The manor's occupants. On the death of Richard de Offini, Lord of West Bromwich in the mid 13th century, the manor was divided between his two daughters, Sarah, the wife of Walter Devereux, and Margaret, by 1275 the wife of Richard de Marnham of Bromwich.
The hall was originally built by the De Marnham family. John De Marnham's heirs include William Freeman, son of sister Isabel. In 1424 Freeman settled the manor on his daughter Alice, widow of William Freebody of Dudley. Their son, William Freebody, held the manor at his death in 1437 and was succeeded by his son William, who was then aged ten. By 1515 the manor was held by the younger William's granddaughter, Cecily, born in 1502.
Through Cecily the manor passed into the hands of the Stanley family. John Stanley, born about 1482 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, was the son of George Stanley, a former High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Eleanor Dudley Beaumont, the widow of Sir Henry Beaumont of Wednesbury, Staffordshire, and daughter of the 1st Baron Dudley. On the death of his father-in-law, John Stanley acquired in his wife's right, the manor and estate of West Bromwich, holding it from Sir William Jervis by military service, and a rent of 22 pence per year. Following John's death in 1533, the manor was then passed down through several generations of the Stanley family, including Walter Stanley (1547–1613).
Under the terms of his will in 1614, Walter Stanley, a puritan, left property situated within the parishes of Erdington, Sutton Coldfield and Aston to endow a lectureship for the parish of West Bromwich. This provided for a clergyman to preach every Sunday and on the principal feasts and to visit the sick. He was to be an Oxford or Cambridge graduate, single, and not beneficed elsewhere. Besides the lands in Warwickshire, property in Wednesbury was subsequently added to the endowment together with further assets in 1662. The trust was reorganised by Act of Parliament in 1819, and in 1845 was still providing £151 (some 27%) of the minister's annual income. There was another organisation by Act of Parliament in 1949 and the 'Walter Stanley Trust' continues to support the parish of West Bromwich to this day.
In 1622 William Stanley who had inherited the estate in 1613, mortgaged the manor to his cousin, Richard Shelton (knighted in 1625) and Sir William Hewitt. Richard Shelton was made Solicitor General in 1625 by Charles I but was later pressured to resign in favour of Sir Edward Littleton. Shelton retired to the manor of West Bromwich, died in 1647, and was buried at West Bromwich. The manor eventually passed to his nephew, John Shelton who died in 1665 and was succeeded by his son, also John, a minor, whose inheritance is said to have been squandered by his stepfather. In 1713 the manor and estate were put up for sale by Chancery. John died in 1714, and his son Joseph inherited his embarrassments. In 1715 with the Sheltons in desperate circumstances all or most of the demesne lands were "neither set, mowed, nor grazed that year, but the product thereof rolled upon the ground". In 1720 the manor was sold to Sir Samuel Clarke, a London merchant whose family held the manor for almost a century. Thomas Clarke died mad in 1809, and his property was sold under a Chancery order of 1819. The manorial rights with property worth some £580 a year were bought by the Earl of Dartmouth in 1823.
