Vernon Family - Vernon of Nether Haddon and Tong

Vernon of Nether Haddon and Tong

Sir Richard de Vernon (d. c. 1215) acquired the manor by his early 13th century marriage to the heiress of Nether Haddon and Haddon Hall, Alice Avenell, daughter of William Avenell. His son, Sir William Vernon, was a High Sheriff of Lancashire and Chief Justice of Cheshire 1229–1236, married Margaret, the heiress of Sir Robert de Stockport. His son Richard was Chief Justice in 1249. A subsequent descendant, also Richard, married Juliana, daughter of Sir Fulk de Pembrugge, the heiress of Tong Castle, in the mid-1300s.

Sir Richard Vernon (1390–1451) of Haddon and Tong married his distant cousin and sole heiress Benedicta de Ludlow, daughter of Isabella de Lingen and Sir John de Ludlow of Hodnet. Benedicta's mother, Lady Isabella Pembrugge (née Lingen) founded the chantry and college at Tong, Shropshire in memory of her three departed husbands. Tong Church contains many of the Vernon tombs. Benedicta de Ludlow, as well as the Lingen and Pembrugge Arms, are depicted in the chapel's stained glass window at Haddon Hall. Sir Richard Vernon was High Sheriff of Staffordshire for 1416 and 1427 and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire for 1422 and 1425. He also represented Derbyshire and Staffordshire in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of which he was Speaker in 1426. He was Treasurer of Calais in the last year of his life (1450–1451). He was buried at Tong.

His son Sir William was Constable of England and succeeded him as Treasurer of Calais and MP for Derbyhire and Staffordshire, while other descendants became the Vernons of Hodnet. Sir William's son Sir Henry Vernon KB (1441–1515) became governor and treasurer to Arthur, Prince of Wales, married Anne Talbot daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and rebuilt Haddon Hall.

Sir Henry's grandson, Sir George Vernon, the last of the Haddon Vernons, owned a vast acreage and was locally styled King of the Peak. He died in 1565 without a male heir and his estates passed to his daughters. Haddon passed to Dorothy Vernon who married Sir John Manners and became ancestors of the Dukes of Rutland, present owners of Haddon Hall.

• Vernon memorials in St Bartholomew's church, Tong

• Isabel de Lingen (died 1446) and her first husband, Sir Fulke de Pembrugge (died 1409). Isabel founded the chantry and college at Tong for her own and her husbands' souls. It became the shrine church of the Vernon family of Haddon Hall. Her daughter by her second husband Sir John de Ludlow was Benedicta de Ludlow and is buried in the church

• Richard Vernon (died 1451, foreground) and Benedicta de Ludlow. Through their marriage the Vernons of Haddon Hall obtained Tong. Tomb in St Bartholomew's Church, Tong, Shropshire. Richard was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1426.

• Benedicta de Ludlow (foreground) and Richard Vernon (died 1451). This tomb has the most impressive sculpture at Tong. Richard was the great nephew of Sir Fulke de Pembrugge as his grandmother Julia de Pembruugue was Sir Fulke sister.

• Tomb of Anne Talbot (died 1494) and Henry Vernon (died 1515). Henry was put in charge of Catherine of Aragon and Arthur, Prince of Wales by Henry VII and was with them when Arthur died at Ludlow in 1502.

• Arthur Vernon, priest and son of Anne Talbot and Henry Vernon, in the robes of a University of Cambridge MA, on his tomb in the floor of the Golden Chapel at Tong.

• Arthur Vernon portrayed preaching in the Golden Chapel at Tong.

• Margaret Dymmok and Richard Vernon (died 1517). After his death, Margaret married Sir Richard Manners.

• Margaret Vernon and Thomas Stanley (died 1576). George Vernon, son of Richard and Margaret, died without male heir. He left his estates to his daughters: Haddon to Dorothy and Tong to Margaret, who married Stanley, the second son of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby. Part of a double family tomb.

• Edward Stanley (died 1632), last of the Vernon heirs to own Tong, which he sold to Thomas Harries about 1630. He was the father of Venetia Stanley, a famous courtesan of the early 17th century. Lower tier of a double family tomb.