(374) Baring of Howick, Barons Howick of Glendale

The Baring family

Although it is less than three hundred years since Johann Baring (1697-1748) first arrived in England, the Baring family has in that time become deeply embedded in the British establishment. They have accumulated five peerages and two baronetcies, and the ramifying branches of the family tree have owned many country houses for longer or shorter periods. For the purposes of this project, their story has been divided into five parts, the relationship of which is illustrated in the chart below. Sir Francis Baring (1740-1810), the 1st baronet, was the son of Johann Baring, and the lines explored in my articles on this family derive from four of his five sons. The eldest son, Sir Thomas Baring (1772-1848), 2nd bt., lived at Stratton Park (Hants), and was the progenitor of both the Earls of Northbrook, his successors at Stratton, and the Barings of Beaudesert Park, High Beach and Ardington House. The second son, Alexander Baring (1774-1848), was created 1st Baron Ashburton, and he and his successors lived at The Grange (Hants). The third son, Henry Baring (1776-1848) lived at Cromer Hall in Norfolk, although he never owned it, and from him descend the Barons Revelstoke of Membland House and Lambay Castle, and the Earls of Cromer and Barons Howick of Glendale. Finally, Sir Francis' fourth son, William Baring (1779-1820), was the ancestor of the Barings of Norman Court.

Simplified Baring family tree

Baring, Barons Howick of Glendale

This first post concerns the branch of the family which became Earls of Cromer and also Barons Howick of Glendale. Evelyn Baring (1841-1917) was the eighth son of Henry Baring (1776-1848) by his second wife, and was brought up at Cromer Hall until his mother sold it in about 1851. He was then prepared for a military life at the Ordnance School in Carshalton and the Woolwich Academy, and entered the Royal Artillery, but his real aptitude was for administration and diplomacy, and he was seconded to act as private secretary to his cousin, Lord Northbrook when he became Viceroy of India in 1872. He left the army in 1879 and after a few years in Egypt he was back in India, 1880-83 in a role which amounted to being Chancellor of the Exchequer there. The role exposed him to the complexity of balancing the expectations of the Government in London, the permanent British administrative staff on the ground, and the native population; and he learned never to be too doctrinaire or to close off all opportunity of retreating from a position which became untenable. In 1883 he was made Consul-General (in effect, Governor) of Egypt, and he held this post until 1907, when ill health made it urgently necessary for him to retire. He lived subsequently in London, and devoted the last decade of his life to political and literary writing, much of it concerned with the politics and ethics of imperialism. He had been raised to the peerage as Baron Cromer in 1892, and was advanced to Viscount in 1899 and Earl in 1901, but despite taking his title from his childhood home he never lived there again, and his successors as Earl were London-based until comparatively recently.

In 1903, at the age of 62, when his sons by his first marriage were already grown men, Lord Cromer unexpectedly became a father for a third time. His youngest son, Evelyn Baring (1903-73), followed in his father's footsteps and became a colonial administrator in India until he was obliged to resign due to ill health in 1934. While recuperating in England he met and married the elder daughter of the 5th Earl Grey of Howick Hall. During the Second World War, being unfit for military service, he went into the Foreign Office, which sent him out to Africa as Governor of Southern Rhodesia and later as High Commissioner in South Africa and Governor of Kenya. In his post-war postings he had to cope with both the emergence of the apartheit regime in South Africa and the Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya. He retired in 1959 and was raised to the peerage the following year as Baron Howick of Glendale. In 1963, his wife inherited the Howick Hall estate from her father. Lord Howick was made a Knight of the Garter in 1972, but died from injuries received while rock climbing in 1973. The estate then passed to his son and heir, Charles Evelyn Baring (b. 1937), 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale. He pursued a career in banking, but after the death of his father he restored the west pavilion of Howick Hall as a new family residence and moved there permanently in 1982. Since then, he has developed the interest of the gardens, creating a major new arboretum with trees from around the world, an achievement for which he was awarded the Victoria Medal for Horticulture in 2009. The gardens are now open to the public on a regular basis.

Howick Hall, Northumberland

There was a medieval tower house or pele tower at Howick, which belonged in 1415 to Emeric Hering. It was described in 1538 as 'a little pile, a mile from the shore', and seems to have consisted of a roughly square battlemented tower of three storeys above a high basement with an external staircase rising up the basement wall to an entrance on the ground floor. In 1597 the Herings sold their property at Howick to Sir Edward Grey, whose family had owned land in the parish since 1319. By 1759, the tower house had been greatly extended to the east, with a four-storey battlemented block and beyond that a further range with gables or pediments on the south and west sides. A reused doorhead with the date 1714, which is now incorporated into the walling of the middle terrace on the south front, may indicate a date at which building work was undertaken.

Howick Hall: the predecessor of the present house, recorded in a watercolour of 1776 by J. Thirlwall shortly before demolition.
Image: Collection of the Duke of Northumberland. 

A drawing of 1776 hints that the house, or at least the tower, was then in fairly poor repair, and it was taken down four years later to make way for a new house, built in 1781-88 for Sir Henry Grey to the designs of William Newton (1730-98) of Newcastle-on-Tyne, after James Paine and others had been invited to submit designs. Grey owned a copy of Paine's Plans, Elevations and Sections of Noblemen and Gentlemen's Houses (1767), and the house built by Newton owes a lot to Paine's influence, not least in its general form of a central block connected by links to pavilion wings. Paine and Newton had worked together on at least two occasions (at Gibside and Blagdon Hall), and Newton succeeded Paine as the architect of alterations at Wallington Hall after 1760, so the two men probably knew one another fairly well. Grey also sought advice from experienced builders among his acquaintance in the county, and the very detailed accounts for the building of the new house show that both Sir Francis Blake of Twizel Castle, and Charles Brandling of Gosforth House exerted an influence on the design, which seems to have gone through at least three versions before Sir Henry was content. The accounts also show that the new house cost just £11,313. Although this sum may not have included all the charges for decorating and furnishing the new house, it represented exceptional value for money: the new house was William Newton's greatest commission and one of the largest in Northumberland when it was finished. 

Howick Hall: painting of 1829 by Tobias Young showing the south front of the hall, from much the same positionas the previous view. 
Image: Christies.

As first built, the new house was  a nine-by-five bay block of three storeys, connected by single-storey straight links to five-by-five bay pavilions of two lower storeys with three-bay pediments and square lanterns. It is built of brick, finished on the outside with a skin of golden sandstone. The entrance was at first on the south side, which has a slightly-projecting three bay pedimented centre, supported on giant engaged unfluted Ionic columns, which rise from the rusticated ground floor. The centre windows of each part of the facade on the first floor are also pedimented. The design of the centre was derived ultimately from the facade of Palladio's Villa Capra, but was perhaps inspired more immediately by Paine's 1766 design of Bywell Hall (Northbld), which both architect and client will have known. 

Howick Hall: the south front in recent years.

William Newton began his career as a carpenter, working alongside his father Robert Newton as one of a group of craftsmen executing the designs of Daniel Garrett in north-east England, but by the early 1760s he had established himself as the leading builder-architect in Newcastle. He was one of the first generation of architects, alongside Carr in York, Pickford in Derby, or Keck in Gloucestershire, who made a professional design service available in the provinces. Sir Henry Grey no doubt chose the locally-based Newton rather than a higher-profile national architect like Paine for the building of his new house because he was cheaper and would give more constant attention to the project: indeed, the accounts show that Newton made no less than a hundred visits to the site to supervise construction during the eight years the house was being built.

Because Howick was seriously damaged by fire in 1926, the original interiors have all been lost, and they can be reconstructed only in part from sketches and architectural drawings for later alterations; but it is clear that the house had a central staircase hall approached from the entrance hall through a two-storey columned screen with Ionic pillars on the ground floor and Corinthian pillars on the first floor. The stairs themselves seem to have risen in one flight, which divided into two at the half-pace and turned through a right-angle to reach the first-floor landing. The plasterwork in the hall, drawing room and dining room was supplied by Joseph Rose & Co. of York, who were the finest plasterers in the country at the time.

At the same time as the house was rebuilt, the village of Howick was moved from its original site near the parish church and rebuilt closer to the coast. The land it had occupied became part of the landscaped grounds of the house. The precise date of these works is not known, but they had been completed by 1791, when an estate plan shows the new arrangements. The gardens were further developed by the 2nd Earl Grey in the 1830s and later.

In about 1800, Sir Henry Grey gave Howick to his brother, Charles, 1st Earl Grey, who in turn established his son (later the 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister at the time of the Great Reform Act) there. From about 1806, he began to make changes to the house, starting by moving the entrance to the north front. David Stephenson sent him a design for a circular portico here in 1806 which was evidently rejected, but after the deaths of his father and uncle he obtained designs from George Wyatt (1782-1856), a former pupil (and first cousin once removed) of the more famous James Wyatt. These involved building out a single-storey extension across the whole north side that contained a new entrance hall but was curiously described as 'the conservatory' in a letter of 1808 from Wyatt. Wyatt also enlarged the straight links to the pavilions, so that they appeared as quadrants from the south side although they remained straight-fronted from the north, and new terraces were constructed in front of the south facade, allowing the development of new gardens here.

Howick Hall: the north front as remodelled in 1809 and reconstructed from 1928 onwards.

During the First World War, the Grey family made Howick available as an emergency hospital, and themselves took a leading part in its management. At the end of the war the house was advertised to be let, but the family eventually to have returned, until in 1926 the house was badly damaged by a serious fire, which gutted the centre of the house and the top two floors. Reinstatement was carried out from 1928 by Sir Herbert Baker & Scott, who reduced the size of the house by converting the large central staircase hall into a new inner courtyard at first floor level, open to the north through a classical screen of giant Tuscan columns flanked by circular and shoulder-headed windows, beneath a carved pediment which had in fact been added to this facade about twenty years earlier. They retained the early 19th century entrance hall (but reduced it a little in width, so that the big Roman Doric columns against the side walls, which once stood free, now stand close to the walls), and behind it created a new top-lit columned vestibule, the domed roof of which forms the floor of the first-floor courtyard.

After the death of the 5th Earl Grey in 1963, the centre block of the house was abandoned, and in the 1970s the west pavilion of Newton's house was remodelled as a new family home for 2nd Baron Howick. The gardens are open to the public on a regular basis, and although internally derelict, the central block is kept wind and weathertight. The east pavilion is used as a tea room for visitors. 

Descent: Sir Edward Grey (d. 1631); to grandson, Edward Grey (d. 1653); to son, Philip Grey (d. 1666); to brother, Edward Grey (d. 1667); to brother, John Grey (d. 1681); to son, John Grey (1670-1710); to son, Sir Henry Grey (1691-1750); to son, Sir Henry Grey (1722-1808); gifted c.1800 to brother, Sir Charles Grey (d. 1807) of Fallodon Hall, 1st Baron Grey of Howick and 1st Earl Grey; to son, Charles Grey (1764-1845), 2nd Earl Grey; to son, Henry Grey (1802-94), 3rd Earl Grey; to nephew, Albert Henry George Grey (1851-1917); to son, Charles Robert Grey (1879-1963), 5th Earl Grey; to daughter, Lady Mary Cecil Grey (1907-2002), wife of Evelyn Baring (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale; to son, Charles Evelyn Baring (b. 1937), 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale.

Baring family, Barons Howick of Glendale

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer.
Image: National Portrait Gallery.
 Some rights reserved.

Baring, Evelyn (1841-1917), 1st Earl of Cromer. Eighth son of Henry Baring (1776-1848) [for whom see my forthcoming post on the Barings of Membland and Lambay, Barons Revelstoke] and his second wife, Cecilia Anne (d. 1874), eldest daughter of Vice-Adm. William Windham of Cromer Hall (Norfk), born 26 February 1841. Educated at Ordnance School, Carshalton and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. An officer in the Royal Artillery, 1858-79 (Capt., 1870; Maj., 1876; retired, 1879). Private Secretary to his cousin, the 1st Earl of Northbrook as Viceroy of India, 1872-76, where his influence was such that he became known as 'the Vice-Viceroy'; Commissioner for Egyptian public debt, 1877-79; English joint Controller-General for Egypt, 1879-80; Financial Member of Council to Viceroy of India, 1880-83; Consul-General and Minister Plenipotentiary in Egypt, 1883-1907. Through thirty years of colonial administration, he came to believe in Britain's 'manifest destiny' as a colonial power, but felt that imperialism must be conducted in accordance with the code of Christian morality, and must make the 'self-interest of the subject race... the principal basis of the whole Imperial fabric', though these were not conditions which he ever had the luxury of putting to the test. He was appointed CSI, 1876; CIE, 1880; KCSI, 1883; CB, 1885; KCB, 1887; GCMG, 1888; GCB, 1895 and OM, 1906, and was created Baron Cromer, 20 June 1892; Viscount Cromer, 25 January 1899 and Viscount Errington and Earl of Cromer, 8 August 1901. He was made a Privy Councillor, 1900; received honorary degrees from Oxford (DCL, 1904) and Cambridge (LLD, 1905); and was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1907. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the British Academy, and was awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1908. He also received the Ottoman Order of the Medjidie (1st class). Author of Modern Egypt (1908); Ancient and Modern Imperialism (1910); and a series of political and literary essays which were collected in three volumes (1913-16), in which he sought to distil his political philosophy. He married 1st, 28 June 1876, Ethel (d. 1898), daughter and co-heir of Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, 11th bt., and 2nd, 22 October 1901, Lady (Katherine) Georgiana Louisa (1865-1933), daughter of John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath, and had issue:
(1.1) Rowland Thomas Baring (1877-1958), 2nd Earl of Cromer, born 29 November 1877; suffered from ill health throughout his life after a childhood attack of typhoid; educated at Eton, but left early to study foreign languages; an officer in the diplomatic service, 1900-11 (serving in Cairo, Teheran and St. Petersburg) and subsequently in the Foreign Office (Private Secretary to Principal Under-Secretary, 1907-11); he joined Baring Bros bank briefly as a managing director, 1913-14, but with the outbreak of the First World War joined the special reserve of the Grenadier Guards, 1914-20 (Lt.). He acted as ADC to successive Viceroys of India, 1915-16 and then became Equerry and Asst. Private Secretary to King George V, 1916-20; he acted as Chief of Staff to the Duke of Connaught and the Prince of Wales in India, 1920-22 and then joined the Royal Household as Lord Chamberlain, 1922-38 and a Permanent Lord-in-Waiting, 1938-53; he served as a British Government director of the Suez Canal Company, 1926, and was a director of London & Lancashire Insurance Co., the Marine Insurance Co. (Dep. Chairman, 1938; Chairman, 1939), P&O, British India Steam Navigation Co, the National Provincial Bank, Lloyds, and the National Provincial Foreign Bank; he was Receiver-General of the Order of St. John, 1943-47; vice-president of Gordon Memorial College and President of the MCC, 1934-35; married, 4 April 1908, Lady Ruby Florence Mary GCStJ (1886-1961), second daughter of Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, and had issue one son (the 3rd Earl) and two daughters; died 13 May 1953; his will was proved 14 July 1953 (estate £52,988);
(1.2) Hon. Windham Baring (1880-1922), born 29 September 1880; managing director of Baring Bros; director of Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway; served in First World War with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Lt.); married, 10 July 1913, Lady Gweneth Frida JP (1888-1984) (who married 2nd, 4 February 1926, Col. Ralph Henry Voltelin Cavendish CBE MVO DL (d. 1968 and had further issue), daughter of Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl of Bessborough and had issue three sons; died 28 December 1922; will proved 21 February 1923 (estate £209,733);
(2.1) Evelyn Baring (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale (q.v.).
He lived abroad until retiring in 1907, and thereafter in Wimpole St., London.
He died 29 January 1917 and was buried at Bournemouth (Hants); his will was proved 24 April 1917 (estate £117,608). His first wife died in Cairo (Egypt), 16 October 1898 and was buried at Bournemouth; administration of her goods with will annexed was granted 15 December 1898 (estate £1,968). His widow died 4 March 1933; administration of her goods with will annexed was granted to her son, 21 April 1933 (estate £16,656).

Evelyn Baring (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale
Image: National Portrait Gallery.  Some rights reserved.

Baring, Evelyn (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale. Only child of Evelyn Baring (1841-1917), 1st Earl of Cromer, and his second wife, Lady (Katherine) Georgiana Louisa, daughter of John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath, born 29 September 1903. Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford (BA 1924; MA 1928; Hon. Fellow, 1960). An officer in the Indian Civil Service, 1926-34; Secretary to Agent of the Government of India in South Africa, 1929; retired on grounds of ill health, 1934 and joined Barings Bank for a short period; then became managing director of the Sudan Plantation Syndicate; with the outbreak of the Second World War he was unfit for military service and joined the Foreign Office, being appointed Governor of Southern Rhodesia, 1942-44, UK High Commissioner for South Africa, Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, 1944-51; and Governor of Kenya, 1952-59, where he served throughout the Mau-Mau Crisis; Chairman of the East Africa Commission, 1952-59; member of the Commonwealth Development Corporation, 1960-72 (Deputy Chairman, 1960-61; Chairman, 1961-72). He was a Director of Swan Hunter Shipbuilding and Wigram Richardson and served as a member of the Nature Conservancy from 1961 (Chairman, 1963), the governing body of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London University, 1961-68, and was president of the Centre for International Briefing, 1972. He was a DL for Northumberland, was appointed KCMG, 1942, KCVO, 1947, GCMG, 1955 and KG, 1972, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Howick of Glendale, 8 February 1960. He was awarded an honorary degree by Newcastle University (DCL, 1968). He married, 24 April 1935, Lady Mary Cecil (1907-2002), elder daughter of Charles Robert Grey, 5th Earl Grey, of Howick Hall (Northbld.), and had issue:
(1) Hon. Katherine Mary Alice Baring  (b. 1936), born 30 March 1936; married, December 1974, as his third wife, Sir (Edward) Humphrey Tyrell Wakefield (b. 1936), 2nd bt., of Chillingham Castle (Northbld.), and had issue one son and one daughter;
(2) Charles Evelyn Baring (b. 1937), 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale (q.v.);
(3) Hon. Elizabeth Beatrice Baring (b. 1940), born 10 January 1940; married, 15 January 1962, Capt. Nicholas Albany Gibbs (d. 1984) of 9th Royal Lancers, and had issue one son and two daughters;
His wife inherited her ancestral seat of Howick Hall from her father in 1963, but they did not live in the house, preferring the dower house of Howick Grange.
He died as a result of fall while rock climbing, 10 March 1973; his will was proved 5 July 1973 (estate £249,880). His widow died 21 March 2002.

Baring, Charles Evelyn (b. 1937), 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale. Only son of Evelyn Baring (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale, and his wife Lady Mary Cecil, elder daughter of Charles Robert Grey, 5th Earl Grey, of Howick Hall (Northbld.), born 30 December 1937. Educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. A director of Barings Bank, 1969-82 and Northern Rock plc, 1987-2001. He served as a member of the executive committee of the National Art Collections Fund. A keen botanist, he was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society for his work in developing the arboretum at Howick Hall into 'the largest private collection of wild trees in Britain'. He married, 11 April 1964, Clare Nicolette, younger daughter of Col. Cyril Darby MC of Kemerton Court (Worcs), and had issue:
(1) Hon. Rachel Monica Baring (b. 1967), born 29 June 1967; married, 1989, Capt. (George Charles) Nicholas Lane Fox, son of George Lane Fox of Bramham Park (Yorks WR) and had issue four sons and one daughter;
(2) Hon. Jessica Mary Clare Baring (b. 1969), born 8 October 1969; married, 2 September 1995, Marcus Laithwaite of Sydney (Australia), eldest son of Paul Laithwaite of Deeside House, Chester, and had issue one son and two daughters;
(3) Hon. Alice Olivia Baring (b. 1971), born 17 March 1971; married, 2000, Christian Rupert Francis Ward Thomas of The Lodge, Bradfield St. Clare (Suffk), and had issue three sons;
(4) Hon. David Evelyn Charles Baring (b. 1975), born 26 March 1975; lives at Howick Grange; married, Apr-Jun 2003, Victoria Jane Sutherland (b. 1974), only daughter of Owen Sutherland, and had issue two sons.
After the death of his father in 1973, he converted the west wing of Howick Hall into a new family home, and moved there in 1982. Since then he has developed the gardens and arboretum into a significant tourist attraction.
Now living.

Sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 981-82, 1990; Northumberland County History Committee, A history of Northumberland, vol. 2, 1893, pp. 345-59; F. Graham, The old halls, houses and inns of Northumberland, 1977, pp. 155-57; Sir N. Pevsner, I. Richmond et al., The buildings of England: Northumberland, 2nd edn., 1992, p. 352; R. Pears, 'William Newton (1730-1798) and the Development of the Architectural Profession in North-East England', PhD thesis, Newcastle Univ., 2013; R. Pears, 'Building Howick Hall', Georgian Group Journal, 2016, pp. 117-34; ODNB entries on 1st & 2nd Earls of Cromer and 1st Baron Howick of Glendale.

Location of archives

Baring, Evelyn (1841-1917), 1st Earl of Cromer: correspondence and papers, 1863-1917 [The National Archives, FO633]; drafts of Modern Egypt and related papers, early 20th cent. [The British Library, Manuscript Collections, Add MSS 44903-11]
Baring, Sir Evelyn (1903-73), 1st Baron Howick of Glendale: personal and political notebooks, correspondence and papers, 1926-72 [Durham University Library, Special Collections, GRE-1]

Coat of arms

Azure, a fess or charged with an eastern crown azure, as a mark of difference in chief a boar's head couped proper, muzzled and ringed or.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide an image of the north front of Howick Hall prior to the 1926 fire?
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements 

This post was first published 30 April 2019 and was updated 14 May 2019.

(373) Barham of Snape House and Hole Park

Barham of Hole Park

The Barham family were copyhold tenants of lands at Wadhurst by 1441 if not earlier and they probably rose in social status during the 16th century, when they became ironmasters at Wadhurst and elsewhere in the Sussex Weald. The most notable of these early Barhams was Nicholas Barham (c.1525-77), a lawyer who became Queen's Serjeant-at-Law and conducted the prosecution of the Duke of Norfolk for treason in 1571. Nicholas Barham had two uncles, from whom descended separate branches of the Barham family. The descendants of John Barham (d. 1555) of Shoosmiths in Wadhurst ended with another John Barham, who was High Sheriff of Sussex in 1701, and we are concerned here with the descendants of William Barham (d. by 1548), who moved several times over the succeeding generations between villages in the Sussex and Kentish Weald, where they were yeomen farmers and ironmasters. After eight generations, the representative of this branch of the family was Robert Barham of Battle (Sussex), dairy farmer, who was born in 1767 and died in 1842. His youngest son, also Robert Barham (1807-88), with whom the genealogy below begins, moved to London, where he seems to have worked in the licensed trade until, sometime in the 1830s, he opened a retail dairy in the Strand. This Robert had two sons who survived to maturity. The elder, yet another Robert Barham (1830-85), went to sea, and worked as a ship's mate in the mercantile marine, although in his later years he seems to have taken over the management of the Strand dairy business from his father, where he was living over the shop at the time of the 1881 census. He predeceased his father, and rather curiously was almost penniless at the time of his death, although when his father died three years later he was comfortably off. The other son, later Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt., was apprenticed to a cabinet maker but spent his evenings doing milk deliveries for his father's shop. He seems to have been of an entrepreneurial cast of mind, and at the tender age of 22 established his own dairy business, which developed into the firm Express Dairies Ltd. In the days before refrigeration, milk went off very quickly, and was normally transported only a few miles. George recognised the potential of the railway network to bring milk quickly over much longer distances if the transport to the railhead and the distribution in London could be organised efficiently. To help with the first, he invented a standardised milk churn, which farmers could easily deliver to their local station. He negotiated cheap rates for transport with the rail companies, using spare capacity on early morning trains (hence the 'milk train' mentioned so much in early 20th century novels). And in London he worked with the railway companies to build dedicated sidings and sheds where the milk could be quality controlled and packaged for delivery through a network of local deliverymen.

Sudbury Lodge, Wembley: the home of George T. Barham

The business flourished and made Sir George and his sons wealthy men, and in due course the firm was divided, with the elder son, George Titus Barham (1860-1937) taking on the retail side of the business, Express Dairies Ltd., and the younger son, Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952), taking on the wholesale side as the Dairy Supply Co., which in 1915 he merged with other firms to form United Dairies. The family moved out of the city to the fashionable suburb of Hampstead, and in the 1880s Sir George acquired a mid 19th century villa called Sudbury Lodge at Wembley, which became the home of G.T. Barham. In his last years, as a wealthy businessman with no children to provide for, G.T. Barham gifted the house and its grounds to the new Wembley Borough Council, on the condition that they took care of it. Unfortunately, the Second World War intervened, the grounds were used as a training ground for the territorial army, and the untenanted house decayed. By the mid-1950s it was estimated that it would cost £18,000 to restore the house, and the council decided simply to demolish it: it was finally pulled down in 1957, and the grounds are now Barham Park.

In 1885, Sir George Barham (as he became in 1904) bought the Snape estate at Wadhurst which had once belonged to his family, and between 1893 and 1902 he built a comfortable if somewhat frenetically asymmetrical new house there, where he lived until his death in 1913. It then passed to his younger son, Col. A.S. Barham, but since he had already bought the considerably larger Hole Park at Rolvenden (Kent) for himself, he did not need Snape. He accordingly let it to short-term tenants who mostly occupied it for a year or two. The most romantic of the tenants was perhaps Natalie Sergeyevna, Countess Brasova, the widow of Grand Duke Michael of Russia, who lived here in 1919-20, not long after her husband was murdered by the Soviet government in 1917. After the First World War, Col. Barham applied himself to the creation of a fine garden at Hole Park, which he first opened to the public in 1927, and which it is said has been open every year since on one basis or another.

When Col. Barham died in 1952 he left both Hole Park and Snape to his grandson, David Barham (b. 1926). After ten years in which limited repairs and maintenance had been possible, both houses were in poor repair, and the decision was made to sell Snape and to use the proceeds to pay for the reduction of Hole Park to a more manageable size. In the end the wings and top storey added in about 1830 were removed, and the centre of the house was returned to something like its original Georgian appearance. In about 2003 the house and estate were handed over to David's son, Edward Barham (b. 1962), who continues to manage the estate and open the gardens to the public.

Snape House, Wadhurst, Sussex

Snape House: the south front in 2019.

Snape is first mentioned in about 1200, when it was given to Battle Abbey, which held it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. After that it passed to the Barham family of ironmasters, and David Barham is said to have built a new house here in 1617. It passed out of Barham ownership in 1721 and was in other hands until in 1885 it was bought back by Sir George Barham. He kept the old farmhouse as service accommodation, and attached it to a new house,  built in two phases between 1893 and 1902 to the designs of Robert Whellock of London. The main front to the south is an irregular and rather chaotic composition that has a stone porch tower with a pyramidal roof near the left hand end, and an array of gables with tile-hanging and obviously fake half-timbering. The interiors contain a great deal of contemporary wood panelling, but also a surprisingly delicate and convincing Adam-style plaster ceiling in the former morning room. 

Alongside his development of the house, Barham restored and altered a large 15th or 16th century barn close to the house, which he made into his baronial hall, and built a new stable block and coach house with a turret clock dated 1905. To complement the hall, he laid out a sunken garden enclosed by walls that incorporate the original cast iron railings made in the early 18th century for St. Paul's Cathedral by the Gloucester Furnace near Lamberhurst (Sussex), which he bought from the Cathedral in 1896 for £10. Gates from the same source were installed between the gatepiers at the end of the drive. The barn was converted by the architect Bernard Frankland Dark into a house for his own use in 1959 and remains in separate ownership.

Descent: sold 1885 to Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt.; to son, Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952) of Hole Park, who let it in the 1920s and 1930s to tenants including Natalie Sergeyevna, Countess Brasova, the widow of Grand Duke Michael of Russia...sold 1955...sold 1965 to Barry Hamblin; to son, Bryce Hamblin, who sold 2005 to Anthony Joseph Williams (b. 1950); for sale again 2019.

Hole Park, Rolvenden, Kent

A brick house, probably built for Phillips Gybbon MP (1678-1762), who inherited in 1719. It is a low building of two storeys and nine bays, with the facade stepping forward twice to the centre bay; the central five bays are unusually narrow and closely spaced. Before 1838, Thomas Gybbon Monypenny made large additions comprising wings to either side, tall Tudor-style chimneys, and a gabled extra storey; the identity of his architect is unknown.

Hole Park, Rolvenden: an engraving of 1838, showing the house soon after enlargement, but without the semi-timbering in the gables that was added later in the 19th century.

Hole Park in 1908, with the semi-timbering added by Frank Morrison in place.

Monypenny ran out of funds in the 1840s, and sold the estate in 1849 to the millionaire financier, James Morrison (1789-1857), who gave it to his son, Frank Morrison (1824-1904). Morrison must have been responsible for building the Arts & Crafts style stable and cottage block close to the house, adding the Victorian timber-framing to the gables of the house, and for building the late cottage orné lodge at the end of the drive; once again no architect is known. Morrison died without issue and left the estate to trustees, who sold it in 1911 to Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952), who laid out elaborate gardens around the house in the 1920s. These have been open to the public every year since 1927, and have been further developed by subsequent generations. In 1959, when David Barham decided to live here, he removed the 19th century additions to the house, making it a great deal smaller and more manageable; he also restored the Georgian part of the house and gave it a new hipped roof. 

Hole Park in 2018, after the removal of the 19th century additions in 1959.

Descent: Maj. John Gybbon (d. 1707); to brother, Robert Gybbon (d. 1719); to son, Phillips Gybbon MP (1678-1762); to daughter, Catherine (d. 1775), wife of Philip Jodrell; to her friend, Mary Jefferson (d. 1804), later the wife of John Beardsworth; to Sylvestra Hutton; to nephew, Thomas Gybbon Monypenny (d. 1865); sold 1849 to James Morrison (1789-1857); to son, Frank Morrison (1824-1904)... sold 1911 to Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952); to grandson, David George Wilfrid Barham (b. 1926); to son, Edward George Barham (b. 1962).

Barham family of Snape House and Hole Park

Barham, Robert (1807-88). Youngest son of Robert Barham (1767-1842) of Battle (Sussex), dairy farmer, and his wife Mary (d. 1842), daughter of Richard Mepham of Battle, born 13 July 1807. In the 1820s and 1830s he seems to have worked as a licensed victualler in the city of London, but in about 1830 he also established a retail dairy business at 272 Strand, London. He married, 22 March 1830 at St Edmund King & Martyr, Lombard St., London, Altezeera Henrietta (1812-86), daughter of George Davey, and had issue:
(1) Robert Barham (1830-85), born 14 September and baptised at Shoreditch (Middx), 18 November 1830; an officer in the mercantile marine (mate) and later dairyman; married 28 November 1859 at St. Kilda, Melbourne (Australia), Janet (d. 1881), daughter of Allan Ferguson of Stairdam, Perth (Scotland), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 19 October 1885; will proved 19 November 1885 (effects £53);
(2) Eliza Ann Barham (b. 1832), born 14 July and baptised at St Stephen, Coleman St., London, 7 October 1832; died in infancy;
(3) George Barham (1835-36), baptised at St Dunstan-in-the-West, London, 28 June 1835; died in infancy;
(4) Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt. (q.v.).
He died 10 December 1888; his will was proved 4 May 1889 (effects £7,892). His wife died 5 April 1886.

Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt.

Barham, Sir George (1836-1913), kt. Younger surviving son of Robert Barham (1807-88) and his wife Altazeera Henrietta, daughter of George Davey of Bletchley (Bucks), born 22 November 1836 and baptised at St Dunstan-in-the-West, London, 4 June 1837. As a young man, he was apprenticed to a London cabinet maker, but delivered milk for his parents in the evenings, and in 1858 he founded the Express Dairy Co., which 'saved London from a milk famine' in 1865 when cattle plague was decimating local supplies; he began importing milk by rail from outside London and used a network of local deliverymen to take it to customers. The business grew so rapidly that specialist facilities were established by the railway companies for handling milk in bulk; the large scale of operation also led him to invent standardised metal churns for the transport of milk which were a familiar sight in the countryside until comparatively recently. Barham traded on the purity and cleanliness of his milk and cream and in 1868 opened College Farm, Finsbury as a showplace for his livestock and equipment and a training venue for his staff. By the late 19th century, the firm was much the largest dairy retailer in London, and it was subsequently divided into two firms, each headed by one of his surviving sons: the Dairy Supply Company, which took over the wholesaling business and manufactured dairy machinery, and the retail business, which retained the Express name. For over half a century Sir George endeavoured to raise public awareness of the importance of cleanliness in food processing. He was a member of the Government's Milk Standards Committee from 1900, and supported those working to improve drainage and purify the water supply. He was President of the International Dairy Congress in Copenhagen (Denmark), 1897, and was knighted in 1904. County Councillor for East Sussex, 1904-10; Mayor of Hampstead (Middx), 1905-06; High Sheriff of Middlesex, 1907-08. In 1895 he stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Unionist candidate in the West Islington constituency. He married, 22 June 1859 at Spilsby (Lincs), Margaret (d. 1906), daughter of Jarvis Rainey of Spilsby, and had issue:
(1) George Titus Barham (1860-1937) (q.v.);
(2) Herbert Rainey Barham (1862-78), born 31 December 1862 and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), 12 April 1863; died young in Rome, 28 April 1878;
(3) Ernest Edward Barham (1864-67), born 13 August and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 25 September 1864; died young, 15 April 1867;
(4) Frank Handbury Barham (1866-68), born 27 December 1866 and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 31 March 1867; died in infancy, 26 April and was buried at Nunbury Cemetery, London, 30 April 1868;
(5) Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952) (q.v.).
He lived at Danehurst, Hampstead and Sudbury Lodge, Wembley. In 1885 he purchased Snape House, Wadhurst, which he largely rebuilt between 1893 and 1902.
He died 16 November 1913; his will was proved 1 January 1914 (estate £259,222). His wife died 14 April 1906; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 14 May 1906 (estate £965).

G.T. Barham (1860-1937)

Barham, George Titus (1860-1937). Eldest son of Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt. and his wife Margaret, daughter of Jarvis Rainey of Spilsby (Lincs), born 22 March 1860. Educated at University College School. He succeeded his father as Chairman of the Express Dairy Co. in 1913. He expanded the business greatly, continuing his father's work to make it a leader in hygienic milk production, with a chain of collecting and cooling stations across the country. Through the firm he also owned seven dairy farms, and was a breeder of Guernsey cows and a judge at the chief agricultural shows. In 1884 he was one of the founder members of the Guernsey Cattle Society, and served as its Treasurer until his death; he was also President in 1918 and 1934; he also served as President of the British Kerry Cattle Society, the Dexter Society, the Dairy Trade Protection Society, and, in 1933-34, of the British Dairy Farmers Association. He was a collector in several different fields and had a large private museum in his house at Sudbury Lodge, Wembley, which he presented with its grounds to Wembley Borough Council subject to a life tenancy. He was a Freemason and served as Master of Hampstead Lodge; he was also a keen horseman and reserved some time every morning for riding before going to work. He married, 29 April 1897, Florence Elizabeth (1875-1953), daughter of William Peter Vosper of Plympton (Devon), but had no issue.
He inherited Sudbury Park, Wembley (Middx) and substantially improved the house, which he bequeathed to Wembley Borough Council, with instructions to look after it carefully: after becoming derelict during and after the Second World War they demolished it in 1957. The site is now Barham Park.
He died 8 July 1937; his will was proved 17 September 1937 and 6 January 1938 (estate £523,536). His widow died 1 April 1953; her will was proved 23 May 1953 (estate £16,121).

Barham, Col. Arthur Saxby (1869-1952). Youngest son of Sir George Barham (1836-1913), kt. and his wife Margaret, daughter of Jarvis Rainey of Spilsby (Lincs), born 17 July 1869. Educated at University College School. Managing Director of Dairy Supply Co., which in 1915 amalgamated with other businesses to form United Dairies Ltd; was involved actively in the management of this firm until 1923 and remained a director until his death. Lt-Col. (hon. Col.) of the 19th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, and Col. commanding 12th Battn, London Regiment; served in the First World War, 1914-17; appointed CMG, 1918. JP for Kent from 1922, and a County Councillor and later County Alderman for Kent, 1925-27 and 1938-49; Chairman of the Governors of Cranbrook School. He married 1st, 5 July 1893, Annie Gertrude (1867-1939), daughter of Edward Henry Edwards of Hampstead (Middx) and 2nd, 6 February 1940 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, Anna Marie (c.1887-1941), nurse, daughter of Conrad Schaufelberger of Zurich (Switzerland), and had issue:
(1.1) Capt. Wilfrid Saxby Barham (1894-1915), born 14 November 1894 and baptised at Christ Church, Hampstead, 2 February 1895; educated at Malvern College and Clare College, Cambridge; an officer in 3rd battn, East Kent Regiment (Capt.); died of wounds received in heavy shelling at Ypres, 10 October 1915, and was buried at Poperinghe New Military Cemetery (Belgium); will proved 19 February 1916 (estate £4,361);
(1.2) Harold Arthur Barham (1898-1978) (q.v.).
He purchased Hole Park, Rolvenden in 1911 and laid out elaborate gardens there in the 1920s. He inherited Snape House from his father but leased it out.
He died 16 July 1952; administration of his goods was granted to his son, 17 January 1953 (estate £46,897). His first wife died 1 May 1939 and was buried at Rolvenden; her will was proved September 1939 (estate £2,724). His second wife died 18 August 1941; her will was proved 2 January 1942 (estate £3,612).

Barham, Harold Arthur (1898-1978). Younger but only surviving son of Col. Arthur Saxby Barham (1869-1952) and his first wife, Annie Gertrude, daughter of Edward Henry Edwards of Hampstead (Middx), born 24 May 1898. Educated at Malvern College and Clare College, Cambridge (BA 1920). County Councillor for Kent, 1937. He married 1st, 25 August 1920 at Rolvenden (div. 1934), Edith Dulcie (1900-89), daughter of Lt-Col. Robert James Frederick Taylor CBE, and 2nd, 27 February 1935, Patricia Elizabeth (k/a Peggy) (1906-92), daughter of Capt. Valentine Edmund Garrett of Aldeburgh (Suffk), and had issue:
(1.1) Ruth Dulcie Barham (b. 1921), born 26 July 1921; served in Second World War with WRNS; married, 3 April 1945 at the Church of the Redemption, New Delhi (India), John Litton Skinner (c.1920-2015) of St. John (Jersey), banker and formerly an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt-Cmdr.), son of Lt-Col. Thomas Burrel Skinner, and had issue one son and three daughters;
(1.2) Daphne Margaret Barham (1923-2018), born 16 March 1923; married, 17 September 1949 at Rolvenden, Jeffrey Maurice Browning (1922-2016) of Nut Tree Hall, Plaxtol (Kent), son of (William) Maurice Browning of Olivers Hill, Frankston, Victoria (Australia), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 25 June 2018; will proved 30 January 2019;
(1.3) David George Wilfrid Barham (b. 1926) (q.v.);
(2.1) John Nicholas Barham (1937-55), born 24 July 1937; died as a result of a motor accident, 24 August 1955; administration of goods granted to his father, 8 March 1957 (estate £1,443); an historic windmill at Rolvenden was restored in his memory in 1956;
(2.2) Patricia Barham (b. 1940), born 5 March 1940; married, 11 June 1960, David Talbot Henry Davenport, elder son of Ormus Neville Talbot Davenport and had issue one son and two daughters;
(2.3) Elizabeth Ann Barham (b. 1943), born 17 July 1943; married, 8 July 1967, John Hurley Marshall (1934-94) of Little Mynthurst Farm, Norwood Hill (Surrey), twin son of J.H. Marshall of Brockenhurst (Hants), but had no issue.
He lived at Under Ridge, Bourne End (Bucks) and later at The Mint House, Rye (Sussex) and Lansdell House, Rolvenden. 
He died 17 May 1978; his will was proved 8 August 1978 (estate £508,963). His first wife married second, 1941, Eustace Kingsmill Brown (1880-1974) and died 4 April 1989; her will was proved 18 July 1989 (estate £83,349). His widow died 9 April 1992; her will was proved 20 November 1992 (estate £772,361).

Barham, David George Wilfrid (b. 1926). Only son of Harold Arthur Barham (1898-1978) and his first wife, Edith Dulcie, daughter of Lt-Col. Robert James Frederick Taylor CBE, born 6 October 1926. Educated at Malvern College. He was an officer in the Royal Horse Guards (2nd Lt., 1946). JP (from 1961) for Kent and County Councillor for Kent, 1959-70; High Sheriff of Kent, 1974-75. He married, 28 October 1955, (Catherine) Margaret (b. 1936), daughter of Lt.-Col. Rixon Bucknall MBE of Mayfield (Sussex), and had issue:
(1) Jennifer Catherine Barham (b. 1957), born 8 January 1957; married 1st, 1977 (div. 1986), Simon Francis Mann (b. 1952), son of Maj. Francis George Mann, and had issue two sons and one daughter; married 2nd, 1986, Richard Douglas Schuster (b. 1953) of The Grange, Over Worton (Oxon), adopted son of Maj. John Schuster, but had no further issue;
(2) William David Charles Barham (b. 1958), born 30 March 1958; insurance broker and company director; married, February 1993, Zena (b. 1953), daughter of Cmdr. Peter Barton RN of Monks Eleigh (Suffk) and formerly wife of James T. Pearson, but had no issue;
(3) Edward George Barham (b. 1962) (q.v.);
(4) Robert Saxby Barham (b. 1965), born 22 February 1965; solicitor (admitted 1990), in practice in London; married, October 1993, Louise M., daughter of George Carter of the Old Rectory, Elmley Lovett (Worcs), and had issue three daughters.
He inherited Snape House and Hole Park from his grandfather in 1952. He sold Snape House in 1955 and invested the proceeds in remodelling Hole Park in 1959. He handed on Hole Park to his second son in 2003.
Now living. His wife's date of death is unknown. 

Barham, Edward George (b. 1962). Second son of David George Wilfrid Barham (b. 1926) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Lt-Col. Rixon Bucknall MBE of Mayfield (Sussex), born 27 November 1962. Farmer and forester. An officer in the Territorial Army (2nd Lt., 1986). Director of Hole Park Developments Ltd. since 2006. Chairman of the Historic Houses Association (SE Region). He married, 27 October 1990 at Bowness-on-Windermere (Westmld), Clare Catherine (b. 1966), daughter of Oliver Turnbull of Cleabarrow, Windermere, and had issue:
(1) Emily Catherine Barham (b. 1993), born 3 March 1993; married, 23 March 2019 at Rolvenden, Max James Hilton Bigley, son of Robert Hilton Bigley of Whixley (Yorks NR);
(2) George Wilfrid Barham (b. 1994), born December 1994; educated at Stowe School and Exeter University (BSc 2017);
(3) Helena Jane Barham (b. 1997), born 31 May 1997.
He took over the management of the Hole Park estate from his father in 2003.
Now living.

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1972, pp. 42-43; ; Wadhurst History Society newsletter, no. 2, March 2004; J. Newman, The buildings of England: Kent - West and the Weald, 3rd edn., 2012, p. 508; N. Antram & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Sussex - East, with Brighton & Hove, 2013, p. 650;

Location of archives

Barham family of Snape House and Hole Park: no significant archive is known, but it is likely that papers remain with the family at Hole Park.
Express Dairy Ltd: minutes and papers relating to the early history of the company, 1880-1953 [Museum of English Rural Life, Reading University: TR EXP 5]

Coat of arms

Argent, on a fesse gules between three bears passant sable, muzzled gules, a fleur-de-lys between two martlets, all gules.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide additional information about the 20th and 21st century ownership of Snape House?
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 26 April 2019 and updated 27 April 2019 and 24 May 2022. I am grateful to Dr Andrew Macdonald-Brown for a correction.

(372) Bargrave of Bifrons Place and Eastry Court

Bargrave of Bifrons and Eastry

The family of Bargrave (or Bargar as it often appears in the earlier records) were yeomen at various places in east Kent in the 16th century. One of them, Robert Bargar (d. 1600) of Bridge, was also a tanner, and became sufficiently prosperous to send several of his sons to university or the inns of court, thus beginning their transition to gentry status. His eldest son, John Bargrave (1571-1624), entered the army in the service of the Earl of Essex, and is said to have taken part in his campaigns against the Spanish, perhaps including the capture of Cadiz in 1596. Soon afterwards, he seems to have abandoned the military life, perhaps as a result of his marriage early in 1597 to the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy London haberdasher. She brought him a large dowry, which he invested in expanding the estate at Bridge and Patrixbourne that he inherited from his father in 1600, and in building a new mansion there, which he called Bifrons Place (and which must be distinguished from Bifrons at Barking (Essex)). The unusual name of the house evidently reflected the fact that the two facades of the house were of very different character, although only the appearance of the garden side of the house seems to be recorded. When the Virginia Company was founded in 1606, John Bargrave seems to have borrowed money to buy a stake in the colony, and in 1618 he established a settlement on his lands there. His brothers George Bargrave (c.1578-c.1630) and Rev. Thomas Bargrave (1581-1621) also emigrated to Virginia. John soon became embroiled in a dispute with his neighbour on the James River, John Martin, over the ownership of cattle, and this escalated into a row about the governance of the colony. He found he needed to be in Virginia to manage his lands and develop them into a successful enterprise, and to be in England to carry on his legal battle with the Virginia Company; but he could not be in two places at once and in the end both his legal affairs and his settlement failed. Bifrons seems to have been shut up or let, and by the time of his death he was acutely short of money and forced to sell his American interests; his two brothers both died in Virginia.

In the next generation, John's two surviving sons, Robert Bargrave (1600-58) and the Rev. John Bargrave (1610-80), were prominent supporters of the Royalist cause. Robert, who was a naval officer in the 1620s and 1630s, took an active part in the Royalist Kentish rebellion of 1648, and went to Holland to recruit mercenaries for the cause. When the rebellion was crushed, he had to flee to the continent and his estate was sequestrated, although he was allowed to return after the execution of King Charles I in 1649. In 1651 he eventually negotiated the return of his estate in return for a fine of £350,  but on top of the debts he had inherited from his father or incurred elsewhere, this was more than the estate could sustain, and after his death, his son, John Bargrave (1637-68) was obliged to sell Bifrons to Sir Arthur Slingsby in 1661 or 1662. He seems to have then gone abroad, or (according to one account) to Colchester in Essex. His brother, John Bargrave (1610-80) became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1637, but was deprived of his fellowship in 1644 because of his Royalist views. Soon afterwards he went abroad, and between 1645 and 1660 he travelled in France, Italy, Germany and the Low Countries, eeking out a living by acting as bear-leader to young men sent abroad to acquire some knowledge of the world and more polished manners on what would come to be known as the Grand Tour. During his travels he kept a diary, part of which survives, and formed a collection of prints and antiquities, and he is believed to have been the chief author of one of the first guides for tourists, published in 1648 under the name of his nephew, John Raymond, who had been one of his charges the previous year. When news of the Restoration of the Monarchy reached him in 1660 he raced home and recovered his Fellowship, and shortly afterwards he was ordained. In 1662 he successfully petitioned Charles II for appointment to a canonry at Canterbury Cathedral, pointing out the extent of the hardships he and his family had endured for their support of the Royalist cause, and in 1665 he married a rich widow, so that he ended his days in some comfort, living in one of the canonry houses at Canterbury. His last, most dangerous and most romantic assignment for his monarch came in 1662-63, when he was appointed to take £10,000 raised by public subscription to Algiers and to negotiate the ransom from slavery of British subjects captured by Barbary pirates, a mission which he successfully accomplished. It was clearly his proudest achievement: when he died, the shackle of one of the prisoners he had freed was hung above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.

The youngest son of Robert Bargrave (d. 1600), yeoman and tanner of Bridge, was Isaac Bargrave (1587-1643), who was sent to Cambridge in about 1603 and pursued the conventional academic path to a clerical career; he was ordained in 1611. However there are indications that he was an able man with wider interests. In particular, in 1615 he was one of the performers who put on George Ruggle's Latin comedy, Ignoramus, in Cambridge before King James I, and soon afterwards he became chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton while the latter was Ambassador in Venice. Wotton, who was a seasoned traveller and diplomat and is said to have coined the double entendre that "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country", sent him home in 1618 with a recommendation to King James I. Clearly identified as a 'rising star', in 1618 he married into the Dering family, who were among the leading Kentish gentry, and bought a lease of a Canterbury Cathedral estate at Eastry Court (Kent). In 1622 King James appointed him as vicar of St Margaret, Westminster, chaplain to Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles I), and to a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral. And when Dean John Boys (who was his brother-in-law) died in 1625, he succeeded him as Dean of Canterbury. The years 1622-25 marked the apogee of his career, when it said that he had the ear of both the king and parliament, but after he left Westminster and moved to Canterbury his influence waned. In 1627 he preached a sermon strongly in support of Charles I's right to raise taxes without parliamentary approval, which annoyed the parliamentarian party, and he became embroiled in petty squabbles with the Archbishop of Canterbury, his fellow canons, and the diocesan registrar at Canterbury. He remained a firm, vocal supporter of the king, and was the target of attacks in Parliament from the late 1630s. When the King raised his standard at the start of the Civil War and sent out a Commission of Array for the raising of armed forces in each county it was Bargrave who hosted a meeting of the Kentish justices to decide how to proceed. Just a few weeks later, however, his house in Canterbury was seized by a parliamentarian commander, and he himself was arrested and thrown into the Fleet prison. Although he was released without charge three weeks' later, his health was broken, and he died in January 1643.

Dean Bargrave's widow lived on until 1667, and probably remained the chatelaine of Eastry Court until her death. By then, the lease was in the hands of her grandson, Charles Bargrave (1651-1713), who pulled down part of the house in 1675 and added a new wing. Through his marriage in 1676, he acquired a manor at Charing (Kent), but Eastry seems to have remained his main home. At his death Eastry passed to his son, Isaac Bargrave (1680-1727), who pulled down more of the house and built a regular new front which survives today. His only son, Isaac Bargrave (1721-1800), was a bachelor, who having no family left the estate to his niece, Christian (1751-1806), and her husband Robert Tournay (c.1757-1825), who took the name Tournay-Bargrave. They also had no sons, and Eastry Court passed to their elder daughter, Christian (1782-1858) and her husband William Bridger (d. 1855). They left four daughters as co-heirs, and after Christian's death the lease was sold away from the family.

The story of one more member of the family must be explored further. This was the Dean's younger son, Robert Bargrave (1628-61), who seems to have inherited both his father's interest in the theatre and his cousin John's love of travel. He went very early to Grays Inn and Cambridge, but after the outbreak of the Civil War was moved to Oxford, which was a more comfortable berth for those of a Royalist persuasion. In 1647 he left England, perhaps largely for political reasons, and accompanied Sir Thomas Bendish to Constantinople, where Bendish had been appointed ambassador to the Porte. He then became established in business as a merchant, trading with the Levant and around the Mediterranean. Like his cousin John (with whom he spent several weeks in Italy in 1647), he kept a diary of his travels which conveys the flavour of the life of an Englishman abroad at this time. It also reveals his continuing interest in drama, for it contains the text, musical setting and dance notation for a masque of his devising, as well as a good deal of poetry. In 1656, Robert returned to England and became secretary to Lord Winchilsea, and when the Earl was appointed ambassador to Constantinople he accompanied him on his journey in order to take up the post of Secretary of the Levant Company in Constantinople. However, he died of a fever at Smyrna (now Izmir) early in 1661, and was thus deprived of the possibility of the sort of comfortable old age his older cousin John enjoyed.

Bifrons Place, Patrixbourne, Kent

Bifrons Place at Patrixbourne in Kent was not, in origin, the seat of one of the manors of Patrixbourne, but was built in 1607-11 for John Bargrave, the majority of whose lands lay in the neighbouring parish of Bridge. We would probably know rather little about the house he built were it not for the happy survival of a birds-eye view of the estate painted in about 1700, perhaps by Jan van der Vaardt (1647-1721) (but previously attributed to Jan Wyck, John Wootton and Jan Siberechts), which is now in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art. 

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: the red brick house built for John Bargrave in 1607-11. Image: Yale Centre for British Art.

The unusual name of the house is said to mean 'two fronts', and although it could be argued that most country houses have at least two fronts, here it was perhaps coined because the two fronts were so different (there was another house in Essex with the same name). The painting shows the garden side of the red brick house, but it gives some hints about the entrance side.

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: detail of the birds-eye view above.

A late 19th century copy of an earlier drawing of the entrance front surfaced at auction in 2022. This side was more formally composed, with a five-bay centre flanked by a pair of ogee-capped towers and long projecting wings beyond them. The right-hand wing evidently contained the family accommodation and was rather more richly treated; the service accommodation was in the left-hand wing. The five bay centre had an elaborate stone doorcase, and the centre and the ends of the wings had elaborately shaped gables. On the garden side the main block was of three storeys, with the middle level being apparently a lower mezzanine of a rather curious kind. From this projected a central porch and two long wings composed of an open arcade on the ground floor with enclosed roofs above. The view also shows the side elevation of the building, where oriel windows on the first floor hint at richly decorated chambers within. It is clear that even if Bifrons was smaller than the great contemporary courtyard prodigy houses like Audley End, it was generously conceived and expensively finished. It was also complemented by a formal compartmented garden with statuary and a gazebo. 

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: a watercolour of the entrance front, copied in about 1880 from an earlier view by [forename unknown] Harcourt.
This view was offered for sale in 2022, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

John Bargrave's grandson sold the house in 1662 and it changed hands several times before being bought in 1694 by John Taylor (d. 1729), the son of a successful barrister who descended from a gentry family in Shropshire. It was very probably Taylor who commissioned the bird's eye view painting of the house. His grandson, the Rev. Edward Taylor (d. 1798), who inherited in 1770, rebuilt the Jacobean house, nearly on the same site, as a rather plain neo-classical two storey block of nine bays by three. The entrance front had a three bay pediment, and rusticated quoins defining the centre and angles. On the garden side, the two storeys were treated as a piano nobile and an attic; there was no stressed centre or pediment, but all the windows had architraves and those on the ground floor had pediments as well.

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: entrance front in the early 20th century.

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: the garden front as remodelled for the 2nd Marquess Conyngham. Image: Historic England.

Taylor was succeeded by his son, Edward Taylor (1774-1843), who was at one time the object of Jane Austen's affections, but in 1802 he married Louisa Beckenham, whose father was owner of the neighbouring estate of Bourne Park. For reasons which are unclear, they were perpetually short of money (having 12 children probably didn't help) and were forced to give Bifrons up from time to time and live more cheaply elsewhere, including stints on the continent and in a smaller house at Long Ditton in Surrey. Their tenants included (in 1828), Lady Byron and her daughter, the mathematician Ada Lovelace. In 1830 the Taylors sold Bifrons outright to Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham (1766-1832), reputedly for £100,000. The 2nd Marquess (1797-1876) made Bifrons his main English seat, and in the 1860s he undertook a remodelling, which added a new porch, the rather extraordinary miniature conservatory in the centre of the garden front, and possibly some other decorative details like the balustraded parapet, although this could have been part of the original design. The interiors were apparently more extensively altered, but I have not managed to find any internal photographs.

Bifrons, Patrixbourne: cottage ornee lodge. Image: Historic England

From 1882 onwards the house was let, with tenants including the cricketer Frank Penn (1851-1916), and at the outbreak of the Second World War it was taken over for military purposes. The mangled remains that were handed back to the family in 1945 were demolished soon afterwards, and nothing remains on the site today except for one rather charming cottage ornée lodge, probably built by Edward and Louisa Taylor in the first years of their marriage, soon after 1800, and some of the planting in the grounds. 

Descent: built 1607-11 for John Bargrave (1571-1624); to son, Robert Bargrave (1600-58); to son, John Bargrave (1637-68), who sold 1661/2 to Sir Arthur Slingsby (1623-66), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Charles Slingsby (d. after 1677), 2nd bt.; sold 1677 to Thomas Baker of London; to William Whotton of London, who sold 1680 to Thomas Adrian; sold 1694 to John Taylor (d. 1729); to son, Dr. Brook Taylor (d. 1731); to brother, Rev. Herbert Taylor (d. 1763); to son, Herbert Taylor (d. 1770); to brother, Rev. Edward Taylor (d. 1798), who rebuilt the house; to son, Edward Taylor (1774-1843); sold 1830 to Henry Conyngham (1766-1832), 1st Marquess Conyngham; to on, Francis Nathaniel Conyngham (1797-1876), 2nd Marquess Conyngham; to son, George Henry Conyngham (1825-82), 3rd Marquess Conyngham; to son, Henry Francis Conyngham (1857-97), 4th Marquess Conyngham; to son, Victor George Henry Francis Conyngham (1883-1918), 5th Marquess Conyngham; to brother, Frederick William Burton Conyngham (1890-1974), 6th Marquess Conyngham, who demolished it in 1948. The house was let after 1882 and occupied by the military, 1939-45.

Eastry Court, Kent

Eastry Court: the early 18th century entrance front hides a much earlier building behind.

The house now has the appearance of a long low ten-bay two-storey brick house with a hipped roof, but this masks an extremely complex story that is not fully understood. The manor belonged in Saxon times to the kings of Kent, who gave it to the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury. The cellars below the house contain some coursed rubble walls once thought to be a survival from a Saxon royal palace, and although this is no longer accepted, the house may well stand on the palace site. A thatched hall house existed here in 1294-95 and was then pulled down and replaced by a timber-framed aisled hall with a tiled roof and a chamber at one end. A new kitchen was built in 1314-15, the upper end of the hall was reinforced in 1318-19, and more radical repairs were carried out in 1330-31, when stone walls were added. Parts of this walling may remain at the rear, where there are flint walls.

At some point, probably in the 14th century, a timber-framed cross wing was added at the lower (north) end of the hall. If, as seems likely, the chamber that formed part of the original building phase lay at the upper (south) end of the hall, the addition of a wing at the north end would have made this quite a substantial house. An 18th century engraving of unknown date shows a brick range with a steeply-pitched roof south of the present house, which could be the former upper-end wing, but this was demolished before the age of photography. In the early 16th century a further small extension was made at the east end of the low-end wing, the purpose of which is unknown, although it had a crown post roof, suggesting fairly high status. It is possible that this was the chapel, recorded as being on the east side of the house, and to have been made into a kitchen after the original kitchen was demolished in 1675; in 1800 the east window, though blocked, was still visible but it has gone since, and this range now shows evidence of truncation. Later in the 16th century, the hall range was updated: a chimney was built within it, a screen was erected to divide the hall from the entrance passage, and a floor was inserted in the hall to provide an upper chamber. In the early 19th century the initials T A N (for Thomas and Anne Nevinson, tenants at the end of the 16th century) could be seen picked out in the brickwork of the house, but these had disappeared by 1870.

Eastry Court: showing the house in relation to the parish church and village pond.

From the early 17th century, the house and its demesne lands were leased by Canterbury Cathedral to the Bargrave family, who extended the lower-end wing to the north by a three-storey block, and later infilled the space between this and the early 16th century addition. Despite all these changes, it is thought that the medieval origin of the house as an aisled hall would still have been quite apparent until, in the early 18th century, most of the hall was demolished for Isaac Bargrave (d. 1727) and a new brick structure was erected on its footprint, reputedly in 1723. At the same time, the top storey of the 17th century block was removed, and the house was given a new brick facade with sash windows and a low-pitched roof. A pine panelled room with raised and fielded panelling, dado rails and a moulded cornice is presumably of the same date. In the mid 18th century, the house is recorded to have been divided into two tenements, 'each with its own hall', but this arrangement came to an end in 1782, and in 1786 Isaac Bargrave (d. 1800) "pulled down a considerable part of the antient building, consisting of stone walls of great strength and thickness, bringing to view some gothic arched door ways of stone, which proved the house to have been of such construction formerly, and to have been a very antient building". It seems likely that this demolition involved the removal of the upper-end wing of the house which is shown in an 18th century engraving.

Descent: Canterbury Cathedral leased to Thomas and Anne Nevinson (d. 1594) and later to Very Rev. Isaac Bargrave (1587-1643); to son, Thomas Bargrave (1620-54); to son, Charles Bargrave (1651-1713); to son, Isaac Bargrave (1680-1727); to son, Isaac Bargrave (1721-1800); to niece, Christian Clare (1751-1806), wife of Robert Tourney (later Tourney-Bargrave) (d. 1825); to daughter, Christian (1782-1858), wife of William Bridger (c.1774-1855); sold c.1859 to George Gardener (d. 1900); sold to George Gunson; sold 1925 to Capt. Tordiffe... the Ecclesiastical Commissioners gained possession c.1940 and sold the house in 1946 to F.H. Shoobridge, who divided it into five flats...it was later reconverted into a single residence... sold 1981 to Marion Gear (fl. 1996)..sold before 2006 to David Anthony Freud (b. 1950), Baron Freud.

Bargrave family of Bifrons

Bargrave, Robert (d. 1600). Son of John Bargrave of Bridge (Kent) and his wife Alice Kennard, who was later the wife of John Lukyn of Fordwich. Yeoman and tanner. He married, 1568, Joanna (d. 1598), daughter of John Gilbert of Sandwich, and had issue:
(1) John Bargrave (1571-1624) (q.v.);
(2) Anne Bargrave (c.1573-1615), born about 1573; married, 2 November 1592 at Patrixbourne, Robert Naylor (d. 1618), but may have had no issue; buried at Patrixbourne, 25 April 1615;
(3) Alice Bargrave (c.1575-1640), born about 1575; married, 11 January 1596/7 at Nonington (Kent), Robert Turnlie alias Tourner; buried at Speldhurst (Kent), 1 November 1640;
(4) Angela Bargrave (c.1577-1645), born about 1577; married, 4 October 1604 at Patrixbourne, Very Rev. John Boys (1571-1625), rector of Betteshanger (Kent) and Dean of Canterbury, son of Thomas Boys of Eythorne and Barston (Kent), but had no issue; buried in Canterbury Cathedral, 13 November 1645;
(5) George Bargrave (c.1578-c.1630), born before 1579; a sea captain employed in the trade between England, Bermuda and Virginia, who reputedly brought the first slaves to Bermuda from Africa to dive for pearls, although when this venture failed they were put to work planting and harvesting the first large crops of tobacco and sugar cane; in 1619 he settled land on the lower James River; married, 20 July 1615 at St Gregory by St Paul, London, Dorcas (who m2, Robert Adney of Hawkinge), daughter of Capt. John Martin, one of the earliest settlers on the James River, and had issue one daughter; he probably died in Virginia sometime after 1625;
(6) Isaac Bargrave (b. & d. 1580), baptised at Bridge, 12 June 1580; died in infancy and was buried at Bridge, 2 December 1580;
(7) Rev. Thomas Bargrave (1581-1621), baptised at Bridge, 2 January 1581/2; educated at Clare College, Cambridge (matriculated c.1596; BA 1599/1600; MA 1603; BD 1610; DD 1621); rector of Sevington (Kent), 1615-21, but went to Virginia in 1619 and settled as a minister at Henrico; died at Henrico, Virginia, 1621, and bequeathed his library to the newly-established college at Henrico (which closed in 1624);
(8) Richard Bargrave (b. 1583), baptised at Bridge, 21 December 1583; married, 15 September 1608 at Westbere (Kent), Alice Tournay, and had issue two daughters;
(9) Robert Bargrave (1585-1650), baptised at Bridge, 8 February 1584/5; married, 13 February 1614 at Hollingbourne (Kent), Frances (d. 1635??), daughter of [forename unknown] Ballard of Brenchley (Kent) and widow of Richard Wood of Hollingbourne; buried 24 January 1649/50 at Bridge, where he is commemorated by a portrait in the chancel;
(10) Very Rev. Isaac Bargrave (1587-1643) [for whom see below, Bargrave family of Eastry Court].
He inherited a freehold farm at Bridge (Kent) from his father.
He was buried at Patrixbourne, 14 January 1599/1600. His wife died in 1598.

Bargrave, John (1571-1624). Eldest son of Robert Bargrave (d. 1600) of Bridge (Kent) and his wife Joanna, daughter of John Gilbert of Sandwich, born at Bridge, 13 September 1571. Admitted to Lincoln's Inn (special admission), 7 November 1590. He was an officer in the Earl of Essex's regiment in wars against Spain during the 1590s, and in the 1610s became an investor in the Virginia Company (founded in 1606); he later claimed to be 'the first person who established a private plantation in Virginia' in about 1618, and to have a patent of free trade from the company; a claim which led to a lengthy and acrimonious dispute with Sir Thomas Smythe about the government of Virginia; in the end he lost heavily on his adventures in the colony and was obliged to sell his property there. In 1611 he obtained a grant of arms from William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms. He married, 13 February 1597 at St Mary Woolchurch, London, a wealthy heiress, Jane (1574-1638), daughter and co-heir of Giles Crouch, citizen and haberdasher of London, and had issue:
(1) Giles Bargrave (b. & d. 1598), baptised at Patrixbourne, 3 November 1598 but died in infancy and was buried there 8 November 1598;
(2) Robert Bargrave (1600-58) (q.v.);
(3) Joan Bargrave (b. 1603), baptised at Patrixbourne, 3 May 1603; married 1st, 20 January 1627/8, Ven. Thomas Rayment alias Raymond (d. 1631), archdeacon of St. Albans, and had issue two sons; married 2nd, Mr. Hussey;
(4) Jane Bargrave (b. 1605), baptised at Patrixbourne, 7 April 1605; married, 1626, Rev. Lewis (or Ludovic) Wemyss (1608-59), sometime vicar of Gedney (Lincs) and rector of Finmere (Oxon) and prebendary of Westminster, probably fifth son of Sir James Wemyss of Bogie, and had issue;
(5) Rev. John Bargrave (1610-80), baptised at Nonington, 18 November 1610; educated at King's School, Canterbury and Peterhouse, Cambridge (matriculated 1629; BA 1633; MA 1636; DD 1660); Fellow of Peterhouse 1637-44 (ejected for his Royalist sympathies) and 1660-63 ; travelled in France, Italy, Germany and the Low Counties, 1645-60, sometimes acting as tutor to young gentlemen from Kent, and collecting small antiquities and momentoes of his travels; his diary and part of his collection are preserved at Canterbury Cathedral; he also played a major (and perhaps predominant) role in the compilation of the most famous English guidebook to Italy of the Civil War period, An Itinerary Contayning a Voyage Made Through Italy, in the Yeare 1646, and 1647, published under the name of his nephew, John Raymond in 1648; ordained, 1660; rector of Harbledown (Kent), 1661-70 and Pluckley (Kent), 1662-76; prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral, 1662-80; in 1662-63 he made his last journey abroad, at the request of King Charles II, taking £10,000 raised by public subscription, to ransom British subjects captured by Barbary pirates and held as slaves at Algiers; he married, 26 March 1665, a rich widow, Frances (1617-86), daughter of Sir John Wild and widow of Thomas Osborne of Nackington, and had issue one son; died 11 May 1680 and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral;
(6) Sarah Bargrave (b. c.1613), born about 1613; married, 1635 (licence 10 June), Partridge Rigdon of Gedney (Lincs);
(7) Anne Bargrave (b. 1614), baptised at Patrixbourne, 1 November 1614; died in infancy;
(8) Hester Bargrave (b. 1617), baptised at Patrixbourne, 20 July 1617.
He inherited an estate at Bridge and Patrixbourne from his father. He enlarged the estate and built Bifrons Place in 1607-11, developments which were made possible by his wife's large dowry.
He was buried at Patrixbourne, 24 October 1624, where he is commemorated by a monument erected by his grandson in 1663. His widow was buried at Patrixbourne, 18 December 1638.

Bargrave, Robert (1600-58). Eldest surviving son of John Bargrave (1571-1624) and his wife Jane, daughter and co-heir of Giles Crouche of London, baptised at Patrixbourne, 23 November 1600. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1618). In the 1620s and 1630s he was an officer in the Royal Navy and involved in ferrying troops to France for the disastrous Ile de Ré expedition. JP for Kent by 1641. He was an active supporter of the Kentish Rebellion of 1648, and travelled to Holland with Sir Henry Palmer to secure Dutch support, returning with 1500 soldiers; after the collapse of the insurrection he fled abroad and had to seek the permission of Parliament to return in 1649; his estates were sequestered and in 1651 he paid a fine of £350 to recover them. He married, 13 April 1635 at Canterbury Cathedral, Elizabeth (1617-72), daughter of Sir Samuel Peyton, 1st bt., and had issue:
(1) John Bargrave (1637-68) (q.v.);
(2) Robert Bargrave (1638-69), baptised at Patrixbourne, 14 September 1638; a proctor in Doctor's Commons; died in 1668 or 1669;
(3) Thomas Bargrave (1639-41); baptised at Patrixbourne, 3 September 1639; died in infancy and was buried at Patrixbourne, 28 May 1641;
(4) James Bargrave (1640-62), baptised at Patrixbourne, 15 December 1640; died unmarried; will proved 6 August 1662;
(5) Elizabeth Bargrave (1642-1703), baptised at Patrixbourne, 4 July 1642; married, 22 May 1684 at Otterden (Kent), John Fullager (d. 1715?) of Langley, but had no issue; buried at Patrixbourne, 6 January 1703;
(6) Thomas Bargrave (b. 1643), baptised at Patrixbourne, 20 October 1643; probably died young;
(7) Samuel Bargrave (b. 1646), baptised at Patrixbourne, 31 March 1646; probably died young;
(8) Isaac Bargrave (1648-79?), baptised at Patrixbourne, 30 April 1648; living in 1669; possibly the man of this name buried at Guildford (Surrey), 24 December 1679;
(9) Mary Bargrave (1650-53), baptised at Patrixbourne, 5 May 1650; died young and was buried at Patrixbourne, 28 December 1653;
(10) Jane Bargrave (1651-68), baptised at Patrixbourne, 17 June 1651; died unmarried and without issue and was buried at Patrixbourne, 20 November 1668.
He inherited the Bifrons estate from his father in 1624.
He was buried at Patrixbourne, 13 October 1658. His wife died in 1672.

Bargrave, John (1637-68). Elder son of Robert Bargrave (1600-58) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Samuel Peyton, bt., baptised at Patrixbourne, 11 July 1637. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1654). He was unmarried, and was without issue.
He inherited the Bifrons estate from his father in 1658, but sold it to Sir Arthur Slingsby in 1662. He may have subsequently lived abroad or at Colchester (Essex).
His date of death is unknown, but administration of his goods was granted to his brother Robert, 23 July 1668, and after the latter's death to his brother Isaac, 5 August 1669.

Bargrave family of Eastry Court

Very Rev. Isaac Bargrave 

Bargrave, Very Rev. Isaac (1587-1643). Sixth son of Robert Bargrave (d. 1600) of Bridge [for whom see above], and his wife Joanna, daughter of John Gilbert of Sandwich (Kent), baptised at Patrixbourne, 20 December 1587. Educated at Pembroke College (BA 1607), Clare College, Cambridge (MA 1610; DD 1622) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1622). In 1612 he filled the office of junior taxor in Cambridge (a University post charged with supervising matters relating to trade in the town of Cambridge). Ordained deacon and priest, 1611; rector of Eythorne (Kent), 1612-43 and Chartham (Kent), 1628-43, but retained his Cambridge connections and performed at the university in George Ruggle's Latin comedy, Ignoramus, before James I on 8 March 1615; chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton while the latter was ambassador to Venice, 1616-18; he returned to England with Wotton's recommendation to the King, and was appointed rector of St Margaret, Westminster and prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral, 1622-25 and chaplain to Charles, Prince of Wales (later Charles I). In 1625, he succeeded his brother-in-law, John Boys, as Dean of Canterbury, a post he held until his death. In his sermons at Westminster, Bargrave struck a robustly independent line, seeking to position the Church of England as a middle way between extremes, which succeeded in satisfying neither the Puritans on the one hand nor his Archbishop, William Laud, on the other. Within the cathedral close, Bargrave engaged in disputes with both Laud and the cathedral clergy and diocesan registrar, and he stirred up further trouble by claiming precedence over the deans of London and Westminster. His unpopularity extended to Parliament, where he was attacked verbally and he was one of the targets of a 1641 bill to abolish deans and chapters, which he exerted himself to oppose successfully. On the outbreak of the Civil War, Bargrave hosted a meeting of gentry to put into effect Charles I's Commission of Array, but within a few weeks his deanery had been occupied by Parliamentarian forces commanded by Col. Edwin Sandys, and his wife and children were roughly treated; he himself was absent but he was arrested at Gravesend and imprisoned in the Fleet prison for three weeks. After being released without charge, he returned to Canterbury, but his health had been broken, and he died soon afterwards. He married, 1 October 1618 at Boughton Malherbe (Kent), Elizabeth (1593-1667), daughter of Sir John Dering, kt., of Pluckley (Kent), and had issue:
(1) Thomas Bargrave (1620-54) (q.v.);
(2) Anne Bargrave (1621-1701), baptised at Eythorne, 12 April 1621; married 1st, 27 December 1636 at Canterbury Cathedral, Rev. Thomas Coppin (d. 1639); married 2nd, 22 October 1640 at Eythorne, Sir Henry Palmer (d. 1659) of Howletts, Bekesbourne and later of Covent Garden, Westminster (Middx), an active supporter of the Kentish Rebellion of 1648, and had issue three daughters; married 3rd, 1669 (licence 15 November) in the chapel of Grays Inn, as his second wife, Sir Philip Palmer (1615-83), kt. of Dorney Court (Bucks), cupbearer to King Charles II; buried at Wingham (Kent), 29 July 1701;
(3) Edward Bargrave (c.1622-24), baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 16 January 1622/3; died in infancy and was buried at St Margaret, Westminster, 8 April 1624;
(4) John Bargrave (1624-25), baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 8 February 1623/4; died in infancy and was buried at Canterbury Cathedral, 25 July 1625;
(5) Isaac Bargrave (b. & d. 1626), baptised at Canterbury Cathedral, 17 November 1626, but died and was buried there the following day;
(6) Robert Bargrave (1628-61), born 25 March and baptised at Canterbury Cathedral, 30 March 1628; educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1640 at an unusually early age, perhaps so that he could witness the dramatic entertainments there), Clare College, Cambridge (admitted 1642) and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1643); in 1647 he left England (perhaps primarily for political reasons) with the embassy to Turkey of Sir Thomas Bendish, and established himself as a merchant trading with the Levant and Mediterranean ports, 1647-56; he kept a diary (now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) of his travels by sea and over land, interspersed with his own poetry and the text of a masque complete with a musical setting and dance steps; personal secretary to Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchilsea, 1656-60, and on the Earl being appointed ambassador to Constantinople, he was appointed as Secretary to the Levant Company in Constantinople, 1660-61, but died en route to his posting; married, c.1653, Elizabeth (1632-1703), daughter and heiress of Robert Turner of Canterbury (Kent) and had issue two sons (who died young) and two daughters; died and was buried at Smyrna, between 7 January and 9 February 1661;
(7) Mary Bargrave (1629-86), baptised at Canterbury Cathedral, 31 May 1629; married, 5 March 1651, John Smythe (1615-93) of Lested Lodge, Chart Sutton (Kent), and had issue four sons and seven daughters (many of whom died young); buried at Chart Sutton, 3 February 1685/6;
(8) Jane Bargrave (b. & d. 1630), baptised at Eythorne, 4 June 1630; died in infancy and was buried at Canterbury Cathedral, 23 July 1630;
(9) Hester Bargrave (b. 1632), baptised at Canterbury Cathedral, 23 December 1632; married 1st, 7 May 1662 at St Bartholomew-the-Less, London, Francis Nowers (1631-70), herald painter, who died in a fire at his house in London, and had issue one son and three daughters (two of the children also died in the fire); married 2nd, 5 February 1680/1 at Canterbury Cathedral, Francis Turner of London; date of death not found;
(10) Elizabeth Bargrave (b. 1635), baptised at Canterbury Cathedral, 11 March 1634/5; married Edward Wilsford (perhaps the man of this name who was vicar of Lydd);
(11) Henry Bargrave (1636-37), baptised at home, 28 December 1636; died in infancy and was buried at Canterbury Cathedral, 8 January 1636/7.
He lived at Eythorne (Kent) until he purchased a lease of Eastry Court from the Dean & Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral in c.1618.
He was buried in the Dean's Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral, 25 January 1642/3, where a monument was erected by his nephew in 1679. His widow was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, 29 June 1667.

Bargrave, Thomas (1620-54). Eldest son of Very Rev. Isaac Bargrave (1587-1643) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Dering, baptised at Patrixbourne, 7 May 1620. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1638). He married, 5 August 1647 at St Bartholomew-the-Less, London, Honora Estcott (c.1626-82), and had issue:

(1) Charles Bargrave (1651-1713) (q.v.);
(2) Thomas Bargrave (b. 1654), baptised at Eastry, 24 March 1653/4.
He inherited Eastry Court from his father in 1642.
He died in 1654; his will was proved 4 September 1654. His widow married 2nd, 20 January 1660 at St Mary Bredin, Canterbury, Joseph Roberts of Canterbury, and was buried at Eastry, 31 March 1682.

Bargrave, Charles (1651-1713). Elder son of Thomas Bargrave (1620-54) and his wife Honora Estcott, baptised at Eastry, 13 May 1651. He married, 18 November 1676 at Merstham-le-Hatch (Kent), Elizabeth (1653-1732), daughter of George Wightwick of Brockton Manor, Charing (Kent), and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Bargrave (1678-1746), baptised at Tenterden (Kent), 12 May 1678; married, 1 October 1702 at Littlebourne (Kent), Edward St. Leger (d. 1729) of Deal (Kent), surgeon, and had issue one son and five daughters; buried at Gt. Mongeham (Kent), 28 October 1746;
(2) Isaac Bargrave (1680-1727) (q.v.);
(3) Honora Bargrave (1682-1776), baptised at Eastry, 29 March 1682; married*, 21 August 1709 at Eastry, Charles Knowler (1678-1750) of Canterbury, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 9 March and was buried at St Alfege, Canterbury (Kent), 16 March 1776; will proved 16 April 1776;
(4) Martha Bargrave (1684-1750), baptised at Eastry, 27 March 1684; married, 6 April 1714 at Swingfield (Kent), Zouch Pilcher (1686-1762) of Swingfield, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 4 October and was buried at Swingfield, 11 October 1750;
(5) Capt. Charles Bargrave (1686-1755), baptised 6 March 1686; an officer in the Royal Navy, 1701-43 (Lt., 1707/8; Capt., 1741), 'a gallant and veteran commander' who was apparently dismissed from the service in obscure circumstances, 27 February 1742/3; lived at Shurland, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey (Kent); married, 22 September 1719 at Lamb's Chapel, Monkwell St., London, Sarah Austen (d. 1772) of Eastchurch, and had issue two daughters; buried at Eastchurch, 4 August 1755; will proved 26 March 1765;
(6) Hester Bargrave (1692-1741), baptised 6 March 1691/2; married, 24 February 1717/8 at Swingfield, William Bridges (1687-1746) of Sandwich; buried at Eastry, 4 March 1741;
(7) Robert Bargrave (1695-1779), born 31 January 1695; married 1st, 10 May 1733 at St Margaret, Canterbury, Elizabeth (c.1705-37), daughter of Sir Francis Leigh of Hawley, and had issue one son; married 2nd, 30 June 1753, Elizabeth (d. by 1778), widow of Thomas Basset of London; died 17 December 1779; will proved 15 April 1780;
(8) Mary Bargrave (1697-1747), baptised 13 December 1697; married, 29 May 1718 at Knowlton (Kent), David Denn (d. 1774?) of Wingham (Kent), and had issue two sons; probably the Mary Denne buried at Eastry, 29 December 1747.
He inherited Eastry Court from his father in 1654. Through his marriage he also acquired the manor of Brockton in Charing (Kent).
He was buried, 7 November 1713 at Eastry, where he is commemorated by a monument. His widow was buried at Eastry, 26 December 1732.
* Some accounts show her as marrying 2nd, Joseph Roberts, but I have found no such marriage and she was buried as Honora Knowler.

Bargrave, Isaac (1680-1727). Eldest son of Charles Bargrave (1651-1713) and his wife Elizabeth Withwick, baptised at Tenterden (Kent), 25 April 1680. He married, 12 September 1717 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, Christiana (1698-1772), daughter of Sir Francis Leigh of Hawley, and had issue:
(1) Christian Bargrave (1718-96) (q.v.);
(2) Frances Bargrave (1719-95), baptised at Eastry, 1 November 1719; noted for her sound understanding and retentive memory, and for her piety and Christian charity; married, 26 December 1758 at Hythe (Kent), John Broadley (c.1705-84) of Dover (Kent), surgeon, but died without issue and was buried at Eastry, 17 March 1795;
(3) Isaac Bargrave (1721-1800) (q.v.).
He inherited Eastry Court and Brockton from his father in 1713, but sold Brockton to Humphrey Punder.
He died in March 1727 and was buried at Eastry. His widow was buried at Eastry, 14 October 1772.

Bargrave, Isaac (1721-1800). Only son of Isaac Bargrave (1680-1727) and his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh of Hawley, baptised at Eastry, 10 September 1721. Educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1737). Articled to Joseph Ashton, solicitor, 1738, and practised as an attorney in Cook's Court, Carey St., London for some years. JP for Kent. He married, 23 March 1750 at Canterbury Cathedral, Sarah (1723-87), daughter of George Lynch MD of Ripple (Kent), but had no issue.

He inherited Eastry Court from his father in 1727, and came of age in about 1744. At his death he bequeathed his leasehold at Eastry Court and his freehold property at Eastry, Worth, Joychurch, Newington (nr. Chatham) and Canterbury in Kent to Robert Tournay, the husband of his niece Christian.
He died 24 May 1800 and was buried at Eastry; his will was proved 12 June 1800. His wife died 16 April and was buried at Eastry, 24 April 1787.

Bargrave, Christian (1718-96). Elder daughter of Isaac Bargrave (d. 1727) and his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh of Hawley, baptised at Eastry, July 1718. She married 1st, Rev. Claudius Clare (1717-64) of Hythe (Kent), vicar of Lympne, 1748-64 and rector of Dymchurch 1752-64, and 2nd, 28 October 1785, Capt. Robert Kirk RN (c.1732-1802), and had issue:
(1.1) Christian Clare (1751-1806) (q.v.);
(1.2) Claudius Clare (b. & d. 1756), baptised at Hythe, 21 September 1756; died in infancy and was buried at Hythe, 24 October 1756;
(1.3) Frances Clare (b. & d. 1758), baptised at Hythe, 24 January 1758; died in infancy and was buried at Hythe, 21 June 1758.
She lived at Hythe (Kent).
She died after a long illness, 28 February, and was buried at Eastry, 12 March 1796. Her first husband was buried at Hythe, 24 December 1764. Her second husband was buried at Eastry, 26 May 1802.

Clare, Christian (1751-1806). Only surviving child of Rev. Claudius Clare of Hythe (Kent) and his wife Christian, elder daughter of Isaac Bargrave of Eastry Court, baptised at Hythe, 23 June 1751. She married, 10 January 1782 at Hythe, Robert Tournay (later Tournay-Bargrave) (c.1757-1825), attorney-at-law, son of Robert Tournay, and had issue:
(1) Christian Tournay-Bargrave (1782-1858) (q.v.);
(2) Sarah Tournay-Bargrave (1784-1832), baptised at Saltwood, 4 April 1784; married 1st, 20 May 1805 (div. 1817), Richard Halford of Canterbury, banker with Baker & Co., and had issue one son (who died young); married 2nd, 24 May 1819 at Eastry, Capt. Sir Thomas Staines RN* (1776-1830) of Dent-de-Lion, Garlinge (Kent), and had issue two daughters; married 3rd, 24 November 1831 at Margate, George Gunning (1783-1849) of Frindsbury (Kent), but continued to be known as Lady Staines; died 25 January 1832 and was buried at St John the Baptist, Margate (Kent); she is commemorated by monuments at both Margate and Frindsbury.
Her husband inherited Eastry Court and other estates in Kent from her uncle in 1800.
She died 23 September 1806 and was buried at Eastry. Her husband died 19 May and was buried at Eastry, 27 May 1825; his will was proved 16 November 1825.
* Sir Thomas Staines was the first cousin and former close friend of her first husband but was convicted of 'criminal conversation' with Sarah in 1817 and fined £1,000.

Tournay-Bargrave, Christian (1782-1858). Elder daughter of Robert Tournay (later Tournay-Bargrave) and his wife Christian, daughter of Rev. Claudius Clare of Hythe (Kent), baptised at Saltwood (Kent), 19 December 1782. She married, 30 September 1805 at Eastry, as his second wife, William Bridger (c.1774-1855) of Lympne (Kent), and had issue:
(1) Christina Bargrave Bridger (b. & d. 1808), baptised at Eastry, 28 June 1808; died in infancy and was buried at Eastry, 6 July 1808;
(2) Christian Bargrave Bridger (1809-90), baptised at Eastry, 25 July 1809; married 9 April 1844 at Eastry, Capt. Thomas Harvey RN of The Lodge, Upper Deal (Kent), but had no issue; died 2 August 1890; will proved 25 August 1890 (estate £11,592);
(3) Sarah Bargrave Bridger (1811-86), baptised at Eastry, 30 April 1811; married 1st, 25 October 1854 at Eastry, Capt. Augustus Charles May RN (1811-63), son of John May, solicitor; married 2nd, 7 August 1866 at St Luke, Lower Norwood (Surrey), as his second wife, Rev. George Rainier (c.1813-72), vicar of Ninfield (Sussex), but had no issue; died at Anerley (Surrey), 29 November 1886 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery (Middx); will proved 4 January 1887 (estate £8,035);
(4) Bargrave Bridger (1813-22), baptised at Eastry, 16 June 1813; died young, 13 August 1822 and was buried at Eastry, 21 August 1822;
(5) Mary Bargrave Bridger (1815-83), baptised at Eastry, 14 May 1815; married, 3 April 1856 at Eastry, as his second wife, Cmdr. Edward Bunbury Nott RN of Beach House, Deal, son of Rev. Edward Nott, but had no issue; died at Anerley (Surrey), 10 November 1878; will proved 29 November 1878 (effects under £5,000);
(6) Charlotte Frances Bargrave Bridger (1817-66), baptised at Eastry, 21 August 1817; married 1st, 17 July 1850 at Eastry, Capt. John Allen William Wade (1812-51), an officer in the Royal Marines, son of Col. Hamlet Nicholas Wade; married 2nd, 7 December 1854 at Eastry, as his second wife, Rev. Thomas Watkins (1805-75), rector of Llansantffraed (Brecons.), son of Thomas Watkins esq., and had issue one son; died 21 May and was buried at Llansantffraed, 25 May 1866.
She and her husband inherited Eastry Court from her father in 1825. After her death the lease was sold to George Gardener.
She died 9 September 1858; her will was proved 21 September 1858 (effects under £4,000). Her husband died 19 January 1855; his will was proved 21 February 1855.

Sources

W. Bristow, The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent, vol. 10, 1800, pp. 98-121; J. Phillimore, Reports of cases argued and determined in the ecclesiastical courts at Doctor's Commons, 1809-12, vol. 1, pp. 316-33; W. Berry, Pedigrees of the families in the county of Kent, 1830, pp. 106-07; W.F. Shaw, Liber Estriae, 1870, especially pp. 54-55; Anon., 'Captain John Bargrave's charges against the former Government of Virginia, 1622', The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Jan. 1899, vol 6, no. 3, pp. 225-28; S. Pearson, P.S. Barnwell & A.T. Adams, A gazetteer of medieval houses in Kent, 1994, pp. 51-53; P.S. Barnwell & A.T. Adams, The house within: interpreting medieval houses in Kent, 1994, pp. 140-41; S. Bann, Under the Sign: John Bargrave as collector, traveler and witness, 1994; M.G. Brennan, 'The exile of two Kentish Royalists during the English Civil War, Archaelogia Cantiana, vol. 120, 2000, pp. 77-105; J. Newman, The buildings of England: Kent - North-East and East, 3rd edn., 2013, pp. 338, 483; Channel 4, Time Team, series 13, episode 6; https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/bb4ae/bargrave1.php.

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive. The diary and collection of John Bargrave is at Canterbury Cathedral (https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/bargrave/index.html); the diary of his cousin Robert in the Bodleian Library.

Coat of arms

Or, on a pale gules a sword erect argent, hilted and pomelled gold, on a chief azure three bezants.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide any internal photographs of the Georgian and Victorian house at Bifrons?
• I refer above to an 18th century engraving of Eastry Court which I have not, in fact, been able to find. Can anyone supply me with an image of this view?
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 22 April 2019 and amended 7 December 2022.