Verney family, Barons Willoughby de Broke

The Verney family was established at Bramshall (Staffordshire) in the 13th century but settled at Compton Verney (Warwickshire) in the 15th century. Sir Richard Verney (d. 1630) married Margaret, sister and co-heir of Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke and de jure 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke. Through this marriage were inherited properties in Cambridgeshire (Steeple Morden, Long Stanton), Gloucestershire (Tytherington), Hertfordshire (Cottered), Leicestershire (Kimcote and Walton), Lincolnshire (Frampton, Gayton-le-Marsh, Helpringham, Tothill), Somerset (Poyntington, later transferred to Dorset) and Staffordshire (Penkridge, Rodbaston). These estates formed part of the inheritance of Elizabeth, Baroness Willoughby de Broke, who married Sir Fulke Greville, grandfather of the 1st Baron Brooke, in 1526, and derived from the families of Willoughby, Cheyney, Latimer and Champernowne. (For other Willoughby estates, including moieties of the Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire and Staffordshire properties, see Greville, Earls Brooke and Earls of Warwick, and, for the west country estates, Orde-Powlett, Barons Bolton.)

William Verney of Compton Verney died unmarried in 1683, being succeeded by his great-uncle Sir Richard Verney (1621-1711) of Allexton (Leicestershire) and Belton (Rutland), who secured the revival of the peerage as 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke. The 12th Baron married in 1683 Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Heath (1575-1649), Chief Justice. The 16th Baron married in 1829 a daughter of Sir John Williams, 1st Bt, of Bodelwyddan (Anglesey).

Margaret Peyto of Chesterton (Warwickshire) (d. 1746) left estates in Warwickshire and a property in Northamptonshire (Sulby and Buckby) to the Verney family. The Warwickshire estates were also consolidated in the early 19th century, when the Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire estates were sold and the Lincolnshire and Somerset holdings reduced. The remaining outlying estates were sold in 1906-9, and Compton Verney itself in 1921.

Estates in 1883: Warwicks 12,621 acres, Lincs 2,930 acres, Northants 929 acres, Somerset 588 acres, Staffs 555 acres, Leics 126 acres, Anglesey 396 acres, total 18,145 acres worth £23,915 a year.