The senior representative of the elder branch (Plowden of Plowden) was (up to 1914) William Francis Plowden
of Plowden (1853-1914), who married in 1874 Lady Mary Dundas, sister to the 1st Marquis of Zetland, Viceroy
of Ireland (1889-1892). Mr. William Plowden was succeeded by his eldest son Francis Charles, who died from
wounds received in the Great War, Aug. 22, 1918. He was succeeded by his brother Roger Edmund Joseph,
born 1879, M.F.H., who married in 1918 Mary Cholmondeley (now dead). He has one son and three daughters.
Plowden Hall, near Bishop's Castle in the parish of Lydbury North, in the county of Salop, is rich in pictures,
including a reputed Vandyke and a portrait by Sir Peter Lely of Queen Mary of Modena, and a portrait of Dorothea
Phillips and her sister by Angelica Kauffman. Plowden Hall still has the priests' hiding places (so useful in penal
times) and the wig-stands outside the bedrooms. A relic of the reputed True Cross has been in the domestic
chapel of the house since 1740. This relic was shown to Mr. Plowden-Wardlaw by Mr. Plowden in August, 1908.