Lady Mary Clopton of Fore Hall and Melford Hall

Mary Clopton was the only child of Richard Clopton, Gentleman, and his first wife Mary Bozun. She married Sir William Cordell, Knight, of Melford Hall, County Suffolk. Lady Mary died in 1585, and Sir William in 1581. They had four children but none outlived them.

Sir William was the son of John Cordell. He was a merchant from Edmonton in Middlesex who moved to Long Melford. The Cloptons were considerably above him in the social scale. William became a highly successful lawyer. In 1539 Henry VIII dissolved the great abbeys, and all their lands were surrendered to the Crown, including the Manor of Melford. Queen Mary confirmed the grant of the Manor of Melford, in 1554, to William in recognition of his "past good, true, faithful and acceptable service." By 1558 he was M.P. for Suffolk and knighted. Sir William was Speaker of the House of Commons under Queen Mary. He was to become Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls under the first Queen Elizabeth. Sir William founded The Hospital of the Undivided Trinity in 1573 for twelve poor men and two servants on the Green opposite Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford.

Queen Elizabeth I was famous for her 'progresses,' and in August 1578 Sir William and Lady Mary entertained her and her great retinue. Thomas Churchyard left a much quoted eyewitness account of her arrival at the Suffolk border:

To write of the receiving of Her Highness into Suffolk and Norfolk in every point as matter may move me, would contain a great time in making a just rehearsal thereof: Therefore I will but briefly recite it and commit the circumstances and manner of the same to your discretion and judgement. The truth is, although they had small warning certainly to build upon, of the coming of the Queen's Majesty into both of those shires, the Gentlemen had made such ready provision, that all the velvets and silks were taken up that might be laid hands on, and bought for any money, and soon converted to such garments and suits of robes, that the show thereof might have beautified the greatest triumph that was in England these many years. As I heard there were 200 young gentlemen clad all in white velvet, and 300 of the graver sort apparrelled in black velvet coats and with fair chains, all ready at one instant and place, to receive the Queen's Highness into Suffolk: a comely troop and a noble sight to behold. All these waited on the Sheriff Sir William Spring, and there was in Suffolk such sumptuous feastings and banquets as seldom in any part of the world there hath been seen before. The Master of the Rolls, Sir William Cordell, was the first that began this great feasting at his house of Melford, and did light such a candle to the rest of the shire, that they were glad bountiful and frankly to follow the same example, with such charges and costs as the whole train were in some sort pleased therewith.

The effigy in Holy Trinity Church shows Sir William not as a lawyer but as a knight-at-arms with a cockatrice at his feet. Four female figures represent Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. The Greek god Bacchus appears on the canopy above. His Will was made in January 1580 show him to be a deeply religious man and also humble. He acknowledged his wealth, which had exceeded any of his ancestors, was due to the goodness of Almighty God and not because he deserved it.

Lady Mary died three years later and left to her brother, William Clopton of Groton "my bason and ewer of silver p'cell guilt, for a remembrance of my good will unto him." She lies buried with her husband under the imposing canopied monument to the south of the altar.

Because they left no heirs to inherit Melford Hall and his brothers died without issue, Lord William's sister, Lady Jane, the widow of Sir Richard Alington, inherited the great house, which they had so lavishly rebuilt.

Based on :

Article in the April 1990 Issue of the
Clopton Family Newsletter
By James M. McMillen, mcmillen@arlington.net

The Ancestors and Descendants of William Clopton of York County, Virginia
Compiled by Gene Carlton Clopton, Phoenix Printing, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia

Contributed by :

Suellen Clopton Blanton, bblanton@fast.net

Special Thanks to The Churchill Society of London and Romance Communications