Families of Leonard Stanley

Documents relating to the Sandford, Veel, Willet, Timbrell and Cumberland families

<span class="wrapper"><p>See also Gloucestershire Record Office D45/T1/14</p> <p>Further information on the family, and transcripts of letters written by Richard Denison Cumberland and his brother, George, are printed in The Cumberland Letters, 1771-1784, by Clementina Black, 1912 [this and later correspondence is in the British Museum].</p></span>

• <famname>Denison-Jones family of Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire</famname>
• <famname>Jones, Denison-family of Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire</famname>

deposited by Miss L.E. Denison-Jones of Leonard Stanley

Deeds and papers of Mrs. Y. Fisher and Mrs. J. Hollings

These documents of the Denison-Jones family include also records of the related families of Sandford, Veel, Willett, and Timbrell and Cumberland.

William Sandford of Stonehouse was in possession of the priory of Leonard Stanley soon after its dissolution and grant to Sir William Kingston [D225/T28]. Robert Sandford bought the manor of Leonard Stanley from William Whitmore of Slaughter [D225/F30: in 1738. The Sandford family held the manor of Stonehouse in the reign of Elizabeth I, but by 1608 it had passed to the Fowlers of Stonehouse, another family of clothiers. In the eighteenth century members of the Sandford family acted as J.P.s; the parish records of Leonard Stanley probably came into their hands as churchwardens or overseers. The last of the family, Robert, who lived at Cirencester and died in 1804, acted as a trustee and executor in various trusts connected with the family (the Rishton executorship [D225/F33] devolved on him since Elizabeth, the wife of the first executor, Ivyleafe Russ of Bristol, was a daughter and heir of John Sandford of Clifton).

The ancient family of Veel of Tortworth in the medieval period, and later of Simondshall (in Wotton-under-Edge) was connected by a marriage in the thirteenth century to the Berkeley family. Sir Thomas Veel, Governor of Berkeley Castle during the Civil War, was implicated in the attempted rising of Royalists in the West in 1659 [D225/F12-13, and the Dictionary of National Biography]. His grandson, Thomas, married Elizabeth, granddaughter of John Smyth of Nibley, the steward and historian of the Berkeley family. The Veel and Jones families were connected by marriage in the nineteenth century. The Berkeley records may have come into this collection at several stages. Those of the time of John Smyth, and the medieval deeds, were possibly handed down to his granddaughter, Elizabeth [D225/T2 is mentioned by Smyth].

The connection of the Willett family with the Sandfords of Leonard Stanley is not clear, since the marriage of Robert Sandford into the family can be traced only from Bigland's transcripts of inscriptions. The connection with the Timbrell family is shown in the pedigrees; in the eighteenth century there were two branches of the Timbrell family, both including a Robert, at Ewen, and there were also two branches of the family at Cirencester towards the end of the century. The Graile family was connected with the Timbrells by marriage [See D225/T23; F34, F47].

The Cumberland family were related to the dramatist, Richard Cumberland [See D.N.B.].