William Dod of Losford or Lostford

c 1505 to c 1575 (estimated)

DOD00061

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1505

William Dod was the younger son of Dod of Cloverley (DOD00058) and may have been born in or about 1505, or perhaps earlier given the timescale of taking credit. The Dod (or Dodd) family of Lotfield (sometimes recorded as Lutfield or connected to Edge, or maybe Lostford) was a prominent Cheshire landed gentry family, with several members named William Dod, often in the 16th and 17th centuries. The family held lands at Lotfield, often associated with the township of Edge, near Malpas in Cheshire.

William Dod was the youngest son of John Dod, Lord of the Manor of Cloverley. Cloverley Hall was, at that time, an early moated manor house, built round an open courtyard. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 3).

William Dod, of Losford, Shropshire, purchased land known as Highfields, pasture, near Audlem, Cheshire, from Hugh Chester 1553, married 1530 Anne, and had issue (Burke, John and Burke, Sir Bernard (1836)(Eighteenth Edition, 1972), Bellyse Baker of Highfields in Burke’s Landed Gentry, Volume 3, pages 35 to 38). The Burkes entry suggests a purchase from Hugh Chester, and marriage to an unknown Anne, but the general view is that Anne was Anne Chester and Hugh Chester was William’s father in law.

1529

William Dod may have taken on debts from Thomas Cromwell between 1518 and 1529, which were formally recorded in 1529. This may have been a factor in his strategy to marry into the Highfields property, the span of years ending the year before his marriage.

Taking credit from Thomas Cromwell, reimagined by artificial intelligence

In 1529, William Dod was a debtor to Thomas Cromwell. Debts due to me, Thomas Cromwell, by statutes, bills, and obligations. The dates of the obligations range from 8 December 10 Henry VIII (1518) to 16 February 20 Henry VIII (1529). The acceptors are … William Dod (Public Records of the reign of Henry VIII, Volume 4, Part 3, Folio 5330).

The document is part of the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, during the Reign of Henry VIII, which details the private and public transactions of Thomas Cromwell in 1529. In 1529, Thomas Cromwell was not yet the Chief Minister of England. He was still a highly successful London lawyer, merchant, and the right-hand man to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Alongside his public tasks for Wolsey, such as managing the dissolution of several small monasteries to fund Cardinal College, Oxford, Cromwell ran a lucrative private legal and money-lending practice. Cromwell had been lending money, acting as a financial broker, or holding legal bonds over a wide network of clients for over a decade. Statutes, bills, and obligations were formal legal ties. A debtor would sign an obligation, a bond, promising to pay a specific sum, often enforceable by the strict mercantile laws of London.

In the 1520s, Cromwell routinely dealt with wealthy provincial gentry, merchants, and landowners who needed ready cash in London or legal intervention in court disputes. The Dods of Cloverley were prominent landed gentry capable of entering into substantial statutory obligations. It seems likely that this was the relevant William Dod.

That said, there was also a William Dod who was a vintner in London who was recorded as a debtor of Thomas Cromwell in 1532 (Public Records of the reign of Henry VIII, Volume 5, Folio 1285 iv). There may therefore be two Willkiam Dods, or the relevant William Dod may have had interests in London too.

In early modern England, it was common for the younger sons or even the heads of provincial gentry families, like the Dods of Cloverley, to become freemen of London Livery Companies, such as the Vintners' Company, to engage in trade, secure capital, and navigate London's financial markets. This allowed them to sue and be sued under London’s highly efficient mercantile law (Lex Mercatoria), which governed the statutes, bills, and obligations mentioned in Cromwell's accounts.

It is possible that William Dod was using a London vintner business to generate cash, by accumulating debts to a powerhouse financier like Cromwell between 1518 and 1529. Marrying into the Highfields property in 1530 would have secured his provincial landownership. As he was the younger son, his brother John Dod (DOD00060) taking on the Cloverley property, this seems a likely interpretation.

1530

William married Anne Chester (CHE00001), daughter of Hugh Chester (CHE00002), in 1530.

1535

William and Anne’s son Thomas Dod (DOD00070) was born in or about 1535.

1536

On 20 June 15636 there was a list of bonds owing by different persons, the latest in date being 20 June 28 Henry VIII (1536) and the first dated 14 January 26 Henry VIII (1535) and which fell due at Christmas 1536 and the list included William Dod (Public Records of the reign of Henry VIII, Volume 10, Folio 1171). Perhaps William was continued to take loans to fund his ambitions.

1537

William and Anne’s son William Dod (DOD00071) was born in or about 1537.

1551

There was a lease of land at Cloverley to the Chester family in 1551.

(Lease dated 10 December 1551, in the fourth year of the reign of Edward VI between John Dod of Cloverley, Shropshire and John Chester of Wistaston, Shropshire, Yeoman of two pastures near Cloverley called Little Coltsflight and the Knowles).

1553

William inherited the Highefields pasture with other lands from Hugh Chester, his father-in-law.

(Conveyance of the Highfields and other lands from Hugh Chester of Newstrete Lane and Alice his wife to William Dod of Knowles and Losford, 1^st October in the first year of the reign of Mary (1553))

The first mention of Highfields is in the deed between William Dod of Losford, County Salop, Gentleman and Hugh Chester of Newstrete Lane, County Salop, dated 1st October 1553. In this deed, William “and his heirs forever”, inherit, on the death of Hugh and his wife Alice, various lands and properties, some 500 acres in all. These include the pastures situated in Woodhouse Lane known as the Highfields and Marestalls. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 3).

As already mentioned, William Dod of Losford (presumably Lostford, near Tern Hill) inherited various lands including the pastures known as Highfields and the Marestalls from the Chester family in 1553. This deed is a recognition of right in which William Dot received five hundred acres including a house in Woodhouse Lane. There is no payment involved, so one can only assume that William’s wife, whom we know in deeds as “Anne”, was the daughter and heiress of Hugh and Alice Chester. As the Highfields is referred to as a “pasture or close”, it seems that the house did not then occupy the site. In Camden's Britannia of 1695, Highfields is marked, also Maer Houses, where Mere farm now stands in Woodhouse Lane. Could this be the Marestalls referred to in the document? (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 5).

Highfields, only a few hundred yards from the Shropshire border and approached through a labyrinth of narrow, hedged lanes, is typical of these smaller, timber framed country houses. With its gables and patterned facades, it is the perfect picture of a “mansion of olden time”. The property has belonged to the Bakers and their ancestors the Dods, with only one short interruption, since the early sixteenth century, when the land was acquired through the marriage of William Dod, a younger son of John Dod of Cloverley Hall in Shropshire, to Ann, daughter of Hugh Chester. By the terms of a deed dated 1553, William “and his heirs forever”” were to inherit from his father-in-law 500 acres including the pasture known as “Highefelds”. This is the earliest reference to Highfields, and it is clear from the wording that there was no house there at that time. (Robinson, John Martin (1991), Highfields, Audlem, Cheshire, Seat of John Bellyse Baker, Country Life 31 January 1991, page 48).

1557

Four years later, in 1557, William made the estate over to his son, William Dod of Newstrete Lane “in consideration of £3”. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 5).

(William Dod of Losford to his son, William Dod of Newstreet Lane, sale of Highfields pasture and other lands. 10 January in the third and fourth years of the reign of Philip and Mary (1557)).

1575

William may have died in or about 1575.