Compton Murdack, 17th century drawings by Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677) of heraldry of the Verney family in stained glass windows of their manor house then called "Compton Murdack" in Warwickshire, later demolished to make way for the present Georgian mansion known as "Compton Verney". Published in The Antiquities of Warwickshire Illustrated: From Records, Leiger ..., Volume 1
By Sir William Dugdale[1][2]
According to the Peerage of England, Vol.6, 1812, by Arthur Collins & Sir Egerton Brydges, p.694[3] the window was set up by Richard Verney (d.1490) who married Eleanor Loutham, daughter and heiress of John Loutham of Northampton, by whom he had issue Edmind Verney and Anne Verney, wife of Sir Richard Montfort. Arms of de Loudham/Loutham/Lowdham of Loudham Hall, w:Pettistree, near w:Wickham Market, Suffolk: Argent, three escutcheons sable (Papworth, John Woody, Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.II, London, 1874, p.692) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.625 "Lowdham of Suffolk").
After the building of the new house these windows may have been moved to the chapel at Compton Verney, from which much valuable stained glass was sold to the USA, with much general disapproval (see reports in The Times newspaper), by the 2nd Baron Manton, owner of Compton Verney from 1922.
In about 1441[1] Compton Murdak was acquired by Richard Verney (d.1489) with the assistance of his younger brother John Verney, Dean of Lichfield, formerly Rector of Bredon in Worcestershire, and supervisor and receiver-general to Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (1382-1439).[2] The Verney family had begun acquiring lands in the area surrounding Compton Murdak in the 1430s before purchasing the estate. In about 1500 the manor became known as Compton Verney. According to William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656)[3] a new manor house was built in about 1442:[3]
- "Richard Verney Esquire (afterward knight) possest it and built a great part of the house as it now standeth, wherein besides his own armes with matches, he then set up towards the upper end of the hall the armes of King Henry the Sixth, Queen Margaret, Humfrey Earl of Stafford (afterwards created Duke of Buck(ingham)), Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, and the Lord Zouch,[4] with some others, by which it appeareth that he was one of those that adhered to the House of Lancaster".