Born at Hackney, Middlesex, in 1507, Sir Ralph Sadleir was a man of great importance and substance in public affairs in addition to being a gallant soldier. During the minority of Edward VI he was appointed one of His Majesty\'s twelve principal Secretaries of State and had previously been employed by Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII in diplomacy with Scotland. Under the Protector Somerset he distinguished himself at the Battle of Pinkie on September loth, 1547.

A keen sportsman, his passion for the art of falconry was great, and on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1588 he was appointed her Chief Falconer. It is on record that being deputed by the Queen to guard Mary, Queen of Scots at Tutbury Castle (1584-85) his fondness for hawking was so great that "he could not refrain from it, nor from allowing his prisoner to join in the sport." For this dereliction of duty he was severely reprimanded by Elizabeth.

His acquisition of Everleigh was no doubt influenced by his ruling passion, for on these wide open spaces the sport flourished as it did nowhere else in England. He is reputed to have been the builder of Everleigh Manor House.

In the "Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes" published in 1893, there is a treatise on Falconry by the Hon. Gerald Lascelles who has this to say of Sir Ralph. "The abode which he selected to follow his favourite sport, and for the better training of Her Majesty's falcons was Everley in Wiltshire, now the seat of Sir J. D. Astley". In the old Manor House there is a portrait of Sir Ralph in the court costume of the period, with a falcon on his hand wearing a jewelled hood. Not far from the Manor House is the old chalk pit, to this day known as Sadleir's Pit, where tradition says that a member of the Chief Falconer's family met his death by unwarily galloping over its precipitous edge while eagerly following a flight."

Sir Ralph himself died peacefully in his bed at his main residence at Standon, Hertfordshire, at the age of eighty, full of years and honour. Sir Walter Scott observes of him "The extent of his lands obtained him the character of the richest commoner in England" and Lloyd, a 17th century writer, in his "Memoirs of the Favourites and Statesmen of England" says this. "He saw the interest of the State altered six times and died an honest man; the Crown put upon four heads, yet he continued a faithful subject; religion changed as to the public constitution of it, five times, yet he kept the faith.

A descendant of Sir Ralph, Major F. Sadleir Stoney, R.A., published in 1877 his "A Memoir of the Life and Times of Sir Ralph Sadleir" and in this is given an "Inquisition" on his property at the time of his death.

This was taken on June 13th, 1587, and according to Anthony Wood, the antiquary, Sir Ralph died possessed of twenty-three manors, several parsonages and other great parcels of land in the counties of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Buckingham, Worcester and Hereford. There is no mention of Everleigh among the manors. He was survived by three sons, Thomas, who succeeded him at Standon, Edward, of Temple Dinsley, also in Hertfordshire, and Henry, of Everley. It is probable that Everley was bestowed on Henry during Sir Ralph's lifetime as he seems to have inherited his father's passion for hawking. If it were so bestowed this would account for there being no mention of the property in Sir Ralph's "Inquisition" or will. Henry married a certain Dorothy Gilbert or Gylbert of Everley, and was also an authority on hawking and the art of falconry.

A book written by Symon Latham, who was Henry's falconer entitled "Faulconry, or the Faulcon's Lure and Cure" was published in 1618, and in this he sneaks of his employer in these terms; "the right worshipful) master, Henry Sadleir, of Everley who was my first and loving master, and from whom I had my art and understanding skewed me, obscuring no rules or skill from me, wherein he was nothing inferior then to any gentleman whatever, of his reputation or reckoning." This book of Latham's is one of the oldest and most famous works on the subject of falconry.

Henry Sadleir also found time to take part in public affairs as he is recorded as having been one of the Justices who presided at the Quarter Sessions held at Marlborough, Devizes and Calne during the years 1590 to 1592. He died in March 1618.

The name of Sadleir is first mentioned in the Parish Registers in 1599 one year after they were commenced, and the last entry is in 1631.