That religion was held in great veneration by this race, is very conspicuous from the number of public and private edifices built by them, and devoted to pious uses: almost all the churches and abbies in this neighbourhood were founded by some of the family, and though the latter are not now in existence, yet the churches will preserve the memory of their establishers till time shall be no more.
I have stated that this castle passed into the hands of Henry VIII.; we hear nothing further concerning it till the following reign, when the king presented the place in question to Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, who forfeited it in consequence of the conviction of several crimes imputed to him. This took place in the reign of Mary, and shortly after it was by that queen granted to Fitz-Alan, last earl of Arundel: he mortgaged it to a number of London citizens, who obtained the place in default of payment from him. William Albany chief man among the number was, by the joint consent and approbation of the rest, put in sole possession of it. By the marriage of his great grand daughter with Thomas Lloyd, of Aston, esq. Whittington passed into the hands of the worthy family who enjoy it at the present time.
Having given some account of the possessors of Whittington castle, I think it my duty to attempt laying before the reader, a short account of this structure, and proceed to shew, that it must have underwent fortification soon after its original establishment: placed on the border of Wales, it must have been alternately in the hands of the Welsh and Saxons; for the latter of whom it formed a key of great utility in their attacks open the former, and consequently so useful an inlet, must have been strongly defended. Indeed its founder could not have chosen a place in which nature contributed more to its security; finding the innumerable springs of water so advantageously situated for his designs, he converted it to the best purpose, and surrounded the castle with several moats and intrenchments, still discernable. The annexed plan of the castle { 32} gives the reader a better idea of the exact situations of the trenches and other out-works, than can be expressed by words.
The keep was the place of last resort in times of great danger, and was in consequence defended with the utmost precaution. In the present case, it was fortified with five round towers, each forty feet in diameter, an hundred in height, and the walls twelve in thickness. I have not been able to discover what time the keep fell into a state of delapidation, but undoubtedly for a great number of years, as an aged mulbery is growing in it.