(400) Barnett of Stratton Park

Barnett of Stratton Park

The Barnetts of Stratton Park are the senior branch of the Barnett family of Glympton Park who were treated in my previous article. Their common ancestor was Commodore Curtis Barnett (1696-1746), with whom the genealogy below begins. The Commodore left a slightly unusual will, vesting most of his money in trustees who were required to purchase a landed estate for the use, firstly, of his widow Elizabeth, and then for his elder surviving son, Charles Barnett (1733-1811). The trustees seem to have proceeded at a leisurely pace, for it was nearly twenty years after the Commodore's death before they completed the purchase of Stratton Park near Biggleswade in Bedfordshire from the heirs of the Cotton family in 1764. Charles Barnett and his mother then moved into the house, and were soon accepted by the Bedfordshire county community, for Charles was nominated as High Sheriff of the county in 1771. Charles and his wife Bridget had at least seven children, of whom five (two sons and three daughters) lived to maturity. The younger son, James Barnett (1760-1836), became a partner in the bank operated by his cousins of the Glympton Park branch of the family, and was twice the Whig MP for Rochester in Kent. The elder son, another Charles Barnett (1758-1804), entered the army as an officer in the 3rd Foot Guards, rising by 1804 to be Second Major with the brevet rank of Major-General. His regiment were then providing the garrison at Gibraltar, when the colony was hit by a horrific outbreak of an unidentified infectious disease, which claimed the lives of many, including Charles Barnett. Since Charles' wife had died in childbirth several years earlier, this left his son Charles Barnett (1796-1876) and daughter Caroline Barnett (c.1797-1832) as orphans, to be brought up at Stratton by their grandparents.

Charles Barnett (1796-1876) comes across as the strongest personality in this family. He came of age in 1817, was High Sheriff in 1821, and was active in politics and public affairs as well as being a leading figure on the hunting field and in agricultural affairs. As a young man, he was a member of the Oakley Hunt, and thought little of riding over to the north-west of the county for a day's sport with them and riding home again afterwards. In 1827 he became Master of the Cambridgeshire Foxhounds and he held that position for forty years, only retiring at the age of seventy. He married, in 1826, Elizabeth, the third daughter of Sir Peter Payne of Blunham (Beds), a baronet who so successfully obscured the legitimacy of his apparently valid title that it later ceased to be officially recognised, although he himself was always referred to as Sir Peter. Charles and Elizabeth produced five sons and four daughters, but although four of the children married none of them produced any children of their own. 

When Charles died in 1876, the Stratton estate passed to his eldest son, Charles Fitz Roy Barnett (1830-87), who in the few years of his ownership remodelled the house extensively. He left the estate to his widow, Lucy Jane Barnett (1844-1908), who was noted as a sympathetic and understanding benefactor to the poor and needy in and around Biggleswade, and as an exemplary landowner, doing much to improve the lot of her tenants by rebuilding their cottages. After she was widowed, and perhaps with a view to providing an heir to Stratton Park, she adopted her own niece, Ellen Margaret Heysham (1877-1961), but Ellen and her husband, Maj. W.G.M. Sarel were evidently not interested in maintaining the estate or could not afford to do so, and in 1910 it was all sold. The house and part of the land went to the County Council, which wanted the land for smallholdings and let the house for use as a school. After this relocated in 1935 the house saw military use during the Second World War and an afterlife as a battery chicken farm before demolition in 1960.

Stratton Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire

The story of Stratton Park seems to be a little more complex than has previously been recognised. A moated enclosure near the later house was the site of the medieval manorial complex, and may have remained in use in the 15th and 16th centuries, although excavation has not yet been sufficiently thorough as to provide clear dating evidence. The Andersons, who acquired the estate in 1588, built a new house at Eyeworth which seems to have been the centre of their estate in the early 17th century, but Edmund Anderson (1607-38), who inherited both Eyeworth and Stratton in 1616, was always described as 'of Stratton', and must have had a house of some kind on this estate, even it was only intended as a dower house to Eyeworth. In 1640, his widow married as her second husband, Sir Thomas Cotton (1594-1662), 2nd bt., of Conington (Hunts), and they arranged the marriage of Sir Thomas' son, John (later the third baronet) to Edmund's only daughter, Dorothy, in 1644, with the result that the Stratton estate passed to the Cottons.

According to William Stukeley, during the Civil War and Commonwealth years, the Royalist-leaning Sir Thomas Cotton moved his father's great Cottonian Collection of manuscripts (later one of the foundation collections of the British Museum and now in the British Library) for safekeeping to a 'villa' at Stratton belonging to his daughter-in-law. The move was considered desirable because he was concerned that the political and constitutional importance of the collection would make it a target for destruction if it remained in London, where his father had kept it, or was stored at his own house at Conington. The collection is said to have been under the care of Thomas Bromsall of Great Barford (Beds), who was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1651-52. The building where the collection was kept was no doubt the house which Dorothy Cotton's father had occupied and perhaps built a few years earlier. The use of the term 'villa' is interesting, and perhaps implies a modest house. 

Stratton Park: watercolour by Thomas Fisher, c.1821. Image: Bedfordshire Archives Service X254/88/63.

At some point in the 1650s, Sir Robert decided it was safe to return the Cottonian Collection to its original home in Westminster, where it would be more accessible to scholars. He died in 1662, and his son Sir John Cotton seems to have decided fairly soon afterwards to either remodel the existing house at Stratton or to build a new one. The only known view of the resulting house before 19th century alterations is a watercolour by Thomas Fisher of about 1821, showing a five bay centre framed by two long-projecting wings, with sash windows throughout. The windows must be later, and the proportions of the house are suspect as later photographs show the wings with a very different profile, but some things seem trustworthy, including the gables with dormer windows in the centre and on the ends of the wings, and the three sunk panels articulating the inner faces of wings on each floor. The length of the wings perhaps suggests that the house was a recasting of an earlier building rather than a completely new build. The chief glory of the house was its staircase, which had panels of wonderfully gristly carved acanthus and flowers of exceptional quality that are similar to those on the surviving staircases at Forde Abbey (Dorset) and Tyttenhanger House (Herts), both dating from the late 1650s; the staircase at Stratton Park could well have been carved by the same craftsmen.

Stratton Park: the staircase

Stratton Park: detail of the staircase. Image: Historic England.

At some point in the first half of the 18th century the house was evidently updated. This was probably when it received sash windows, and photographs of the house shortly before demolition reveal that it an early 18th century doorcase survived within the later porch, as well as at least one chimeypiece of the same date inside. There may have been a further alteration in about 1783, when Robert Adam designed a new drawing room for Charles Barnett, although there is no convincing evidence that this was ever executed.

Stratton Park: the house after its Victorian makeover by John Usher.

From 1878, however, the Barnett family employed John Usher to make much more extensive changes to the building. The wings may have been shortened; the sash windows were all replaced with mullioned and transomed ones, a new porch was built, and the gables were decorated with applied half-timbering and roughcast. On the rear of the building the main projecting wing was given a new gable end executed in banded polychromy of red and yellow brick. 

Stratton Park: the house when it was advertised for sale in 1922.

Following the death of Mrs. Lucy Barnett in 1908, the whole estate was put up for sale by auction in 1910. Bedfordshire County Council purchased most of it for smallholdings, and the remainder was bought by local market gardeners. In the 19th century, the house was said to stand in '160 acres of beautifully-wooded grounds', but no sense of this landscape quality has survived a century of intensive agricultural use. The County Council let the mansion for use as a prep school for boys (Parkfield School) until September 1935 when the school relocated to Aldenham (Herts), leaving the house empty. By 1939, it had been requisitioned for military purposes, and both house and grounds were used for accommodating soldiers until the D Day landings. After the army left, the mansion was unoccupied until 1948, when a local man, Walter Stratton, bought it to house for some of the first battery hens in England. It was finally pulled down in 1960, leaving only the stable block, and Mr Stratton subsequently built himself a bungalow using materials from it, including the archway of the porch and one panel of the staircase. The stable buildings were pulled down as recently as March 1989. 

Descent: Richard Enderby (d. 1487); to son, John Enderby (d. 1509); to daughter, Eleanor, wife of Francis Pygott; to son, Thomas Pygott (d. 1581); to son Lewis Pygott, who sold 1588 to Sir Edmund Anderson (1530-1605), kt.; to son, Sir Francis Anderson (d. 1616), kt.; to son, Edmund Anderson (d. 1638); to daughter Dorothy (c.1631-53), first wife of Sir John Cotton (1621-1702), 3rd bt.; to grandson, Sir John Cotton (c.1680-1731), 4th bt.; to uncle, Sir Robert Cotton (1669-1749), 5th bt.; to son, Sir John Cotton (d. 1752), 6th bt.; to four daughters as co-heirs, who sold 1764 to trustees of Comm. Curtis Barnett (1696-1746), whose widow Elizabeth Barnett (d. 1775) was the first occupant; to son, Christopher Barnett (1733-1811); to grandson, Charles Barnett (1796-1876); to son, Capt. Charles Fitz Roy Barnett (1830-87); to widow, Lucy Jane Barnett (1844-1908); sold 1910 to Bedfordshire County Council and leased as Parkfield School until 1935; sold 1948 to Walter Stratton, who demolished it in 1960.

Barnett family of Stratton Park

Commodore Curtis Barnett (1696-1746)

Barnett, Commodore Curtis (1696-1746). Only son of Lt. Benjamin Barnett RN (1669-1703) and his wife Mary, widow of [forename unknown] Willin, born 26 April and baptised at Alverstoke (Hants), 8 May 1696. An officer in the Royal Navy from 1710 (Midshipman, 1713; Lt., 1718; Cmdr., 1730; Capt., 1731; Commodore, 1744). He married, 13 May 1725 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, Elizabeth (1700-75), daughter of Benjamin Rosewell, master shipwright, and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Barnett (b. 1726), baptised at Chatham (Kent), 27 May 1726; died young before 1745;
(2) Benjamin Barnett (1731-32?), born 27 March and baptised at Chatham, 10 April 1731; said to have died in infancy at Gibraltar in 1732;
(3) Charles Barnett (1733-1811) (q.v.)
(4) Benjamin Barnett (1735-1805) [for whom see my previous post on the Barnett family of Glympton Park].
He seems to have lived chiefly at Chatham (Kent) when in England and owned a farm at nearby Gillingham. By his will he directed his trustees to invest the bulk of his residuary estate in the purchase of a landed estate for the use of his widow and subsequently his elder son: the estate purchased was Stratton Park (Beds.)
He died after a short illness at Fort St. David, Madras (India) while commanding the East Indies Squadron of the Royal Navy, 2 May 1746; his will was proved 27 July 1747. His widow died at Stratton Park, 30 July, and was buried at Biggleswade (Beds), 5 August 1775.

Barnett, Charles (1733-1811). Elder surviving son of Commodore Curtis Barnett (1696-1746) and his wife Elizabeth Rosewell, born at Gibraltar, 17 May 1733. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1750). JP and DL for Bedfordshire; High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1771. He married, 17 February 1756 at St George-the-Martyr, Holborn (Middx), Bridget (1733-1816), daughter of Alexius Clayton of Red Lion Sq., London, and had issue:
(1) Bridget Barnett (1757-1838); died unmarried and was buried at Biggleswade, 24 August 1838; will proved 31 August 1838;
(2) Brig-Gen. Charles Barnett (1758-1804) (q.v.);
(3) James Barnett (1760-1836), born 3 March and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., London, 6 March 1760; educated at Westminster School; banker with Barnett, Hoare & Hill (partner 1790-1834); a Whig in politics, he was MP for Rochester (Kent), 1806-07, 1816-20; married, c.1796, Ann [surname unknown] (c.1777-1852) and had issue four sons and three daughters; died at Cheltenham (Glos) on 1 October, and was buried at Paddington (Middx), 8 October 1836; will proved 18 October 1836;
(4) Joseph Barnett (1765-66), baptised at Biggleswade, 20 December 1765; died in infancy and was buried at Biggleswade, 10 January 1766;
(5) Louisa Elizabeth Barnett (c.1768-1818); died 18 October and was buried at St Luke, Chelsea (Middx), 24 October 1818; will proved 24 April 1819;
(6) John Barnett (b. & d. 1770), baptised at Biggleswade, 7 September 1770; died in infancy and was buried at Biggleswade the following day;
(7) Amelia Barnett (1774-1808), baptised at Biggleswade, 20 February 1774; died February 1808.
He inherited Stratton Park on the death of his mother in 1775.
He died 27 July 1811 and was probably buried at Biggleswade, where he is commemorated by a memorial tablet; his will was proved 9 October 1811. His widow was buried at Brighton (Sussex), 4 October 1816.

Barnett, Brig-Gen. Charles (1758-1804). Eldest son of Charles Barnett (1733-1811) and his wife Bridget, daughter of Alexander Clayton, born March 1758. An officer in the 3rd Foot Guards (Lt. & Capt., 1781; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1792; Col. 1796; Brig-Gen., 1801); at the time of his death he was second Major in the 3rd Foot Guards and acting Commander of British forces in Gibraltar. He married, 22 February 1796, Harriet (d. 1799), eldest daughter of Adm. Sir Richard King MP, 1st bt., Governor of Newfoundland, and had issue:
(1) Charles Barnett (1796-1876) (q.v.);
(2) Caroline Barnett (c.1797-1832); married Dr. Thomas McGrath MD (d. 1838), but had no issue; buried at Biggleswade, 9 August 1832; will proved 29 September 1832;
He died in an outbreak of an epidemic disease at Gibraltar, 10 October 1804, and was buried in the Convent Chapel there; his will was proved 30 March 1805. His wife died in childbirth, 17 September, and was buried at Biggleswade, 25 September 1799.

Charles Barnett (1796-1876)

Barnett, Charles (1796-1876). Only son of Brig-Gen. Charles Barnett (1758-1804) and his wife Harriet, eldest daughter of Adm. Sir Richard King, bt., born 31 October 1796. Educated at Putney and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (matriculated 1815). High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1821. A Liberal in politics, he was the first Chairman of Biggleswade Board of Guardians, 1836-66. Master of Cambridgeshire Foxhounds, 1827-67 and a noted breeder of Shorthorn Cattle. He was also a member of the committee that promoted the Leicester & Bedford Railway in 1845. He married, 1 February 1826 at Irchester (Northants), Elizabeth (1794-1883), third daughter of [Sir] Peter Payne, de jure 3rd bt of Blunham (Beds), and had issue:
(1) Harriet Anna Maria Stanhope Barnett (1827-1899), born 23 January and baptised at Biggleswade, 20 February 1827; died unmarried, 20 May 1899;
(2) Elizabeth Barnett (1828-1914), baptised at Biggleswade, 24 March 1828; died unmarried, 29 September 1914; will proved 28 October 1914 (estate £1,051);
(3) Laura Janet Emma Barnett (1829-1916), baptised at Biggleswade, 18 September 1829; married, 25 April 1854 at Biggleswade, James Chadwick (1824-92) of Hints Hall (Staffs), but had no issue; died at Hints Hall, 25 December 1916; will proved 2 June 1917 (estate £16,410);
(4) Charles Fitz Roy Barnett (1830-87) (q.v.);
(5) George James Barnett (1831-92), born 8 December 1831 and baptised at Biggleswade, 3 February 1832; lived at Stratton Lodge, Biggleswade; married, 27 November 1872 at St James, Piccadilly, London, Emma (1843-1926), daughter of Robert Thomas Raynsford of Chelsea (Middx), gardener, but had no issue; died 5 October 1892; will proved 30 December 1892 (effects £2,939);
(6) Curtis Barnett (1834-51), baptised at Biggleswade, 1 May 1834; educated at Sandhurst, where he died young, 20 August 1851;
(7) Louisa Maria Barnett (1837-1907), baptised at Biggleswade, 16 May 1837; married, 29 June 1859 at St Michael, Chester Sq., London, Edward Henry Frederick Dawkins, of Guilsborough Grange (Northants), only son of Rev. Edward Dawkins of Moggerhanger Park (Beds); died 5 June 1907; administration granted to her husband, 22 July 1907 (estate £7,870);
(8) Clayton Barnett (1839-1900), born 15 September and baptised at Biggleswade, 26 October 1839; educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1857); an officer in the army (2nd Lt. 1861; Lt. 1864; retired 1867); confined as an imbecile in West Malling Asylum, 1875-84; married, 30 June 1869 at St George, Hanover Sq, London, Anna Eleanora (1843-86), daughter of Robert Frederick Lindoe; died at Ilfracombe (Devon), 9 September 1900; administration of his goods granted 22 September 1900 (estate £4,683);
(9) Rosewell Barnett (1841-93), born 3 May and baptised at Biggleswade, 4 June 1841; an officer in the Royal Navy (Sub-Lt., 1855) and later an officer in the mercantile marine (Mate, 1865); died unmarried, 6 June 1893.
He inherited Stratton Park from his grandfather in 1811.
He died at Brighton (Sussex), 20 June 1876, and was buried at Biggleswade Cemetery, 24 June 1876; his will was proved 9 August 1876 (effects under £6,000). His widow died 3 September 1883; her will was proved 31 October 1883 (effects £2,400).

Barnett, Charles Fitz Roy (1830-87). Eldest son of Charles Barnett (1796-1876) and his wife Elizabeth, third daughter of Peter Payne of Blunham (Beds), born 12 October and baptised at Biggleswade, 27 November 1830. An officer in 54th Foot (Ensign, 1847; Lt., 1849; Capt., 1857; retired 1863), who served in the Indian Mutiny. He married, 4 May 1864, Lucy Jane (1844-1908), only child of Col. Arthur Charles Gregory of 98th Regt., son of Francis Gregory of Stivichall (Warks), but had no issue. After his death, however, she adopted her niece:
(A1) Ellen Margaret Heysham (1876-1961), daughter of Charles Augustus John Heysham, born 30 March 1876; married, 26 June 1907 at Biggleswade (div. 1930), Maj. William Godfrey Molyneux Sarel (1875-1950), 'the well-known Surrey and Northumberland county cricketer'; died 8 June 1961; will proved 8 August 1961 (estate £2,393).
He inherited Stratton Park from his father. At his death it passed to his widow, and it was sold by her executors in 1910.
He died 23 February 1887; will proved 1 April 1887 (effects £6,046). His widow died of complications from diabetes in July 1908; her will was proved 20 August 1908 (estate £60,342).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1898, i, p.72; M. Webb, Remember your manor: Stratton Park estate, Biggleswade, 1985.

Location of archives

No substantial accumulation of family papers is known to survive.
Barnett, Maj-Gen. Charles (1758-1804): correspondence and papers, 1786-1803 [National Army Museum 8512/15]

Coat of arms

Or, a saltire sable, in chief a leopard's head of the second.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide any further images of Stratton Park before the Victorian alterations, or any interior views other than the staircase?
• 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 10 December 2019.