Richard Boultbee queried that, stating that they had three boys, the eldest of whom has living male Gresley descendants.

References

Bibliography

* ''History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3'' (1835) pp. 528–530 *
Gresley Genealogy

External links

Drakelowe Hall, Burton-on-Trent.org.uk

* ttp://jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Philip_Alexius_de_Laszlo/Lady_Frances_Gresley.html Lady Frances Gresley, Philip Alexius de Laszlo, jssgallery.org {{s-end Baronetcies in the Baronetage of England Anglo-Norman families English families 1611 establishments in England