Verney family of Middle Claydon

The Verney family purchased the manor of Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire, England, in the 1460s and still resides there today at the manor house known as Claydon House. This family had been seated previously at Fleetmarston in Buckinghamshire then at Pendley in Hertfordshire. It is not to be confused with the unrelated but also ancient and prominent Verney family of Compton Verney in Warwickshire. The pedigree of Verney of Middle Claydon commences with 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. The Lord Mayor's second son was also called Sir Ralph Verney. He married Eleanor Pole, an aunt of Cardinal Pole. He was a servant of Elizabeth of York and joined the household of Margaret Tudor in Scotland as chamberlain, and subsequently Ralph Verney was chamberlain to Princess Mary. Lady Verney paid the painters Robert Fyll and John Reynolds for making heraldic beasts for the garden at Windsor Castle. At the Scottish court Lady Verney's two maiden attendants were given 11 gold coins strung as necklaces for a New Year's day gift in 1506. The other contemporary and younger Ralph Verney, according to some sources, was his nephew, the son of John Verney. 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.