Four Parishes Research Sir George Blount

Sir George Blount

Kinlet Church has a number of fine monuments; perhaps the best of these is the tomb of Sir George Blount who died in 1581. The Four Parishes Heritage Group has recently been investigating his life. Blount was one of the more colourful local characters. The local tradition (which I first heard from my grandfather) relates how after his death, his ghost came to haunt Kinlet Hall, riding his horse through the hall and over the banqueting table. Eventually his predecessors tired of interruptions to their dinner parties and a priest shrank his spirit and trapped it in a bottle, which was laid to rest in Kinlet Church. As usual, the truth is somewhat more interesting.

George was born in around 1513. His father, John, was a soldier, MP and frequent visitor to the court of King Henry VIII. His aunt, Elizabeth, was a frequent visitor to the bedchamber of Henry and bore him a son, Henry, Duke of Richmond. Thus George moved in high circles from his earliest years. On the death of his father in 1531, he inherited estates in Staffordshire (from his mother) as well as Kinlet, Cleobury and Bewdley. George grew to maturity in interesting times. King Henry was beginning his quarrel with the Pope that would lead to the formation of the Church of England. Within a few years the country would be in a religious forment, with alternatively Protestant and Roman Catholics imprisoned and killed depending on which faction held the upper hand. It was also a time of great opportunity for the politically astute, with much former church property being confiscated and then sold to speculators. Although direct evidence is lacking, George probably embraced the cause of the Protestant reformation. He had business contacts with one John Harford of Coventry, a zealous reformer, and this may have influenced him. Perhaps more importantly, he established himself in the service of John Dudley, a firm Protestant. The Dudley family, with their base at Dudley Castle, were the pre-eminent family in the West Midlands; John was an up and coming star at the Court. He was also a gifted soldier, effectively establishing the foundations of the Royal Navy. Blount, from the most landlocked county in the country, became a ship’s captain in Dudley’s force and was knighted for his services at Leith in Scotland in 1544, following a successful invasion of Scotland. Dudley was equally effective on land and Blount also fought with distinction alongside him, whether on the continent against the French or at home, suppressing rebellions. He also first entered parliament during these years, as MP for Shropshire and also served as a justice of the peace. After the death of Henry VIII, Dudley’s influence reached its height. He was effectively chief minister for the young king Edward VI and, after Edwards premature death, he engineered a coup that made his daughter-in-law, Jane Grey, Queen. However, Dudley fatally over-stretched himself and Edward’s sister, Mary, seized the throne back within a few days. Dudley was executed.

The politically astute George avoided any comeback from the downfall of his one-time patron. He was at this time sheriff of Staffordshire and was probably sufficient remote from the event to be able to play for time and back the winner. His reward was to become the MP for Bridgnorth, whilst he continued as a JP. He also successfully negotiated the dramatically changed religious climate as Mary sought to reintroduce Roman Catholicism. In 1558 the country underwent another abrupt turn as Mary died and Queen Elizabeth reintroduced the Protestant reformation, albeit in a less doctrinaire form than in the reign of Edward VI. Ever adaptable, George continued to serve as an MP and as a JP in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire. It is tempting to dismiss George as an opportunist, willing to nail his colours to whatever flag was being flown at court. This was not a dishonourable position. Many in the 16th Century took the view that their first duty was to support their monarch in his or her religious views. It may however, also be simply wrong. George lived a long life; as a young man he may have held radical religious views. He would not be the first to become more conservative as he aged. In 1577 he was considered to be a Roman Catholic sympathiser, although his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth was not doubted.

So what of the legend of the turbulent ghost? This may reflect a genuine memory of a man, who whilst loyal to whoever was his sovereign, had a short fuse. He was involved in a number of law suits, getting into trouble with the townsfolk of Bewdley for the way he excluded them from the Wyre Forest and from a William Else, a Kinlet man who claimed that Blount did not pay his wages whilst on campaign in France. He private life was probably considered a scandal; he threw his wife out in the 1570s and disinherited his daughter. His Kinlet estates went to his nephew, Roland Lacon, again a man of distinctly Roman Catholic views. Old age did not appear to mellow George.

The bottle with the alleged spirit of George remained in Kinlet church until around 1900. One intrepid antiquarian eventually opened it; it turned out to contain photographic developer. Sir George would have enjoyed the joke.