It is an old gentry family which claims descent from Eadric the Wild and is related to other Weld branches in several parts of the United Kingdom, notably from Willey, Shropshire and others in the Antipodes and America.
[4] Edward Weld and his wife Dame Maria née Vaughan, of the Welsh Bicknor exclave in Herefordshire had four sons and a daughter.
In 1775 he married the impecunious Maria Smythe, a cousin by marriage, later Mrs Fitzherbert and the morganatic wife of the Prince of Wales.
As a result, the Lulworth and other estates were ceded to the third and next surviving son of Thomas and Mary, who was Joseph Weld (1777-1863).
His best known boat was The Arrow, which took part in the first America's Cup race in 1851 under the ownership of Thomas Chamberlayne.
[7] Following the Reformation the Blundells became recusants and kept their Catholic faith and were subjected to the consequent hardships and hazards.
[8][9] They should not be confused with the Anglican merchant Blundells, one of whom, Bryan (c. 1675-1756), was a prominent mariner and slave trader.
Despite the penal restrictions placed on Catholics, the Blundell family acquired more assets either by legal transactions or dowries from advantageous marriages.
[12] In 1761 Robert Blundell moved from the house to Liverpool, and the estate passed to his eldest son, Henry (1724–1810).
After his death, most of the paintings were sold, and the collection of antiquities given to the National Museums Liverpool and put on show in the Walker Art Gallery.
Meanwhile, the Grade II* listed Ince Blundell Hall in Lancashire, still owned by a branch of the Welds, was sold in 1959 partly to the local council for housing and the hall to an order of nuns, the Canonesses of Saint Augustine, to run it as a nursing home.