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| Bateson of Belvoir Park |
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| De Yarburgh-Bateson, Barons Deramore |
in Garstang (Lancs) for several generations in the 17th century, but the two surviving sons of Robert Bateson (b. 1683) went to Northern Ireland as young men. Richard Bateson (d. 1766) settled in County Donegal and also owned land in Co. Tyrone and Co. Antrim. His descendants took the name Bateson-Harvey and will be the subject of a future post. Thomas Bateson (1706-91) sold the family property in Lancashire and moved to Belfast, where he became a partner in Mussenden, Bigger and Co., wine merchants, who imported rum from the West Indies as well as wines from Europe. He retired from this firm (by then Thomas Bateson & Co.) in 1785, having invested his surplus capital in property, buying a 99 year lease of the Salters' Company estate at Magherafelt (Co. Londonderry) in 1744 (in which he later sold a stake to the Earl of Londonderry) and a 250-acre property called Orangefield (Co. Down) by the 1760s.
His son, Thomas Bateson (1752-1811) was educated at Glasgow University and seems never to have been involved in his father's business or any enterprise of his own. He perhaps devoted himself to the management of the Salter's Company estate, but he took no part in public affairs, and his death in 1811 went unremarked in the Belfast press. In 1805 he purchased Moira Castle, but he seems never to have occupied that house. He married a daughter of the mathematician, George Lloyd FRS, and was succeeded by their only child, Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt., who was a much more dynamic figure. He was sent to university in Cambridge, and served as High Sheriff of Co. Down in 1809 (rather curiously, the only member of his family to hold this office). In 1811, when he inherited his father's estate and also married, he promptly sold Orangefield and bought Belvoir Park, a significantly grander property with spectacular views over the Lagan valley. At some point in the early 19th century he also pulled down Moira Castle, which had fallen into disrepair. In 1818 he was made a baronet, probably as a result of the close relationship of the family over several generations with the Earls of Londonderry, but perhaps also because he was starting to be politically useful. In 1830, he became Conservative MP for Londonderry and seems to have been popular with the electorate since he retained his seat until 1842, when he announced his retirement, as he was finding the frequent late-night sittings of the Commons injurious to his health. He resigned in favour of his eldest son, Robert Bateson (1816-43), who was elected unopposed, but died just eighteen months later when he caught typhus while on holiday in Jerusalem. In the face of this unexpected calamity, Sir Robert's second son, Thomas Bateson (1819-90), was hurriedly introduced to the electors of Co. Londonderry and became their member, proving as popular as his father until ill health forced his resignation in 1857.
Although Thomas Bateson seems to have been quite seriously ill in 1857 and had to go abroad for a time, he made a full recovery, only to be pitched into a family crisis in the early 1860s when first his sister Elizabeth (1817-62) and shortly afterwards her husband, Capt. John Gladstone (1807-63) - the brother of the future Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone - died, leaving him as guardian of their infant son and seven daughters. The Gladstones had settled at Bowden Park (Wilts), which was near Devizes, the town which Capt. Gladstone had represented in Parliament until his death, and Sir Thomas, as he became on his father's death in 1863, was obliged to spend some time there. In 1864 the Conservative interest in Devizes invited Sir Thomas to stand for their Parliamentary seat, and he was elected and continued to represent the town until 1885, when the constituency was disenfranchised as part of the process of parliamentary reform. He was rewarded for his long service by being raised to the peerage as Baron Deramore, taking his title from a village in Northern Ireland. Since he had no sons to inherit the title, he persuaded the Government to allow a special remainder in the peerage patent, by which it would pass to his brother George and the latter's sons.
In 1890, on the death of the 1st Baron, the peerage, the family baronetcy and the Belvoir Park estate therefore passed to his brother George William (1823-93), who had taken the additional surname De Yarburgh on inheriting his wife's family's estates at Heslington and Snaith in Yorkshire in 1876. Now, in recognition of the inheritance from his brother, George reversed the order of his surnames, becoming De Yarburgh-Bateson rather than Bateson-De Yarburgh. He survived his brother by only three years, after which the titles and property descended to his eldest son, Robert Wilfred De Yarburgh-Bateson (1865-1936), 3rd Baron Deramore. Robert seems at first to have preferred Belvoir Park to Heslington Hall, although he divided his time between the two, but when the city fathers of Belfast decided to build a fever hospital close to Belvoir, he carried out improvements at Heslington Hall and moved out of Belvoir Park, which he let. He became one of the leading figures in York and the East Riding, serving as an officer in the territorial army for nearly thirty years, and being Chairman of the East Riding County Council for 24 years and as Lord Lieutenant for fourteen years. Land was not the safe investment it had once been, however, and although the 3rd Baron does not seem to have been particularly hard up, he sold the Snaith estate in 1919 and most of the Belvoir Park estate in 1934. At his death in 1936 he left an only daughter, but his titles and estates passed to his younger brother, George Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1870-1943), 4th Baron Deramore, who lived nearby in York. Heslington Hall was requisitioned for military use during the Second World War, and returned in 1946 to the 4th Baron's eldest son and heir, Stephen Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1903-64), 5th Baron Deramore, who was actually stationed at Heslington Hall for much of the war and was perhaps able to protect the building from too much military abuse. Nonetheless, the house was neglected and in poor condition, and the 5th Baron did not move into it; in 1962 it became the headquarters of the University of York. The 5th Baron also sold off the remaining parts of the Belvoir Park estate in Ireland, so when he died in 1964 all that was left of the estate for his younger brother, Richard Arthur De Yarburgh-Bateson (1911-2006), 6th Baron Deramore, was some agricultural land in Yorkshire. The 6th Baron, who had qualified as an architect before the Second World War, built himself a modest new house at Aislaby (Yorks NR), where he lived until his death. Since had no sons, the peerage and the family baronetcy then became extinct.
Orangefield, Co. Down
According to legend, the Orangefield estate, now part of the eastern suburbs of the city of Belfast, derived its name from the fact that King William III mustered his troops on this spot in 1690, before the Battle of the Boyne, but there is no evidence to support this, and it seems more likely that the name was bestowed by the De Beers family, who are said to have owned land here, and whose Dutch estate had the same name. The house is shown in a picture which hangs on the wall in the background of the well-known 'conversation piece' picture of the children of Thomas Bateson (1706-91), attributed to Strickland Lowry and dated to 1762, which is now in the National Museums of Northern Ireland collection. It was built in about 1742-44 for David Hunter, and was described in Harris' Antient and present state of County Down (1744) as:
"a new and elegant House and Improvement of David Hunter Esq...begun the last Year, and brought already to a considerable Degree of Perfection. The House is an oblong Square of 60 Feet by 40, consists of four Rooms on a Floor, and is four Stories high, coined with Freestone, and belted with the same at each Story, besides the Windows and Door-Cases. And as this Gentleman has travelled in the East-Indies, he has followed the Fashion of that Country in covering his House with a flat Roof, without arching, which is laid on strong Burghers or Joists, and secured from the Weather by a Cement made of Brickdust, Lime, and Blood. A little Time will shew whether this sort of roofing will answer the purpose in this moist Climate. Mr. Hunter has laid out also Gardens, Orchards, Lawns and other Improvements suitable to the House, which perhaps is one of the best in the Country."
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| Orangefield House: detail of the painting within the group portrait of the Bateson children by Strickland Lowry, 1762. Image: © National Museums of Northern Ireland |
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| Orangefield House: a print of 1829 gives a rather different impression of the house, which may have been rebuilt. |
On 28 March 1862 the Belfast News-Letter reported rather coyly that "We understand that the family mansion of Orangefield, in the immediate vicinity of Belfast, on the County Down side of the Lagan, the residence of J. B. Houston, Esq., J.P., is to be entirely rebuilt, in a very elegant style of architecture. Preparations for that purpose are shortly to be commenced, under the superintendence of a very efficient architect", but unfortunately there seem to be no subsequent reports of progress with the work, or to identify the architect: could it have been Charles Lanyon? The result, however, was a rectangular two storey stone building with a large porch facing east on the five-bay entrance front. The south side had a broad curved bow with a single bay to either side, and the longer west front had three bays each side of a similar curved bow. To the north, a long and lower service range connected the house to a stable court.
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| Orangefield House: the entrance front and side elevation of the house as rebuilt after 1862. |
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| Orangefield House: the garden front of the house as rebuilt after 1862. Photographed in 1902 by Lady Mabel Annesley. Image: PRONI. |
Descent: David Hunter (fl. 1744); sold c.1760 to Thomas Bateson (1706-91); to son, Thomas Bateson (1752-1811); to son, Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt.; sold c.1812 to Hugh Crawford (d. 1819)... sold 1824x1829 to John Holmes Houston (c.1767-1843); to daughter, Mary Isabella, wife of Richard Bayly Blakiston (later Blakiston-Houston) (1793-1857); to son, John Blakiston-Houston (1829-1920); to son, Richard Blakiston-Houston (1864-1933); to son, John Matthew Blakiston-Houston (1898-1984), who sold c.1964 to Belfast City Council.
We know just what the new house was like because Lord Dungannon (as he became in 1766) commissioned four superb oil paintings of the house and grounds from Jonathan Fisher (d. 1809), a young artist who first came to public attention in about 1763: the full set of paintings can be seen here. He depicts a rectangular two-storey house with a north-facing entrance front commanding a view down the Laggan Valley. The entrance front was of seven widely-spaced bays, with the central three stepped forward with a giant portico of Doric pillars supporting a pediment containing an armorial achievement. The side elevations to the west were also of seven bays, but more closely spaced, and the east side had a canted two-storey bay while the west side had a secondary entrance doorway. On the fourth side, facing south, the close spacing of the windows continued, and there were nine bays overlooking a service court that incorporated part of the original house. The seems to be no documentary record of the architect, but the recent attribution to Christopher Myers (1717-89), who arrived in Ireland from Cumberland in about 1755, seems plausible. Photographs of the interior taken in the 20th century, when the house was being considered as a possible official residence for the Governor of Northern Ireland, show that it was perhaps the first house in Ireland to have the ceilings of all of its principal rooms decorated in the Rococo style, and they could well be the work of the leading Irish stuccadore, Robert West (d. 1790).
The house was further remodelled in about 1865 for Sir Thomas Bateson, who commissioned Newry architect William John Barre (c.1826-67) to carry out some alterations to the house, including balustrades around the roof parapet and a balustraded entrance porch. Inside, his interventions included the creation of a handsome galleried staircase hall with the gallery carried on console brackets and having an elaborate wrought-iron balustrade. In the 1870s the house was still the centre of a 6,000-acre estate, but after 1903 it was leased, and from 1918 it was unoccupied and a long period of decline set in. By the 1920s the estate land was wanted to accommodate Belfast's expanding suburbs, and part of the park became a golf course. The house was considered as a possible official residence for the Governor of Northern Ireland, but Hillsborough Castle was chosen instead. During the Second World War the house was occupied by the Admiralty, but after they relinquished it the buildings began to fall into ruin. In 1956 it was noted that 'The ravages of age and occupation by the Admiralty have left it beyond restoration. The National Trust and other bodies have given up hope of saving it: to-day it is used as a contractor's store'. Reusable fixtures and fittings were removed until only a sad brick shell was left, which was blown up by the army in 1961, leaving only some fragments of the stable yard buildings. 185 acres of the demesne are preserved as a forest park.
The house was intact and the estate evidently well maintained when it was drawn by Gabriel Beranger in 1799, but after the property was sold to Thomas Bateson (1752-1811) in 1805 it fell into disrepair and by 1830 it was said to be in ruins. The site had been cleared by the time of the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map in about 1840.
Descent: built for Maj. Edward Burgh; sold 1650s to Sir George Rawdon (d. 1684), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Arthur Rawdon (1662-95), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir John Rawdon (1690-1723), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir John Rawdon (d. 1793), 4th bt. and 1st Earl of Moira; to son, Francis Rawdon, 1st Baron Rawdon of Rawdon, later 2nd Earl of Moira, and lastly 1st Marquess of Hastings; sold 1805 to Thomas Bateson (1752-1811); to son, Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt., who demolished it. The estate was let from the 1770s-1803 to William Sharman MP (d. 1803).
The earliest views of the house seem to be 19th century and show the entrance front very much in its present symmetrical form, with three evenly-spaced gables, a central pedimented stone doorway with Corinthian columns, mullioned and transomed windows, and two canted bay windows rising through two storeys. However, I am suspicious that this may not be the original arrangement of the 1560s, which would be very early for a fully symmetrical layout, unless the owner's kinship with Thynne provided relevant influence. There are other examples (e.g. Siston Court (Glos)) where an original irregular late 16th century design was altered in the 17th century to make it fashionably symmetrical, and this may have happened here. On the garden side, the two flanking staircase towers belong to the original house, but the centre between them is wholly a Victorian creation, where new rooms were created between the staircase towers. The house seems to have been conventionally planned, with a two-storey Great Hall in the traditional position, entered from a screens passage at one end. The original Elizabethan plaster ceiling of the hall, with patterns of ribs and many pendants is preserved, and the wooden panelling at the north end of the hall is original too. The house was taxed on 16 hearths in 1672.
Little is known of any changes to the house in the 17th or 18th centuries, since it was very largely rebuilt for Yarburgh Greame by P.C. Hardwick in 1852-55. The forecourt face of the building and the great hall behind it were faithfully restored, with a copy of the stone doorway replacing the original which was moved into the walled garden. But the entire garden front, apart from the staircase towers, was rebuilt and enlarged and the two side wings (one of which had been the stable block) were completely rebuilt to a new design. The sober Elizabethan skyline was punctuated by flamboyant chimney stacks and the two staircase towers were capped with ogee-shaped slated pyramid roofs. Inside new panelling, new doors, new rooms and decorative ceilings (many with heraldic devices) replaced the originals. The canted bay window of the great hall (dated 1855) received twenty-five stained glass shields displaying Yarburgh Graeme's personal 'quarterings'. What had been a modest Elizabethan country house became a Victorian mansion with 109 rooms. Further alterations were made in 1876 by David Brandon for George Bateson-de Yarburgh and his wife, when a small south-west wing may have been added, and by Walter Brierley of York in 1903-04 for the 3rd Baron Deramore after he decided to abandon Belvoir Park in Co. Down and move to Heslington. He removed the ogee-shaped roofs from the Elizabethan towers on the garden front and largely renewed the interiors other than the Great Hall.
The house was requisitioned for use by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War and not reoccupied by the family afterwards. In order to ensure that the house did not suffer the fate of so many at this time, it was sold in 1956 to a charitable trust which sold it on to the new University of York, founded in 1960. The University converted it to function as its administrative centre, to the designs of Sir Bernard Feilden, who is often seen as a leading conservation architect. Here, however, although the exterior was little changed, he stripped out and functionally refitted the interior for the third time in its existence, with few concessions to the historic fabric. In the main hall, the fireplace and much of the panelling was removed, and a dreadfully intrusive new staircase and gallery were built, quite spoiling the effect of the space. The two wings were gutted to provide accommodation for the university library (later offices) and a dining hall, with a new kitchen block behind it. Only in the former reception rooms, which were repurposed as meeting rooms, was the Edwardian panelling and plasterwork generally retained.
A modest formal garden was laid out around the house in the late 17th or early 18th century for James Yarburgh, which included a canal extending into the parkland. The position of the canal (filled in in the 1850s) is still marked by an indentation in the lawn, and by a charming early 18th century brick gazebo which overlooks it. The gazebo forms one corner of a walled garden which also contains a five-bay orangery, and a further survival of the historic landscaping is the group of ancient clipped yews south-west of the house. In the 1850s a new terrace created, and much of the available space was taken up by an irregularly shaped lake with a boat-house.
Belvoir Park, Newtownbreda, Co. Down
The estate, then known as Ballylenaghan, was acquired in 1722 (for £2,000) by Arthur Hill (later Hill-Trevor) (c.1694-1771), who was the younger son of Michael Hill of Hillsborough. It is thought that a small single-storey house with a noticeable breakfront was built here in about 1731, probably as a temporary residence; it was marked on Sloane's map of 1739 and Harris in 1744 calls it 'an agreeable seat'. Hill-Trevor then turned his attention to laying out the grounds, possibly with the help and advice of his twice-widowed mother, Lady Midleton, whose childhood at Belvoir Castle (Leics) is said to have suggested the new name for the estate. In 1744 Walter Harris recorded that the grounds were ‘laid out lately in Taste; the Avenue is large and handsome, the Fruitery, from an irregular Glyn, is now disposed in regular Canals, with Cascades, Slopes and Terraces... The Offices are finished, but the House not yet build' [sic]. In the 1730s Lady Midleton employed Richard Castle to build Knockbreda parish church, and if she was involved at Belvoir Park it raises the possibility of Castle's involvement in either the temporary house of 1731 or its successor. But Castle died in 1751, probably before work on the main house had begun, so at most he may have made some designs that influenced his successors. Work on the house evidently took place in the 1750s, for when Mrs Delany came to stay in October 1758 she found it a ‘charming place, a very good house, though not quite finished'. The new house was built onto the north end of the temporary residence, which then became the eastern range of service court.
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| Belvoir Park: detail of painting by Jonathan Fisher showing the house from the west c.1770. |
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| Belvoir Park: detail of painting by Jonathan Fisher showing the north and east sides of the house c.1770 |
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| Belvoir Park: detail of painting by Jonathan Fisher showing the south and west sides of the house c.1770 |
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| Belvoir Park: watercolour by Lord Mark Kerr, 1802 or 1805, showing the additions to the house from the north. |
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| Belvoir Park: watercolour by Lord Mark Kerr, 1802, showing the additions to the house from the east. |
At some point between 1784, when the 2nd Viscount came of age, and the mid 1790s, when his family moved him to Brynkinalt (Denbighs) following his attempted suicide, an attic storey was added to the house at Belvoir Park, and the entrance front was altered so that the pediment sat against the attic and was flanked by two oculi. The columns of what had been a freestanding portico were engaged with the wall behind. The house was recorded in this state in several views by Vice-Admiral Lord Mark Kerr in 1802 and 1805.
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| Belvoir Park: the galleried staircase hall, probably created during the Victorian refitting of the house in about 1865. |
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| Belvoir Park: waiting for the detonators in 1961. Image: Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust |
Descent: sold 1722 to Arthur Hill-Trevor (c.1694-1771), 1st Viscount Dungannon; to grandson, Arthur Hill-Trevor (1763-1837), 2nd Viscount Dungannon; sold part of the estate in 1809 to a consortium of Belfast merchants who sold 1811 to Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt., who bought the remainder of the estate from Lord Dungannon in 1818; to son, Sir Thomas Bateson (1819-90), 2nd bt. and later 1st Baron Deramore; to brother, George William Bateson (later De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1823-93), 2nd Baron Deramore; to son, Robert Wilfred De Yarburgh-Bateson (1865-1936), 3rd Baron Deramore; who sold 1934 to Stewart & Partners Ltd for housing development; requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW2; sold 1955 to Northern Ireland Housing Trust; rest of the estate sold to the Ministry of Agriculture and Belvoir Park Golf Club. The house was leased in c.1905 to W.H. Wilson, and in 1917-18 to Sir William Johnston, Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Moira Castle, Co. Down
The first house on this site is thought to have been built in 1651 for Major Edward Burgh, who had bought the land in 1639, and will have been fortified, but it was acquired soon afterwards by the Rawdon family. At some point in the early to mid 18th century (the traditional date of 1690 is not credible) Sir John Rawdon (later 1st Earl of Moira) rebuilt it as a five-by-three bay, three-storey house with a hipped roof, giant pilasters at the angles, and an elaborate pedimented doorcase with Gibbsian rustication. The house was accompanied by an elaborate formal garden, probably begun at the end of the 17th century by Sir Arthur Rawdon, who employed James Harlow to bring back more then 1,000 trees and shrubs from Jamaica and had a conservatory – considered possibly the earliest in Ireland – erected in the Demesne in 1690. Later in the 18th century, the fairly modest house was enlarged by the addition of two-bay wings, which were made slightly taller than the centre by the addition of massive parapets concealing their low-pitched roofs. The wings stretched backwards to enclose a courtyard at the rear of the house.
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| Moira Castle: drawing of 1799 by Gabriel Beranger. Image: Royal Irish Academy. |
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| Moira Castle: distant view of the house from the park by Gabriel Beranger, 1799. Image: Royal Irish Academy. |
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| Moira Castle: the landscaping remains but the house has gone at the time of the 1st edition OS map c.1840. |
Heslington Hall, York, Yorkshire
At the heart of what is now essentially a Victorian and Edwardian house is still the mansion built in 1565-68 for Sir Thomas Eynns, secretary to the Council of the North (and incidentally uncle to Sir John Thynne of Longleat). This was a gabled brick mansion consisting of a central hall range nine bays wide, with two main storeys, a basement and gabled attics, and with cross-wings projecting to enclose an entrance court on three sides, one of which formed the stable block.
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| Heslington Hall: an early 19th century painting of the house showing it before the Victorian rebuilding. Image: Country Life. |
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| Heslington Hall: engraving by W. Monkhouse, 1860, showing the entrance front as rebuilt by P.C. Hardwick in 1852-55. |
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| Heslington Hall: the garden front in 1913, soon after Brierley's alterations of 1903-04. Image: Country Life. |
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| Heslington Hall: the Great Hall in 1913. Image: Country Life. |
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| Heslington Hall: the great hall as brutally treated in the 1960s. |
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| Heslington Hall: the entrance front in recent years. Image: York University. |
Descent: Crown leased 1557 to Thomas Eynns (d. 1573); to son, Thomas Eynns (d. 1578) who bought the freehold; to son, Richard Eynns, who sold 1601 to Sir Thomas Hesketh (1548-1605); to brother, Cuthbert Hesketh (d. 1629); to son, Thomas Hesketh; to son, Thomas Hesketh (d. 1708); to daughter Anne (d. 1717), wife of James Yarburgh (d. 1728); to son, Thomas Yarburgh (1696-1741); to brother, Henry Yarburgh; to brother, Hesketh Yarburgh (d. 1754); to brother, Charles Yarburgh (1716-89); to son, Henry Yarburgh (c.1748-1825); to half-brother, Maj. Nicholas Edmund Yarburgh (d. 1852); to nephew, Yarburgh Greame (later Yarburgh) (d. 1856) of Sewerby Hall, Bridlington (Yorks ER); to nephew, George John Lloyd (later Yarburgh) (1811-75); to daughter, Mary Elizabeth (d. 1884), wife of George William Bateson (later Bateson-De Yarburgh and then De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1823-93), 2nd Baron Deramore; to son, Robert Wilfred De Yarburgh-Bateson (1865-1936), 3rd Baron Deramore; to brother, George Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1870-1943), 4th Baron Deramore; to son, Stephen Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1903-64), 5th Baron Deramore, who sold 1956 to Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust Ltd, which sold 1962 to University of York.
Bateson, later De Yarburgh-Bateson, family, baronets and Barons Deramore
Bateson, Robert (1648-1719). Son of Robert Bateson (d. 1664) of Catterall, Garstang (Lancs), baptised at Garstang, 2 April 1648. Yeoman. He married, 20 May 1680 at Garstang, Mary Caton, and had issue:
(1) James Bateson (b. 1681), baptised at Garstang, 3 May 1681; died in infancy;(2) Robert Bateson (b. 1683) (q.v.);(3) James Bateson (b. 1684), baptised at Garstang, 27 May 1684;(4) Margaret Bateson (1685-93), baptised at Garstang, 21 April 1685; died young and was buried at Garstang, 13 December 1693;(5) Richard Bateson (1689-91), baptised at Garstang, 23 June 1689; died in infancy and was buried at Garstang, 10 January 1690/1.
He lived at Catterall, Garstang, Lancs.
He was buried at Garstang, 26 December 1719. His wife's date of death is unknown.
Bateson, Robert (b. 1683). Son of Robert Bateson (1648-1719) of Catterall, Garstang (Lancs), baptised at Garstang, 4 May 1683. He married 21 May 1702 at Garstang, Isabel Parker, and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Bateson (b. 1704), baptised at Garstang, 12 March 1703/4;(2) Thomas Bateson (1706-91) (q.v.);(3) Richard Bateson (d. 1766), as a young man moved to Londonderry (Co. Derry) and purchased farming estates at Killoquin (Co. Antrim), Castruse (Co. Donegal) and in Co. Tyrone; High Sheriff of Co. Donegal, 1761; married 1st, Sarah, daughter of John McClintock and had issue one son (from whom descend the Bateson-Harvey family of Langley Park (Bucks), who will be the subject of a separate post); married 2nd, 16 October 1740/2, Elizabeth (d. 1789), daughter of Robert Harvey of Londonderry, and had further issue two sons (the elder of whom was raised to a baronetcy in 1789 as Sir Robert Bateson-Harvey, 1st bt.) and one daughter; died November 1766;(4) Robert Bateson (d. 1716), buried at Garstang, 1716;(5) A daughter; married [fu] Clarkson; living in 1785.
He lived at Catterall, Garstang (Lancs).
His date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.
Bateson, Thomas (1706-91). Probably the eldest son of Robert Bateson (b. 1683) of Catterall, Garstang (Lancs) and his wife Isabel Parker, baptised at Garstang, 21 February 1705/6. He became a partner in Mussenden, Bigger & Co. (later Mussenden, Bateson and Co., and from 1766, Thomas Bateson & Co.), wine merchants, who imported rum from the West Indies as well as wines from Europe; he retired from the firm in 1786. In 1752 he became one of the three founding partners in Belfast's first bank, Mussenden, Adair and Bateson, which operated until 1757. He was also one of the founders of the Belfast Charitable Society in 1752. He married, 1747 (licence 8 September), probably at St John, Dublin, Margaret (d. 1783?), daughter of Rev. James White of Whitehall (Co. Antrim) and widow of William Hartley of Dublin, and had issue:
(1) Thomas Bateson (1752-1811) (q.v.);(2) Richard Bateson (d. 1783); died unmarried, 1783;(3) William Bateson (fl. 1814), of Bellmount, Belfast; living in 1814;(4) Jane Bateson; married, 1782, John Dunne KC;(5) Frances Bateson; married, 1805, Hans Mark Hamill of Co. Down.
He inherited his father's estate at Catterall but sold it. In 1744 he also bought a lease of the Salters' Company estate at Magherafelt, which he held jointly with Robert Stewart, Lord Londonderry, from 1786. In about 1760 he bought Orangefield House (Co. Down).
He died in 1791; his will was proved in Dublin in 1791. His wife is said to have died in August 1783.
Bateson, Thomas (1752-1811). Eldest son of Thomas Bateson (1706-91) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Rev. James White of Whitehall (Co. Antrim) and widow of William Hartley of Dublin, born 5 November 1752. Educated at Glasgow University (matriculated 1770). He married, 22 May 1779 at St Saviour, York, Elizabeth (1752-1840), youngest daughter of George Lloyd FRS of Hulme Hall, Manchester (Lancs) and later Barrowby (Yorks WR), and had issue:
(1) Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt. (q.v.).
He inherited Orangefield House and the lease of the Salters' Company estate from his father in 1791.
He died 15 May 1811 and was buried at Knockbreda. His widow died at her home in Donegall Place, Belfast, 2 January 1840.
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| Sir Robert Bateson (1780-1863), 1st bt. |
(1) Louisa Bateson (c.1812-23), born about 1812; died young, 18 July 1823;(2) Maria Catherine Bateson (c.1813-76), born about 1813; married, 4 January 1838 at Knockbreda (Co. Down), Capt. Sir Beresford Burston MacMahon (1808-73), 2nd bt., and had issue four sons and two daughters; died at Spa (Belgium), 6 August 1876;(3) Elizabeth Bateson (1815-16), born March 1815; died at Limerick, 27 February 1816 and was buried at Knockbreda Cemetery (Co. Down);(4) Robert Bateson (1816-43), born 29 March 1816; educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1835; BA 1839; MA 1842); Conservative MP for Co. Londonderry, 1842-43; died unmarried of typhus while visiting Jerusalem, 23 December 1843, and was the first person buried in the Jerusalem Protestant Cemetery;(5) Elizabeth Honoria Bateson (1817-62), born 10 November 1817; married, 7 February 1839 at Knockbreda, Capt. John Neilson Gladstone RN MP (1807-63), of Bowden Park (Wilts), fourth child of Sir John Gladstone, kt. and brother of W.E. Gladstone, the Prime Minister, and had issue one son and seven daughters; died 11 February 1862;(6) Sir Thomas Bateson (1819-90), 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Deramore (q.v.);(7) Samuel Stephen Bateson (1821-79), born 13 October 1821; educated at Rugby, Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1840; BA 1844; MA 1847) and Inner Temple (admitted 1842; called 1847); barrister-at-law; lived at Cambusmere, nr Dornoch (Sutherland) and was well-known as a sportsman and scientific agriculturalist; JP and DL (from 1863) for Sutherland; married, 25 July 1854 at St Anne, Dublin, Florinda (1823-1908), daughter of Richard Handcock, 3rd Baron Castlemaine, but had no issue; died 9 March 1879; will proved 26 June 1879 (effects under £14,000);(8) George William Bateson (later De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1823-93), 2nd Baron Deramore (q.v.);(9) Catherine Anne Bateson (1825-33), born 2 February 1825; died young at Cheltenham (Glos), 6 April 1833;(10) Stephen Bateson (1827-39), born 20 January 1827; died young, 27 June 1839;(11) Lt-Gen. Richard Bateson (1828-1905), born 18 December 1828; educated at Rugby, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1847); an officer in the 1st Life Guards (Cornet, 1849; Lt., 1851; Capt. 1855; Lt-Col., 1868; Col., 1873; Maj-Gen., 1884; retired as Lt-Gen 1887); equerry to HRH Duke of Cambridge, 1881-1904; deputy ranger of Hyde Park, 1886-1905; died unmarried, 11 September 1905; will proved 7 October 1905 (estate £43,155);(12) John Bateson (1831-1900), born 8 July 1831; lived latterly in Paris (France); married, 27 June 1868, Edith Elizabeth (d. 1886), fourth daughter of Charles John Pearse, and had issue one son and one daughter, who both died young; died in Genoa (Italy), 26 March 1900; will proved 18 April 1900 (estate £34,535).
He inherited Orangefield House and the lease of the Salters' Company estate from his father in 1811. He purchased part of Belvoir Park in the same year and the rest in 1818. He sold Orangefield in 1812. The lease of the Salters' Company estate expired in 1843. He seems also to have rented Castruse near Londonderry and later Bellaghy (Co. Londonderry), presumably as constituency residences.
He died 21 April 1863; his will was proved 7 May 1863 (effects under £35,000). His widow died 21 January 1874; administration of her goods was granted 3 February 1874 (effects under £5,000).
* Some sources give 1782, but on balance 1780 seems more likely.
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| Sir Thomas Bateson, 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Deramore |
(1) The Hon. Eva Frances Caroline Bateson (1850-1940), born 3 February 1850; married, 4 March 1871 at St Peter, Eaton Square, Westminster (Middx), Alfred David Ker (1843-77) of Montalto (Co. Down) and had issue four daughters; lived latterly at Milborne Port (Som.); died aged 90 on 18 May 1940; will proved 31 August 1940 (estate £31,969);(2) The Hon. Kathleen Mary Bateson (1852-1935), born 15 August and baptised at St Peter, Eaton Square, 16 September 1952; married, 29 May 1877, Walter Randolph Farquhar (1842-1901), second son of Sir Walter Rockcliff Farquhar, 3rd bt., and had issue one son; bought Shaw House (Berks) in 1905 and remodelled it c.1906-10; died at Shaw House, 20 July 1935; will proved 17 September 1935 (estate £299,860).
He inherited Belvoir Park from his father in 1863 and made alterations to it in 1865. He was also 'an extensive landowner in Co. Londonderry and Co. Limerick'.
He died at Folkestone (Kent), 1 December 1890 and was buried at Bromham (Beds); his will was proved 20 February 1891 (estate £67,013). His wife died 12 August 1887 and was buried at Bromham.
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| George William de Yarburgh-Bateson, 2nd Baron Deramore Image: National Portrait Gallery |
(1) The Hon. Mary Lilla Bateson (later Bateson-De Yarburgh and then De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1863-1939), born 12 November 1863 and baptised at St Mark, North Audley St., Westminster (Middx), 1 January 1864; lived at The Lodge, Heslington, with her sister, and devoted her time to charitable works; died unmarried, 12 February and was buried at Heslington, 16 February 1939; will proved 17 March 1939 (estate £21,816)(2) Robert Wilfred Bateson (later Bateson-De Yarburgh and then De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1865-1936), 3rd Baron Deramore (q.v.);(3) The Hon. Katherine Hylda Bateson (later Bateson-De Yarburgh and then De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1869-1955), born 21 January and baptised at St Mark, North Audley St., 4 March 1869; lived at The Lodge, Heslington, with her sister, and devoted her time to charitable works; died unmarried, 27 November 1955; will proved 26 January 1956 (estate £16,854);(4) George Nicholas Bateson (later Bateson-De Yarburgh and then De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1870-1943), 4th Baron Deramore (q.v.);(5) The Hon. Eustace Bateson-De Yarburgh (later De Yarburgh-Bateson) (1884-1958), born 13 October 1884; educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA); served in First World War as an officer in the Royal Army Service Corps (Lt., 1914; Capt., 1916); lived at St Ann's House, King's Lynn (Norfk), The Manor House, Great Ryburgh (Norfk) and latterly at Woodhall Spa (Lincs); married 1 June 1927 at St Margaret, Kings Lynn, Elsie Florence (1893-1981), daughter of Henry Josiah Julius Jones of St. Anne's House, Kings Lynn (Norfk) and widow of Capt. Horace Charles Bowman Cottam MC (1891-1918), but had no issue; died 5 March 1958; will proved 2 June 1958 (estate £21,694).
He inherited Heslington Hall in right of his wife and Belvoir Park from his elder brother in 1890. He maintained a town house at 76 Eaton Square, London.
He died in Paris (France), 29 April, and was buried at Heslington, 4 May 1893; his will was proved in Belfast, 28 June 1893 (effects £53,615). His wife died following childbirth, 22 October 1884 and was buried at Heslington; administration of her effects was granted to her husband, 5 January 1885 (effects £4,727).
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| Robert Wilfred De Yarburgh-Bateson, 3rd Baron Deramore Image: National Portrait Gallery |
(1.1) The Hon. Moira Faith Lilian De Yarburgh-Bateson (1898-1982), born 9 June 1898; married 1st, 24 October 1919 at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx) (annulled 1923), John Robert Rankin Fullerton (1894-1966) (who m2, 15 March 1924, Evelyn May Palmer (1891-1960)), eldest son of John Skipworth Herbert Fullerton of Thrybergh Park (Yorks NR) and 2nd, 5 June 1924 at the Strand Register Office, London (div. 1935 on the grounds of his adultery), Sir Edward George Chichester (1883-1940), 10th bt., and had issue one son; died 21 December 1982.
He inherited Belvoir Park and Heslington Hall from his father in 1893. He lived primarily at Belvoir until about 1904 when plans to build a fever hospital nearby led him to let the house and move to Heslington. The Snaith Hall estate was sold in 1919 and most of the Belvoir Park estate was sold in 1934.
He died 1 April 1936; his will was proved 17 June and 8 July 1936 (estate £248,321). His first wife died 26 October 1901; administration of her goods was granted 29 November 1901 (estate £672). His widow died 30 December 1972.
De Yarburgh-Bateson, George Nicholas (1870-1943), 4th Baron Deramore. Second son of George William De Yarburgh-Bateson (1823-93), 2nd Baron Deramore and his wife Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of George John Yarburgh of Heslington Hall (Yorks), born 20 November 1870. He succeeded his elder brother as 5th baronet and 4th Baron Deramore, 1 April 1936. He married, 12 December 1900, Muriel Katherine (1880-1960), daughter of Arthur Duncombe (later Grey) of Sutton Hall, Easingwold (Yorks ER), and had issue:
(1) Stephen Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1903-64), 5th Baron Deramore (q.v.);(2) The Hon. Judith Katharine De Yarburgh-Bateson (1909-88), born 22 March 1909; lived latterly in Edinburgh; died unmarried, 23 May 1988; will proved 5 October 1988 (estate £25,874);(3) Richard Arthur De Yarburgh-Bateson (1911-2006), 6th Baron Deramore (q.v.).
He lived at Deighton Grove, Crockey Hill, York.
He died 4 November 1943; his will was proved 24 January 1944 (estate £25,285). His widow died 21 March 1960; her will was proved 12 July 1960 (estate £24,017).
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| Stephen Nicholas de Yarburgh-Bateson, 5th Baron Deramore. Image: National Portrait Gallery |
(1) The Hon. Jane Faith De Yarburgh-Bateson (1933-98), born 20 March 1933; married, 28 June 1952, Charles Edward Stourton (1923-2006), 26th Baron Mowbray, 27th Baron Segrave and 23rd Baron Stourton (who married 2nd, February 1999, Joan Marianne (c.1922-2006), only surviving child of Capt. Herbert Edmund Street and widow of Sir Guy Hope Holland (1918-97), 3rd bt.), and had issue two sons; died 2 April 1998; will proved 7 August 1998.
He inherited Heslington Hall from his father in 1943, but sold it to the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust Ltd. in 1956; it was subsequently sold on to the new University of York in 1962. After the sale he lived at Heslington Manor House.
He died 23 December 1964; his will was proved 19 July and 25 October 1965 (estate £173,463). His widow died 2 November 1979; her will was proved 22 January 1980 (estate £122,430).
* Lady Deramore was the author of The art of preserving and arranging dried flowers (1973).
De Yarburgh-Bateson, Richard Arthur (1911-2006), 6th Baron Deramore. Younger son of George Nicholas De Yarburgh-Bateson (1870-1943), 4th Baron Deramore and his wife Muriel Katherine, daughter of Arthur Duncombe (later Grey) of Sutton Hall, Easingwold (Yorks ER), born 9 April 1911. Educated at Harrow, St. John's College, Cambridge (BA 1932; MA 1938) and the Architectural Association. A qualified architect (AADip, ARIBA), in practice, 1938-39 and 1946-80. He served in the Second World War as an officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve (F/Lt.), and contributed to Winged Promises: a history of No. 14 Squadron, RAF, 1915-45 (1996). As a young man he was a competitive cyclist and motorist, and later he became an amateur watercolourist and a prolific, if largely unpublished, author of erotic fiction, including Still Waters (1997). He married, 28 August 1948, Janet Mary (1916-2013), eldest daughter of Dr John Ware MD of Askham-in-Furness (Lancs), and had issue:
(1) The Hon. Ann Katherine De Yarburgh-Bateson (b. 1950), born 10 August 1950; married, 15 May 1982, Jonathan Henry Maconachy Peel (b. 1954), public affairs consultant, elder son of Walter Peel of Knockdromin, Lusk (Co. Dublin) and Rathmore, Raheny (Co. Dublin), and had issue one son and one daughter; now living.
He lived latterly at Heslington House, Aislaby (Yorks NR), which he built for himself.
He died aged 95 on 20 August 2006; his will was proved 22 August 2008. His widow died aged 97 on 4 July 2013; her will was proved 20 November 2014.
Principal sources
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 1098-99; W. Harris & C. Smith, The Antient and Present State of the County of Down, 1744; J. Debrett & W. Courthope, The baronetage of England, 1839, p. 400; P. Harbison (ed.), Beranger's Views of Ireland, 1991, p. 102; Sir N. Pevsner & D. Neave, The buildings of England: Yorkshire - York and the East Riding, 2nd edn., 1995, p. 463; A. Casement, 'The Irish world of Lord Mark Kerr: consort of a countess, and admiral artist', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, vol. IX, 2006, pp. 64-68; F. O'Dwyer, 'In search of Christopher Myers', in M. McCarthy & K. O'Neill (eds), Studies in the Gothic Revival, 2008, pp. 61, 76-80; F. O'Dwyer, 'Robert West, Christopher Myers and St James's church, Whitehaven', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, vol. XII, 2009, pp. 15-23; https://theirishaesthete.com/tag/belvoir-park/;
Location of archives
Yarburgh and De Yarburgh-Bateson families, of Heslington and Snaith (Yorks): deeds, family, estate and household papers, 1312-20th cent. [Borthwick Institute for Archives, YM]
Coat of arms
Bateson of Belvoir Park: Argent, three bat's wings sable, two and one; on a chief gules a lion passant or.
De Yarburgh-Bateson, Barons Deramore, of Heslington Hall: Quarterly, 1st and 4th grand quarters, 1st and 4th three bat's wings erect sable, on a chief gules a lion passant or; 2nd and 3rd, per pale argent and azure a chevron between three chaplets counterchanged; 2nd and 3rd grand quarters, argent, three lions dormant in pale sable between two flaunches of the last, each charged with three mullets palewise of the first.
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 28 February 2021.
