The Salkelds of Corby Castle 

Church information leaflet Number 3

The story of the Salkelds
 Visitors to Wetheral can see the fine Nollekens statue of Maria Howard in the Howard Memorial Chapel in the church and the beautiful riverside walks past Corby Castle, once the home of the Howard family.
The Howard connection with Corby is now over 300 years old, but immediately before their coming here another family, well known in their day, through obscure now, held the castle and occupied influential positions the county and country for almost 300 years. This was the family of Salkeld.
 
The Salkelds of Corby
The Howards were first established here by marriage with a local heiress, Elizabeth Dacre. The Salkelds’ rise to fortune was very different. They were Cumberland people of humble origins, owning small properties and farming in the Eden Valley north east of Penrith. Richard Salkeld, the first member of the family to achieve prominence came from Little Salkeld, where his family were not even Lords of the Manor but had bought a part interest in it from the Priory of Saint Mary Carlisle.
 
In 1323 the Manor of Corby was owned by Andrew of Harcla, Earl of Carlisle. He was found guilty of high treason and executed and the Manor was later granted to Richard Salkeld, who was present at his arrest. Thus began the 300 year association between the Salkelds and Corby, as a king’s reward for loyalty to the Crown.
 
Sir Richard was MP for Westmorland and Knight of the Shire, and he seems to have remained in the Penrith area, though he took an interest in Corby and is recorded as having granted fishing rights to the Wetheral monks in 1342. It was his son Hugh, who first lived at Corby and who added to the family’s lands there. During this century the original Pele Tower was built. For the next 200 years the Salkeld family continued to consolidate their position in Cumberland and Westmorland. Sir Richard’s son and grandson carried on the tradition of becoming MP for Westmorland, and other Salkelds held the position of High Sheriff for Cumberland.
 
The loss of Corby
The oldest memorial in Wetheral Church today is the tomb chest bearing the effigies of Sir Richard Salkeld (1425-1501) and his wife Lady Jane. The monument is defaced, and of great no great artistic merit but it does represent the high-water mark of the Salkelds’ family fortunes as well as having the intrinsic interest of being a relic of pre-Reformation times here.
 
This later Sir Richard ‘the wealthiest and most powerful Salkeld’, made a good marriage to Jane Vaux, soul heiress of Roland Vaux of Triermain and Catterlen. So much in those times depended on the arrival of a male heir to inherit the property and Sir Richard and Lady Jane were blessed with six daughters. Their property was divided in such a way that two daughters inherited half each of Corby, and by 1604 one of the two branches holding Corby had become so poor they sold their half to Lord William Howard, then recently arrived in the North to take up residence at Naworth.
 
The other half of Corby was still owned by Thomas Salkeld (1567-1639). The story of the Salkelds at this point deteriorates into a rather unhappy struggle between two men: Thomas Salkeld and Lord William Howard (1563-1640) almost his exact contemporary.
 
A lawsuit between them dragged on for 20 years Finally in 1624 Thomas had to give in. Originally a wealthy man he was in debt to the sum of over £2,000. Lord William had quietly held his own. A the report of the time stated:
 
‘Forseeing that a continuance of the said suits would bring him so low an ebb in his estate that he should be hardly able to subsist or maintain himself, his wife and children in the degree and quality of gentry, his ancestors having formally borne place and office and been in the county where they lived of equal reputation and estimation with the best of their neighbours, Thomas resolved to make an offer of sale…”
 
The Salkelds disperse
So the long Salkeld connection with Corby Castle ended on a rather sad note. At first, the descendants of the previous Lords of the Manor and Knights of the Shire were very poor indeed: small farmers and craftsmen living in the villages around Windemere and Kendal in Westmorland. Thomas Salkeld (1646-1700), cousin of the last Thomas of Corby Castle, began life as an apprentice joiner in Kendal, and was a prominent member of the Quaker Movement. He married the Quaker Ann Haygarth of Dentdale and ended his days farming there. His son William had a good education at the Dent Grammar School and went on to be a schoolmaster and the family fortunes took an upward turn once again.
 
In the 19th century William’s great grandson Francis Salkeld (1781-1866) begun a long Salkeld connection with Cheshire. He lived at Runcorn, owned land and property and ran a fleet of canal boats working between Runcorn and the Potteries, then a thriving industrial centre.
 
A return to Cumberland
One afternoon in June 1983, Mr and Mrs John Howard of Corby Castle received a visit from Mr Joseph Grange Moore and his sister Joan. Mr Grange Moor’s mother had been Lillian Salkeld of Runcorn, descendent of the Salkelds mentioned above and the last of her line to bear the name. In his retirement from a distinguished career in the chemical industry Mr Grange Moor spent 14 years tracing his Salkeld ancestry, and during his visit to Corby was delighted to see the last remnants of the old Pele Tower his medieval forebears had built.
 
Mr Grange Moor’s book ‘Salkelds through Seven Centuries’ was published by a private subscription in 1988. Sadly, the author himself died in December 1987, at the age of 77; but it is pleasant to think that Salkelds and Howards met again in Corby Castle in our time, old feuds forgotten.
(Researched by Elisabeth Clark 1988)
 
The Salkeld tomb in Wetheral Church
The following inscription was formally on the arch over the tomb:
Here lies Sir Richard Salkeld, that knight,
Who in his land was mickle might;
The captain and keeper of Carlisle was he
And also the Lord of Cozkebye
And now he lies under this stane
He and his lady dame Jane.
The eighteenth day of Februere
This gentle night was buried here.
I pray you all that this do see
Pray for their souls for charitie
For as they are now - so must we all be
Sir Richard died in the year 1500

Names and descendants from the text above
Salkeld time line
 
1323 Richard was gifted the Manor of Corby
He was an MP and a Knight of the Shire
1342 He grants fishing rights to monks at Wetheral Abbey
 
Son Hugh builds Pete Tower in the Corby Castle and becomes MP.
 
Grandson is also MP.
 
The Salkelds were High Sheriffs for Cumberland
 
1425-1501 Sir Richard and Lady Jane Vaux whose effigies are in in church.
They had six daughters – The property was divided between two of them.
1604 one sells to Lord William Howard
 
1567-1639 Other half owned by Thomas who also sells to Howards in 1624
 
His cousin, Thomas (1624-1700) became a joiner in Kendal.
He was a Quaker and married Ann Haygarth.
Their son William becomes School master.
 
Their great grandson Francis (1781-1866) owned Runcorn canals.
 
Linda Salkeld is mother of Grange Moor'
Moor visited the Howards in Corby Castle.

Some dates for Sir Richard Salkeld
Richard Salkeld (1420-1500) and his wife Jane (Vaux) in alabaster.
He wears a collar of roses,  has a sword, dagger and eagle-headed knife.
 
He is the son of John Salkeld of Corby (d.1446)
and Jane, daughter of William Stapleton.
He married Jane, heiress of Roland Vaux of Castle Triermain, Gilsland, Cumberland,
Their daughter, Margaret married John Blenkinsop, a retainer of Lord Neville.
 
1447 An Elector for Cumberland and 1450/ 1455 an elector for Westmorland.
1451 He swore fealty and was granted his father’s lands.
1457 Sheriff of Cumberland. On a commission to arrest and imprison those guilty of unlawful gatherings, etc. in Westmoreland, Cumberland and adjacent counties.
1461 He rescued Carlisle from rebels and helped fight the Lancastrians outside the town.
1462 Granted the Earl of Northumberland’s between the Derwent and Calder up to £200 pa and on a commission to imprison those inciting insurrection and sedition in Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland.
1467 He was granted more Percy lands as a reward for capturing the Earl of Wiltshire, and taking and defending Carlisle.
1467-8 MP for Cumberland.
1469/70 he sided with the Neville’s but was pardoned and became Sheriff of Cumberland.
1471 On a commission of the peace for Cumberland.
1477 Pardoned for not answering a plea that he render £60 to the executors of the Will of John Felde and later was bound in £200 to the King not to harm the Abbot of St Mary’s Furness, his servants or tenants.
1479 Escheator of Cumberland and Westmoreland
1480 A Squire of the Body he was sent to negotiate with the Scots.
1485 On a commission to go to Hayton Castle and arrest those who had occupied it.
1486 Appointed Captain of Carlisle Castle and city and knighted shortly after.
1488 Treated with the Scots, later on a commission to assess and appoint collectors of the subsidy in Cumberland. Appointed receiver-general of the lordships of Penrith and Inglewood.
1489 On a commission of the peace for Cumberland and later commissioned to enquire what lands Henry, late Earl of Northumberland, held in Cumberland.
1494 Sheriff of Cumberland.
1500 17th Feb died

Other internet links

Sir Richard Salkeld, Captain of Carlisle

Gilsland – Triermain Castle - Home of Jane Vaux

Lady Jane's head

Sir Richard head

Lady Jane Rosary

Graffiti AC 1726 FC 1928