Nat Gould

Francis Eld 1623-1687

St. Michael's church, Stone

Francis Eld was born in 1623, the son of Richard Eld and his wife nee Margaret Crompton. He was baptised on 8 January 1622/1623 at Seighford in Staffordshire.

On 24 June 1646 he married Margaret Crompton at St. Michael's church at Stone in Staffordshire. She was the daughter of Thomas Crompton of Stone Park in Staffordshire (1) and his wife nee Anne Whitgreve.

They had the following children:

Margaret Eld. She was baptised on 25 July 1647.

Francis Eld. He was baptised on 7 November 1650. He died on 29 June 1722.

Charles Eld. He was baptised on 30 November 1652 at Seighford. He died in 1656 and was buried on 13 April 1656 at Seighford.

Thomas Eld. In November 1677 at Leek in Staffordshire he married Miss Swindalls of Macclesfield in Cheshire. He went to New York in 1708, and married Agnes Burroughs, the daughter of John Burroughs of Lancashire. They had a son Thomas Eld, who returned to England in 1733.

Elizabeth Eld. She was married to Benjamin Fowler of Stafford on 11 February 1679/1680 at Seighford.

Penelope Eld. She was married on 26 December 1687 at St. Mary's church in Stafford to Thomas Palmer of Marston in Staffordshire

Barbara Eld. She was buried on 14 June 1682 at Seighford.

Their father Francis Eld married secondly Elizabeth Turton on 1 January 1669/1670 at St. Michael's church in Stone. She was the daughter of John Turton and his wife nee Elizabeth Hawe.

Francis Eld died in 1687, and was buried on 17 February 1687 at Seighford.

(1) In 1538 William Crompton, a wealthy London merchant, acquired the lands of Stone Priory and established the Crompton family at Stone Park. His eldest son, another William Crompton, served as the Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1597. Thomas Crompton, another son, was MP for Staffordshire in 1614. King Charles I stayed at Stone Park in 1645. In the following year Margaret Crompton, daughter of Thomas Crompton, was married to Francis Eld. By then her father was a Colonel in the Royalist army.

By 1747 Elizabeth Crompton, a descendant of Thomas Crompton, owned the Stone estate but lived at Broseley in Shropshire where her grandfather had acquired property on his marriage to Sarah Adams of Broseley. She died unmarried in that year without having any immediate family, and bequeathed her estates to Mary Browne of Benthall in Shropshire. The former Crompton property in Stone passed to the Leveson-Gower family in 1798, the Marquis of Stafford becoming lord of the manor. The Sutherland Papers in the Staffordshire Record Office http://www.search.sutherlandcollection.org.uk quoting also from Stone in Staffordshire: The History of a Market Town by N.A. Cope (1972). See also Talking Points: the Development of a farming landscape in Stone by J. Minkin (2006) http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/collections/discoverychannel/talkingpoints/TalkingPoints.