Papers in the Soulton collection act as a documentary bridge between:
- the landownership history of this manor,
- the source material for a Shakespearean play, and
- the lives and influence on theater of several Tudor figures.
For this reason, perhaps most prized amoung the Soulton papers is the The Soulton Rental which chronicled the 16th century story of this manor.  This document connects:
- ‘Old’ Sir Rowland Hill,
- Sir Thomas Lodge (and hence his son Thomas Lodge Jr), and
- William Shakespeare and his play As You Like It
in a couple of interesting ways, which may be briefly set out as follows:
Land ownership: The Soulton estate belonged to the Lodge family, of which Thomas Lodge Jr was a member. Through property transactions, the estate was directly transfered to Sir Rowland Hill, who built the current hall and was a remarkable statesman, polymath, merchant and patron of art and philanthropist
Source material: Thomas Lodge wrote the novel “Rosalynde” (1590), which served as the primary source material for Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
Character name change: Intriguingly Shakespeare changed the name of an important character in As You Like It from ‘John’ (in Lodge’s novel) to ‘Old Sir Rowland’. This superficially minor alteration underlines Shakespeare’s awareness of the connection between the play, the source material, and the Soulton estate.
William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, was also a cousion of Soulton’s Old Sir Rowland.
Architectural influence: Studies suggest Sir Rowland Hill incorporated elements of classical theatrical spaces into the architectural design of his residence at Soulton. This underlines our Old Sir Rowland’s interest in the arts, theatrical performance, and Shakespeare’s work a generation on from his own.
The Signatures of Old Sir Rowland Hill and Sir Thomas Lodge on the 1500s Soulton Papers
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The Ashton family deposited the Soulton Rental in the safekeeping of Shropshire Archives in the 1960s. They are there under the shelf reference 3421/1.
Since the document is significant beyond this manor, and some may find the originals difficult to access in Shrewsbury, this will provide easier access, a digital copy of the rental, along with the 1960s calendar of the document, will be added to this page shortly.
You can view The Soulton Rental digitally using the link below:
