The first Hodgetts were Henry and Thomas. They were tenants of the two de Somery sisters who each inherited half the Barony of Dudley in 1323. Margaret (the wife of John de Sutton) inherited Sedgley Manor and Dudley Castle. Joan (the widow of Thomas de Botetourt) inherited lands around Clent, Handsworth, and Kinver Forest.
Henry Hodgetts was one of Joan’s wealthy tenants. He would have practised the long bow every Sunday after church, fought for Joan as required, and attended her manorial court every three weeks at Weoley Castle. Thomas Hodgetts was a Sedgley tenant. His relationship to Henry is unknown, but he was under the tax threshold so, if related, was a junior member of the family.
John de Sutton became Baron of Dudley by virtue of his marriage to Margaret. Soon afterwards, he was gaoled for rebellion, and the castle was confiscated. De Sutton spent five years in gaol and—even when released—did not regain the castle immediately.
At this point, Thomas Hodgetts was among a group of de Sutton’s tenants who entered Sedgley Manor, poached deer, and assaulted the king’s servants. Soon afterwards the castle was returned to de Sutton, and the charges against his tenants were dropped.
De Sutton’s imprisonment had involved legal costs, favours, and bribes. He owed £3000 to John de Cherleton of Wales. In this era, marriage was more business transaction than romance so, once John de Sutton regained Dudley Castle, he used it in a marriage settlement between his son—John de Sutton II—and de Cherleton’s daughter Isabella.
John de Sutton senior died shortly after the marriage. John de Cherleton now regarded Dudley Castle as his own. However, de Sutton also owed Joan de Botetourt £6000) and she objected to de Cherleton’s occupation. Henry of Clent (possibly Henry Hodgetts) was among her men who harrassed de Cherleton who then brought in Welsh troops. Joan led the enraged locals in besieging him. Two Welshmen were killed in the siege, but Joan’s men were all acquitted and her claim on the estate was upheld.
John de Sutton II fought against the Scots in 1333-1334 and was knighted as a result. His outright ownership of Dudley Castle was confirmed in 1340 (Joan de Botetourt having died). He evidently still owed his father-in-law money as—only days after regaining the castle—he settled it on Isabella for life.
William Hodgetts – Murder and the Battle of Crecy
Sir John de Sutton engaged in a long-running feud with the tenants of Wolverhampton. They stole his goods and attacked his tenants—cutting out tongues, slicing noses, and plucking out one man’s eye. When Sir John set out on a reprisal in 1345, William Hodgetts was with him. Together they murdered six men in a field “with spears and swords, by diverse mortal wounds in the throat and body.”
Their arrest was ordered, but King Edward III was making a bid for the French throne and could not afford to ostracise one of his knights, so he granted military pardons to Sir John de Sutton and his men. William Hodgetts therefore embarked for war, pardoned of “all homicides, felonies and robberies committed in England.” He had to be willing to fight for a year at his own (or perhaps Sir John’s) expense.
William Hodgetts was with the army when it landed in Normandy in 1346 and ravaged undefended towns. When the French advanced, the English made a stand at Crécy. Wave after wave of French attacked, but the English had chosen a strong defensive position and their skilled archers led a convincing victory.
French losses were estimated at 14,000 of their 35,000 men, and English losses at only 200 of 16,000 men. A year-long siege of Calais ensued.
The Black Death & Afterwards
The Black Death halted hostilities in France and William Hodgetts probably returned to England but the contagion soon broke out there as well. It devastated the region and almost halved the population around Dudley, but William Hodgetts survived.
When the king resumed his French campaigns, William Hodgetts fought at Reims under the Black Prince in 1359. Peace broke out the following year and the army returned home, many soldiers rich with plunder.
The Hodgetts men above appear to be the forbears of the Hodgetts branches in the Dudley region, but relationships are unknown. As more records become available, the connection may be confirmed.
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Sources & Notes
- Hodgetts Timeline 1
- Royal Forest of Kinver: Heritage Gateway, retrieved 8/8/2026
- 1300s England Edmund King, Medieval England, The British Library, 2001, chp6.
- 1300s Sedgley E.A. Underhill, The Story of the Ancient Manor of Sedgley, p48-59.
- Pardons, Battle of Crecy and Riems
- King, p154
- Brittanica, retrieved 18/7/2022.
- Black Death
- Zvi Razi, Life, Marriage and Death in a Medieval Parish, Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp117-118;
- King, p163.