Name Prefix:<NPFX> Sheriff
ANCI: HIGH
From: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives at rootsweb.com
Henry de Alditheley was in great favor with Ranulph de Meschines, Earl of Chester and Lincoln (the most powerful subject in England in his time). Henry de Alditheley obtained from Ranulph de Meschines a grant of Newhall in Cheshire, with manors in Staffordshire and other parts, and for his adhesion to King John, in that monarch's struggle with the insurrectionary barons, a royal grant of the lordship of Storton, in Warwickshire, part of the possessions of Robert of Summerville. In the four first years of the reign of King Henry III. he executed the office of sheriff for the counties of Salop and Stafford, as deputy for his patron, the great Earl Ranulph. In the 10th year of Henry III. this Henry de Alditheley was appointed governor of the castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan, and made sheriff the next year of the counties of Salop and Stafford and constable of the castles of Salop and Bridgenorth, which sheriffalty he held for five years. Upon his retirement from office, he had a confirmation of all such lands, whereof he was then possessed, as well as those granted to him by Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and Nicholas de Verdon, as those in Ireland, given him by Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, whose constable he was in that province. He subsequently obtained diverse other territorial grants from the crown, but, notwithstanding, when Richard Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, rebelled, and made an incursion into Wales, the king, Henry III., thought it prudent to secure the persons of this Henry, and all the other barons-marchers. He was afterwards, however, constituted governor of Shrewsbury, in the place of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and on the death of John, Earl of Chester, governor of the castle of Chester, and also that of Beeston, then called the "Castle on the Rock," and soon after made governor of Newcastle-under-Lyne. This powerful feudal baron married Bertred Meisnilwarin, daughter of Ralph de Meisnilwarin. of Cheshire. He died in 1236, having founded and endowed the Abbey of Hilton, near to his castle at Heleigh, in Staffordshire, for Cisterian monks, and was succeeded by his son, James. [HBJ]@@S193@@