One third · b. 1946
The Hon. Patricia McKinnon
Eldest daughter of the 25th Baron. In a termination of abeyance the Crown has historically preferred the senior co-heiress, as in 1937.
1997 — the writ sleeps
Abeyance is not extinction
Richard Michael Thomas Souter, 25th Baron Audley of Heleigh, died 27 June 1997. The honour split three ways among his daughters. This page is the work: places, people, papers, and the legal truth a cadet must not decorate.
The 1313 barony is a peerage in fee, heirs general, created by writ of summons to Nicholas Audley of Heighley on 8 January 1313.
It is presently in abeyance among the three daughters of Richard Souter, 25th Baron, who died 27 June 1997. They are the co-heiresses. The Crown may, as a matter of grace, call the title out in favour of one of them — as it did for Mary, 22nd Baroness, in 1937.
The Stanley/Aldithley cadet that took the name from a 1192 manor-swap is a collateral of the family that later received the 1313 writ. It is not, without a documented descent from Nicholas 1st Baron or a later holder, a competing claim to the living barony.
Absolute Grounding therefore splits the work in two: (A) prove the historical architecture with 1327/1332 rolls, IPMs, the 1678 Act, and the 1937 file; (B) prove, if it exists, a personal descent from a holder — not from a cousin who left for Wirral in 1192.
A more achievable honour for a proven Aldithley-Stanley descendant is a petition to the College of Arms for a grant or confirmation of arms (stag, fret, or a differenced cadency), a territorial designation, and a published, refereed pedigree. That is how a cadet enters the book without pretending to unseat three living daughters.
The living fractions
Three co-heiresses
They are the barony. A cadet does not unseat them with a 1192 manor-swap. Portraits of living people are not invented here — the dignity is.
One third · b. 1948
The Hon. Jennifer Carrington
Second daughter. Her line, and her sister's, keep the barony asleep until the Crown acts or a line fails.
One third · b. 1958
The Hon. Amanda Souter
Youngest daughter. The three together are the living legal object called Baron Audley of Heleigh.
Four wakings
The file a petitioner must know by heart.
1408
First waking
Abeyance after Nicholas 3rd Baron (d. 1391) terminated in favour of John Tuchet, grandson of Joan Audley. The surname on the writ changes. The dignity does not.
1512
Restoration after treason
Henry VIII restored the barony to John, son of James 7th Baron, attainted and executed 1497. Attainder is not extinction.
1678
The Caroline Act
Parliament restored the ancient barony to James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, after the 1631 felony-attainder of his father. Governing statute for any modern petition.
1937
A woman, suo jure
The 1872 abeyance was terminated in favour of Mary Thicknesse-Touchet as 22nd Baroness. Heirs general means daughters. This is the closest modern analogue.
The journey
Places to stand, people to speak to, papers to carry.
- 01
Heighley Castle ridge, Madeley, Staffordshire
Stand in the honour. Photograph the ruin against the 13th-century footprint. This is not romance; it is locus of the writ.
Documents: Site notes; OS map overlay of the bailey; photographs with dated metadata
Speak with: Staffordshire County archaeologist; Madeley parish historian
- 02
St James, Audley — parish registers
The Gamel/Gamble onomastic bridge (Robert Gannill 1604 / Robert Gamble 1672) lives in these books. So do later Audley tenantry.
Documents: Certified register extracts; Bishop's transcripts if the paper is worn
Speak with: Parish priest / diocesan archivist
- 03
Hulton Abbey earthworks
Henry de Audley founded the Cistercian house in 1223. An abbey is a charter factory. The founder's family is named in the cartulary.
Documents: Cartulary extracts; foundation charter references
Speak with: County HER officer
- 04
Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford
Lay Subsidy 1327/1332 (Jacobus de Audeleye, Richard del Delves, William de Thicknes), de Verdun charters, Sneyd-adjacent deeds.
Documents: Certified copies of subsidy membranes; charter photographs with archive stamps
Speak with: Duty archivist; medieval specialist
- 05
Cheshire Archives & Local Studies, Chester
Wirral forestership, Storeton, Hooton, Stanley of Hooton. The cadet paper trail.
Documents: Forester grants 1284+; Hooton estate maps
Speak with: County archivist
- 06
Keele University Special Collections
Uncalendared Sneyd deeds 1540–. Cadet-branch proxy sitting on what was Audley-adjacent land.
Documents: Keele Hall building accounts; Sneyd marriage settlements
Speak with: Special collections librarian
- 07
The National Archives, Kew
Inquisitions post mortem, Patent Rolls (Isle of Man 1405–06, 1678 restoration context), Close Rolls, medieval fines (1129 Liulf).
Documents: IPMs on Audley estates; Patent Roll extracts; Pipe Roll 31 Henry I if the 1129 fine survives there
Speak with: Medieval records specialist
- 08
Parliamentary Archives / House of Lords
The 1678 restoration Act; Journals recording the 1937 termination in favour of Mary, 22nd Baroness; Standing Orders on abeyance.
Documents: Certified Act of 1678; 1937 Committee for Privileges report
Speak with: Clerk of the Parliaments' office; Crown Office
- 09
College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street
Official pedigree. The 1597 George Touchet pedigree must be treated as a tainted exhibit — linguistic vacillation Boughey/Boffey, heraldic puns used as primary proof. File a modern pedigree that prefers 1327 rolls to Elizabethan myth.
Documents: Petition for official pedigree; record of any existing Stanley/Audley visitations with caveats attached
Speak with: Officer in Ordinary (Garter, Clarenceux or Norroy); researcher to the College
- 10
Crown Office, House of Lords
The only door that actually opens a barony by writ. A petition to terminate abeyance is an act of grace, not a lawsuit you win.
Documents: Formal petition; counsel's opinion; proof of descent; notice to the co-heiresses
Speak with: Clerk of the Crown in Chancery; counsel experienced in peerage claims (very few exist)
- 11
The three co-heiresses — not as enemies, as the living writ
The Hon. Patricia McKinnon (b. 1946), the Hon. Jennifer Carrington (b. 1948), the Hon. Amanda Souter (b. 1958). In English peerage law they are the barony, split three ways. A cadet does not kick them off the page. A cadet must prove either a senior line from Nicholas 1st Baron that outranks them (almost certainly impossible if they are the 25th Baron's daughters) or wait for those lines to fail, or seek a different honour.
Documents: Honest genealogical memorandum; no ambush
Speak with: Their solicitors, if at all, through counsel
The bundle
- Full civil-registration chain from the petitioner to the last proven medieval ancestor (birth, marriage, death, each certificate).
- Baptism, marriage and burial extracts from Audley, Madeley, and any Cheshire parishes on the Stanley side.
- Certified copies of the 1327 and 1332 Staffordshire Lay Subsidy membranes naming Jacobus de Audeleye.
- Inquisitions post mortem on Audley estates (incl. any IPM touching Henry Scarioc 1307 and later Tuchet IPMs).
- Patent Roll entries for the Isle of Man 1405–06 (cadet context, not barony proof).
- Hulton Abbey foundation references (1223) as a charter-factory for the Heighley house.
- The 1678 restoration Act, certified.
- The 1937 Committee for Privileges papers on Mary, 22nd Baroness — the modern template.
- A written caveat on the 1597 George Touchet pedigree (Boughey/Boffey vacillation; puns used as proof).
- Onomastic report: Gamel/Gamble; Mare/Mayer; Aldithley/Audley; Stanleigh/Stanley.
- Counsel's opinion from a peerage specialist: does any line of the petitioner actually descend from a holder of the 1313 barony?
- If the answer is no: a College of Arms brief for a cadet grant, not a writ petition.
- If the answer is yes: a formal petition to the Crown, with notice to the co-heiresses, and money for a very long wait.