Our Stricklands of Sizergh Castle

Having mispronounced its name for years upon learning it to be the Strickland family's ancestral home, I confirmed at Sizergh Castle that its name is actually sigh-zer, possibly pronounced sigh-th-zer in Old English.

While admission to the estate does not include a guided tour, volunteers well-versed in the history Sizergh Castle and Strickland family lore await in each room, happy to share what they know, which is considerable.

One guide was particularly well-informed.  I'd like to think this handsome, dapper chap in the prime of life could be a distant cousin, perhaps a grandson of Angela Hornyold-Strickland, who passed away in 2015, and Lt. Commander Thomas Hornyold-Strickland.  Pure conjecture, if not out-and-out hallucination, but it nonetheless introduces the hyphenated surname of the current residents, which I've mentioned previously and usually brings an embarrassed, adolescent smile to those who hear it.

While not exactly clever, I hope you find that somewhat amusing.

That possibly Hornyold-Strickland chap confirmed something I find very interesting indeed, which is that George Washington is my distant cousin.

Getting into the weeds of exactly how that is possible, unfortunately, soon reduces me to being subject to the same criticism to which Emma chided Miss Bates in the video at the end of my prior article.

Nonetheless, here it goes:

Elizabeth d'Eyncourt married Sir William de Strikeland, and they had two children, a daughter named Joan born about 1260 and a son named Walter in about 1265.

Through primogenitor, Walter inherited Sizergh Castle despite being the younger child by virtue of being male, but Joan certainly took a nice dowry and pedigree into her marriage with Robert de Wessington.

At some point, Wessington became slurred into the spelling "Washington" in those nearly illiterate times.  Yes, they were grandparents twelve generations up from George Washington.

Going back further, Adam de Castle Carrock had a son named Sir Walter fitz Adam (literally, Son of Adam), who married Christiana de Leteham, the heiress of Great Stirkeland, which means great pastureland of stirkes (cattle).

Walter decided to take the surname "de Stirkeland."  His son Robert had a son named Robert, and by the time his son William married Elizabeth and became Lord of Sizergh Manor, the name had morphed a bit to Strikeland.

On Elizabeth's side, William de Lancaster, Lord of Kendal, granted Sizergh to Sir Gervase d'Eyncourt in about 1175 for meritorious service, and upon his death, the estate passed to his son, Sir Ralph.

Ralph died without an heir, so his sister, Elizabeth d'Eyncourt, inherited the property.

According to the family tree in the National Trust guidebook of Sizergh Castle that our son Jay gave me during our visit, the Strikeland family proceeded from Joan's brother Walter, with subsequent senior sons alternating between the first name Walter and Thomas for a total of six generations, with the surname eventually morphing to Strickland.

Each achieved distinction for military service.  While Elizabeth d'Eyncourt descended from Scottish kings, the Stricklands fought in the Scottish wars of Kings Edward I and II.

In the Hundred Year War against France, their Kendal archers fought under Kings Edward III and Henry V.  

At the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the second Sir Thomas carried the Banner of St. George, which was considered the banner with the highest honor.  This white flag with a red cross was the English flag, forerunner of the Union Jack.

The royal "standard-bearer" Sir Thomas had a son named Walter, who was the only leader of the Strickland family not dubbed a Knight during the medieval period, though he did fight on the White Rose side in the War of the Roses.

His son Sir Thomas was knighted during the War of the Roses in the heat of the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.  He fought for King Edward IV, who was a York.  The Yorks were represented by the White Rose, and the Lancasters by the Red Rose.  While the White Rose won that seemingly decisive battle, the crimson tide later turned.  In 1485, King Henry VII won the throne for the Red Rose.

Despite being on the wrong side of that war, Strickland fortunes actually improved under what became known as Tudor rule.  King Henry VII married Elizabeth of York to unite the country, an effort to bring former enemies together under the same flag.

Before Tewkesbury, Sir Thomas Strickland had married Agnes Parr in 1464.  Their grandniece was Queen Consort Catherine Parr, who became the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII in 1543.  She was charged with the care of the girl who would grow up to be Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen (and conjecture on that subject is at the historic root of Steve Barry's novel The King's Deception, which I recently read in conjunction with this trip).

Back to the Strickland family line, the next Walter Strickland broke the trend, naming his son Walter, and that Walter named his son Walter. That third Walter in a row was Walter Charles Strickland Esq, for those of you keeping score.

In addition to military service, they began a tradition of serving in Parliament, with government service being a family tradition through the twentieth century at least.

As the family fortunes improved over time, the family home became more elaborate.  In 1310, a more substantial stone manor house with a large great hall replaced the original structure.  Sir Thomas, hero of Tewkesbury, built the four-story tower, "adding swagger" according tot he guidebook.

Sizergh Castle tripled in size during the Tudor Period, despite the Stricklands being staunch Catholics who were philosophically opposed King Henry VIII's Protestant Reformation.