Background
Cholmondeley was born as Mary Holford in late 1562 or January 1563 to Christopher Holford and Elizabeth Mainwaring in Holford, Great Budworth, Cheshire, England and christened (baptised) on 20 January 1563.
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Mary Cholmondeley
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Career
She was the wife of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, the younger and had eight children with him. Cholmondeley came to notice following the legal disputes over Holford Manor and the estates of her father, Christopher Holford, who died on 27 January 1581. His half-brother, George Holford of Newborough, was the next male-heir of the Holfords, but the recently married Mary challenged his legal claim to the land.
The lawsuit between them went on for forty years.
Finally, around 1620, they came to a settlement, under which Mary Cholmondeley received the Holford manorhouse and George Holford received the manor of Iscoit in Flintshire. The case was not settled but intercession led to Mary agreeing to share the estate with those who disputed her title.
However it was Mary that inherited the manor. She renovated and enlarged the Holford manorhouse.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Mary Cholmondeley bought Vale Royal Abbey and its surrounding land.
She built an Elizabethan house on the site, rebuilt the old hall, and in 1625 added a lath and plaster wing. She lived at Vale Royal from 1616 to her death.
