A Short History of Maxstoke Castle

CHAPTER 5:    THE FETHERSTON FAMILY AND PACKWOOD HOUSE (1769-1853)

The roots of the Fetherston family were in Northumberland where there is a castle of that name. The family is recorded in Warwickshire as early as 1468, when John and Emmot Fetherston are members as members of the Guild in Knowle, a few miles from Packwood. The Fetherstons acquired the manor of Packwood at the end of the 16th century, but it was not until some fifty years later that the house and gardens as we know them today were built and laid out. These were the work of John Fetherston who succeeded his father in 1634.

Like the Dilkes, the Fetherston family were reluctant to take sides during the Civil War. A measure of their impartiality can be gauged from the fact that General Ireton slept at Packwood before Edgehill and King Charles II is said to have received refreshment there after the Battle of Worcester. Thomas Fetherston was commissioned a Lieutenant (14) in the Militia in 1660.

The male line of the Fetherston family ceased early in the 18th century, after which Packwood passed by marriage to Thomas Leigh of Aldridge in Staffordshire, who had married as his first wife Dorothy Fetherston and assumed the name of Fetherston-Leigh. The house and manor of Packwood passed to the Dilke family in 1769 when Catherine Fetherston Leigh, half-sister of William (III)'s wife, Mary, bequeathed it to William (III)'s second son, Thomas (IV) (1761-1814). It thereafter became the practice for the younger son of the Dilke family to occupy Packwood and call himself Fetherston and for the elder son to live at Maxstoke and call himself Dilke. On occasions, the younger son succeeded his elder brother at Maxstoke and went to live there, changing his name to Dilke and thus tending to confuse later chroniclers.

Packwood House was sold out of the family in 1869 and eventually came into possession of Mr Graham Baron Ash who made it his life's work to restore it. In 1941, he gave the house and contents to the National Trust.

William (III)'s wife, Mary, died in 1768 at the age of thirty-four having borne her husband four sons and a daughter. The heir was William (IV) (1760-1797), who predeceased his father, but not before he had married, in 1795, Louisa, second daughter of Richard Geast (afterwards Dugdale) of Blyth Hall, Coleshill, whose estate marched then, as now, with Maxstoke. Louisa Dilke (1771-1849) had two sons in quick succession, William (V) (1796-1837) and Thomas (V) (1797-1853) before she was widowed two months after the birth of her second child.

Some idea of the conditions at Maxstoke about this time can be learnt from the account (17) by Lord Torrington of his visit to the Castle in 1779. He describes his reception by "the old gentleman, Mr Dilke" (who was then sixty-six years old) and how he was greeted by "the young knights of the Castle, who were truly attentive and, finding my eagerness of curiosity, indulged it amply by showing me the cellars, hall, kitchen, turrets, etc." He then goes on to describe the conditions of the Castle, "an old hall, ill kept up and without furniture, in great dirt and disorder, the old man has had his day". The young knights referred to were the sons of William (III) who were then in their twenties.

Whatever faults he may have had - he was said to have been something of a spendthrift - William (III) left his mark on Maxstoke and in Warwickshire, of which county he was High Sheriff in 1758. In 1757, he installed the clock in the northern turret of the gatehouse at a cost of £20 and ten years later the existence of a bill for a vast quantity of bricks suggests that it was he who built (or at least lined with bricks) the walled garden enclosing just under two acres.

Before he died in 1797, William (IV), together with his younger brothers, Charles and John, the 4th Earl of Aylesford and others founded a society known as the Woodmen of Arden whose members perpetuate the art of shooting with the longbow. The society, formed in 1785, has its headquarters at Meriden, some five miles from Maxstoke, and members of the Dilke and Fetherston families have belonged to it up to the present day.

With the death of William (III) in 1801, the care of the Castle and estates devolved to Louisa, his daughter-in-law and widow of William (IV). Thus, once again, a widow was left in charge. Fortunately for Maxstoke, she was a lady of firm character, energy and enterprise. Her two sons, William (V) and Thomas (V), were only six and five years old respectively so she could expect little help from them, but she enlarged and administered the estate, brought the Castle into a decent state of repair and made improvements to it until her sons grew up. In particular, she planted a great many trees, not only in the park but also in shelter belts and spinneys and kept meticulous records of her planting which have survived to this day.

In view of the deplorable state in which she found the Castle, it seemed to Louisa that it would be sensible and appropriate, as part of the refurbishment, to carry out some alterations and additions to make the place more habitable and convenient. It was she who altered the front of the west range by building a brick extension to form a new dining room and, on the first floor, two new bedrooms. She also added a further bedroom on the second floor over-looking the park. The dining room which she built is now the Morning Room, on the right side of the front door. Her portrait shows the Castle with its roof of red tiles, but it was during her lifetime that these were replaced with slates which remain today. It was also in the early years of her widowhood that the approach to the Castle was altered and the present drive laid down, about 1815, when the New Road (now called Castle Lane) was built.

By this time, her sons were of age. William (V) initially busied himself by helping on the estate until 1817 when he was sent on a Grand Tour of Europe, travelling as far as Naples, via the low Countries, France and Germany. It would appear that he was provided with ample funds and that he was endowed with good taste, for he brought back a number of articles of armour and weapons from the Medici Armoury. This had been broken up in 1770 and many items had presumably come into the hands of dealers throughout the Continent. He was accompanied on the tour by one manservant, Charles Davis, and their joint passport (18), signed personally by Viscount Castlereagh, the Foreign Secretary, hangs in the Lady Tower.

Thomas (V), the younger son, who had meanwhile joined the Royal Navy in 1814 aged 17, made good progress. His Captain in H.M.S. GANYMEDE reported (19) to the Admiralty that Thomas had behaved himself "with diligence, sobriety and obedience to command".

By 1818 he was a Lieutenant. His most exciting and rewarding experience in this rank was then he was appointed Flag Lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, K.C.B. and in that capacity took part in the Battle of Navarino on 20th October, 1827.

Admiral Codrington had commanded H.M.S. ORION at the Battle of Trafalgar and had previously served under Lord Howe at the Battle of The Glorious First of June. At Navarino he was Commander-in-Chief of the combined British, French and Russian fleet. It was Lieutenant Thomas Dilke who was sent from the flagship, H.M.S. ASIA, to deliver an ultimatum to the Egyptian Commander-in-Chief. He was lucky to return alive. His interpreter was shot alongside him in the boat on their way back to the ASIA but Thomas was unscathed and, after the battle, wrote a stirring account (20) of it to his brother, William, at Maxstoke. For his services that day, Thomas received immediate promotion to the rank of Commander and, on the following day, was appointed to command H.M.S. ROSE (21).

Having served in the Mediterranean and in the West Indies in command of several of His Majesty's ships, he retired in 1837 in the rank of Captain and settled at Maxstoke. His brother, William (V), died that same year aged only 41. Thomas was appointed a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the County and in 1848 served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire. In the following year, Louisa Dilke, William (IV)'s widow, died at the age of seventy-eight after a lifetime of caring for Maxstoke.

Thomas Dilke was a popular squire who endeared himself to the people of Maxstoke during the 16 years he spent amongst them and his death in 1853 was greatly lamented. In the following year, his executors held a nine-day sale at the Castle. Many of the lots were bought in by the family but virtually the whole library of books was sold together with many objects of vertu. It is no reflection on the habits of Captain Thomas Dilke that almost one entire day was taken up in the sale of the contents of the cellar!