He was rescued from this as, at the age of 16, his wardship was purchased by his mother and uncle, Sir Edward Bromley[3] Wolryche matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge at Easter 1614.

Altogether the Wolryche estates covered about 4,500 acres, mainly in southern and eastern Shropshire, including the manor of Wroxeter to the east of Shrewsbury.

In 1611, Thomas Wolryche's father, Francis, had taken over the mortgage of his indebted, recusant brother-in-law, William Gatacre, on the manor of Hughley, about 6 km from Much Wenlock,[8] guaranteeing his debts to the sum of £1,740.

[3] This was the most awkward of the financial issues Wolryche faced and it was cleared in 1623 by paying the debt in return for the freehold of Hughley, an estate of 1,400 acres.

He was a local Justice of the Peace and, as a wealthy man, was nominated in 1632 to become High Sheriff of Shropshire by John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, the president of the Council in the Marches of Wales but he was not pricked for the post.

[1] This was no guarantee of loyalty to the king when conflict came: a considerable part of the Shropshire landed gentry, including baronets and close relatives of Wolryche, was on the other side.

One of these was Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet, of Stoke upon Tern, a grandson of Lord Chancellor Thomas Bromley[17] and thus Wolryche's second cousin.

[3] Bridgnorth's council had considered inserting a drawbridge into the bridge over the River Severn as early as 26 August, under a warrant from John Weld, the High Sheriff, but had decided on a compromise solution of rope and chain barriers.

[22] Prince Rupert had arrived in the town on 21 September and ensured that two reliable, royalist bailiffs were elected for the following year: Thomas Dudley and John Farr.

On 19 January they were at Bridgnorth, in the very act of making a deal, when a warrant arrived from Ottley, demanding Birch's arrest on the grounds that he "hath taken up Armes and is a disaffected p'son to our Sov'aigne Lord the Kinge and doth still persist therein as a traytor to his Royall person.

"[27] Wolryche and the others wrote to Ottley the next day, offering to stand bail so that Birch could carry on his business with the local gentry until the following Thursday.

[30] Wolryche, Cresset and Acton, however, showed their loyalty to the royalist cause on 28 January by having a villager committed to the assizes for "speaking of words tending to high tresson.

Corbet was persuaded to begin drilling the young men of the town and the surrounding area for its defence, although it was to Ottley he wrote on 5 February for support and validation.

[3] His progress was marked by a report from Walter James, Ottley's informant at Newport, Shropshire, that he had insisted on opening the posts between Birmingham and Nantwich,[34] apparently discovering material of interest.

On his return, Wolryche was faced in May by a much more rigorous set of demands from the town council, based on a directive from Lord Capell, the regional royalist commander: Francis Billingsley seems to have brought a measure of professionalism to the defence of Bridgnorth.

In June he wrote to Capell to denounce a constable of Halesowen,[36] then in Shropshire, who had been insufficiently vigorous in levying taxation, requisitioning and conscripting for the king.

Nevertheless, when a relative, Gilbert Warley, protested to him about the exactions of a royalist foraging party on his neighbours, Wolryche was quick to write to Ottley, asking for his help in recovering horses stolen in the incident.

[3] The guidebook to Dudmaston, by transposing the parliamentary encirclement to 1644 and omitting to mention Wolryche's removal, implies that he was involved in the siege of the castle and the destruction of the town.

This was in response to a volley of stones rained on them by the townspeople as they were retreating into the castle,[43] suggesting that the population generally was hostile to the royalist occupation, at least by this stage.

[3] Evidently Ursula Ottley too returned to the parental home for the first few births, as it is the Pitchford parish register that records the baptism of the first child, Margaret, on 30 May 1626,[13] of Francis, the first son, on 21 October 1627,[45] of Roger on 14 December 1628, as well as the much younger Andrew on 25 April 1644.