Verney family

Verney is the name of an English family that traces back around eight centuries. It first settled at Fleetmarston in Buckinghamshire, then at Pendley in Hertfordshire, and finally at Middle Claydon which the family purchased in the 1460s in Buckinghamshire and where descendants still live in Claydon House.

The Verney's family's pedigree goes back to Ralph de Verney (fl. 1216–1223), but the fortunes of the family were made by Sir Ralph Verney (c. 1410-1478). After settling in Buckinghamshire in the 13th century, the family had purchased Middle Claydon by the 1460s and it was during this period that Sir Ralph Verney became Lord Mayor of London in 1465 and M.P. for the city in 1472. Sir Ralph Verney's eldest son, Sir John Verney, married Margaret, heiress of Sir Robert Whittingham of Pendley. In 1525, Sir Ralph Verney's fourth son, of the same name, married Elizabeth, one of the six co-heiresses of John, Lord Braye.

Sir Edmund Verney of Pendley (died 1600) left two sons, half-brothers, Sir Francis Verney (1584–1615), who became a soldier of fortune and a buccaneer, converted to Islam and died at Messina in hospital in extreme poverty, and Sir Edmund Verney (1590–1642) of Middle Claydon. Sir Edmund accompanied Prince Charles and Buckingham on the abortive mission to Madrid in 1623, and was knight-marshal to King Charles I. When the English Civil War broke out the royal standard was entrusted to him at Nottingham, and while defending it he was slain at Edgehill in 1642. His eldest son, Sir Ralph Verney (1613–1696), 1st baronet, sat for Aylesbury in both the Short and the Long Parliaments. He took the side of the parliament at the outset of the Civil War, but went abroad in 1643 rather than sign the Covenant, and his estates were sequestrated in 1646. He returned to England in 1653, and, though he refused to act against Oliver Cromwell, was subsequently reconciled to the Restoration government. His brother, Sir Edmund (1616-–1649), had taken the king's side, and commanded the troops of the Royalist infantry at the Siege of Drogheda and was slain during the final assault.

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