(157) Apreece of Washingley Hall, Honington Hall and Effingham House, baronets

Apreece of Washingley

The Apreece family claimed descent from Gruffydd ap Rhys (d. 1202), Prince of South Wales, whose descendants lived in Breconshire and were set out in William Betham's Baronetage of England in 1804. According to Betham, it was Isaac ap Rhese who in the reign of King Henry VII first went to live at Washingley in Huntingdonshire, but if so it must have been as a tenant. His son, Robert ap Rhese (c.1472-1555), married the daughter of William (or by some accounts John) Otter of Walthamstow (Essex), and Washingley was her dowry, so the Ap Rheses were established at Washingley by about 1500, if not a little before.  The family name of Ap Rhys had become fixed by the early 15th century, but the spelling and Anglicization was very inconsistent until the mid 17th century and different members of the family apparently favoured different versions. Ap Rhys and Ap Rhese were most common in the 16th century, when Apreece also makes its appearance, but Rhys, Reece and Price are also found, which makes the family uncommonly hard to identify securely in the records. Only with Robert Apreece in the late 17th century does this form of the name seem to have become standard. 

The Washingley estate passed in turn to William Apreece (c.1505-74) and his son Robert Apreece (1535-1622), who held to the Catholic religion despite increasing persecution. Those harbouring Catholic priests ran the risk of severe penalties, but nonetheless Robert put up Fr. Edmund Campion during the winter of 1580-81, when he is recorded as preaching and conducting mass in Northamptonshire. Campion was captured by the authorities in July 1581, and hung, drawn and quartered later in the year; he was canonised by the Pope in 1886. Apreece himself was fined for recusancy and in 1594 was briefly imprisoned at Ely. Two of his sons were later involved in assisting the escape of three Catholic priests from custody at Wisbech.  Robert produced a large family of nine sons and six daughters according to his monument in Lutton church, but only twelve of these children have been identified; the rest may have died young. Although most of his sons grew to adulthood, it was his seventh son, Jerome, who inherited Washingley. He is the most obscure of the owners of Washingley, but was perhaps responsible for building a new Jacobean E-plan house there, the fabric (although not the appearance) of which largely survived until the final demolition of the house.

Jerome's only recorded son was Col. Robert Apreece alias Price (d. 1644), an active Royalist who participated in the defence of Lincoln against the forces of Parliament.  The day after the city was captured by the Earl of Manchester's Parliamentary forces, some of the Earl's soldiers - perhaps men from his Huntingdonshire estates - accosted Apreece in the street and demanded whether he was "Price the Papist". When he admitted that he was "Price, the Roman Catholic", one of them pulled out a pistol and shot him dead. This avowal of his faith and its fatal consequence caused Apreece to be beatified in 1887.

The heir to Washingley was the Colonel's young son, Robert Apreece (1638-1723), who was brought up as a Protestant in the household of his stepfather, Humphrey Orme. Although contemporaries were sometimes suspicious of his loyalty to the Protestant faith, his outward conformity allowed him to hold many public offices and to be MP for Huntingdonshire several times. His supposed Catholic sympathies made him particularly acceptable to King James II, who brought him back into the commission of the peace in 1687, but he was not removed from it again when James fled abroad and was replaced by King William III in 1689 and he remained a JP until his death at a very advanced age in 1723.

His son, Robert Apreece (c.1677-1744), married Sarah (1672-1749), the eldest daughter and eventual heiress of Sir Thomas Hussey of Honington (Lincs). Through his marriage, the couple acquired first Honington Hall and later Doddington Hall (Lincs). Honington descended with Washingley to Robert and Sarah's only surviving son, Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77), but Doddington passed on Sarah's death to her daughter Rhoda (1701-59), the wife of Francis Blake Delaval of Seaton Delaval (Northumberland), who had commissioned the rebuilding of that house by Vanbrugh. It seems likely that it was the income from Robert and Sarah's three estates which made possible a major remodelling of the Jacobean house at Washingley in the mid 18th century.  The style of the alterations - and the tendency of building to be the occupation of younger owners - might incline one to suppose that these changes were made by Thomas Hussey Apreece after 1744, but he seems to have spent most of his time in London and to have preferred Honington to Washingley when in the country, so on balance they were probably made for Robert and Sarah in the 1730s or early 1740s; their architect is unknown.

Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77) was perhaps in the Grenadier Guards in his early 20s and comes across as impatient of the slow routines and respectability of county gentry life. He lived mainly in London and went through a clandestine marriage in the Fleet in 1725, and this seems to have been a case of marrying in haste and repenting at leisure, for he and his wife were divorced four years later. In 1739 he tried again, only for his second wife to die in childbirth two years later. Early the next year he married for a third time, to the daughter of an Essex baronet, who brought him a dowry of £12,000, and with her he at last produced a family of three sons and one daughter. His fortune was further augmented in 1749 when he inherited the bulk of the fortune of Thomas Ball of Mamhead (Devon), who is said to have been a distant relation, although I have not traced the connection.

Thomas' eldest son and namesake, Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt., seems to have been rather like his father in many ways. He served as a young man with the Huntingdonshire militia and while his unit was serving in Northumberland during the American War of Independence, he is said to have distinguished himself by protecting Alnwick from an attack by John Paul Jones, an American naval officer and ex-pirate who sailed around the British coast causing panic by some fairly random attacks, including one on Alnmouth in 1779. In the 1790s he devised a plan for raising volunteer yeomanry units for local defence during the Napoleonic crisis which was adopted and implemented by William Pitt the younger.  The yeomanry were designed - like the Home Guard in World War II - as the last line of defence in the event of an invasion which never came, but they provided countless gentlemen and farmer's sons with a splendid excuse for dressing up and playing soldiers in the 1790s and 1800s. Sir Thomas was a keen sportsman and a member of the Prince of Wales' Carlton House set, despite being a generation older than the Prince himself, and this perhaps explains why he was advanced to a baronetcy in 1782.  Like his father, Sir Thomas was unlucky in love. In 1771 he married an entirely suitable woman, the daughter of a Leicestershire gentleman and quickly produced a daughter and a son and heir, but about 1774 the couple separated.  The children remained with their mother and were estranged from Sir Thomas, who took a number of mistresses, by at least one of whom he produced illegitimate children. In 1790, however, he met his wife by chance at an inn in Rutland and for one night they achieved a sufficient reconciliation to conceive a third child. Later, Sir Thomas settled down with another mistress, Louisa Venmore, by whom he produced a daughter in 1796, and with whom he was still living at his death. Louisa and her daughter Lucy inherited everything that he had power to dispose of, including a substantial estate at Effingham (Surrey) which he built up in the early 19th century. His legitimate daughter was cut out of his will entirely and his surviving son received only what was entailed, including the Washingley and Honington estates.

Sir Thomas' elder son, named after his maternal grandfather, was Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece (1773-1807). He married in 1798 or 1799 and moved into Washingley Hall, which he is said to have renovated extensively. Unfortunately, however, he died without issue in 1807, and so it was his much younger brother, Sir Thomas George Apreece (1791-1842), 2nd bt., who succeeded his father in 1833. Shuckburgh's widow, incidentally, retired after his death to her native Edinburgh, where five years later she married the scientist and inventor, Sir Humphry Davy.  Sir Thomas George Apreece, like several of his grandfather's descendants, was mentally unstable. An uncle and two cousins were confined as lunatics and although Sir Thomas escaped this, contemporaries were aware of his marked eccentricities of behaviour. He was unmarried and in the late 1830s moved to Margate, where he lived with a housekeeper, in whose presence he shot himself on New Years Eve 1842. This event marked the end of the Apreeces as a gentry family: the baronetcy died with him, and by his will he left his estates to St George's Hospital, London. His sister contested the will but was unsuccessful, and Honington was sold in 1851 and Washingley in 1859. Both houses were then in poor repair. Honington was rebuilt in 1861-63 and Washingley remodelled in 1861; both houses were demolished after the Second World War.


Washingley Hall, Huntingdonshire
There was a manor house on the moated site of Washingley Hall from at least the 13th century, and the park includes the earthworks of a motte-and-bailey castle which was no doubt its predecessor, as well as a deserted medieval village and a series of stewponds and some garden features.  The house was rebuilt in the 17th century as a two-storey brick E-plan block, perhaps by Jeremy Apreece who inherited the estate in 1621.

Washingley Hall and park from the Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1895.

Washingley Hall: garden front, altered in the 18th century

The house was evidently extensively remodelled in the mid 18th century when it was given sash windows, which were pedimented on the first floor of the nine bay rear elevation, and a panelled parapet punctuated by square plinths carrying ball finials.  The interiors of this date, with enriched plasterwork ceilings and cornices and elaborate pedimented chimneypieces, survived until the house was demolished. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the house was little used by successive generations of the family, who lived mainly in London and at Honington, and it continually fell into disrepair. After his marriage in 1798 or 1799, Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece came to live at Washingley and "completely beautified and repaired" the house and made a new lake in the grounds. After he died in 1807, it again reverted to a state of decay and Sir Thomas George Apreece sold the contents of the library in the 1830s.  

Washingley Hall in 1934, at the time of its acquisition by Lord Cobham. Image: English Heritage

Washingley Hall: interior of the hall in 1934. Image: English Heritage

Washingley Hall: interior of the drawing room in 1934. Image: English Heritage

Having fallen so far into decay as to be "almost a ruin", the house was restored once more in 1861, but this does not seem to have involved altering the Georgian exterior or interiors much if at all. After the Second World War no use could be found for the house and it was pulled down.  The house was approached through a fine pair of wrought iron gates hung on stone pillars surmounted by eagles, which survive today.  The layout of the drive and garden walls can still be seen in the grass and the walls of the kitchen garden to the east are still upstanding. The stable block to the west is now a farm.  When Lord Cobham acquired the house a paved terrace led onto the south lawn, and the south gardens bounded by the old moat contained clipped yews around flower beds, a summer house and lily pond.

Descent: William Otter of Walthamstow; to daughter Joan, wife of Robert Apreece (d. 1555); to son, William Apreece (c.1505-74); to son, Robert Apreece (1535-1621); to son, Jeremy Apreece; to son, Col. Robert Apreece (d. 1644); to son, Robert Apreece (1638-1723); to son, Robert Apreece (d. 1744); to son, Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77); to son, Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Thomas George Apreece (1791-1842), 2nd bt.; bequeathed to St. George's Hospital, London, which sold 1859 to Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington (1784-1862); to Seymour Sydney Hyde Stanhope, 6th Earl of Harrington (1845-66); to Charles Wyndham Stanhope, 7th Earl of Harrington (1809-81), who sold 1870 to J.C. Dymoke Robertson (d. 1895); to brother, William Henry Robertson (d. 1918); to Maj. George Robertson who sold 1928 to T. Shaw, who sold 1934 to Robert Disney Leith Alexander, 16th Baron Cobham (1885-1951); probably demolished after his death.

Honington Hall, Lincolnshire
The house of the Hussey family at Honington which descended to the Apreeces in the early 18th century must have been of some size, but no picture of it seems to survive. 

Honington Hall as rebuilt in 1861-63. Image: Matthew Beckett

Honington Hall from the Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1888.

It was rebuilt in 1861-63 for the Trafford family who acquired it in 1851 and this house was a large stone building with mullioned windows, many informally grouped gables and a tall fanciful tower rising behind. In 1938 the accommodation consisted of five reception rooms, ten principal bedrooms and ample servants' accommodation, so it is perhaps not surprising that it was demolished in 1946 amidst the austerities of post-War Britain.

Descent: John Hussey (d. 1587); to cousin, Charles Hussey; to half-brother, Sir Charles Hussey, kt. (1546-1609); to son, Sir Edward Hussey (1585-1648), 1st bt.; to grandson, Sir Thomas Hussey (1639-1706), 2nd bt.; to daughter Sarah (1672-1749), wife of Robert Apreece (c.1677-1744); to son, Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77); to son, Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Thomas George Apreece (1791-1842), 2nd bt.; bequeathed to St. George's Hospital, London, which sold 1851 to Miss Margaret Elizabeth Trafford-Southwell (d. 1879); to nephew, Col. Edward Southwell Trafford (1838-1912) who let it; to son, Capt. Sigismund William Joseph Trafford (1883-1953) who let the house and demolished it in 1946-48.

Effingham House, Surrey

Effingham House: south front in 1894. Image: Effingham Parish Council

The four bay two-storey central block represents a villa created around the beginning of the 19th century, probably for Lt-Gen. Oliver de Lancey, an American loyalist who moved to Britain after the War of Independence, but whose assets were seized in 1806 for a large-scale fraud on the British government. The slightly uneven spacing of the windows and the survival of gable-ends behind the parapet suggests that the facade conceals earlier work, and a house called Hansards in the 18th century is thought to have stood on the same site. The house gains some distinction from the flat roofed Ionic portico across the ground floor. To the early 19th century house lower pebbledashed wings were added on either side about 1880, perhaps for Charles Edward Lambert (d. 1910), who was the tenant here for some thirty years. The house was leased as the club house of Effingham Golf Club in 1927 and continues to fulfil this purpose today. It has been surprisingly little changed in the last hundred years.

Descent: William Bryant (d. 1795) sold c.1793 to Lt-Gen. Oliver de Lancey (fl. 1796-1806), who sold 1806 to George Bogle (d. 1813); sold 1814 to Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt., who bequeathed it to his mistress, Louisa Venmore and their daughter, Lucy (1796-1868), wife of Hildebrand Meredith Parratt (c.1790-1868); to son, Col. Evelyn Latimer Parratt (1819-1909) who let to Charles Edward Lambert (1843-1910) and his widow, Emma Anne Lambert (1840-1917); ...sold 1921 to R.R. Calburn, who sold a lease to Effingham Golf Club in 1927.

Apreece family of Washingley Hall and Effingham House

Ap Rhys alias Apreece, Robert (c.1472-1555). Son of Isaac ap Rhys and his wife Joan, sister of Sir Reginald Bray. High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire, 1528-29. He married 1st, Joan, daughter and heir of William Otter of Walthamstow; and 2nd, 1544, Christian, Lady Sapcote, and had issue:
(1) William Ap Rhese alias Apreece (c.1505-74) (q.v.);
(2) Edward ap Rhese; married and had issue two sons;
(3) James or Thomas ap Rhese; married and had issue one son.
He acquired the manor of Washingley (Hunts) through his marriage with Joan Otter.
He died in 1555. He was survived by his second wife.

Apreece, William (c.1505-74). Son of Robert Apreece (d. 1555) and his first wife Joan, daughter of William Otter of Walthamstow, born about 1505. MP for Huntingdonshire. He married Joanna/Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Latymer of North Crawley (Bucks) and Duntish (Dorset), and had issue:
(1) Cassandra Apreece (c.1530-1592); married 1st, John Roberts of Wollaston and had issue; 2nd, Peter Ashton of Chatterton; 3rd, Adlard Welby (d. 1570) of Gedney and had issue four sons and one daughter; and 4th, 10 May 1574, Robert Carre (d. 1606) of Sleaford (Lincs); died 22 February 1590/1 aged 60 and was buried at Gedney (Lincs), 7 March 1590/1 where she and her third husband are commemorated by a monument erected in 1605;
(2) Robert Apreece (1535-1622) (q.v.);
(3) Edmond Ap Rhese; married Mary Tiringham and had issue;
(4) Lewis Ap Rhese;
(5) John Price;
(6) Elena Ap Rhese.
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father in 1555.
He died 11 February 1574.

Ap Rhys alias Apreece, Robert (1535-1622). Son of William Apreece (c.1505-74) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Latymer of North Crawley, born 1535. He adhered to the old religion, and the Catholic priest and martyr, Fr. Edmund Campion, stayed with him during part of his mission to England in 1581. Apreece was fined £120 for recusancy in 1593 and imprisoned at Ely in 1594. He married Johanna, daughter of Robert Wilford of London and had issue nine sons and six daughters including:
(1) Robert Ap Rhese or Price (d. c.1595); married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Humphrey Dixwell of Churchover (Warks) and had issue four sons and two daughters; died about 1595 and is commemorated by a monument which he erected at Churchover;
(2) Joan or Johanna Ap Rhese or Rice; married Stephen Alleyn (fl. c.1600) of Gresley Hall (Derbys) and had issue;
(3) Elizabeth Ap Rhese or Rice; married 1st, Richard Randell and 2nd, Thomas Hales;
(4) Mary Ap Rhese or Rice; married William Hewet of Millbrook (Beds) and had issue two sons;
(5) John Ap Rhese; educated at Douai; died without issue;
(6) Isaac Ap Rhese; educated at Douai; died without issue;
(7) Sir Adelard Ap Rhese alias Apreece (c.1564-1608); soldier and courtier; educated at Douai; fought in Hungary, Ferrara, Austria and Bavaria; knighted in Ferrara; died unmarried and without issue; buried at Lutton, 1608, where he is commemorated by a monument attributed to Maximilian Colt;
(8) Francis Ap Rhese alias Apreece, of Chichester (Sussex); married Mary, daughter of George Lewknor of Chichester and had issue four sons and two daughters; 
(9) Richard Apreece (fl. 1634); married [forename unknown] Ashley of Stafford;
(10) Jerome alias Jeremy Ap Rhese or Apreece (q.v.);
(11) Simon Ap Rhese alias Apreece; married [forename unknown] Wafery of Bedfordshire;
(12) Cassandra Ap Rhese alias Apreece.
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father in 1574.
He died 9 April 1622 and was buried at Lutton (Northants), where a monument commemorating him, his father and grandfather was erected in 1633, on which he is described as a nonagenarian although he appears to have been only 86 or 87 at death.

Ap Rhys alias Apreece, Jerome alias Jeremy (fl. 1634). Seventh son of Robert Apreece (1535-1622) and his wife Johanna, daughter of Robert Wilford of London. A recusant. He married Anne, daughter of William Yaxley of Yaxley (Suffolk) and had issue:
(1) Col. Robert Apreece (d. 1644).
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father in 1621 and may have been responsible for building a new house there.
His date of death is unknown.

Apreece, Col. Robert (d. 1644). Son of Jerome alias Jeremy Apreece and his wife Anne, daughter of William Yaxley of Yaxley (Suffolk). It seems to have been he who settled on the spelling of the family name used by later generations. He was an active Royalist and Roman Catholic and took part in the defence of Lincoln against the forces of Parliament in 1644.  The day after the Earl of Manchester's forces captured the town he was identified by some the earl's soldiers (who may have been neighbours in Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire, where the Earl had estates), who asked if he was "Price, the Papist" and when he admitted to being a Roman Catholic, one of them shot him dead. As a martyr for the Catholic cause he was beatified by the Pope in 1886. He married Mary (1621-79), daughter of Sir Henry Bedingfield of Oxburgh Hall (Norfolk) and had issue:
(1) Robert Apreece (1638-1723) (q.v.).
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father.
He was killed at Lincoln, 7 May 1644. His widow married 2nd, 1 March 1646/7 at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), Humphrey Orme MP (1620-71) and had further issue two sons and two daughters; she died 1 August 1679.

Apreece, Robert (1638-1723). Son of Col. Robert Apreece (d. 1644) and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Bedingfield of Oxburgh Hall (Norfolk), born 1638. He was brought up as a Protestant by his stepfather and was thus able to become MP for Huntingdonshire, 1673-79, 1698; DL for Hunts, 1660-81, 1686-88, 1694-1702, for Cambridgeshire 1698-1702 and for the Isle of Ely c.1696-1702; JP for Hunts, 1660-81, 1687-1723 and for Ely c.1696-1702. An officer in the Huntingdonshire militia (Major in 1680-81; Col. by 1697). He married, 18 April 1660, Frances (d. 1699), daughter and heir of Henry Bexwell of Bexwell (Norfolk) and had issue including:
(1) Ann Apreece (b. & d. 1660); died aged two days;
(2) Susanna Apreece (1673-1752), baptised 20 December 1673; married, 1697, Admiral Sir John Balchin (1669-1744) and had issue five sons and two daughters; buried at Fulham, 28 June 1752;
(3) Robert Apreece (c. 1677-1744) (q.v.);
(4) Henry Apreece (c.1681-1746) of March (Cambs), educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge (admitted 1700); died unmarried and left his entire estate to trustees for Jane, wife of John Symons of March; will proved 2 July 1746;
(5) Frances Apreece; married, c.1696, William Lee of Cold Ashby (Northants);
(6) Mary Apreece (d. 1711); buried at Lutton (Northants).
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father in 1644.
He died 25 February 1723 and was buried at Fulham (Middx). His wife was buried at Washingley, 4 February 1699/1700.

Apreece, Robert (c.1677-1744). Son of Robert Apreece (1638-1723) and his wife Frances, daughter and heir of Henry Bexwell of Bexwell (Norfolk), born about 1677. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge (admitted 1695). He married, c.1700 (licence 21 December 1700), Sarah (1672-1749), daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Hussey (d. 1706), 2nd bt. of Honington (Lincs). In 1729 he prosecuted Sir Robert Henly bt. for adultery and was awarded £1500 damages, but this does not seem to have terminated the marriage. They had issue, perhaps with others who died young:
(1) Rhoda Apreece (1701-59), baptised 27 November 1701 at St Andrew, Holborn (London); she and her husband built Seaton Delaval Hall (Northumbld) and she inherited Doddington Hall (Lincs) from her mother in 1749; married, 6 August 1724, Capt. Francis Blake Delaval RN (1692-1752) of Seaton Delaval (Northumbld) and had issue eight sons and five daughters; died 9 August and was buried at Kensington, 17 August 1759;
(2) Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77) (q.v.);
(3) Robert Apreece (b. 1709), baptised 28 March 1709; died young.
He inherited the Washingley estate from his father in 1723. His wife was the longest surviving co-heiress of her father and inherited Doddington Hall (Lincs) and Honington Hall (Lincs). At her death in 1749 it passed to their daughter Rhoda and her husband.  They were probably responsible for remodelling Washingley Hall in the 1730s or 1740s.
He died 26 October 1744 and was buried at Honington (Lincs), 3 November 1744; his will was proved in the PCC, 17 January 1744/5. His widow died 23 April 1749 and she was buried at Honington where she is commemorated by a monument; her will was proved 5 May 1749.

Apreece, Thomas Hussey (c.1702-77).  Son of Robert Apreece (c.1677-1744) and his wife Sarah, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Hussey, 2nd bt. of Honington (Lincs), born about 1700. Possibly the Thomas Apreece who became an ensign in the Grenadier Guards, 1723. Steward of Stilton (Hunts) races, 1736, 1738. He married, 1st, 1 December 1725 (div.), Amy, daughter of Stephen Scott; 2nd, 9 May 1739, Elizabeth Dover Enfield (d. 1740) of Whatley (Middx) and 3rd, 8 March 1741/2 at St James Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Dorothy (c.1719-84), daughter and co-heir of Sir Nathan Wright, 3rd bt. of Cranham Hall (Essex), and had issue:
(3.1) Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(3.2) John Hussey Apreece (1747-1821) of Stilton (Hunts), baptised 27 April 1747; confined as a lunatic; died unmarried and without issue and was buried at Stilton, 11 July 1821; will proved 16 July 1821;
(3.3) Susanna Dorothy Apreece (1750-1828), born 15 December 1750 and baptised 13 January 1751; married, 28 June 1780 at St Anne Soho, London, John Coles of Wardour St., Soho, and had issue one son and four daughters;
(3.4) Charles Shaw Apreece (1753-1808) of Pentonville (Middx), baptised at Lutton, 4 September 1753; married 28 February 1808 at St George the Martyr, Southwark, Mary Hunt, by whom he had previously had four sons (two of whom were confined as lunatics) and one daughter; will proved 16 August 1808.
He lived at Whitley (Wilts) until he inherited the Washingley and Honington estates from his father in 1744 but seems thereafter to have lived mainly in London, where he had a house in Brook Street, Mayfair. His third wife brought him a dowry of £12,000 and in 1749 he inherited the bulk of the estate of Thomas Ball of Mamhead (Devon), who was a distant relation.
He died in September 1777. His second wife died in childbirth, 26 December 1740. His widow was buried 14 June 1784 at Norwood Green (Middx); her will was proved 19 June 1784.

Apreece, Sir Thomas Hussey (1744-1833), 1st bt. Son of Thomas Hussey Apreece (c.1702-77) and his wife Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of Sir Nathan Wright, bt, born 4 November and baptised 15 November 1744. In 1761 he attended Sir John Hussey Delaval as an esquire during his installation as a Knight of the Bath. As a young Capt. in the Huntingdonshire militia, he defended Alnwick (Northumberland) against the pirate Paul Jones during the American War of Independence. He later devised the plan for establishing county yeomanry forces during the Napoleonic War which was implemented by Pitt. He seems to have had a number of sporting interests, and in 1790 was one of the umpires (with the Duke of Hamilton) at a famous boxing match in Doncaster. After his death he was said to have been one of the Prince of Wales' Carlton House set. He was created a baronet, 4 June 1782, and in the 1820s unsuccessfully claimed the barony of Havering, which probably never existed. He married, 15 April 1771, Dorothea (1750-1822), youngest daughter and co-heir of Shuckburgh Ashby of Quenby Hall (Leics); they were separated from about 1774 but meeting accidentally at an inn at Oakham (Rutland) were reconciled for one night and parted forever the following morning; this accounts for the great difference in the ages of their children. They had issue:
(1) Amelia Apreece (1772-1858?), born 15 November and baptised 18 December 1772; married 1st, 1 September 1801 at St Luke, Chelsea (Middx), Sandford Peacock, younger son of Marmaduke Peacock; married 2nd, 15 August 1850 at Kennington (Surrey), William Henry Freeman (b. c.1786); probably the Amelia Freeman who died Oct-Dec 1858; left a legacy of £10,000 to Leicester Infirmary to build a new wing for pauper patients in memory of her mother;
(2) Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece (1773-1807), born 17 December 1773; educated at Harrow and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (admitted 1791); ensign of the Yeomen of the Guard, 1796-c.1804; after his marriage he restored and occupied Washingley Hall; married, September 1798/3 October 1799, Jane, daughter and heiress of Charles Kerr (who married 2nd, 11 April 1812, Sir Humphry Davy, 1st bt. (1780-1855)) but had no issue; died at Malvern (Worcs), 6 October 1807; will proved in PCC, 13 February 1808;
(3) Sir Thomas George Apreece (1791-1842), 2nd bt. (q.v.).
He also had issue by Sophia [surname unknown]:
(X1.1) Thomas William Adelard Hussey Apreece (b. 1785), baptised 14 February 1785; married and had issue; living at Calais in 1830;
(X1.2) Charles Apreece; married but died without issue.
He also had issue by Louisa Venmore:
(X2.1) Lucy Apreece (1796-1868), born 31 January 1796 and baptised 9 February 1803; married, 24 February 1817 at St George's Hanover Square, London, Lt-Col. Hildebrand Meredith Parratt (c.1790-1868) of Royal Horse Artillery and had issue; died 28 August and was buried at Effingham, 2 September 1868.
He inherited the Washingley and Honington estates from his father in 1777 and Cranham Hall (Essex) in 1787 from his mother's aunt, but seems to have lived mostly in London. In 1813 he bought Effingham House (Surrrey) with 16 acres for £2,700, and in 1832 he purchased the manor of Effingham. At his death he left his Effingham property to his mistress, Louisa Venmore and their daughter, Lucy Parratt.
He died at Effingham House, 27 May 1833; his will was proved in PCC, 24 June 1833. His wife died 26 December 1822; her will was proved 19 February 1823.

Apreece, Sir Thomas George (1791-1842), 2nd bt. Younger but only surviving son of Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece (1744-1833), 1st bt., and his wife Dorothea, daughter of Shuckburgh Ashby of Quenby (Leics), born 17 August and baptised 29 August 1791 at St Marylebone (Middx). High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 1818-19. He succeeded his father as 2nd bt., 27 May 1833 and sold the library at Washingley Hall.  He was apparently known popularly as "the mad baronet" but was described after his death as a man "of great eccentricity although by no means deficient in understanding", whose "eccentricities... excited so much attention and regret". He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited the Washingley and Honington estates from his father in 1833. At his death they were left to St. George's Hospital, London. His will was contested by relations on the grounds that he was of unsound mind but was eventually upheld; Honington was sold in 1851 and Washingley in 1859.
He committed suicide at Margate (Kent), 30 December 1842 and on his death the baronetcy became extinct; his will was proved in PCC, 29 November 1849.

Sources
Rev. W. Betham, The Baronetage of England, 1804, iv, pp. 115-117; G.E. Cokayne, Complete Baronetage, vol. 5, 1906, pp. 223-24; Fr. B. Camm, Forgotten Shrines, 1910, pp. 327-32; H. Thorold, Lincolnshire houses, 1999, p. 152; B. Bailey, Sir N. Pevsner & B. Cherry, The buildings of England: Northamptonshire, 2013, p. 403; C. O'Brien & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough,2014, p. 484; http://www.surreycommunity.info/effinghamparishcouncil/local-history/research-projects/effingham-families/lambert/; http://www.surreycommunity.info/effinghamparishcouncil/local-history/research-projects/manors-of-effingham/.

Location of archives
Apreece family of Washingley: deeds, family, trust and legal papers, 13th-19th cents [Northamptonshire Record Office WY; Acc. 1930/5); deeds, household and legal papers, 1796-1933 [Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland DE2687]

Coat of arms
Sable, three spears' heads argent, guttée de sang.

Revision
This account was first published 11 February 2015 and was updated 14 February 2015 and 19 November 2022.