Paget family, Marquesses of Anglesey

Sir William Paget (c.1509-1563), statesman and diplomat, was created Baron Paget in 1549. Between about 1544 and 1554 he acquired extensive estates in Staffordshire (including Burton-upon-Trent, formerly belonging to Burton Abbey, and Beaudesert, formerly belonging to the bishops of Coventry and Lichfield), Derbyshire (Littleover, a Burton Abbey property), Middlesex (West Drayton, Harmondsworth), Buckinghamshire (Iver, Great Marlow) and Leicestershire.

The 5th Baron married in 1602 Lettice, daughter and co-heir of Henry Knollys, through whom estates in Berkshire (Stanford-in-the-Vale, sold 1715) and Warwickshire (Nuneaton, sold 1765) passed to the Paget family. The 7th Baron (counted by GEC, The Complete Peerage, as the 8th) was created Earl of Uxbridge in 1714. He married in 1686 Mary Catesby of Whiston (Northamptonshire), but the Whiston estate, together with unsettled estates in Anglesey, Carnarvonshire and Staffordshire, passed on Lord Uxbridge’s death in 1743 to his kinsman Sir William Irby, 2nd Bt, later 1st Baron Boston. On the death of the 2nd Earl of Uxbridge in 1769 the Paget barony and estates were inherited by Sir Henry Bayly, 3rd Bt, of Plas Newydd (Anglesey), who was created Earl of Uxbridge in 1784. The 2nd Earl was created Marquess of Anglesey in 1815.

Sir Edward Bayly, 1st Bt, grandfather of Sir Henry Bayly and grandson of Lewis Bayly, Bishop of Bangor (d. 1631), had inherited in 1715 estates in Wales (Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, etc) and Ireland (the Cooley and Omeath estates in County Louth, four townlands in the Newry area of County Down and property in Galway town) from his cousin Nicholas Bagenal. (The major part of the Newry estate, however, passed to the Needham family, Viscounts and later Earls of Kilmorey.) In addition to the Paget and Bayly estates Lord Paget also succeeded in 1780 to part of the extensive Dorset and Somerset estates (Stalbridge, Milborne Port, etc) of Peter Walter (d. 1752).

Sales of property in Buckinghamshire and Middlesex (Iver and West Drayton) in the late 18th century were followed by the disposal of a major portion of the Walter estates (Milborne Port, etc) in 1825, and Stalbridge (to Lord Grosvenor, see Grosvenor, Dukes of Westminster), Harmondsworth and the Irish estates in the 1850s. Most of the Staffordshire estates were sold in the 20th century, and in 1935 Beaudesert was demolished, Plas Newydd becoming the principal seat.

Estates in 1883: Staffs 17,441 acres, Derbys 1,559 acres, Dorset 1,117 acres, Anglesey 9,620 acres, total 29,737 acres worth £110,598 a year.