Dilston Castle: Difference between revisions

 

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==The Derwentwater estates after 1716==

==The Derwentwater estates after 1716==

The [[attainder]] of the 3rd Earl would normally have resulted in his property (including Dilston) passing to the Crown. However, he only had a life interest under his 1712 [[Settlement (trust)|marriage settlement]], so that his estates passed to his two-year-old son John, who died aged 18. On his death in 1731, the estates would have passed to his uncle Charles Ratclyffe, who was still living abroad, but he had also been attainted in 1716. After him, the estates might have passed to his son James Bartholomew Radclyffe, 4th Earl of Newburgh, but an Act of Parliament ([[British Nationality Act 1730]], [[List_of_Acts_of_the_Parliament_of_Great_Britain,_1730–1739|4 Geo. 2]]. c. 21) had been passed in 1731 amending (“explaining”) an Act of Queen Anne concerning [[naturalisation]] ([[Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708]], [[7 Ann.]] c. 5) so as to exclude the children born abroad to attainted persons from being British subjects. This prevented James Lord Kinnaird and any siblings from inheriting (since foreigners could not own land in England) thus the land forfeited to the Crown.[[H. H. E. Craster]], ”[https://archive.org/details/historyofnorthum10nort/page/396/mode/2up A History of Northumberland]” Vol X (10), date: 1893, Newcastle-upon-Tyne : A. Reid, sons & co.; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & co.,”Corbridge”, p295-303.”Statutes at Large” (1758 edition) IV, 5 Geo. II, c.23.

The [[attainder]] of the 3rd Earl would normally have resulted in his property (including Dilston) passing to the Crown. However, he only had a life interest under his 1712 [[Settlement (trust)|marriage settlement]], so that his estates passed to his two-year-old son John, who died aged 18. On his death in 1731, the estates would have passed to his uncle Charles Ratclyffe, who was still living abroad, but he had also been attainted in 1716. After him, the estates might have passed to his son James Bartholomew Radclyffe, 4th Earl of Newburgh, but an Act of Parliament ([[British Nationality Act 1730]], [[4 Geo. 2]]. c. 21) had been passed in 1731 amending (“explaining”) an Act of Queen Anne concerning [[naturalisation]] ([[Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708]], [[7 Ann.]] c. 5) so as to exclude the children born abroad to attainted persons from being British subjects. This prevented James Lord Kinnaird and any siblings from inheriting (since foreigners could not own land in England) thus the land forfeited to the Crown.[[H. H. E. Craster]], ”[https://archive.org/details/historyofnorthum10nort/page/396/mode/2up A History of Northumberland]” Vol X (10), date: 1893, Newcastle-upon-Tyne : A. Reid, sons & co.; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & co.,”Corbridge”, p295-303.”Statutes at Large” (1758 edition) IV, 5 Geo. II, c.23.

{{anchor|Forfeited Estates (Derwentwater Estate) Act 1731}}

{{anchor|Forfeited Estates (Derwentwater Estate) Act 1731}}

Dilston Castle is an unglazed 15th-century uninhabited tower house (and inactive Catholic chapel built for one family’s services) at Dilston in the parish of Corbridge,^[1] Northumberland, England. Both are scheduled monuments and Grade I listed buildings giving them recognition for historic and architectural value as well protection from demolition.

The three-storey tower was built by Sir William Claxton on the site of an earlier pele tower in the 15th century.

The Radclyffe family[edit]

In 1621 the castle was acquired by the Radclyffe family as a result of the marriage of Edward Radclyffe to the Claxton heiress. The Catholic Radclyffes built a private chapel adjacent in 1616 which stands; it also has ancient monument and listed building status. Four of the Radcliffe children including Margaret Radcliffe were abroad in a convent.^[2]

In 1622 Sir Francis Radclyffe incorporated the tower house into a new manor house, which was to become known as Dilston Hall.

A later owener, Francis Radclyffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater was a Royalist during the Civil War and his estates were sequestrated by the Commonwealth. The property was reverted to the family at the 1660 Restoration. The 3rd Earl, as son of Lady Mary Tudor an acknowledged child of Charles II began in 1709 ambitious works to replace the old house with a substantial mansion. The new mansion was never completed. He, James Radclyffe, took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 named after the deposed King James II who was dubbed a “papish prince” in an era of renewed rivalry with the French colonial empire and Spanish Empire. He was convicted of treason and executed in 1716. The ghost of his wife is reputed to haunt the castle.^[3]

His brother Charles Radclyffe, also involved in violent claim to the (per the legal settlements of 1685 and 1686) British Protestant crown, escaped to…