The Dudmaston estate had passed by inheritance until its generous gifting, in 1978, by Lady Labouchere to the National Trust.

The de Dudmaston heiress, Margaret, married William Wolryche of Much Wenlock in 1403 and so carried the property to a family that had been established in Shropshire since at least the thirteenth century. The Wolryches were said to have been descended from a Saxon ancestor, Ulrich, from whose name ‘Wolryche’ had mutated. No images survive of the early house on the estate, although it was quite probably a building of organic growth which, by 1673, was recorded as having twenty-four hearths. Parts of this earlier building are possibly included in the kitchens and other parts of the present southern service wing.

In the sixteenth century, Francis Wolryche (1563–1614) – whose portrait is the earliest of the family surviving at Dudmaston – married Margaret Bromley and their status is suggested by the sophisticated tomb-chest in St Andrew’s Church at Quatt. Surmounted by their recumbent effigies, it has sophisticated strapwork ornamented heraldry to the side of the base, and fully modelled Tuscan columns at its corners.

Francis and Margaret’s eldest son, Thomas (1598–1668), was only sixteen at his father’s death but, soon after coming of age, was elected MP for Bridgnorth and served the town until 1625. A Royalist, he was knighted by Charles I and, soon after, created a baronet, becoming Governor of Bridgnorth for the King at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. Afterwards, in 1655, Sir Thomas was recorded as having been compounded for the sum of £730 14s. Married to Ursula Ottley of Pitchford, he was a keen herald, mathematician and historian, according to his informative monument in Quatt parish church. This also notes how, as a supposed descendant of Ulrich or Ulriic, he appropriately died on the Feast of St Ulric, July 4th 1668.

His elder son, Francis (1627–89), who married Elizabeth Wrottesley and produced two daughters, became second baronet yet was mentally unstable and so the management of the estates passed to Sir Thomas’s fifth son, John.

John Wolryche married Mary Griffith (d. 1678), a keen musician and daughter of a chaplain to Charles I and II who is commemorated by a further fine monument in the church at Quatt.