The Verneys are an interesting microcosm of English social history. They began, like many of their kind, as city merchants, and then bought gentle status by acquiring landed estates in Buckinghamshire and Hertford- shire in the 15th century. Later, they emerged as minor stars at the courts of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, before briefly entering the peerage in the 18th century. The three centuries in which the Verneys struggled to maintain their name and estates were punctuated by the usual setbacks which affected ambitious aristocratic families, and some unusual ones as well. Sir Francis Verney of Penley died in poverty in Sicily in 1615, after abandoning his wife and fleeing to North Africa, where he converted to Islam and and took to piracy. In the late 18th century, Ralph Earl Verney went about attended by negro footmen blowing on silver horns, and dissipated most of the family fortune in building, gambling and speculation. In between these disasters, the Verneys had their full share of feckless heirs, most of whom were good enough to die before succeeding to their estates; rootless younger sons plying their trade as mercenaries from Ireland to Germany for want of land to support their position; city traders, compelled to make their way by their wits; and cast-off girls who either made lucrative marriages or sank into the anonymous obscurity of middle class existence. The line died out in 1810.
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