(596) Berry (later Thornton-Berry) of Swinithwaite Hall

Thornton-Berry of Swinithwaite 

This family made a great deal of money in the 19th century from operating what became one of the largest breweries in Sheffield, known as the Ecclesfield Brewery and later the Moorhead Brewery. Despite its earlier name, the brewery was always in the centre of Sheffield, at the junction of The Moor and Furnival Street. It was founded by Thomas Berry (c.1793-1861) in 1824, and in about 1850 it began acquiring pubs as tied houses, required to sell the company's beer. Thomas and his wife Mary Hartshorn (who was illiterate when they married), had three sons who all entered into the family business. John, born about 1821, was in the business by 1841 but is not heard of thereafter, and may have died young. His brothers, Thomas Berry (1824-91), with whom the genealogy below begins, and Samuel Berry (1831-1904), who died without issue, took on the management of the business a few years before their father's death in 1861. Thomas senior left an estate valued at some £4,000, which would have made him comfortably off but not wealthy. However,  just thirty years later, when Thomas junior left a whopping estate of nearly £283,000, the firm had built an imposing new brewery building on its city centre site, and Thomas had moved out of Sheffield to Grove House, a large town house in Westgate St., Worksop (Notts). 

Moorhead Brewery, Sheffield, in 1890.

The younger Thomas was married three times, his first two wives being the Moss sisters, who both died young. His third wife survived him and died in 1919. By his three wives he produced a total of ten children, several of whom died young, and many of whose lives pose puzzles which I have found difficult to explain. His only surviving son by his first wife, Francis Moss Berry (1858-1908), whom one might expect to have been his father's principal heir, seems to have had nothing to do with the brewery or the rest of the family and he lived most of his life in Devon. It was the children of the second marriage who took on the management of the brewery in the third generation: John Charles Berry (1860-1914?), Samuel Berry (1862-1935) and William Henry Berry (1864-1932), and who eventually sold the company to Tennant Bros. Ltd. in 1923, after which brewing quickly ceased and the brewery buildings were demolished. Mysteriously, Samuel seems to have died in very reduced circumstances, although his younger brother, who became a director of Tennants following the takeover, left an estate of over £20,000 when he died in 1932.. 

The two surviving sons of the third marriage both suffered from epilepsy, and in fact died within a few months of one another in 1905 in accidents which were thought to have happened after they suffered fits. Neither of them seems to have taken an active part in the management of the brewery, but they probably lived on income derived from it, or from legacies from their father. At all events, both lived in some style: Edward Thornton Berry (1871-1905) at Highfield, a large villa on the northern edge of Worksop, and Ernest Reginald Berry (1873-1905) at Full Sutton Hall (Yorks), a small country house built in 1860. Edward Thornton Berry was married twice. By his first wife, who left him in 1898 and divorced him in 1902, he produced a son, Trevor Thornton Berry (1895-1967) (who took the hyphenated name Thornton-Berry by deed poll in 1921), and by his second he had two daughters.

Trevor Thornton Berry went to Oxford and saw service in the First World War before being admitted to the Inner Temple in 1919 and being called to the bar. He does not seem to have practised as a barrister, and lived in rented houses in Somerset and Herefordshire in the early 1920s. In 1922 he married Sylvia Whitehead, a 17-year-old beauty who was the daughter of a prominent Yorkshire clergyman, and began looking for a suitable seat in that county. He was attracted to Swinithwaite Hall, which was advertised to let in 1923, and it seems likely that he took the place on as a tenant at that time before purchasing the freehold in 1926.

Sylvia Thornton-Berry and her children in 1936, from The Tatler.

The estate offered excellent shooting, which both he and his wife enjoyed, and he occupied himself with estate improvements, including extensive tree planting. He became a JP in 1930 and was High Sheriff in 1937-38. He held trenchantly conservative views on religious, moral and political questions which he regularly expressed in letters to the newspapers, and in 1929 he published a volume of essays in the same vein. Rather unexpectedly, he and his wife also enjoyed amateur dramatics, and in 1939 they founded the Swinithwaite Players, whose fledgling activities were cut short by the Second World War. By then, they had five children: two sons and three daughters, and the family featured regularly in the pages of The Tatler, perhaps largely because Sylvia was so photogenic.

The couple's eldest son was Rupert Adrian Sylvester Thornton-Berry (1925-57), who served in the Royal Engineers in the Second World War, and later found a position with a brewery in Ripon, perhaps drawing on connections supplied by the family's heritage in the trade. In 1949 he moved to America and became a naturalised citizen there, but by 1955 he was back at Swinithwaite, where he tragically killed himself later that year. As a result, his younger brother, Humphrey Talbot Thornton-Berry (1928-99), who was a captain the army, became the heir to the estate. He resigned his commission in 1959 and with his wife, Caroline Bourne-Arton (b. 1940), took over the management of the estate. They had one son and one daughter, and their son, Adrian Trevor Thornton-Berry (b. 1961), is the current owner of the estate. He and his wife have diversified the estate's activities, with holiday cottages, commercial shooting, a farm shop, guided farm walks and other activities, in which they are now actively assisted by their younger son, Charles Thornton-Berry (b. 1993), who also has a career in the army.

Swinithwaite Hall, Yorkshire (North Riding)

A fairly plain two storey 18th century house, perhaps with 17th century origins, consisting of a double-pile central range with cross wings at either end. The south-facing entrance front, close to the public road, dates from 1767 and is built of roughcast rubble with ashlar dressings and hipped roofs of stone slates. The cross wings project slightly and have chamfered quoins, and in the centre is a pedimented doorcase. The window openings have architraves, and now contain 19th century plate glass sash windows. 

Swinithwaite Hall: the east and south fronts in 1970. Image: G.N. Wright/Historic England.

The east front was reconstructed in ashlar stone in 1792 for John Anderson, apparently to the designs of John Foss of Richmond. Again it is of five bays, but here the centre is stressed by a small pediment above a Venetian window and a pedimented Tuscan doorcase. Inside, the main rooms have neo-classical fireplaces and modillion cornices, and the staircase has column-on-vase balusters. All this evidently belongs to a major internal refit in the Foss period, but the entrance hall has 17th century oak panelling, with a carved overmantel, which is improbably ascribed to Grinling Gibbons and is said to have come from a Wren house. 

Swinithwaite Hall: the belvedere tower designed by John Foss
in the 1790s. Image: Paul Brooker. Some rights reserved.

In the mid 19th century, the house stood in a small park, most of which lay south of the house, beyond the main road through the village. John Anderson is known to have been involved in planting trees on the estate in the 1790s, and partly on the strength of this experience he became agent to the Bolton Hall estate in 1795. Anderson also owned Temple Farm, west of the village of Swinithwaite, which became his residence for a time while the hall was being remodelled. This may explain why it was at Temple Farm that he created a pleasure garden with a two-storey belvedere tower designed by John Foss, which consists of two concentric octagons: the lower one has vermiculated rustication, which the upper floor has alternate openings and blind panels. Happily, the belvedere has recently been restored and is now available for holiday lets.

Descent: John Anderson (d. 1803)... William John Anderson (fl. 1822-46)..sold c.1849 to James Pilkington MP (d. 1890); to daughter, Mary Elizabeth (d. 1921), wife of Sir George Augustus Coombe (later Pilkington), kt., MP (d. 1916); to granddaughter, Mrs Richardson, who sold 1926 to Trevor Thornton-Berry (1895-1967); to son, Capt. Humphrey Talbot Thornton-Berry (1928-99); to son, Adrian Trevor Thornton-Berry (b. 1961). The house was normally let between 1890 and 1926.

Berry (later Thornton-Berry) family of Swinithwaite Hall

Berry, Thomas (1824-91). Second son of Thomas Berry (c.1793-1861) of Sheffield, brewer, and his wife Mary (1793-1858), daughter of Michael Hartshorn of Swinethorpe (Lincs), born 6 July 1824. Maltster and brewer at Berry & Co. Ltd., Ecclesall (later Moorhead) Brewery, Sheffield. He married, 1st, 21 November 1850 at Whiston (Yorks WR), Jane (1830-58), daughter of Francis Moss, farmer, 2nd, 15 September 1859 at Eccleshall (Yorks WR), his first wife's sister, Elizabeth (1835-66), daughter of Francis Moss, farmer, and 3rd, 17 September 1868 at Townhead St. Chapel, Sheffield, Emily Ada (1841-1919), daughter of Rev. C. Larom of Sheffield, and had issue:

(1.1) Thomas Berry (b. 1854), born Oct-Dec 1854; no further record found and he probably died in infancy;

(1.2) Hannah Berry (1857-75), born Apr-Jun 1857; died unmarried at Worksop, Jul-Sept 1875;

(1.3) Francis Moss Berry (1858-1908), born 7 July 1858; educated privately at Whitehaven (Cumbld); cook in the Royal Navy, 1885; married, 1894 at Olney (Bucks), Marion Minnie Bevell (c.1858-1911), and had issue one son; buried at Dodbrooke (Devon), 22 June 1908;

(2.1) John Charles Berry (1860-1914?), born 12 November 1860 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886; brewer in Sheffield (retired by 1901); married, 2 July 1887 at St Andrew, Fulham (Middx) (sep. by 1894), Pauline Isobel (d. 1937), daughter of Alfred Jones of Fulham, furniture dealer, and had issue one daughter; he subsequently had a relationship with Frances Nellie [surname unknown] (1873-1959), who took the name Berry and was regarded as his wife*, and had issue one son and one daughter; said to have died 23 June 1914;

(2.2) Samuel Berry (1862-1935), born 7 May 1862 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886; brewer and maltster with Thomas Berry & Co. Ltd., which he and his brother sold to Tennant Brothers, brewers, in 1923; married, 10 June 1897 at St. Oswald, Durham (Co. Durham), Mary Ann Armitage (1869-1940?) and had issue at least two sons and one daughter; died 15 October 1935; will proved 26 November 1935 (estate £162);

(2.3) William Henry Berry (1864-1932), born 12 September 1864 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886; brewer and maltster; managing director of Thomas Berry & Co. Ltd. by 1911, which firm he and his brother sold to Tennant Bros. Ltd. in 1923, and he was thereafter a director of the latter firm; married, 25 July 1889 at Worksop Priory, Elizabeth Thompson Pritchard and had issue two sons and two daughters; died at the Savoy Hotel in Cheltenham (Glos), 9 October 1932; will proved 28 December 1932 (estate £22,894);

(3.1) Mary Emma Berry (1870-71); probably the child of this name who died in infancy and was buried at Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield, 21 June 1871;

(3.2) Edward Thornton Berry (1871-1905) (q.v.);

(3.3) Ernest Reginald Berry (1873-1905), born 16 March 1873 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886; lived at Full Sutton Hall (Yorks); married, 26 October 1897 at Bridlington (Yorks ER), Harriett Jane (1879-1948?), youngest daughter of Henry Augustus Guy of Sheffield, and had issue two sons and one daughter; was subject to epilepsy and died suddenly, probably following a fit, 4 April and was buried at Melton Mowbray (Leics), 6 April 1905; will proved 1 September 1905 (estate £6,903);

(3.4) Ethel Berry (1877-86), born 12 December 1877 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886; died young and was buried at Worksop, 9 December 1886.

He lived at Grove House, Worksop (Notts).

He died 7 December 1891; his will was proved 7 November 1893 (estate £282,992). His first wife died Oct-Dec 1858. His second wife wife died in 1866. His widow died 22 August 1919.

* She was, however, described as single in the 1921 census, when she was staying with Samuel Berry (1862-1935).

Berry, Edward Thornton (1871-1905). Elder son of Thomas Berry (1824-91) and his wife Emily Ada, daughter of Rev. C. Larom of Sheffield, born 16 August 1871 and baptised at Worksop Priory, 30 April 1886. He suffered from epilepsy, which may have contributed to his death. He married 1st, 29 August 1894 at Tuxford (Notts) (sep. 1898; div. 1902 on the grounds of his adultery and cruelty), Marion (1874-1957), daughter of Peter Addington of Eastfield, Tuxford (Notts), and 2nd, 4 November 1902 at All Souls, Langham Place, Marylebone (Middx), Ethel (1878-1958), daughter of Edward Drage, engineer, and had issue:

(1.1) Trevor Thornton Berry (later Thornton-Berry) (1895-1967) (q.v.);

(2.1) Joyce Margaret Thornton Berry (1901-93), born before her parents' marriage, 25 October 1901; died unmarried at Worthing (Sussex), 11 February 1993; will proved 17 March 1993 (estate under £125,000);

(2.2) Ethel Mary Thornton Berry (b. 1903), born 29 April, and baptised at St Mary, Eastbourne, 31 October 1903; died unmarried at Ferring (Sussex), 5 July 1966; will proved 11 October 1966 (estate £2,243).

He lived at Highfield, Worksop (Notts) and latterly at Eastbourne (Sussex).

He died following an accidental fall from his horse while riding to hounds, 13 July, and was buried at St Mary, Eastbourne, 17 July 1905; will proved 5 October 1905 (estate £27,301). His first wife married 2nd, 1904 at Bristol Registry Office (div. 1928 on the grounds of his adultery), Col. Reginald Seward Ruston (1867-1963), and 3rd, Lt-Col. Arundel Sinclair Begbie (1865-1954); she died at Swinithwaite Hall (Yorks NR), 15 May 1957, and was buried at West Witton (Yorks NR); her will was proved 25 September 1957 (estate £11,063). His widow died at Ferring (Sussex), 30 November 1958; her will was proved 17 March 1959 (estate £1,368).

Berry (later Thornton-Berry), Trevor Thornton (1895-1967). Only son of Edward Thornton Berry (1871-1905) and his wife Marion, daughter of Peter Addington,  born 29 July 1895. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (MA 1921) and Inner Temple (admitted 1919; called 1922). Barrister-at-law. He served with the Somerset Light Infantry (Lt., 1915-18) during the First World War, and with the Royal Observer Corps, 1942-45, in the Second World War. JP for North Riding from 1930. High Sheriff of Yorkshire, 1937-38. He took the additional surname Thornton by deed poll, 1921. Author of a volume of essays on political, moral and religious subjects entitled Stray Leaves (1929) expressing highly conservative views. His chief hobbies seem to have been shooting and amateur dramatics; passions which his wife shared. He married, 6 September 1922 at Aysgarth (Yorks NR), Sylvia Mary Talbot (1904-77), second daughter of Rev. George Talbot Whitehead (1870-1950) of Flanders Hall, Aysgarth, and had issue:

(1) Petronella Mary Thornton-Berry (1924-2005), born 19 February 1924; served in WRNS in Second World War; moved to Canada and later the USA with her husband; married, 12 December 1945 at Swinithwaite, Louis Peter John Rhodes* of Toronto (Canada), civil engineer, and had issue two sons; died September 2005;

(2) Rupert Adrian Sylvester Thornton-Berry (1925-57), born 15 December 1925; served in the Royal Engineers in Second World War, and was later a brewer at Ripon (Yorks WR); lived mainly in America from 1949 and became a naturalised American citizen; committed suicide, 10 August 1957 and was buried at West Witton (Yorks NR); will proved 16 January 1958 (estate £4,858);

(3) Humphrey Talbot Thornton-Berry (1928-99) (q.v.);

(4) Unity Sylvia Thornton-Berry (1930-2019), born 12 November 1930; artist and sculptor; married, 30 August 1958 at Aysgarth (Yorks NR), Michael David Alan Hield (1931-98) of Ings Farm, Bishop Monkton (Yorks WR), only son of D. A. Hield of Littlethorpe Hall, Ripon (Yorks WR); died 28 April 2019; will proved 12 February 2020;

(5) Letitia Marion Beryl (k/a Tisha) Thornton-Berry (1935-2020), born 12 October 1935; married, 26 November 1960, Field-Marshal the Rt. Hon. Peter Anthony Inge KG GCB PC (1935-2022), Baron Inge (a life peer), Chief of the General Staff, 1992-94; Chief of the Defence Staff, 1994-97, and Constable of the Tower of London, 1996-2001, son of Raymond Albert Inge of Croydon (Surrey), and had issue two daughters; died 18 May 2020; will proved 29 January 2021.

He lived at Sand Hall, Wedmore (Som.) and later Eyton Hall, Leominster (Herefs) before purchasing Swinithwaite Hall in 1926; he subsequently carried out extensive tree planting.

He died 13 October 1967; his will was proved 4 April 1968 (estate £225,885). His widow died 25 February 1977; her will was proved 29 June 1977 (estate £52,246).

* He was married as Peter John Rhodes but later US sources call him Louis Peter Rhodes.

Thornton-Berry, Humphrey Talbot (1928-99). Second, but only surviving, son of Trevor Thornton Berry (later Thornton-Berry) (1895-1967), and his wife Sylvia Mary Talbot, second daughter of Rev. G.T. Whitehead of Flanders Hall, Aysgarth (Yorks NR), born 27 August 1928. An officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1948; Lt., 1950; Capt., 1954; retired 1959), who served in the Malayan emergency (mentioned in despatches, 1950). DL for North Yorkshire (from 1986). He married, 30 April 1960, Caroline Rosemary JP DL (b. 1940), Chairman of Northallerton Health Authority and NHS Trust, 1988-97; Member of Yorkshire Dales National Park Committee; High Sheriff of North Yorkshire, 2004-05; elder daughter of Maj. Anthony Temple Bourne (later Bourne-Arton) MBE MP (1913-96) of Tanfield Lodge, and had issue:

(1) Adrian Trevor Thornton-Berry (b. 1961) (q.v.);

(2) Juliet Elaine Thornton-Berry (b. 1962), born 3 June 1962; married, 6 August 1988, Capt. David James Huband Maddan (b. 1960) of Pateley Bridge (Yorks WR), and had issue three sons and two daughters.

He inherited Swinithwaite Hall from his father in 1967.

He died 11 May 1999; his will was proved 7 September 1999. His widow is now living.

Thornton-Berry, Adrian Trevor (b. 1961). Only son of Humphrey Talbot Thornton-Berry (1928-99) and his wife Caroline Rosemary, elder daughter of Maj. Anthony Temple Bourne (later Bourne-Arton), born 16 April 1961. He married, 4 January 1986, Bridget Jill (b. 1959), an officer in the Women's Royal Army Corps (Lt., 1986), daughter of Maj-Gen. Geoffrey de Egglesfield Collin, and had issue:

(1) Matilda Caroline Thornton-Berry (b. 1988), born 5 July 1988; educated at Uppingham, Edinburgh University (BSc) and Northumbria Univ (PGCE); HR professional with Shell plc; married, 2017, Daniel Stirk, son of Simon Stirk of Sutton Grange, Ripon, Yorks; 

(2) Oliver Talbot Thornton-Berry (b. 1989), born 27 December 1989; managing director of Thirdfort Ltd. since 2017; married, 2021, Amelia Charlotte (b. 1993), daughter of T. James Crawford of Lilling (Yorks NR);

(3) Charles Archibald Thornton-Berry (b. 1993), born May 1993; educated at Newcastle University and RMA Sandhurst; an officer in the Royal Dragoon Guards (2nd Lt., 2017; Lt., 2018; Capt., 2020); partner in family businesses; married, 2022, Isobel Madeleine (b. 1992), daughter of Nicholas Whitcombe of Dalham (Suffk).

He inherited the Swinithwaite Hall estate, which is now some 1,600 acres, from his father in 1999. He and his wife have diversified the estate enterprises beyond farming and shooting to include holiday cottage rental, a farm shop and café, farm walks and other initiatives.

Now living. His wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 169; Burke's Landed Gentry - The Ridings of York[shire], 2005, p. 773; J. Hatcher, Richmondshire Architecture, 1990, pp. 254-57; J. Grenville & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Yorkshire - the North Riding, 2nd edn., 2023, pp. 671-72.

Location of archives

No significant archive is yet held in a public repository, and the family presumably retains such papers as exist.

Coat of arms

Or, on a fesse azure, three fleurs-de-lis of the field, in chief two swords in saltire proper.

Can you help?

• Does anyone know why Francis Moss Berry (1858-1908) was not involved in the family brewing business, or why his half-brother, Samuel Berry (1862-1935), who had been a director of the brewery, died in comparative poverty?
• Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further or more precise 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 18 January 2025.