The Baronetcy of Gresley of Drakelow was created in the Baronetage of England 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 to ...

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 o ...

for Newcastle-under-Lyme. 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 family, descended from Nigel de Stafford, the son of Robert de Stafford, 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 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 manus ...

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

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 o ...

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 (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 ...

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