Thomas Vernon (lawyer)

When a student, Thomas was fortunate to have caught the eye of one of the leading chancery lawyers of the day, Sir Anthony Keck.

Within five years of being called to the bar, Vernon had enough spare money to start investing in property, and later in life, he left a list of his purchases.

Unlike Thomas Vernon, Acherley seems to have been in constant financial trouble, and in 1717 his brother-in-law paid him £8,650 for an estate in Shropshire that he had bought earlier.

For one thing, the extensive murals in the hall and staircase were painted by Sir James Thornhill and were completed in 1710 (as shown by a representation of Dr Sacheverell), and it seems unlikely that Vernon would have waited nine years to finish the interior decoration.

Hanbury Hall was later criticized by the family friend Dr Treadway Nash as being of an outmoded form of architecture with many small rooms, and substantial alterations were undertaken inside by a later occupant Henry Cecil, who had married the heiress Emma Vernon in 1776.

The main effect of these was to increase the size of the interior rooms, but the outside of the hall has been little altered and is today very much like its original form over 300 years ago.

Although it is true that it was not well drafted (ironic in view of Vernon's career), the Court of Chancery dismissed the case on the grounds that the testator's wishes were clear even if there were some irregularities in the wording.

But Acherley was reluctant to give up, and took the case to the House of Lords in 1726, but with a similar result, thus leaving Bowater Vernon free to enjoy his magnificent inheritance.