Colclough History

Colclough History Page

Colclough is the name of an ancient family that resided on the estate of their name at Wolstanton as far back as the reign of Edward III.; the Colcloughs were lords of the manor of Hanley in the 17th century, and members of the family received the honour of knighthood and possessed a baronetcy.

Colclough of Co. Wexford- The Colcloughs were descended from a very ancient and noble family of Staffordshire, whose descendant Sir Anthony Colclough came to Ireland during the reign of King Henry VIII. He was a beneficiary of the policy of Monastic Dissolution. He was granted the estate lands and Manor of Tintern in 1565, by the order of Queen Elizabeth. He took up residence in Tintern and took possession of the vast estates. He married Clare, the daughter of Sir Thomas Agard, a Privy Councillor in Ireland and Governor of Wexford. They had seven sons, five of whom died young, and five daughters, one of whom died in infancy. The two remaining Sons were Thomas the elder son and heir, and Leonard of Ballyknockan, Queen’s County, who was High Sheriff of Wexford in 1596. The third son Anthony was killed fighting in 1598 in the Nine Years War.

The Colclough family took possession of Tintern Abbey in 1562 after the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII in 1536. Tintern was third richest Cistercian monastery and Henrys men removed Lead, Copper and Oak timbers form the roof leaving only a ruin which was used as a graveyard by locals for nearly 20 years.

Sir Anthony Colclough was recognized by Queen Elizabeth I in 1569 and she made him a knight in 1584. The Colclough family, who lived there for the next 400 years, modified the Abbey into a castle as part of the defence against the Spanish armada in 1588.

Sir Richard Colclough was the father of Sir Anthony Colclough of Tintern Abbey, and the brother of Sir Matthew Colclough, who was in my branch of the Colclough family. I was interested in where they were buried, and found some interesting results online. We all know that Sir Anthony was buried at Tintern Abbey in the vault at the chapel, but where was Sir Richard and Sir Matthew Colclough buried? My Find a Grave Website page for Sir Richard that I manage now, shows that he was buried at Saltmills, a town just down the road from Tintern Abbey, but when I asked AI for the answer, I had received a different answer shown below in this map:

I thought I would share this information with others, just in case they try and find Sir Richard Colclough and Sir Matthew Colcloughs grave sites in Saltmills and have some dissapointment. There could be mistakes in the map since it was made by AI, but I am confident the direction N for north is accurate.