From the reign of Henry II, Betton was the property of the le Strange family and came to bear their name to distinguish it from Betton-in-Hales in North Shropshire. In the late fourteenth century it passed to the co-heiress daughters of Fulk le Strange. Of these, Margaret relinquished her interest, leaving the estates – including Longnor (q.v.) – to be divided between her sisters Johanna, wife of John Carles, and Eleanor, wife of Edward de Acton. One descendant of the two families, Thomas Corbett of Longnor, sold his moiety of the manor of Betton Strange in 1544 to John Mackworth, ancestor of the Mackworth baronets. In the following year, Mackworth was able to buy the other moiety from the other le Strange descendant, William Acton of Aldenham.

As a result of these acquisitions, Betton – or more precisely, Betton Grange and the lands to the east of the settlement – became the seat of the Mackworths, until it was inherited by Bulkeley Mackworth (1653– 1731), son of Thomas Mackworth (1627–1696) and his wife Anne (d. 1666), daughter and heiress of Richard Bulkeley of Buntingsdale. Bulkeley Mackworth came into the Buntingsdale estate (q.v.), through his mother, building the present house there, to which he removed.

The Mackworth family continued to own property at Betton and neighbouring Sutton until the 1770s, when Bulkeley Mackworth’s great-nephew, Sir Herbert Mackworth 1st Bt (1736–1791), sold the family’s lands at Betton, Sutton and Cronkhill to Thomas Hill of Tern, and they became part of what was to become the Attingham estate. Betton Grange remained a part of Attingham until 1921 when it was sold to William Gibbs.

Some land at Betton Strange did not belong to the Mackworths and, in 1585, was conveyed by Edward Betton to Richard Heynes. Heynes was able to make further purchases in 1590 and 1591 to create a small estate which descended in his family.

In 1676 Jonathan Scott (1647–1716), a Shrewsbury draper and Mayor of the town in 1689, purchased the estate from Edward Heynes for £470, and made a further purchase of property at Betton two years later. Tellingly, Scott was styled ‘gentleman’ rather than ‘esquire’ in the first conveyance. Scott was of a family that claimed descent from a younger son of the Scotts of Scotts Hall in Kent, and his great-grandfather, Richard Scott (1544–1628), was the first of the family to settle in Shrewsbury.