The Saxon name of this Manor was ACHISEY or HAKIESHEY. Ac an oak and hay or hey an enclosure,1 meaning an open area within the forest of oaks, a name almost as applicable to-day as it was then, a thousand years or more ago. It is not until the thirteenth century that we first read of the Manor under one of the variations of spelling of its more modern name. Dowles is evidently a corruption of "Dhulas," a name similar to that given to many other waterways in this country. It is derived from the Celtic Dhu, meaning black2, so we can presume that the word in this instance referred to the dark stream overhung by the forest, its people evidently having adopted the name of the brook for the whole district.
This Manor being probably part of a Royal Forest accounts for its omission from the great Norman Survey, unless possibly we may infer it was included with the adjoining manor of Stottesdon, which was held by Earl Roger.
"Edwin the earl held it with seven berewicks. There are nine hides. In the demesne are four ox-teams, and eight serfs, and three maid-serfs, and eighteen villains, and five bordarii and six coliberti with eleven ox-teams. There is a mill of ten shillings, and two leagues of wood. In the time of King Edward it was worth twenty pounds; now ten pounds."3
King Henry I., or one of the Palatine Earls, granted this Manor to Wydo, the second son of Helgot (Domesday Lord of Stanton and founder of Castle Holgate) at a ferm or rent of 2/-per annum. Wydo afterwards gave "Acheseia" or "Hakiesheia" and other estates to the Benedictine Priory of Great Malvern; a grant confirmed in 1126 or 1127 by Henry I., who at the same time "for the health of his soul" released the Monks from the annual payment.
In 1292 the Prior of Great Malvern was sued for delinquencies in reference to the Manor of "Doules." In 1534 "Dowlys" was valued as a Shropshire estate of Great Malvern Priory; and in the Valor of that year the Rectory of "Dowlyz" is given as in the Deanery of Burford.
After the suppression of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. this Manor with Lilleshall Abbey was given to James Leveson, described as a merchant of the Staple of Calais, an ancestor of the Duke of Sutherland and Earl Granville. By Indenture 17th August, 1543, James Leveson conveyed to Thomas Grey of Whittington (Staffs.) the Manor and Lordship of Dowles at a consideration of £320. An annuity, however, of 26s. 8d. was to be given to John and Thomas Greene, Bailiffs of this Manor.
In 1570 Sir Geo. Blount, Kt., and Humph. Hill, gent., presented to the Rectory; and about the same year Francis Newport, Esq., owned the Manor. He was created a Baronet, and was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1586 and 1601, and died in 1623. The Lordship descended to his eldest son Sir Richard Newport, Bart., who married Rachel, daughter of Sir John Leveson, of Halling (near Rochester). Sir Richard was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1628, and created Baron Newport by Charles I. in 1642, after a gift to the King of £6,000. His eldest son, Lord Francis Newport, was created a Viscount in 1674, and Earl of Bradford in 1694. In 1677 Henry Herbert of Ribbesford, who was eventually created Lord Herbert of Cherbury, married Anne Ramsay, and with her dowry of £5,000 value, this Manor was purchased from his cousin Lord Francis Newport. About 1790 Samuel Skey, Esq., purchased the Manor from Lord Herbert, and at his death in 1800 the interest in the estate was divided amongst the beneficiaries of his will.4
Dowles remained in the hands of the Skey family until 1875, in which year J. A. Taylor, Esq., was acting Lord of the Manor, when the complete interests were sold to Edward Pease, Esq., of Darlington, at whose death in 1880 it was left in trust to his daughter, the Countess of Portsmouth.
In 1902 the whole of the parish of Dowles, which had remained practically intact up to that time, was divided up and was sold by public auction, when the Manor House with twenty-three acres of land, including the Lordship of Dowles, was purchased by the writer, the advowson being retained by the former owner.
Notes
This information was kindly supplied by John Elliott, being an extract from the book prepared by his grand uncle, Jannion Steele Elliott, printed in 1917.