Evening star., 1923-09-20
C1lrzon Finds SOn.in-Law y
No Mean Foe in Politics

sense thereof is shown by his deep
anection for his daughter, Lady Gym
! thia, and his unconcealed liking for
| his embarrassing son-in-law.
The Mosleys are a family that for
| many centuries, have been in the
public eye through their hereditary
/ aversion TO mo1<otony and Gommon-
| place and by their tendency to mix
! things up and to start something"
! As family. they have always been
| distinguished by a strain of wildness
and some of them have had the most
| extraordinary ups and downs. In
! deed, the marvellous adventures and
| romanceS of the MoSleys would fl
! volumes, and have furnished themes
| for many novelist, including Charles
! Dickens, One of the Mosleys, the
Rev. Sir John Mosley, as the result
| Of being crossed in love, developed
| Dickens Mr.. Mopes. lived in one
room in his big house and refused
| entrance to any other person. His
! food was passed to him through a
| grating, so that he might not look
upon a woman's face He hated the
entire sex with the most savage de
testation, and, in his gardens he had
| covered walk built of bricks so
that he might take exercise in the
air without being seen. He planted
a held OF mixed pepper and sugar to
typify love, which shows that there
was some method in the old parsons
madness.
The Mosleys are descended from
Erndal de Mosley, who f1ourished in
Staffordshire as local magnate in
the reign of King John, Sir Nicholas
Mosley was lord mayor of London in
1899, and his son was one of the lead
ing cavaliers of King Charles in his
war against Oliver Cromwell and
the latter's .roundheads. 1t was this
Sir Nicholas Mosley who. before clos
ing a mortgage which the then Lord
De Laware had placed in his hands
as security. for a debt of $4,000 Oh
tanned from him his lordship of the
Manor of Manchester. Thanks to these
manorial rights, the Mosleys were
able to control for the subsequent
three hundred years or more the
markets of Manchester, which had
meanwhile become a huge city and a
great industrial and commercial cen
ter. The Mosleys derived enormous
revenues therefrom. Finally. a sort
of civic rebellion against their mo-
nopoly broke out at Manchester, and,
after much costly litigation, in the
course of which the Mosleys were
! held UP to public obloquy as reac-
tionary landed magnates, whose
greed stood in the way of the de-
l.
| industry, compromise was effected
whereby the Mosleys sold their man
orial rights to the city of Manchester
for sum of several millions of
pounds sterling. This was during fhe
| lifetime of the late Sir Oswald Mos
ley's father.
: One Of the most characteristic fights
| of the Mosleys was that between The
late Sir Oswald and the parish church
of Rollaston. The latter. a beautiful
| old edihce, has a total of three hun
dred and eighty seats. When Sir Ed
ward Mosley, in 1916, acquired the
| lordship of the Manor of Rollaston, he
likewise acquired the rights of patron
| of the church and to the occupation
| of no less than eighty of the seats
| of the church, that is to say, of the
| entire best portion of the main aisle.
1t was always understood that such of
! the pews as were not occupied by the
| family and servants of the lord of
| the manor were at the disposal of the
remainder of the congregation. One
| day, however, the late Sir Oswald
quarreled with the rector, whom he
! himself had nominated to tho bene-
! flee, and in order to get even with
! him he withdrew all previous con
! cessions with regard to his pews,
/ barring the remainder of the congre-
1
4 ice, even If both he and his family
and his household were absent, and
| they remained empty. The parish
naturally sided with the rector, who
| happened to be the brother of the
late Lord Berners and the brother-in
law of Lord Knollys, the veteran pri-
vate secretary and most trusted re-
| tainer of King Edward. The courts
had difficulty in determining the is
sue, since Sir Oswald was within his
4 Irn Hia Tiu re ~ nrd nf in nnn
| Finally, however, compromise took
place which was virtually forced upon
| Sir Oswald by public sentiment which
| had been aroused, throughout the
| country. against him.
| That helps to explain why the Mos
/ leys are not popular in Staffordshire
and why they should have just dis
posed Of their Roliaston estates, their
home for three hundred years or
lmore, should be transferring their
rural abode to their estates in Sus-
sex near Pulborough.