(311) Bagot of Ard House, Kilcoursey House, Ballyturin House and Aughrane Castle

Bagot of Kilcoursey

Bagot of Aughrane Castle

It is thought that a branch of the Bagot family was established in Ireland by John Bagot, who accompanied Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, when he led an English army into Ireland at the request of Dermot MacMurrough, the deposed King of Leinster, in 1172. The family were important figures in medieval Ireland, and Robert Bagot (1213-98) was Chief Justiciar from 1274. They were first settled at Wexford but soon acquired an estate on the edge of Dublin (where by the early 14th century they had built Bagotrath Castle), and also an estate in Co. Limerick, which became known as Baggotstown. Bagotrath Castle remained in use until the 17th century, but was slighted in 1649 and subsequently abandoned. The site was cleared in the early 19th century, when the Irish Grand Canal was constructed and new warehousing and other facilities were built on the site. The Bagots remained Catholics after the Reformation, like so many Old English families, and John Bagot (d. 1672) is said to have been present at the Assembly of Catholic Confederates held in Kilkenny in 1647 and a signatory of the treaty of Limerick in 1651. Much of the family's property was confiscated by the Commonwealth authorities, but at the Restoration of the monarchy, John Bagot and his younger brother James Bagot, recovered the estates, only for them to be lost again when John's descendants supported King James II against King William III. This time, the loss was permanent, for although Edward Bagot (1620-1711) petitioned William III for the return of Bagotstown in 1700, the estate had by then been sold. Edward, who was perhaps the first of the family to conform to Protestantism, was, however, compensated by the award of lands in Co. Kildare and King's County (now Co. Offaly, which name is used throughout this account). It was on the Offaly estates that the family came to build its first country houses, and the genealogy below therefore starts with Edward.

Edward's eldest son and principal heir was Col. Milo Bagot, who effectively founded the two branches of the family considered here when he settled the Ard House estate on his eldest son, John Bagot (1702-60) in 1725, and the Kilcoursey estate on his third son, Charles Bagot (b. 1704) in 1734. John Bagot, who must have built the present Ard House if his father had not already done so, had a number of sons who served in the army and who did not long survive him, so Ard House came into the possession of his fourth son, John Lloyd Bagot (d. c.1801). John had married the heiress of an estate at Ballymoe in Co. Galway, and in due course they also inherited this property. There seems never to have been a country house at Ballymoe, although by the mid 19th century there was a dower house there, known as The Hermitage, where members of the family occasionally lived. John Lloyd Bagot was succeeded by his son, Thomas Neville Bagot (1784-1863), who had the reputation of being a 'kindly and indulgent landlord'; he was certainly active in the 1840s in trying to bring relief to his tenants in county Galway, who suffered severely during the Famine. His efforts to support his tenantry cannot have helped his own financial situation, for in 1858 he sold Ard House and its lands through the Encumbered Estates Court, and thereafter divided his time between a house in Dublin and The Hermitage.

Thomas Neville Bagot had three daughters (two of whom reverted to the Roman Catholic faith to the displeasure of their father) and four sons: John Lloyd Bagot (1814-90) who was the heir to Ballymoe; Bernard William Bagot (1816-99) who was a barrister; Charles Augustus Bagot (c.1820-77) who was a solicitor; and Christopher Neville Bagot (c.1822-77), who emigrated in 1844 in search of riches in the Australian goldfields. This sort of sentence has a tendency to conclude with a clause such as "and was never heard of again", but in fact Christopher returned in about 1860 with a very respectable fortune indeed. In 1863 he bought Castle Kelly (Co. Galway) and 11,000 acres through the Encumbered Estates Court, paying £105,000 cash down to complete the purchase, and renaming the house Aughrane Castle. More than a decade of hard work and primitive living in Australia had taken its toll on Christopher, however, and by the 1870s, he was an ailing batchelor with an estimated personal estate of £60,000. To his brothers, who had remained in Ireland and who were in varying degrees in low water financially, his likely early death without heirs gave them reasonable expectations of a resolution to their problems. However, in 1875 Christopher unexpectedly married a baronet's daughter, who on the evidence of their pre-nuptial agreement was expected primarily to act as his nurse. Just three months into the marriage, she produced a baby son. To explain this to the world (and later to the courts), she concocted a story of a previous secret marriage to Bagot in 1874, but it was a very thin story and widely disbelieved. Nonetheless, it seems probable that the child was Bagot's rather than another man's, a view which the courts eventually supported. The appearance in quick succession of a wife and an heir was of course a disaster for the expectations of the circling shark brothers. Led by Bernard, who as a barrister and JP understood the law, the brothers 'rescued' Christopher from the clutches of his wife and succeeded in convincing the ailing man that she was a designing vixen who had tricked him into marriage in the interest of securing his fortune and then saddled him with another man's child. Christopher wrote a new will, explicitly disclaiming the child, but still making fairly generous financial provision for both wife and child, while leaving the majority of the estate to his brothers. When Christopher died in 1877, his widow successfully contested the will in the interests of her son and herself, in one of the most celebrated probate cases of the 19th century. The untimely birth of her son and heir did not help her case or reputation, but the high-handed actions of the brothers were exposed in the court. They then pursued the case in the High Court, where a wise judge made it plain that the parties should compromise, and a settlement was finally reached in 1880, by which the widow and son got a substantially increased share of the estate, but the real estate went to the eldest brother, John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90), who in the interim had inherited the Ballyturin estate in right of his wife. 

John Lloyd Neville Bagot died in January 1890 and before the year was out his son, Edward Thomas Lloyd Neville Bagot (1848-90) had followed him to the grave. The Aughrane and Ballymoe properties passed next to Edward's son, Milo Victor Neville Bagot (1880-1913), whose mother took him to live in Italy. The Irish estates were left in the care of Milo's uncle, John Christopher Neville Bagot (1856-1935), who had in his own right inherited Ballyturin House from his father. The Ballymoe estates were sold in 1894, apparently to pay off liabilities on the property. Aughrane was occupied by another of Milo's uncles, Charles Henry Bagot (1860-1938), but shortly before Milo was due to come into his estate at the age of thirty, and perhaps because Milo had recently married an Italian girl and made it plain he did not intend to return to Ireland, Aughrane Castle was sold too. The sale was conducted through the Land Commission (of which J.C.N. Bagot was a member) and while the castle and some 300 acres were converted into an Agricultural College, the rest of the estate was sold to the tenants. J.C.N. Bagot continued to live at Ballyturin House until 1921, when a group of his friends, including a senior policeman, his wife, and two junior army officers, were ambushed and murdered by the IRA at the gates when driving away after a tennis party.

An artist's impression of the Ballyturin House ambush, 15 May 1921.
Image: Illustrated London News

The incident, which was one of the most ruthless and horrifying acts of terror in the long campaign for Irish independence, caused Mr Bagot to abandon Ballyturin and move to Britain, where he bought a modest house at Gresford in Denbighshire.

In 1734, Col. Milo Bagot settled the Kilcoursey estate in Co. Offaly on his younger son, Charles Bagot (b. 1704). At this time there was perhaps just an old castle as a residence on the property (fragments of which are said to remain), and it may have been Charles or his son Daniel Bagot (c.1741-85) who first replaced it with the house that is shown on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6", c.1840. Frustratingly, however, nothing seems to be known of the appearance of this building, so in the absence of archival evidence it is impossible to date more closely. Daniel was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Charles Emilius Bagot (c.1767-1802), who died relatively young after being afflicted for some months by a progressive religious mania. His son, Charles Bagot (1791-1864) came of age in 1812 and in 1833 inherited from his maternal grandmother a property adjoining Kilcoursey which was then known simply as 'Cottage', but which was already a substantial building and had perhaps been built as a dower house. Charles had five sons and two daughters from two marriages. With the exception of his eldest son, Charles Emilius Bagot (1815-63), who trained as a doctor and practised at Ballingarry and later in Dublin, his family by his first wife emigrated to Australia in 1850. It had no doubt been intended that C.E. Bagot would succeed to Kilcoursey, but he was an invalid and did not survive his father. The property therefore passed to his next brother, John Tuthill Bagot (1819-70), who was forging a successful career as a solicitor and politician in Adelaide. He came home only briefly to claim his inheritance, and although some lands may have been sold soon afterwards, he retained the majority of the property until his death. His representatives sold it in the Landed Estates Court in 1876. It was perhaps at this time that the 18th century Kilcoursey House was abandoned in favour of the dower house, to which the name Kilcoursey House, was transferred. That house was later substantially enlarged and remodelled for the Goodbody family in 1911, and still exists today.

Ard House, Geashill, Co. Offaly

Ard House: entrance front, 2018. Image: Conor Kenny

Ard House is the rare and important survival of a substantial early 18th century  house. It was probably built for Col. Milo Bagot (c.1670-1739), or for his son John Bagot (1702-60), to whom he made the house over in 1725. The entrance front has five bays and two storeys over a basement, but the window openings have no architraves and were probably remodelled when the house was re-roofed in 1786. The front door is approached by five limestone steps carrying the visitor up to the level of the ground floor. The timber sash windows on the front of the house are recent replacements of the originals, but 19th century four-over-four and six-over-six timber sash windows survive on the rear elevation; the basement has timber casement windows. The rear elevation, overlooking a partially cobbled rear yard largely surrounded by single-storey outbuildings with pitched slate and corrugated iron roofs, is less formal than the entrance front, and its fenestration expresses the tripartite division of the interior plan. The pitched tiled roof with rendered chimneystacks was rebuilt in 1786, as is recorded on a plaque now let into one of the gatepiers of the stable yard but formerly on an arch spanning that entrance.  The walls of the house are covered in a roughcast render.  

The original interior plan of the house survives, and shows how the house was formed of three compartments, the middle one of which was devoted entirely to a hall containing an oversized staircase, which was flanked by the principal rooms. The stairs, which have a moulded handrail supported by panels of evenly-spaced turned balusters, are an original feature of the house and unusually run from the ground floor to the attic.

Descent: Col. Milo Bagot (d. 1739), who settled it 1725 on his son, John Bagot (1702-60)... to son, John Lloyd Bagot (d. c.1801); to son, Thomas Neville Bagot (d. 1863); sold through the Encumbered Estates Court, 1858 to William Clarke (1804-95); to sister-in-law, Marianne Clarke (c.1822-1912) and her son, George Newcombe Clarke (c.1846-1927); sold after his death to Elizabeth (1875-1945) (née Odlum), the widow of Thomas Cleary (c.1856-1919) and later the wife of George Abraham Black (d. 1945); to son, Benjamin Cleary (c.1915-86); to son, Karl Cleary (fl. 2018).

Kilcoursey House, Clara, Co. Offaly

There was a castle here in early times, of which some ruins are said to remain in the grounds of the present house. 

Kilcoursey House, as shown on 1st edn. 6" map, c.1840.

It was superseded by a house, probably built in the 1730s after the estate was settled on Charles Bagot (b. 1704), but this in turn seems to have been fallen into ruin sometime after the Bagot family sold their estate here in the 1870s; the last remains are said to have been pulled down in about 1980. 

The present building known as Kilcoursey House is a long low one and a half storey structure, first built before 1833, apparently as a dower house, and called simply 'Cottage'. The site of this is visible on the map shown here on a site a little to the north-east of the original house. The Cottage was apparently enlarged or rebuilt in 1909 for J.H. Goodbody, a Quaker textile manufacturer whose family owned mills in Clara in the Victorian and Edwardian period. On the garden side the house overlooks a series of terraces running down to the River Brosna. In 1985 it achieved a brief notoriety as the setting for the still unsolved but apparently non-sectarian murder of a Catholic priest. 

Kilcoursey House: as rebuilt in 1909 for the Goodbody family,

Descent: Col. Milo Bagot (d. 1739), who settled it in 1734 on his son, Charles Bagot (b. 1704); to son, Daniel Bagot (c.1741-85); to son, Rev. Charles Emilius Bagot (c.1767-1802); to son, Charles Bagot (1791-1854); to son, John Tuthill Bagot (1819-69), to son, Charles Ulysses Bagot (b. 1850); sold 1876, perhaps to James Perry Goodbody (1853-1923); to son, (Joseph) Harold Goodbody (1880-1947); to son, Harold Goodbody (1904-72); to brother, Douglas Goodbody (b. 1916); sold c.1981 to Richard Flynn (d. 2017); sold c.1991 to Michael Mitchell (fl. 2018).

Ballyturin House, Co. Galway

Ballyturin House. Image: courtesy of Dr. Patrick Melvin & Eamonn de Burca/Skehana & District Heritage

A modest three-by-two bay house in a large and isolated demesne at the northern end of Lough Cutra, which was probably built in the early 19th century for the Kirwan family. The house was let from 1824, and passed into the Bagot family by marriage in 1845. In 1921 a police inspector, his pregnant wife and two army officers were ambushed and murdered by IRA gunmen as they were leaving the estate after a tennis party, and soon afterwards the house was abandoned and fell into ruin. Parts of the shell have now collapsed.

Ballyturin House: ruins. Image: Tarquin Blake/Abandoned Ireland.

Descent: Richard Kirwan (1733-1812)... Edward Henry Kirwan (1820-45); to sister, Anne Georgina, wife of John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90); to third son, John Christopher Bagot (1856-1935), who abandoned the house after 1921; to widow, Anna Bagot (d. 1963).

Aughrane Castle (formerly Castle Kelly), Ballygar, Co. Galway

Castle Kelly alias Aughrane Castle. Image: courtesy of Dr. Patrick Melvin & Eamonn de Burca/Skehana & District Heritage

The house consisted of an ancient, perhaps 16th century, tower which was extended in later centuries. The three-storey block with a great gable end rising into a stack of five conjoined chimneys represents an 18th century addition. The house was then turned into a 'beautiful and commanding modern Mansion' by further battlemented additions in the mid 19th century, reputedly by James Pain of Limerick for Denis Kelly. It is said that debris from a nearby monastic site was used as building stone, although the surface was of new cut ashlar. The house had little bartizans at the corners, plain windows with hood moulds and a simple battlemented porch. The estate was sold by the Encumbered Estates Court in 1863, and thereafter the house was known as Aughrane Castle. A gate lodge was designed by James Forth Kempster in 1871-72 for Christopher Neville Bagot, the new owner, at a cost of £300. In 1904, when the house was advertised for sale, it was noted that the old castle 'has some interesting old decorated ceilings and oak floors'. The accommodation then comprised an entrance porch and inner hall with Gothic grand staircase; spacious drawing room, library, dining room, writing room, eight family bedrooms, bath room, dressing room, and thirteen servants' bedrooms, as well as the usual domestic offices.

In 1909, following a disastrous bog slide on the estate, in which one person was killed and eight families were rendered homeless and unemployed, the estate was sold to the Estates Commissioners, and a school of forestry was established in the house and surrounding grounds by the Board of Agriculture. On 15 May 1921, however, the house was burned down by a gang of 30 armed men, who evacuated the caretaker at gunpoint and then systematically doused the furniture with petrol; only the external walls were left standing. The Board of Agriculture filed a claim for £10,000 compensation under the Malicious Injuries Act, but it not clear whether this was ever paid.

Descent: Timothy O'Kelly (fl. 1566); to son, Rory O'Kelly (fl. 1590); to son, Capt. Colla O'Kelly (d. 1615); to son, Col. John Kelly (d. 1674); to son, Col. Charles Kelly; to son, Capt. Denis Kelly (d. 1740); to kinsman, John Kelly (d. 1748); to son, Denis Kelly (d. 1794); to son, John Kelly (d. 1813); to brother, Rev. Andrew Armstrong Kelly (1763-1849); to son, Denis Henry Kelly (1797-1877); sold in Encumbered Estates Court, 1863, to Christopher Neville Bagot (d. 1877); after lengthy legal proceedings to brother, John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90); to son, Thomas Lloyd Neville Bagot (1848-90); to son, Milo Victor Neville Bagot (1880-1913); sold to Estates Commissioners, 1909, and handed over to Board of Agriculture, 1909; burned 1921.

Bagot family of Ard House, Ballyturin and Aughrane Castle

Bagot, Edward (1620-1711). Eldest son of James Bagot of Ballinstown & Waterstown, and his wife Margaret, daughter of John Milo Power of Ballyphilip and Camphire (Co. Waterford), born 1620. Royal Commissioner for Co. Leix, 1663; High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1667 and Co. Leix, 1680. He married, 1659, Catherine, daughter of William Colborne of Great Connell (Co. Kildare), and had issue:

(1) Col. Milo Bagot (1660-1739) (q.v.);
(2) Arthur Bagot (fl. 1711); executor of his father's will;
(3) Christopher Bagot; from whom descend the Bagots of Nurney and Kilnoon;
(4) Elizabeth Bagot (d. 1725); married George Medlicott (c.1649-1717) of Tully (Co. Kildare), fourth son of Thomas Medlicott of Abingdon (Berks) and had issue seven sons and seven daughters; died 29 December 1725.
He lived at Harristown and Walterstown (both Co. Kildare) and secured grants of land in Kildare and Co. Offaly from the Crown in 1700 in compensation for the loss of the Bagotstown estate, seized when his cousins were attainted for their support of James II.
He died in 1711 and was buried in Kildare Cathedral. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, Col. Milo (1660-1739). Eldest son of Edward Bagot (1620-1711) and his wife, Catherine, daughter of William Colborne of Great Connell (Co. Kildare), born 1660. High Sheriff of Co. Offaly, possibly in 1728. He married, 1700, Margaret (b. 1673), daughter of Edmond Armstrong of Mauristown (Co. Kildare), and had issue:
(1) John Bagot (1702-60) (q.v.);
(2) Elizabeth Bagot (1702-39); married, 15 March 1719, as his first wife, Warneford Armstrong (1699-1767) of Ballycumber (Offaly), and had issue five sons and six daughters; died 23 October 1739;
(3) Michael Bagot (d. 1744); died without issue;
(4) Charles Bagot (b. 1704) [for whom see Bagot family of Kilcoursey below];
(5) Mary Bagot; married Thomas Walsh of Hallaboys (Co. Kildare), but died without issue.
He inherited the Kildare and Offaly estates of his father in 1711. He settled Ard House, on his son John in 1725, and Kilcoursey on his son Charles in 1734. He lived at Newtown (Co. Leix).
He died in 1738/9 and is said to have been buried at 'Kilmansham near Clare'; his will was proved at Dublin in 1738/9. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, John (1702-60). Eldest son of Col. Milo Bagot (1660-1739) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Edmond Armstrong of Mauristown (Co. Kildare), born 1702. He married, 1728, Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Herbert, 2nd bt., of Durrow Abbey (Offaly) and had issue:
(1) Milo Bagot (d. c.1766); died without issue; an officer in the 32nd Foot (Lt.; retired, 1764); his will was submitted to the Prerogative Court of Dublin 1766 but was not proved;
(2) William Bagot; died without issue;
(3) Charles Bagot; an officer in the 32nd Foot (Lt., 1764); died without issue;
(4) John Lloyd Bagot (d. c.1801) (q.v.);
(5) Thomas Bagot; died without issue;
(6) Mary Bagot; died without issue;
(7) Margaret Bagot; married Archibald Armstrong (1726-93) of Garry Casle, Banagher (Offaly) and had issue (who assumed the name of Bagot).
Ard House, near Geashill, was settled on him by his father in 1725.
He died in 1760; his will was proved at Dublin in 1760. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, Capt. John Lloyd (d. c.1801). Fourth but only surviving son of John Bagot (1702-60) and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Herbert, 2nd bt., of Durrow Abbey (Offaly). An officer in the 37th Foot (Ensign, 1762; Capt.); ADC to Lord Cornwallis during the American War of Independence. On the formation of the Glinsk Loyalist Volunteers in 1789 he was appointed Lt-Col. of the corps. He married, 14 October 1775 at Ballymoe, Catherine Anne (d. 1817?), daughter of Michael Cuffe of Ballymoe (Galway), and had issue:
(1) John Cuffe Bagot (c.1776-1804); lived at Westminster (Middx); died unmarried and without issue, 1804; will proved in Dublin, 1804;
(2) Louisa Bagot (c.1777-1863); married [forename unknown] Burke; died at Ballymoe, 11 June 1863;
(3) William Bagot (d. 1804); lived at Dublin; died without issue; probably the man of this name whose will was proved at Dublin, 1804;
(4) Cordelia Bagot (d. 1801); died unmarried; will proved at Dublin, 1801;
(5) Isabella Matilda Bagot (c.1780-1868); died unmarried, aged 88, Oct-Dec 1868;
(6) Thomas Neville Bagot (1784-1863) (q.v.);
(7) Maria Bagot (c.1785-1873); died unmarried, aged 88, Apr-Jun 1873.
He inherited Ard House, near Geashill (Co. Offaly) from his father or brother in the 1760s, and Ballymoe (Co. Galway) in right of his wife.
His will was proved in 1801. His widow may be the 'Catherine Bagot' buried at St John, Dublin, on 28 September 1817.

Bagot, Thomas Neville (1784-1863). Youngest but only surviving son of Capt. John Lloyd Bagot (d. c.1801) and his wife Catherine Anne, daughter of Michael Cuffe MP of Ballinrobe (Co. Mayo), born 31 October 1784. JP for Offaly, Galway and Roscommon, c.1812-63. Vice-President of the Society for the Improvement of Land, 1846. Guardian of Glennamaddy Poor Law Union. Described in his obituary as 'a kindly and indulgent landlord'. He married, June 1811 at Elphin (Roscommon), Ellen (1790-1848), second daughter of John Fallon of Runnimead (Co. Roscommon) and had issue:
(1) Letitia Mary Bagot (c.1813-98); a Roman Catholic nun; died unmarried at Kingstown (Co. Dublin), 8 January 1898;
(2) John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90) (q.v.);
(3) Bernard William Bagot (1816-99), of Carranure House (Roscommon), born 28 December 1816; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1834; BA 1839) and Kings Inns, Dublin (called to bar, 1843); barrister-at-law; JP for Co. Roscommon; was apparently the moving spirit in the family's attempt to wrest the fortune of his younger brother Christopher away from Christopher's widow and son, which after a lengthy legal case which consumed a sizeable part of the value of estate, was only partially successful; married 1st, 17 December 1850 at Rathfarnham (Co. Dublin), Euphemia (d. 1855), daughter of Richard John Hinds of Newgrove (Co. Longford) and Mount Prospect, Rathgar (Co. Dublin) and had issue one son; married 2nd, 18 March 1862 at St Peter, Dublin, Josephine Isabella, daughter of Joseph A. Holmes of Clogher House (Co. Sligo) and had issue two daughters; died 22 January 1899;
(4) Ellen Mary Bagot (d. 1866); died unmarried at Chateau Huplandre, Boulogne (France), 26 July 1866;
(5) Charles Augustus Bagot (c.1820-77), born about 1820; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1834; BA 1840; MA 1863); solicitor in Dublin; certified insane, 1873; married, 28 September 1858 at St Peter, Dublin, Fanny Louisa, daughter of A.S. Kerr of Dublin, and had issue three sons (who all emigrated and died abroad); died 18 April 1877; will proved 19 September 1877 (effects under £3,000);
(6) Christopher Neville Bagot  (c.1822-77) (q.v.);
(7) Catherine (k/a Kate) Bagot (d. 1908); married, 4 January 1849 at St Thomas, Dublin and St Mary's RC Pro Cathedral, Dublin, Francis Meagher (d. c.1854) of Ballinderry (Tipperary), barrister-at-law, and had issue one son; lived latterly in Italy; died at Genoa, 16 March 1908; will proved in Dublin, 26 October 1908 (effects £1,268).
He inherited the Ard House and Ballymoe estates from his father in 1801, but sold Ard through the Encumbered Estates Court in 1858. He lived thereafter at The Hermitage, Ballymoe, and also owned a house in Fitzwilliam St., Dublin.
He moved to France for health reasons in 1862, and died at his youngest daughter's house in Boulogne, 8 February 1863; administration of his goods was granted to his second son, 14 March 1863 (effects under £1,000). It is probably he who is commemorated by a tomb with an effigy at Ballymoe, the inscription on which is now too damaged to be legible. His wife died suddenly of an apoplexy after dinner at their Dublin house on 17 March 1848.

Bagot, John Lloyd Neville (1814-90). Eldest son of Thomas Neville Bagot (1784-1863) and his wife Ellen, daughter of John Fallon of Runnimead (Co. Roscommon), born November 1814. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1834). JP for Co. Galway, Clare and Roscommon. He took the additional forename Neville by royal licence in 1878 on inheriting the Aughrane Castle estate. He married, 13 September 1843 at St Peter, Dublin, Anne Georgina (1823-88), only daughter of Edward Henry Kirwan of Ballyturin Castle (Co. Galway), and had issue:
(1) (Edward) Thomas Lloyd Neville Bagot (1848-90) (q.v.);
(2) Edward Henry Kirwan Bagot (1850-82); born 1850; died unmarried, Oct-Dec 1882;
(3) John Christopher Bagot (1856-1935) (q.v.);
(4) twin, Charles Henry Bagot (1860-1938) (q.v.); 
(5) twin, Anna Isabella Bagot (1860-1942), born 31 May 1860; lived at Listride, Roscommon; died unmarried, 17 April 1942; administration of goods granted 22 June 1942 (estate £309);
(6) Ellen Georgina Bagot (1863-1953); married, 12 December 1907, Harry Huggins (1866-1938), eldest son of Henry Huggins of St. Annes-on-Sea (Lancs), but had no issue; died, 22 July 1953; her will proved 12 September 1953 (estate £3,348).
He inherited the Ballymoe estate from his father in 1863, and Aughrane Castle after lengthy legal proceedings following the death of his youngest brother in 1877. He also inherited Ballyturin House in right of his wife. At his death, Ballymoe and Aughrane passed to his eldest son and Ballyturin to his second surviving son.
He died 14 January 1890; his will was proved 29 April 1890 (effects £4,789). His wife died 14 May 1888; administration of her goods was granted 21 June 1890 (effects £1,900).

Bagot, (Edward) Thomas Lloyd Neville (1848-90). Eldest son of John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90) and his wife Anne Georgina, only daughter of Edward Henry Kirwan of Ballyturin Castle (Co. Galway), born 1848. He married, 1876, his cousin Ellen, a composer of light dance music, daughter of Francis Meagher of Ballinderry (Tipperary), and had issue:
(1) twin, Milo Victor Neville Bagot (1880-1913), born 19 March 1880; married, October 1908, Maria Boccacio (b. c.1885) of Turin (Italy), but had no issue; died in Genoa (Italy), 1913;
(2) twin, Laline Anna Letitia Bagot (1880-82), born 19 March 1880; died in infancy, 20 November 1882.
He inherited the Ballymoe and Aughrane Castle estates from his father in 1890. At his death they passed to his son, then a minor, subject to a proviso he would not come of age until he was 30 (in 1910). John Christopher Neville Bagot (1856-1935) acted as his guardian, and sold the Ballymoe estate in 1894 and Aughrane Castle in 1909.
He died 10 October 1890; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 5 February 1907 (remaining effects £143). His widow died at Maurizio, Turin (Italy), 31 August 1925; administration of goods granted 10 June 1927 (effects £643).

J.C.N. Bagot (1856-1935)

Bagot, John Christopher Neville (1856-1935). Third son of John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90) and his wife Anne Georgina, only daughter of Edward Henry Kirwan of Ballyturin Castle (Co. Galway), born 20 October 1856. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin. JP for Co. Galway; Member of the Land Commission. He acted as Guardian ad Litem for his nephew, Milo Victor Neville Bagot after 1890, and took the decision to sell the Ballymoe and Aughrane Castle estates. As a young man, he was a notable athlete who represented Ireland at rugby and hockey and was a good tennis player and a first class shot. He married, 20 October 1891 at Fenny Bentley (Derbys), Anna Catherine (k/a Nancy) (1866-1963), only daughter of Lt-Col. William Fleming of Mayfield, Ashbourne (Derbys) and had issue:
(1) Mary Eileen Bagot (1894-1984), born 5 February 1894; married, 21 April 1925 (div. 1947) Brig. James Gerald Bruxner-Randall CBE (1890-1986), son of Col. Richard George Bruxner-Randall of Thurlaston Holt (Leics) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died in London, 9 October 1984; will proved 8 January 1985 (estate £190,357);
(2) Kathleen Anna Bagot (1899-1979), born 21 January 1899; married, 26 June 1923, Kenneth Haldane Watts (1885-1953), son of William Arthur Watts of West Garth, St. Ives (Cornw.), but had no issue; died in Chester, 2 October 1979; will proved 8 February 1980 (estate £56,265).
He inherited Ballyturin House from his father in 1890, but abandoned it after a group of his friends were ambushed and murdered at his gates in 1921 in one of the most brutal assaults during the struggle for Irish independence. He moved to Hill Top, Gresford (Denbighs.)
He died 27 April 1935 and was buried at Gresford (Denbighs.); his will was proved 28 June 1935 (estate £1,238). His widow died in London, 17 January 1963, and was buried at Gresford; her will was proved 29 April 1963 (estate £25,530).

Bagot, Charles Henry (1860-1938). Fourth son of John Lloyd Neville Bagot (1814-90) and his wife Anne Georgina, only daughter of Edward Henry Kirwan of Ballyturin Castle (Co. Galway), born 31 May 1860; educated at Tuam and Trinity College, Dublin; after 1909 a farmer at Athleague (Roscommon). JP, Resident Magistrate, and member of the Grand Jury for the Roscommon Assizes. He hunted with, and was Secretary of, the Roscommon Harriers. He married, 10 November 1891 at St Michael, Blackrock (Co. Cork), Georgina Louisa (1860-1941), fourth daughter of John Osborne MD of Lindville, Blackrock (Co. Cork) and had issue:
(1) Anna Georgina Bagot (1892-1958), born 14 September 1892; died unmarried, 7 February 1958;
(2) Charles Edward Kirwan Bagot (1895-1976) (q.v.);
(3) Gwendoline Frances Bagot (b. 1898), born 2 December 1898; married, 15 April 1931, William Gerald Ridgeway FRCSI, DPH (1886-1936), sixth son of Richard Grubb Ridgeway of Riverview House, Waterford, but had no issue; living at Swanbrook House, Donnybrook (Co. Dublin) in 1976; date of death unknown.
He lived at Aughrane Castle after the death of his brother in 1890, but when it was sold to the Estates Commissioners in 1909 he moved to Curraghmore, Athleague (Co. Roscommon).
He died 19 September 1938; administration of his goods was granted to his younger daughter, 29 March 1939 (estate £59). His widow died 24 May 1941.

Bagot, Col. Charles Edward Kirwan (1895-1976). Only son of Charles Henry Bagot (1860-1938) and his wife Georgina Louisa, fourth daughter of John Osborne MD of Lindville, Blackrock (Co. Cork), born 3 June 1895. Educated at Royal School, Armagh and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh; served in Connaught Rangers in First World War, 1915-18 (2nd Lt.; mentioned in despatches twice); transferred to Gloucestershire Regiment, 1922 (Lt., 1922; Capt., 1925; Maj. c.1939; Lt-Col., 1941); served in Second World War in Burma (mentioned in despatches); General Staff Officer, 2nd British Division in India, 1942, 20th Indian Division in Ceylon, 1943; retired from Army, 1947. He was awarded the MC before 1925. He married, 22 November 1928, Frances Isobel Finetta (1905-95), daughter of Dr. John Angell James of Stoke Bishop, Bristol (Glos), and had issue:
(1) Charles Christopher Neville Bagot (b. 1930), born 2 March 1930; educated at Marlborough; served as an officer in Royal Artillery (Lt.); shipping executive; married, 14 November 1964, Jennifer Muriel (b. 1932), daughter of HH Judge William Donald Massey Sumner of Brissenden House, Bethersden (Kent) and had issue one son and three daughters;
(2) Finetta Veronica Angella Bagot (b. 1933), born 12 February 1933; married, 27 October 1956, Richard Wallace Paul Mellish MB BS (1923-2008) of Burlington, Vermont (USA), second son of Rev. Edward Noel Mellish VC MC of South Petherton (Somerset) and had issue two sons and one daughter.
He lived latterly at Greengates, Painswick (Glos).
He died 2 July 1976; will proved 22 November 1976 (estate £5,726). His wife died in November 1995.

Bagot, Christopher Neville (c.1822-77). Fourth son of Thomas Neville Bagot (1784-1863) and his wife Ellen, daughter of John Fallon of Runnimead (Co. Roscommon), born about 1822. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1838). In 1844 he went to Australia and it is to be presumed that he was a successful gold prospector, for he returned with a fortune and the nickname 'The Nugget'. JP for Galway and Roscommon, 1863. The disputed and bizarre circumstances of his marriage and family life are explored at length in press reports of the legal dispute about his will, which became one of the most celebrated and sensational of 19th century probate cases. He married, 8 August 1875, the beautiful Alice Emily (1853-1908), daughter of Sir William Verner, 2nd bt., and had issue:
(1) William Hugh Neville Bagot (1875-1960), born 22 October 1875; lived at Haut de Mont, La Haule, Jersey; married, 1909 at St Marylebone, London, Louise Kauffman (d. 1967) and had issue one son and two daughters; died 15 February 1960.
He purchased Castle Kelly (Co. Galway) in the Incumbered Estates Court in 1863, and renamed it Aughrane Castle. His purchase included the castle and 11,000 acres, for which he paid £105,000.
He died 23 May 1877; his will was the subject of lengthy litigation between his widow and his brothers, as a result of which a compromise was reached by which his son was declared legitimate and financial provision was made for him and for the widow, while the Aughrane estate passed to his eldest brother; administration of his personal estate was granted 9 August 1878 (effects under £18,000) and full probate was granted 12 August 1880 (effects under £25,000). His widow married 2nd, 30 October 1879 (div. 1895), Maj. Reginald Wynne Roberts DSO (1856-1913), son of Evan Roberts, and had further issue two sons and two daughters; she died 9 July 1908.

Bagot family of Kilcoursey House

Bagot, Charles (b. 1704). Third son of Col. Milo Bagot (1660-1739) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Edmond Armstrong of Mauristown (Co. Kildare), born 1704. He married, 25 August 1739, Temperance, daughter of Daniel Browne of Riverstown (Co. Kildare), and had issue:
(1) Milo Bagot; JP for Co. Offaly; High Sheriff of Co. Offaly; Col. of Kings' County Corps of Infantry, 1779; married Sophia, daughter and co-heir of William Wetherall of Castletown, but died without issue;
(2) Daniel Bagot (c.1741-85) (q.v.);
(3) Andrew Bagot; died unmarried;
(4) Eliza Bagot (d. 1833); married Ulysses North (c.1738-80) and had issue two daughters (Elizabeth, who married in 1791 her first cousin, Rev. Charles Emilius Bagot; and Mary, who married her first cousin, Milo Bagot (1774-1831)); died shortly after 30 October 1833.
His father settled the Kilcoursey estate on him by deed in 1734.
His date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, Daniel (c.1741-85). Second but only surviving son of Charles Bagot (b. 1704) and his wife Tempe, daughter of Daniel Browne of Riverstown (Co. Kildare), born about 1741. An officer in the army (Lt., 1762) and later in King's County Light Cavalry (Maj., 1779). JP for Co. Offaly; High Sheriff of Co. Offaly, 1781. He married, Sarah, daughter of Abraham Clibborn of Clare Lodge, and had issue:
(1) Rev. Charles Emilius Bagot (1766-1802) (q.v.);
(2) Daniel Bagot (c.1770-1817), born about 1770; Secretary of the Irish Grand Canal Co., by 1804; married, 9 November 1793, Eliza Cole (d. 1834), only child of Capt. Robert Ponsonby Molesworth, and had issue two sons and one daughter; buried at St Peter, Dublin, 28 September 1817;
(3) Milo Bagot (1774-1831); a nonconformist in religion; married, c.1795 (post-nuptial settlement, 19 September), Mary, second daughter of Ulysses North of Newcastle (Co. Westmeath); buried at St Mary, Dublin, 25 January 1831;
(4) Emily Bagot (d. 1855); married William Edgeworth; died 30 June 1855;
(5) Margaret Bagot (d. 1855); married Thomas Oldham of Dublin and had issue; died in Dublin, 14 April 1855;
(6) Sarah Bagot (c.1780-1868), born about 1780; died unmarried in Dublin, 25 July 1868;
(7) Andrew Bagot (c.1784-1850), born about 1784; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1804); succeeded his brother as Secretary of the Irish Grand Canal Co., 1817-25 and later as Superintendent of the Canal Trade; married, c.1808, Eliza Shaw (c.1771-1851), and had issue three sons and three daughters; died in Dublin, 17 February 1850;
He inherited the Kilcoursey estate from his father.
He died in Philipstown (Co. Offaly), 1785. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, Rev. Charles Emilius (c.1767-1802). Eldest son of Daniel Bagot (d. 1785) and his wife Sarah, daughter of Abraham Clibborn of Clare Lodge, born 27 October 1766. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1782; BA 1787) and Inner Temple. Ordained, 1790. Curate of Clara (Offaly), 1790 and Ardnurcher, 1792. In his last months he apparently suffered from a religious mania, which no doubt contributed to his death. He married, 11 August 1790, Eliza (b. 1772), daughter of Ulysses North of Newcastle (Co. Westmeath) and had issue including:
(1) Charles Bagot (1791-1864) (q.v.);
(2) Eliza Anne (or Jane) Bagot (c.1795-1866); married, 1815, Rev. John Ball (d. 1833), curate of Delgany (Co. Wicklow), 1827-30, and had issue including one son; died in Dublin, 27 November 1866;
(3) Ulysses Henry Bagot (b. c.1799); educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1820); died unmarried, probably before 1833;
(4) William Bagot (fl. 1833); died unmarried;
(5) Emilius Walker Bagot (d. 1864); died unmarried, Jan-Mar 1864.
He inherited the Kilcoursey estate from his father in 1785.
He died 3 March 1802. His widow's date of death is unknown.

Bagot, Charles (1791-1864). Eldest son of Rev. Charles Emilius Bagot (d. 1802) and his wife Eliza, daughter of Ulysses North of Newcastle (Co. Westmeath), born 1791. JP for Co. Offaly. Described in 1839 as 'a Liberal Protestant'. He married 1st, 1814, Anna, daughter of John Tuthill of Kingsland (Co. Limerick) and Sion Hill (Co. Dublin), and 2nd, 1840, Sidney Mary (c.1803-86), elder daughter of Andrew Edmund Bigoe Bagot (formerly Armstrong) of Castle Armstrong (Offaly), and had issue:
(1.1) Charles Emilius Bagot (1815-63), born 1815; studied medicine at Glasgow University (MD, 1840; MS, 1853); ran a dispensary at Ballingarry (Tipperary) and later practised in Dublin, but suffered from an unspecified ailment which limited his ability to practice, and caused him to devote more time to medical research; Licentiate of the King's & Queen's College of Physicians, 1859; published numerous papers, chiefly on medical subjects; committee member of the National Art Union for Ireland, 1846 (Chairman, 1848); died unmarried and without issue, 29 November 1863;
(1.2) John Tuthill Bagot (1819-70) (q.v.);
(1.3) Ulysses North Bagot (1822-82), born 1822; emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia with his brother, 1850, and operated there as a merchant; freemason from 1853; married 21 February 1850 at St Peter, Dublin, Rachel (c.1826-84), second daughter of John Meyler, and had issue three daughters (of whom one died in infancy and the others unmarried); died at Adelaide, 8 November 1882;
(1.4) Deborah Henrietta Bagot; died young;
(1.5) Mary Bagot; died young;
(1.6) Eliza Mary Bagot (c.1827-1906); emigrated to Australia with her siblings; died unmarried at Adelaide, 3 November 1906;
(1.7) Anna Frances Bagot (c.1828-1910); emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia; married, 13 September 1853 at St Peter, Dublin, George Augustus Labatt (1825-95), barrister in partnership with her brother, fourth surviving son of Samuel Bell Labatt MD of Rutland Square, Dublin, and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 18 August 1910;
(2.1) Rev. Andrew Edmond Bigoe Bagot (1842-1923), born 30 April 1842; baptised at St Peter, Rathmines, Dublin, 15 July 1863; studied mathematics and physics at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1863) and at Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1864; called to bar, 1867); barrister-at-law; rector of St Mary, Beswick, Manchester; Hon. Sec. of Christian Evidence Society, 1889; married, 21 August 1878 at Dunham Massey (Cheshire), Clara Louise (1857-98), daughter of James Arthur Birch, but had no issue; they were divorced in 1894 after she became an alcoholic and violent towards her husband; died 23 February 1923;
(2.2) Daniel Walter Wagstaffe Bagot (1844-63), born 1844; medical student at Trinity College, Dublin; died unmarried at Kilcoursey House, 1 September 1863.
He inherited the Kilcoursey estate from his father in 1802 and the adjoining property called 'Cottage' from his maternal grandmother, Eliza North, in 1833. At his death he seems to have left his property to his eldest son. His widow moved to Dublin. He lived mainly at a house in Charlemont Mall, Dublin.
He died in Dublin, 8 August 1864; will proved 22 November 1864 (effects £540). His first wife's date of death is unknown. His widow died 4 August 1886; administration of her goods was granted 20 August 1886 (effects £1,135).

John Tuthill Bagot (1819-70)

Bagot, John Tuthill (1819-70). Second son of Charles Bagot (1791-1854) and his first wife, Anna, daughter of John Tuthill of Kingsland (Co. Limerick), born 15 February 1819. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1835; BA 1840), Middle Temple and Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1839; called to Irish bar, 1843). Emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, 1850, where he set up practice as a solicitor in partnership with his brother-in-law, G.A. Labatt, although the partnership was eventually terminated due to financial difficulties. Member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly, 1853-56, the South Australian House of Assembly, 1857-64 and the South Australian Legislative Council, 1866-70 for Light District; Solicitor-General for a brief period in 1857; Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration, 1860-61, Attorney-General for a brief period in 1868, and Chief Secretary in Mr Strangways' government, 1868-70. Provincial Grand Master of the Irish Constitution Freemasons in South Australia. He was 'of a cheerful genial disposition, urbane in manners, and possessed many of the most amiable traits of the Irish character'. He married, 1 June 1848 at St Peter, Dublin, Eliza (c.1815-98), daughter of John Meyler, and had issue:
(1) Sarah Anne Woodcock Bagot (1849-53), born September 1849; died young, 19/20 January 1853 and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide;
(2) Charles Ulysses Bagot (1851-1919), born in Adelaide, 28 July 1851; member of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland in Adelaide, 1899; Government warden at the Peak Hill Goldfield (Western Australia) by 1899 and later at Coolgardie (Western Australia), c.1903-06; married, 22 May 1895 in Adelaide (South Australia), Margaret Eleanor (1853-1925), daughter of George Alexander Lawson, but had no issue; died 17 December 1919 and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, South Australia;
(3) John Meyler Bagot (1852-1924), born in Adelaide, 27 August 1852; married, 1888 in Victoria (Australia), Mary Ellen Murray and had issue two sons and one daughter; died in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia), 29 June 1924;

(4) (Elizabeth) Frances Harriett Bagot (1856-89), born 20 July 1856; married, 22 September 1888, Kenneth John Macaulay (1858-92), but had no issue; died 15 July 1889; her husband committed suicide by cutting his own throat;

(5) Robert George Bagot (1858-1933), born 18 June 1858; educated at St Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide; with survey department of South Australian Government, 1874-94 and Lands Department of Western Australia, 1894-c.1900; he then farmed in the Nungarin district until c.1910, when failing health obliged him to retire to Perth; freemason from 1896; married, Edna Hope [surname unknown]; died at Mount Lawley, Perth, Western Australia, 20 October 1933.
He inherited the Kilcoursey estate from his father in 1864 and returned to Ireland to claim his inheritance before quickly going back to Australia. Some of his lands may have been sold at that time, but his remaining property was sold by his representatives in the Landed Estates Court in 1876.
He died of apoplexy in Adelaide, South Australia, 5 August and was buried in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, 7 August 1870; an obituary was published in the South Australian Register, 13 August 1870. His widow died 14 September 1898 and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide; her will was proved 3 February 1899.

Sources

Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976, pp. 49-50; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1850, i, pp. 43-44; The Christian Guardian for 1812, iv, pp. 1-8; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn., 1990, p. 15; M.C. Lyons, Illustrated Incumbered Estates, Ireland 1850-1905, 1993, pp. 219-20; P. Melvin, Estates and Landed Society in Galway, 2012, pp. 46, 65, 83, 88, 105-06, 158-59, 162, 183-84, 197, 370.

Location of archives

No significant archive is known to survive.

Coat of arms

Bagot of Kilcoursey: Argent, on a chevron gules, between three martlets sable, as many mullets or.
Bagot of Aughrane Castle: Ermine, two chevronels azure, in the dexter chief point a trefoil, slipped, vert.

Can you help?

Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch. Can anyone:

• Provide additional historic or contemporary images of the houses described above? I would be particularly keen to trace an illustration of Kilcoursey House as it existed between the 1730s and 1870s, and of the present Kilcoursey House before it was enlarged in 1911.
• Provide additional genealogical information for the members of the family given here, or portraits or photographs of any of those whose names are given in bold?

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 19 November 2017 and updated 30 January, 29 September and 23 October 2018. I am grateful for the assistance of Conor Kenny, Martha Bolger and Paul O'Brien with aspects of this account, and to Mrs P.L. Shard for a correction.

(310) Bagge of Islington Hall, Stradsett Hall and Gaywood Hall, baronets

Bagge of Stradsett & Gaywood

Early genealogies of the Bagge family claim for them a Swedish origin, but the direct ancestors of the family treated here were established as tenants of the manor of Shipdham (Norfk) by 1473, and there seems no reason to suppose that they did not rise from English villein stock. In earlier records the name is sometimes spelt without the final 'e', but never with a single 'g'. The Bagges of Shipdham prospered in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Ralph Bagge (d. 1641) acquired property at Cockley Cley (Norfk), a few miles to the west of their original home. His youngest son, Simon Bagge (d. 1671) settled at Cockley Cley, and Simon's grandson, John Bagge (d. 1725) moved further west again to Kings Lynn (Norfk), where he became established as a merchant, shipowner and brewer in 1693, when he bought premises in King St., where the family brewery was based for nearly 250 years.

John Bagge of Kings Lynn lived opposite his brewery in a house with a fine stone front. He married twice, and by his second wife, Susan Cranwell, had five sons, of whom William, the second eldest, succeeded him as a brewer, and also became a merchant and shipowner, while Charles, the youngest, entered the church and became vicar of Kings Lynn in 1755.

Bishops Lynn House, Kings Lynn: the house reconstructed in two phases
for William Bagge (1700-62) in 1725 and his son Thomas Bagge
(1740-1807) in 1803-04.

In 1725, after the death of his father, William Bagge (1700-62) bought the southern part of Bishops Lynn House (a 14th century merchant's house on the Tuesday Marketplace in Kings Lynn which had been subdivided in the late 16th century), and refronted it as a five-bay, two-and-a-half storey block, with a pedimented Doric doorcase on unfluted pilasters. Inside, the house preserves good interiors of c.1725-30, including a large staircase hall with an open-string staircase around three sides. In 1733, William married Jane (d. 1790), the daughter of Peter Dixon of Walpole St. Peter (Norfk). On the death of her brother, Thomas Dixon, in 1790, she inherited his estate of Islington Hall (Norfk), and the acquisition of this property marks the arrival of the Bagges at the status of landed gentry. William's two sons, William Bagge (d. 1801) and Thomas Bagge (1740-1807) were both prosperous merchants and brewers in Kings Lynn and expanded their holdings of property in and around the town, especially of pubs which no doubt became tied to their brewery. They also built up a fleet of sixteen ships, mostly engaged in the coastal trade in corn and coal between Kings Lynn and Newcastle. By the 1770s they had expanded into shipbuilding and shipbroking, and a little later they joined a consortium of Kings Lynn merchants who formed the Greenland Company to undertake whaling out of Kings Lynn, which proved to be a highly profitable business. In the 1760s, they bought the other half of Bishops Lynn House, and in 1803-04 Thomas employed the local building firm of S. Newham & Son to rebuild the northern part in brown brick, with a full-height bow window.

William died unmarried and left all his property to Thomas, who had inherited Islington Hall from his parents and was presumably responsible for extending it in about 1780. Thomas married twice, and his first wife, Pleasance (1737-90), was one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Philip Case (d. 1792) of Stradsett Hall. Although Pleasance predeceased her father, her marriage settlement ensured that Thomas inherited her share of her father's estates, and Thomas presumably bought out the other co-heirs, since he acquired undisputed possession of both Stradsett Hall and the Gaywood estate on the edge of Kings Lynn. The acquisition of these additional properties undoubtedly raised his social status, and it is no coincidence that his second marriage, to Anne Lee-Warner (1764-1807) of Walsingham, connected him to one of the leading Norfolk gentry families.

By his first wife, Thomas Bagge had two sons, Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827) and William Bagge (1778-1835), and he divided his estates between them. Thomas Philip, the elder, inherited Stradsett and Islington, and William the larger share of the Kings Lynn town property and the Gaywood estate. The intention was perhaps that Thomas Philip should leave behind his urban and mercantile origins while William maintained the family businesses, and to some extent this is what happened, although Thomas Philip never disengaged totally from Lynn affairs, and was indeed Mayor of the town in 1806-07 and 1815-16. He did, however, landscape the setting of Stradsett Hall and remodel the house there. His original intention to completely rebuild the house on a new site in the park was abandoned, perhaps because the landscaping works, which cost over £7,000, used most of his available budget.

When Thomas Philip Bagge died in 1827, he left Stradsett Hall to his eldest son, William (1810-80), and Islington Hall to his third son, Edward Bagge (1812-45). His second son, William's twin, Richard Bagge (1810-91) was heir to his uncle William's Gaywood and Lynn property, as the elder William died without issue. Two further sons were established in careers with the East India Company and in the church. William Bagge of Stradsett Hall was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford; came of age in 1831 and was quickly appointed a JP. He first stood as a Conservative parliamentary candidate for West Norfolk in 1835, and although on that occasion he came bottom of the poll he was successful at the General Election two years later that was occasioned by the death of King William IV. He then held the seat for twenty years until 1857. In the election that year he decided not to stand, for reasons which are now obscure, but he returned to the hustings in 1865 and was subsequently re-elected at every election until his death in 1880. This long career of political service was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1867.

Sir William Bagge left two sons, who succeeded to the baronetcy and the Stradsett estate in turn. The childless Sir William Henry Ernest Bagge (1840-81), 2nd bt., who had made his home in Surrey, survived his father by little more than a year, and was succeeded by Sir Alfred Thomas Bagge (1843-1916), 3rd bt., an officer in the Navy, who retired from active service in 1888. He left three sons, of whom the elder two again succeeeded in turn to the title and estates; his elder daughter became bursar of Newnham College, Cambridge. 

Sir Alfred William Francis Bagge (1875-1939), 4th bt. was trained as a barrister and acted on the south-eastern circuit. Like his grandfather, he was politically active, but he made Norwich rather than Westminster his political stage. He was appointed as a JP for Norfolk in 1930 and his legal experience ensured that he quickly became Deputy Chairman of Quarter Sessions. As he was unmarried, when he died in 1939 he was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Picton Bagge (1877-1967), 5th bt., who had then recently retired from a career as a diplomat and civil servant with a particular interest in foreign trade. From 1905-21 he held postings at the embassy in St Petersburg, and would thus have been close to the dramatic events that unfolded in Russia during the First World War and the Russian Revolution, but he published no memoir of his time there. The present baronet is his grandson, Sir Jeremy Picton Bagge (b. 1945), 7th bt., who in 2015 handed over the Stradsett estate to his elder son, Alfred James John Bagge (b. 1980).

In 1835, on the death of William Bagge (1778-1835) the Gaywood estate passed to his nephew, Richard Bagge (1810-91), who continued the family tradition of brewing in Kings Lynn. In 1851 he built a new house at Gaywood, where there had been no gentry house since the demolition of the medieval palace of the bishops of Norwich. Richard outlived his eldest son, an officer in the army who died in 1886, and so the Kings Lynn brewery and Gaywood Hall passed to his second son, Thomas Edward Bagge (1838-1908), who played an exceptionally full part in the commercial and administrative life of Kings Lynn. He was twice married but had no issue, and on his death his property all passed to his nephew, Richard Ludwig Bagge (1872-1933), who was knighted for political and public services in 1922. Sir Richard had been born and brought up in Belgium, where his father lived from 1870 until his death in 1922, after fleeing from his creditors when he was bankrupted as a young man. Sir Richard himself was back in England by 1891, and divided his time between working in the brewery business and the army volunteers. He fought in the Boer War, but after his uncle died in 1908 he took over the reins of the brewery business, which he ran until 1929 when he sold the business, with 75 tied houses and other property in Kings Lynn to the Norwich firm of Steward & Patteson. His decision to sell was perhaps motivated by the fact that had no son to succeed him. His five daughters were co-heirs to his Gaywood and Islington Hall estates, which they sold in the 1930s, when Gaywood Hall became a technical college and much of the land around it was sold for building.

Islington Hall, Tilney St. Lawrence, Norfolk

The manor of Islington in Norfolk was purchased from the Southwell family by Sir John Willoughby, kt., in 1588. His son, Sir Henry Willoughby, kt. sold it in 1612 to William Guybon, who built the earliest part of the present house in 1619. In the early 18th century William Guybon sold the estate to Anthony Dixon, whose daughter and eventual heir Jane married William Bagge (b. 1700). Their son, Thomas Bagge (1739-1807) was probably responsible for enlarging the house to the east and refronting it in 1780 to form a half-H plan. The 1780 wing of five bays has a pedimented door and upper windows with alternating pediments. In 1792, Thomas Bagge inherited Stradsett Hall and the Gaywood estate in right of his wife, and thereafter Islington Hall was the home of various junior members of the Bagge family.

Islington Hall: the house as reconstructed in 1991.

It appears to have been sold along with the Gaywood estate in the mid-1930s by the five daughters of Sir Richard Ludwig Bagge, kt. (1872-1933). Its subsequent ownership has not been traced, but the house was burnt out in the 1970s and stood as a roofless shell for some 20 years. It was reconstructed in 1991 under the supervision of local architect, David Trundley. The exterior was then restored as nearly as possible to its original appearance, though the interior is completely new.

Descent: Francis Southwell (d. 1582); to son, Miles Southwell (fl. 1588), who sold 1588 to Sir John Willoughby, kt; to ?son, Sir Henry Willoughby, kt., who sold 1612 to William Guybon...Sir Francis Guybon (fl. 1700); to son, William Guybon, who sold to Anthony Dixon; to ?son, Peter Dixon; to son, Thomas Dixon (d. 1790); to sister, Jane (d. 1790), widow of William Bagge (b. 1700); to son, Thomas Bagge (1740-1807); to son, Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827); to son, Edward Bagge (1812-45); to brother, Richard Bagge (1810-91); to son, Thomas Edward Bagge (1838-1908); to nephew, Sir Richard Ludwig Bagge (1872-1933), kt....

Stradsett Hall, Norfolk

Stradsett Hall: north front in 1979. Image: Ordnance Survey/Historic England. 

In origin, the house is an E-shaped manor house, usually said to have been built in about 1570 and altered about forty years later when the porch and the rather cramped third storey were added. The date 1611 appears on the porch on the south front, and also fits the roof structure, and it seems possible that the whole building dates from that time, rather than being of two phases. The house was perhaps at first a single pile, with cross wings that projected hardly at all on the south-facing entrance front but rather more towards the north. In the late 17th or early 18th century, the space between the wings on the north side was infilled to make the centre of the house a double pile, and this addition has four irregular hipped roofs behind a parapet, and fenestration that is balanced but not perfectly symmetrical.

Stradsett Hall: south front.

When Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827) inherited in 1807 he at first intended to demolish the house and build on a new site in the park, but this ambitious project was eventually abandoned in favour of a remodelling of the existing building in 1819. The south front was then made two-storey and perfectly symmetrical, and was given a wide hipped roof with dormers, and sash windows. The result is a generous long low eleven-bay elevation, with a seven-bay centre and slightly projecting two-bay wings, which looks much like a late 17th century house.

T.P. Bragge also turned his attention to creating a landscaped setting for the house. He first consulted Humphry Repton, who was paid for supplying a design for the park in 1808, then John Haverfield, and finally J.C. Loudon, then at an early stage in his career. It was Loudon who finally gained the commission, and who remodelled the park between November 1810 and February 1813, with Alexander McLeish as his resident foreman. A park of some 200 acres was enclosed, with strategically placed plantations supplementing existing woodlands, rather than a continuous shelter belt. Incidental trees and clumps were planted within the park, a new drive was laid out from the north-west, and a 22-acre lake was created, with no fewer than seven islands and several bridges, one of which carried the main drive to the house. On the eastern shore of the lake, Loudon laid out an elaborate pleasure ground, threaded with gravel paths edged in box, and a large kitchen garden with brick walls and a circular tower on one corner. In 1811, when the project had just begun, the Italian painter, Agostino Aglio, painted two romantic views of the landscape at Stradsett intended to show the effect of the improvements when mature. The works to the park cost significantly more than estimated, at £7,073, and a dispute about Loudon's commission led to an expensive court case. The house is now approached by a lime avenue from the south-west, which leads to a formal forecourt with early 19th century gatepiers which is now laid out as a formal rose garden.

Descent: John Picot (d. 1551); to son, John Picot (fl. 1568); to son, John Picot; to son, Francis Picot, who sold to John Goldsmith (d. 1669); to daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1728), wife of Thomas Thurston (d. 1683); to daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1729), wife of Robert Buxton; to daughter, Elizabeth, wife of [forename unknown] Searle; to [forename unknown] Goldsmith, who sold 1747 to Philip Case (1712-92) to daughter Pleasance, wife of Thomas Bagge (1740-1807), who probably bought out her co-heirs; to son, Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827); to son, Sir William Bagge MP (1810-80), 1st bt.; to son, Sir William Henry Ernest Bagge (1840-81), 2nd bt.; to brother, Sir Alfred Thomas Bagge (1843-1916), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir Alfred William Francis Bagge (1875-1939), 4th bt.; to brother, Sir John Picton Bagge (1877-1967), 5th bt.; to son, Sir John Alfred Picton Bagge (1914-90), 6th bt.; to son, Sir John Jeremy Picton Bagge (b. 1945), 7th bt.; given 2015 to son, Alfred James John Bagge (b. 1980).

Gaywood Hall, Kings Lynn, Norfolk

Gaywood Hall: entrance front

An asymmetrical largely classical two-storey house of 1851, built for Richard Bagge (1810-91) on the site of a long-vanished medieval palace of the bishops of Norwich; its immediate predecessor was an 18th century farmhouse. The house is built of knapped flint with gault brick dressings. In the middle of the north-facing entrance front is a hipped roofed block with five sash windows on the first floor and two wide tripartite windows on either side of an enclosed porch with unfluted columns. To the left of this is a square three-storey tower striking a deliberately asymmetrical note, with the date of the house picked out in the stonework of the top storey. Non-matching wings are slightly recessed to either side of this composition. On the garden front, the central block has six more closely-spaced windows and there is no tower. The house has been in institutional use since the 1930s and the original interiors have largely been lost, except for the main staircase with cast iron balusters and some minor cornices.

Gaywood Hall: an aerial view of the house 

Descent: built 1851 for Richard Bagge (1810-91); to son, Herbert Bagge (1843-1922); to son, Sir Richard Ludwig Bagge (1872-1933), kt.; to five daughters as co-heirs, who sold c.1935 to ??Kings Lynn Borough Council for use as a Technical College; later used as a nursing home and as part of the College of West Anglia and Norfolk College of Arts & Technology.

Bagge family of Stradsett Hall, baronets

Bagge, John (c.1661-1725). Eldest son of John Bagge (c.1640-1702) of Cockley Cley (Norfk) and his wife Mary (1641-61), daughter of John Carter of Northwold, born about 1661. He established himself as a brewer in King St., Kings Lynn, from 1693, and became a shipowner and merchant. He married 1st, 13 January 1691/2, Sarah (1672-97), daughter of Samuel Thacker of Kings Lynn and widow of Geoffrey Gynn, and 2nd, 20 September 1698 at Ely (Cambs), Susan Cranwell (1671-1733), and had issue:
(1.1) John Bagge (1692-93), baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 31 October 1692; died in infancy and was buried at Kings Lynn, 11 April 1693;
(1.2) Elizabeth Bagge (b. 1693), baptised 5 January 1693/4; perhaps died young;
(1.3) Rev. Samuel Bagge (1695-1771), baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 1 November 1695; educated at Christ's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1713; BA 1716/7; MA 1720); ordained deacon, 1718 and priest, 1719; curate of Bircham Newton (Norfk), 1718-19; rector of Bircham Newton, 1719-71 and of Bircham Tofts (Norfk), 1721-71;
(1.4) Mary Bagge (d. 1697); died in infancy, 26 May 1697;
(2.1) John Bagge (1699-1741), baptised 5 October 1699; married Sarah (who m2., Edmund Rolfe of Heacham (Norfk)), daughter of Stephen Allen, and had issue; buried at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 21 May 1741;
(2.2) William Bagge (1700-62) (q.v.);
(2.3) Susan Bagge (d. 1709); died young, and was buried at Kings Lynn, 28 May 1709;
(2.4) Cranwell Bagge (1703-61), baptised 4 November 1703; apprenticed to William Elmy of Norwich, worsted weaver, 1718, but joined the family business and was master of one of his father's ships by 1724; married and had issue; buried at Kings Lynn, 22 June 1761;
(2.5) Simon Bagge (1707-61), baptised 26 February 1707; buried at Kings Lynn, 29 July 1761;
(2.6) twin, Hannah Bagge (1715-84), baptised at Kings Lynn, 10 October 1715; married, 6 December 1753 at Norwich, Dearing Jones (1721-86) of Navenby (Lincs), and had issue one son; buried at Navenby, 10 February 1784;
(2.7) twin, Rev. Charles Bagge (1715-91), baptised at Kings Lynn, 10 October 1715; educated at Lynn, Newcastle, and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (matriculated 1733; BA 1746/7; MA 1740; DD 1764); ordained deacon, 1737 and priest, 1739/40; vicar of Barmer (Norfk), 1740-91 and Kings Lynn, 1755-91; rector of Tydd St. Giles (Norfk), 1740-91, Syderstone (Norfk). 1760-91; married, 10 March 1747/8 at Kings Lynn, Barbara Elsden (d. 1769) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 17 August and was buried at Kings Lynn, 22 August 1791, where he is commemorated by a monument in St Nicholas' Chapel; will proved 2 November 1791.
He lived in a house in King St., King's Lynn, opposite the brewery.
He was buried at Kings Lynn, 7 July 1725; his will was proved 22 September 1725. His first wife was buried at Kings Lynn, 16 June 1697. His second wife was living in 1724 and is said to have died in 1733.

Bagge, William (1700-62). Second son of John Bagge (1661-1725) of Kings Lynn (Norfk) and his second wife, Susan Cranwell, baptised 28 November 1700. Brewer (in partnership with his brother, John Bagge), merchant and shipowner. Mayor of Kings Lynn, 1739-40. He married, 6 August 1733 at All Saints, South Lynn (Norfk), Jane (d. 1790), daughter of Peter Dixon and heiress to her brother Thomas Dixon (d. 1790) of Islington Hall (Norfk), and had issue:
(1) William Bagge (d. 1801); mayor of Kings Lynn, 1785-86; died unmarried and was buried at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, 13 February 1801;
(3) Jane Bagge (1735-91), baptised at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, 27 June 1735; died unmarried, 1791;
(4) Susan Bagge (1737-1800), baptised at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, 1 September 1737; died unmarried, 21 January 1800;
(2) Thomas Bagge (1740-1807) (q.v.);
(5) Elizabeth Bagge, born after 1741; married, 6 February 1777 at Kings Lynn, Rev. Richard Hamond (d. 1783), rector of Pensthorpe (Norfk), second son of A. Hamond of High House, Wootton (Norfk).
He inherited property at Cockley Cley (Norfk) and in Kings Lynn from his father in 1725 and from his brother John in 1741, and his widow inherited Islington Hall (Norfk) on the death of her brother in 1790.
He was buried at St Nicholas chapel, Kings Lynn, 21 April 1762; his will was proved in the PCC, 22 November 1762. His wife died 7 January and was buried at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, 11 January 1790.

Bagge, Thomas (1740-1807). Second son of William Bagge (1700-62) of Islington Hall and his wife Jane, daughter of Peter Dixon, baptised 1 or 2 January 1741. He was made a freeman of the city of London, 1789. He married 1st, 20 July 1768 at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, Pleasance (1737-90), daughter and co-heiress of Philip Case of Stradsett Hall and Gaywood, and 2nd, 17 November 1800, Anne (1764-1807), daughter of Thomas Lee-Warner of Walsingham and widow of his cousin, Dr. Charles Elsden Bagge MD (d. 1799), and had issue:
(1.1) Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827) (q.v.);
(1.2) Pleasance Bagge (1773-1830), born 24 April 1773, privately baptised, 25 April 1773 and baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 2 September 1773; married, 10 December 1801, Rev. Dr. Edward Hulton (1771-1817), vicar of Stradsett and rector of Gaywood, 1806-17 (son of Henry Hulton, Commissioner of Customs in America, 1768-75), and had issue one daughter (Pleasance, who married her first cousin, Richard Bagge (1810-91) [see below, Bagge of Gaywood Hall]); died 11 February 1830; will proved 5 March 1830;
(1.3) Jane Bagge (1776-1846), baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 8 January 1777; married, 21 March 1799, Thomas Hulton (1768-1823) (later Sir Thomas Preston, 1st bt.) of Beeston Hall, Beeston St. Lawrence (Norfk) (son of Henry Hulton, Commissioner of Customs in America, 1768-75) and had issue two sons and ten daughters; died 22 August 1846;
(1.4) William Bagge (1778-1835), born 7 October and baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 9 October 1778; JP and DL for Norfolk; mayor of Kings Lynn, 1820; Treasurer of the Downham & Fincham Turnpike Trust; inherited Gaywood estate from his father in 1807; died unmarried and without issue, 21 January and was buried at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, 26 January 1835; his will was proved in the PCC, 19 June 1835;
(2.1) Anne Philip Bagge (1802-60), born 3 March 1802; married, 21 July 1829 at East Dereham (Norfk), Capt. William Simon Haughton Fitzroy (1802-82) of Kempston (Norfk), eldest son of Lt-Gen. the Hon. William Fitzroy and grandson of 1st Baron Southampton, and had issue seven sons and two daughters; died 15 May and was buried at Banstead (Surrey), 21 May 1860.
He inherited Islington Hall from his mother in 1790 and Stradsett Hall and Gaywood Hall in 1792 in right of his first wife (by then dead); he may have bought out the co-heirs. At his death Stradsett passed to his eldest son and Gaywood to his younger son.
He died 19 August and was buried at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 22 August 1807; his will was proved in the PCC, 13 September 1807. His first wife was buried 1 November 1790. His second wife died 15 August 1807.

Bagge, Thomas Philip (1771-1827). Elder son of Thomas Bagge (1740-1807) and his first wife, Pleasance, daughter and co-heiress of Philip Case of Stradsett Hall and Gaywood, born 29 July and baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 30 July 1771. An officer in the Loyal Lynn Volunteers (2nd Lt., 1794; Lt., 1795). JP and DL (from 1803) for Norfolk; Mayor of Kings Lynn, 1806-07, 1815-16. He married, 28 April 1808 at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, Grace (c.1778-1834), youngest daughter of Richard Salisbury of Castle Park (Lancs) and had issue:
(1) Thomas Philip Bagge (1809-16), born 29 January 1809; died young, at East Sheen (Surrey), 21 February 1816;
(2) twin, Sir William Bagge (1810-80), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(3) twin, Richard Bagge (1810-91) [see below, under Bagge of Gaywood Hall];
(4) Maria Bagge (1811-92), born 14 November 1811; married, 17 June 1831 at Stradsett, Henry Villebois (1807-86), eldest son of Henry Villebois of Marham House (Norfk), but had no issue; died in London, 27 January 1892; will proved 7 March 1892 (effects £142,068);
(5) twin, Edward Bagge (1812-45), born 2 December 1812; inherited Islington Hall from his father in 1827 and came of age in 1833; married, 21 May 1835, Jane (1807-71), youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Edward Hulton (who m2, 4 January 1849, her cousin, James Dott Hulton (1811-63)); died at Malvern (Worcs), 19 May 1845;
(6) twin, Pleasance Bagge (1812-65), born 2 December 1812; married, 17 September 1835, Rev. Henry Edward Knatchbull (1808-76), vicar of North Elmham (Suffk) and later of Campsea Ashe (Suffk), son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th bt., but had no issue; died 31 December 1865 and was buried at Stradsett, 6 January 1866;
(7) Henry Case Bagge (1814-41), born 22 November and baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 21 December 1814; educated at Eton and Haileybury College (prizeman, 1834); an officer in the service of the East India Co., 1834-41; married, 9 January 1836, Margaret (b. c.1816), daughter of Maj-Gen. Herbert Bowen, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died of a fever at Arrah, Bengal (India), 31 August 1841;
(8) Arthur Bagge (1816-28), born 16 April and baptised at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, 15 May 1816; died young, 4 June 1828;
(9) Rev. Philip Salisbury Bagge (1817-90), born 18 October and baptised at Stradsett, 21 November 1817; educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1836; BA 1840; MA 1843); ordained deacon, 1843 and priest, 1844; vicar of Stradsett, 1845-46; rector of Elseworth (Cambs), 1846-53 and Walpole St. Peter (Norfk), 1853-90; married, 23 April 1846, Caroline Julia (c.1824-1911), daughter of Ven. Stephen Creyke, archdeacon of York, and had issue two sons and six daughters; died 16 October 1890; will proved 14 March 1891 (effects £5,466).
He inherited Islington Hall and Stradsett Hall from his father in 1807. He created a landscaped park at Stradsett Hall in 1810-13 and remodelled the house there in 1819, after abandoning plans to rebuild it. At his death his eldest son inherited Stradsett, and his third son Islington Hall.
He died 3 June 1827 and was buried at Stradsett, where he is commemorated by a monument designed by Sir Richard Westmacott; his will was proved in the PCC, 1 December 1827. His widow died at Kings Lynn, 27 January 1834.

Bagge, Sir William (1810-80), 1st bt. Twin eldest son of Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827) of Stradsett Hall and his wife Grace, youngest daughter of Richard Salisbury of Castle Park (Lancs), born 7 June 1810. Educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford (matriculated 1828). JP (from 1832) and DL for Norfolk. A strong Conservative in politics, he stood unsuccessfully in the parliamentary election in 1835, but was elected MP for West Norfolk, 1837-57, 1865-80. Like many of his descendants, he was a keen cricketer, and played in several matches for Norfolk and the MCC, 1836-39. He was created a baronet, 13 April 1867. He married, 11 July 1833, his cousin, Frances (c.1809-87), fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Preston, 1st bt., of Beeston St. Laurence, and had issue:
(1) Frances Henrietta Bagge (1834-92), born 16 July and baptised at Stradsett, 21 August 1834; lived latterly in Norwich; died unmarried, 16 January 1892; will proved 30 March 1892 (effects £1,722);
(4) Emilia Jane Bagge (1836-1916), baptised at Stradsett, 12 June 1836; married, 16 June 1864, Maj. Charles Wells Hogge (later Archdale) (1832-1919) of Coltishall (Norfk), son of William Hogge, and had issue; died 23 December 1916; administration of goods (with will annexed) granted to daughter, 24 February 1917 (effects £229);
(5) Caroline Thomazina Bagge (1838-1911), baptised at Stradsett, 9 October 1838; lived latterly at East Dereham (Norfk); died unmarried, 4 May 1911; will proved 14 June 1911 (estate £2,750);
(2) Sir William Henry Ernest Bagge (1840-81), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(3) Capt. Sir Alfred Thomas Bagge (1843-1916), 3rd bt. (q.v.);
(6) Edith Mary Bagge (1845-1927), baptised at Stradsett, 17 April 1845; lived latterly at Hunstanton; died unmarried, 31 January 1927; will proved 16 March 1927 (estate £8,652).
He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his father in 1827 and came of age in 1831.
He died 12 February 1880; will proved 31 March 1880 (effects under £14,000). His widow died 27 May 1887; her will was proved 20 July 1887 (effects £2,204).

Bagge, Sir William Henry Ernest (1840-81), 2nd bt. Elder son of Sir William Bagge (1810-80), 1st bt., of Stradsett Hall, and his wife Frances, fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Preston, 1st bt., born 9 August and baptised at Stradsett, 20 September 1840. Educated at Sandhurst and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (matriculated 1860). According to his obituary, he 'devoted himself earnestly to the cause of the moral and social regeneration of the masses'. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, 12 February 1880. He married, 26 October 1865, Alice (1841-1935), second daughter of Alfred Giles MP, but had no issue.
He lived at Heather Side, Woking (Surrey). He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his father in 1880. At his death the estate passed to his younger brother.
He died at Woking, 23 October 1881; his will was proved 3 January 1882 (effects £6,072). His widow married 2nd, 11 July 1889 at St Peter, Eaton Square, London, William Wainwright (d. 1929) of Hoe Place, Woking (Surrey), and died 21 May 1935; her will was proved 1 July 1935 (estate £4,468).

Bagge, Capt. Sir Alfred Thomas (1843-1916), 3rd bt. Younger son of Sir William Bagge (1810-80), 1st bt., of Stradsett Hall, and his wife Frances, fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Preston, 1st bt., born 5 July and baptised at Stradsett, 4 August 1843. An officer in the Royal Navy, 1857-88 (Lt., 1865; Commander, 1878; Capt., 1893). JP and DL (from 1883) for Norfolk. He succeeded his elder brother as 3rd baronet, 23 October 1881. He married, 11 July 1872, Millicent Case (d. 1918), fifth daughter of John Grant Morris of Allerton Priory, Liverpool (Lancs) and had issue:
(1) William John Preston Bagge (b. & d. 1874), born 6 May 1874; died in infancy, 10 September 1874;
(2) Sir Alfred William Francis Bagge (1875-1939), 4th bt. (q.v.);
(3) Sir John Picton Bagge (1877-1967), 5th bt. (q.v.);
(4) Maj. Henry Percy Bagge (1879-1942) of Wamil Hall, Mildenhall (Suffk), born 20 April 1879; educated at Eton and Clare College, Cambridge (matriculated 1898; BA 1901); served with Yorkshire Regiment in First World War (2nd Lt., 1914; Lt., 1916; Capt., 1917; Maj.), was wounded and awarded MC, 1916; married, 30 August 1928, Marjorie Aubrey (1893-1951), daughter of Cdr. Alexander Young Crawshay Mainwaring Spearman RN and had issue one daughter; died 25 November 1942; administration of goods granted to his widow, 4 March 1943 (estate £10,085);
(5) Lilian Mary Bagge (1883-1968), born 13 March 1883; educated at Newnham College, Cambridge; Fellow and Bursar of Newnham College, Cambridge, 1920-34; married, 15 December 1920, Rev. Frederick Hugh Lacy (1875-1943), rector of Northwold (Norfk), son of Charles James Lacy of Fleet (Hants), but had no issue; died 2 October 1968; her will was proved 3 January 1969 (estate £25,049);
(6) Gwendolen Millicent Bagge (1887-1908), born 21 February 1887; died unmarried, 18 August 1908.
His father-in-law, John Grant Morris, built Crimplesham Hall to the designs of Alfred Waterhouse in 1880-81 as a home for Alfred and his wife, but he may not have occupied it for long as he unexpectedly inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his elder brother in 1881. Crimplesham Hall was sold in 1904.
He died 16 February 1916; his will was proved 23 August 1916 (estate £5,097). His widow died 22 May 1918; her will was proved 16 August 1918 (estate £1,583).

Bagge, Sir Alfred William Francis (1875-1939), 4th bt. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Capt. Sir Alfred Thomas Bagge (1843-1916), 3rd bt., and his wife Millicent Case, fifth daughter of John Grant Morris of Allerton Priory, Liverpool (Lancs), born 14 September 1875. Educated at Eton, King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1894; BA and LLB 1898) and Inner Temple (admitted 1896; called to bar 1899). Barrister at law on the south-eastern circuit. A Conservative in politics, he was a member of Norwich City Council, 1902-20 and Chairman of its Education Committee, 1911-15. He served in the Army in First World War (Lt., 1914; Capt.) and succeeded his father as 4th baronet, 16 February 1916. Judge of Norwich Guildhall Court of Record, 1922-39; JP for Norfolk, 1930-39; Deputy Chairman of Quarter Sessions, 1932-39. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his father in 1916.
He died 3 March 1939; his will was proved 27 June 1939 and 9 March 1940 (estate £30,147).

Bagge, Sir John Picton (1877-1967), 5th bt. Third son of Capt. Sir Alfred Thomas Bagge (1843-1916), 3rd bt., and his wife Millicent Case, fifth daughter of John Grant Morris of Allerton Priory, Liverpool (Lancs), born 19 October 1877. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1896; BA 1899) and then travelled in France, Germany and Spain. An officer with HM Consular Service 1903-28 (Vice-Consul at Ghent, 1904-05; at British Embassy in Russia, 1905-18; Commercial Secretary in Russia, 1918-21, Switzerland, 1921-22 and Belgium, 1922-28); Director, Foreign Division, Department for Overseas Trade, 1928-37. Appointed CMG, 1929. He succeeded his elder brother as 5th baronet, 3 March 1939. DL for Norfolk. He married, 24 May 1910 at St Peter, Eaton Square, London, Olive Muriel Mary (1881-1965), younger daughter of Samuel Taylor Mendel of Manley Hall, Manchester and Easthorpe Hall, Malton (Yorks) and had issue:
(1) Sir John Alfred Picton Bagge (1914-90), 6th bt. (q.v.);
(2) (Thomas) Peter Bagge (1917-77), born 29 January 1917; educated at Eton; an officer in Royal Artillery (Maj.) during the Second World War; director of Houchin Ltd., Ashford, 1968; married 1st, 5 June 1947 (div. 1951), Mary Armine, only daughter of Brig. Leonard William Henry Mathias DSO of Hambutts Orchard, Painswick (Glos) and widow of Maj. Denis Brestram Radley; married 2nd, 2 October 1954, Sorel Venetia, younger daughter of Col. Clarence Preston Gunter CIE, OBE, but had no issue; died 4 October 1977; will proved 22 November 1977 (estate £122,461);
(3) Audrey Rosamund Bagge (b. & d. 1913), born 19 January 1913; died in infancy, 15 May 1913.
He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his elder brother in 1939.
He died 23 December 1967; will proved 8 February 1968 (estate £36,097). His wife died 21 August 1965; her will was proved 19 October 1965 (estate £6,718).

Bagge, Sir John Alfred Picton (1914-90), 6th bt. Elder son of Sir John Picton Bagge (1877-1967), 5th bt., of Stradsett Hall, and his wife Olive Muriel Mary, younger daughter of Samuel Taylor Mendel of Manley Hall, Manchester and Easthorpe Hall, Malton (Yorks), born 27 October 1914. Educated at Eton and abroad. An officer in the Inns of Court Regiment (Maj.) in Second World War and with Cheshire Yeomanry in Palestine, Sudan and British Military Missions in Ethiopia and Bulgaria. Appointed an officer of the Order of St. John (CStJ, 1958; KStJ, 1975). DL for Norfolk; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1977-78. He succeeded his father as 6th baronet, 23 December 1967. He married, 1 June 1939, (Elizabeth) Helena (k/a Lena) (1914-96), second daughter of Daniel James Davies CBE, High Commissioner for Newfoundland in London, and had issue:
(1) Christabel Rosamund Bagge (b. 1940), born 3 March 1940; educated at Benenden; High Sheriff of Greater London, 1990-91; married 1st, 19 December 1963, James Hinton Scott (1938-88), eldest son of Maj. Archibald Crauford Scott and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, 8 June 1990, as his second wife, Peter Harold Dimmock CVO, OBE (1921-2015) of Windlesham Park (Surrey), BBC producer and later chairman of Zenith Entertainment;
(2) Sir John Jeremy Picton Bagge (b. 1945), 7th bt. (q.v.);
(3) Rosaleen Pleasance Bagge (b. 1947), born 3 July 1947; married, 4 April 1972, Maj. Jonathan James Buxton (b. 1943), son of Michael Auriol Buxton, and had issue three daughters;
(4) Elizabeth Mary Frances Bagge (b. 1949), born 27 September 1949; educated at East Hadden Hall School; married, 13 June 1981, Dean Rasheed of Arkaba Station, Hawker, South Australia (sold 2009), and had issue one son and one daughter;
(5) (Alfred) James Stephen Bagge (b. 1952), born 7 December 1952; educated at Eton and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1975; called to bar 1979); an officer in Blues & Royals, 1972-76 (2nd Lt.); seconded as ADC to Governor of South Australia, 1975-77; barrister-at-law, 1979-93; seconded to Serious Fraud Office, 1988-93; partner and global head of litigation with Norton Rose, solicitors, 1993-2008; director of Bralco Ltd., 2008-date; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 2017-18; married, 10 October 1981, Victoria Imogen Lyndon, daughter of Michael Andrew Lyndon Skeggs, of Dalgheal, Evanton, Ross-shire, and had issue a daughter;
(6) Thomas Philip (k/a Tom) Bagge (b. 1955) of Hall Farm, Irnham (Lincs), born 4 May 1955; educated at Eton, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester; an officer in Blues and Royals (Lt.), 1974-78; partner in Strutt & Parker, estate agents & chartered surveyors, 1987-date; Fellow of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, 1987.
He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his father in 1967.
He died 17 June 1990; will proved 3 July 1991 (estate £530,923). His widow died 17 February 1996; her will was proved 17 May 1996.

Bagge, Sir (John) Jeremy Picton (b. 1945), 7th bt. Eldest son of Sir John Alfred Picton Bagge (1914-90), 6th bt., of Stradsett Hall, and his wife (Elizabeth) Helena (k/a Lena), second daughter of Daniel James Davies CBE, High Commissioner for Newfoundland in London, born 21 June 1945. Educated at Eton. Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, 1968. Farmer and landowner; financial adviser to Crown Prince of Ethiopia, 1969-70. Member of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk District Council, 1981-95; Chairman of West Norfolk Enterprise Agency, 1985-94, Norfolk Rural Development Commission, 1989-99, Cambridgeshire Rural Development Commission, 1995-99, Norfolk Rural Strategy Committee, 1998-2002. President of Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, 2010-11. A member of the Norfolk Committee of Country Landowners Association (now CLA), 1986-2006 (Chairman, 1993-95, President, 2008-13) and of the national Executive Committee, 1997-2002. DL for Norfolk (from 1996); High Sheriff of Norfolk, 2003-04; Member of the Bishop's Council for the Diocese of Ely, 1994-2005; Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers in the City of London. He succeeded his father as 7th baronet, 17 June 1990. He married, 25 January 1979, Sarah Margaret Phipps (b. 1951), daughter of  Maj James Shelley Phipps Armstrong, Agent-General in the UK for the Province of Ontario (Canada), and had issue:
(1) Alfred James John Bagge (b. 1980) of Stradsett Hall, born 1 July 1980; educated at Stowe and University of Newcastle (BSc); director of S.B. Design & Build, 2005-10 and of Stradsett Estate since 2010; married, 2009, Charlotte Christopha Annabel (b. 1979), daughter of Stanley F. Stride of Henley-on-Thames (Oxon), and has issue one son and one daughter;
(2) Alexandra Mary Pleasance Bagge (b. 1982), born 26 December 1982; educated at University College, London (BSc; MSc, 2009); worked for Survival International and Doctors of the World UK;
(3) Albert Daniel Bracewell Bagge (b. 1985), born 1 April 1985; educated at Eton and University of Newcastle; Commercial Director at Inspiratia.
He inherited the Stradsett Hall estate from his father in 1990 and handed it over to his elder son in 2015, moving to Marham House (Norfk).
Now living.

Bagge family of Gaywood Hall

Bagge, Richard (1810-91). Twin eldest son of Thomas Philip Bagge (1771-1827) of Stradsett Hall and his wife Grace, youngest daughter of Richard Salisbury of Castle Park (Lancs), born 17 June 1810. JP and DL for Norfolk; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1879-80. An ardent Conservative in politics, and leader of that group on Kings Lynn Borough Council; Churchwarden of Kings Lynn. He married, 1 October 1835 at North Runcton (Norfk), his first cousin, Pleasance (d. 1869), eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Edward Hulton, and had issue:
(1) Capt. Richard Salisbury Bagge (1836-86), born 7 July 1836; an officer in the Infantry (Ensign, 1854; Lt., 1858; Capt., 1862); JP for Norfolk (from 1864); died unmarried, 18 December 1886; administration of goods granted to his next brother, 2 June 1887 (estate £2,924);
(2) Thomas Edward Bagge (1838-1908) (q.v.);
(3) Pleasance Grace Bagge (1839-98); married, 12 May 1864 at Gaywood, Theophilus Russell Buckworth (c. 1816-73) of Cockley Cley (Norfk) and had issue; died 23 January 1898; will proved 5 April 1899 (estate £6,677);
(4) Jane Margaret Bagge (1842-1916); lived latterly at Mintlyn House, Hunstanton (Norfk); died unmarried, 5 June 1916; will proved 2 December 1916 (estate £793);
(5) Herbert Bagge (1843-1922) (q.v.);
(6) Louisa Clifford Bagge (1845-1918); lived latterly at Mintlyn House, Hunstanton (Norfk); died unmarried, 3 May 1918; will proved 5 June 1918 (estate £696).
He inherited the Gaywood estate from his uncle in 1835 and built Gaywood Hall there in 1851.
He died 5 April 1891; his will was proved 27 May 1891 (effects £18,365). His wife died 6 June 1869.

Bagge, Thomas Edward (1838-1908). Second son of Richard Bagge (1810-91) of Gaywood Hall and his wife Pleasance, eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Edward Hulton, born 30 April and baptised at Gaywood, 13 May 1838. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1857; BA 1861; MA 1864; cricket blue, 1859-61). An officer in the Norfolk Artillery Regiment of Militia (Lt., 1863; Capt., 1871; Maj., 1883; Hon. Lt-Col.). Brewer at Kings Lynn (senior partner in W. & T. Bagge). JP (from 1868) and DL for Norfolk; Mayor of Kings Lynn, 1901-02; churchwarden of Kings Lynn, 1891-1908; Chairman of Lynn Gas Co.; Chairman of Kings Lynn Municipal Charities; trustee of Lynn Harbour; member of the Conservancy Board; governor of Lynn Grammar School; leader of the Conservative group in the Borough Council. He was a keen cricketer and for some years served as Hon. Sec. of the Norfolk County Cricket Club. He married 1st, 6 September 1871 at Snettisham (Norfk), Louisa Maria Mary (1849-82), daughter of Frederick Walpole Keppel of Lexham Hall (Norfk), and 2nd, 6 March 1884 at Greenham (Berks), Constance Mary (1853-1924), youngest daughter of Lloyd Baxendale of Greenham Lodge (Berks), but had no issue.
He inherited the Gaywood Hall estate from his father in 1891. At his death the estate passed to his nephew, Richard Ludwig Bagge.
He died 23 October 1908 and was buried at Gaywood; his will was proved 20 April 1909 (estate £133,351). His first wife died of typhoid fever, 3 February 1882 and was buried at Gaywood. His widow died 26 April 1924; her will was proved 22 October 1924 and 12 February 1925 (estate £25,006).

Bagge, Herbert (1843-1922). Third son of Richard Bagge (1810-91) of Gaywood Hall and his wife Pleasance, eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Edward Hulton, born 1 July and baptised at Gaywood, 19 July 1843. Educated at Eton, Trinity College and Peterhouse, Cambridge (matriculated 1862; BA 1868). He was declared bankrupt in 1870 and went abroad to live in Belgium; his bankruptcy was annulled in 1886. He married, 26 October 1871, Maria Adelaide Rosalie, daughter of Louis Duquesnoy of Antwerp (Belgium) and had issue:
(1) Sir Richard Ludwig Bagge (1872-1933), kt. (q.v.);
(2) Pleasance Grace Rose Bagge (1876-1973), born at Liège (Belgium), 4 July 1876; married, 23 March 1903, Jonkheer Mr. Reinhold Antonie Klerck (1851-1918), but had no issue; died at Die Bilt, Utrecht (Netherlands), 26 August 1973, aged 97.
He lived in Belgium from 1870 onwards.
He died at St Gilles, Brussels, 23 January 1922. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bagge, Sir Richard Ludwig (1872-1933), kt. Only son of Herbert Bagge (1843-1922) of Gaywood Hall and his wife Maria Adelaide Rosalie, daughter of Louis Duquesnoy of Antwerp (Belgium), born in Belgium, 30 September 1872. An officer in the Norfolk Regiment Volunteer Battn (2nd Lt., 1891; Lt. 1892; Capt. 1894; Maj. 1903); served in Boer War (mentioned in despatches; DSO 1900). Brewer at Kings Lynn with W. & T. Bagge until 1929, when he sold the business to Steward & Patteson of Norwich. JP (from 1898) and DL for Norfolk. A Conservative in politics, he was Chairman of the Kings Lynn Conservative Association, and was knighted for 'political and public services in Norfolk', 1927. He was a personal friend of King George V, with whom he enjoyed shooting on the Sandringham estate and at Gaywood. He married, 28 June 1904 at St Peter, Cranley Gardens, London, Anna Victoria Wilmsdorff (c.1880-1929), only daughter of Maj. Wilmsdorff George Mansergh of Rock Savage (Co. Cork), and had issue:
(1) Doreen Pleasance Anna Bagge (1906-85), born 17 September 1906; married, 1 February 1928 (div. 1944), Sir Ralph Leigh Hare (1903-74), 4th bt., of Stow Hall (Norfk) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 10 December 1985; ashes interred at Stow Bardolph (Norfk), where she is commemorated by a monument; will proved 6 February 1986 (estate £78,674);
(2) Nancy Adelaide Bagge (1907-90), born 5 October 1907; obtained pilot's licence, 1933; married, 1 March 1934, Capt. George Cecil Pereira (1904-76) of Caversham Place, Reading (Berks), eldest son of Maj-Gen. Sir Cecil Pereira KCB CMG and had issue one son; died at Burford (Oxon), 11 December 1990; will proved 4 June 1991 (estate £758,745);
(3) Sheila Clifford Bagge (1909-98), born 21 September 1909; married, 25 February 1939, as his second wife, William Herbert Wood Evans (1903-63) of Ojai, California (USA) and had issue four daughters; died at Phoenix, Arizona (USA), 18 February 1998;
(4) Moira Mansergh Bagge (1910-74), born 2 September 1910; bankrupt, 1939; married 1st, 6 October 1936 at Caxton Hall Registry Office (div. 1948), the twice-divorced Henry Halford Chichelé Burdett (1904-62), son of Capt. Halford Gay Burdett, and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, Oct-Dec. 1953, David Spring alias Himmelspring; married 3rd, Apr-Jun 1963, Richard A. Fitzgerald of Nairobi (Kenya); died 22 October 1974; will proved in Nairobi and sealed in London, 22 October 1976 (estate in England £5,399);
(5) Rosaleen Margaret Bagge (1914-88), born 19 January 1914; married, 7 January 1936, Lt-Col. Joseph Patrick Feeny OBE (1904-70) of HM Colonial Service, son of Michael C. Feeny of St. Columbs, Londonderry, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 30 May 1988; will proved 22 December 1988 (estate £255,341).
He lived in Hunstanton (Norfk) before his marriage, and thereafter at Islington Hall. He inherited the Gaywood Hall estate from his uncle in 1908. After his death the estate passed to his five daughters as co-heirs and they sold it c.1935.
He died at his flat in London, 9 August 1933; his will was proved 26 August 1933 (estate £221,567). His wife died 20 February 1929; administration of her goods was granted 14 May 1929 (estate £568).

Sources

Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 2003, pp. 214-15; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 85; G. Winkley, The country houses of Norfolk, 1986, p. 148; Sir N. Pevsner & B. Wilson, The buildings of England: Norfolk 2 - North-West and South Norfolk, 1999, pp. 356, 450, 497, 675-76; P. Dallas, R. Last & T. Williamson, Norfolk gardens and designed landscapes, 2013, pp. 386-87; P. Richards, Kings Lynn through time, 2014, unpag.; Kings Lynn Magazine, July 2016, pp. 87-88.

Location of archives

Bagge family of Gaywood Hall: deeds, estate papers, manorial records and game books, 17th-20th cents. [Norfolk Record Office, BL/BG]
Bagge family of Stradsett Hall: estate and family papers, 16th-20th cents [Private Collection: enquiries to Norfolk Record Office]

Coat of arms

Bagge of Stradsett: Lozengy, paly bendy, argent and gules, two flaunches or, on a chief of the last an annulet between two cinquefoils of the second.

Can you help?

Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch. Can anyone:

• Provide images of portraits or photographs of the members of this family whose names appear in bold above?
• Provide information about the ownership of Islington Hall after 1933, or any photographs of that house before the 1970s fire.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 9 November and was updated 25 November 2017 and 31 January 2024. I am grateful to Jean Agnew for additional information.