Written by: Leo Lawton
August 18, 2016
Around the year 1500 Richard Lawton was born, but I can’t tell you exactly where nor when. He grew to be a man near Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England, and married a local young lady whose surname was Purrier about the year 1520. As one might expect they had 5 known children. One was known to be named Thomas who also had 4 sisters. There is a record of Richard in 1536 as paying rent on some farm property.
In 1542 the King of England confiscated all property owned by monasteries, and it seems in some manner Richard had the wherewithal to purchase the ex-monastery property in the Cranfield area. (At the same time yet another Lawton purchased the monastery property in a village named Church Lawton, Cheshire.)
Thomas Lawton being born in 1527 was about 15 years old when his father bought the monastery property. As the only son, thus the eldest, Thomas eventually fell heir to the property. After the land had been in the family some ten years Thomas married a local girl named Joan Wheeler in 1552.