- Ancestor Index
 The Smythe
Family of Eshe Hall, Durham- and Acton
Burnell in Shropshire
Acton Burnell
Castle
From the "Castles of
Britain" information web site - "Construction
began on the Castle here around 1283 on the instructions
of Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells. A
licence to crenellate was granted the following year and
the Castle was completed by 1286. In 1316 it passed
to the de Handlo family who assumed the name Burnell.
It remained occupied
until it passed to Lord Lovell in 1452 who soon abandoned
it in favour of more comfortable properties.
However, the Castle was later passed to the
Crompton family who seem to have made it habitable once
again and it was occupied until around 1672, when the
Smythe family finally moved out.
The Castle, which is a
quite unusual building being more fortified hall than
anything else, has survived years of neglect very well,
with only one tower (the North West) having completely
vanished. Today it is owned by English Heritage and
is accessible at any time of day."
 Little
Crosby and Great Crosby - Smythe arms
shown impaled with Blundell and the County of Lancaster associated
...
" ... Colonel Nicholas
[Blundell] was lord of the manor of Little
Crosby from 1854 to 1894 and was a Justice of the
Peace and the Deputy Lieutenant of the County of
Lancaster. In November, 1847 he married
Agnes Mary, the second daughter of Sir Edward
Smythe, 6th Baronet of Acton Burnell, in
Shropshire. The Colonel seemed to be very
fond of displaying his coat-of-arms, and it can
be seen in several places in Little Crosby and
Great Crosby. It
is almost certain that soon after his marriage,
the name of the Inn was changed from the
“Ten Billets” to the “Blundell
Arms”, and at the same time the sign of the
“Ten Billets” was removed and replaced
by that of Colonel Nicholas Blundell showing the
Blundell of Crosby Arms impaling, or side by side
with, the Arms of the Smythe Family, which was a black shield
with three white roses arranged two and
one. Above this coat-of-arms was the
crest of the Blundells of Crosby, a half lion
sitting up and holding a cross in its paws."
A 1998 educational thesis by Mrs
Mary Grace Harvey - completed as part of the
her course at the School of History at Keele
University - is titled "Regis Semper
Fidelis: a study of the Smythe Family of Acton
Burnell Shropshire 1750-1850" If the
description of the Smythe arms (linked to
Blundell above) and the motto "Regis Semper
Fidelis" are placed side by side, (albeit
"Regi" vs. "Regis") the
following conclusion may reasonably be drawn -
this is the supposed "lost family" of
Smythe ... or is it?
The
Lost Family of Smythe - 'Regi Semper
Fidelis' - "This crest is reputed to be
the arms of the 'lost' family of Smythe,
'heirs of Thomas, 1st Lord Arundell of
Wardour'." Click on the Smythe crest to
follow hypothesis. The
Arundell crest (right) gives a brief overview of
one particular title accorded to each and every
male and female descendant of
Thomas Arundell. Inter alia, the site-related family
names of Anstruther and Hanbury-Tracy - as well
as Smythe - appear in the descendant lists.
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- A daughter
of this Smythe family was the wife (though some
would argue otherwise) of a King of England.
- Also see
additional Smyth/e notes at the foot of this page
...
The Shropshire line
stems from John Smythe (of Eshe Hall
Durham) who married Margaret Bulmer, a
daughter of Sir Bertram Bulmer and Isabel Tempest and
there is, once again, a connection with the Smythes and
Durham shown here. Margaret
Bulmer, was born in 1606. She was one of 15 children
and was christened on 26 Aug 1606 at Ryton, Durham.
- For further
notes on this branch in Durham,
and its Tudor links, click on the image of Acton
Burnell, at the head of this page.
- Site Note:
- Eshe, Ashton
Hall (Lancs.) and Ashton Court
Bristol ... Smyth/e family links through names ?
Eshe/Ash. O.E. Eshe = Ash? The latter, Ashton
Court, was Arundel family property until the
middle of the sixteenth century.
Bertram Bulmer was born in 1579
at Tursdale, Durham. He was buried on 6 May 1638 in St
Oswald's, Durham. He married Isabel Tempest on
30 Jul 1600 at Ryton, Durham. Isabel Tempest was born in
1583. She was christened in Jun 1583 at Ryton, Durham.
She was buried on 8 Jun 1663 in York. Their eldest son,
William Bulmer, married (1625) Dorothy Sayer. She is possibly of the same family (a later ?
generation) as Helen Sayers who
married James Smyth of Rosedale Abbey. NB the
link between the Vanes of Raby Castle (the original seat
of the Neville family) and the Tempest family - later
associated and connected in the surname "Vane-Tempest".
The youngest son of
John Smythe and Margaret Bulmer was Sir Edward
Smythe - born circa 1624 and created Baronet in
1660/61 after the Restoration. He married Mary
Lee (born circa 1628), daughter of Sir Richard
Lee of Langley, Shropshire. The image above
is of the original medieval fortified manor house - known
as Acton Burnell Castle. 'Burnel' and, later, 'Lee'
ownership of the demesne stemmed from the Conquest. The
ruins were later used as a "folly" by the
Smythe family - a feature of the approach to the later
(19th century) mansion. There is
also a Bulmer connection with the Nevill/e family which may be also explored by following
this link. The
Bulmers became a well-established Herefordshire family -
renowned for cider making - a beverage that is still available in
the modern era.
For a comprehensive and
highly detailed record of the Smythe family of
Shropshire, visit the Shropshire Branch of the
British National Archives. The records are significant in
that they also establish a clear link between this
Smythe branch of the family - originally of Durham - and
the family of Customer
Smyth/e through his sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Richard
Smith/e Smyth/e - both of whom purchased interests in local
Shropshire Estates in the same era. Most of the Irish
Smyth/e families, it is also known, stem from the Durham
and Yorkshire branches of Smyth/e.
The
Shropshire Smythe Archives - this file weighs in at just under one
Mb but is rich in history and contains material
dating from the 11th century through to the twentieth.
| The
following pedigree information, for example, is
recorded: FILE - Pedigree
of the Bulmer family of Tursdale, Co. Durham,
temp. Elizabeth, continued in 1900 at the command
of Sir John Walter Smythe of Acton Burnell, bart.
by Everard Green, Rouge Dragon. -
ref. 1514/3/3 - date: N.D
FILE - Crest
and coat of arms of the Smythe family, painted on
silk, showing 16 quarterings. -
ref. 1514/3/4 - date: N.D
FILE - Pedigree
of descent of various Salop families and of the
Smythes by the marriage of Sir Edward Smythe, 4th
baronet, with Maria Giffard; from Malcolm, 3rd
King of Scotland 1057, who married Margaret
sister to Edgar Atheling, from Walthe of, Earl of
Huntingdon, Northampton and Northumberland,
beheaded in 1075, who married Judith niece of
William the Conqueror; from William de Warren
Earl Warren, d. 1089, who married Princess
Cundred daughter of William the Conqueror, and
from Lucia, sister, and Edwyn and Morcar. -
ref. 1514/3/5 - date: N.D
FILE - Pedigree
showing descent of the Smythes from Sir Simon de
Burley, knt. of Burley, Co. Hereford, by marriage
of Sir Edward Smythe, 1st bart. with Mary Lee.
Finishing with Sir Charles Frederick Smythe, 7th
bart. born 1819. -
ref. 1514/3/6 - date: N.D;
19th Century
FILE - Pedigree
showing descent of the Smythes, by the marriage
of Sir John Smythe, 3rd bart., younger son, with
Constantia Blount, from William de Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick. Ending with Sir Charles
Frederick Smythe. -
ref. 1514/3/7 - date: N.D
FILE - Pedigree
showing descent of the Smythes by the marriage of
Sir Edward Smythe, 1st baronet, 1660, with Mary
Lee, daughter of Sir Richard Lee, from William
the Conqueror, by the marriage of Margaret,
daughter of Edward I with a Bohun, &c. -
ref. 1514/3/8 - date: N.D
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"This
collection of documents deposited in the Salop County
Record Office by Captain Bruce-Smythe,
was in Acton Burnell Hall when it was gutted by fire in
1914. The documents survived with only a little damage
done to the parchment by the heat which, however, melted
many of the seals, and the wax stuck many of the
membranes together. These have now been separated and
unfolded, and very little of the writing has been lost.
These records were then kept at Cound Lodge until
sometime in the 1920's when they were put into storage in
the premises of Messrs. W.H. Smout & Son Ltd., Castle
Cates, Shrewsbury. With Captain Bruce-Smythe's
permission, they were deposited in the County Record
Office at the Shirehall, Shrewsbury, on the instructions
of his Agent, Mr Gordon Miller, in May 1967."
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