William Gibbons of New Hall died in 1543, and his son Thomas inherited. The land at New Hall consisted of only a few fields near to the hall, but Thomas took advantage of a clause in the Town Charter of Sutton allowing him to take in and cultivate over forty acres of the commons, with a farmhouse at Warren House. He was a wealthy man, and added a very expensive and showy new wing to New Hall with costly glass windows and ornate ceilings.
The next Thomas Gibbons, who inherited New Hall in 1575, developed the estate further. In 1575 the old manorial water mill at the bottom of Mill Street still had the monopoly of milling all the Sutton corn. The lessee of the Manor Mill was Gibbons’ cousin, Thomas Keen - Gibbons’ grandmother Agnes was Bishop Vesey’s sister, while Keen’ great-grandfather was Vesey’s brother Hugh Harman. Thomas Gibbons was Warden of Sutton Coldfield in 1582, so that when he bought the lease of the mill from his cousin for £380, he persuaded the corporation to agree that he was now the outright owner and no longer bound by the monopoly. This left him free to build a new mill at New Hall, at the same time draining the New Hall Valley so converting its marshy scrubland into productive meadows.
Under his father’s will Thomas inherited a house in Sutton called The Hollies, but probate was not granted until 1591 so it was probably then that went to live permanently at The Hollies and sold New Hall to his brother William for £1,000. William died in 1593, leaving his widow Mary in charge at New Hall, where she died in 1608. Ownership passed jointly to her sons and her brother-in-law Thomas until the whole estate was sold to Henry Sacheverell in 1610 for £1880. Henry bought New Hall for his son Valens, who was only six years old in 1610, and it is probable that Francis Gibbons, son of Thomas, continued to live there with his wife Ursula for a time.
In 1626 the widow Ursula Gibbons was living in a big house in High Street (possibly The Hollies), which was later sold to the Rector of Sutton, John Burges, for his wife Lettice. (Lettice was descended from Hugh Harman, Bishop Vesey’s brother, while Ursula’s husband was descended from Agnes Harman, Vesey’s sister). Burges demolished the old house and was building a new house on the site in 1639 - now known as Vesey House, 5 High Street.
