Boscobel, Shropshire Family History Guide
Boscobel is an extra-parochial place.
The extra-parochial district of White Ladies consists of 595 acres, of which 290 are allotted to the farm of Boscobel, and 305 to White Ladies. At the latter are the ruins of the Church once belonging to the Cistercian Convent of St. Leonards, the name of White Ladies being derived from the white dress of the Nuns to distinguish it from the Benedictine Convent of the Black Ladies in Staffordshire, some two miles distant1.
Very shortly after the dissolution of Religious Houses, at the West end of the now ruined Convent Church was erected the half-timbered mansion, (an engraving of which was published in Blount’s Boscobel, ed. 1660*), where Charles IL found his first refuge on September 4, 1661, after his defeat at Worcester. Of this building not a vestage remains, though some of the foundations can be traced in very dry weather. Whether as owner or tenant, this house was the residence of William Skeffington, son of Sir John Skeffington, Alderman of London. He was buried in Tong Church in 1550, and on his brass is described as “late of the White Ladies, Esquire2.”
His widow re-married Edward Giffard, whose son, John, was the builder of Boscobel House, circa 1606. John Giffard invited Sir Basil Brooke with
other friends and neighbours to the housewarming feast, and desired Sir Basil to give the house a name. He aptly called it Boscobel (from the
Italian Bosco-bello, fair wood), because it was seated in the midst of many fair woods.
This house, built in the demesne of White Ladies, seems to have been intended as a hiding place for Roman Catholic recusants, who at that time and subsequently suffered much from penal laws. For this reason the priests’ holes (so useful to Charles II.), were contrived, it is said, by the Jesuit Brother, Nicholas Owen, nicknamed Little John, who devoted the greater part of his life to designing and constructing such hiding places in the principal Roman Catholic houses all over England.
In 1651 White Ladies and Boscobel belonged to Frances Cotton, widow of John Cotton, and daughter and heiress of John and Dorothy Giffard ; from her the estate passed to her daughter Jane, wife of Basil Fitzherbert, and remained in this family till 1812, when Thomas Fitzherbert sold it to Mr. Walter Evans, of Darley Abbey, Derbyshire, retaining, however, the ruined Church and an area of two acres around it, which still belongs to the Fitzherberts, and though unfenced is defined by boundary stones3.
Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic
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The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BOSCOBEL, an extra-parochial tract in Shiffnall district, Salop; on the verge of the county, in Brewood forest, 6 miles E by N of Shiffnall. Acres, 600. Pop., 22. Houses, 3. Boscobel House, then a seat of the Giffords, was the hiding-place of Charles II., on 3 Sept., 1651, after the battle of Worcester. The edifice was of timber, and is much altered; but still retains some of its original features, together with reminiscences of the king’s retreat; and is shown to strangers. An oak tree near it is said to be a scion of the oak in which the king sat concealed while his pursuers passed round and under it.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Boscobel Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Boscobel. An extra-parochial place, in the Hales Owen division of the hundred of Brimstry, containing 5 houses, and 30 inhabitants, about 6 miles east of Shiffnall, remarkable in history, as the place in which king Charles the second concealed himself from his pursuers, after unfortunate battle of Worcester. Boscobel house is now the property of Thomas Evans, Esq.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824.
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Directory Transcriptions
Boscobel Cassey Shropshire Directory 1871
Boscobel is a parish, 3 miles east from Tong, 6 east from Shifnal, and 8 from Wolverhampton, in the Southern division of the county, Shifnal division of Brimstree hundred, Shifnal union, and diocese of Lichfield.
Boscobel House is remarkable as being the hiding-place of Charles II., when he fled from the battle of Worcester, pursued by Cromwell; conducted by the Earl of Derby, he was concealed in a hole entered by a small trap door, which remains as it originally was, in the oaken floor of the cheese room, the house being then occupied as a farm; a diligent search was made for the king, but he escaped through a secret opening in connection with the chimney, and took refuge in a tree near the house, thickly covered with ivy; this tree has long disappeared; but another, on its site, and grown from one of its acorns, stands surrounded by an iron railing to protect it.
At a short distance from the house stand also the remains of a convent, called the “White Ladies,” as distinct from another, called, “Black Ladies,” at Bishop’s Wood, in Staffordshire. The Misses Evans are ladies of the manor and principal landowners. The soil is a strong loam; the subsoil, red sandstone. The area is 600 acres, and the population in 1861 was 22; gross estimated rental, £859; rateable value, £773.
Letters are received from Wolverhampton.
Evans Misses, Boscobel house
Wilson Thomas, farmer
Source: Edward Cassey & Co’s, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire 1871
Administration
- County: Shropshire
- Civil Registration District: Shifnal
- Probate Court: Search surrounding parishes
- Diocese: Not Applicable
- Rural Deanery: Not Applicable
- Poor Law Union: Shifnal
- Hundred: Brimstree
- Province: Canterbury
- Shropshire Parish Registers Lichfield Diocese Vol. III. General Editor W. P. W. Phillimore. Privately printed for the Shopshire Parish Register Society. 1901 ↩︎
- Shropshire Parish Registers Lichfield Diocese Vol. III. General Editor W. P. W. Phillimore. Privately printed for the Shopshire Parish Register Society. 1901 ↩︎
- Shropshire Parish Registers Lichfield Diocese Vol. III. General Editor W. P. W. Phillimore. Privately printed for the Shopshire Parish Register Society. 1901 ↩︎