The New Murrey and Blue blog

Well, here’s an intriguing little revelation about a medieval property scam to benefit the Twynyho family at Soulton Hall, Shropshire. The trickery took place in 1395, and the Twynyhos still held Soulton Hall in 1483 when Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham*, was captured by Richard III right on the estate’s border.

What was the trickery? Well, a forged deed and seal involving “Robert, Lord of Soulton”. Its purpose? To ensure the Twynyhos vanquished any other likely claimants to the property.

The fake was exposed by Shropshire Archives, and Soulton Hall responded: “Oh, come on, Shropshire Archives! We’ve been spending the last 630 years hoping nobody would notice that little detail from 1395.” Oh dear. So I guess the deed and seal really are forgeries. But actually, it makes the whole thing more interesting. In my opinion, anyway.

Needless to say there’s no mention of it on the Soulton Hall website—https://soultonhall.co.uk/history-heritage/—although perhaps it will appear in the near future.

I learned of the exposure of the fake here:  https://www.myshrewsbury.co.uk/blog/its-a-funny-old-deed-soulton-halls-spectacular-fake/ Both images are from this link. There is more at https://www.shropshirestar.com/your-world/2025/08/13/a-historical-intrigue-uncovered-shropshire-archives-highlights-soulton-halls-forged-deed/.

*For more about the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, read here: https://www.bucks-retinue.org.uk/index.php/history/stafford-family/2nd-duke-of-buckingham

by viscountessw