William Dod of Highfields

1577 to 1655

DOD00081

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The Bakers of Highfields Story The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields, Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire and Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem

The Bakers of Highfields The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields

The Dod Family The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the Bakers of Highfields

The Bakers of Fenton House and Hasfield Court The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent

The Bellyse Family The Family Tree of the Bellyse Family

The Farndale Story The main part of this website tells the story of the Farndale family from Yorkshire Descendants of Arthur Baker, the story of the Farndale ancestry is told through the main part of this website You can also return to the Farndale website home page

The Hall Family The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to the Baker family through marriage to Arthur Baker

Headlines of are in brown.

Dates are in red.

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Context and local history are in purple.

1577

William Dod was the son of William and Catherine Dod (DOD00080) and may have been born in about 1577 and baptised on 26 February 1577 in Audlem (St James, Audlem Parish Records).

William Dod, of Highfields Hall (which he re-built 1615, at the same time planting the lime avenue), born c 1577, married 1598, Eleanor, eldest daughter and heiress in her issue of John Gamul, of Buerton, Nantwich, Cheshire (great uncle of General Sir Francis Gamul of Buerton, the Royalist Commander at Chester, who died dsp 1654)(see Herald’s Vision of Cheshire 1613), and died 1647 (this doesn’t seem right), leaving 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).

1598

William Dod of Highfields married Eleanor, eldest daughter and heiress, daughter of John Gamul of Buerton Hall on 19 February 1598 (Audlem Parish Records).

1599

The young couple settled at Highfields.

Certainly their elder son [there may have been an older son George who died young], William, was baptised at Audlem and, in 1598, married Eleanor, the daughter of John Gamul, of Buerton Hall, Lord of that manor. The following year William’s father died and the young couple settled at Highfields. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 7).

1600

Thomas Dod (DOD00090) was born in about 1600.

1602

George Dod (DOD00091) was born in about 1602.

1604

William Dod (DOD00092) was born in about 1604.

They also had four daughters.

1615

It is suggested that William re-built Highfields in 1615, and at the same time planted the lime avenue.

They added the oak panelling in the best parlour and the very fine carved fireplace, with the initials and date, WD 1615. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 7).

Part of the carved oak mantelpiece in the oak room, bearing William Dod’s initials and the year 1615

Indeed it is possible that it was not until about 1615, during the reign of James I, that the main building work to construct Highfields, began.

The exact date when the present house was built is not known for certain, but the chimney place in the parlour bears the inscription “WD 1615”, and there seems little reason to doubt that this is the approximate date of construction of the whole building. The initials were those of William Dod (1577 to 1655), grandson of the original William Dod and Ann Chester. He married in 1598 Eleanor, daughter and heiress of John Gamul of Buerton Hall, close by. His father died the following year, and the young couple settled at Highfields soon after. For, though the house has a medieval H-plan with a central hall and flanking family and service wings, the old fashions lingered on in the north and west of England longer than in most places, and it would not have been at all unusual for a half timbered house of the Highfields type to have been erected in the reign of James I. (Robinson, John Martin (1991), Highfields, Audlem, Cheshire, Seat of John Bellyse Baker, Country Life 31 January 1991, page 48).

Yet, the suggestion that the young couple settled at Highfields after William’s father’s death in 1599, suggests that there was something there for them to move into.

1640

(Letter from Thomas Gamul (brother-in-law of William Dod of Highfields) regarding bequest of £500 for building Audlem Grammar School, 1640, Baker Records 85)

1641

The coming of the civil war brought great tragedy in the district. In 1641, William, now over 60, was one of the principal collectors of a subsidy for the use of King Charles I. Persons whose land or goods exceeded £1 in value were assessed at 8s in the £. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 7).

William Dod (mentioned above) was in residence at the house during the Civil War and was appointed one of the principal collectors of a subsidy for the use of King Charles I. Persons whose land or goods exceeded £1 in value were assessed at 8/- in the pound. In May 1642 Prince Rupert is said to have spent the night at Highfields. A more damning indictment against the Dods, however, was the fact that William Dod's wife had been Eleanor Gamul of Buerton Hall, first cousin of Sir Francis Gamul, Royalist mayor of Chester, who had entertained King Charles I at his home, Gamul House, which still stands in Bridge Street. (Latham, Frank (1997), Audlem: The History of a Cheshire Parish and its seventeen townships, page 123).

(Account of subsidy collected from the inhabitants of the Hundred of Nantwich authorising Parliament for the King’s men that one of the principal collectors responsible for preparing the account was William Dod of Highfields, Hundred of Wich Malban (Nantwich), 1641)

He served as a principal tax or subsidy collector for Charles I, a role that involved evaluating local wealth and property values to raise funds for the crown.

1642

During the English Civil War (August 1642 to September 1651), support was divided, but the Dod family of Highfields appear to have sided with the Royalists.

There was a lease of land at Buerton from William Dod to his son George in 1642 (William Dod of Highfields, to his son, George Dod of Highfields, Lease of Messuages and land in Buerton, 19 January 1642 or 1643, Baker records, 7).

1644

Reimagined through Artificial Intelligence

Local tradition and family histories claim that Prince Rupert of the Rhine stayed the night at Highfields during troop movements in the English Civil War. His army camped in the surrounding fields, and several fellow officers were billeted nearby. The event is associated with a march through Cheshire and Shropshire as Royalist forces moved through the region. The Dod family who owned Highfields at the time generally supported the Royalist cause, making the house a logical and safe stop for high-ranking commanders. Local records note that while military activity in Audlem itself was mostly confined to troop passage, surrounding properties like Bellaport Hall and Highfields hosted senior commanders and their men.

This may have been during the opening days of Prince Rupert’s famous York March. Rupert and his army officially marched north from their headquarters in Shrewsbury on 16 May 1644. Given that Audlem and Buerton sit roughly 25 miles north of Shrewsbury along the route into Cheshire, the encampment at Highfields may have occurred during the transit toward the storming of Stockport, which his forces reached on 25 May 1644. This places his stay at the manor house in the window of 17 to 20 May 1644.

Prince Rupert’s York March in 1644 was a Royalist military campaign to relieve the Siege of York during the English Civil War. Marching from the Welsh Marches through Lancashire, Rupert captured strongholds like Bolton and Liverpool, crossed the Pennines, and successfully lifted the parliamentary siege on 1 July 1644, before facing a crushing defeat the next day at Marston Moor.

There is a separate local record of Prince Rupert's army plundering the broader Buerton area earlier in the war during late 1643 on their way to Nantwich, but the specific tradition of Rupert staying overnight at Highfields corresponds to the massive troop movement of May 1644 just before the Battle of Marston Moor.

Audlem, then as now, is situated on a crossroads roughly equidistant from Market Drayton to the south, Nantwich to the north, Whitchurch to the west, and Madeley to the east. Even though Audlem crossroads could be considered an important location, the village itself was too small to have strategic value unlike larger Nantwich which was for the Parliament, and the much larger Royalist base at Shrewsbury. The Civil War activity in and near Audlem was therefore largely confined to military passage through the village. Fortuitously opposing forces did not want to pass through simultaneously.

In May 1642 (sic, recte 1644?) Prince Rupert, Charles the first nephew, the third son of Frederick V of Bohemia, and Elizabeth daughter of James I, marched with his army from Shrewsbury to relieve Stockport, just before the Battle of Marston Moor (fought on 2 July 1644). The army camped between Market Drayton and Buerton and a number of his offices were billeted in local houses notably at Bellaport Hall. It is claimed that Prince Rupert himself spent the night at Highfields, and his army camped in the fields thereabouts.

(Latham F A, Editor (1997), Audlem, The History of a Cheshire Parish and its five townships, Local History Group, page 33).

Fireplace in the main bedroom, in which Prince Rupert is reputed to have slept Prince Rupert standing beside the fireplace, reimagined by artificial intelligence

1645

There was an assignment of the lease of land at Buerton from William Dod to his son George in 1645 (William Dod of Highfields, to his son, George Dod of Highfields, Assignment of Lease of Messuages and land in Buerton, 1645, Baker records, 8).

1648

During the Civil War, the grammar school was established at Audlem. William Dod’s brother in law, Thomas Gamul, a citizen and grocer of London entrusted £500 to William for the erection of Audlem Grammar School.

The year before Thomas Gamul died; citizen and grocer of London, brother of William Gamul of Buerton Hall and brother-in-law of William Dod. In his will he entrusted £500 to William Dod, with his neighbours, Captain William Massie of Moss Hall and Hugh Hassall, both of Audlem, “where” says Thomas Gamul “I was born”. The money was to be used to build “a convenient schoolhouse and a dwelling house for a schoolmaster in the town of Audlem.” This was to be Audlem Grammar School. The executives of the will were Randle Wilbraham, of Nantwich and Francis (later Sir Francis) Gamul, the Royalist commander at Chester and nephew of the late Thomas. His home, Gamul House in Watergate, has been restored in recent years. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 8).

In 1648 William Dod was appointed overseer for the building at the school and a plot of land was marked out of the Barn Croft, adjoining Audlem Green near Vicarage Bank. However, perhaps because of the difficulties of collecting Gamal's legacy, work stopped for four years, to be resumed in the summer of 1652. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 9).

1652

The year following the proving of the will a petition was presented to the House of Commons by the children of William Dod: Thomas, George, William junior and sister Alice, all beneficiaries under the will, stating that Randle Wilbraham, one of Thomas Gamul’s two executives had died and that his (Randle’s) executors, Richard Wilbraham, Gregory Markham and Ralph Bolton, refused to deal with Gamul’s estate (presumably on account of his nephew’s Royalist activities). The petitioners had exhibited a bill of complaint in Chancery for the recovery of Gamul’s bequests, but were hindered by the fact that Francis Gamul still survived as executive. They sought remedy, pleading that they “have been imprisoned and suffered very much in their liberties and estates for adhering to the Parliament.” The House granted their request. This is a quite extraordinary document, considering that their father, two years earlier, had been a principal collector for money for the use of Charles I! Subsequently, after the Restoration in 1660, George Dodd, mentioned in the petition and now of Highfields, was Head Constable of Nantwich, collecting a subsidy for Charles II. The Dods of this period appear to have displayed many of the characteristics of the Vicar of Bray! (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 9).

Portrait of William Dod (Highfields)

1654

(Deed between George Dod of Highfields and William Dod 10 May 1654, Baker records 10).

1655

William Dod died in 1655.

The school was not ready for occupation until the end of 1655 when the final accounts are drawn up by William Massey and George Dod, acting for his father, for Gamal 's legacy, now worth £802. There is also mention of a legacy of £30 from his late brother, Thomas Dod. George did not outlive his father; the estate passed to his only son, also George, who was to own Highfields for the next 67 years. George matriculated from Brasenose, Oxford in 1670, aged 17. He was admitted to the Middle Temple, June 26, 1672 and called to the bar, May 30, 1679. During this time Highfields appears to have been managed by his cousin, William Dod, son of his father's younger brother who, in a document dated 1662, dealing with the estate of his late father, is referred to as “now resident at Highfields.” (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 9).

1660

Half panelled in oak, the hall has a very fine carved fireplace thought to date from about 1660. (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 31).