Allerton Mauleverer, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

ALLERTON MAULEVERER

ALLERTON MAULEVERER, a parish-town, in the upper-division of Claro; (the seat of the Right Hon. Lord Stourton) 4½ miles E. of Knaresborough, 5 from Wetherby, 7 from Boroughbridge, 13½ from York. Pop. including Hopperton, 276, which being united, form a township. The Church is a perpetual curacy, dedicated to St. Martin, in the deanry of Boroughbridge, diocese of Chester, value, p.r. ~£28. Patron, Lord Stourton.

The following 3 paragraphs were written by John Harris in 2005 for Genuki to attempt clarify the mis-information about the Mauleverer family:

Allerton Mauleverer was for about six hundred years the seat of the Mauleverer family. Although many sources asserted that the family came over with William the Conqueror, this is now believed to be based on a forged family tree of 1591 (note 1), and in fact the first documentary reference to Mauleverers in England occurs in about 1105 (note 2). At that time Richard Mauleverer was already the lord of the manor of Allerton, holding it in sub-tenancy from a fellow Norman, Robert de Brus of Skelton. It is believed that both de Brus and Mauleverer were closely associated with the court of Henry I (1100-1135), and probably supported him in his wars against Robert de Curthose, his elder brother. The sub-tenancy eventually became a heritable property, which the family were able to enhance by judicious marriages. Branches of the family, which one researcher characterizes as being in the "middle ranks of the gentry", took up properties at Arncliffe, Letwell and Settrington (note 3). The family provided three sheriffs of York, which office was the major representative of royal power in the north. In the civil wars of the seventeenth century Thomas Mauleverer raised two regiments of soldiers to support the Cromwellian armies, and signed the death warrant of Charles I. He was made a Baronet in 1640, and fortunately died before the restoration of the monarchy, thus avoiding execution with the other signatories of the death warrant. The last of the male line to occupy Allerton Hall was Sir Richard Mauleverer (V) who died in 1713 (note 3).

In about 1105, Richard Mauleverer (I) granted the church and some lands at Allerton to Holy Trinity Church of York and to the monks of the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Martin at Marmoutier in France. In the church there are a number of Mauleverer effigies, including that of Sir John Mauleverer who fought at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 (note 4).

During the Second World War, Allerton Hall (aka Allerton Castle or Thornville Royal), then the home of Lord Mowbray, became the Headquarters of the Sixth Group of RAF Bomber Command which was the Royal Canadian Air Force component of the command.

Notes: (1) J Horace Round, Family Origins, London 1930, p 170
(2) W Farrer, ed. Early Yorkshire Charters, Edinburgh 1914, Vol II pp 74-77
(3) Lawrence Butler, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 50, 177-188
(4) Peter Armstrong, Bannockburn 1314, Osprey Publishing, 2002, p 93