Chetwynd-Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury

The Talbot family had lands in Herefordshire in the 12th century. The 5th Baron Talbot married the heiress of the Furnivall estates in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire and was created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1442. On the death of the 8th Earl in 1618 the Sheffield (Yorkshire, West Riding), Worksop (Nottinghamshire) and Glossop (Derbyshire) estates passed to the Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk, but the Alton (Staffordshire) estate passed with the Shrewsbury earldom to a cousin, George Talbot (1566-1630). He was the grandson and eventual heir of Sir John Talbot of Grafton (Worcestershire), Albrighton (Shropshire) and Burghfield (Berkshire). His descendants also acquired property in Oxfordshire (Bampton and Heythrop) and Cheshire. On the death without issue of the 17th Earl in 1856 all the entailed Shrewsbury estates passed to a distant cousin, the 3rd Earl Talbot of Hensol, who also succeeded as 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, while the unentailed estates (and some of the records) passed to Lord Edmund Howard (later Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent). By 1883 the Staffordshire, Cheshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire estates were all in the possession of the 19th Earl, the Berkshire and Oxfordshire estates having been sold since 1850.

Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 3rd Earl Talbot of Hensol, who succeeded to the Shrewsbury earldom in 1856, was a representative of the Talbot family formerly of Salwarpe (Worcestershire), descended from Sir John Talbot (d. 1581), a younger son of Sir John Talbot of Grafton etc. Charles Talbot, a great-grandson of Sir John Talbot (d. 1581), married in 1708 Cecil Matthews, granddaughter and heir of David Jenkins of Hensol (Glamorganshire) and was created Baron Talbot of Hensol in 1733. Hensol Castle was sold c.1790 but the mineral rights were retained. The 1st Lord Talbot of Hensol's son was created Earl Talbot in 1761 but died without male issue in 1782, when some of the Welsh estates passed to his daughter, suo jure Baroness Dinevor. The Talbot barony, however, passed to his nephew John Chetwynd-Talbot, who through his mother inherited the Chetwynd estates centred on Ingestre (Staffordshire), some of which had been held by the Chetwynd family since the 13th century. He was created Earl Talbot in 1784.

Estates in 1883: 18,954 acres in Staffordshire; 9,500 acres in Cheshire; 3,608 acres in Worcestershire; 2,186 acres in Shropshire; 1,359 acres in Derbyshire; 20 acres in Northamptonshire; 19 acres in Berkshire; 2 acres in Oxfordshire; 81 acres in Glamorganshire; worth a total of £62,382 a year exclusive of Welsh minerals.