Barony of Langley

In medieval times, a baron was a powerful, high-ranking nobleman who held a large estate (a barony) directly from the king in exchange for loyalty, taxes, and providing military service (knights). The first Barons of Langley, the Tindale family, were known to be in possession of it in 1165. Adam de Tindale (d. 1191) was married to Helwise, the daughter of a local chieftain, and was a Sheriff of Northumberland. Through marriage, the barony passed to Thomas de Moulton, who adopted the name de Lucy, and built the fortified tower-house known as Langley Castle in c.1350. The Baronry was in the posesion of subsequent generations of the de Lucy family and then the Radcliffe family. 

Following the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, the estsates of James Radcliffe, including the Barony of Langley, were confiscated. After his son died without an heir, the government gifted the estates to the Greenwich Hospital Commissioners in 1735. Much of the Greenwich Hospital's estate had been sold by the late 19th century. In 1882, the ruined Langley Castle, which was sold by auction and purchased by Cadwallader Bates, who worked on its restoration. In 1995, Langley Castle was bought by Prof. Dr. Stuart Elliot Madnick and converted into a luxury hotel. In 2007, Madnick purchased the title  'Barony of Langley' from the Crown.