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| Barry of Hampton Gay |
The arms of this family are first recorded as those of Sir Robert Barry of Stantonbury (Bucks) in the reign of King Edward II, and since Laurence Barry of Eynsham satisfied the heralds at their visitation of Oxfordshire in 1566 that he was entitled to bear these arms, the implication is that he was descended from that family. The Barry ownership of Stantonbury came to an end at the beginning of the 15th century, at just the time when the family are first recorded at Eynsham (1406), but the connection, if it existed, cannot now be demonstrated. By the early 16th century, John Barry (d. 1546), with whom the genealogy below begins, was established as a glover and landowner at Eynsham. In 1536, he moved into Oxford and although he was at first neither a freeman nor a member of the glovers guild, he was rapidly assimilated into the elite of the city, becoming an alderman in 1537, mayor in 1539, and its leading taxpayer. Although he was recorded as a glover, which had been his father's trade, it seems likely that most of his growing wealth came from farming and from the sale of wool, since by his will he disposed of 1,900 sheep. In 1544 he purchased the manor of Hampton Gay, and when he died two years later this passed to his son, Laurence Barry (d. 1577). Less is known about Laurence's career, which seems to have begun at Cumnor (Berks), where his wife's family had property, and only later did he live in Eynsham. Two of Laurence's sons had families. The elder was Vincent Barry (1548?- 1615), who inherited the Hampton Gay estate and built a new manor house there, probably in the 1580s. In the search for greater efficiency and profitability in the operation of the estate, he enclosed the open fields of the parish and converted them from arable to pasture for sheep, as was widely done in the Midland counties at this time. Since pastoral farming required less labour than tillage, the change led to significant unemployment, and stirred up popular unrest. At Hampton Gay, a plot was discovered among the labourers and small farmers to murder Vincent Barry and throw down the enclosures. This led to the arrest of several men and the eventual execution of the man identified as the ringleader, but it probably also led to the abandonment of most of the village, where only the church, manor house and a couple of farms survive today.
Laurence Barry's younger son was Francis Barry (d. 1604), who settled in Thame (Oxon). He had two sons, Vincent Barry (1598-1666) and Christopher Barry (c.1600-70). Christopher became a London merchant while Vincent, who trained as a lawyer, played a prominent part in the administration of Oxfordshire during the Commonwealth. He leased the manor house of Thame and seems to have lived there all his life, while buying and selling several other properties across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Vincent's eldest son, Vincent Barry (1628-80), was also trained as a lawyer and he eventually inherited the Hampton Gay estate from his cousin, Catherine, Lady Fenner (c.1584-1663), the only surviving child of Vincent Barry (d. 1615). He was succeeded in turn by his eldest son, the Rev. Vincent Barry (1660-1708), who graduated from Oxford at about the time of his father's death. It seems unlikely that he had settled on a clerical career at this point, for in 1682 he was admitted to the Inner Temple, and he may well have been planning to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer. That same year, however, he sold the Hampton Gay estate for reasons which are not clear, but may have been related to the need to provide for his widowed mother, a younger brother and four sisters. He took holy orders in 1685, was appointed reader at Fulham (Middx) in 1689, and evidently gave such satisfaction in this role that when, in 1691, the vicarage fell vacant, the parish vestry successfully petitioned the bishop of London for his appointment to the living. Vincent's move to London made a decisive shift in the family's geographical focus, for future generations would be based in London, not Oxfordshire. The sale of Hampton Gay also marked a decline in status, and for the next few generations, the family were only very ambiguously gentlefolk.
Vincent's elder surviving son, John Barry (1702-63) was a merchant in the East End of London. The nature of his business is unclear: he was a member of the Goldsmith's Company, but the Aldgate district seems to have attracted a lot of overseas merchants. His son, John Barry (1762-1830), the only child of a late second marriage, became a silk mercer, but since the younger John was only a year old when his father died there is no particular reason why he should have followed the same trade. The younger John lived most of his life in the Minories, adjoining the noted silk-weaving district of Whitechapel, but later he moved to Bloomsbury, which was a considerable more polite address. The younger John had ten children by his two marriages, and the younger son of his first wife, Frederick Barry (1788-1834) and the elder son of his second wife, Charles Barry (1790-1866), formed a partnership as ship brokers and wharfingers in Mincing Lane, London, trading particularly with Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America. Frederick's early death in 1834 cannot have helped matters, coming as it did long before Charles' sons were old enough to join the business. Nonetheless, the firm survived and Charles lived his last years in modest prosperity, at one stage renting The Priory in Orpington (Kent). Perhaps partly because he had such a large family (fourteen children born between 1821 and 1839), however, when he died in 1866 his personal estate was a modest £6,000.
Charles' eldest son, Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), was educated at Camberwell College and then went to work in Bilbao (Spain), although whether this was in connection with his father's firm or not is unclear. In 1846 he was appointed British Vice-Consul there, and he was later offered the opportunity to become the full-time Consul in Madrid, but turned this down to concentrate on his business interests. He formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, James Mason (1824-1903), and took a fifty-year lease on a copper mine in Portugal, which they converted to open-cast mining: there were large profits, and at their deaths, the two partners left a combined total of over £1.5m. This wealth translated into honours and estates. Mason bought and rebuilt Eynsham Hall (Oxon), while Barry became an MP in 1890 and a baronet in 1899, as well as being ennobled in Portugal as the Baron de Barry. In 1872 he bought St. Leonard's Hill (Berks), a Georgian house with royal associations and a clear view of Windsor Castle, which he more than doubled in size in an over-the-top and conspicuously expensive French Renaissance style.
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Keiss Castle, Caithness: bought by Sir Francis Barry in 1881 and sold
by his son in 1913, from an old postcard. |
Sir Francis was not, however, crassly concerned solely with the making and lavish display of wealth. Like most Victorian men of his class he bought a castle in Scotland: in his case, Keiss Castle in Caithness, which had recently been rebuilt in the Scots Baronial style for the Duke of Portland. He contrived to spend some weeks or months there each year, and became interested in the archaeology of the estate, and especially of the Pictish brochs whose ruins littered the landscape. He excavated several of these sites and donated the finds to a number of public institutions in Scotland, where they are still regarded as significant enough to have been the subject of a modern catalogue. He was also something of a philanthropist, supporting a number of local institutions in the Windsor and Caithness areas, and, from 1884 onwards, donating a sixpence at Christmas every year to every workhouse child in London, a gift which was seen as so welcome that a fund was established in his memory to continue the tradition after his death.
Sir Francis had five sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Francis Tress Barry (1856-88), died young, and the baronetcy therefore passed in 1907 to his second son, Sir Edward Arthur Barry (1858-1949), 2nd bt., who thought his father's house at Windsor was in the most appalling taste. In 1893 he bought the recently repaired Ockwells Manor near Maidenhead (Berks), which, in its medieval and Arts-and-Crafts simplicity, was almost the complete antithesis of St Leonards Hill, and he devoted much of the rest of his life to restoring and improving the house and filling it with a fine collection of armour and Tudor and Jacobean furniture. He sold Keiss Castle in 1913, but retained St. Leonard's Hill for his mother's use until her death in 1926, after which he simply pulled it down and sold off the land for building development. Sir Edward was very keen that his house and collections at Ockwells should be preserved and kept together after his death, and he made efforts to persuade the National Trust to take the house on. He was not, however, in a position to provide the sort of endowment that the Trust required, and in the end the estate had to be sold after his death. He did, however, give the Trust covenants over the property which have so far ensured its sympathetic preservation and prevented the setting being swamped by suburban housing. The baronetcy passed to Sir Edward's son, Sir Claud Francis Barry (1883-1970), 3rd bt., an artist with a bohemian lifestyle who abandoned his first wife and family, and the title continues today, although later generations have not been country house owners.
Sir Francis' fourth son, William James Barry (1864-1952), purchased Great Witchingham Hall in Norfolk, a recently-remodelled Tudor house, in 1902, and lived there until his death. His son, Lt-Col. Gerald Barry (1896-1977), found the house in poor condition after the neglect of maintenance during the Second World War, and sold it in 1955 to the entrepreneur, Bernard Matthews (d. 2010), whose turkey farming business is still operated from the house. Sir Francis' fifth and youngest son, Col. Stanley Leonard Barry (1873-1943), was a career soldier who retired from the army in 1921. His first wife died in 1924 and when he married again in 1927 it was to Mrs. Laline Hohler, who had inherited Long Crendon Manor (Bucks) from her first husband's family and restored it with the help of Philip Tilden. Col. and Mrs. Barry continued to live at Long Crendon Manor, but in 1928 he bought the ruins of the manor house at Hampton Gay which had been built by his ancestor in the 1580s. It is not clear whether it was ever his intention to restore it or merely to conserve and preserve the ruins, but in fact nothing was done about a restoration. After his death the property passed to his only daughter, the Hon. Jeanne McDonnell, who sold it in 1975, and despite several subsequent schemes for restoration the ruins have continued gently to decay.
Hampton Gay Manor House, Oxfordshire
When I was a student at Oxford in the 1970s the romantic riverside ruins of the Elizabethan manor house at Hampton Gay in Oxfordshire made a convenient destination for a gentle walk up the Oxford Canal and the River Cherwell on summer afternoons. It was, and remains, a slightly eerie place, abandoned after a devastating fire in 1887 which left little more than the external walls standing. Over the last forty years the increasingly perilous state of the ruins - which have seen significant further collapses - has prompted successive owners to make proposals for various forms of restoration, but none of these have yet found favour with the planning authorities.
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| Hampton Gay Manor House before the fire of 1887 |
The estate was bought in the 1544 by John Barry (d. 1546) of Eynsham (Oxon) for £1,100, and his grandson, Vincent Barry (d. 1615), who inherited in 1577, seems to have been responsible for building the Elizabethan manor house. Regrettably it is not precisely dated, but it probably dates to the earlier years of his ownership in the 1580s. It was three-storied and constructed throughout of coursed rubble with freestone dressings.
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| Hampton Gay Manor House: ground plan. Image: University of London/VCH |
The south-facing main front was E-shaped, with a central two-storey battlemented porch between projecting gabled wings. The front was symmetrical except for the surviving large eight-light window of the hall to the left of the porch being balanced by only a shorter six-light window to its right.
The estate was sold by the Barry family in 1682 and in 1691 passed to the Hindes family who occupied it until the early 19th century. When the last of this family got into debt it was put up for sale in 1809 by their creditors, when it was described as 'a venerable Gothic mansion, which has been very substantially built of stone'. Several of the rooms were then said to be in 'an unfinished state' and the whole much neglected. The amenities included 'a garden, surrounded on three sides with brick and stone walls, lately built and planted'. It was subsequently put into repair again, and when the first extant photographs were taken of the house in about 1870, the interior retained many handsome chimney-pieces, and several of the rooms were nearly in their original state with some excellent oak panelling. The house was subdivided into two tenements soon afterwards, and when it was gutted by fire in April 1887 it was jointly occupied by a farmer and two paper manufacturers. Following the fire, the house was not restored, and the outbuildings, including a late 17th or early 18th century summerhouse, were also allowed to fall into ruin.
In 1928 the estate, complete with the ruined manor house, was sold to Col. S.L. Barry of Long Crendon (Bucks), who was a descendant of the family which had owned it from 1544 to 1682. Whether he had thoughts of reconstructing the house is not known, but an Arts & Crafts rebuilding at that time would probably have been very sympathetic, and T.G. Jackson had already proposed such a scheme in 1901. By 1975, when the house was bought by Jiri Fenton, an Oxford University employee who had been one of the 'Kindertransport' evacuees from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia at the start of the Second World War, the condition of the ruins was deteriorating. His plans to restore the house as a gesture to his adopted country were 'frustrated by red tape', and nothing had been done by 1990 when he sold the house to Christopher Buxton of nearby Kirtlington Park, whose firm 'Period and Country Houses Ltd' was one of the first to specialise in the sensitive subdivision of large country houses into apartments. He made proposals for restoration in 2006 (to the designs of Shaw & Jagger) and then in 2010 proposed a modernist house-within-a-house scheme apparently inspired by the award-winning Landmark Trust scheme at Astwell Castle. Neither project has secured permission, and in the forty-five years since I first saw the house there have been significant collapses of the walling. The building is now in the most urgent category on the Historic England Buildings at Risk register. One hopes that either a satisfactory restoration scheme can be agreed soon, or that the site can be transferred to English Heritage for preservation as a stable ruin: the former, surely, would be the preferable alternative.
Descent: Crown sold 1542 to Leonard Chamberlayne; sold 1544 to John Barry (d. 1546) of Eynsham; to son, Lawrence Barry (d. 1577); to son, Vincent Barry (d. 1615), who settled it on his daughter Katherine (d. 1663) and her husband Sir Edward Fenner (d. 1625), kt.; to cousin, Vincent Barry (1628-80) of Thame (Oxon); to son, Vincent Barry (1660-1708), who sold 1682 to Sir Richard Wenman (d. 1690), 4th Viscount Wenman; to widow, Katherine Wenman, Viscountess Wenman, who sold 1691 to William Hindes (d. 1706) of Priors Marston (Warks); to son, Thomas Hindes (d. 1718); to son, John Hindes (d. 1743); to brother, Rev. Thomas Hindes (d. 1768); to widow, Susannah Hindes (d. 1798); to cousin, Ann Hindes, later the wife of Henry Hill (d. 1803) and then Henry Huguenin, whose creditors foreclosed and sold 1809 to William Wilson (d. 1821); to son, Rev. William Wilson (1791-1867); given 1848 to son, Rev. William Wilson (1821-60), who sold 1849 to the tenant, Thomas Venables; sold 1862 to Wadham College, Oxford; sold 1928 to Col. Stanley Leonard Barry (d. 1943) of Long Crendon (Bucks); to daughter Jeanne Irene (1915-2008), wife of Hon. James Angus Grey McDonnell (1917-2004); sold 1975 to Jiri Fenton; sold 1990 to Christopher Buxton (1929-2017).
St. Leonards Hill, Clewer, Berkshire
This is one of those houses that is bedevilled by inconsistent and confusing nomenclature. It stands on a gentle natural acclivity which has long been known as St. Leonard's Hill, and which was indeed the subject of a poem of that title published in 1666, when there was probably no house here at all. The 18th century thought it 'one of the finest situations in England' since it commanded 'a most beautiful view of Windsor Castle and the adjoining country'. By the mid 18th century there were two large houses, close together.
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St Leonards Hill and St Leonards: the two adjoining estates shown on
the 1st edition 6" map surveyed in 1870-75, which shows St. Leonard's
Hill shortly before it was remodelled for Sir F.T. Barry. |
Since both properties were on St. Leonard's Hill, they were sometimes referred to by that name, but the more northerly may originally have been called Forest Lodge (although at least one other property in Windsor Forest had that name). It became, from 1761, the home of the Dowager Countess Waldegrave, and after her secret marriage to HRH the Duke of Gloucester became public knowledge in 1772, the house was commonly called Gloucester Lodge. This name stuck long after the Duke sold the estate in 1781, but after 1830 most references to the property call it 'St Leonard's Hill'. The more southerly house, known originally as The Hermitage, was also acquired by the Duke and was renamed by him Sophia Lodge, after his daughter by Lady Waldegrave. By the mid 19th century, however, Sophia Lodge had become 'St Leonards', which survives in altered form as the offices of Legoland.
The first house on the site of St. Leonard's Hill seems to have been built around 1700 as a hunting lodge for the royal family. It was probably used only for lunches or other entertainments and not intended for permanent occupation, although during the Seven Years War, William Pitt as Secretary of State used it as a retreat from the stress of managing the conduct of the war. The house was sold in the mid-1760s to Horace Walpole's niece, the young and beautiful Countess Waldegrave, who was widowed after only four years of marriage in 1763. In 1766 Lady Waldegrave married King George III's younger brother, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, although the marriage was kept quiet for six years because the couple realised that Lady Waldegrave's illegitimacy would make her unacceptable as a royal wife. With the passage of the Royal Marriages Act in 1772, the Duke was forced to tell the King and the couple were banished from the court and from Windsor Castle and left in greatly straitened circumstances; the Duke was not reconciled to his brother until 1778. This sequence of events means that the most likely period for the remodelling of the house at St. Leonard's Hill by Thomas Sandby for the Duke and Duchess was between 1766 when they were married, and 1772. Not long after the reconciliation, in 1781, the Duke and his wife moved away from Windsor and sold the house, perhaps because their residence there held too many unhappy memories, although it was also the place where their children were born.
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| St Leonard's Hill: engraving of 1780 showing the house from the south-east, with Windsor Castle in the background, from the London Magazine. |
The earliest known view of Gloucester Lodge is probably an engraving published in the London Magazine in 1780 showing it from the south-east. This viewpoint had the advantage of showing off the prospect from the house, with Windsor Castle in the middle distance, but it meant that the older part of the house was in the foreground, and only the end elevation of Sandby's then recent addition was visible. The artist has compressed the house so that it appears taller and narrower than it would have been in reality and this needs to be borne in mind in comparing this view with others. What is shown seems to be a two-and-a-half storey house with a hipped roof and single-bay projecting wings at either end. At a later date, possibly as part of Sandby's alterations, a colonnade had been built between the wings and a classical orangery with a curious vestigial pediment set against a rooftop balustrade added to the left.
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| St Leonard's Hill: detail of J.P. Neale's view of the house in 1818. |
A later view of 1818, showing the house from a distance, modifies the impression somewhat. This view suggests erroneously that Sandby's block projected forward of the old house on the south. It shows the old house as longer and lower than the 1780 view (an impression enhanced by the trees that obscure the view of the ground floor). Although the features which appear as wings in the 1780 view are still there, they look more pavilions at either end of the old house. Neither view is wholly reliable, and both compare interestingly with a third view, also dated 1780, and painted by the 7-year-old Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, which shows the house from the north-east. Thomas Sandby's new seven bay, two-storey front is nearest the observer, with the rest of the house stretching away behind. Both 1780 drawings show a structure on the rooftop of the Sandby block, although its form seems very different in the two views, while the older part of the house looks more like the 1818 engraving in the Prince's drawing. One has to take the three views together to begin to form an impression of what the house was really like.
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| St Leonard's Hill: an engraving of 1824 from Ackermann's Repository of the Arts. |
In 1783 St. Leonards Hill was acquired by Gen. William Harcourt, who succeeded his brother as 3rd Earl Harcourt in 1809. From 1793 he was also Thomas Sandby's successor as Deputy Ranger of Windsor Forest, a post which he held until his death in 1830. It is evident from a view published in 1824 that he made some changes to the house, since the classical colonnade on the south front visible in earlier views has been replaced by one with coupled columns supporting a balustraded terrace, and behind this are visible some elaborately glazed Gothick windows, which must have belonged to the "long Gothic room" mentioned in the 1872 sale particulars for the house. Another and more significant change, which seems not to have been previously noticed, is that whereas Prince Augustus shows the Sandby block having a flat seven-bay front, and a view by James Hakewill suggests that this was still true in the early 19th century, map evidence makes it clear that the house later acquired two large canted bays on the Sandby front. The ceilings of Sandby's interiors must have been adapted to accommodate this change.
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| St Leonard's Hill: the drawing room in 1918. Image: Country Life. |
The interiors of Sandby's block happily survived to be photographed by Country Life in 1918, shortly before the demolition of the house. In contrast with the relatively plain exterior, the interiors were quite richly decorated, especially the drawing room, which had a ceiling in the Adam style, fine arched doorcases with neo-classical decoration in the tympanums, a marble fireplace and a deep ornamented frieze. The drawing room was connected by an ante-room (used as a music room) to the more austerely treated dining room, where the decoration was concentrated on the frieze and the sideboard recess, which had a mirrored back with neo-classical decoration. A description of 1872, when the house was put up for sale, says the house was "entered through a portico, and contains a spacious hall, occupying the centre of the house, and opening to a fine suite of reception rooms." This makes sense of the lantern over the centre of the house, which is visible in all the views of the house, although they do not agree on its form. It must have allowed light into the central hall, perhaps through a screen open to a staircase under the lantern.
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| St. Leonard's Hill: the dining room in 1918. Image: Country Life. |
When Lord Harcourt died, aged 87, in 1830, he left no children or widow and his complex will entailed the house on his widowed sister and her descendants, on the conditions that all those who came into possession should be or become Protestants and should live in England and not go abroad for more than six months at a time except for a military or diplomatic posting. The conditions were no doubt stimulated by the fact that Harcourt's sister had married a French relative, the Marquise d'Harcourt, but they did not succeed in making the family full-time residents, and after the Earl's sister died in 1846 the house was usually let, with the tenants including the 14th Earl of Derby, who was probably resident during his brief first time as Prime Minister in 1852. In 1850 the main stable block burned down, and although it was insured, the Harcourts did not consider it necessary to replace the building, which is perhaps evidence that the place was not highly regarded by them.
In 1872 the house was sold to Francis Tress Barry MP with 230 acres for the substantial sum of £59,100, and was described in some detail in the sale particulars:
The estate which surrounds the mansion consists principally of naturally beautiful park-lands, of wild and forest-like character, embellished by a rich growth of timber, including profusion of grand old oaks and other forest trees of singular beauty. From various points, views are commanded of the surrounding country, extending to a great distance, and the home view from the mansion, overlooking Windsor Castle, with the adjacent forest, produces a highly panoramic effect. The mansion presents a handsome elevation on a unique site. It is entered through a portico, and contains a spacious hall, occupying the centre of the house, and opening to a fine suite of reception rooms, comprising a dining room, 43ft. by 23ft. 10in., connected with an ante drawing room, about 21ft. square, leading to a drawing-room, 43ft. by 23ft. 10in., all opening to the hall. At a garden entrance a colonnade conducts to a conservatory; also on the ground floor is a long Gothic room and two chambers; on the first landing, approached by stone staircase, is billiard room, and on the chamber floors are three large airy chambers, with dressing rooms, a boudoir, five secondary bedrooms, two dressing rooms, seven servants' rooms, and various closets and conveniences... The pleasure grounds afford extensive shrubbery walks about a pleasant lawn on the south front of the mansion, whence fine views are commanded over Windsor Forest to hills.
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| St. Leonard's Hill: the large new house built for Francis Tress Barry in 1875-76. On the right can be seen the surviving part of the previous house. This view is taken from much the same position as the first picture above. Image: Historic England. |
Francis Tress Barry MP was a partner in Mason & Barry, who made a fortune from copper mining in Portugal. Although there were landed gentry in his ancestry, his immediate origins were bourgeois and commercial, and he had spent many years living abroad. It is therefore perhaps no great surprise that when he commissioned a further remodelling of the house by C.H. Howell in 1875-76, he went for something brash and continentally-inspired. What is slightly unexpected is that he retained the Sandby block of the existing house, but he pulled down the rest and replaced it with a rambling and unrestrained French Renaissance house with steep pavilion roofs and a square Italianate tower. The new house had a large top-lit octagonal central hall with a double-armed staircase rising beyond it to the first floor which was lined with huge slabs of Mexican onyx.
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| St Leonard's Hill: the central hall and staircase. Image: Historic England. |
When Sir Francis Barry (as he had become) died in 1907, St. Leonard's Hill passed to his son, Sir Edward Barry, who had made his home not far away at Ockwells Manor, which was much more to his refined antiquarian taste than his father's house, which he cordially loathed. His efforts to sell St Leonard's Hill were unsuccessful, and it continued to be occupied by his widowed mother until her death in 1926. After that he sold the estate for building development and pulled down most of the house soon afterwards. In 1941 the surviving shell and surrounding grounds were acquired were acquired by Reg Try, who planted camellias in the grounds and allowed local people to visit the garden and look at the view. Further demolition took place in the 1970s, and only fragmentary ruins remain today, when the site is no longer accessible to the public.
Descent: sold c.1764 to Maria (1736-1807), Dowager Countess Waldegrave and later wife of HRH Prince William (1743-1805), Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh; sold 1781 to John McNamara; sold 1783 to Gen. William Harcourt (1743-1830), 3rd Earl Harcourt; to sister, Sophie, Marquise d'Harcourt (1771-1846); to son, William Bertram Harcourt (1801-47), Marquis d'Harcourt; to Louis Bernard Harcourt, Comte d'Harcourt; who sold 1872 to Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Edward Arthur Barry (1858-1949), 2nd bt.; land sold and largely demolished, c.1927; site sold 1941 to Reg Try. The house was leased in the mid 19th century to tenants including the Earl of Derby and Mr Moffatt MP.
Ockwells Manor, Maidenhead, Berkshire
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner's description of Ockwells as 'perhaps the most refined and sophisticated late medieval timber-framed house in England' is frequently quoted, and if a cynic might suggest that the house is just a little too good to be true, the restorations have on the whole been sympathetic and tactful, even if one wishes that the restorers had merely repaired and not tried to improve what was there.
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| Ockwells Manor: the entrance front in 1928. Image: Historic England BB51/1696. |
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| Ockwells Manor: site plan, after Anthony Emery, op. cit. |
Ockwells was built in about 1450-65 for Sir John Norreys, Master of the Wardrobe to King Henry VI and later Edward IV; work was substantially but not totally complete when he wrote his will in 1465, leaving £40 to finish the chapel and chambers adjoining it (probably the south range of the outer court). A plan or aerial view shows that there are substantial remains of the buildings around outer and base courts, which together form an isosceles trapezoid space some 220 feet long and 140 feet wide. The complex is entered through an open carriageway under a timber-framed gatehouse, set between the stables forming the south range of the base court and the surviving south wall of the outer court, which originally belonged to a lodging range and chapel. The position of the gatehouse makes it unlikely, though not impossible, that there was ever a range dividing the outer court from the base court. A large barn closes the eastern end of the base court, and a circular dovecote marks its north-eastern corner. Part of the lodging range on the north side of the outer court still survived in 1859, but was probably demolished soon afterwards. The lodging range and chapel on the south side of the outer court are said to have been destroyed by fire in 1720.
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| Ockwells Manor: engraving of the house published in 1859, showing the entrance front before the Victorian bay and oriel windows were added, and also showing (extreme right) part of the north lodging range of the outer court, since demolished. |
The house itself faces east over the outer court and base court. Its main front consists of a hall range with flanking wings, and the huge bay window of the hall is balanced by the porch giving access to the screens passage. Most elements of the design of this show front are original, including the intricately-carved barge-boards and the hall windows. The roofs are of red tiles throughout, and the walls are laid on a brick sill but box-framed with brick infill laid in a herringbone pattern, which must always have been designed to be exposed rather than plastered over (the interior face of the infill is, however, plaster).
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Ockwells Manor: the courtyard behind the hall.
Image: Historic England CC56/328 |
Behind the hall is a small courtyard, with a two-storey timber cloister running round it on two sides, lit by a continuous strip of windows with broad arch-headed lights, a highly unusual feature probably inspired by the Cloister Court in nearby Eton College, which is almost contemporary with Ockwells. The cloister no doubt continued round the north side originally, but this portion was lost when the staircase was built in the Jacobean period. The kitchen, buttery and pantry stood at the back of the courtyard rather than in the conventional position off the screens passage, and were approached through the cloister, and this allowed the south wing of the house to be used for other purposes. The large hall (42 x 24 feet) is entered through the original plain wooden screen, and is open to the roof, which is carried on moulded posts and has arched braces supporting collar-beams and a single tier of wind-braces. The stone chimneypiece, with a four-centered arch, seems to be originally too. The large windows of the hall and the bay at its dais end contain a famous and largely intact scheme of heraldic glass, perhaps by the king's glazier, John Prudde, demonstrating Norreys' Lancastrian allegiance (which does not seem to have stopped him serving Henry's Yorkist successor, King Edward IV) and his local and family connections.
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| Ockwells Manor: the interior of the great hall painted by Joseph Nash, c.1840. The hall was actually divided horizontally at this time. Image: British Museum. Some rights reserved. |
Beyond the hall is the a large room which was no doubt originally the great parlour, but which has subsequently been used as both a drawing room and dining room by different owners. This has a 15th century ceiling and chimneypiece, although the frieze of lozenges and Tudor roses was possibly a later addition, as was the panelling and the overmantel. Above this room, in the former solar, there is another 15th century chimneypiece (with a later overmantel) and an original queenpost roof.
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Ockwells Manor: the 17th century staircase as resited and
remodelled in 1904. |
Alterations were made to the house between 1583 and 1625 for William Day, who inserted two- and three-light Elizabethan windows into the wings of the entrance front in place of the original timber bays and oriels, and built a handsome Jacobean staircase into the north side of the courtyard. By Victorian times the house had been tenanted for many years and had became almost derelict. It formed an early case for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which fiercely opposed the restoration carried out by Fairfax Wade in 1889-93 for Sir Stephen Leech, although he was a great deal more sympathetic than most architects of the time would have been. He widened the four-centred arch of the porch and restored the oriel window on the left-hand gable-end and the two-storey bay on the right-hand wing based on good evidence that these features had existed originally. The tracery is unhistorical and clearly invented, though very attractive. Inside, he found the hall divided horizontally by a later ceiling, which he removed so as to restore the original proportions and reveal the fine roof. He also moved the Jacobean staircase to the old kitchen. In 1893 the house was sold to another enthusiastic antiquarian, Sir Edward Barry, who continued the restoration and added a new range of offices and staff quarters at the north-west angle in 1904. The windows on the north, west and south sides of the house were all repaired or replaced as part of this work. He turned the former buttery and pantry into a new billiard room (later a library) and introduced a chimneypiece dated 1673, although it looks earlier. He also redecorated the Music Room in the south range with Spanish leather wall coverings and a carved stone chimneypiece dated 1601, which is again imported. Finally, the staircase was moved a second time, to its present location north of the courtyard.
In 1942, Sir Edward offered to sell the house with 600 acres to the National Trust for £75,000, and it was inspected by James Lees-Milne. The Trust's country houses scheme was then in its infancy, but already it was clear that the Trust could not acquire properties by purchase or even as a gift without a significant endowment, which Sir Edward was not in a position to provide. He had already rejected an offer of £75,000 from an American millionaire and a lower offer of £40,000 from Ernest Cook (who might have given it to the Trust, as he did Montacute House). Clearly Sir Edward was anxious for the house and the collection of armour and furniture which had formed to be kept together, and when he died without finding a trustworthy new owner, he instructed that the house should be sold and the purchaser be encouraged to also buy the contents; he also gave the National Trust restrictive covenants on the house and some of the associated land. In 1963 the then owner of the house offered to give the house to the Trust with an appropriate endowment on condition that the Trust first waived its covenant on some of the land so as to permit its development for housing, which would in turn pay for the endowment. This offer was also rejected, and there have been several further attempts since to develop parts of the protected land, not least in 1980, when Bovis Homes Ltd obtained planning permission to build 120 houses on land to which covenants applied, resulting in a landmark case in which the Trust successfully defended its covenants. In 1973, Lees-Milne took the architectural historian John Cornforth to see the house, who considered that the house was 'an over-restored fake' and as such not sufficiently important for the Trust to acquire. The view now might be very different, even if the house tells us as much about late Victorian romanticism as it does about the 15th century. The house was restored again in 1986, and is on the market at the time of writing.
Descent: Sir William Norreys (d. c.1446); to son, Sir John Norreys (d. 1466); to widow, Margaret (d. 1495), later wife of John Howard (d. 1485), 1st Duke of Norfolk; to son, Sir William Norreys (d. 1510); to grandson, John Norreys, who granted it to trustees for his younger brother as a condition of his pardon for murder in 1517; one of the trustees, Sir Thomas Fettiplace (d. 1525) gained possession; to daughter, Katherine (d. 1579) later wife of Sir Francis Englefield; to cousin, Sir John Fettiplace (d. 1580); to son, Bessels Fettiplace, who leased it to Thomas Ridley and others; sold 1587 to Rt. Rev. William Day (1529-96), provost of Eton and later Bishop of Winchester; to son, William Day (d. 1628?), whose descendants were still resident in 1749. The freehold is less easy to trace. It was, however, acquired by the Finches of Hertfordshire about 1679, and was bought from that family in 1786 by Penyston Portlock Powney, whose representative held it in 1813. It was purchased by the Grenfells and sold by Lord Desborough in 1893 to Sir Edward Arthur Barry (1858-1949), 2nd bt.; sold c.1952...sold <1986 to Brian Stein; for sale, 2020.
Great Witchingham Hall, Norfolk
At the core of this now largely 19th century house is a modest late Elizabethan building, probably built for Christopher Layer (d. 1600) of Norwich, who bought the estate in about 1576. His house is now most clearly visible on the south front, where the porch and two adjoining bays are fairly unaltered, although there is a suggestion in the brickwork that the house originally had straight gables.
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Great Witchingham Hall: a photograph of 1955 showing the centre
of the south front, which represents the likely extent of the Elizabethan house.
Image: Historic England |
All three bays have mullioned and transomed windows, and low-pitched pediments above the windows in the way that was locally fashionable in Norfolk and adjoining parts of Suffolk at the end of the 16th century. The rest of the south front was greatly altered by an unknown architect in 1812 for Timothy Thompson. If the gables were originally straight, this is probably when they were replaced by the present stepped gables, and a new two-storey wing was built out to the south, which also has stepped gables and pedimented windows. The date of the wing is given away chiefly by the sash windows which occur between the pedimented ones, and by the extra fancy touch of the pilasters separating the bays which are carried up into crocketed finials above the roofline.
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Great Witchingham Hall: the south front in 1964, showing the 1812 wing on the left.
Image: Alastair Rowan/Historic England |
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| Great Witchingham Hall: the north front in about 1860, before the alterations of 1871-72. Image: Jane Terry |
The north front was altered at the same time, and a photograph of about 1860 (above) suggests that it was probably originally similar to the south front. On this side, however, the early 19th century alterations reshaped the central porch into a tower with larger Gothic windows on the first and second floors. There is also the evidence of a drawing (which survives only in the damaged photograph below) showing the Gothic porch tower in place but other elements of the house absent or distorted.
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Great Witchingham Hall: a drawing of the north front, probably of the early
19th century, which is difficult to reconcile with the photograph above.
Image: Jane Terry. |
This view may not differ quite as much from the photograph as at first appears, for the three-bay block on the right in the photograph may have been turned through 90 degrees in the drawing to appear as a wing. The low height of the ground and first floors of this block in the photograph suggests that it may have incorporated older work: perhaps an early service wing.
The preceding paragraph offers so much conjecture because in 1871-72 the north front of the house was radically remodelled for Henry Kett-Thompson in a showy neo-Elizabethan style. The architect - again unknown - developed the existing porch into a broad canted bay and built another one two bays to the west to balance it, which now has the entrance porch on its ground floor. Elements of the facade which existed in 1860 are still recognisable: for example, the ground floor of the left-hand bay of the facade and the low two-storey block with pedimented windows at the right-hand end seem to be unchanged.
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| Great Witchingham Hall: the north front in the 1950s. Image: Historic England |
As a result of the extensive remodellings in 1812 and 1871-72 very little original work survives inside, and most of what is Jacobean comes from elsewhere: for example a good fireplace of 1609 with female figures against the overmantel, which came from Bacon's House, Colegate, Norwich, and some panelling which seems to have been removed from Kirstead Hall. Most of the interiors have simple classical or neo-Jacobean detailing.
When the house was sold by the Barrys in 1955 it was in poor condition. It was famously bought by the turkey farmer and entrepreneur, Bernard Matthews (d. 2010), who initially reared his birds in part of the house. After a few years, however, the increasing scale of his operation required the construction of a large purpose-built hatchery adjoining the house to the west, and the house itself became the offices for Bernard Matthews Ltd.
Descent: sold c.1576 to Christopher Layer (d. 1600); to grandson, Thomas Layer (fl. 1649); to son, Christopher Layer (fl. 1649); sold 1649 to Oliver Le Neve (c.1600-78); to nephew, Oliver Le Neve (1662-1711); to brother Peter Le Neve (d. 1729), Norroy King of Arms; passed under the terms of a reversionary sale to John Norris... sold about 1810 to Timothy Tompson (1748-1819); to son, Charles Kett Tompson (1811-51); to brother, Henry Kett Tompson (Kett-Tompson from 1871) (1812-72); to sister, Georgiana (1818-99), wife of John Henry Manners-Sutton, 3rd Viscount Canterbury (1814-77); to son, Henry Charles Manners-Sutton (1839-1914), 4th Viscount Canterbury; sold by 1896 to John Reginald Hargreaves (1864-1934); sold 1902 to William James Barry (1864-1952); to son, Lt-Col. Gerald Barry (1896-1977), who sold 1955 to Bernard Matthews (d. 2010).
Barry family of Hampton Gay etc.
Barry, John (d. 1546). Son of Richard Barry of Eynsham (Oxon), glover, and his wife Agnes, daughter of Richard Merry of Eynsham. He seems to have started his career as a glover but he was not at first a member of the Glovers Guild in Oxford, since they objected to him setting up in business in the city in 1536. He evidently joined the guild later as (or perhaps because) he built the Glovers Chapel in All Saints church, Oxford. He was evidently wealthy, since he was the highest contributor in Oxford to the subsidy of 1543, paying 66 shillings. Alderman of Oxford, 1537-46 and Mayor for two consecutive years, 1539-41. By the time he died he was sheep farming on a large scale at Eynsham and was probably a wool merchant as well. He married 1st, Margaret [surname unknown] and 2nd, Elyn [surname unknown], and had issue:
(2.1) Laurence Barry (d. 1577) (q.v.);
(2.2) George Barry;
(2.3) Richard Barry;
(2.4) Agnes Barry; married Richard Daubeny of Cirencester (Glos).
He lived at Eynsham (Oxon), where he inherited a small property from his father, but in 1536 he settled in Oxford. He purchased further lands around Eynsham (much of it former monastic land) and in 1544 bought the manor of Hampton Gay for £1,100.
He died in 1546; his will was proved 15 September 1546. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife's date of death is unknown.
Barry, Laurence (d. 1577). Eldest son of John Barry (d. 1546) and his second wife Elyn. He married Jane or Joan (d. 1558?), daughter of Richard Buckner of Whitley (Berks), and had issue, possibly among others:
(1) Vincent Barry (1548?-1615);
(2) Anthony Barry; died without issue;
(3) Francis Barry (d. 1604) (q.v.);
(4) John Barry; died without issue;
He seems to have lived at Cumnor but inherited his father's property at Eynsham and Hampton Gay in 1546.
He died in 1577, and an inquisition post mortem was held. His wife is said to have been buried at St Mary, Oxford, 12 May 1558.
Barry, Vincent (1548?-1615). Eldest son of Laurence Barry (d. 1577) and his wife Jane alias Joan, daughter of Richard Buckner of Whitley (Berks), said to have been born at Cumnor (Berks), 4 September 1548. He was the target of an anti-enclosure riot at Hampton Gay in 1596 in which many of his estate servants were involved, and the ringleader of whom was executed. He married, c.1580, Anne (d. 1623), daughter of John Denton of Ambrosden (Oxon), and had issue:
(1) Margaret Barry (b. c.1582); died young;
(2) Catherine Barry (c.1584-1663); married, 1598, Sir Edward Fenner (d. 1625), kt.; died aged 79 on 24 September and was buried at Hampton Gay, 5 October 1663, where she is commemorated on her parents' monument.
He inherited Hampton Gay from his father in 1577 and built a new manor house there, probably in the 1580s. In 1598, on the marriage of his daughter, he conveyed the manor to trustees, to his own use for his life, and then to his daughter and son-in-law and their heirs. In 1613, however, he surrendered the manor to the Fenners in return for annuities, totalling £63 6s. 8d., for himself and his wife, and for their maintenance in the manor-house for life. In 1657 Katherine settled the reversion of Hampton Gay at her death on her cousin Vincent Barry (1628-80) of Thame.
He died in 1615 and was buried at Hampton Gay, where he and his wife are commemorated by an elaborate monument which she erected, according to which their marriage lasted 35 years. His wife was buried at Hampton Gay, 30 April 1623.
Barry, Francis (d. 1604). Third son of Lawrence Barry (d. 1577) and his wife Jane, daughter of Richard Buckner of Whitley (Berks). He married Frances, daughter of Edward Croft MP of Croft Castle (Herefs), and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Barry; married, c.1619, Thomas Deane alias Adeane (d. 1641) of Chalgrove (Oxon), and had issue;
(2) Vincent Barry (1598-1666) (q.v.);
(3) Christopher Barry (c.1600-c.1670), born about 1600; citizen of London; inherited non-manorial lands at Hampton Gay from his father and was given the manorial rights by his elder brother for a term of years in 1657 in return for an annuity; married, 1 January 1628/9 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, Sarah, daughter of Roger Clarke, and had issue; will proved at Oxford, 1670.
He lived at Thame (Oxon).
He died in 1604 and was buried at Thame; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 May 1604. His widow married 2nd, 21 December 1612 at Thame, Michael Saunders of Thame; her date of death is unknown.
Barry, Vincent (1598-1666). Elder son of Francis Barry (d. 1604) and his wife Frances, daughter of Edward Croft MP of Croft Castle (Herefs), born 1598. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1615; BA 1617) and Grays Inn (admitted 1620). Steward of the manor of Thame and of King's Manor, Princes Risborough (Bucks); JP for Oxfordshire during the Commonwealth (although he refused to act in 1650) and a signatory to a loyal address from Oxfordshire to the Lord Protector Cromwell in 1656. He was active on local commissions from the 1640s continuously until his death, and does not seem to have suffered any loss of favour at the Restoration. He married Elizabeth (b. 1599), daughter of Robert Scroope of Wormsley (Oxon), and had issue:
(1) Margaret Barry (1626-1706); married, 1 March 1648 at Thame (Oxon), Edward Oakley (d. 1670) of Great Wolford (Warks) and had issue at least two sons and two daughters; died 2 June 1706 and was buried at Great Wolford;
(2) Vincent Barry (1628-79) (q.v.);
(3) Robert Barry (b. 1629); received a legacy from his father in 1666 'to buy him an office in the custom house or to imploye otherwise for his best advantage to gett him a livelihood'; married Mary [surname unknown]; died before 1694;
(4) Rev. Francis Barry (1632-94), baptised at Thame, 10 May 1632; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1650; BA 1652); Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford (MA 1656); vicar of Kingsey (Bucks), 1666-94; died 25 January 1694/5 and was buried at Kingsey where he is commemorated by a monument; will proved 1 March 1694/5;
(5) Adrian Barry (b. 1635), baptised at Thame, 12 February 1634/5; citizen and silk mercer of London, and later 'a writer in the Will office'; married, before 1659, [name unknown] and had issue; living in 1692;
(6) Elizabeth Barry (1637-39), baptised at Thame, 7 June 1637; died young and was buried at Thame, 17 June 1639;
(7) Sarah Barry (b. 1640), baptised at Thame, 29 October 1640; living in 1666;
(8) Katherine Barry (1642-59); said to have been born 1642, and died young and was buried at Thame, 19 August 1659.
He inherited the manor of Hampton Gay from his cousin, Katherine, Lady Fenner, in 1663, but settled it on his brother Christopher for eleven years in return for an annuity. He leased the manor house in Thame (Oxon) from Edward Wray from c.1626 and lived there. He also purchased the Abbots' Manor in Princes Risborough in 1624, though he would seem to have sold this during the Civil War.
He died 19 July 1666 and was buried at Thame; his will was proved 24 January 1666/7. His widow was living in 1666 but her date of death is unknown.
Barry, Vincent (1628-80). Eldest son of Vincent Barry (1598-1666) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Scrope of Wormsley (Oxon), born 1628. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1647/8). Barrister-at-law. JP for Oxfordshire. He married, October 1657 at Hampton Gay, Jane, daughter of Thomas Southby of Stanford-in-the-Vale (Berks), and had issue:
(1) Vincent Barry (1660-1708) (q.v.);
(2) Francis Barry (1661-62), baptised at Thame, 3 January 1661/2; died in infancy and was buried at Thame, 5 August 1662;
(3) Elizabeth Barry (b. 1663), baptised at Hampton Gay, 24 February 1662/3; living in 1690;
(4) Thomas Barry (b. & d. 1664), baptised at Hampton Gay, 6 February 1663/4; died in infancy and was buried at Hampton Gay the following day;
(5) Mary Barry (b. 1665), baptised at Hampton Gay, 15 March 1664/5; living in 1690;
(6) Philip Barry (1666-77), baptised at Hampton Gay, 27 April 1666; died young and was buried at Hampton Gay, 22 September 1677;
(7) Thomas Barry (b. 1667), baptised at Hampton Gay, 3 July 1667; probably died young and certainly before 1690;
(8) Jane Barry (b. 1668), baptised at Hampton Gay, 3 September 1668; living in 1690;
(9) Frances Barry (1670-72), baptised at Hampton Gay, 4 March 1669/70; died in infancy and was buried at Hampton Gay, 10 February 1671/2;
(10) Margaret Barry (b. 1672), baptised at Hampton Gay, 7 May 1672; living in 1690;
(11) Rev. Robert Barry (b. 1675), baptised at Hampton Gay, 11 August 1675; educated at Merton College, Oxford (matriculated 1694; BCL 1700); ordained deacon, 1701 and priest, 1701; obtained an Act of Parliament for the sale of part of his estate to clear his debts, 1705; vicar of Northfleet (Kent), 1708-20; married Anne [surname unknown] and had issue; dead by 1723.
He inherited the reversion of Hampton Gay Manor from his father in 1666.
He was buried in the chancel at Hampton Gay, 28 February 1679/80; administration of specified chattels was granted to Edward Barry of Hampton Gay, 18 March 1685/6. His widow was living in 1690.
Barry, Rev. Vincent (1660-1708). Son of Vincent Barry (1628-80) and his wife Jane, daughter of Thomas Southby of Stanford-in-the-Vale (Berks), baptised 25 May 1660. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1676/7; BA 1679/80; MA 1683) and Inner Temple (admitted 1682). Ordained priest, 1685. Appointed Reader at Fulham, 1689, and at the request of the parish vestry to the bishop of London appointed Vicar of Fulham, 1691-1708. He married, before 1694, Rebecca (d. 1713) [surname unknown], and had issue:
(1) Vincent Barry (1694-95), baptised at Fulham, 1 November 1694; died in infancy and was buried at Fulham, 7 April 1695;
(2) Jane Barry (1695-1701), baptised at Fulham, 22 October 1695; died young and was buried at Fulham, 13 December 1701;
(3) Elizabeth Barry (b. 1696; fl. 1763), baptised at Fulham, 8 March 1696; married [forename unknown] Allen; living in 1763;
(4) Francis Barry (b. 1698), baptised at Fulham, 8 September 1698;
(5) Vincent Barry (b. & d. 1700), baptised at Fulham, 20 June 1700; died in infancy and was buried at Fulham, 18 October 1700;
(6) Robert Barry (b. 1701), baptised at Fulham, 13 December 1701;
(7) John Barry (1702-63) (q.v.);
(8) Philip Barry (1706-68?), baptised at Fulham, 11 December 1706; perhaps the man of this name buried at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 6 April 1768.
He inherited Hampton Gay Manor from his father in 1679, but sold it in 1682.
He died 3 December and was buried at Fulham, 5 December 1708. His widow died in 1713.
Barry, John (1702-63). Fifth son of Rev. Vincent Barry (1660-1708) and his wife Rebecca [surname unknown], baptised at Fulham, 3 September 1702. Merchant and goldsmith in London. He married 1st, perhaps 9 July 1726 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, Sarah Knowles, and 2nd, 23 February 1760 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, Mary Culwick (1734-1816), and had issue:
(2.1) John Barry (1762-1830) (q.v.).
He lived in King St., Aldgate, London.
He died between April and July 1763; his will proved 16 July 1763. His widow died in Henrietta St., Bloomsbury, and was buried at St. George, Bloomsbury, 2 April 1816.
Barry, John (1762-1830). Only son of John Barry (1702-63) and his second wife, Mary Culwick, baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 18 July 1762. Silk mercer in the Minories, London; member of the worshipful company of Goldsmiths. He married 1st, 13 June 1784 at St Botolph without Aldgate, Elizabeth Jackson, and 2nd, 1789 (licence 28 July), Elizabeth Lewis (1765-1828) of London, and had issue:
(1.1) John Barry (b. 1785), born 4 April and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, 2 May 1785; married, 4 February 1810 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, Sophia Monteri, widow; death not traced;
(1.2) William Barry (1786-1824), born 27 August and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, 25 September 1786; admitted to freedom of city of London, 1807; died at Ingress Park (Kent), 31 July and was buried at St Botolph without Aldgate, 7 August 1824;
(1.3) Frederick Barry (1788-1834), born 23 October and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, 11 December 1788; admitted to freedom of city of London, 1818; ship broker of Mincing Lane, London, in partnership with his half-brother, Charles (1790-1866); lived latterly at Upper Bedford Place, Russell Sq., Bloomsbury; married, 23 May 1814 at Wapping (Middx), Mary Ann (b. c.1790), daughter of Samuel Wegener, and had issue one son and four daughters; died 9 March and was buried at St Botolph without Aldgate, 17 March 1834;
(2.1) Charles Barry (1790-1866) (q.v.);
(2.2) Elizabeth Barry (b. 1792), born 21 March and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 3 May 1792; probably died young;
(2.3) Elizabeth Barry (b. 1794), born 17 March and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 21 May 1794;
(2.4) Carolina Barry (b. 1796), born 18 September 1796 and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, 9 January 1798;
(2.5) Walter Rawlins Barry (1803-43), born 27 January and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, 6 May 1803; admitted to freedom of city of London, 1826; drug and spice broker in Broad St., London (insolvent, 1832, but continued in business); died Oct-Dec 1843;
(2.6) Emily French Barry (1805-75), born 9 February 1805 and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 7 January 1808; married, 25 January 1841 at St George, Bloomsbury, London, Alfred Harrington of Stockford (Essex), surgeon, son of John Frederick Pegson Harrington, music master; died 28 October 1875; will proved 23 December 1875;
(2.7) Harriet Jackson Barry (1807-55), born 6 March 1807 and baptised at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 7 January 1808; married, 14 June 1845 at St George, Bloomsbury, Henry Bourne Downing, wine merchant, son of George William Downing, wine merchant, and had issue one daughter; buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, 17 April 1855; will proved 7 May 1855;
He lived at 118 Minories Court, London and later in Montagu St., Bloomsbury.
He was buried at St Botolph without Aldgate, London, 23 February 1830; administration of his goods (with will annexed) was granted 13 March 1830. His first wife died by 1789. His second wife died in 1828.
Barry, Charles (1790-1866). Eldest son of John Barry (1762-1830) and his second wife Elizabeth Lewis, born 28 June and baptised at St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London, 3 August 1790. Ship broker and wharfinger in London, at first in partnership with his half-brother Frederick (d. 1834), and later with some of his sons. He married, 22 August 1820 at Brede (Sussex), Harriet (1798-1862), daughter of Robert Ades of Brede Place (Sussex) and had issue:
(1) Charlotte Barry (1821-1903?), born 10 June and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., London, 18 June 1821; lived latterly at Fonthill Cottage, Dorking (Surrey); died unmarried, 29 October 1903 and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 3 November 1903; will proved 16 December 1903 (estate £2,528);
(2) Elizabeth Ann Barry (1822-87), born 14 October 1822 and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 8 January 1823; married, 2 October 1850 at St Peter, Walworth (Surrey), James Herbert Smith (1819-91) of Greenwich (Kent), son of Vere Herbert Smith esq., and had issue two sons and four daughters; buried at Norwood Cemetery, 23 July 1887;
(3) Fanny Barry (1824-87), born 5 January and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 5 February 1824; said to have died unmarried, 17 July 1887;
(4) Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(5) Charles Barry (1826-1903), born 5 August and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 5 September 1826; tea broker; married, 20 August 1851 at Peckham (Surrey), Amelia Atkins (1826-97), and had issue three sons and five daughters; died suddenly on 24 April and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 29 April 1903; will proved 26 May 1903 (effects £583);
(6) John George Barry (1827-97), born 21 October and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 22 November 1827; chartered accountant and partner in firm of Barry Bros., merchants; married, 21 August 1862 at Ash near Sandwich (Kent), Mary Jane (1825-1924), daughter of Charles Delmar of Ash, gent., and had issue two sons and one daughter; died at Upper Norwood (Surrey), 4 December 1897; will proved 21 December 1897 (effects £13,881);
(7) Alfred Barry (1828-1902), born 13 October and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 13 November 1828; wharfinger and partner in the firm of Barry Bros., merchants; married 1st, 12 October 1853 at Tenterden (Kent), Ann Lydia (1827-55), daughter of William Curteis of Eastwell House, Tenterden, and had issue one daughter (who died in infancy); married 2nd, 16 February 1858 at Ash (Kent), Ellen (1831-1901), daughter of Charles Delmar of Ash, gent., and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Goudhurst (Kent), 27 December 1902; will proved 7 March 1903 (estate £241);
(8) Helen Barry (1829-1919), born 1 December and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 31 December 1829; died unmarried at Richmond (Surrey), 9 February 1919; administration of goods granted 9 February 1919 (estate £230);
(9) Harriet Barry (1831-99), born 1 January and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 3 February 1831; lived latterly at Woodvale Lodge, Forest Hill (Surrey); died unmarried and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 6 December 1899; will proved 23 December 1899 (estate £1,584);
(10) Louisa Barry (1832-52), born 6 April and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 3 May 1832; died unmarried, 17 May and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 22 May 1852;
(11) Isabel Barry (1833-1915), born 7 March and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 4 April 1833; married, 22 August 1860 at Orpington (Kent), James Mason (1824-1903) of Eynsham Hall (Oxon) and Freeland House (Oxon) and had issue one son and five daughters; died 22 November 1915 and was buried at North Leigh (Oxon); will proved 1 February 1916 (estate £10,264);
(12) Herbert Barry (1834-77), born 26 September and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 23 October 1834; colonial broker; lived at Willow Lodge, Mortlake (Surrey); married, 30 October 1856 at St Giles, Camberwell (Surrey), Mary Anne Fanny (1836-1909), second daughter of John Mollett of Camberwell, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 10 June and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 18 June 1877; administration of goods granted 27 June 1900 (effects £1,118);
(13) Rosalie Mills Barry (1838-1925), born 9 July and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 2 August 1838; married, 10 September 1862 at Orpington, John James Jackson (1839-1911), son of Addis Jackson, and had issue one son and six daughters; died 25 September and was buried at Greenwich, 28 September 1925; will proved 28 October 1925 (estate £4,431);
(14) Alice Chapman Barry (1839-44), born 17 November and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 14 December 1839; died young and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 20 June 1844.
He lived at Newington (Surrey) and by 1861 at The Priory, Orpington (Kent).
He died 13 August and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 18 August 1866; his will was proved 13 October 1866 (effects under £6,000). His wife died 11 November and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, 18 November 1862; her will was proved 18 April 1863 (effects under £5,000).
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| Sir F.T. Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt/. |
Barry, Sir Francis Tress (1825-1907), 1st bt. Eldest son of Charles Barry (1790-1866) and his wife Harriet, daughter of Robert Ades of Brede Place (Sussex), born 8 June and baptised at St Olave, Hart St., 7 July 1825. Educated at Camberwell College. On leaving school he went work in a business in Bilbao (Spain), perhaps in connection with his father's firm, and he was soon afterwards appointed British Vice-Consul in the Spanish Province of Biscay, 1846. After being Acting Consul for Biscay, Santander and Guipuycoa for some months in 1847, he was offered the opportunity to become consul in Madrid, but turned it down to concentrate on his business interests. He formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, James Mason (Mason & Barry) and took a 50-year lease on the San Domingos copper mine in Portugal, from which they made large profits by converting to open-cast mining. He was made a freeman of the City of London, 1855. Conservative MP for Windsor, 1890-1908; JP for Berkshire; DL for Caithness. He was awarded the Portuguese Order of Christ, 1863 (Commander, 1868), and ennobled as 1st Baron de Barry in Portugal, 1873; in England he was created a baronet, 22 February 1899. He was an amateur archaeologist who excavated a number of sites in Scotland, including Nybster Broch, and he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and an Hon. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. For the last 23 years of his life he arranged to make a Christmas gift of 6d to all the children in the London workhouses and workhouse schools. He married, 4 June 1851, Sarah Douglas (1831-1926), only child of Arthur Herron of Beckley, Northiam (Sussex), surgeon, and had issue:
(1) Alice Maria Barry (1852-1939), born at Bilbao (Spain), 12 May 1852; married 20 June 1876 at Beckenham (Kent), Henry Neve Goodhart (1850-80), second son of Charles Emmanuel Goodhart of Langley Park, Beckenham, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 31 December 1939; will proved 5 April 1940 (estate £33,357);
(2) Francis Tress Barry (1856-88), born 8 August, and baptised at Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill, 11 September 1856; died unmarried, 10 September and was buried at Clewer, 15 September 1888;
(3) Sir Edward Arthur Barry (1858-1949), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(4) Douglas Herron Barry (1861-1945), born 5 December 1861 and baptised at Beckenham, 14 January 1862; lived in Kensington (Middx); married, 22 January 1884 at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), Rose Grace (1861-1939), daughter of Peter Gowlland of Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 12 March 1945; will proved 12 May 1945 (estate £133,043);
(5) William James Barry (1864-1952) (q.v.);
(6) Grace Isabel Barry (1866-1947), born 20 April 1866; married, 5 June 1889 at Clewer, Harry Holmes (d. 1931) of Balgreggan, Stranraer (Wigtowns.), eldest son of Maj. Harry Holmes of Grey Towers, Hornchurch (Essex), and had issue; died 31 July 1947;
(7) Col. Stanley Leonard Barry (1873-1943) (q.v.).
He purchased St. Leonards Hill in 1872 and substantially rebuilt it in 1875-76. In 1881, he also purchased Keiss Castle, a house of 1755 remodelled in the Scots baronial style by David Bryce in c.1862-63.
He died 28 February 1907; his will was proved 1907 (estate £640,270). His widow died aged 95 at Eastbourne (Sussex) on 1 August 1926; her will was proved 1 September 1926 (estate £13,226).
Barry, Sir Edward Arthur (1858-1949), 2nd bt. Second, but eldest surviving son of Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt., and his wife Sarah Douglas, only child of Arthur Herron of Beckley (Sussex), born 25 April and baptised at Tulse Hill (Surrey), 24 May 1858. Educated at Harrow, Kings College, London, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (mat. 1881) and the Sorbonne University, Paris. An officer in the Berkshire Yeomanry (Lt., 1900; Capt., 1901; Maj., 1902; Lt-Col., 1910) who served in the Boer War and First World War. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet and 2nd Baron de Barry (of Portugal), 28 February 1907. JP (by 1881) and DL for Berkshire; High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1907; Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Berkshire (from 1936). He was made free of the Grocers Company, 1884 and served as Master of the Grocers Company, 1920-21; he was a freemason from 1895. He married 1st, 31 January 1883 at Beckenham (Kent), Kathleen Ellen (1862-85), daughter of Percy Bicknell of Shinrone (Co. Tipperary), and 2nd, 10 February 1891, Eleanor Margaret (1870-1916), daughter of Col. Courtenay Harvey Saltren Scott of Pennant Hall, Abermule (Montgomerys.), and had issue:
(1.1) Sir Claude Francis Barry (1883-1970), 3rd bt. (q.v.);
(1.2) Gerald Tress Barry (b. & d. 1885), born 24 November and died in infancy, 11 December 1885;
(2.1) Cicely Eleanor Barry (1892-1978), born 24 December 1892 and baptised at St Peter, Cranley Gardens, Kensington (Middx), 19 March 1893; dairy farmer; married, 16 October 1918, Philip Poore (1874-1937), fourth son of Maj. Robert Poore, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died in New Zealand, 13 February 1978;
(2.2) Margaret Colquhoun Barry (1894-1994), born 5 November 1894; served in First World War as a VAD nurse, 1917-19; married, 12 July 1919 at Holy Trinity, Brompton (Middx), Capt. James Clifton Colquhoun MBE (c.1893-1977), son of James Colquhoun of Humboldt House, Tunbridge Wells (Kent), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died aged 99 at Sibford Gower (Oxon), 19 September 1994; will proved 7 November 1994 (estate £307,614);
(2.3) Edward Courtenay Tress Barry (1896-1959), born 23 January 1896; served in First World War with Berkshire Yeomanry (Lt.) and in Second World War with Royal Artillery; died unmarried, 23 February 1959;
(2.4) Rosamonde Barry (1901-87), born 25 December 1901; married, 22 January 1925, Gen. Sir Sydney Frederick Muspratt KCB CSI CIE DSO (1878-1972), an officer in the Indian army and Military Secretary to the India Office, 1931-33, 1937-41, son of Henry Muspratt of the Indian Civil Service, and had issue two sons; died 28 December 1987; will proved 14 June 1988 (estate £235,275).
He purchased Ockwells Manor in 1893 and remodelled it in 1904-06. He inherited St. Leonards Hill and Keiss Castle from his father in 1907, but largely demolished the former after the death of his mother in 1926 and sold the latter in 1913.
He died 23 July 1949; his will was proved 28 June 1950 (estate £50,299). His first wife died after childbirth, 4 December 1885, and was buried at Clewer (Berks). His second wife died 11 February 1916.
Barry, Sir Claud Francis (1883-1970), 3rd bt. Only surviving son of Sir Edward Arthur Barry (1858-1949), 2nd bt. and his first wife, Kathleen Ellen, daughter of Percy Bicknell of Shinrone (Co. Tipperary), born 16 December 1883 and baptised at St Jude, Kensington (Middx), 30 January 1884. Educated at Harrow and then travelled in Italy with a tutor for almost a year, before studying at Bournemouth Art College and as a pupil of the painter, Sir Alfred East. He followed East to Cornwall and worked first in Newlyn, where he studied with Stanhope Forbes, and later at St. Ives, where he became involved in the St. Ives Society of Artists. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1906. During the First World War he was exempted from military service on medical grounds but conscripted into agricultural labour. In 1922 he abandoned his first wife and family and moved to the Continent, living in Mentone (France) and later at Bordighera and Milan (Italy), but travelling widely in France, Italy and Germany to prepare etchings of chiefly architectural subjects. During the Second World War he returned to England and produced several large canvases of London in the Blitz. He succeeded his father as 3rd baronet and 3rd Baron de Barry (of Portugal), 23 July 1949, and moved to Jersey the same year. His later output was more often painting in oils, where he developed a pointillist technique, and made a number of portraits of subjects including Joan Collins and Margot Fonteyn, as well as some voluptuous nudes. After the death of his second wife, he lived in the house of a friend and fellow artist, Tom Skinner, until 1968 when he moved to a nursing home in Kent to be near his son. He married 1st, 16 December 1908 at Nunney (sep. 1922; div. 1927), Angela Doris Manners (1884-1960), elder daughter of Herbert Charles Hume-Spry of Nunney (Som.) and later of The Priory, Thornbury (Glos), and 2nd, 20 December 1927, Violet Gwendoline Pretyman (1885-1957), younger daughter of Alfred Darby of Brentwood (Essex), and had issue:
(1.1) Kathleen Manners Tress Barry (1909-94), born 2 October 1909; married, 5 June 1934 at Hampton Gay (Oxon), Edgar Samuel Freshman FRCS (1899-1988), of Canterbury (Kent), surgeon, son of Adolph Joseph Frischmann, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 19 January 1994; will proved 20 June 1994 (estate £235,025);
(1.2) Sir Rupert Rodney Francis Tress Barry (1910-77), 4th bt. (q.v.);
(1.3) Sheila Yvonne Elizabeth Doris Barry (1915-2004), born 20 July and baptised at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 18 September 1915; married, 21 June 1941, Col. John Loftus Carter RM, son of Alexander John Carter of The White House, Piltdown (Sussex) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 3 December 2004; will proved 15 April 2005.
Sir Claud also had a long affair in the 1950s with Doreen Durrell, the wife of a doctor in Jersey, whom he drew and painted many times.
He lived in Cornwall c.1900-14; in France and Italy, c.1920-40, and in Jersey, 1949-68.
He died 25 October 1970. His first wife married 2nd, Oct-Dec 1927, Thomas H. Harrison, and died 13 June 1960; her will was proved 17 August 1960 (estate £10,247). His second wife died of cancer, 18 January 1957.
Barry, Sir Rupert Rodney Francis Tress (1910-77), 4th bt. Only son of Sir Claud Francis Barry (1883-1970) and his first wife, Angela Doris Manners, elder daughter of Herbert Charles Hume-Spry of The Priory, Thornbury (Glos), born in St. Ives (Cornw.), 6 December 1910. Educated at King's School, Canterbury and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1933; Lt., 1936; Capt., 1939; Maj. 1946) who served in the Second World War and was a prisoner of war in Colditz for four years; after his release he was appointed MBE in recognition of his intelligence and escape activities, 1945. A director of the St John Ambulance Association for Cheshire, 1960. He succeeded his father as 4th baronet and 4th Baron de Barry (of Portugal), 25 October 1970. He married 1st, 7 March 1936, Diana Madeline (1913-48), only daughter of Rowland O'Brien Thompson of London SW10, and 2nd, 12 May 1951, Sheila Georgina Veronica (b. 1931), only daughter of Maj. George Joseph Francis White MBE of Winchester, and had issue:
(1.1) Armorel Madeleine Frances Tress Barry (b. 1936), born 11 December 1936; married, 5 September 1959, Maj. Peter Miles Lambert (b. 1931) of Halesworth (Suffk), only son of Peter Jocelyn Lambert MC, and had issue one son and two daughters; living in 2013;
(1.2) Sir (Laurence) Edward Anthony Tress Barry (b. 1939), 5th bt., born 1 November 1939; educated at Haileybury College; an officer in the Grenadier Guards, 1958-64; succeeded his father as 5th baronet and Baron de Barry (in Portugal), 9 March 1977; married 1st, 14 September 1968 (div. 1991), Fenella, daughter of Mrs Hilda Hoult of Knutsford (Ches.) and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 1992, (Elizabeth) Jill (b. 1944), daughter of Geoffrey Bradley of Fishtoft, Boston (Lincs) and formerly wife of Stephen H. Dawe, but had no further issue; now living;
(2.1) Timothy Rupert Francis Tress Barry (b. 1952), born 1 November 1952; educated at Sutton Valence School; an officer in the Royal Military Police (Capt.); married 1st, 1977 (div. 1997), Valerie (b. 1955), youngest daughter of Mrs M.D.M. Reid of Otterburn (Northbld) and had issue three daughters; married 2nd, 2007, Una, daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Doyle of Kennington, Ashford (Kent);
(2.2) Tara Caroline Frances Tress Barry (b. 1954), born 22 February 1954; married, 1977, (Fokko) Peter Anthony Kortlang (b. 1944), farmer, only son of C.F.H.F. Kortlang of Willesborough Lees (Kent) and had issue two sons and two daughters;
(2.3) Nicholas Mark Francis Tress Barry (b. 1957), born 22 October 1957; married, 1985, Fiona Mary (b. 1956), younger daughter of John Rankin QC of Prospect House, Boughton, Faversham (Kent), and had issue two daughters;
(2.4) Jonathan Rodney Francis Tress Barry (b. 1960), born 12 February 1960; lived at Eyhorne Manor, Hollingbourne (Kent);
(2.5) Xandra Georgina Frances Tress Barry (b. 1962), born 21 November 1962; married, 25 May 1996 (div. 2007), Maj. Simon John Cox, elder son of J.C. Cox of Umberleigh (Devon), and had issue one son.
He lived at Frogmore House, St. Albans (Herts) and later near Frodsham (Ches.) and at Willesborough (Kent).
He died 9 March 1977; his will was proved 5 May 1977 (estate £18,282). His first wife died 22 September 1948; administration of her goods was granted 30 May 1949 (estate £5,713). His widow was living in 2005.
Barry, William James (1864-1952). Fourth son of Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt., and his wife Sarah Douglas, only child of Arthur Herron of Beckley (Sussex), born in Spain, 18 March 1864. JP for Norfolk; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1912. He married, 25 January 1896, Lady Grace MBE (1873-1960), daughter of Charles Adolphus Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore, and had issue:
(1) Lt-Col. Gerald Barry (1896-1977); educated at Eton; an officer in the army; awarded MC; deputy military secretary of Eastern Command in India; inherited Great Witchingham Hall from his father in 1952 but sold it to Bernard Matthews, turkey producer, in 1955 and lived subsequently at Lake House, Gt. Witchingham; married, 28 February 1923, Lady Margaret Pleydell-Bouverie (1903-2002), daughter of Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 6th Earl of Radnor, and had issue one son and five daughters; died 21 February 1977; will proved 12 August 1977 (effects £5,000);
(2) Cdr. Hubert Wyndham Barry (1898-1992), born 6 October 1898; an officer in the Royal Navy (Cdr.), who fought in the First and Second World Wars; married, 19 August 1936, Violet Agatha (1907-94), daughter of Col. Sir Edward Archibald Ruggles-Brise, 1st bt., and had issue two sons and two daughters; died aged 93 on 11 February 1992; will proved 8 April 1992 (estate £96,220);
(3) Esther Joyce Barry (1906-88), born 3 July 1906; died unmarried, Oct-Dec 1988;
(4) Nancy Elizabeth Barry (1910-2006), born 31 July 1910; married, 22 October 1935, George Nigel Capel Cure (1908-2004) of Blake Hall, Ongar (Essex), Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Essex 1958-78, son of Maj. George Edward Capel Cure, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died aged 95 on 10 January 2006; will proved 3 August 2006.
He purchased at Great Witchingham Hall (Norfk) in 1902. At his death it passed to his elder son who sold it in 1955.
He died 1 July 1952; his will was proved 26 September 1952 (estate £134,784). His widow died 23 September 1960; her will was proved 30 November 1960 (estate £1,679).
Barry, Col. Stanley Leonard (1873-1943). Fifth son of Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907), 1st bt., and his wife Sarah Douglas, only child of Arthur Herron of Beckley (Sussex), born 31 December 1873. Educated at Harrow. An officer in the militia (2nd Lt, 1891) and the army (2nd Lt., 1894; Lt., 1894; Capt., 1899; Maj. 1908; Lt-Col., 1914; Col. 1919; retired 1921), who served in the Boer War and in the First World War, holding a series of staff appointments, including acting as ADC to HRH the Prince of Wales, 1915; appointed DSO, 1900; MVO, 1915; CMG, 1915; CBE, 1919. He was a member of Hon. Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, 1923-43. He was admitted a freeman of the City of London of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, 1921. JP for Northamptonshire (from 1914) and Buckinghamshire (from 1927) and DL for Oxfordshire; High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, 1935-36. Chairman of Oxfordshire branch of Council for Protection of Rural England. He married 1st, 5 June 1906, Hannah Mary (c.1873-1924), eldest daughter of James Hainsworth of London W8 and formerly wife of Col. William McGeorge; married 2nd, 3 February 1927, Laline Annette (1888-1969), elder daughter of William Harvey Astell of Woodbury Hall (Beds) and widow of Lt-Col. Arthur Preston Hohler DSO of Long Crendon Manor (Bucks), and had issue:
(1.1) Jeanne Irene Barry (1915-2008), born 12 July 1915; married, 19 October 1939, Hon. James Angus Grey McDonnell (1917-2004), younger son of Randall Mark Kerr McDonnell, 7th Earl of Antrim, and had issue one son and one daughter; lived near Petworth (Sussex); died 7 April 2008; will proved 3 October 2008.
He purchased the Hampton Gay estate in 1928; at his death it passed to his daughter, who sold it in 1975. He lived at Long Crendon Manor with his second wife.
He died 22 December 1943; his will was proved 6 October 1944 (estate £23,693). His first wife died 28 March and was buried at Grayshott (Surrey), 1 April 1924; her will was proved 7 August 1924 (estate £7,682). His widow died 22 April 1969; her will was proved 6 October and 10 November 1969 (estate £60,000).
Principal sources
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 279-281; J.M. Crook, The rise of the nouveaux riches, 1999, p. 66; A. Emery, Greater medieval houses of England & Wales: III Southern England, 2006, pp. 124-30; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2010, pp. 413-16, 714; A. Brooks & J. Sherwood, The buildings of England: Oxfordshire - North and West, 2017, pp. 344-45; https://windsorlocalhistorygroup.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/tress-barry-collection-catalogue.pdf
Location of archives
Barry of Hampton Gay: correspondence, deeds, pedigrees and photographs concerning Hampton Gay manor, 19th cent. [Oxfordshire History Centre, Acc. 6065]
Barry, Sir John Tress (1825-1907), 1st bt.: papers relating to excavations in Scotland, c.1890-1904 [Historic Environment Scotland]
Coat of arms
Barry of Hampton Gay: Azure, two lions passant guardant or.
Barry of Thame: Per pale, azure and gules, two lions passant guardant or.
Can you help?
- Can anyone provide more information about the ownership of Ockwells Manor since it was sold by the Barry family in c.1952, or about the Norris family who owned Great Witchingham Hall in the 18th century?
- 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 16 May 2020.
