(443) Bateman of Middleton Hall and Lomberdale Hall

Bateman of Middleton

In the last edition of Burke's Landed Gentry in which this family appeared, in 1894, it was straightforwardly stated that they were descendants of the Batemans of Hartington, and it is true that the earliest generations in the genealogy below were yeoman farmers at Hartington. But despite living in close proximity, the two families seem not to have intermarried as far back into the 16th century as surviving records allow one to trace with confidence, and some early genealogies are certainly at fault in seeking to make the Batemans of Middleton descendants of Robert Bateman (1561-1644) of London. For the purposes of this site, I have traced the family no further back than Richard Bateman (1677-1761), who seems to have had a very similar social status to his kinsmen at Hartington Hall, hovering on the border between yeoman and gentleman. When he died at an advanced age, he left only one surviving son, Richard Bateman (1727-74), who inherited his lands, but survived his father by little more than a decade. His widow, Elizabeth (1734-84) was left with a young family, none of whom had yet reached adulthood: indeed his youngest son was baptised just four days before he was buried. Perhaps with the help of relatives, Elizabeth steered her three sons into the burgeoning cotton industry in Manchester, and her eldest son, Thomas Bateman (1760-1847), seems to have been particularly successful. He became a Congregationalist in religion and by the time of his death was noted for his philanthropy and for his support of the Manchester Deaf and Dumb School in particular. He sold the family's land at Hartington in 1801, but in 1815, with a view to his future retirement from business, he purchased a substantial estate at Middleton-by-Youlgreave (Derbys), where the old manor house had recently burned down. The absence of a residence on the property no doubt made it more affordable, but it may have been an attraction to Thomas in its own right, for he promptly turned architect and designed not only a new house for himself, but also a Congregational chapel, a stable block, and several cottages and larger houses for the village.

Thomas Bateman outlived his wife and all three of his children. His elder son, William Bateman (1787-1835), may have been involved in his father's business, but his principal interest lay in antiquarian pursuits, and especially in the archaeological investigation of the many barrows which he found on the moorlands of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and south Yorkshire. William died in middle age, and his only son, Thomas Bateman (1821-61), was left an orphan in the care of his grandfather, who dismissed his private tutor and sent him to school at Bootle (Lancs), perhaps with a view to a career in business. Given the family's circumstances, he might reasonably have expected to be sent to University or to travel, but these opportunities were not offered or not taken, and once he came of age he quickly rebelled against his grandfather's religious beliefs and moral code. Impatient for his inheritance, he built a new house, Lomberdale Hall, where he could live separately from his grandfather and also house his father's antiquarian collections; and he took as a mistress Mary Ann Mason, the wife of a - presumably complaisant - Cromford boatman, with whom he lived openly. After several years, he added to this irregular household a seventeen year old girl called Fanny Walton, who was said to be Mary Ann's sister, in what (the tone of his grandfather's remonstrations implies) was a ménage-a-trois. All his grandfather's efforts to persuade him to give up immoral courses failed until he played his strongest card: when the will of Thomas senior was read in 1847 it made his grandson's inheritance of the Middleton estate conditional upon his severing all connection with Mary Ann and Fanny within four months. No doubt bitterly, Thomas junior complied, and in the following August he married the sister of his bailiff, William Parker, who was also his friend and companion in archaeological excavations. For Thomas had been bitten by his father's antiquarian passion. In 1847 he published his father's excavation notes, and he threw himself into the pursuit, working far more extensively than his father and making the collection of notes and artefacts that accumulated at Lomberdale Hall many times larger, so that it eventually filled five rooms. In 1861 he published his own researches, but later the same year he died suddenly, cocking a final snook at Victorian convention by directing that his body be buried in unconsecrated ground in 'a tomb with a view' on his own land. He left a son and four daughters, and despite their all being orphaned before coming of age when his widow died in 1866, sensible arrangements seem to have been made for their upbringing by his wife's family. The only son, Thomas William Bateman (1852-95), went to boarding school and then to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He comes across as a more conventional figure than his father, and was noted for his hospitality and his support of local sports clubs. At a time of falling agricultural incomes and rising taxes, however, he fell into debt, and he was obliged to sell off his father and grandfather's antiquarian collections in a series of sales completed after his death. His executors also sold both Lomberdale Hall and Middleton Hall before 1900, ending the family's role as landed gentry, although his youngest sister, who married Sir Harcourt Clare, kt., was the chatelaine of Bank Hall, Bretherton (Lancs) until her death in 1918.

Middleton Hall, Middleton-by-Youlgreave, Derbyshire

The present house is the latest in a succession of manorial centres on different sites which have existed over the centuries. The very first is said to have been near the present site, and possessed a chapel, the footings of which were found in 1870. In the late medieval period, a new house was built closer to the village, which was largely rebuilt in the 17th century but burned down in the 1810s. Part of the estate was sold in the 17th century to Sir George Fullwood, a Royalist, who began building a new house called Fullwood's Castle just north of the village, but this was damaged in the Civil War and abandoned, so that there is now nothing left of except some earthworks and a heap of stones in the fields near Castle Farm.

Middleton Hall, Middleton-by-Youlgreave: entrance front

Thus, when Thomas Bateman (1760-1847), a wealthy Manchester cotton manufacturer, bought the Middleton estate in 1815, it had no existing principal residence, and Thomas decided to design and construct the present house, which was built in 1824-27. It has a five bay, two-storey east-facing entrance front in a slightly old-fashioned Regency Gothick style, with a parapet concealing the roof and diminutive octagonal turrets projecting at the corners. The central bay is stepped slightly forward, with a Gothick loggia of tall narrow arches on the ground floor forming a porch. The windows are uniformly mullioned, with a single transom on the ground floor and none on the first floor, and they are all of two lights apart from a wider five-light window over the porch. To the north is a long seven-bay garden front with a stepped central gable and a canted bay to the left. The part with the gable and the bay alone have drip-moulds to the windows, suggesting they could represent a surviving part of the 17th century century farmhouse which previously stood on the site. The interior of the house is fairly plain but has been little altered except for the addition of a billiard room on the south side in 1939 and the replacement of several chimneypieces in the early 20th century. The staircase has an early cast iron handrail, decorated with a flowing vine motif, and the drawing room has an unusually pretty Gothick frieze.

Middleton Hall: stables and coach house. Image: Country Life.

Thomas Bateman's architectural enthusiasm did not content itself with building a new house. He also designed and built a new stable block and coach house, which keeps to a more rustic version of the Gothick style of the house, with crow-stepped gables, square castellated corner turrets, and arrow-slit windows; and a new Congregational Chapel, with two-light windows in the side walls and lancets either side of the porch. He also imposed his preferred architectural style on the village, rebuilding or remodelling many of the cottages to give it the feel of a planned estate village, including the former Bateman Arms inn and Rock Cottage, which sports castellated round turrets at the angles, Gothick glazing, and a castellated bay window.

Descent: sold 1815 to Thomas Bateman (1760-1847), who built a new house; to grandson, Thomas Bateman (1821-61); to son, Thomas William Bateman (1852-95); sold by 1899 to Mr. E. Melland; sold 1914 to Rt. Hon. Capt. Charles Waterhouse MP (1893-1978); to son, Maj. Charles Hugueonot Waterhouse (1918-2007); handed on to Michael Thomas Waterhouse (b. 1949), who sold 2004...; sold again 2019.

Lomberdale Hall, Middleton-by-Youlgreave, Derbyshire

Lomberdale Hall: the house in the late 19th century.

The house was designed and built for himself in 1844-45 by Thomas Bateman (1821-61), the grandson of the builder of Middleton Hall, who was an enthusiastic antiquary in the middle years of the 19th century. He built the house both to be a home for himself before he inherited Middleton Hall, and to house the collection of archaeological finds which he and his father had amassed from more than 200 excavations of burial mounds and other sites. The house is built of rock-faced stone and as first built had both regular sash windows and some large Gothic windows, later removed. There are pilasters at the angles which rise into cross-gabled pinnacles in an original but not wholly elegant way. The house incorporated some fragments of Bakewell church, removed at the time of a sweeping 'restoration' by Lewis Wyatt in the 1840s; more were built into a summer house in the garden, although most of them have since been sold or lost.

Lomberdale Hall: one of the museum rooms, recorded in an engraving made for Thomas Bateman in the 1850s. 

Bateman's collections continued to grow, and in 1856-57 he built a substantial addition to the original house. By now he was living at Middleton Hall, and Lomberdale became primarily a museum, with the rooms fitted out with display cases. Part of the collection was loaned and later sold to Sheffield Museums in the 1870s; the rest was dispersed at auction in the 1890s. The house was further altered for Mrs. Waterhouse in about 1920 and again in the 1980s for the Stephenson family.

Descent: built for Thomas Bateman (1821-61); to son, Thomas William Bateman (1852-95); sold after 1895 to Thomas Crompton Waterhouse (1851-1912) to widow (d. 1938); to son, Capt. Charles Waterhouse MC MP (1893-1978); sold 1970 to Timothy Stephenson; handed on 1999 to Oliver Stephenson (b. 1962). The house was let from 1877 to Mr F.C. Middleton (fl. 1879); Vernon Kirk Armitage, barrister (fl. 1880-83); Major Kell (fl. 1886-89); and Thomas S. Walker (d. 1895) (fl. 1889-95).

Bateman family of Middleton Hall

Bateman, Richard (1677-1761). Son of Thomas Bateman (1646-1713) and his wife Guaterick Cockayne, born 4 April and baptised at Hartington, 5 April 1677. Yeoman or gentleman farmer at Hartington. He married 1st, 8 March 1702 at Hartington, Dorothy (1670-1704), daughter of James Sleigh, and 2nd, 1 April 1713 at Hartington, Sarah (1689-1772), second daughter of William Gould of Crowdicote, Hartington, and had issue:

(1.1) Thomas Bateman (b. & d. 1703), baptised at Hartington, 24 February 1703; died in infancy;

(2.1) Guarterick alias Gertrude Bateman (1714-95), baptised at Hartington, 13 June 1714; married, 1 August 1736 at Hartington, William Edensor (d. 1757) of Hartington and had issue; lived latterly in Manchester; buried at Hartington, 26 June 1795;

(2.2) Mary Bateman (1716-1808), baptised at Hartington, 9 April 1716; married, 28 April 1735, Samuel Sleigh (d. 1760), and had issue; buried at Hartington, 15 March 1808;

(2.3) Sarah Bateman (1718-1803), baptised at Hartington, 17 September 1718; married, 27 May 1760, Mark Robinson (1720-1802), of York, cabinet maker, but had no issue; buried at St Martin, Coney St., York, 9 March 1803;

(2.4) Hannah Bateman (1720-51), baptised at Hartington, 31 December 1720; married, 19 July 1747 at Prestbury (Ches.), Joshua Ellis of Leek (Staffs), mercer, but had no issue; died 10 March and was buried at Hartington, 12 March 1750/1;

(2.5) Elizabeth Bateman (1722-55), baptised at Hartington, 21 March 1722; married, 24 June 1748 at Hartington, her cousin Ralph Sterndale (1721-96) of Pool Hall, Hartington (who m2, 12 January 1765 at Bakewell (Derbys), Elizabeth Turner (b. 1747)), and had issue; buried at Hartington, 16 May 1755;

(2.6) Dorothy Bateman (1725-52), baptised at Hartington, 5 April 1725; died unmarried and was buried at Hartington, 1 September 1752;

(2.7) Richard Bateman (1727-74) (q.v.);

(2.8) William Bateman (1733-38), baptised at Hartington, 20 June 1733; died young and was buried at Hartington, 3 February 1737/8;

(2.9) Anne Bateman (1736-77), baptised at Hartington, 17 October 1736; died unmarried and was buried at Hartington, 4 July 1777.

He lived at Hartington.

He was buried at Hartington, 9 April 1761. His first wife died 13 January 1704. His widow was buried at Hartington, 10 July 1772.

Bateman, Richard (1727-74). Elder son of Richard Bateman (1677-1761) and his second wife, Sarah, daughter of William Gould of Crowdicote, Hartington, baptised at Hartington, 14 December 1727. He married, 2 February 1758 at Cheddleton (Staffs), Elizabeth (1734-84), daughter of Ralph Leek of Heath House, Cheddleton, and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Bateman (1758-64), baptised at Hartington, 1 January 1759; died young and was buried at Hartington, 11 August 1764;

(2) Thomas Bateman (1760-1847) (q.v.);

(3) Richard Bateman (1763-1808), baptised at Hope (Derbys), 11 May 1763; married 1st, 1786 (licence 20 November) at Manchester Collegiate Church, Mary, daughter of Samuel Birch, and 2nd, Ellen [surname unknown] (d. 1832?) (who m2, 2 November 1810 at Manchester Collegiate Church, John Stringer (d. 1839?), hat manufacturer), but had no issue; died 1808;

(4) Nancy alias Ann Bateman (1766-1847), baptised at Hartington, 25 October 1766; married 1st, 1790 (licence 22 July), Nathan Sutton of Leek (Staffs), grocer, and 2nd, 8 August 1814 at Leek, John Gibson (d. 1821) of Tattershall (Lincs), merchant; died 1 November and was buried at Tattershall, 4 November 1847; will proved 1848;

(5) William Bateman (1774-1817), baptised at Hartington, 16 January 1774; cotton merchant in Manchester; married, 10 October 1799 in Manchester, Mary, daughter of Samuel Swire of Ashton-under-Lyne (Lancs), merchant, and had issue five sons and three daughters; died at the Polygon, Ardwick, 14 July 1817, and was buried in St Luke's chapel, Chorlton Row, Manchester; will proved 27 August 1817.

He lived at Hartington.

He was buried at Hartington, 20 January 1774. His widow died 7 April 1784.

Bateman, Thomas (1760-1847). Eldest son of Richard Bateman (1727-74) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Leek of Heath House, Cheddleton (Staffs), born 27 September and baptised at Hartington, 28 September 1760. Cotton manufacturer in Manchester. High Sheriff of Derbyshire, 1823. He was a Congregationalist in religion, and built a chapel at Middleton for that denomination; he was noted as a supporter of charitable causes and of the Manchester Deaf and Dumb School in particular. An amateur architect, he designed his own house, a new Congregational chapel, and reconstructed much of the village. He married, 13 April 1786 at Manchester Cathedral, Rebekah (1766-97), daughter and co-heir of Arthur Clegg of Manchester, merchant, and had issue:

(1) William Bateman (1787-1835) (q.v.);

(2) Thomas Bateman (1792-1810), born 12 January 1792; died unmarried, 22 April 1810;

(3) Rebekah Bateman (1794-1838), born 12 April 1794; married, 17 September 1816 at St John, Manchester, Samuel Hope (1781-1837) of Liverpool, and had issue five sons and seven daughters; died 8 October 1838.

He sold the lands at Hartington which had descended to him in 1801, but in 1815 he bought  the Middleton estate, where he rebuilt the house.

He died 26 May and was buried at Hartington, 2 June 1847; his will was proved in the PCC, 19 October 1847. His wife died 16 June 1797 and was buried at the Protestant Dissenters' burial ground in Manchester.

Bateman, William (1787-1835). Elder son of Thomas Bateman (1760-1847) and his wife Rebekah, daughter and co-heir of Arthur Clegg of Manchester, merchant, born in Manchester, 25 July 1787. He had antiquarian interests, formed the library and museum of antiquities, which his son later expanded, and was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. His notes on barrow-digging were published posthumously by his son in 1847. He married, 19 June 1820, Mary (1799-1822), daughter of James Crompton of Breightmet, Bolton-le-Moors (Lancs), paper manufacturer, and had issue:

(1) Thomas Bateman (1821-61) (q.v.).

He lived in Manchester and later at Rowsley (Derbys).

He died in the lifetime of his father, 11 June, and was buried at Hartington, 18 June 1835. His wife died 29 July and was buried at Hartington, 3 August 1822.

Bateman, Thomas (1821-61). Only child of William Bateman (1787-1835) and his wife Mary, daughter of James Crompton of Brightmet (Lancs), born and baptised at Rowsley (Derbys), 8 November 1821. Educated by a private tutor at home, and after his father's death, at a private academy in Bootle (Lancs). He was an officer in the Derbyshire militia (Ensign, 1855). An enthusiastic antiquarian, who directed the excavation of over 200 burial mounds, chiefly in Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and amassed a large collection of artefacts, which he displayed in a series of museum rooms at his house. His excavations were pioneering and he published two books detailing his work and that of his father: Vestiges of An Antiquarian (1847) and Ten Years' Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills in the Counties of Derby, Stafford and York (1861), as the well as the first volume of a Catalogue of Antiquities and Miscellaneous Objects... at Lomberdale Hall (1855) and many articles in the learned journals. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Ethnological Society, and a member of the British Archaeological Association. In the 1840s he lived openly with Mary Ann Mason, the wife of Thomas Mason of Cromford, boatman, and a girl called Fanny Walton who may have been her sister, to the distress of his grandfather, who attempted unsuccessfully 'to restraine him from his wicked and disgraceful course' until he made his inheritance of a life interest in the Middleton estate conditional on his ceasing permanently to cohabit with them. He then married, 2 August 1847 at Bakewell, Sarah (1824-66), second daughter of William Parker, and the sister of his bailiff and companion on archaeological expeditions, William Parker junior; they had issue:

(1) Sarah Bateman (1848-93), baptised at Youlgreave, 8 November 1848; married, 15 August 1876 at Youlgreave, Thomas Arnold (1851-1941) (who m2, 10 July 1894 at Ashton Keynes (Wilts), Etheldra (1864-1936), second daughter of Yarde Eastley of Paignton, solicitor) of Torquay and later of Tavistock (Devon), bank manager, son of Thomas Arnold of Ilchester (Som.), and had issue two daughters; died 31 May 1893;

(2) Thomas William Bateman (1852-95) (q.v.);

(3) Mary Crompton Bateman (1854-95), born Oct-Dec 1854; married, 9 November 1876 at Holy Trinity, Derby, William Jessop (1856-1905) of Endcliffe Grange, Sheffield (Yorks WR) (who m2, 1898, Frances Jane Fenwick (1857-1933), daughter of Duncan Livingstone McAllum and widow of William Joshua Watson (1842-96)), son of Thomas Jessop of Derby, and had issue one son and four daughters; died 15 July 1895; administration of goods granted to her husband, 26 August 1895 (effects £6,001);

(4) Eugenia Augusta Bateman (1856-1920), born 14 August 1856; married 1st, 27 August 1878, Henry Walker (1842-82), 2nd, 26 September 1883 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), John Thomas Dicks (d. 1886) of Brenchley (Kent), and 3rd, 12 June 1890 at St Marylebone (Middx), George Henry Smyth (1857-1940) of Wimbledon (Surrey), son of George Gould Smyth of Ross-on-Wye (Herefs), but had no issue; died 24 May 1920; will proved 9 August 1920 (effects £577);

(5) Clara Theodora Bateman (1858-1918), born 30 March 1858; married, 7 June 1883 at Youlgreave, Sir Harcourt Everard Clare (c.1855-1922), kt., of Bank Hall, Bretherton (Lancs), second son of William Harcourt Clare of Twycross (Leics), and had issue one daughter; died 31 August 1918; will proved 22 February 1919 (estate £10,206).

He built Lomberdale Hall at Middleton for himself in 1844-45 and enlarged it in 1856-57. He inherited Middleton Hall and its estate from his grandfather in 1847.

He died of a severe internal haemorrhage, 28 August 1861, and was buried as his will directed in unconsecrated ground on a hillside at Middleton, where an impressive tomb was erected; his will was proved 23 November 1861 (effects under £70,000). His widow died 17 July 1866 and was buried with her husband; her will was proved 21 November 1866 (effects under £5,000).

Bateman, Thomas William (1852-95). Only son of Thomas Bateman (1821-61) and his wife Sarah, second daughter of William Parker, born 9 March 1852. He was orphaned at the age of fourteen and brought up by his maternal relatives; he was educated privately and at Whitchurch Grammar School and Peterhouse, Cambridge (matriculated 1871). An officer in the 9th Derbyshire Rifle Volunteer Corps (Lt., retired 1875). He was a Conservative in politics and chairman of the Youlgreave Conservative Association, but had no interest in public office. He was noted for his liberal hospitality to friends and the poor, and for his support of local sports clubs. He ran into debt and first lent and later sold parts of his father's antiquarian collection to Sheffield Museums; the remainder was dispersed by auction in 1893 and after his death. He married, 3 February 1874, Jane (b. 1851), youngest daughter of John Hall of Baldingstone (Lancs), cotton spinner, but had no issue.

He inherited Middleton Hall and Lomberdale Hall from his father in 1861 and came of age in 1873. He sold his father's collections and let Lomberdale from 1877 onwards. It was sold after his death to T.C. Waterhouse (who later also purchased Middleton Hall). He occupied Middleton Hall until his death. It was twice offered at auction in 1895 but failed to sell and was then sold privately to Mr. E. Melland, who was resident by 1899.

He died 28 March 1895; his will was proved 15 June 1895 (effects £8,496). His widow married 2nd, 27 February 1897 at Llanbedr (Denbighs), William Roberts (b. 1867), of Caerfron, farmer, son of Hugh Jones Roberts, farmer; her date of death is unknown.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1894, vol. 1, pp. 107-108; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1898, vol 1, pp. 81-82; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1925, p. 97; M. Craven & M. Stanley, The Derbyshire country house, 2001, pp. 113, 287, 291-93; C. Hartwell, Sir N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The buildings of England: Derbyshire, 3rd edn., 2016, pp. 438, 521, 529;

https://www.countryimagesmagazine.co.uk/lost_houses/lost-houses-of-derbyshire-breadsall-mount/

Location of archives

Bateman of Middleton Hall: estate accounts, 1831-47 [Derbyshire Record Office, D6755]

Bateman, William (1787-1835), antiquary: antiquarian correspondence and papers, 1801-34 [Sheffield City Museum, MS1834]; collections for a history of the Bateman family, early 19th cent. [Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS.top.Derbyshire d.1]; commonplace book, c.1833 [Derbyshire Record Office, D6942]

Coat of arms

Bateman of Middleton Hall: Or, three crescents, each surmounted by an estoile gules.

Can you help?

• 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. 
• Any additions or corrections to the text above will be gratefully received and incorporated. I am always particularly pleased to hear from descendants of the family who can supply information from their own research for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 14 January 2021.