Residents of Felbridge Park aka Felbridge Place
After recently Revisiting Felbridge Place concentrating on the development of the park, grounds and mansion house (see Handout, Felbridge Place Revisited, SJC/JIC 03/22), it became apparent that some of the people associated with the property warranted further research. This document, therefore, covers the lives of some of the residents of, and people associated with, Felbridge Place, formerly known as Felbridge Park, including: Col. Edward Evelyn and James Evelyn, John Nicholls and Francis ‘Frank’ Nicholls, Stileman Bostock, the Hon. Lady Jane Long and Brigadier-General William Houstoun/Houston, Robert Jenner, Isaac Dupuy, Charles Devon and Caroline Elizabeth Parsons and General the Hon. Frederick St John.
Col. Edward Evelyn and James Evelyn
Although the Evelyn family (see Handout, Evelyn Family of Felbridge, JIC/SJC 09/13), in particular the lives of Col. Edward Evelyn and his son James Evelyn, have been well documented in previous handouts, it would be remiss of us if they were was not included to some degree, in this document considering they were responsible for the creation of Felbridge Park by 1748 and the construction of the mansion house at Felbridge Park in 1763.
Edward Evelyn was born in 1681, one of eight children of George Evelyn (1641-1699) and his second wife, Margaret née Webb, daughter of William Webb of London (see Handout, Evelyn Family of Felbridge, JIC/SJC 09/13). On retirement from a military career (see Handout, The Commonplace Book of Colonel Edward Evelyn, JIC/SJC 09/07), Edward Evelyn purchased Heath Hatch and Felbridge from his brother William Evelyn-Glanville (1687-1766) in 1719 and set about creating a family home and, after the purchase of Hedgecourt manor in 1741 he created Felbridge Park (see Handouts, Park Corner Farm, SJC 05/09 & Garden Designers & Horticulturalists of Felbridge , Pt. 1, the Horticultural Legacy of the Evelyn and Gatty families, SJC 05/19). On the death of Edward Evelyn of Heath Hatch and Felbridge in 1751, his son James inherited the estate.
James Evelyn was the only surviving son of Edward Evelyn (1681-1751) and his wife Julia née Butler (c1687-1771), the daughter of the James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, being born at Felbridge in August 1718. James married first, Annabella Medley and they had a daughter called Julia Annabella born at Felbridge in 1757, but sadly Annabella died a year later in 1758. James’s second marriage was to Jane Fane née Cust (a widow) in 1761 and they had a daughter called Ann born in 1767. Sadly Ann died aged just 23, after her gown caught fire, the incident believed to have happened at Felbridge. This tragic accident left James’ only surviving daughter Julia, sole heir to his estate on his death in 1793.
Although the Felbridge estate was to remain in the ownership of descendents of the Evelyn family for the next 63 years it was to pass down the generations through the female line and as such was no longer the main residence, so ending the direct association of the Evelyn family with Felbridge that had begun with its purchase in 1588, as part of the manor of Godstone, by George Evelyn of Kingston, Long Ditton, Godstone and Wotton, that had lasted for 250 years (see Handout, Evelyn Family of Felbridge, JIC/SJC 09/13).
Evelyn of Felbridge Family Tree
[contact us to obtain the illustrated version]
During the absence of a resident Evelyn family member, FelbridgePark and mansion house had a series of tenants and the following are some of the more interesting people associated with the property.
John Nicholls and Francis ‘Frank’ Nicholls
In 1801, John Nicholls Esq. of Epsom, sometime MP for Bletchingley and son of Dr Francis (Frank) Nicholls, Physician to George II, is recorded as paying an annual rent of £157 12/- and the Land Tax of 19s 6d for ‘Felbridge house and Park’ (List of tenants of Evelyn estate, Ref: 3069/1, SHC).
John Nicholls was born in London on 16th March 1745, the second son of five children of Francis (known as Frank) Nicholls and his wife Elizabeth née Mead. Frank Nicholls (1699-1778) was physician to George III and Elizabeth (1707-1803) was the youngest daughter of Richard Mead (1673-1754), physician to George II and founder of the Foundling Hospital, London in 1739. John Nicholls was educated at Hertford School, Exeter College, Oxford and Lincoln’s Inn, were he was called to the bar in 1767 at the age of 22. A year earlier, on 19th May 1766, John had taken on the copyhold of a house in Church Street, Epsom, to which his parents came to live and stayed for the reminder of their lives. On their deaths they were both buried in Goring, Oxfordshire; the Goring estate, having been acquired by Frank Nicholls in 1752. The property in Epsom, plot 640 on the 1843 Tithe Map, stood where Church Street turned the corner into East Street. Unfortunately, the house and buildings were demolished and rebuilt by Thomas Clayton after 1839 and in 1848 the land and premises were sold to the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company; the location now indicated by the railway bridge crossing East Street (Epsom & Ewell History Explorer, https://eehe.org.uk/?p=60902).
John Nicholls married the grand-daughter of Rt. Rev. Edmund Gibson, although to date no further conclusive information on the marriage has yet been found other than her name was probably Lucy and that they had married by 1774. John had at least four children, Francis, also known as Frank, born in 1774, a second son (name not yet established but called to the bar in 1806), a younger son called John Frank (date of birth not yet established) (Epsom & Ewell History Explorer, https://eehe.org.uk/?p=60902) and a daughter, Lucy (date of birth not yet established) (Will of John Nicholls, 24th September, 1821, TNA PROB 11/1800, p118).
In 1783, John Nicholls was elected MP for Bletchingley and entered Parliament as a supporter of Lord Portland Whigs administration, joining the Whig Club in 1784. However, in 1887, John Nicholls ‘relinquished his friendship with the Duke of Portland’ and resigned his seat and became ever after in opposition to the political views of the day by championing political reform and the views of the people. In 1788/9, John Nicholls was in France witnessing at first-hand the upheaval of the French Revolution, a period of major social upheaval that began in 1787 and ended in 1799, which sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. The French Revolution demonstrated that common people could wield political power and utterly transform a nation, a concept totally at odds with the ruling classes of the English Parliament. In 1796, John Nicholls re-entered parliament as MP for Tregony, Cornwall, obsessed with the notion that the Whig aristocracy had upset the ‘balance of the constitution’ and were becoming ‘intolerable to the people’. Lady Elizabeth Holland (political hostess and the wife of Whig politician Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland), wrote in her Journal of 1797: ‘There is a strange man in the House of Commons, who is distinguished by being the particular object of the satire in the Anti-Jacobin [also known as the Weekly Examiner, an English newspaper devoted to opposing the radicalism of the French Revolution] and having devoted himself most especially to [George] Tierney [prominent opponent of William Pitt] during the last sessions, a Mr Nicholl [sic]. His opinions upon the state of Europe have at least the merit of singularity … Mr Nicholl ascribes all the disorders to the great families. ‘Aye sir,’ said he to Tierney, ‘unless they are crushed nothing can be done’. John Nicholls’ opinions and support for Charles Fox, in opposition, caused him to be a figure of ridicule and was frequently caricatured in publications of the late 1790’s. John Nicholls gave up his seat in 1802 (https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/nicholls-john-1744-1832).
As established above, in 1801, John Nicholls was leasing ‘Felbridge House and Park’ and in 1805 it is recorded that the lease, which expired circa 1808, was held of the ‘late Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh-Evelyn, Bart.’, husband of James Evelyn’s daughter Julia Annabella but, as both had died by 1804, Felbridge Park was actually held of their daughter, Julia Evelyn Medley. Although leased by John Nicholls in the early 1800’s, he was an absent leasee as it appears that he and several members of his family had got caught up in the Napoleonic Wars between 1803 and 1815. As such, in 1804, John Nicholls was recorded as ‘late of Felbridge Park, Sussex but now of Verdun within the French Republic’ when he appointed his eldest son Francis ‘Frank’ Nicholls of Westcombe House, Somerset, at the time residing at Felbridge Park, as his attorney for the sale of his house in Church Street, Epsom, ‘lately in the occupation of Mrs Elizabeth Nicholls, widow, deceased’ (Records of the Manor of Ebbisham 1663 to 1925, compiled by H.L. Lehmann, published Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, 1987). Son Francis ‘Frank’ Nicholls had matriculated at ChristChurch, Oxford in 1790 and became a barrister at law of Lincoln’s Inn during 1799; his father John described at the time as ‘of Whitchurch, Oxon’. In 1799, Frank had married Ann Katencamp, daughter of Herman Katencamp, ‘whose delicate state of health had never allowed them to send her from them for the advantages of education ... she dragged through two years of hopeless suffering, and having buried an infant of about three months old, she died soon after at Madeira, whither she went at her own request accompanied by her Mother and Husband’ (In Family Memorials, compiled by Anna W Merivale, 1884). In 1811, Frank Nicholls, widower, married Charlotte Thomas by licence at St Gluvias Church, Cornwall; both listed ‘of Penryn’. They had three children, Frank, John, and Charlotte.
Confirmation that John Nicholls was in Verdun can be found in 1805, when it was recorded that he was being detained in an internment camp in Verdun, listed as a ‘justice of the peace for the county of Oxford, one of two English magistrates’, then prisoners at Verdun (A Picture of Verdun, or the English detainees in France by James Lawrence, 1810). John Nicholls’ name also appears amongst Napoleon’s list of British Visitors and Captives, 1801-1815 (John Goldsworth Alger, 1904). There he is reported to have been allowed to ‘repair to’ [go to] Lyons. It was also recorded that in 1806, John Nicholls’ youngest son, John Frank Nicholls, was also allowed to go to a neighbouring town to marry ‘Miss Frances Mount’, the eldest daughter of Henry Mount. John Frank Nicholls had been admitted to the bar in 1800 and had accompanied his sick sister (possibly Lucy) to the South of France where she was to recover, but he was arrested in May 1803, writing from Toulouse to Lincoln’s Inn to say that he had been detained as a prisoner of war. Shortly after his marriage in 1806, John Frank Nicholls was appointed to the office of Solicitor General of Barbados, arriving in 6th November 1807, but sadly died within three weeks on 15th December in 1807, aged just 25 years (Monumental Inscriptions: Tombstones of the Island of Barbados, by Vere Langford Oliver).
By 1808, John Nicholls had relinquished his interest in FelbridgePark and by 1816 he and his daughter Lucy were living at Holland Street, Kensington; there is no mention of his wife so it is presumed that she had already died. On 15th April 1817, Lucy, ‘daughter of John Nicholls, Esq. of Kensington’, married the Rev. Theophilus Abauzit, a Huguenot Minister.
John Nicholls returned to France and died there during the spring of 1832, aged 87, recorded as ‘of Goring, Oxfordshire’. Although the Goring estate, acquired by his father Frank Nicholls, had been broken-up during 1819, John Nicholls had retained Goring Grove, which he left to his surviving elder son Francis ‘Frank’, with a financial settlement to his married daughter Lucy, by then wife of the Rev. Theophilus Abauzit (Will of John Nicholls, 24th September, 1821, Ref: PROB 11/1800, pgs. 118).
Stileman Bostock
Stileman Bostock’s association with FelbridgePark is that on 3rd June 1808, he granted a 4-year counterpart lease to Lady Jane Long of Carshalton, widow (Box 3151, SHC).
Stileman Bostock was born at Otford New Park in Kent in 1754, the son of Ellis Bostock (1725-1788) and his wife Sarah née Stileman (1725-). The manor of OtfordNewPark had been in his family since 1630 when Stileman’s great grandfather, Samuel Bostock, moved from Chevening in Cheshire (Victoria History of Kent). Stileman Bostock was baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Lingfield on 14th June 1754; his mother originating from Lingfield. Stileman Bostock was educated at CharterhouseSchool at Godalming in 1766, followed by University College Oxford from where he matriculated the age of 16, in 1771. He also attended KingsCollege, Aberdeen. By 1777 he had become a deacon, by 1778 a priest, and by June 1780 had become curate at St Swithuns in East Grinstead (History of East Grinstead by WallaceHills).
On 18th July 1780, Stileman Bostock married Catherine Bethune at St Swithuns; Catherine having been born in East Grinstead on 27th November 1751, the daughter of John Bethune, surgeon, and his wife Mildred née Thorpe. At the time of their marriage, Stileman gave his occupation as clerk. Stileman and Catherine had at least eleven children; Sarah born in 1782, Robert born in 1783, Catherine born in 1785, Anna born in 1786, John Stileman born in 1787, Clara born in 1789, James Bethune born in 1790, Ellis born in 1792, Elizabeth born in 1793, Thomas born in 1795 and Mary born in 1796; all baptised in East Grinstead. During the first two years of their married life, Stileman Bostock was Rector of St Peter ad Vincula, Folkington, Sussex, before returning to East Grinstead as vicar of St Swithuns and the Chapelry of Felbridge until 1811 (History of East Grinstead by Wallace Hills).
Upon researching the life of Stileman Bostock it is evident that at the time of issuing the lease, he lived at Sackville House in East Grinstead High Street, although he also owned or leased several other properties including Otford New Park, which he inherited on the death his father Ellis Bostock in 1788; Cold Harbour Farm and Finch Green Farms in the parishes of Penshurst and Chiddingstone, Kent (Morning Chronicle, Monday, 29th March 1819); the Rowfant estate, Pound Farm, Bower Place alias Mill Place and other lands in Worth, Sussex, together with lands in Horne, Godstone and Bletchingley in Surrey; leased, together with his father-in-law John Bethune of Westerham, Kent, from George Bethune of Rowfant in 1802 (ESRO SAS-F/349, NA); as well as ‘The Chequer (later Dorset Head), with gardens, orchards and portlands in the borough town of East Grinstead’ and a ‘Parcel of meadows or pasture land commonly known as Chequer Mead in the occupation of William Payne and 2 fields known as Pigeon House and Slaughter House and playfields with the lodge and other buildings then standing thereon’... (SHC 3151/1/3/14). Apart from being responsible for the Chapelry of Felbridge, Stileman Bostock was also Chief Steward for the manor of Hedgecourt, the manor at the core of the Felbridge estate, then owned by James Evelyn’s granddaughter Julia Evelyn Medley who had married the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, hence Bostock’s involvement with the Felbridge Park lease with Lady Jane Long in 1808.
Stileman Bostock died on 13th March 1811 and was buried at in St Swithuns’ churchyard. Catherine his wife died in 1818 and was buried along side her husband in the family vault.
Rt. Hon. Lady Jane Long and Brigadier-General William Houstoun/Houston
On the 3rd June 1808, a 4-year counterpart lease between Stileman Bostock, as Chief Steward, and Lady Jane Long of Carshalton was granted; the lease gives the earliest known description of Felbridge House, although it is only the ground floor (see Handout, Felbridge Place Revisited, SJC/JIC 03/22).
Lady Jane Long was born on 1st June 1769, the daughter of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale (1718-1789) and his wife Mary Turner née Lombe, Countess of Lauderdale (1749-?), and was baptised on 4th June 1769 at Ratho near Edinburgh. James gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel between 1745 and 1765 and held the office of Representative Peer [Scotland] between 1747 and 1761. Jane’s siblings included: Hannah (1750-1768), Elizabeth (1751-1827), Valdave Charles Lauder (1752-1754), later 6th Earl, Viscount Maitland, Mary Julian (1754-1795), James (1759-1839), later , 8th Earl Lauderdale, Thomas (1760-1824), John (1761-1768), Hannah Charlotte (1762-1804), William Mordaunt (1764-1841) and Isabel Anne (1772-1858) (https://www.thepeerage.com and relevant Parish Registers). Jane was described by her contemporaries as rather controversial in her dress and behaviour and a painting by Thomas Lawrence in 1793 depicts Jane, then a married woman aged 24, seated in a relaxed and informal manner with her hair loosely bound with a white ribbon, wearing a high-waisted, loosely fitted, blouson bodice, with the sleeves rolled-up, and a muslin overgown.
Jane married Samuel Long, at St Mary the Virgin, Walthamstow (historically in Essex) on 21st December 1787. Samuel Long had been born on 16th August 1746, the son of Beeston Long (1757-1820), a wealthy merchant and partner in the West India merchants’ firm Drake & Long (later Long, Drake & Dawkins), one-time Chairman of the London Dock Company and Governor of the Bank of England, and his wife Sarah née Crop(p) (1725-1780); Samuel’s brother was Charles Long (1760-1838), Lord Farnborough of Saxmundham, Suffolk. Samuel Long appears not to have been active in his father’s firm of Long, Drake & Dawkins of 17, Bishopsgate, which continued to flourish throughout Samuel’s lifetime. Instead, he settled in the country and entered a political career gaining a seat in Parliament in 1790 as MP for Illchester, Somerset. Unlike his brother Charles, who was already in the House, Samuel was influenced by his brother-in-law James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale and from 30th May, 1794, until the dissolution, he steadily opposed the war against France, voted for the repeal of the suspension of habeas corpus on 5th January 1795 and for an inquiry into the national finances on 10th March 1796. Thus, much like John Nicholls (see above), Samuel Long was listed as an opponent. He lost his seat in 1796 and did not seek re-election. He also served as Sheriff of the County of Surrey in 1790 (https://www.manfamily.org/).
Jane and Samuel Long had a house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London, and Carshalton Park House in Surrey (later home to the Colman mustard family but now demolished), and had at least three children; Samuel, born on 18th May 1799, Charles Maitland born on 16th August 1803 and Mary Turner born on 15th May 1805. Sadly Jane’s husband Samuel died on 19th October 1807, leaving her with three young children aged between eight and four. Eight months later, on 3rd June 1808, Lady Jane Long, then of Carshalton, took out a 4-year lease on Felbridge Park and within five months, married Brigadier-General William Houstoun/Houston on 5th November 1808. It has not yet been established as to why Lady Jane Long took out the lease on FelbridgePark, especially as the mansion house was so similar to that of Carshalton Park House. Perhaps as CarshaltonPark was a ‘Long family’ property Lady Jane felt she should move or perhaps she was aware that with her up-coming marriage to Brigadier-General William Houston she would be forced to vacate Carshalton Park House.
William Houston had been born on 10th August 1766, the only son of Andrew Houston of Renfrewshire, and his wife Nellie née Waddle. William Houston was a military man; he was commissioned into the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot as an ensign on 18th July 1781. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 2nd April 1782 and joined an unnumbered regiment raised as a temporary unit, being promoted to Captain within this unit on 13th March 1783. However, at the end of the American Revolutionary War the unit was disbanded and in 1783 he moved to the 77th Regiment of Foot, before joining the 19th Regiment of Foot on 20th July 1785. With the 19th he served in Jamaica until 1791 when they were transferred to Gibraltar. By the start of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, the regiment was back in England and were soon sent to serve in the Flanders campaign. Here William Houston was promoted to Major on 30th May 1794 and given command of the 19th in the campaign. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on 18th March 1795 and as such command the 84th Regiment of Foot until 10th June when he transferred to the command of the 58th Regiment of Foot. From then until 1802, he served three years on home service and five years in the Mediterranean. He commanded the 58th at the Capture of Minorca in 1798; in the reserve on landing in Egypt on the 8th March 1801, covering the flank of the army advancing on the 13th to Alexandria; in the advanced corps in the action of the 21st before Alexandria; in command of a brigade at the taking of Rosetta; and at the surrender of Grand Cairo and Alexandria, for which he received the Turkish Order of the Crescent, second class (KC). He was promoted to the rank of Colonel on 29th April 1802 during the Peace of Amiens, commanding a brigade first at Malta and then at Brighton in order to protect against any possible French invasion at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. He served in the Mediterranean and Ireland and was appointed Brigadier-General in 1804 and was attached for eight months to the Volunteer Staff, after which he served with brigades of the line and militia in England and Ireland (Gentleman's Magazine: And Historical Chronicle, Volume 173 & Wellington's Peninsular War Generals, by T A Heathcote). Amongst this active military career, Brigadier-General William Houston married Lady Jane Long in November 1808.
During the summer and autumn of 1809, William Houston was part of the failed British Expeditionary Force to Walcheren, returning home part way through the campaign. His return may have coincided with the birth of his first son, George Augustus Frederick Houston who was born on 4th October 1809 (Baptism Register of St George’s Hanover Square) as William Houston was definitely in England when he was promoted to Major-General on 25th October 1809. William Houston then remained on home-service at Brighton until the 25th December 1810 when at the request of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, commanding the British army in the Peninsula War, he was posted to Portugal in January 1811 and was given command of a brigade in the 4th Division and when the 7th Division was formed in March 1811 he was made its first commander. The division's first battle was the Battle of Sabugal on 3rd April 1811 but with his troops being unseasoned in warfare they were kept in reserve. The division entered combat for the first time at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro between 3rd and 5th May 1811, where his men were crucial in halting the advance of French cavalry. Houston and the division were also present at the Siege of Badajoz between May and June 1811. On 1st July 1811, William Houston left the Peninsula as his health had begun to deteriorate and returned to England. Shortly after this date, William Houston and Jane had their second son, William Houston born on 23rd July 1811 (Baptism Register of St George’s Hanover Square) and it was reported in the Morning Post on 31st August 1811 that ‘Major-General Houston, departed [from London] for Felbridge Park near East Grinstead’, implying that the Houston’s were still living at Felbridge Park in August 1811. In June 1812, the 4-year their lease of Felbridge Park expired and in July 1812, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley, granted a 7 year lease of Felbridge Park to Robert Jenner Esq. of Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, Wales, for the sum of £200, plus £50 a year (SHC 3151/1/1/6).
As for the Houston’s, William was given the role of the South-Western District Commander, together with the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth in January 1811 and when his health improved, he again asked Wellington to be given another command in his army but he was declined on the grounds that there were no open commands for him to take up. However, William Houston was promoted to Lieutenant-General on 4th June 1814 and, as a part of the victory celebrations of 1815, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He was also awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1827. On the 8th April 1831, William Houston was made Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar and during his term set up the first official Free School in Gibraltar. Jane accompanied her husband to Gibraltar but sadly died there on 1st June 1833, aged 64. On 28th February 1835, William Houston returned to England and in 1836 was created a Baronet. Also, from 1825 until 1837, William Houston served as a Groom of the Bedchamber to both George IV and William IV (Wellington's Peninsular War Generals, by T A Heathcote). William Houston died on 8th April 1842 from his home at Bromley Hill, Bromley and was interred in the catacombs at West Norwood in Surrey.
Robert Jenner
In July 1812, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley, granted a 7 year lease of Felbridge Park to Robert Jenner Esq. of Wenvoe Castle, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales, for the sum of £200, plus £50 a year (SHC 3151/1/1/6).
Robert Jenner was born on 8th November 1776, the son of Robert Jenner [1] (1743-1810) of Chislehurst, Kent, and his second wife, Ann née Birt (1748-1827) and was baptised on 6th December 1776 at St Gregory by St Paul, London. Robert [1] and Ann had at least four other children including; Anne born in 1775, Herbert born in 1778 (later known as Herbert Jenner-Fust), George born in 1779 and Harriet born in 1782. The back story to Robert is that his mother Ann was the daughter and co-heiress of Peter Birt (c1723-1791) of Airmyn, Yorkshire, and Wenvoe, Glamorgan. Peter Birt was a businessman from Yorkshire who purchased the old Wenvoe Castle in 1774 from Edmond Thomas (1742-1789), 4th Baronet of Wenvoe, for the sum of £41,000. Peter Birt then had the old property demolished and a new mansion built, also called Wenvoe Castle, designed by Scottish architect and designer Robert Adams, his only building in Wales, and executed by Thomas Roberts, an architect and friend of Peter Birt. The new mansion (no longer standing in its entirety, being partially demolished in 1930; twenty years after a serious fire) was variously described as ‘one of the finest houses standing anywhere in Wales’ and as ‘an extremely large but uninspired castellated mansion’. In appearance, the new Wenvoe Castle had a 374 feet (114m) long, 3-storey south front, which, on either side, had a long low wing ending with a 3-storey pavilion with a smaller 2-story pavilion halfway along each wing, together with an associated detached stable and coach-house block. The entrance was on the north side, facing Wenvoe village. Today, what remains of the mansion complex, the east pavilion together with the stable block, which is attributed to Henry Holland an architect who was working at Cardiff Castle in the late 1770’s and not to Robert Adam, now forms the Club House for Wenvoe Golf Club (http://wenvoe.org.uk). In 1791, on the death of Peter Birt, he only had three surviving daughters, his wife and at least six other children having predeceased him, and Wenvoe Castle passed to daughter Ann and ultimately to her son Robert Jenner on the death of his father Robert [1] in 1810.
On 5th February 1800, Robert Jenner, titled ‘of Wenvoe Castle’ was made High Sheriff of Glamorgan. Sheriffs of Glamorgan served under and were responsible to the independent Lords of Glamorgan until that lordship was incorporated into the Crown. This is in contrast to sheriffs of the English counties, who were officers of the Crown from the beginning. Sheriffs in the modern sense, appointed and subordinate to the crown, were installed in the county of Glamorgan in 1541. On 13th January 1801, Robert Jenner married Frances Lascelles at St Marylebone, Westminster. Frances, who was baptised on 8th Apr 1774 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, was the eldest daughter and one of ten children of Barbados born Major-General Francis Lascelles (1744-1799) and Ann ‘Nancy’ née Catley (1745-1789), an actress and singer. Robert and Frances are rumoured to have had eleven children, although only the six sons are named, which include; Robert Francis born in 1802, Herbert Francis born in 1803, George Peter who died an infant in 1805, Gilbert Price born in 1806, Albert Lascelles born in 1808 and Birt Wyndham Rous born in 1810 (A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, by Sir Bernard Burke).
As established above, in July 1812, Robert Jenner took out a 7 year lease on FelbridgePark that was due to expire in July 1819. However, within two and half years Robert Jenner seems to have relinquished his interest in Felbridge Park as in 1816 the Land Tax Records list Isaac Dupuy as paying £200 rent for the property to the ‘Hon. Cecil Jenkinson’ (Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley). Also between 30th December 1814 and 4th January 1815, several advertisements appear in the national press with regards to the sale a variety of items at FelbridgePark:
Excellent FURNTITURE, CELLERS of Choice WINES, Six COWS, SADDLE HORSES, and other EFFECTS, Felbridge Park, Surrey, near East Grinstead, the Property of a Gentleman removing – By HOGGART and PHILLIPS, on the Premises, on Thursday next, 5th January, and two following days, at Eleven o’Clock.
ALL the Valuable EFFECTS, in FELBRIDGE PARK MANSION, with the Live and Dead Farming Stock, Household Furniture, Cellars of Choice Wines; consisting of about 75 Dozen of fine Port, eight years in the bottle, 50 Dozen of Old East India Madeira, and 12 Dozen of Hock, Champagne, Claret, and Barsac; upwards of 20 Loads of Meadow Hay and Effects. The Furniture comprises mahogany four post and tent bedsteads, with furniture, goose feather beds and bedding, excellent cabinet work, in wardrobes, chest of drawers, a set of dining tables, card, Pembroke, sofa, and library ditto, cellaret sideboard and sarcophagus, mahogany, Trafalgar, and library chairs, French grey curtains, a drawing-room suite, in French curtains, couch, and 12 chairs, Brussels and Turkey carpets, pier glasses, oil cloth, kitchen requisites, Baker’s patent mangle, and numerous valuable articles.
May be viewed one day preceding the Sale, and Catalogues had on the Premises; the Evelyn Arms, East Grinstead; White Hart, Godstone; Star, Lewes; Greyhound, Croydon; and of Hoggart and Phillips, 62, Old Broad-street, Royal Exchange – The Family Residence, with a Park of 75 acres, and the privilege of Sporting and Fishing upon an extensive Manor, to be let for three to five years. (London Courier and Evening Gazette, Wed. 4th January 1815)
It has not yet been established as to why Robert Jenner decided to take on FelbridgePark in 1812; perhaps it was because of it’s proximately to London making it a quicker trip than travelling from Wenvoe. It has also not yet been established as to why, having taken out a 7 year lease, Robert Jenner decided to terminate his interest in FelbridgePark by 1816. What has been established is that Robert Jenner lived on at WenvoeCastle for a further twelve years, until his death on 19th March 1824, when it passed to his son and heir Robert Francis Jenner (1802-1860) and that Robert’s mother Ann died on 31st August 1827 and that his wife Frances died on 11th August 1841.
Isaac Dupuy
In 1816 and until at least 1824, Isaac Dupuy was recorded as paying a rental of £200 to the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley (Land Tax Records), although land tax records were notoriously slow in updating the names of property occupants.
Isaac Dupuy was born 1769, the son of Isaac Dupuy [1] (1737-1771) and his wife Elizabeth née Kemp (1724-1789) and was baptised on 5th October 1769, at Leyton, Essex. Isaac Dupuy [1] had been born about 1737 and at the time of his first marriage, to Elizabeth Thomas in 1753 (Monumental inscriptions of St Kitts and More Monumental Inscriptions: Tombstones of the British West Indies, by Lena Boyd Brown & Vere Langford Oliver), he was the owner of the sugar plantation at Frigate Bay and a second one on the border of St George and St Peter, Basseterre, at Trinity Palmetto Point, one of the fourteen administrative parishes that made up St Kitts and Nevis (Samuel Baker’s map – ‘Caribbean: being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography and antiquities of the British West Indies’), then part of what was known as the British West Indies. In 1754, Isaac Dupuy [1] and his wife Elizabeth had a daughter Frances who sadly died in 1756 and three years later Elizabeth died in 1759 (Ibid. Monumental inscriptions of St Kitts and More Monumental Inscriptions). On 4th October 1763, Isaac Dupuy [1] recorded as ‘of St Martins-in-the-Fields, Westminster’, married Elizabeth Kemp (1742-1789), the daughter of John Kemp of Stoke Newington and his wife Katherine née Walker. Isaac Dupuy [1] and Elizabeth’s only child was Isaac Dupuy. However, when Isaac Dupuy was about 18-months old, his father Isaac Dupuy [1] died on 17th October 1771, recorded as ‘late of Layton, Essex, late of St Christopher [Kitts]’, and was buried at St Paul’s Chapel, Hammersmith, aged just 34. Four years later, on 18th November 1775, Isaac Dupuy’s mother Elizabeth married George Rigby at St Olave, Old Jewry, London, and in 1779, they had a daughter, Elizabeth Jane Rigby. However, Elizabeth (née Dupuy, née Kemp) died on 28th May 1789, when Isaac Dupuy was just 20 years old.
On 3rd April 1802, Isaac Dupuy married Sophia Parsons at Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon; the marriage performed by Rev. Dr. Henry Ingles (see below), Sophia’s uncle. Sophia Parsons had been born in 1783 and baptised on 5th May 1783 at Ashford, Kent, the daughter of Joseph Parsons and his wife Elizabeth née Ingles (married 3rd May 1780, Ashford). Sophia’s siblings included; Caroline Elizabeth born in 1785 (see below) and Henry James born in 1887 (see below); both born in Ashford, Kent. It is believed that Isaac and Sophia Dupuy did not have a family and no surviving children are mentioned in Isaac’s extensive will dated 13th July 1820. What is known is that between 1816 and 1826, Isaac Dupuy is recorded as paying a rental of £200 for Felbridge Park to the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley (Land Tax Records) and that Felbridge Park is frequently referred to as Isaac Dupuy’s ‘country seat’ (Patterson’s Roads by E Mogg); his London residence recorded as 61, Welbeck Street, Marylebone (Boyles Court and Country Guide).
Isaac Dupuy is recorded as owning three estates in St Kitts and Nevis. In 1817 he owned the Cayon Estate in the district or parish of St Mary and the Frigate Bay Estate that straddled the districts of St Peters and St George Basseterre, both sugar plantations. It is most likely that these were inherited on the death of his father Isaac Dupuy [1] in 1771, as during his lifetime it was recorded that Isaac Dupuy [1] owned an estate at Frigate Bay and another on the border of St George and St Peter Basseterre (as established above) and in 1822 Isaac Dupuy’s residence is listed as St Christopher (also known as St Kitts). From research carried out by The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, established at University College London, Isaac Dupuy, at some point in his life, also owned the Hermitage Estate in the district of St John; there are few further details on this estate. The Cayon Estate consisted of 232 acres, with 188 to 256 enslaved people recorded between 1817 and 1834, managed by James William Pencheon in 1817 but later managed by Giles Webb for ‘Isaac Dupuy deceased’. The Frigate Bay Estate consisted of 182 acres with 129 acres of ‘caneland’ that had between 94 and 96 enslaved people during the same period and was managed by William Dupout Beard; later by William Davis. The size of the Hermitage Estate has not yet been established at time of writing but was managed by Mr. Horney (William McMahon, A New Topographical Map of the Island of Saint Christopher, West Indies... 1828).
The first twenty-five years of the 1800’s saw Isaac Dupuy spending much of his time in St Kitts and Nevis, acting as an ‘Assistant Justice of the K.B. & C.P.’ and ‘assistant baron of the court of Exchequer’, being made a ‘Member of Council’ in 1826 (Ibid. Monumental inscriptions of St Kitts and More Monumental Inscriptions). During Isaac Dupuy’s absence from England, it was reported by the London newspaper Morning Post that ‘Charles Devon Esq.’ (see below) was residing at Felbridge Park on several occasions between 1818 and 1825 (Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Seats, Vol.1 by John Preston Neale), implying that perhaps Isaac Dupuy was sub-letting Felbridge Park in his absence. However, it is known that Isaac Dupuy was in England in 1820 when he made his will from his London home in Welbeck Street and in 1821 when he and his wife Sophia hosted the wedding of his sister-in-law Caroline Elizabeth Parsons (see below), and although resident abroad, Felbridge Park was still recorded as Isaac Dupuy’s ‘country seat’ up until 1826 (Patterson’s Roads by E Mogg). However, it would appear that the last connection with FelbridgePark held by both Isaac Dupuy and Charles Devon Esq. was in 1826 when George Raikes Esq. took out a 21 year lease on FelbridgePark with the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley (Box 3151, SHC).
Isaac Dupuy died on 21st September 1829, aged 60, and was buried east of the chancel at St George’s Anglican Church, Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis, the monumental inscription reading:
WITHIN THIS TOMB
LIE THE REMAINS OF
ISSAC DUPUY ESQ.RE
WHO DIED
SEPTEMBER 21ST 1829
Isaac Dupuy’s will, proved on 27th January 1830, left his property in ‘St Christopher’ (St Kitts) with ‘all the negro and other slaves and cattle of every denomination, mills, mill houses...’ in trust to his wife Sophia and that Robert Allen of St James, Westminster, was to secure an annuity of £1000 p.a. for Sophia during her widowhood, rising to £1500 p.a. if he died childless; in both cases, the annuity fell to £500 p.a. if she remarried. He also authorised Sophia to raise £3,000 from his estate and bequeath it separately. He left his cousin Peter Dupuy, Abbott of Powis Place, Queen Square, Middlesex an annuity of £200 p.a., and another cousin, Jane Akers Byam of Brussels, a share of the residual income of his estates if two-thirds of that income exceeded the annuities charged on the estates (TNA PROB 11/1765/151). https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146645181
As established above, Isaac and Sophia appear not to have any children and none are mentioned in his will. Thus on his death, Sophia as trustee and executrix, acquired his sugar plantations in St Kitts and Nevis. Four years after the death of Isaac Dupuy, the Abolition of Slavery Act was passed in 1833, which outlawed British trade in enslaved people. It stated that ‘all such persons should be manumitted [freed by their enslaver] and set free and that a reasonable Compensation should be made available to the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves’. After a long struggle for emancipation, the Act made apprentice labourers of those aged over six who had been enslaved. These apprentices were to work without compensation as a transition to freedom. They remained tied to estates, but could buy release from this even against the will of their employer. The Act also set out some rights. Formerly enslaved people could not be removed from a colony, so the act ensured that families could not be separated and that employers were to supply food, clothing, lodging and medicine. The period of apprenticeship ended in 1838, after which full emancipation was granted to all throughout the British Colonies (https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk). This act was followed four years later by the Slave Compensation Act 1837 whereby slave owners were allowed compensation for the loss or their enslaved workforce. As such, on 23rd January 1836, a claim of £3,631 7s 3d for 234 enslaved peoplewas made on Dupuy’s estate of Cayon and £1,528 0s 11d for 98 enslaved peoplewas made on Dupuy’s estate of FrigateBay.
Accompanying notes to the claims for both estates record that they were both contested:
[Cayon] Claim by Sophia Dupuy, as devisee in trust and executrix of Isaac Dupuy (deceased). Counterclaim from Jane Akers Byam, of Brussels, as legatee of Isaac Dupuy. Counterclaim from John Plummer and William Wilson, as mortgagee and assignee for £10,200. (T71/879)
Letter, dated 11th January 1836, from John Plummer, the attorney of Sophia Dupuy, admitting the counterclaim of Plummer and Wilson, and consenting that the compensation might be paid to them; letter, dated 16th November 1835, stating that, after the withdrawal of Jane Akers Byam's counterclaim, Plummer and Wilson will withdraw so the money can be paid to the claimant; letter, dated 1st October 1835, from Hankey Plummer & Wilson, Mincing Lane. (T71/1609)
(Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates: Parliamentary papers, pages 310 & 311, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/23757 & https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/23756).
Sophia Dupuy returned to England after the death of her husband and died, at the age of 79 in 1862 and was buried on 31st July 1862 at St Peter’s Church, Chailey, Sussex, one-time home town of her sister Caroline Elizabeth St John (see below).
In 1818, Charles Devon Esq. is recorded as ‘residing at FelbridgePark’ (Ibid. Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Seats, Vol.1). A later lease, between George Raikes and the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley, dated 1826, records that the lands of Felbridge Park under Charles Devon were ‘Felbridge Park with paddock and lawn, the lay or pasture fields, Bon Cheals Wood and Rookery Wood’ (SHC 3151/1/1/6). Unfortunately no lease has yet come to light between Charles Devon Esq. and the Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, or Charles Devon Esq. and Isaac Dupuy so it has not been possible to determine whether Isaac Dupuy’s lease had run out or whether he was sub-letting to Charles Devon. However, FelbridgePark was still being listed as the ‘country seat’ of Isaac Dupuy in 1826 (Patterson’s Roads by E Mogg) and 1827 (The History and Antiquities of Lewes and Its Vicinity, Vol.2 by Thomas Walker Horsfield), although both publications could have been using out-of-date information.
Charles Devon was born on 17th May 1789 at Teddington, Middlesex, the son of William Devon (1735-1819), a solicitor, and his wife Margaret née Barlow (1756-1794). Charles’ siblings included; John born in 1777 but who sadly died in 1778, Anna (1779-1840), Maria (1780-1842) and Harriet (1783-1852). Evidence would suggest that Charles’ mother Margaret died in 1794 when he was just 5 years old. Charles attended Harrow School, was admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 30th January 1805 and matriculated from St John'sCollege, Cambridge, in 1806.
Charles Devon is first recorded as residing at FelbridgePark in 1818 (Ibid. Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Seats, Vol.1) and in 1821, bought the manor of Rackenford, North Devon from Taunton solicitor, Edward Leigh (https://tivvy.uk/rackenford-history/). On the 13th July 1822, Charles Devon, of Lower Seymour Street, Marylebone, and Rackenford, North Devon, married Mary Long, the daughter of Edward Beeston Long (1763–1825) plantation owner, and his wife Elizabeth née Thomlinson (1764-1818), of Hampton Lodge, Sutton, Surrey, at St Marylebone (London Packet and New Lloyd's Evening Post, 15 July 1822) ; Mary had been born in 1797 and her siblings included; Edward Noel (1788-1809), Henry Lawes (1795-1868), Charlotte (1801-1823) and Frederic Beckford (1805-1850) (http://www.thepeerage.com/p27590.htm#i275893). On their marriage, Charles and Mary Devon were given an interest in the Lucky Valley plantation in Clarendon, Jamaica, which had been in the ownership of Mary’s father Edward Beeston Long since the death of his father Edward Long in 1813 (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/- 212072970 and https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/3041). As a point of interest, Edward Long (1734-1813) was a Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court, Jamaica, a Planter and an Historian and was the cousin of Samuel Long who married Lady Jane Maitland who leased FelbridgePark between 1808 and 1812 (see above).
Charles and Mary Devon had at least eight children including; Charles Edward born in 1823, Charlotte Isabella Henrietta born in 1826, Emily Charlotte born in 1828, Henry Charles born in 1830, Frederic William born in 1831, Edward Beachcroft born in 1833, Mary Georgina Elizabeth born in 1835 and Victoria Harriet Louisa born in 1838. Charles Henry was baptised in Hampstead Norreys, Berkshire, Charlotte, Emily and Henry were baptised in Pettistree, Suffolk, Frederic was baptised in Ripley, Surrey, and Edward, Mary and Victoria were baptised in Teddington, Middlesex. Between the years 1818 and 1826, Charles Devon is recorded as residing at FelbridgePark. However, based on the locations of their children’s baptisms and contemporary newspaper articles, the Devon family may have left FelbridgePark and moved to Langley Hall, Berkshire by 1823, before settling in Loudham Hall, Pettistree, Suffolk, by November 1826.
In 1825, an advertisement appeared in the national press with regards to the sale of furniture and effects, which may have been the property of Charles Devon:
FELBRIDGE PARK,
BETWEEN GODSTONE and EAST GRINSTEAD.
Elegant Furniture, Fixtures, Double-barrel Gun,
Brewing Utensils, Mangle and Effects.
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION
BY MR. BATES.
On the Premises, FELBRIDGE PARK, two miles from EAST GRINSTEAD, SUSSEX, on Wednesday, 21st day of September, 1825, and following day, at half-past twelve o’clock, precisely, on account of the umber of Lots, the property of a Gentleman, the Lease being expired.
ALL that excellent and modern HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, comprising capital mahogany four-post & field bedsteads, with cotton hangings, wool and hair mattresses, goose feather beds and bedding, chamber furniture of the best description in dressing and washing tables, chest of drawers, dressing glasses, bedsteps and bidets, sets of drawing room and parlour chintz, cotton and morine [type of cloth] window curtains, large sofa and Grecian couches, rose-wood, loo, sofa, and card tables, a commode inlaid with Buhl [boulle; brass, tortoiseshell, or other material cut to make a pattern and used for inlaying furniture], chimney glass, 50 inches by 42, Brussels and other carpets, a Turkey carpet 19ft by 16ft, sets of japanned, rosewood bamboo, and mahogany chairs, a capital set of claw dining tables, sideboard, sarcophagus, dumb waiter, library writing tables, deal and mahogany bureau bookcases, a library chair with steps, eight-day dial and clock, a Baker’s patent mangle, a double barrel gun and case, china, glass and earthernware, culinary, brewing and dairy utensils, fixtures, register and other stoves, kitchen range, oven, smoke jack, coppers, mash tub and casks 304 iron and wood park hurdles, 150 greenhouse plants, hay, garden and farming utensils, rollers, and other effects.
To be viewed two days preceding and mornings of sale, catalogue to be had at the Dorset Arms, East Grinstead; White Hart, Godstone; White Hart, Reigate; King’s Arms, Westerham; Crown, Seven Oaks; Greyhound, Croydon; on the Premises; of Mr. Holmes, Upholder, Albermarle Street; and of Mr. BATES, Welbeck Street, London.
(Sussex Advertiser, 12th September 1825)
With regards to Charles Devon, by 1833 he had acquired Teddington Place, Middlesex, although in 1841 he and his family were living at Marina, St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, Sussex. However, in 1851 the Devon family were back at Teddington Place, moving to St Vincent’s, Addington, near West Malling, Kent, by 1861; Charles’ occupation was given as magistrate. During his life, Charles Devon also became Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Teddington Place, Middlesex, and Rackenford, North Devon. Charles Devon died on 14th February 1869, aged 80, at his home St Vincents; his wife Mary having pre-deceased him.
Caroline Elizabeth Parsons and General the Hon. Frederick St John
On 14th November 1821, Isaac Dupuy’s sister-in-law Caroline Elizabeth Parsons, married, by special licence, General the Hon. Frederick St John at Felbridge Chapel (see Handout, Felbridge Chapel and the Chapels of Felbridge, SJC 05/00) within the grounds of FelbridgePark (Annual Register, Vol. 63, by Edmund Burke). It is interesting to note that although it would appear that Charles Devon was leasing FelbridgePark in 1821, Isaac Dupuy must have still had some connections to enable his sister-in-law to celebrate her marriage at FelbridgePark.
Caroline Elizabeth Parsons had been born in 1785, the daughter of Joseph Parsons and his wife Elizabeth née Ingles, and was baptised on 27th April 1785 at Ashford, Kent. Caroline was the second of three children with an older sister Sophia (1783-1844) (see above) and a younger brother Henry James (1787-1844) (see above and below). As established above, very little is known about Joseph Parsons other than he was born about 1760 and died in 1802, just two months after the marriage of his eldest daughter Sophia to Isaac Dupuy (see above). The only established facts about Caroline’s mother is that she was born Elizabeth Ingles the daughter of Rev. Anthony Lawrence Ingles (-1800) and his wife Elizabeth (-1776?), one of at least four children including; Henry born in 1748 (d.1800), Mary Anne born in 1755, John born in 1757 and Anne born in 1758; all born in Ashford, Kent. Caroline’s uncle, the Rev. Dr. Henry Ingles (1748-1800), was Head Master of Macclesfield School before becoming Head Master of Rugby School between 1793 and 1806 and, as established above, had conducted the marriage of his niece Sophia Parsons (daughter of his sister Elizabeth Parsons née Ingles) to Isaac Dupuy in 1802. Caroline’s brother Henry James (1787-1844) was admitted to Ruby School, at the age of 9 in 1796 and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1804, was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford where he attained a Bachelors’ Degree in 1808 and a Masters Degree in 1811 and in 1818 a BD [Bachelor of Divinity]. In 1819, Henry James became the rector of Saunderton in Buckinghamshire and in 1828, the vicar of Arundel in Sussex (Oxford University Alumni, 1715-1886) and it was he who conducted the marriage of his sister Caroline Elizabeth Parsons to General the Hon. Frederick St John in 1841 at Felbridge Chapel.
Parsons Family Tree
(with connections to FelbridgePark)
Frederick St John was born on 20th December 1765 the son of Frederick St John, 3rd Viscount St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke (1732-1787) and his wife Lady Diana Spencer (1734-1808), daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough (1706-1758) and his wife Elizabeth née Trevor (c1713-1761), daughter of Thomas Trevor, 2nd Baron Trevor of Bromham, Bedfordshire. Frederick St John and Lady Diana Spencer had married on 8th September 1757 and, besides Frederick, had two other children; Charlotte born in 1758 and George Richard born in 1761 who became the 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke and 4th Viscount St John in 1787 on the death of his father. Contemporary sources reveal that Frederick St. John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke was ill-tempered and known as 'Bully' to his friends and most considered the marriage unstable. This can be borne out by the fact that Lady Diana had at least one child, Mary Day Beauclerk (1766-1851) with Topham Beauclerk (1739-1780) the son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk and grandson of the 1st Duke of St Albans, before her marriage to Frederick St John 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke ended in divorce on 10th March 1768 through a highly publicised Act of Parliament; two later days on 12th March 1768 Lady Diana married Topham Beauclerk and they had at least a further three children; and Elizabeth Beauclerk (1769-1793),Charles George Beauclerk (1774-1845) and Anne Beauclerk (no further information) (www.thepeerage.com/p1196.htm#i11958).
Frederick St John had had a very interesting life before his marriage to Caroline Parsons. He began a military career in 1779, enlisting as an ensign in the 85th Regiment of Foot at the age of 14. During the next three years he served in the East Indies (Southeast Asia including East Timor, India, Indonesia and the Malay Archipelago) and the Channel Islands, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1780 and then Captain in the 95th Regiment of Foot in 1781. This was followed in 1783 by a promotion to Major in the 104th Regiment of Foot. He continued to rise through the ranks, becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 2nd Regiment of Foot in 1791 and Colonel in 1795, followed by promotion to Major-General in 1798. Frederick St John served in Ireland in 1798 as Lieutenant to GeneralGerardLake and followed him to India when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in British India. Frederick St John also went on to take part in the Battle of Delhi and the siege of Agra in 1803 and in 1805 he was promoted to Lieutenant-General, followed by General in 1814 (The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, edited by R. Thorne). Alongside his military career, Frederick St John socialised in exclusive gentlemen’s clubs, including the Whig Club, and in 1818 was elected to Parliament as MP for Oxford and represented the constituency until his defeat at the general election two years later.
As for his personal life, in 1788 Frederick St John married Lady Mary Kerr, the daughter of William John Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian (1737-1815) and his wife Elizabeth Fortescue, daughter of Chichester Fortescue of Dromisken, County Louth, and they had one son, Robert William St John (1791-1844). Sadly Lady Mary died the day after the birth of their son (Debrett’s Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland). Two years later in 1793, Frederick St John married Arabella Craven (1775-1819), the daughter of William Craven, 6th Baron Craven (1738-1791) and his wife Elizabeth Berkeley (1750-1823) daughter of Augustus Berkeley 4th Earl of Berkeley. Frederick and Arabella had five sons and four daughters including; George William (1796-1876), Frederick Berkeley (1797-1866), Henry John (1798-1821), Maria Arabella (1807-1890), Catherine Frederica (1808-1809), Charles William George (1809-1856), Louisa Diana (1810-1855), Keppel (1812-1813) and Elizabeth (1814-1846). Frederick St John’s second wife, Arabella, died aged just 45 in 1819, and like his first wife, was buried in the family vault at St Mary’s, Lydiard Tregoze.
Two years after the death of his second wife, Frederick St John married Caroline Elizabeth Parsons on 14th November 1821 at Felbridge Chapel within the grounds of Felbridge Park. Frederick and Caroline St John had two sons, Henry Edward born on 22nd November 1823, baptised on 20th December 1823 at Worth, Sussex and Welbore William Oliver born on 12th April 1825, baptised on 9th May in Brighton, Sussex. In 1825, Frederick St John also purchased two properties from the Ades Estate in Chailey, Sussex – Lower Sinder and Monkes Hall (later known as Hickwells), both situated on the opposite side of Cinder Hill from Ades (In an Old House by Peter and Sally Varlow). At the time of purchase Frederick St John was described as ‘of The Hall near East Grinstead’; this could possibly refer to ‘The Hall’ northeast of Turners Hill Road, Worth (at one time known as Majors Hill), especially as his son Henry had been baptised in Worth in 1823. Between 1829/30 and 1833, Frederick St John rented Ades itself (Ibid. In an Old House), possibly whilst he had his new house built at ‘Lower Sinder’ – The Cottage, later named Roeheath or Roe Heath Cottage, confirmed in the 1841 census that records the St John family living at ‘The Cottage’, Cinder Hill, Chailey. In November 1837, the Ades Estate was put up for auction and Lots II and III, North Coppard’s Bridge House and lands to the west of Oxbottom Lane, Chailey, were purchased by Frederick St John of Roeheath (Ibid. In an Old House).
In 1843, Frederick and Caroline’s oldest son Henry Edward St John died aged just 20 and was buried on 10th July 1843, at St Andrew’s, Waterloo Street, Hove in Sussex. The location of burial would suggest that the St John’s also had property in Brighton, especially as Caroline Elizabeth St John is later recorded as living at 11, Sillwood Place, Brighton (see below). Sillwood Place, nos.10 and 11, (now Grade II listed), off Sillwood Street, form part of a terrace of houses that were built in 1827-29 by Amon Henry Wilds. They are 4-storeys high with an attic storey with dormers above and a basement with windows below. Each dwelling is three windows wide with a balcony on the first floor and is faced with stucco under a slate roof (Listed building: 1380940). Considering the date of construction it is possible that Frederick St John purchased 11, Sillwood Place on its completion.
On 19th November 1844, Frederick St John died, aged 79, from Roe Heath Cottage, Chailey, the second senior general in the army, and was buried at St Andrews, Waterloo Street, Hove. In 1851, Caroline Elizabeth St John is recorded as living in Brighton but to date cannot be found in the 1861 census. In 1853, Caroline Elizabeth St John lost her only surviving son, Welbore William Oliver St John, who died aged 28, on 28th November 1853 in Madeira, Portugal, of 11, Sellwood Place, Brighton; neither Henry Edward or Welbore William Oliver St John married. Caroline Elizabeth St John died aged 84, on 27th May at 1869, of 11, Sillwood Place, Brighton and was also buried at St Andrew’s, Waterloo Street, Hove.
As established above in 1825 there was an auction of some of the household contents of Felbridge Park (Sussex Advertiser, 12th September 1825) and Felbridge Park was listed as the ‘country seat’ of both Isaac Dupuy and Charles Devon in several contemporary publications (Ibid. Patterson’s Roads by E Mogg, Mogg’s pocket Itinerary and The History and Antiquities of Lewes and Its Vicinity, Vol.2) in 1826 and 1827. However, on 28th September 1826, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, as husband of Julia Evelyn Medley granted George Raikes Esq. of Fulham (further information to follow in Handout, Residents of Felbridge Park aka Felbridge Place, Pt.2) a 21 year lease on Felbridge Park at the cost of £150.00, plus £50 an acre to be ‘cut and mown twice a year or turned to tillage’. The lease was for FelbridgePark with paddock and lawn, the lay or pasture fields, Bon Cheals Wood and Rookery Wood, all forming in the tenure previously held by Charles Devon Esq. (SHC 3151/1/1/6).
Bibliography
Handout, Felbridge Place Revisited, SJC/JIC 03/22, FHWS
Parish Registers www.ancestry.co.uk
Texts of Handouts referred to in this document can be found on FHG website: www.felbridge.org.uk
SJC/JIC 11/23