(561) Bennett of Faringdon House

Bennett of Faringdon

The Bennett family noticed here used the same coat of arms as the Earls of Tankerville, and the Bennets of Babraham, Widcombe and Tresillian, and they were presumably distantly related to them, although this branch of the family seem always to have spelled their name with two ts. The family can first be identified as landowners and farmers at Brokenborough and Westport St Mary near Malmesbury (Wilts) in the 18th century, when Daniel Bennett (c.1695-1779) evidently inherited the property from his wife's family. Their lands there descended to his son Giles Bennett (1721-95) and grandson, Giles Bailey Bennett (c.1768-1815). On the death of the latter they passed to Daniel Bennett (c.1760-1826) of Faringdon House (Berks), with whom the genealogy below begins. This Daniel was a grandson of Daniel (d. 1779) and the son of Thomas Bennett (c.1725-1800), a younger son of Daniel (d. 1779) who had moved to London and established a business as a brazier and ironmonger servicing the maritime industries at Wapping (Middx). After beginning his commercial life in the same trade as his father, Daniel (c.1760-1826) invested in the purchase of a vessel engaged in the South Sea whaling industry and built up a substantial business, owning fifteen vessels by 1796 and more than three times as many in the 1820s, when he was in partnership with his son. The firm was based in London, and from 1802 operated from Rotherhithe on the south bank of the Thames. The proceeds of his rather gruesome trade enabled Daniel to buy the Faringdon House estate in Berkshire in 1807, and to expand the property subsequently with additional lands at Faringdon and Eaton Hastings (Berks). He also bought a property called The Cliff at West Cowes (IoW), which he probably used as a holiday home. Daniel married three times, producing a daughter by his first marriage and a son by his second, but no other children. His daughter Sarah, who married young and was widowed in 1810, inherited his house at Cowes and one of the Wiltshire farms. His son and eventual partner, William Bennett (1790-1844), inherited the Faringdon House estate.

Vanbrugh House, Greenwich, which was William Bennett's home from 1819-27. The house was demolished in 1902.

William Bennett married in 1817 and settled soon afterwards at Mince Pie House (otherwise Vanbrugh House) at Greenwich, which had been built by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1722 for his brother Charles. The property was conveniently close to the family business in Rotherhithe, but in a select district, and several of his wife's relations also lived nearby. In 1826, William inherited his father's share of the whaling business and the Faringdon estate. He evidently put in hand some improvement works at Faringdon before moving in in 1827. Thereafter, he seems to have slowly run down the whaling business, replacing only some of the vessels that became unseaworthy. Latterly his younger sons, William (1826-48) and John Dunkin (1830-51) were named alongside him as vessel owners, but they would have been too young to be actively involved in the business. After he died in 1844 the five remaining vessels were sold to other owners. His eldest son, Daniel Bennett (1823-87), is not known to have been involved in the company at all and his career was very much the traditional one of a Victorian landed gentleman, with a short stint in the yeomanry followed by public and voluntary service. He inherited the Faringdon estate a few months before coming of age, and did not at first live in the house, but let it and occupied Sudbury House, Faringdon, which his father had acquired as a dower house.

Sudbury House, Faringdon, c.1825. The surviving right-hand part is now
part of an hotel. Image: Abingdon County Hall Museum  2007.500.22

Daniel married in 1847, but he and his wife seem to have struggled to have children, and after at least one stillbirth they produced an only daughter, Marianne Katherine Bennett (c.1858-1918), who suffered from learning difficulties from birth. When Daniel died in 1887 he left the Faringdon estate to his wife (d. 1897) for life and then to trustees for his daughter, who lived with a cousin as companion at Sudbury House. After Marianne died in 1918, both Faringdon House and Sudbury House were sold, but to different purchasers.

Faringdon House, Berkshire

The manor of Faringdon belonged to Beaulieu Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries, and changed hands several times in the second half of the 16th century. In 1590, it was bought by Sir Henry Unton (d. 1596), the English Ambassador to France, who built a fine Elizabethan brick house between the site of the present building and the church. 

Faringdon House: the Elizabethan mansion built in the 1590s for Sir Henry Unton.

Only one drawing of this house, probably of the mid-to-late 17th century, is known to survive. It shows an irregular many gabled house, apparently consisting of a three-storey hall range with three-storey cross-wings. The windows were mainly plain mullioned windows, although the reception rooms in the right hand wing had larger mullioned and transomed windows. The roofscape was given variety by at least thirteen tall chimneys and ball finials on the gables. Sir Henry, who lived nearby at Wadley House, probably died before the house was finished, but it became the home of his widow, who lived here until her death in 1634. An inventory of 1620 mentions the hall, parlour and a great chamber hung with arras and adorned with pictures, but nothing more is known of the interiors. During the Civil War, the Parliamentarian soldier, Sir Robert Pye (c.1622-1701), who was the son of the then owner, was obliged to lay siege to Faringdon town and to attack his father's own house, which suffered considerable damage as a result.

On the death in 1766 of Henry Pye, who had been Tory MP for Berkshire for twenty years, the estate was found to be saddled with £50,000 of debt, and in the same year, the old Elizabethan house was badly damaged by fire. Rather than patch it up again, Henry James Pye decided to build a new house on a site slightly further north, on which work was begun about 1770; the architect is unknown. Perhaps because of the burden of debt on the estate, the new house was still not finished in 1785, by which time Pye was noted as a poet and dramatist, although critics have generally agreed that his appointment as poet laureate in 1790 was perhaps the weakest of all time (Sir Walter Scott waspishly remarked that Pye was eminently respectable in everything but his poetry). 

Faringdon House: entrance front

Faringdon House: garden front

The new house begun in 1770 has a south (entrance) front of five bays and two storeys over a basement, but is made memorable by the central bay, which rises to two and a half storeys and is framed by a giant blank arch surmounted by an open pediment - a motif derived from the works of Lord Burlington and his circle. In front of the central bay is a Doric porch with niches in the rusticated stonework to either side. To either side of the entrance front are rusticated stone doorways with open pediments, beyond which quadrant walls curve forward to enclose the courtyard, terminating in rusticated gatepiers. The north (garden) front is plainer, with just the first, third and fifth windows decorated by triangular pediments. On this side, the basement is hidden by a high balustraded terrace carried on five basket arches and reached by staircases at either end. Inside, the entrance hall is filled with a wooden staircase that rises in two flights and returns in one that flies across the hall to a landing carried on a Doric arcade. The main rooms have simple but elegant plasterwork, including a low-relief Rococo ceiling in the drawing room and a neo-classical plaster overmantel with an urn in the dining room. At the same time as the house was built, the setting was landscaped in a Brownian style, so that the south front has a pleasing prospect over the rolling Thamesside meadows.

Faringdon House: the entrance hall and staircase.

Faringdon House: the drawing room and sitting room along the garden front.

In 1919, the house was sold to Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883-1950), 14th Baron Berners, the eccentric socialite, composer, artist, and bon viveur, who bought it initially for his mother and stepfather, Col. Ward Bennitt, who had been renting it since their marriage in 1908. Two years later he established the Berners Estate Co. to manage the property, since he lived abroad and had at that time no thought over ever living permanently in England. However, when his mother and Col. Ward Bennitt died within three weeks of one another in 1931, he decided to take over the house as his own home, while retaining his other homes in London and Rome. At about the same time, he met Robert Heber-Percy at a country house party at Vaynol (Flintshire). Robert, known with a mixture of affection and exasperation as 'the Mad Boy', was to become Gerald's life partner and heir. His high spirits, elegant appearance and uninhibited behaviour brought a spice to life at Faringdon which Gerald and his constant flow of guests found irresistible.

Faringdon House: dyed doves at a garden party in 1977.
Image: Mary Kingsley

The guests were notable: not just near neighbours like John and Penelope Betjeman from Uffington or Maurice Bowra from Oxford, but Sir Robert and Lady Diana Abdy, Frederick Ashton and Constance Lambert, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton, the Princesse de Polignac, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Eva Schiaperelli, and the Marchesa Casati, who travelled everywhere with her python. Penelope Betjeman went riding with Robert Heber-Percy and liked to show off the character of her much-loved horse, Moti, by bringing him inside the house: a photograph of the white horse taking tea in the drawing room at Faringdon has become emblematic of the era. There were other jokes too: the pigeons in the dovecote were dyed pink and blue and green with non-toxic dyes (a tradition still maintained, at least until recently). An elderly parrot was trained to walk across the floor entirely covered by a bowler hat, which thus had the appearance of having acquired the power of independent motion. In 1935, a tall but plain folly tower was built on a hill on the far side of Faringdon town, to the designs of Gerald Wellesley. It was approached by a path between trees, to one of which was the memorable sign: "Please do not throw stones at this notice".

When Lord Berners died in 1950, the house and its contents were left to 'the Mad Boy', Robert Heber-Percy (1911-87), who maintained the contents and traditions of the house into the 1980s. He left the house to his granddaughter, the novelist Sofka Zinovieff (b. 1961), who never lived here on a permanent basis but let the house on short-term tenancies as a very grand holiday house. Her book about Faringdon and the family, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, is a major source for this account. The house was sold in 2018, and regrettably a sale of many of the period contents followed.

Descent: sold 1590 to Sir Henry Unton (d. 1596); to widow, Lady Unton (d. 1634) and then to his nephew, Sir John Wentworth, who sold his reversionary interest in 1623 to Sir Robert Pye (c.1586-1662); to son, Sir Robert Pye (c.1622-1701); to son, Dr. Edmund Pye MD (c.1640-1705); to son, Henry Pye (1683-1749); to son, Henry Pye MP (1709-66); to son, Henry James Pye (1745-1813); sold before 1791 to William Hallett (1764-1842); sold 1807 to Daniel Bennett (1760-1826); to son, William Bennett (1790-1844); to son, Daniel Bennett (1823-87); to widow, Mary Elizabeth Bennett (d. 1897) and then to trustees for daughter, Marianne Katherine Bennett (1858-1918); sold 1919 to Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883-1950), 14th Baron Berners; to partner, Robert Heber-Percy (1911-87); to granddaughter, Sofka Zinovieff (b. 1961); sold 2018 to Charles Kenneth Crossley-Cooke (b. 1967). The house was let in the mid 19th century; and again (to Col. & Mrs. Ward Bennitt) from 1908.

Bennett family of Faringdon House

Daniel Bennett (1760-1826) 
Image: Faringdon Library

Bennett, Daniel (c.1760-1826). Son of Thomas Bennett (c.1725-1800) of Wapping (Middx), ironmonger and brazier, and his wife Elizabeth Chambers (b. c.1727), and a grandson of Daniel Bennett of Westport St Mary (Wilts), a gentleman farmer, born about 1760. At the age of 21 he set up his own business as a brazier and ironmonger in Wapping, working chiefly to support the shipping industry of east London. By 1786 he had acquired his first vessel,the Lively, built in America in 1777, which was engaged in the South Sea whaling trade. He gradually expanded his whaling fleet and in 1796 had fifteen vessels with an aggregate tonnage of 1,354 tons. His background in metalworking seems to have allowed him to keep his ships in better condition than his rivals, and he suffered fewer losses and made greater profits as a result. From 1802 he operated from the Oil Wharf at Rotherhithe, and by the 1820s he had a fleet of fifty vessels and was the largest proprietor in the whaling trade, and he had also diversified into general shipping. He married 1st, 1 January 1780 at St John, Wapping (Middx), Mary King of Wapping; 2nd, 17 May 1786 at High Wycombe (Bucks), Elizabeth (1756-1815), daughter of William Ball of High Wycombe, and 3rd, 2 August 1820 at St Swithin, Walcot, Bath (Som.), Ann Elizabeth Boughton (c.1780-1838), widow, and had issue:

(1.1) Sarah Bennett (1780-1858), born 12 October and baptised Old Gravel Lane Independent Chapel, Stepney (Middx), 25 October 1780; married, 9 December 1801 at St Alfege, Greenwich, John Goodwin (c.1773-1810), and had issue one daughter; buried at Holy Trinity, Cowes (IoW), 15 January 1858;

(2.1) William Bennett (1790-1844) (q.v.).

He purchased the Faringdon House estate in 1807, and a property called The Cliff at West Cowes (IoW). He inherited Boakley Farm at Brokenborough and Backbridge Farm, Westport, both near Malmesbury (Wilts), from his first cousin once removed, Giles Bailey Bennett (c.1768-1815). He sold Backbridge in 1822. Boakley was offered for sale in 1816, but did not sell and was bequeathed to his daughter, who retained it in 1839.

He died 14 October 1826, and was buried at High Wycombe, where he and his two wives are commemorated by a monument designed by Richard Westmacott; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 November 1826. His first wife died 24 November 1815 and was buried at High Wycombe.  His widow died 26 July 1838 and was buried at High Wycombe.

William Bennett (1790-1844)
Image: Faringdon Library 

Bennett, William (1790-1844). Son of Daniel Bennett (c.1760-1824) and his wife, born 1790. He was in partnership with his father in the whaling industry, but after his father's death he gradually ran the business down, so that at the time of his death he owned only five vessels. High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1836-37. He was an early patron of the artist, Samuel Palmer, who was related to his wife. He married, 25 September 1817 at Ingatestone (Essex), Marianna (d. 1840), daughter of John Dunkin of Fryerning (Essex), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Emma Bennett (1818-52), baptised at St Alfege, Greenwich (Kent), 29 October 1818; married, 29 July 1845 at Faringdon, Richard Meredyth Richards (1821-73), only son of Richard Richards MP of Caernywch (Merioneths.); died without issue, 10 December, and was buried at Dolgellau (Merioneths), 16 December 1852; will proved in the PCC, 26 February 1853;

(2) Marianne Bennett (1820?-37), said to have been born 5 August 1820 and baptised 6 November 1823; died unmarried, 22 March and was buried at High Wycombe (Bucks), 1 April 1837;

(3) Daniel Bennett (1823-87) (q.v.);

(4) William Bennett (1826-48), baptised at St Alfege, Greenwich, 28 July 1826; an officer in the 15th Hussars (Ensign, 1847; Lt., 1848); died at Madras (India), 29 September 1848;

(5) John Dunkin Bennett (1830-51); born 25 January and baptised at Faringdon, 8 July 1830; died unmarried, 6 November, and was buried at Faringdon, 13 November 1851; will proved in the PCC, 22 November 1851;

(6) Horace Hughes Bouverie Hill Bennet (1836-37), born about March 1836; died in infancy and was buried at High Wycombe, 23 January 1837, where he and his sister Marianne are commemorated by a monument.

He lived at Vanbrugh House alias Mince Pie House, Maze Hill, Greenwich, from 1819-27, while his wife's aunt, Mary Hays, lived in Vanbrugh Castle nearby. He inherited the Faringdon House and West Cowes properties from his father in 1826, and purchased Sudbury House, Faringdon as a dower house.

He died 18 January and was buried at High Wycombe (Bucks), 25 January 1844. His wife died 24 February and was buried at High Wycombe, 3 March 1840, where she is commemorated by a monument signed by Broughton of Wycombe.

Bennett, Daniel (1823-87). Eldest son of William Bennett (1790-1844) and his wife Marianna, daughter of John Dunkin of Fryerning (Essex), born 29 June and baptised at Faringdon, 6 November 1823. An officer in the Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry (Lt.) and the Berkshire Rifle Volunteers (Capt., 1860; retired 1873); JP for Berkshire (Chairman of Faringdon Petty Sessions) and Wiltshire and DL for Berkshire, and he also served as a poor law guardian, highway commissioner and local tax commissioner. A Conservative in politics, he was chairman of the Faringdon & District Conservative Association. He was a major contributor to the restoration of Faringdon church. He married, 28 October 1847 at Shifnal (Shrops.), Mary Elizabeth (c.1826-97), eldest daughter of Uvedale Corbett of Aston Hall (Shrops.), barrister-at-law, and had issue, with a stillborn son:

(1) Marianne Katherine Bennett (1858-1918), born 24 January 1858; the 1911 census stated she had been 'slightly deficient from birth'; died unmarried and without issue, 26 August 1918; her will was proved 13 February 1919 (estate £11,524).

He inherited the Faringdon House estate from his father in 1844, but at first let it and lived at Sudbury House. At his death the estate passed to his widow for life, and then to trustees for his daughter, who lived at Sudbury House. Both Faringdon House and Sudbury House were sold after her death.

He died 24 April and was buried at Faringdon, 28 April 1887; his will was proved 8 June 1887 (effects £2,820). His widow died 18 November 1897; her will was proved 2 May 1898 (estate £8,994).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1894, p. 130; D.A. Crowley (ed), VCH Wiltshire, vol. 14, 1991, pp. 29-31; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, pp. 300-02; S. Zinovieff, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, 2014;

https://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/faringdon_house.html;

https://www.faringdon.org/bennett-family.html;

https://www.faringdon.org/uploads/1/4/7/6/14765418/extract_from_owners_in_the_british_southern_whale_fishery.pdf.

Location of archives

Bennett of Faringdon: deeds of manor of Faringdon, 1847-97 [Berkshire Record Office, D/EX 487]

Coat of arms

Gules, a bezant between three demi-lions rampant, argent.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 31 October 2023 and updated 2 November 2023. I am grateful to Dart Montgomery for a correction.