Heritage
This history of the Moreby Hall estate dates back to 1335 where Sir Robert de Moreby appears on the records. His ancestor, also Sir Robert de Moreby, had a daughter who married Sir William Acclom (or Acklam) in the 15th century. The Accloms then took up residence at the original Moreby Hall.
Stillingfleet's church, St Helen's, includes a memorial to John Acclom of Moreby who died 1611, and of his wife, Isabel. The church has a section called Moreby Chapel, the burial site for the de Moreby family, dating to the era of Edward III.
The house was next owned by the Lawson family. Reverend George Lawson, was succeeded in turn by his son, also George Lawson, who in 1636 married the daughter of Marmaduke Boswell. Their son, Marmaduke Lawson, had two sons, but no grandchildren. Marmaduke's wife, Susannah, was the daughter of John Preston, the Mayor of Leeds in 1692. The estate then passed to Susannah's nephew, Thomas Preston, who in turned passed it to his nephew, Henry Preston (1779-1857).
In 1814, Henry Preston married Maria, the eldest daughter of Joshua Compton of Esholt Hall in Yorkshire. Preston, the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, commissioned architect Anthony Salvin to build a new manor in 1828. The cost of the construction, completed in 1832, was £40,000 equivalent to £3.6m in 2021.
Moreby Hall was Salvin's second major country house in the Tudor style, which Pevsner notes is "highly accomplished work for one not yet thirty."
Today Moreby Hall stands as a testament to Henry Preston and the trust he placed in Anthony Salvin to create one of the finest surviving examples of gothic revival.