(463) Baxter of Kilmaron Castle, Kincaldrum House, Gilston House, Teasses House, and Invereighty House, baronets

Baxter of Kincaldrum

This family traces its origins to John Baxter (c.1700-85), a handloom weaver who moved from Fife to Dundee in about 1728. His sons prospered as merchants and linen manufacturers in Dundee, and his grandson John Baxter (1765-1833) became first chairman of the city's chamber of commerce. John's brother, William Baxter (1767-1854) secured the fortunes of the family when he won a Royal Navy contract for the manufacture of sailcloth in 1795. It was Baxter's sailcloth that carried Admiral Lord Nelson's HMS Victory to the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and the firm continued to supply the navy for much of the 19th century. In 1822, he formed a new partnership (later Baxter Bros. & Co.) with his sons, Edward, John and William, and built a new linen mill at Lower Dens, Dundee, enabling the rapid expansion of his business. His son Edward soon withdrew from the firm to establish a new concern as a general merchant and shipping agent, but was replaced by his brother David (later Sir David Baxter (1793-1872), 1st bt.), whose first business as a sugar refiner had failed in the financial crash of 1826. Sir David became the senior partner in the firm after the death of his father and two brothers in less than three years, 1852-54.

During the 19th century both the linen manufactory (Baxter Bros & Co.) and the merchant house (E. Baxter & Co.) prospered. Sir David Baxter, who purchased Kilmaron Castle (Fife) in 1854, left a fortune of £1.2m at his death in 1872, and although I have not been able to find a more precise figure than 'upwards of half a million' for Edward Baxter, who died the previous year, he was obviously extremely wealthy too; an obituarist called him 'one of the merchant princes of Dundee'. Sir David had no issue, and on his death the firm passed into the hands of his partners, Peter Carmichael and William Ogilvie Dalgleish, while Kilmaron Castle passed first to his widow and then, in 1882, to his nephew, William Edward Baxter (1825-90). A good deal of Sir David's fortune was left to philanthropic causes, continuing a pattern of charitable generosity he and his spinster sisters had set in life. His brother Edward, although equally philanthropic while living, had to provide for a large family, with children by each of his three marriages. Edward had bought Kincaldrum House in 1853, and this also passed to his eldest son, William Edward Baxter (1825-90), along with the family mercantile business. W.E. Baxter, who as a young man had been a considerable traveller, was MP for the Montrose Boroughs for thirty years from 1855, and served in Gladstone's Liberal Government from 1868-73. To provide for his younger sons, John Henry Baxter (1851-1908) and Edward Gorrel Baxter (1855-1928), in 1862 Edward Baxter bought the Gilston estate in Fife, which he left to them jointly. After Edward's death, John Henry Baxter seems to have bought out his brother, and Edward Gorrel Baxter used the proceeds to purchase the Teasses estate, next door to Gilston, before 1874. So by the 1880s, the three brothers held four estates in Angus and Fife between them.

William Edward Baxter died in 1890, and left his mercantile business, along with Kilmaron and Kincaldrum, to his elder son, Edward Armitstead Baxter (1848-1933), who sold Kilmaron in about 1908 and spent most of the remaining capital before his death. E.A. Baxter's younger brother, Sir George Washington Baxter (1853-1926), 1st bt., shared his father's political interests but never became an MP, although he was eventually made a baronet for his services to the Unionist party. He became a partner in Baxter Bros. & Co., renewing the family involvement with that firm, and in 1894 bought Invereighty House (Angus), which stood close to his brother's house at Kincaldrum. Sir George had no children, so once again a family baronetcy died with the person on whom it had been conferred, and when his widow died in 1937, Invereighty passed to E.A. Baxter's second son, Lt-Col. George Lewis Baxter (1883-1962); it was sold after his death. Kincaldrum House passed to E.A. Baxter's eldest son, William Edward Elliot Baxter (1880-1955), who moved to Ireland after his second marriage in 1952.  After he died, the trustees of his son, Normile Baxter (1929-2017), sold the estate (against the latter's wishes) and the house subsequently slid into dereliction. Normile Baxter then bought the House of Aquahorthies in Aberdeenshire as a replacement.

On the deaths of John Henry Baxter and his brother Edward Gorrel Baxter in 1908 and 1928 respectively, the Fife estates of Gilston and Teasses both passed to John Henry's eldest son, Lt-Col. Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950), who was a career army officer. It seems to have been the intention of Edward Gorrel Baxter that the two estates should be merged and run as one, but Teasses was sold instead in 1932. The capital generated no doubt helped the Gilston estate to survive the difficult mid 20th century years, and it descended to Alan George Laurie Baxter (1927-88) and on his death to Edward Thomas Baxter (b. 1960), the present owner.

Kilmaron Castle, Cupar, Fife

About 1800 the lands on which this house was built were purchased from Captain Barclay of Collarnie, by Oliver Gourlay of Craigrothie and two partners for £2,800. Having bought out his partners, Gourlay proceeded to plant and improve the grounds, and subsequently sold them to a Mr Lumsden, for £20,000. In about 1809 they were sold for £26,000 to Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland, who then spent over £12,000 more in building a new house and outbuildings to the designs of James Gillespie Graham in 1810-11. The house has marked similarities to Gillespie Graham's Culdees Castle (Perths) of 1810, so it is no surprise to find it was designed at much the same time. Both houses have a round tower engaged at one corner of the house and battlemented turrets at the angles. 

Kilmaron Castle: engraving showing the house from the north-east, as first built to the designs of James Gillespie Graham.

The main entrance at Kilmaron was in the centre of the north front, and was protected by a whimsical Gothick porch formed of two miniature turrets linked to each other and to the house by pointed arches under machicolated parapets carrying pyramidal tablets. The interior contained in 1825 a drawing room, dining room, library, and principal bedroom apartment on the ground floor, bedrooms on the first floor, and service accommodation in the basement.

Kilmaron Castle: the house from the south-east after the additions made for Sir David Baxter about 1860, from an old postcard.

Kilmaron cost the Admiral over £38,000, but after years of letting it to tenants and increasingly desparate efforts to sell it, he eventually sold it to an Edinburgh accountant and insurance agent for just £16,250. After Sir David Baxter bought the estate in 1854, the house was altered more radically than has previously been realised. The main entrance was moved from the north to the east front, where a new and much heavier porch was built, and the house was roughly doubled in size to the south, where a new facade rippling with bay windows was created. The new porch led into a broad corridor with the principal rooms to the south and the staircase opening on the north side. Very little of Gillespie Graham's original interior can have survived such a radical remodelling. Further additions were made in 1897 by Alexander Johnston of Dundee, who worked extensively for the Baxter clan and took David William Baxter (who was in his office at this time of these works) into partnership, but it is not clear what the works consisted of. A further major enlargement of the house to the north-west to provide a new billiard room, additional bedrooms and 'other apartments' was carried out after the estate was bought by Sir James Low in about 1908.

In the late 20th century the house fell into disrepair and was extensively damaged by dry rot. The Morrison-Low family moved out into a smaller new house built nearby; the contents were sold in 1969; the fittings stripped out in 1970, and the house stood as a roofless shell until 1985, when it was rather tragically blown up by the army as a training exercise. The army made a mess of the demolition, which had to be completed by more traditional means, and nothing survives today except the pretty stable block which has miniature turrets echoing those of the former mansion.

Descent: built for Adm. Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland (1777-1839), who let to his kinsman, Patrick Maitland (c.1770-1821), Capt. & Mrs. Douglas (fl. 1824); sold 1835 to James Auchinleck Cheyne (d. 1853), who also let it from about 1847; sold 1854 to Sir David Baxter (1793-1872); to widow (d. 1882); to nephew, William Edward Baxter (1825-90); to son, Edward Armitstead Baxter (1848-1933); sold about 1908 to Sir James Low (1849-1923), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Walter John Low (later Morrison-Low) (1899-1955), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir James Richard Morrison-Low (1925-2012), 3rd bt., who demolished it in 1985.

Kincaldrum House, Angus

The estate belonged to the Guthries of Guthrie Castle from 1457, and later passed to the Bowers, a Catholic family who supported the Stuart cause at the time of the 1745 rebellion, as a result of which the head of the family was killed and the family lost possession of the property for a time. Their house here was modest, apparently consisting of six main rooms in addition to service accommodation when it was advertised to let in 1745. When Kincaldrum was offered for sale in 1801 nothing was said about its chief residence. 

Kincaldrum House: the footprint of the early 19th century house
as shown on the OS 1st edn. map of 1858 

By 1816, however, there was a house 'fit for the immediate reception of any family', and this building probably formed the centre of the later mansion. Later photographs and maps suggest the original building was a double pile house with the entrance front to the south. The central three bays on this side were occupied by a deeply recessed portico in antis, with a broad flight of stone steps leading up to a screen of Tuscan columns, within which further stairs led up to the main entrance at piano nobile level. Behind this entrance lay an oval staircase hall with a glazed dome. To either side of the centrepiece were shallow curved bows. In 1852 this house was considered 'modern, and in perfect repair', although  Edward Baxter found it necessary to make further repairs in 1853-54 after purchasing the property.

Kincaldrum House: the house from the south-east after the enlargement of 1873 by John Carver of Kinloch. Image: Estate of Normile Baxter.

In 1873, the house was greatly enlarged to the designs of John Carver of Kinloch by the addition of wings at either end of the existing building, giving it seven reception rooms and sixteen bedrooms on the principal floors. The wing on the west side was of three storeys, with a high basement to accommodate the fall of the land, higher rooms than in the original house on the principal floor, and lower attic rooms above them with windows that rose above the wallhead as dormers. The larger east wing extended to the north of the original block and terminated in a tower-like block, perhaps meant to suggest early origins as a tower-house.

Kincaldrum House: the ruins in 2007. Image: Anne Burgess. Some rights reserved.

In 1952 William Elliot-Baxter moved to Ireland following his second marriage, and the following year the contents of the house were sold. Kincaldrum was subsequently abandoned and slowly fell into ruin. In the 1970s some windows and internal fittings were still intact, but it is now almost a complete ruin, with bare stone walls.

Descent: Alexander Bower (d. 1801)... Robert Stirling Graham (d. 1846); to daughter, Jessie Graham (d. 1852); sold 1853 for £42,000 to Edward Baxter (1790-1871); to son, William Edward Baxter MP (1825-90); to son, Edward Armitstead Baxter (1848-1927/33); to son, William Edward Elliot-Baxter (1880-1955); who sold it shortly before his death.

Gilston House, Fife

Gilston House: detail of an engraving of 1813 showing the house designed by Robert Balfour for Col. Dewar in about 1800.

The core of the present house is a two-storey house designed by Robert Balfour of St. Andrews for Col. (later Maj-Gen.) David Erskine Dewar, who had made a fortune in India and bought three farms here to form an estate commanding a fine view across Largo Bay to the Lothian hills. The house was said in 1813 to have been 'built a few years ago' and was probably built about 1800. An engraving of 1813 shows its original form, with a seven by three bay front block and a lower wing at the rear. The seven bay entrance front had a pedimented central breakfront with three closely spaced windows on the first floor and a broad semi-circular porch below. When it was advertised for sale in 1818 there were four reception rooms and fourteen principal bedrooms.

Gilston House: the house after the remodelling by John Currie & Son in 1879, from an old postcard.

In 1874 tenders were invited for building new a new stable block to the designs of John Currie & Son of Elie (Fife), and in 1879 the same architects made large additions to the house itself, consisting of irregular wings sprouting from the east and west flanks of the building, and the remodelling of the existing centre, with the addition of a new taller centre and porch on the south front, and elaborate Classical pedimented aedicule surrounds to the ground floor windows. Further minor additions and alterations were made between 1894 and 1907 by James Gillespie & Scott. 

Gilston House: the house and gardens in 2021. © Stewart Atkinson.

Later in the 20th century, the east and west wings were pulled down and the side elevations tidied up. The grounds were laid out for James Wyld in the early 19th century and the areas near the house  were developed later as attractive gardens, which have been open to the public occasionally for the National Gardens Scheme since the mid 20th century.

Descent: built c.1800-05 for Col. (later Maj-Gen.) David Erskine Dewar (d. 1821); sold c.1821 to Capt. Parsons; sold c.1825 to James Wyld, a Leith merchant; to son, who sold 1862 to Edward Baxter (1791-1871), who gave it to his son, John Henry Baxter (1851-1908), who let it until he came of age; to son, Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950); to son, Alan George Laurie Baxter (1927-88); to son, Edward Thomas Baxter (b. 1960).

Teasses House, Ceres, Fife

The original plain neo-Jacobean house was designed by William Burn for Robert Christie, and built in 1825-26. Unfortunately, no view of the house as built seems to survive, but it was apparently constructed to a reduced version of the designs (which survive in the RIBA), two rooms deep rather than three; however, the arrangement of the principal rooms along the south front (drawing room, vestibule, dining room) appears to follow Burn's proposed arrangement. 

The house as it exists today is largely the creation of John Currie, who remodelled the Burn house in his own version of the Tudor-Jacobean style for Edward Gorrell Baxter in 1879. Currie's additions encased the earlier house, the main walls of which were retained as its core. Currie added the three-storey tower over the entrance, the canted bays and angle turrets. The roofline was simplified during alterations by Gillespie & Scott in 1930-33 for Major W.C.J. Black, and the house has been thoroughly restored by the present owners since 1996.

Teasses House: the house as remodelled in 1879, altered in the 1930s and restored since 1996.

The house is irregular in plan, with the large square entrance tower of 1879 to the south, and a projecting wing at the rear. The main block is of two storeys over a basement which is in part exposed by the fall of the ground. It is built of grey sandstone rubble laid in courses with ashlar dressings. The attractive and playful elevations are asymmetrical, with canted and square projecting bays, Tudor style drip moulds above the principal windows of the main floor and  tower, and a parapet with incised vertical flute detailing, from which triangular wallhead pediments rise. At the corners, small bartisans are corbelled out from the walls, with crosslet loop, arrow slot and quatrefoil detailing. 

The interior now largely dates from the remodelling of 1932-33 by Gillespie & Scott, which toned down the more wilful details of the 1870s. The interior decoration of that date seems to have been contracted out to Dobie & Son of Edinburgh. The timber main staircase with twisted balusters and bulbous knops survives from 1879, and the principal rooms retain their elaborate Victorian cornices. There are fine neo-Jacobethan timber chimneypieces in the billiard room and dining room, somewhat simplified in 1933. The drawing room has a  Caroline-style chimneypiece of 1933.

Descent: built for Robert Stark Christie (1792-1862); to son, James Stark Christie, who sold c.1874 to Edward Gorrell Baxter (1855-1928); to nephew, Col. Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950); sold 1932 to Brig. W.C. Gordon Black; to son, W.G.M. Black... sold 1996 to Sir (Alexander) Fraser Morrison (b. 1948).

Invereighty (alias Inverighty) House, Angus

An early 19th century Classical house of two storeys, set on a high basement. The house was a rectangular block of five by three bays, with the wider central bay of the entrance front stepped slightly forward, and having a simple porch on the ground floor and a tripartite window above. The elevations were Greek Revival in their severity and plainness. 

Invereighty House: the house as first built, from a mid 19th century engraving.

The estate formed part of the property of the Earls of Strathmore in the mid 19th century, but in 1872 one half of the estate was sold to W.E. Baxter and added to the Kincaldrum property, while the other half, including the house, was sold to James Paterson of Kinnettles House. Paterson renovated the mansion at Invereighty, adding bay windows on the south and west fronts, but then leased it out to tenants before selling it to Sir George Washington Baxter (1853-1926), 1st bt. by 1894.

During the Second World War a children's home from Broughty Ferry was evacuated to the house, and later it fell into poor repair like so many others. It was bought in about 1967 by Derek Thomson, the managing director of D.C. Thomson Ltd. of Dundee, who demolished it and built a smaller new house a few yards to the north. A 19th century lodge survived until 1993 when it was demolished for the widening and realignment of the A90 south of Forfar. 

Descent: Lt-Col. John Lawrenson (d. 1836); sold or leased to James Aynsworth; sold to Claud Bowes-Lyon (1824-1904), 13th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne; sold 1872 to James Paterson, who let to W.G. Don and by 1894 sold to Sir George Washington Baxter (1853-1926), 1st bt.; to widow, Edith, Lady Baxter (d. 1937); to nephew, George Lewis Baxter (1883-1962)...sold 1967 to Derek Thomson (1922-2002); to widow, Jean Thomson (1926-2016).

Baxter family of Kilmaron Castle and Kincaldrum House

Baxter, John (c.1700-85). Son of John Baxter (b. 1670) and his first wife, Janet Leper, said to have been born about 1700 at Tealing (Fife). He moved to Dundee in about 1728 to pursue his trade as a handloom weaver. He married 1st, 25 October 1734 at Perth, Elizabeth Butcher, and 2nd, 25 July 1749 at Dundee, Mary Grieve (d. 1791), and had issue:

(1.1) John Baxter (b. c.1735) (q.v.);

(1.2) Rachel Baxter (1737-1814), baptised at Dundee, 16 July 1737; married, 18 September 1755, James Nicoll and had issue; buried 23 March 1814;

(1.3) William Baxter (fl. 1807); merchant; married 1st, Isabella Catto (d. 1793) and had issue four sons and four daughters; married 2nd, 14 December 1794, Helen Shaw, and had one further daughter; married 3rd, 11 December 1797, Elizabeth Birnie; married 4th, 8 November 1807, Mary Spaid;

(1.4) Thomas Baxter (fl. 1802); manufacturer; married 1st, 30 November 1762, Elizabeth Craik (d. 1776) and had issue four sons; married 2nd, 27 March 1778, Margaret Morison (d. 1781) and had further issue one daughter; married 3rd, Elizabeth Lindsay (d. 1787); married 4th, 5 March 1792, Christina Paul;

(1.5) George Baxter (c.1746-1825); manufacturer; married, 7 June 1765, Rebecca Hunter (d. 1806) and had issue four sons and two daughters; died August 1825.

He lived in Dundee.

He died in December 1785. His first wife died before 1749. His widow was buried 30 January 1791.

Baxter, John (b. c.1735). Eldest son of John Baxter (c.1700-85) and his first wife, Elizabeth Butcher, born about 1735. Linen manufacturer in Dundee. He married, 29 December 1762, Margaret, daughter of John Milne, manufacturer, and had issue:

(1) Margaret Baxter (b. 1764), born 21 April 1764 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; married, 3 November 1783, as his second wife, Dr. John Mudie (1756-1830), of Arbroath (Angus), surgeon, son of William Mudie, and had issue four sons and eight daughters; death not traced;

(2) John Baxter (1765-1833), of Idvies, born 17 July 1765 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; merchant in Dundee; founding Chairman of Dundee Chamber of Commerce, 1814; married Mary Gorrell (c.1759-1837), and had issue seven children; died 25 August 1833;

(3) William Baxter (1767-1854) (q.v.);

(4) Mary Baxter (b. 1769), born 21 April 1769; probably died before 1784;

(5) Elizabeth Baxter (1771-1850), born 7 April 1771; married, 4 July 1790, Dr. John Crichton (1772-1860) of Dundee, surgeon, and had issue fourteen children; died at Dundee, 28 April, and was buried at Howff Graveyard, Dundee, 2 May 1850;

(6) Alison Baxter (1772-1801?), born 1 October 1772; married, 4 September 1795 at Edinburgh, William Mudie (b. 1777) of Edinburgh, stationer (who m2, 24 September 1803 at Forfar, Margaret Wallace), son of George Mudie; died in or before 1803 and was perhaps the 'Alison Baxter' buried at Dundee, 28 February 1801;

(7) Helen Baxter (b. 1774), born 5 April 1774 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; died young;

(8) David Baxter (b. c.1776); died young before 1784;

(9) Isabella Baxter (b. 1778), born 10 December 1778 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; married, 28 March 1803, Thomas Collier (fl. 1836), factor to William Ramsay Maule, 1st Baron Panmure of Brechin Castle (Angus), and had issue at least two sons; death not traced;

(10) Hannah Baxter (1780-1829?), born 10 July 1780 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; said to have died in 1829;

(11) Jean Baxter (b. 1783), born 1 March 1783 and baptised at Dundee, April 1784;

(12) Charlotte Baxter (1784-1860), born 19 April and baptised at Dundee, April 1784; married, 26 June 1809 at Dundee, William Small (1777-1822), Town Clerk of Dundee, son of David Small, and had issue five sons and one daughter; died 16 December 1860.

He lived in Dundee.

He died before 1795. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Baxter, William (1767-1854). Second son of John Baxter (b. c.1735) and his wife Margaret, daughter of John Milne, born 20 April 1767. Export merchant and sailcloth manufacturer, who in 1795 secured the Royal Navy contract for canvas sailcloth. He later took his sons into partnership in the firm that became Baxter Bros & Co. He played no part in public life. He was a friend of William Godwin, whose daughter, the future author, Mary Shelley, lived in his household from 1812-14 while recovering from illness [but see the comment at the end of this article]. He married, 16 October 1787, Elizabeth (c.1763-1804), daughter of Edward Gorrell, and had issue:

(1) Ellen Baxter (1788-1868), born 29 September 1788; died unmarried, 8 December 1868 and was buried at Roodyards Cemetery, Dundee; will confirmed 2 April 1869 (estate under £100,000);

(2) Edward Baxter (1791-1871) (q.v.);

(3) Sir David Baxter (1793-1872) (q.v.);

(4) Margaret Baxter (1794-1845), born 25 June and baptised at Dundee, 29 June 1794; died unmarried, 10 March 1845 and was buried at Roodyards Cemetery, Dundee;

(5) John Gorrell Baxter (1796-1853), born 20 May and baptised at Dundee, 29 May 1796; partner in Baxter Bros, 1822-53; died unmarried, 19 April 1853 and was buried at Roodyards Cemetery, Dundee; will confirmed 23 June 1853;

(6) William Gorrell Baxter (1798-1852), born 16 March and baptised at Dundee, 18 March 1798; partner in Baxter Bros, 1822-52; lived at Reres House, Broughty Ferry (Angus); died unmarried, 17 December 1852 and was buried at Roodyards Cemetery, Dundee; will proved at York, November 1854 (effects under £3,000);

(7) Mary Ann Baxter (1801-84), born 4 May 1801; philanthropist; co-founder of University College, Dundee (forerunner of the University of Dundee), 1881, to which she gave £120,000; she also helped her brother and sister create and endow Baxter Park, Dundee, and endowed the Misses Baxter scholarships at Edinburgh University, 1869, the Congregational Church of Scotland Theological Hall, Edinburgh, 1877, and funded London Missionary Society expeditions to New Guinea, 1874, 1881; she died unmarried, 19 December 1884; her will  was confirmed 10 June 1885 (estate £283,586);

(8) Elizabeth Baxter (1802-83), born 26 April 1802; co-founder of Royal Dundee Institution for the Blind, 1865; married, 21 October 1833 at Dundee, Francis Molison of Errol Park (Perths), and had issue one daughter; died 2 October 1883; will confirmed 20 November 1883 (estate £210,006).

He lived at Balgavies (Angus) and Ellengowan, a villa in Dundee.

He died 22 February 1854 and was buried at Roodyards Cemetery, Dundee; his will was confirmed 3 October 1854. His wife died 5 November 1804 and was buried at the Old Burying Ground, Dundee.

Sir David Baxter (1793-1872) 

Baxter, Sir David (1793-1872), 1st bt. Second son of William Baxter (1767-1854) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Gorrell, born 13 March and baptised at Dundee, 24 March 1793. Manager of Dundee Sugar Refining Co. to 1826 (when it collapsed) and subsequently a partner (senior partner after 1854) in Baxter Bros & Co., linen and sailcloth manufacturers. He was also a partner in Turnbull & Co (later Boase & Co), which operated a bleachfield at Claverhouse; this firm was later taken over by Baxter Bros. A Liberal in politics, he played a relatively small part in public affairs as a young man, being chosen as a police commissioner in 1825, a guild councillor in 1828, and a member of the harbour board. In 1861-63 he and his sisters Mary Ann and Ellen gave 37 acres of land for the establishment of a public park in Dundee and funded its laying out by Sir Joseph Paxton and the provision of an endowment fund of £10,000 to secure its future maintenance. His principal philanthropic work was, however, connected with education. He founded a school for young ladies at Cupar, and the foundation of the Albert Institute of Literature, Science, and Art (now the McManus Galleries) was largely due to gifts and bequests by Sir David and other members of his family. By a bequest of £20,000, he founded the Dundee Technical Institute (predecessor of Abertay University), and he endowed the Sir David Baxter Scholarships, and the Regius Chair of Engineering at Edinburgh University in 1863-68. He was created a baronet in recognition of his charitable works, 1 January 1863. He married, 22 April 1833, Elizabeth (1801-82), daughter of Robert Montgomery of Barrahill (Ayrshire), but had no issue.

He purchased Kilmaron Castle in 1854.

He died 13 October 1872, when his baronetcy became extinct, and was buried at Cupar (Fife); his will was confirmed October 1872 (estate £1,200,000). His widow died 11 September 1882 and was buried at Cupar with her husband; her will was confirmed 21 December 1882 (estate £40,379).

Baxter, Edward (1791-1871). Elder son of William Baxter (1767-1854) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Gorrell, born 3 April and baptised at Dundee, 6 April 1791. He entered upon his business career in partnership with his father as an export merchant in 1813; they also operated a mill at Glamis. In 1822, in partnership with his father and younger brothers, he built a spinning mill at Lower Dens, Dundee, and the firm of Baxter Bros. & Co. was established to operate it and others built subsequently. In 1831 Edward withdrew from this partnership and founded E. Baxter & Co., merchants and shipping agents, in Dundee, which eventually extended its activities from the import and export of physical goods to overseas investment activities, especially in the United States (one of his clerks was Robert Fleming, later founder of the Scottish American Investment Trust). He became US Vice-Consul in Dundee in 1834. In about 1850, Edward took his eldest son into partnership, but he continued to manage the firm in person until a few months before his death. He was a Congregationalist in religion, and like several of his siblings, a noted philanthropist and reformer: he was a founder member of the Anti-Corn Law League, 1838, and later President of its Dundee branch; and took a particular interest in educational causes, including the reform and building of new premises for Dundee High School. He was admitted a burgess of Dundee, 1816, and was a member of the reformed Town Council for some years, holding the office of Bailie; he also served as Dean of the Guildry of Dundee, 1831. He matriculated his arms at the office of Lord Lyon King of Arms in 1855. He married 1st, 12 July 1824 at Dundee parish church, Euphemia (1793-1833), daughter of William Wilson of Whitfield, Dundee, merchant; 2nd, 15 September 1835, Elizabeth (1804-42), daughter of David Jobson, baker and provost of Dundee; and 3rd, 19 April 1844, Jean (c.1819-99), daughter of Rev. Dr. John Paterson DD, a missionary in Scandinavia and Russia, and had issue:

(1.1) William Edward Baxter (1825-90) (q.v.);

(1.2) Jane Elizabeth Baxter (1827-1913) of Castle Huntly (Aberdeens), born 10 January 1827; married, 19 May 1848 at Dundee Presbyterian Church (sep. 1872), George Armitstead (1824-1915), 1st Baron Armitstead, jute merchant and shipowner and MP for Dundee, 1868-73, 1880-85, but had no issue; died 6 January 1913; will confirmed 8 April 1913 (estate £48,302);

(1.3) Euphemia Wilson Baxter (1830-97), born 28 March 1830; married, 25 July 1851, James Ramsey (1827-1907), merchant at Dundee and later of Balhousie Castle (Perths), and had issue three sons and six daughters; died 18 October 1897; will confirmed 5 February 1898 (estate £19,690);

(2.1) Marion Crawford Baxter (1838-1911), born 17 July and baptised at Dundee, 9 October 1838; married, 6 June 1861, Thomas Bett (c.1833-1905) of Dundee and later of Down Place, Compton (Surrey), Russian fur merchant, and had issue five sons and two daughters; died 12 July 1911;

(2.2) Elizabeth Jobson Baxter (1842-1927), born 17 June 1842; married, 8 May 1866, Alexander Robertson (1833-1902) of Burnside, Forfar (Angus), advocate and sheriff depute of Forfar, son of Hercules James Robertson, Lord Benholme, and had issue two sons; died 14 February 1927 and was buried at Newmonthill Cemetery, Forfar (Angus); will confirmed 27 April 1927 (estate £13,038);

(3.1) John Henry Baxter (1851-1908) [for whom see Baxter family of Gilston and Teasses below]

(3.2) Emily Margaret Baxter (1853-1926), born at Newton Abbot (Devon), 18 May and baptised at Dundee, 29 June 1853; married, 6 September 1882 at Teasses (Fife), Maj. Randle Jackson (1839-1902) of The Priory, St. Andrews (Fife) and later of Swordale House (Ross & Cromarty), and had issue two daughters; died 14 March 1926 and was buried at Swordale; will confirmed 2 August 1926 (estate £34,683);

(3.3) Edward Gorrel Baxter (1855-1928) [for whom see Baxter family of Gilston and Teasses below]

(3.4) Lucy Eleanor Baxter (1858-1943), born 30 April 1858; married, 3 June 1880 at Edinburgh, Charles Julian Brewster Macpherson (c.1855-1942) of Balavil alias Belleville House, Kingussie (Inverness), son of Lt-Col. David Edward Macpherson, and had issue one son; died 9 February 1943;

(3.5) Flora Jean Baxter (1860-1953), born 26 January 1860; married, 28 February 1881 at Edinburgh, Arthur Raymond Heath (1854-1943) of Thorpe Hall (Lincs) and Kitlands (Surrey), Conservative MP for Louth (Lincs), son of Vice-Adm. Sir Leopold George Heath, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died aged 93 on 23 July 1953.

He bought Kincaldrum House in 1853.

He died at Kincaldrum, 26 July 1871; by his will he left 'upwards of half a million' pounds. His first wife died 22 August 1833. His second wife died 2 July 1842. His widow died 23 December 1899; her will was confirmed 8 March 1900 (estate £56,986).

Rt. Hon. W.E. Baxter MP

Baxter, Rt. Hon. William Edward (1825-90). Only son of Edward Baxter (1791-1871) and his first wife Euphemia, daughter of William Wilson of Dundee, born 25 June 1825. Educated at Dundee High School and Edinburgh University. A partner in E. Baxter & Co (later W.E. Baxter & Co.) of Dundee, merchants and commission agents; Chairman of the Dundee Savings Bank. A Liberal in politics, he was MP for Montrose District Burghs, 1855-85; and served in Government as Secretary to the Admiralty, 1868-71 and  Secretary to the Treasury, 1871-73; sworn of the Privy Council, 1873. When the Liberal party split over Home Rule for Ireland in 1886, he supported the Unionist faction. A commissioner of supply (from 1853), DL and JP for Angus. Beyond his business and public appointments, he was noted as a linguist and traveller, and was the author of several books, including Impressions of Central and Southern Europe (1850); The Tagus and the Tiber, or Notes of Travel in Portugal, Spain, and Italy (1852); America and the Americans (1855) and Hints to Thinkers, or Lectures for the Times (1860). His health was affected by an accident while travelling in Norway from which he never fully recovered. He was a Congregationalist in religion and was involved as a young man with a number of local nonconformist organisations. Later, he supported more charitable bodies in Dundee, including the Albert Institute, the Dundee Industrial Schools Society and the Dundee Model Lodging House Association. He was a Trustee of University College, Dundee, which was largely endowed by his aunt. He married, 3 November 1847 at Dundee, Janet (1824-1910), daughter of John Home Scott of Dundee, and had issue:

(1) Edward Armitstead Baxter (1848-1933) (q.v.);

(2) Mary Euphemia Baxter (1850-1914), born 17 March 1850; married, 21 April 1871 at Kensington Independent Chapel (Middx), Edward Francis Maitland (1845-1929) of Dundee, manufacturer, third son of Edward Maitland, Lord Barcaple, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 20 October 1914; will confirmed 23 April 1915 (estate £1,423);

(3) Jessie Scott Baxter (b. 1852), born 30 August and baptised at Dundee, 19 October 1852; married 1st, 11 June 1879 at Kensington Congregational Chapel (Middx), Cdr. Herbert Dolphin (1839-83) and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 22 December 1885 at St Paul's Episcopal Church, Dundee, Capt. Stanhope Grove Price (later Grove) (1837-1909) of Taynton (Glos), and had no further issue; died at Bishopton House, Stratford-on-Avon (Warks), 12 December 1886;

(4) Sir George Washington Baxter (1853-1926), 1st bt. (q.v.);

(5) Alice Jane Baxter (b. 1855), born 30 June 1855; married, 26 January 1882 at Calcutta (India) (div. 1893 on grounds of her adultery with Capt. Henry Blackie Brownlow), Maj. (later General Sir) Alfred Gaselee (1844-1918) (who m2, 20 August 1895, Alice Margaret, daughter of Gartside Gartside-Tipping of Rossferry (Co. Fermanagh)), younger son of Rev. John Gaselee, rector of Little Yeldham (Essex); death not traced;

(6) Edith Eleanor Baxter (1857-1923), born 19 March 1857; married, 5 March 1886 at Kincaldrum House, Henry Charles Mylne (1853-1919) of Wokingham (Berks), then an employee of her father's company but later a consulting engineer and ten times Mayor of Wokingham, fourth son of James Mylne WS of Edinburgh, and had issue one daughter; died 21 November 1923 and was buried at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, with her husband; will confirmed 11 February 1924 (estate £16,170);

(7) Rosa Elizabeth Baxter (1860-1943), born 6 January 1860; married, 18 January 1894 at Jubbulpore (India), Lt-Col. Ludlow Tonson Bowles (1859-1939) of St. Saviour's (Jersey), eldest son of Rev. John Wright Bowles, but had no issue; died 8 February 1943; her will was proved in Jersey, 12 February 1943;

(8) David Montgomery Baxter (1863-64), born 22 December 1863; died in infancy, 11 October 1864;

(9) A son (b. & d. 1865), born 17 December 1865; died in infancy, 22 December 1865.

He built a villa called Ashcliff on Perth Rd., Dundee to the designs of Charles Wilson in 1854 and lived there until he inherited Kincaldrum from his father in 1871. He also inherited Kilmaron Castle on the death of his aunt in 1882, and he rented houses in London for use during his attendance in Parliament.

He died 10 August 1890 and was buried at Inverarity (Angus); his will was confirmed 18 November 1890 (estate £128,903). His widow died 17 October 1910; her will was confirmed 11 January 1911 (estate £3,343).

E.A. Baxter (1848-1933)
Image: Nat. Galleries of Scotland 

Baxter, Edward Armitstead (1848-1933). Eldest son of Rt. Hon. William Edward Baxter (1825-90) and his wife Janet, daughter of John Home Scott of Dundee, born 25 September and baptised at Dundee, 28 September 1848. Educated at Dundee High School and St. Andrews University (admitted 1865). Landowner and partner in W.E. Baxter & Co., merchants and commission agents. JP and DL for Fife; but took little part in public affairs. He married, 29 October 1879 at St Andrews Cathedral, Isobel (c.1853-1943), daughter of William Scott-Elliot of Arkleton (Dumfries), and had issue:

(1) William Edward Elliot Baxter (1880-1955) (q.v.);

(2) Lt-Col. George Lewis Baxter (1883-1962), born 18 January 1883; educated at Eton; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1905; Lt., 1911; Capt., 1914; T/Maj. 1915; T/Lt-Col., 1917; retired as Lt-Col. 1920), who served in the First World War and was awarded the DSO, 1916; during the Second World War he served with the Angus Home Guard and was appointed OBE, 1944; he inherited Invereighty from his aunt in 1937; married, 28 December 1933, (Jeannette Elizabeth Edith) Grizel (1894-1981), second daughter of Brig-Gen. William Charles Douglas of Brigton (Angus) and formerly wife of Capt. William Gilbert Don (1888-1961), and had issue one daughter (who died young in an accident); died at Pittenweem (Fife), 7 April 1962;

(3) Herbert Home Baxter (1885-1932), born 1885; educated at Eton; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1905; Lt., 1908; Capt., 1914; Maj. 1916; retired 1930), who served in the First World War and was awarded the MC, 1916; married, 5 January 1932, Helen Agnes (1885-1971), daughter of John Murray Purves, but had no issue; died suddenly at sea, 22 July 1932; will proved 18 October 1932 (estate £5,413);

(4) Marjory Isobel Baxter (1888-1961), born 8 April 1888; artist, living chiefly in Chelsea (Middx) and the island of Jersey; died unmarried, 5 March 1961; will proved 3 August 1962 (estate £19,031);

(5) Isobel Mary Baxter (1894-1970), born 19 March 1894; married, 1 June 1923, Lt-Col. Robert Alexander Wolfe-Murray DSO MC (1889-1973) of Daviot House (Inverness), eldest son of Cdr. Philip Charles Knightly Wolfe-Murray RN, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 7 November 1970.

He inherited Kincaldrum and Kilmaron Castle from his father in 1890. He sold Kilmaron Castle in about 1908.

He died 17 January and was buried at Inverarity (Fife), 21 January 1933; his will was confirmed 13 May 1933 (estate £23,799). His widow died in Hove (Sussex), 26 December 1943 and was also buried at Inverarity.

Baxter, William Edward Elliot (1880-1955). Eldest son of Edward Armitstead Baxter (1848-1933) and his wife Isobel, daughter of William Scott-Elliot of Arkleton (Dumfries), born 30 July 1880. An accident in childhood left him partly deaf, and since as a young man he was a keen cyclist, he invented and saw widely adopted by deaf cyclists a symbol to indicate the disability to overtaking motorists. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford; Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester; and Crystal Palace School of Engineering. As a result of his deafness, he was rejected as unfit by the British army in the First World War, but he was accepted by the French army (Capt.) and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He married 1st, 27 October 1927 at St Margaret, London, Ellen Oda Ingrid Marie (d. 1950), a nursing sister in the First World War, second daughter of Rasmus Theodore Alexander Rasmussen Skovsgaard, of Skovsgaard, Nakskov (Denmark), and 2nd, November 1952, Louisa Frances Chichester (1888-1975), daughter of Henry Chichester Hart and widow of Col. Marcus Maxtone Moore (d. 1948), and had issue:

(1.1) Normile Edward Alexander George Wyndham Elliot Baxter (1929-2017), born 2 October 1929; educated at Eton; an officer in the army (Capt.; retired 1969); director of Colvilles Ltd; settled at the House of Aquahorthies (Aberdeens); married, 7 May 1955 at St John's Episcopal Church, Forfar (Angus), Anne Margaret Robertson (d. 2004), daughter of Col. Lionel Edward Hill OBE MC of Overdale, Forfar, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died aged 88 on 15 November 2017;

(1.2) Daria Ethelinda Vanessa Atalanta Louisa Polly Elliot Baxter (1933-2008), born 30 July and baptised at the English church in Copenhagen (Denmark), October 1933; educated at Heathfield School, Ascot; married, 26 June 1951 at St John the Evangelist, Edinburgh, Capt. Christopher Lorimer (1904-91) of Gibliston, Kilconquhar (Fife), eldest son of the architect Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer KBE (1864-1929) of Gibliston, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 31 July 2008.

He inherited Kincaldrum from his father in 1933, but found that it was more or less bankrupt. He moved to Ireland in 1952 after his second marriage, and his trustees broke up and sold the estate, against the wishes of his son.

He died at Portrush (Co. Antrim), 28 January 1955. His first wife died 3 September 1950. His widow died 25 December 1975; her will was proved 10 June 1976 (estate £6,683).

Baxter, Sir George Washington (1853-1926), 1st bt. Second son of  Rt. Hon. William Edward Baxter (1825-90) and his wife Janet, daughter of John Home Scott of Dundee, born 20 November 1853. Educated at St. Andrews (admitted 1869) and Edinburgh Universities. A partner in Baxter Bros & Co. JP for Angus and DL and JP for city of Dundee. He was President of the Scottish Unionist Association, 1919, and unsuccessfully contested Dundee twice and Montrose Boroughs once in the Unionist interest. He was President of University College, Dundee (Hon. LLD, 1889); a director of Dundee Royal Infirmary; and chairman of city of Dundee Territorial Army Association. He was knighted, 1904, and created a baronet, 21 June 1918. He married, 20 February 1889, Edith OBE JP (d. 1937), herself a notable Unionist politician in the years after the Great War, daughter of Maj-Gen. James Lawtie Fagan, but had no issue.

He purchased Invereighty House in about 1894 and also had a house at Keswick (Cumberland). After his death Invereighty passed to his widow for life and then to his nephew, Lt-Col. George Lewis Baxter (1883-1962).

He died at Keswick, 26 November 1926, when his baronetcy became extinct; his will was confirmed 26 January 1927 (estate £78,964). His widow died 29 January 1937; her will was confirmed in April 1937 (estate £11,248).

Baxter family of Gilston and Teasses

Baxter, John Henry (1851-1908). Eldest son of Edward Baxter (1790-1871) and his third wife, Jean (c.1819-99), daughter of Rev. Dr. John Paterson DD, born 24 June 1851 and baptised at Dundee the same day. Educated at St. Andrews University and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1870; BA 1874; MA 1881). JP for Fife from 1877. A member of the Royal Company of Archers from 1874. Captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, 1890; he was also a keen supporter of the Fife Hunt. He was elected a Fellow of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1880. A Conservative in politics. He married 1st, 19 September 1876 at St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, Amy Constance Brewster (1853-81), daughter of Col. David Edward Macpherson of Balavil (Inverness), and 2nd, 18 October 1892 at Thakeham (Sussex), Ethel Louisa (1863-1945), daughter of Frederick King of Fryern (Sussex), and had issue:

(1.1) Evelyn Vida Baxter (1879-1959), born 29 March 1879; naturalist and ornithologist, who became an expert in the patterns of bird migration, which she studied particularly on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth with her life partner, Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul  (1878-1953); she and Rintoul were co-founders of Scottish Ornithologists' Club in 1936 and served jointly as its President, 1936-48; she was also active in the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes and served as Chairman of the Fife Federation three times between 1925 and 1943; in the Second World War she worked as an organiser for the Women's Land Army (MBE 1945); co-author of several publications, including The Birds of Scotland (1953); elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1951; a member of the British Ornithologists Union (Vice-President; Union Medal); awarded an honorary degree by University of Glasgow (LLD, 1955); died unmarried, 1 October 1959 and was buried at Largo Cemetery;

(1.2) Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950) (q.v.);

(2.1) Charles William Baxter (1895-1969), born 16 February 1895; educated at Charterhouse; served in army in First World War (MC 1918); an official in the diplomatic service, 1919-50 (First secretary, 1928; acting Counsellor of Embassy, 1938-40; Counsellor, 1940-47; HM Minister to Iceland, 1947-50); married, 24 June 1924, Patience Violet (1898-1974), second daughter of  Sir Henry Charles Miller Lambert KCMG, CB of Larklands, Banstead (Surrey), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 21 April 1969; will proved 20 August 1969 (estate £71,719);

(2.2) Ralph Frederick Baxter (1897-1915), born 25 May 1897; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1914); died unmarried when he was killed in action, 25 September 1915; buried at Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos (Belgium).

His father bequeathed the Gilston House estate to him and his brother Edward Gorrel Baxter in 1871, but he was already resident by 1868. He had bought out his brother's interest by 1874.

He died 30 March 1908 and was buried at Largo Cemetery; his will was confirmed 16 May 1908 (estate £100,314). His first wife died of complications following childbirth 27 January 1881. His widow died at Storrington (Sussex), 11 December 1945; her will was proved 29 April 1946 (estate £25,418).

Col. N. Baxter (1880-1950) 

Baxter, Lt-Col. Noel Edward (1880-1950). Only son of John Henry Baxter (1851-1908) and his first wife, Amy Constance Brewster, daughter of Col. David Edward Macpherson of Balavil (Inverness), born 25 November 1880. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1900; Lt., 1901; Capt., 1905; Maj. by 1920; Lt-Col., 1926; retired 1941) who served in the Boer War, First World War (wounded; prisoner of war, 1914-18) and Second World War; a member of the Royal Company of Archers from 1908. Convenor of Fife County Council, 1945-49; DL (from 1942) and JP for Fife. He married, 24 July 1923, Evelyn Mary (1894-1974), daughter of Sir Wilfred Emilius Laurie, 5th bt., and had issue:

(1) John Edward Baxter (1925-44). born 2 February 1925; educated at Eton; an officer in the Scots Guards (Lt.); died unmarried when he was killed in action in Italy, 16 October 1944; buried in Castiglione South African Cemetery (Italy);

(2) Alan George Laurie Baxter (1927-88) (q.v.); 

(3) David Julian Baxter (1930-59), born 18 June 1930; farmer at Windyhill Farm, Kincardine (Fife); died unmarried, 9 September 1959.

He inherited Gilston House from his father in 1908 and Teasses House from his uncle in 1928; he sold Teasses in 1932.

He died 29 March 1950; his will was proved 1 August 1950 (estate £116,100). His widow died 9 May 1974 and was buried at Largo.

Baxter, Alan George Laurie (1927-88). Second, but eldest surviving, son of Lt-Col. Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950) and his wife Evelyn Mary, daughter of Sir Wilfred Emilius Laurie, 5th bt., born 5 June 1927. Educated at Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge (MA) and Edinburgh University (LLB 1956). Undertook National Service with the Black Watch (2nd Lt., 1949). Writer to the Signet. DL for Fife; Member of Royal Company of Archers; County Cadet Commandant for Fife, 1965-75. He married, 6 September 1956, Elizabeth June (b. 1933), only daughter of Vice-Adm. Sir Thomas Hope Troubridge KCB DSO of Oakshott, Hawkley, Liss (Hants), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Anne Baxter (b. 1958), born 9 January 1958; living in 2001;

(2) Edward Thomas Baxter (b. 1960) (q.v.);

(3) Sarah Evelyn Baxter (b. 1962), born 31 August 1962; married, 20 October 1984, Richard Hugh Cundall (b. 1960) of Driffield (Yorks ER), and had issue one son and two daughters; now living;

(4) Mary Emma Baxter (b. 1965), born 28 November 1965; married, 6 September 1999, Sir Geoffrey Doyne Adams KCMG (b. 1957), diplomat, Ambassador to the Netherlands, 2013-17 and to Egypt, 2018-date, son of Sir Philip Doyne Adams KCMG of London, and had issue one son and one daughter; now living;

(5) Louisa Jane Baxter (b. 1969), born 14 August 1969; charity worker and Mangalitza pig farmer; married, 24 June 1995, Mihai Cochris, a Romanian artist blacksmith, and had issue two sons and one daughter; now living.

He inherited Gilston House from his father in 1950. After his death, his widow moved to St. Andrews (Fife).

He died in 1988. His widow is now living.

Baxter, Edward Thomas (b. 1960). Only son of Alan George Laurie Baxter (1927-88) and his wife (Elizabeth) June (fl. 2001), only daughter of Vice-Adm. Sir Thomas Hope Troubridge KCB DSO of Oakshott, Hawkley, Liss (Hants), born 2 March 1960. Educated at Eton and Edinburgh University (BSc). Land agent and surveyor (ARICS). Member of Royal Company of Archers. Member of the Guildry of Dundee. He married 1st, 4 July 1992 (div. 1995), Camilla Jane St. John (b. 1960) (who m2, 1997, as his second wife, George Dominick Mackintosh Warre (b. 1949) and had issue one daughter), daughter of Ronald Carlile Buxton MP of Kimberley Hall (Norfk), and 2nd, February 2004, Catherine E. Brown.

He inherited Gilston House from his father in 1988.

Now living. His second wife is now living.

Baxter, Edward Gorrel (1855-1928). Second son of Edward Baxter (1791-1871) and his third wife, Jean (d. 1899), daughter of Rev. Dr. John Paterson DD, born 28 August 1855. Educated at Merchiston Castle, Clifton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge (matriculated 1873; BA 1877; MA 1891). An officer in the 1st Fifeshire Light Horse Volunteers (2nd Lt., 1878; Lt., 1884) and a member of the Royal Company of Archers from 1879. A director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, 1895-1928. He was a freemason from 1876, and a member of Council of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, 1885-1928. JP for Fife from 1877. Elected a Fellow of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1880. He was unmarried and without issue.

He purchased the Teasses estate before 1874 and remodelled the house in 1879.  After his death it passed to his nephew, Lt-Col. Noel Edward Baxter (1880-1950).

He died in Edinburgh, 13 February 1928; his will was confirmed 22 May 1928 (estate £282,003).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry of Scotland, 2001, pp. 61-64; B. Lenman, C. Lythe and E. Gauldie, Dundee and its textile industry, 1850-1914, Abertay Historical Society, 1969; James Macaulay, The Gothick Revival, 1745-1845, 1975, p.245; 

https://mcmanus168.org.uk/mcmanus168entry/w-e-baxter-esq-m-p/.

Location of archives

Baxter Bros. & Co.: minute books, ledgers, journals, balance books, wages books, production records, contract and order books, technical drawings and misc. papers including genealogical notes on the Baxter family, 1795-1992 [Dundee University Archives, MS 11; MS 102; 1981/400]

Baxter, Rt. Hon. William Edward (1825-90): travel diaries, 1850-52 [National Library of Scotland, MS.15906-15907]

Coat of arms

Ermine, on a chevron engrailed between three mullets gules, as many garbs or.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide additional or better pictures of the houses illustrated above, and in particular a view of the original house at Teasses or the present house at Invereighty?
• 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.
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from descendants of the family who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 26 July 2021 and was updated 3 and 11 November 2021 and 13 January 2023. I am grateful to Robin Baxter and Iain Scott for corrections.

(462) Baxendale of Greenham Lodge and Framfield Place

Baxendale

The father and grandfather of Josiah Baxendale (1761-1835), with whom the genealogy below begins, were middle-class professionals in Liverpool. Josiah himself was a surgeon in Lancaster, where his children were born and raised, although he later moved to London - perhaps at the point when he retired. He had four children who survived to maturity: two sons and two daughters. His elder son, Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872), left home at the age of 21 and went to London to make this way in the world. After three years learning the calico printing trade - apparently not as a formal apprentice - he borrowed money from relatives and bought a partnership in a calico printing business in Lancashire. He was evidently a hard-nosed businessman of tireless energy and formidable entrepreneurial talents, for within six years he had survived being shot at during a labour dispute, paid off his loans, and made sufficient money to withdraw his capital from the business and invest in a partnership in a long-established but incompetently managed and rapidly failing carrying company. The firm in question, Pickfords, claimed to have been established as a carrier about 1630, is recorded from 1756, and is still in the same business today (albeit after 20th century vicissitudes, including a period of nationalisation). Joseph Baxendale turned the firm around, and made it a highly profitable business. New challenges came with the arrival of the railways, but Joseph sought to find ways in which Pickfords' business could complement rather than compete with the new mode of transport. He also bought shares in, and became a director of, railway companies - partly to give him influence with their managements, but no doubt also to hedge his bets, in case Pickfords did not thrive. His interest quickly extended from British railways to continental and even Indian ones, and he bought Folkestone harbour in Kent and developed it as a major freight port. 

During a period of ill health in the 1840s, Joseph had handed over the management of Pickfords to his three elder sons, Joseph Hornby Baxendale (1817-86), Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82), and Richard Birley Baxendale (1823-78). Richard seems to have been more or less a sleeping partner, and it was Joseph and Lloyd who ran the firm in the third quarter of the 19th century. Their father seems to have been unimpressed by the time, care and attention they gave to the business, which fell well short of the impossibly high standard he had set, and over time this had its impact on the success of the firm. Profits varied considerably from year to year, though Joseph still died an extremely rich man: his personal estate was estimated at nearly £700,000, exclusive of three estates in Hertfordshire, Essex and Devon. His sons' shares of this wealth, and the money they made for themselves in the years of Pickfords greatest prosperity, allowed them to move into the landed gentry. Joseph had been content with a substantial villa at Whetstone, but this did not meet the aspirations of his sons or grandsons, who gave it to a charity for use as a care home after his death.

Worplesdon Court (Surrey), now an hotel. Image: Paul Smith. Some rights reserved.

Joseph Hornby Baxendale bought Worplesdon Lodge (later renamed as Worplesdon Court) in 1868 and moved there the following year. It was already a substantial house of about 1845 built for Sir William Bovill, but he enlarged it. Lloyd Baxendale lived at Totteridge House (Herts) until he bought the 1,392 acre Greenham Lodge (Berks) in 1873, a house which was rebuilt for him by Norman Shaw in 1879-83. Richard Birley Baxendale bought a farming estate near Kimpton (Herts) in 1865, and built an intensely Victorian new house there, which he called Blackmore End, by 1869. After his death this passed to his widow, and then to his daughter, Gertrude Mary Baxendale (1863-1922), who lent it for hospital use during the First World War. After her death, it was sold in 1926, and demolished soon afterwards. Joseph's youngest son, Salisbury Baxendale, bought the 1,014-acre Hunsdonbury estate in Hertfordshire in 1876 and took over his father's Henham property, but had to sell both in the 1890s due to the Agricultural Depression and his only son's extravagance.

In the third generation of the family to be involved with Pickfords, Joseph William Baxendale (1848-1915) was a director of the firm until 1909, but also played a leading role in the Phoenix Fire Assurance Co., of which he was also a director. He sold Worplesdon Place after his parents' deaths and bought Hursley Park (Hants) to replace it. He lived at Hursley until 1902, when he sold it and bought Preshaw House (Hants) instead. His widow stayed at Preshaw until 1920, when this house too was sold.

Lloyd Baxendale died in 1882, before his new house at Greenham Lodge had been completely finished. He left two sons, the elder of whom, Lloyd Harry Baxendale (1858-1937), inherited Greenham Lodge. He became the leading figure in Pickfords in his generation, and oversaw its merger with Carter Paterson & Co. in 1912, thereafter becoming chairman of the new firm. He developed the Newbury racecourse on part of the estate, and became its Chairman until his death; he was also the chairman of the Bath racecourse. When he died he left most of his fortune of more than £300,000 to an adopted daughter, later the Countess of Buchan, but after death duties and the payment of an annuity charged on the property she found she could not afford to maintain Greenham Lodge, and since she had another property elsewhere she put Greenham Lodge up for auction in 1938.

Lloyd Baxendale's second son, Francis Hugh Baxendale (1862-1918), was also a director of the family firm. He made his home at Framfield Place (Sussex), which he leased from 1887 and bought in 1890, employing Norman Shaw and Edwin Lutyens to remodel the house in 1890-92. When he died in 1918, Framfield passed to his eldest son, Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969). In 1938 Guy bought Greenham Lodge at auction, and having done so, put Framfield on the market, intending to move to Greenham. But events conspired against him, and with the approach of the Second World War there were no takers for Framfield, while Greenham Lodge was requisitioned by the Government. As a result, he stayed at Framfield until his death, and it was left to his son, Maj. William Lloyd Baxendale (1919-82), to sell the house in 1977 for conversion into flats. Greenham Lodge was sold after the Second World War and passed into institutional use.

Woodside House, Whetstone, Middlesex

A modest villa, with a core of two storeys and three bays and a recessed two-storey wing, which stood very close to the crossroads that marks the centre of Whetstone. It is said to have been built in the 18th century for the Rev. Richard Neale (d. 1817), perpetual curate of Finchley and Friern Barnet. It was described in 1850 as a beautiful villa with a pretty conservatory, in a setting of lawns, groves, and a lake. 

Woodside House, Whetstone: entrance front. Image: Historic England.

Woodside House, Whetstone: garden front. Image: Historic England.

It seems likely that the ground floor extension and the distinctively Italianate decoration on the entrance front were added later, but they were evidently in place by 1866. In 1888 Joseph's sons made the house over to the 'Home for the Aged and Incurable' in central London, a purpose which it continued to serve until the 1960s. It was then demolished and replaced by a remarkably ugly block of flats, although the Baxendale charity continues to operate a care home built to the rear of the site of the original house.

Descent: built for Rev. Richard Neale (d. 1817); sold 1824 to Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872); to grandsons, who gave it in 1892 to the Home for the Aged and Incurable, who had been occupying the house on a trial basis since 1888.

Blackmore End, Kimpton, Hertfordshire

A new mansion, built on the site of an earlier farmhouse for Richard Birley Baxendale (1823-78), who bought the estate in 1865, and had completed the house by 1869. The architect is currently unknown, but it could perhaps be Edward Browning (1816-82) of Stamford (Lincs), who restored Wheathampstead church in 1864, and made alterations in a similarly eclectic style to Barrington Hall, Hatfield Broad Oak (Essex) from 1863.

Blackmore End, Kimpton: the garden front during First World War use as a hospital, from an old postcard.

Blackmore End, Kimpton: end elevation, during First World War use as a hospital, from an old postcard.

At one end of the house there was a symmetrical elevation with a pair of canted bay windows set under the steep slate roofs, but the design of the main garden front mixed Italianate and the baronial motifs to a wilful and indeed chaotic effect, with square stone windows and irregularly spaced features breaking up the façade, all surmounted by a tall crenellated tower with an ornate railing at the top and two mismatched chimneys. Inside, a vestibule 23ft x 13ft led into a lofty staircase hall 40ft x 36ft. From this there opened seven reception rooms, with a conservatory beyond the 26ft x 22ft dining room. Upstairs, there were 17 bedrooms, as well as servants' rooms in the attic. 

The house was occupied by Baxendale's widow until her death in 1909, and then passed to the couple's only daughter, who was married and divided her time between homes in Ireland and Sussex. During the First World War she lent it for use as an emergency hospital, and after her death in 1922 it was sold so that the value of the estate could be divided between her children. A second auction in October 1926 was a demolition sale, and the house was dismantled soon afterwards.

Descent: built for Richard Birley Baxendale (1823-78); to widow, Gertrude Baxendale (1840-1909); to daughter, Gertrude Mary (1863-1922), wife of Col. Arthur Hare Vincent (c.1841-1916); sold after her death and demolished c.1926.

Greenham Lodge, Berkshire

The estate belonged in the Middle Ages to the Knights Hospitallers, and was seized by the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1553 it was granted to John Lucas (d. 1556), but a few years later Queen Mary restored it to the Hospitallers. After succeeding her half-sister in 1558, Queen Elizabeth I again dissolved the Hospitallers and sold the manor of Greenham. It changed hands several times before being bought in 1586 by Sir Thomas Lucas, kt., the son of the original grantee of 1553: it seems probable that he and his mother had remained in occupation continuously. It was probably Sir Thomas' son, Thomas Lucas (d. 1625) or the latter's widow (fl. 1650) who built the modest gabled house that was recorded here in the early 18th century, as a charming vignette on an estate map. 

Greenham Lodge: the 17th century house of the Lucas family, recorded on an estate map of c.1725. Image: Berkshire Record Office.

The occasion for making the map was probably the sale of the estate by the Duke of Kent (whose mother was the last of the Lucases) to Brigadier-General Waring in 1725. Throughout the 18th century it was part of the larger Thatcham estate and probably escaped alteration, but in 1798 it was bought by James Croft, who apparently rebuilt it in the early 19th century as a plain, square five-bay two-storey house with a hipped roof.

Greenham Lodge: the early 19th century house built for James Croft. Image: Francis Baxendale.

The estate was sold in 1873 to Lloyd Baxendale who employed Norman Shaw to rebuild it in 1879-83; it is one of Shaw's largest houses. Part of the old house is said to have been incorporated in the service wing. The new house is of red brick, with an H-shaped main block and a large service wing to the north, and is Elizabethan in style (the nearby Shaw House is said to have been an inspiration for the design). The symmetrical north-west facing entrance front is plain and well-proportioned, with a porch in the centre, very large windows in the wings, and straight gables above. The porch doorway is a typically Mannerist Shaw piece, with a steep-sided pediment on Ionic columns and a four-centered arch. The garden side, which overlooks a lake, is homelier and less symmetrical, with half-timbering on the first floor between the wings. 

Greenham Lodge: an early photograph of the entrance front.

Greenham Lodge: the garden front of the house today

On plan, the house is a double pile, with the hall and staircase on the entrance side and the main reception rooms on the garden front. The hall is reached through a triple-arched wooden screen of Doric columns, and retains its Victorian decoration fairly intact. It has an enormous chimneypiece with an overmantel faced with gilt leather panels standing on two marble columns and reaching right up to the beamed ceiling. There is another massive chimneypiece in the former Library, with inglenook and a panelled overmantel on stone brackets. Several of the other main rooms preserve key elements of their Victorian decor, including the wide wooden staircase, which rises behind the hall screen to a barrel-roofed gallery. 

Greenham Lodge: the hall in the early 20th century. Image: West Berkshire Museum.

Greenham Lodge: the gallery above the hall today.

The house descended to Lloyd Harry Baxendale (1858-1937), who left the bulk of his property and estate of over £300,000 to his adopted daughter, Christina (1906-94). She and her husband had several other properties and Greenham Lodge was put up for auction in 1938. The manorial rights (and Greenham Common) were bought by Newbury corporation, but the house itself was sold to Lloyd Harry Baxendale's nephew, Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969), who intended to relocate to Greenham from the house he had inherited in Sussex. The Sussex estate was advertised for sale in 1939, but amid pre-war anxiety it failed to sell. When war broke out, Greenham Lodge was unoccupied and was quickly requisitioned by the Government and used by the RAF in conjunction with the airfield laid out on Greenham Common. After the war the house was rented or sold to a Jewish public school, Carmel College, and in 1954 it became the officers' mess for the US Air Force base at Greenham Common. After the base closed in 1992, it again became a school, this time the Mary Hare School for Deaf Children, which renamed the house Mill Hall after their former location in Sussex. In recent years the house has also accommodated several businesses that support the charity, and has operated as a wedding venue at weekends and in school holidays.

Descent: sold 1586 to Sir Thomas Lucas, whose parents had apparently been in possession since 1553; to son, Thomas Lucas (d. 1625); to widow (fl. 1650); to son, John Lucas (d. 1671), 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield; to daughter Mary (d. 1702), 1st Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, later wife of Anthony Grey, Earl of Kent; to son, Henry Grey (d. 1740), 1st Duke of Kent, who sold c.1725 to Brig-Gen. Waring (d. 1737); to son, William Ball Waring (d. 1746); to sister, Frances (d. 1767), wife of Sir Archer Croft (d. 1753), bt.; to son, John Croft (d. 1797); sold 1798 to his brother-in-law, James Woodcroft (later Croft) (d. 1829); to son, Archer James Croft (1790-1865); who leased it to Maj-Gen. Guy Carleton Coffin (d. 1856) and J.T. Carbonel; to son, Archer Bernard Croft (1838-91), who sold 1873 to Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82); to son, Lloyd Henry Baxendale (1858-1937); sold 1938 to Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969), who sold after the Second World War.

Framfield Place, Sussex

Framfield Place: engraving of the house in 1832, showing it before the additions of 1847.

The house is fundamentally 18th century, and is said to have been first built in 1765. Its appearance in an engraving of 1832 is consistent with that, although it was by then already a substantial and rambling stuccoed house, probably of several different dates, something confirmed by a sale notice of 1811 in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser which says "part of [the house] has been lately re-built, and the whole is put into complete repair". The entrance front (on the right in the engraving) faced south-east and had a porch, while the garden front facing south-west over the lake, had a two-storey canted bay at its right-hand end. The exterior was largely remodelled in 1847 for Alexander Donovan junior, who added a second canted bay at the other end of the garden front and then repeated this formula on the north-east facing elevation. There is a Greek Doric porch on the north-east side and a Greek Doric loggia on the garden front. 

Framfield Place: the house today, with the additions of 1847 and 1890-92. It was divided into flats in 1977.

In 1885 the house contained an entrance hall, five reception rooms, 18 bedrooms as well as offices and service accommodation, but in 1890-92, Francis Baxendale, who had recently acquired the property, asked Norman Shaw (who had rebuilt Greenham Lodge for his father) to make further additions and alterations. He added the south-west (nursery) wing and a single-storey billiard room projecting from the south-east front, which has broad curved bows to both the south-west and north-east fronts. Inside, the billiard room has delicate Adam-style plasterwork. Shaw also remodelled the hall and formed a new drawing room by removing the partition between the former morning room and library, but because he was so busy elsewhere, he suggested that the commission to redecorate the new space was given to Edwin Lutyens, then at the start of his career, who created a panelled interior with a ceiling of beams set in a chequerboard fashion, in a parody of Shaw's Old English manner of the 1870s.

In the 20th century an additional storey was built above the billiard room. A Second World War bomb caused geological changes which meant the lake would no longer hold water, and it silted up in the following years. The house was sold and divided into six dwellings in 1977, and an extra floor was added above the billiard room at the same time. The lake in the grounds was subsequently re-created.

Descent: the creditors of Rev. Richard Rideout sold 1817 to Alexander Donovan (c.1776-1846); to son, Alexander Donovan jr. (d. 1886); to widow, who let the house in 1887 and then sold it in 1890 to Francis Hugh Baxendale (1862-1918); to son, Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969); to son, Maj. William Lloyd Baxendale (1919-82), who sold it for division into six dwellings in 1977.

Baxendale family of Greenham Lodge and Framfield Place

Baxendale, Josiah (1761-1835). Elder son of Joseph Baxendale (1734-83) of Liverpool and his wife Mary Beadle (d. 1808), born 13 August and baptised at St George, Liverpool, 9 September 1761. He was admitted a freeman of Liverpool in 1783. Surgeon, practising at Lancaster. He married 1st, 13 December 1784 at St Mary, Lancaster, Mabella (1756-1829), daughter of Thomas* Salisbury of Settle (Yorks) and later of Lancaster, and 2nd, 1 September 1829 at Kelvedon (Essex), Sophia West (1783-1857), and had issue:

(1.1) Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872) (q.v.);

(1.2) Lloyd Salisbury Baxendale (1788-1858), born 28 July and baptised at St Mary, Lancaster, 27 August 1788; solicitor; lived at Hampstead (Middx), and later in Cambridge and London; DL for Cambridgeshire from 1852; married, 18 November 1825 at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), Ellen (c.1792-1869), daughter and co-heir of Richard Salisbury of Herne Hill (Kent) and Weymouth (Dorset) and formerly of Cooper Hill, Walton-le-Dale (Lancs), and had issue two sons; died in Kensington (Middx), 26 November 1858; administration of goods granted 31 December 1858 (effects under £6,000);

(1.3) Mary Baxendale (1790-1856), born 23 March and baptised at St Mary, Lancaster, 20 July 1790; married, 28 January 1817 at St Mary, Lancaster, Samuel Hinde (1778-1840) of Dolphinholme, Garstang (Lancs) and later of South Place, Lancaster, and had issue eight children; died 15 December and was buried at Lancaster, 18 December 1856;

(1.4) Mabella Baxendale (1791-1865), baptised at St Mary, Lancaster, 11 October 1791; married, 6 October 1814 at St Mary, Lancaster, Edmund Elsden (1789-1832) of Kings Lynn (Norfk), son of Edmund Ralph Elsden, but had no issue; died 23 April and was buried at Heacham (Norfk), 28 April 1865; will proved 9 June 1865 (effects under £12,000);

(1.5) Thomas Baxendale (b. & d. 1793), baptised at St Mary, Lancaster, 15 September 1793; died in infancy and was buried at St Mary, Lancaster, 17 September 1793.

He lived at Castle Hill, Lancaster, and later at Queen Sq., Bloomsbury (Middx).

He died 21 January, was buried at St John's chapel, Whetstone (Middx), 29 January 1835; his will was proved in the PCC, 18 February 1835. His first wife was buried at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), 12 February 1829. His widow was buried at Kelvedon, 20 November 1857; her will was proved in the PCC, 17 December 1857.

* The parish register gives his name incorrectly as Edward. 

Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872)
Image: National Portrait Gallery 

Baxendale, Joseph (1785-1872). Elder son of Josiah Baxendale (1761-1835) and his first wife, Mabella, daughter of Edward Salisbury of Settle (Yorks), born 28 September and baptised at St Mary, Lancaster (Lancs), 28 October 1785. He left home and moved to London in 1806 'to fight his way in the world' and learned the trade of a calico printer; in 1809 he borrowed money from relatives and bought a partnership in an established calico printing business in Lancashire. While in this role he survived being shot at during a violent labour dispute. He retired in 1815 and borrowed £8,000 from the trustees of his wife's marriage settlement in a partnership in the carriers, Pickford & Co, a firm which was then close to bankruptcy. He applied his business acumen to rescuing the firm from financial difficulties and oversaw its development into a leading haulage firm, with profits rising to a peak of £48,000 a year in 1837-38. After a period of ill health, brought on partly by the strain of several legal disputes, he handed over control of the business to his three eldest sons, although only the elder two became active directors, and he frequently became frustrated by their lack of attention to the business. With the coming of the railways he became a director of several English railway companies, and sought to find a basis on which Pickford's carrying business could work with the railways rather than be superseded by them; he was Chairman of the South Eastern Railway, 1841-45, and his railway investments later extended overseas to France, Belgium and even India, and he acquired Folkestone harbour and developed it as a major port. He was a JP and DL for Hertfordshire and Middlesex and JP for the Liberty of St. Albans (Herts). He married, 29 February 1816 at Blackburn (Lancs), Mary (1789-1862), daughter of Richard Birley of Blackburn (Lancs), and had issue:

(1) Joseph Hornby Baxendale (1817-86) (q.v.);

(2) Alice Baxendale (1819-51), born 4 January and baptised at Eccles (Lancs), 2 February 1819; married, 11 July 1849 at Whetstone, as his second wife, Dr. Charles William Holland MD FRS (1801-76) of Rodbaston Hall (Staffs), son of Joseph Holland, but had no issue; died 27 June 1851;

(3) Mabella Baxendale (1820-56), born 4 July 1820 and baptised at Eccles, 29 May 1821; married, 7 July 1842 at Whetstone (Middx), her cousin, Hugh Birley* DL JP (1817-83) of Moorland, Didsbury (Lancs), East India merchant, cotton spinner, and later Conservative MP for Manchester, 1868-83, son of Joseph Birley, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 16 February 1856;

(4) Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82) (q.v.);

(5) Richard Birley Baxendale (1823-78) (q.v.);

(6) Jane Birley Baxendale (1825-1908), born 31 August and baptised at Hendon (Middx), 12 September 1825; married, 18 October 1870 at Whetstone, Robert Jackson Butler (1820-73), son of William Henry Butler, but had no issue; the marriage was long opposed by her father as Butler was a Roman Catholic, and according to her brother Joseph the marriage was 'an unhappy story best left untold'; she died 30 December 1908; will proved 14 January 1909 (estate £45,331);

(7) Salisbury Baxendale (1827-1907), of Bonningtons on the Hunsdonbury estate, Ware (Herts) and of Henham Lodge, Bishops Stortford (Herts), both of which he was obliged to sell; he then settled at Holly Bush, Longcross (Surrey), born 16 March 1827; educated at Harrow, Balliol College, Oxford (matriculated 1846; BA 1849; MA 1853) and Inner Temple (called 1852); barrister-at-law; JP for Hertfordshire; High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, 1883; a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London; married, 3 January 1856 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster (Middx), Edith Marian (c.1834-1920), third daughter of Lt-Gen. Sir Harry David Jones GCB, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 18 January 1907 and was buried at Whestone; will proved 9 March 1907 (estate £41,103).

He lived in London, 1806-09, and later at Weast House, Eccles (Lancs), Woodside House, Whetstone (Middx) and 16 Park Village West, Regent's Park, London. By the time of his death he also owned 1,660 acres at Henham (Essex) and 780 acres at Little Dartmouth (Devon).

He died 24 March 1872 and was buried at Whetstone; his will was proved 16 May 1872 (effects under £700,000). His wife died 23 March 1862 and was buried at Whetstone; administration of her goods was granted 12 August 1862 (effects under £1,500).

* Not, as some accounts state, Hugh Hornby Birley (1778-1845), captain of the Manchester & Salford Yeomanry at the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, who was his uncle.

Baxendale, Joseph Hornby (1817-86). Eldest son of Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872) and his wife Mary, daughter of Richard Birley of Blackburn (Lancs), born 1 December 1817 and baptised at Eccles (Lancs), 5 February 1818. Educated at Harrow. JP and DL for Surrey. A director of Pickford & Co. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. He married, 9 July 1846 at St George-the-Martyr, Bloomsbury (Middx), Elizabeth Mary (1828-87), only surviving child and heiress of William Brockedon FRS of Holborn (Middx), cartographer, artist and inventor, and had issue:

(1) Joseph William Baxendale (1848-1915) (q.v.);

(2) Phillis Mary Baxendale (1854-1930), born 17 July 1854; married, 28 December 1876 at Worplesdon (Surrey), as his second wife, Col. Lionel Tillotson (1845-1921) of Brooksbank, Copythorne, Cadnam (Hants) and had issue one daughter; died 23 May and was buried at Worplesdon, 27 May 1930; will proved 7 August 1930 (estate £1,840).

He lived at Scotsbridge, Rickmansworth (Herts) and from 1869 at Worplesdon Place, which he enlarged. His town house was 78 Brook St., London.

He died 24 November 1886 and was buried at Worplesdon; his will was proved 30 April 1887 (estate £348,801). His widow died in Paris (France), 15 April 1887; her will was proved 23 June 1887 (estate £27,201).

Baxendale, Joseph William (1848-1915). Only son of Joseph Hornby Baxendale (1817-86) and his wife Elizabeth Mary, only surviving child and heiress of William Brockedon FRS of Holborn (Middx), cartographer, artist and inventor, born 6 October 1848. Educated at Harrow and Pembroke College, Oxford (matriculated 1867; BA 1871; MA 1873). A director of Pickford & Co (to 1909) and of the Phoenix Fire Assurance Society Ltd from c.1882. An officer in the 1st Middlesex Artillery Volunteers (2nd Lt., 1867; Lt., 1871; resigned 1874). JP and DL for Hampshire; High Sheriff of Hampshire, 1893. Master of the Hursley Hounds, 1893-1902. He married, 23 June 1874 at Send (Surrey),  Frances Margaret Julia (1851-1925), only surviving child and heiress of Hon. Francis Scott MP, of Sendhurst Grange (Surrey), and had issue:

(1) Laura Mary Baxendale (1875-1942), born 19 February 1875; married, 29 October 1898 at St Peter, Eaton Square, Westminster, Leonard Rodwell Wilkinson (1869-1913), barrister-at-law, director of gas companies, footballer and athlete (who committed suicide), eldest son of Col. J. Wilkinson of Southampton Lodge, Highgate (Middx), and had issue two sons; lived latterly at Warren Farm, Knockdown, Tetbury (Glos); died 25 February 1942; will proved 21 May 1942 (estate £8,933);

(2) Col. Joseph Francis Noel Baxendale (1877-1957), born 25 December 1877; educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford; an officer in the Hampshire Regiment (2nd Lt., 1900; Lt., 1900; Capt., 1902) and Hampshire Carabiniers (2nd Lt., 1905, Lt., 1908; Capt., 1911; Maj., 1913; Lt-Col., 1917) who served in First World War and was appointed CB; from 1909 farmed and bred cattle at the 600 acre Venthams Farm, Froxfield Green (Hants), of which he purchased the freehold in 1944; JP and DL for Hampshire; in the 1920s and 1930s he was a keen amateur yachtsman and a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron; married, 26 June 1906, Margaret Mary Helena (1882-1966), daughter of Rev. Gilbert Vivian Heathcote, rector of West Deeping (Lincs), and had issue three daughters; died 29 January 1957; will proved 15 August 1957 (estate £41,259);

(3) Dorothy Margaret Baxendale (1888-1952), born 19 November 1888; married, 7 April 1920, Maj. Bertrand Elwell Hervey-Bathurst (1882-1942) of Gortinanane (Argylls) and later Dochfour (Inverness), fourth son of Sir Frederick Thomas Arthur Hervey-Bathurst, 4th bt., but had no issue; died 12 December 1952; will proved 28 January 1953 (estate £27,109).

He inherited Worplesdon Court from his parents in 1887 but sold it and bought Hursley Park (Hants) in 1888. He lived there until 1902, when he sold it to Sir George Cooper. He then bought Preshaw House (Hants) which his widow occupied until 1920, when it was sold to Frederick Raymond Pelly. His town house was 78 Brook St., London, which was leased, rent free, as the Red Cross Hospital for Facial Injuries after his death.

He died suddenly, 23 June 1915, and was buried at Worplesdon (Surrey); his will was proved 1 October 1915 (estate £280,009). His widow died 8 July 1925; her will was proved 25 September 1925 (estate £14,218).

Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82) 

Baxendale, Lloyd (1822-82). Second son of Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872) and his wife Mary, daughter of Richard Birley of Blackburn (Lancs), born 17 February and baptised at Eccles (Lancs), 7 May 1822. Managing partner of Pickfords the carrier. JP for Berkshire and Hertfordshire. He married, 6 May 1851 at St Mary, Lancaster, Ellen (1830-1910), elder daughter of Canon Joseph Turner, vicar of Lancaster, and had issue:

(1) Alice Baxendale (1852-97), born 1 April and baptised at Whetstone, 6 May 1852; married, 15 July 1875 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Alfred Octavius Kirby (1843-1919), solicitor, of Coombe Nevill, Kingston (Surrey) (who m2, 19 October 1905 at Ascot (Berks), Beatrice Elizabeth (1868-1949), daughter of Henry William Schneider of Ulverston (Lancs)), son of George Goldsmith Kirby of Grove House, Hammersmith (Middx), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 24 May 1897; will proved 9 September 1897 (effects £16,362);

(2) Constance Mary Baxendale (1853-1924), born 12 August and baptised at Lancaster, 29 September 1853; married, 6 March 1884 at Greenham (Berks), as his second wife, Lt-Col. Thomas Edward Bagge (1838-1908) of Gaywood Hall (Norfk), but had no issue; died 26 April 1924; her will was proved 22 October 1924 and 12 February 1925 (estate £25,006);

(3) Gertrude Ellen Baxendale (1855-60), baptised at Totteridge (Middx), 22 February 1855; died young, 15 April 1860 and was buried at Whetstone;

(4) Lloyd Harry Baxendale (1858-1937) (q.v.);

(5) Francis Hugh Baxendale (1862-1918) (q.v.).

He lived at Totteridge House (Herts) until he bought the Greenham Lodge estate (Berks) in 1873. He rebuilt Greenham Lodge to the designs of Norman Shaw in 1879-83. His town house was 58 Grosvenor St., London.

He died 8 November 1882; will proved 12 January 1883 (estate £411,535). His widow died 18 November 1910; her will was proved 20 December 1910 (estate £10,700).

Lloyd Harry Baxendale (1858-1937)

Baxendale, Lloyd Harry (1858-1937). Elder son of Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82) and his wife Ellen, elder daughter of Canon Joseph Turner, vicar of Lancaster, born 3 February 1858. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1876). JP for Berkshire. A director of Pickford & Co (chairman from 1909), and following its merger in 1912 with Carter Paterson & Co., chairman of the merged company. Chairman of Newbury Racecourse and Bath Racecourse. He married, 7 September 1895, Constance Louisa (1865-1944), daughter of Charles Raymond Pelly of Upton Lodge, Eastbourne (Sussex), and formerly wife of Richard Davies Matthey (1858-1929) (in whose divorce proceedings Lloyd Harry Baxendale had been cited as co-respondent). They had no issue, but adopted a daughter:

(A1) Christina Woolner (later Baxendale) (1906-94), daughter of Hugh Woolner of Winchmore Hill (Middx), stockbroker, born 27 November 1906; adopted 1907; inherited the bulk of her adopted father's estate; married, 5 January 1927, Lt-Col. Donald Cardross Flower Erskine (1899-1984), 7th Baron Erskine and later 16th Earl of Buchan, of Chilterns End, Henley-on-Thames (Oxon) and later of The Manor House, Bourton-on-the-Water (Glos), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 15 February 1994; will proved 21 April 1994 (estate £791,499).

He inherited the Greenham Lodge from his father in 1882. The house was sold in 1938 by his executors to his nephew, Guy Vernon Baxendale; the manorial rights were sold to Newbury Borough Council.

He died 21 May 1937; his will was proved, 28 June 1937 (estate £309,042). His widow died 7 January 1944; her will was proved 11 May 1944 (estate £6,694).

Francis Hugh Baxendale (1862-1918) 

Baxendale, Francis Hugh (1862-1918). Younger son of Lloyd Baxendale (1822-82) and his wife Ellen, elder daughter of Canon Joseph Turner, vicar of Lancaster, born 2 July and baptised at Totteridge, 6 August 1862. A director of Pickford & Co., carriers. Educated at Eton and Jesus College, Cambridge (matriculated 1882). JP for Sussex. Churchwarden of Framfield, 1890-1918. He married, 9 July 1883, Emily Ann (1857-1942), daughter of Thomas Nicholls of Clapham (Surrey), sculptor, and had issue:

(1) Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969) (q.v.);

(2) Vera Ellen Baxendale (1888-1975), born 26 April 1888; lived at the Manor House, Bosham (Sussex) and later at Pigeon's Farm, Greenham (Berks); married 1st, 8 February 1912 (div. 1925 on grounds of his adultery with Mabel Violet Norton), Cdr. Conyngham Charles Denison DSO RN (1885-1967), later 7th Baron Londesborough, elder son of Cdr. Hon. Conyngham Albert Denison RN, but had no issue; married 2nd, 17 December 1925, Air Vice-Marshal Cedric Ernest Victor Porter CBE (1894-1975), son of Joseph Francis Porter OBE of Helmsley (Yorks), and had issue one son; died 8 August 1975; will proved 28 January 1976 (estate £76,656);

(3) Basil Francis Baxendale (1890-1965), born 19 February 1890; started work as a clerk at Pickfords, c.1910; served in First World War as an officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (Lt-Cdr); awarded OBE, 1919; subsequently a theatre designer, working at Beccles (Suffk) and later at Ropley (Hants); married, 28 November 1925 at Chelsea Register Office (Middx), Amy Beatrice (1897-1974), an artist under the name 'Peter Baxendale', daughter of Edward Grasby, and had issue one daughter; died 11 September 1965; will proved 24 January 1966 (estate £34,202);

(4) Hugo Lloyd Baxendale (1899-1957), born 8 November 1899; educated at Eton; an officer in the Royal Navy (Sub-Lt.), who served in the First World War; lived at Chidmere House, Chidham (Sussex); JP and County Alderman for West Sussex; served in Second World War as Chairman of Chichester War Agricultural Committee and Superintendent of the Chichester Division Special Constabulary; married, 18 April 1929, Eleanor Sibyl Mitford (1902-68), County Councillor, only daughter of Francis Gibbon Oliver of Mountfield, Faversham (Kent), and had issue four sons (of whom one died in infancy); died 20 January 1957; will proved 4 April 1957 (estate £2,995).

He moved to Framfield Place (Sussex) as a tenant in 1887 and bought the freehold in 1890. He also had a town house at 2 Cadogan Gardens, London, which he bought from Lillie Langtry in 1897.

He died 23 July 1918; will proved 20 November 1918 (estate £90,955). His widow died 24 May 1942; her will was proved 15 August 1942 (estate £7,338).

Baxendale, Guy Vernon (1884-1969). Eldest son of Francis Hugh Baxendale (1862-1918) of Framfield Place and his wife Emily Ann, daughter of Thomas Nicholls of Clapham (Surrey), sculptor, born 27 December 1884 and baptised at St Jude, South Kensington (Middx), 7 February 1885. Educated at Eton and travelled in South America, 1907. An officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery (2nd Lt., 1906; Lt., 1908; Capt., 1914; ret. 1919), who served in the First World War (mentioned in despatches). A director of Pickfords from 1909 and of Carter Paterson & Co. and its subsidiaries from 1912. DL for Sussex (from 1946) and County Alderman for East Sussex; High Sheriff of Sussex, 1929-30. As a young man he was a keen amateur motorist, taking part in a number of races and rallies (and being fined for speeding on a number of occasions); later in life he took up sailing. He married, 28 February 1911, Enid Blanche (1887-1980), second daughter of Joseph Francis Porter OBE of Helmsley (Yorks), and had issue:

(1) Ann Baxendale (1913-97), born 10 May 1913; emigrated to Kenya with her husband; married, 15 November 1950 at St Columba's Church House Chapel, Pont St., London, as his second wife, John Robert McCready (1911-85), barrister-at-law and a judge of the Supreme Court of Nairobi (Kenya), elder son of Rev. David McCready, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 15 July 1997; will proved 22 January 1998;

(2) Joseph Alwyne Francis Baxendale (1915-40), born 7 November 1915; educated at Eton and Zurich; an officer in the Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1937; Lt.), who served in Second World War; married, 16 September 1939, Althea Dykes (1918-2007) (who m2, 12 February 1945, Capt. John Wynne Bankes (1916-2009), elder son of Robert Wynne Bankes CBE of Soughton Hall (Flints) and had issue two sons and one daughter), youngest daughter of Sir Albert Dykes Spicer, 2nd bt., but had no issue; died of wounds received in action during the retreat to Dunkirk, 2 June 1940, and was buried at Etaples Military Cemetery; administration of goods granted to his widow and father, 27 July 1942 (estate £1,885);

(3) (William Lloyd) John Baxendale (1919-82) (q.v.); 

(4) David Stephenson Baxendale (1922-44), born 10 November 1922; educated at Eton; an officer in the Coldstream Guards (2nd Lt., 1942); died unmarried when he was killed in action in France, 21 July 1944; administration of his goods granted to his father, 9 November 1944 (estate £2,633);

(5) Jane Baxendale (1927-2012), born 28 September 1927; married, 1971 at Framfield, David Eric Oakley (1918-2007); died without issue, 25 February 2012; will proved 8 August 2012.

He inherited Framfield Place from his father in 1918. In 1938 he purchased Greenham Lodge following the death of his uncle, and he intended to sell Framfield Place and move to Greenham Lodge, but when advertised in 1939 the Framfield estate failed to sell (apart from a secondary house called Arches Manor). Greenham Lodge was requisitioned by the Government soon afterwards, so he remained at Framfield until his death.

He died 30 July 1969; will proved 6 November 1969 (estate £39,613). His widow died aged 92 on 20 September 1980; her will was proved 6 November 1980 (estate £49,885).

Baxendale, Maj. (William Lloyd) John (1919-82). Second, but only surviving, son of Guy Vernon Baxendale (1884-1969) and his wife Enid Blanche, second daughter of John Francis Porter OBE of Helmsley (Yorks), born 15 June 1919. Educated at Eton and University College, Oxford. An officer in the Coldstream Guards (2nd Lt., 1940; Lt. 1942; Capt. 1944; Maj. 1947) who served with 6th Armoured Division of 1st Army, 1940-45. JP and DL for Sussex; High Sheriff of Sussex, 1963-64. He married, 9 July 1946, Lady Elizabeth Joan Fortescue (1926-2010), younger daughter of Rt. Hon. Hugh William Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue, KG, and had issue:

(1) David Hugh Baxendale (b. 1952), born 23 January and baptised at Framfield, 5 April 1952; stockbroker and later farmer near Biggar (Lanarks); married, 1977, Jacqueline Loveday (b. 1952), daughter of John William Hext of Trelaske (Cornwall), and had issue two sons;

(2) Peter Anthony Baxendale (b. 1955), born 4 December 1955; company director;

(3) Lucinda Margaret Baxendale (b. 1958), born 25 November 1958; married 1st, 17 September 1983 (div. 1986), Jonathan Edward Mccalmont Harington (b. 1955), property buying agent, son of Kenneth Douglas Evelyn Herbert Harington, but had no issue; married 2nd, 1992, Nicolas James Goland Crosthwaite (b. 1948), business consultant, son of Maj. Ivor Crosthwaite, and had issue one son and one daughter.

He inherited the Framfield Place estate from his father in 1969 and lived at Hailwell House on the estate. Framfield Place was sold and divided into six residences in 1977.

He died 15 February 1982. His wife died 17 January 2010.

Baxendale, Richard Birley (1823-78). Third son of Joseph Baxendale (1785-1872) and his wife Mary, daughter of Richard Birley of Blackburn (Lancs), born 10 October 1823. A sleeping partner in Pickford & Co, the management of which was in the hands of his elder brothers. A member of the Royal Yacht Club. He married 1st, 30 August 1853, Caroline Anne (1833-57), daughter of Maj. Duncan Darroch of Gourock (Renfrew), but had no surviving issue; married 2nd, 12 January 1860 at Bishops Tawton (Devon), Gertrude (1840-1909), daughter of Robert Chichester of Hall (Devon), and had issue:

(2.1) Gertrude Mary Baxendale (1863-1922), baptised at Wheathampstead (Herts), 30 September 1863; inherited Blackmore End on the death of her mother in 1909 but first rented it to Dundas Simpson and then during the First World War lent it as a hospital funded by family members and connections in the Federated Malay States, for which she was awarded the MBE; took the surname Vincent-Baxendale after her husband's death; married, 1883, as his second wife, Col. Arthur Hare Vincent (c.1841-1916) of East Grinstead (Sussex) and Summer Hill (Co. Clare), and had issue one son and four daughters; died at Hove (Sussex), 7 October 1922; administration of goods granted 30 January 1923 (estate £16,268). 

He purchased land at Kimpton (Herts) in 1865 and built Blackmore End by 1869. His town house was at 35 Portman Sq., London.

He died 1 June 1878 and was buried at Whetstone; will proved 19 July 1878 (effects under £350,000). His first wife died in childbirth and was buried at Whetstone, 6 June 1857. His widow died of a stroke, 27 September 1909, and was buried at Kimpton; her will was proved 20 November 1909 (estate £16,498).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, pp. 50-52; VCH Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923, pp. 311-29; G.L. Turnbull, Traffic and transport: an economic history of Pickfords, 1979; P. Hale, Delightful and bracing: Blackmore End and Porter's End - the legacy of the Baxendales, 2004; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2010, pp. 316-17; N. Antram & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Sussex - East, with Brighton and Hove, 2013, pp. 398-99.

Location of archives

Baxendale of Greenham: deeds, manorial records and estate papers, 16th cent-1913 [Berkshire Record Office, D/EBx]

Baxendale of Framfield Place: estate maps and sale particulars, c.1873-1910 [East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Record Office, Acc. 6625]

Coat of arms

Gules, two barrulets argent, in chief a fir tree eradicated proper between two trefoils slipped, and in base a like trefoil of the second.

Can you help?

• Can anyone identify the architect of Blackmore End for certain?
• 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.
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from descendants of the family who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 10 July 2021 and updated 30 August 2021 and 12-13 February 2022. I am grateful to Matthew Beckett for suggesting the possible identity of the architect of Blackmore End, to Francis Baxendale for additional information, corrections and the photograph of the Georgian house at Greenham Lodge; and to Thomas Baxendale for extensive additional information and corrections.