It is quite possible from a consideration of the dates, that Vincent may have omitted a generation in his account of the family. If it be correctly stated, the occurrence of the not very common Christian name of Nicholas is a coincidence, since an ancestress in the Hawkeslow family bore the unusual christian name of Nicola. A sixteenth century heraldic manuscript, though of little authority, gives Thomas as the name of Agnes Hawkeslow's husband. In a later generation the name of a Nicholas Middlemore will be found. It is right, however, to say that the statements of Vincent, when it has been found possible to check them, have usually proved to be accurate. Vincent himself was of a family settled at Great Sheepey, where once resided some of the Haselwell Middlemores, and it is quite likely therefore that he paid special attention to the history of this family.
In the seventeenth century was another alliance between the Middlemores and the Gowers. Anne, daughter of Robert Middlemore (9), of Edgbaston, married Robert Gower, of Colmarsh, probably Colmers, in King's Norton, page 61 ante.
Moreover the fact that the marriage settlement of John Middlemore and Goodwin in 1553 names William Underhill as one of the trustees, is strongly confirmatory of Vincent's account. Margaret Middlemore's second son was William Underhill of the Inner Temple, doubtless this trustee.
Hawkesley Chapel.-It is said that there was a private chapel at Hawkesley, and certain it is that Hawkesley was a secret resort for Roman Catholic priests. Thus Father Foley, in his "English Province," recordsthe examination, in 1606, of Anthony Sherlock, a Roman priest, who is said to have been the betrayer of Father Henry Garnett. Sherlock, who was educated at Oxford and made a priest at Rouen about 1586, stated that some six or eight years later `° he came into Worcestershire and the Lady Wynetre [Winter] growing into acquaintance once or twice at the most said mass at her house and at Alchurch with Mrs. Heath and at Hawkesley with Mrs. Middlemore for the most part." This lady is evidently Amphillis Middlemore.
The following two administrations are .recorded in the prerogative court of Canterbury.
20 January, 1648, Commission to John Lewes, a creditor of the late John Middlemore, of Rotherose, co. Hereford, to administer his estate.
20 August, 1664, Commission to Anne Middlemore, widow of Thomas Middlemore, late of Bromyard, co. Hereford, to administer his estate.
Neither of these has been identified, but it is not unlikely that they were nearly related to the above-named William Middlemore
The year 1634 is the date of the Herald's Visitation of Worcestershire, when an evidently incomplete pedigree of the Middlemores of Hawkesley was entered unsigned and without arms. Doubtless the herald's visit was subsequent to William Middlemore's death, and it may well be that after they had entered the pedigree it was found impossible to secure the attendance of John Middlemore, the eldest son, for the purpose of compiling and signing it.
No record of such burial exists in the register of King's Norton. B B
Probably this indicates the occasion when the Middlemores finally parted with the Dormeston property, which had descended to them from their ancestors the Hawkeslows.
It was before February, 1689-90, for he is mentioned as "my cosen John Middlemore the heire of Hauckley House in Worcestershire" in the will of Thomas Middlemore of Worth, Sussex.
But it is evident that at one time, at any rate, he was regarded as a Roman Catholic, for on 6 January, 1731, he conveyed by way of mortgage a small portion of the Hawkesley estate to Benjamin Carles of Birmingham, ironmonger, and the deed was subsequently, 15 July, 1735, enrolled by Carles pursuant to Act of Geo. II, to indemnify protestant purchasers of papists' estates.
He is evidently referred to by William Hutton in his "History of Birmingham" as "the setting glympse of a shining family," whose estate "is now exclusive of a few peppercorns and red roses long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for bread by the owner." In a letter dated 2 October, 1804, to his son Thomas Hutton, of Nottingham, William Hutton says, "the present or late possessor had a sister who married one Penn, but I know nothing of the issue. Also a first cousin in the leather trade in Walsall [i.e., George Middlemore (65)], and this cousin has a sister [i.e., Mrs. Lewin] married at Walsall or Wolverhampton." However it is certain that, though scarcely holding the same position that his ancestors did, he was still a prosperous man. Hutton's description gives the impression that he was in poor circumstances.
Andrew Canning and Peter Middlemore invested in the coal business. Unfortunately this was during a time when shipping was converting to oil firing instead of the traditional coal.
He is entered in the register as Peter John Middlemore, but signed his name, as he was baptized, "Peter Middlemore.
She died at Jersey, 1857, aged ninety-two
She died about 1939-40 of some wealth. She had jewels and apartment property during the great American depression and traveled frequently to America to accompany her niece Frances Mary (Wild).
