(625) Bigham of Bignor Park, Viscounts Mersey

Bigham, Viscounts Mersey 

The Bigham family are said to have originated in Ulster, but Samuel Bigham (c.1777-1830), with whom the genealogy below begins, was the son of a Kirkcudbrightshire grazier, who moved south to Lancashire and settled at Wigan around 1800. He was at first a draper, but later moved from retailing cloth to making it, as a cotton and calico manufacturer. By his first wife, who died after only a few years of marriage, he left one surviving son, who succeeded to his business. By his second wife he had two sons and three daughters, the eldest of whom, John Bigham (1814-80) set himself up in business as a soap manufacturer in Liverpool and later moved into a general mercantile business and shipping. A Liberal in politics, he was a member of the City Council from 1849-55, but he appears to have pulled back from civic affairs and business in later life. By the time of his death, his personal estate was valued at £140,000 and he was described as a gentleman rather than a retired merchant. He married the daughter of another Liverpool merchant and had two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Henry Bigham (1835-73) emigrated to America in the 1850s, and may have been something of a disappointment to his father, as census returns show him as a store clerk. However, his younger son, Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), who was sent to France and Germany to acquire language skills before reading for the bar, became a successful lawyer. He took silk in 1883 and after several unsuccessful efforts to be elected to Parliament, finally took his seat for the Liverpool Exchange constituency in 1895. In 1897 he became a High Court judge, and further legal and quasi-legal appointments followed. He retired from the bench in 1910 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Mersey. In the following years, he acted as a Wreck Commissioner, and in that capacity presided over the inquiries into the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania, among other vessels. In 1916 he was promoted in the peerage to 1st Viscount Mersey, and he remained uncommonly vigorous and active into the 1920s. Indeed, in 1920, at the age of eighty, he returned to judicial office for a few months to reduce a backlog of cases in the High Court.

Like his father, Lord Mersey married the daughter of another Liverpool merchant, and the couple had three sons, of whom one died in infancy. The eldest son, Lt-Col. Charles Clive Bigham, who eventually succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount, joined the army as a young man and then moved into the diplomatic service. In the 1900s he was secretary to a number of Royal Commissions and Inquiries which his father was chairing, but during the First World War returned to the army and commanded the military mission to the French War Office. In 1919, he attended the Versailles peace conference, but after that he seems to have turned to a career in business and to writing popular historical works. He purchased Bignor Park (Sussex) in 1926, inherited the peerage in 1929, and in the 1940s was Liberal chief whip in the House of Lords. The 1st Viscount's younger son, Sir Frank Bigham (1876-1954) joined the Metropolitan Police, and from 1909-35 held a succession of senior posts, ending up as Deputy Commissioner; he was knighted in 1929, was twice married, and had two daughters.

The 2nd Viscount had three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey, served in the Second World War with the Irish Guards, and later on was active in local politics both in London and Sussex. In 1933 he married Lady Katherine Petty-Fitzmaurice, the elder daughter of the 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, who later inherited a Scottish peerage and became Lady Nairne in her own right. They had three sons, the eldest of whom was Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey, who succeeded his father in 1979 and also inherited his mother's peerage in 1995. He married in 1961, and his only surviving son is Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), the 5th and present Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne. Since inheriting the Bignor estate on his father's death in 2006 he has undertaken a major campaign of restoration and improvements to the house and estate. He also continues a successful career as a composer and producer in the music industry. He has married twice and has two daughters, the elder of whom is heir presumptive to the lordship of Nairne. The heir presumptive to the viscountcy is his cousin, Charles Richard Petty Bigham (b. 1967).

Bignor Park, Sussex

The estate was created in the 13th century by the enclosure of part of the great forest of Arundel to form a park for the fattening of deer for the Earl of Arundel's table. In 1574 a lease of the park mentions that it contained a lodge, and 'a messuage' was also mentioned when the property was sold in 1584. Soon afterwards, it passed into the hands of the Pellatt family, and in 1632 William Pellatt built a new gabled house on the crown of a ridge parallel to the south downs, which offered excellent views to both north and south. Dalloway says this building was 'on a very small scale'; that it 'had nothing to recommend it but its situation'; and that the present house was built 'upon a much larger scale'. This is not, however, the impression given by the earliest views of the building, made by Samuel Hieronymous Grimm in about 1791, which seem to show a larger house than the present building. By the time of Grimm's views, the house had been significantly and recently remodelled, but the two-bay gabled wings visible in his views of both fronts probably represent the cross-wings of the original mansion, and give an impression of its original dimensions. At the time of the 1670 Hearth Tax, the house was evidently leased, but the return for Bignor is damaged and we cannot tell on how many hearths the property was taxed.

Bignor Park: detail of drawing of entrance front by S.H. Grimm, c.1791 [British Library, Add. MS. 5674, f.47]

Bignor Park: drawing of garden front by S.H. Grimm, c.1791 [British Library, Add. MS. 5674, f.48]

Grimm's drawings of c.1791 show that the centre of the Jacobean house had recently been remodelled in the Gothick style, and it is known that this work was done for Michael Dorset (d. 1805), who married Catherine Anne Turner in 1779, the year she acquired possession of Bignor Park from her brother, so the work must have been done in 1780s. The entrance front was given a tall Gothick central gate tower, complete with a fictive portcullis, and also octagonal or possibly hexagonal towers on the outer corners of the 17th century wings. The garden front retained a more domestic aspect, with a projecting central block with a canted front and a roof behind the parapet which rose to a Gothic finial. Some decorative Coade stone pinnacles in the grounds of the present house are said to have been preserved as garden ornaments when the old house was demolished in 1826. The architect of the alterations is not recorded, but the rather charming 'toy fort' effect of the additions has a slightly amateurish feel, so perhaps Dorset was his own architect. Another possibility must be that he used Francis Hiorne (1744-89), a Gothick specialist who is known chiefly for rather more sober Gothic church work, but who built Hiorne's tower in the park at Arundel c.1787 and made proposals for remodelling Arundel Castle which were not carried out because of his death; he is known as an enthusiastic adopter of Coade stone for architectural details. 

Bignor Park: entrance front c.1905, from an old postcard.

After Michael Dorset's death, his widow sold the Bignor Park estate to John Hawkins (1761-1841), the younger son of a Cornish tin-mining family, whose chief seat was Trewithen (Cornw.). He had travelled extensively in Italy and Greece, had antiquarian interests, and was a friend of the archaeologist Samuel Lysons and the architect, Sir Robert Smirke. In 1811, one of his tenant farmers, George Tupper, discovered Roman remains while ploughing, and with the help of Lysons and Tupper he went on to excavate what proved to be one of the largest and most luxurious Roman villas in Britain, with a series of fine mosaic floors; the villa was opened to the public in 1814 and has remained accessible ever since. In the 1820s, Hawkins' attention turned to his own house, which he decided to demolish and replace with a neo-classical villa. He at first tried to get his friend Smirke to provide designs, but Smirke was too busy with bigger and more lucrative public commissions and fobbed him off with the offer of advice, and probably also with the recommendation of Henry Harrison (c.1785-c.1865), who had worked for Smirke as a building contractor at Grange Park (Hants), and who turned to architecture around 1820. When he came to Bignor he had little if any country house design experience, but his understated and Greek-influenced neo-classical designs seem to have been just what Hawkins was looking for. Articles of agreement were drawn up for the new house in 1826 and construction was evidently largely complete by 1828, when two servants were employed as caretakers in the unoccupied building. Harrison allowed the house to dry out thoroughly, and only began moving in during 1830. Payments continued until 1832, finally totalling just over £10,000.

Bignor Park: garden front in 1956. Image: Derek Sherborn/Historic England.

The rendered brick house that resulted is of five by three bays and two storeys, with wider end bays on both fronts that project slightly forward, and a lower two-storey service wing to the west. The north-facing entrance front has a shallow loggia between the wings that cleverly incorporates a porch, while on the garden side the house is raised on a low stone terrace, and all the ground floor windows are floor-length. The windows on the south front also all have external shutters except for the larger ground-floor windows in the wings, where the neo-classical elegance is tempered by a few neo-Jacobean elements, presaging the direction which Harrison's designs would take later in his career. The external shutters seem to be a later addition, as they are not indicated on a view of the house in 1834 by John Constable. Inside, the house preserves its late Regency layout, which seems little altered, with the library, drawing room and dining room across the south front, while on the north side, the entrance hall and top-lit, cantilevered staircase occupy the middle three bays, and are flanked by a business room and the former school room. 

Bignor Park: a late 19th century watercolour view of the library (Image: Trewithen Collection)

The heart of the house has always been the library, for both John Hawkins and the 2nd Lord Mersey were notable book collectors, and further bookcases are found throughout the house. All the rooms have sparing but elegant neo-classical decoration, enhanced by mahogany doors from Robert Adam's Lansdowne House, London, which were installed here in about 1957 by Lady Mersey, and by Regency Revival furniture and fittings acquired by the 2nd Lord Mersey in 1945 when the contents of Edward Knoblock's Beach House in Worthing (Sussex) were dispersed. One particularly important acquisition from the Worthing house was a set of mural paintings on glass of 1912 by Sir William Nicholson, which were made originally for Knoblock's apartment in the Palais Royale, Paris; these were arranged at first floor level around the staircase hall, but are said now to be in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Bignor Park: watercolour of the house from the south-east by John Constable, 1834. (Image: V&A Museum 217-1888)

Work began on landscaping the grounds in the 1820s, when John Hawkins laid out a new drive while he was looking for an architect. After the house was built he took advice from William Sawrey Gilpin in the 1830s, resulting in the landscape which Constable painted in 1834. More recent additions have included a domed Doric temple designed by Christopher Hobson in 1992.

Descent: John, Lord Lumley sold 1584 to William Tyrwhitt, who sold soon afterwards to Richard Pellatt (d. 1587); to son, Thomas Pellatt (d. 1618); to son, William Pellatt, who built the house c.1632; to son, Thomas Pellatt (b. 1656); to son, William Pellatt, who sold 1712 to Nicholas Turner (d. 1723); to son, Nicholas Turner (d. 1774); to son, Nicholas Turner (b. 1753), who became bankrupt in 1779 and sold it to his sister, Catherine Anne (1752-1834), from 1779 wife of Michael Dorset (1753?-1805), who remodelled the house and sold it 1806 to John Hawkins (1761-1841), who rebuilt the house; to son, Christopher Hawkins (1820-1903); to nephew, John Heywood Johnstone MP (1850-1904); to son, G.H. Johnstone of Trewithen (Cornw.), who sold 1926 to Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey; to son, Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey; to son, Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006); to son, Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey.

Bigham family of Bignor Park, Viscounts Mersey

Bigham, Samuel (c.1777-1830). Son of Andrew Bigham (b. 1742) of Kells (Kirkcudbrights), grazier and his wife Elizabeth Chesnie, born about 1777. Draper, and cotton and calico manufacturer at Wigan (Lancs). He was also in partnership with Thomas Peck as an iron dealer (dissolved 1821). He married 1st, 3 June 1808 at All Saints, Wigan, Elizabeth Holland, and 2nd, 15 June 1813 at All Saints, Wigan (Lancs), Catherine (c.1795-1854?), daughter of John Hughes of Chester, and had issue:

(1.1) Andrew Bigham (b. & d. 1808), born about July 1808; died in infancy and was buried at All Saints, Wigan, 30 September 1808;

(1.2) Thomas Bigham (1809-88), born 12 November and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 17 December 1809; cloth manufacturer at Wigan; married 26 February 1835 at Manchester Collegiate Church (now Cathedral), Elizabeth (1810-83), daughter of George Maxwell, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 15 September 1888;

(2.1) John Bigham (1814-80) (q.v.);

(2.2) Agnes Bigham (b. 1817), born 6 February and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 4 March 1817; married, 20 September 1838 at St George, Liverpool, John Holmes of Liverpool, painter;

(2.3) Mary Helen/Ellen Bigham (1818-70), born 9 December and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 25 December 1818; married, 10 April 1847 at St Philip, Liverpool, Capt. Thomas J. Cannell of Castletown (IoM); died 10 December 1870;

(2.4) Ann Jane Bigham (b. 1821), born 28 February and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 21 March 1821; married, 10 February 1841 at St David, Liverpool, John Parker Hall junior;

(2.5) Samuel Bigham (b. 1825), born 4 September and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 24 November 1825; living in 1841.

He died suddenly, 22 August, and was buried at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 25 August 1830. His first wife died between 1809 and 1813. His widow is said to have died in 1854; her will was proved 25 March 1857.

Bigham, John (1814-80). Elder son of Samuel Bigham (c.1777-1830) and his second wife, Catherine, daughter of John Hughes of Chester, born 5 April and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 26 April 1814. Soap manufacturer and later merchant and shipowner in Liverpool. A Liberal in politics, he was a member of Liverpool City Council, 1849-55, and of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. He married, 16 October 1834 at St David, Liverpool, Helen (1814-1904), daughter of John East of Liverpool, and had issue:

(1) Henry Bigham (1835-73), born 29 July and baptised at St Peter, Liverpool, 17 September 1835; emigrated to America and became a store clerk in New York; said to have married, 4 February 1871, Helen (d. 1914), daughter of John Numan, and had issue; died in the lifetime of his father, 4 July 1873;

(2) Catherine Bigham (1837-38), baptised at St Peter, Liverpool, 5 December 1837; died in infancy and was buried at St Michael, Liverpool, 2 October 1838;

(3) Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), 1st Baron and 1st Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(4) Agnes Maria Bigham (1842-1919), born 3 July 1842; married, 10 September 1868 at St Bride, Liverpool, Thomas Brough (d. 1892) of Liverpool, merchant and gunpowder agent, and had issue one son and three daughters; as a widow, lived in London; died at Seaford (Sussex), 7 August 1919; will proved 11 November 1919 (estate £12,187).

He lived in Liverpool.

He died 5 October and was buried at Toxteth Park Cemetery, Liverpool, 8 October 1880; his will was proved 17 December 1880 (effects under £140,000). His widow died 11/12 August 1904; her will was proved 31 August 1904 (estate £16,483).

1st Viscount Bigham

Bigham, Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles (1840-1929), kt., 1st Baron and 1st Viscount Mersey. Second, but only surviving, son of John Bigham (1814-80) and his wife Helen, daughter of John East of Liverpool, born 3 August 1840 and baptised at St Francis Xavier RC church, Liverpool, 25 January 1867. Educated at Liverpool Institute, in Berlin (Germany) and at the Sorbonne University, Paris (France), and the Middle Temple (admitted 1867; called 1870; Bencher 1886). Barrister-at-law (QC, 1883), practising on the Northern Circuit, of which he eventually became leader. After several unsuccessful attempts, he entered Parliament as MP for Liverpool Exchange, 1895-97, but resigned on becoming a Justice of the High Court, 1897-1909; President of the Railway and Canal Commission, 1904-09; Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, 1904-10; sworn of the Privy Council, 1909; Chairman of Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of High Court, 1909-10; a Wreck Commissioner, 1912-16, in which capacity he presided over the inquiries into the sinkings of the Titanic, Empress of Ireland, Falaba and Lusitania; President of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1913-14. He was knighted in 1897 and raised to the peerage on his retirement from judicial office, as Baron Mersey, 16 March 1910, before being promoted to a viscountcy, 22 January 1916. He married, 17 August 1871 at St Paul, Princes Park, Liverpool, Georgina Sarah (1848-1925), daughter of John Rogers of Grove Park, Liverpool, silk mercer, and had issue:

(1) Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(2) John Trevor Buckley Bigham (1873-75), born 27 November 1873; died in infancy, 23 January and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 26 January 1875;

(3) Hon. Sir Frank Trevor Roger Bigham (1876-1954), born 22 May 1876; educated at Eton, Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1895; BA 1899; MA), and the Middle Temple (called 1901); barrister-at-law; an officer in the Territorial Battn, Middlesex Regiment (2nd Lt., 1900); served with Metropolitan Police, 1909-35 (Chief Constable of the Criminal Investigation Dept., 1909-14; Assistant Commissioner, 1914-31 and Deputy Commissioner, 1931-35); appointed CB, 1919 and knighted (KBE), 1929; married 1st, 17 December 1901 at Temple church, London, Frances Leonara (1873-1927), second daughter of John Leonard Tomlin of Richmond (Yorks NR), and had issue two daughters; married 2nd, 2 September 1931, Edith Ellen OBE (1898-1985), a civilian official at Scotland Yard, daughter of Lt-Col. David Drysdale; died 23 November 1954.

He lived at 22 Grosvenor Place, London.

He died at the Beach Hotel, Littlehampton (Sussex), 3 September, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 6 September 1929; his will was proved 19 October 1929 (estate £80,603). His wife died 9 January, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 12 January 1925; administration of her goods was granted to her eldest son, 3 May 1928 (estate £600).

2nd Viscount Mersey

Bigham, Lt-Col. Charles Clive (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey. Eldest son of Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), kt., 1st Viscount Mersey, and his wife Georgina Sarah, daughter of John Rogers of Liverpool, born 18 August and baptised at St Paul, Princes Park, Liverpool, 25 December 1872. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. An officer in the Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1892; Lt., 1901; Capt., 1902; retired 1902 but returned to service as Maj., 1914; Lt-Col., 1919). In diplomatic service, 1896-1900 and military intelligence dept. of War Office, 1901-04; with Board of Trade, 1905-09 and acted as secretary to Royal Commissions, 1905-12. He commanded the military mission to French War Office, 1916-19 (mentioned in dispatches) and attended Versailles peace conference, 1919. In 1916 he was one of the passengers aboard the SS Persia when it was torpedoed and sunk off Crete by a German submarine, but was lucky enough to be rescued. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Mersey, 3 September 1929. Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chairman of Committees, House of Lords; Liberal Chief Whip, 1944-49. He was a director of several companies and of the National Provident Institution, and Chairman of Royal Westminster Opthalmic Hospital, 1935-46 (and later Vice-President). JP and DL for London (Chairman of St George's Petty Sessions, 1935-47) and JP for Sussex. A trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, 1941-49; President of Sussex Archæological Society, 1947–50, and of Society of Genealogists, 1942–56. A freemason from 1901 and a Knight of St John. He was appointed CMG, 1901, was an Officer of the Légion d'honneur and of the Order of the Crown of Italy, and held several foreign war medals. He was the author of a number of historical and autobiographical works including A Ride through Western Asia (1897); A Year in China (1901); The Prime Ministers of Britain (1922); The Chief Ministers of England (1923); The Kings of England (1929); A Picture of Life, 1872–1940 (1941); Alexander of Macedon (1946); Helen of Troy and Cleopatra (1947); The Viceroys and Governors-General of India, 1747–1947 (1949); Journal and Memories (1952). He married, 1 June 1904 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster (Middx), Mary Gertrude JP (1881-1973), second daughter of Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour KCB, private secretary to William Gladstone, and had issue (with two further children who died in infancy):

(1) Hon. Elizabeth Mary Bigham (1905-85), born 17 April and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 27 May 1905; married, 5 December 1929 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster, Matthew Henry Hubert Ponsonby (1904-76), 2nd Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 21 March 1985; will proved 18 October 1985 (estate £169,287);

(2) Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(3) Lt-Col. the Hon. Roger Claude Bigham (1908-58), born 16 September and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 11 November 1908; educated at Eton and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; an officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1928; Lt., 1931; Capt., 1938; Maj., 1945; Lt-Col., 1951; retired 1957), who served in British military mission to Greece, 1949-51; died unmarried, 5 December and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 9 December 1958; will proved 23 February 1959 (estate £52,617);

(4) Hon. Ralph John Bigham (1913-91), born 3 August and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 15 October 1913; educated at Eton; an Officer of the Order of St. John; married, 3 August 1954, Cicely Ruth (1916-96), youngest daughter of Percy Johnson of Douglas (IoM), but had no issue; died 17 September 1991; administration of goods with will annexed granted 2 April 1992 (estate £195,456).

He purchased Bignor Park in 1926 and acquired furniture and fittings from Beach House, Worthing to enhance it in 1945. He had a town house at 22 Eaton Place, London.

He died 20 November and was buried at Bignor, 24 November 1956; his will was proved 30 April 1957 (estate £95,191). His widow died aged 92 on 1 May 1973 and was buried at Bignor; her will was proved  in August 1973 (estate £21,481).

Bigham, Edward Clive (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey. Eldest son of Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey, and his wife Mary Gertrude, second daughter of Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour, kt., born 5 June and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 14 July 1906. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1927). An officer in the Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1926; Lt., 1929), who served in the Second World War with the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1940; retired 1945). He succeeded his father as 3rd Viscount Mersey, 20 November 1956. A member of London County Council for the Paddington division, 1955-65, and a County Councillor for West Sussex, 1966. DL for West Sussex, 1977-79. He married, 24 July 1933, Lady Katherine Evelyn Constance Petty-Fitzmaurice (1912-95), 12th Lady Nairne in her own right, elder daughter of 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, and had issue:

(1) Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne (q.v.);

(2) Hon. David Edward Hugh Bigham  (1938-2024), of Hurston Place (Sussex), born 14 April 1938; educated at Eton; undertook compulsory military service, 1957-59, as an officer in the Royal Horse Guards (2nd Lt., 1957); art dealer and director of Tryon Gallery, London, 1959-2010; married, 2 January 1965 at Little Hadham (Herts), Anthea Rosemary (b. 1941), eldest daughter of Capt. Leo Richard Seymour, and had issue three sons (the eldest of whom is heir presumptive to the viscountcy), and one daughter; died 24 August 2024;

(3) Hon. Andrew Charles Bigham (b. 1941), of Coverham (Yorks NR), born 26 June 1941; educated at Eton, Worcester College, Oxford, and London University (CertEd, 1967); an officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1964; retired 1966); schoolmaster at Aysgarth School, Bedale (Yorks NR), 1968-89 and Sunningdale School (Berks), 1989-94.

He inherited Bignor Park from his father in 1956.

He died 2 August 1979 and was buried at Sutton (Sussex); his will was proved 14 November 1979 (estate £168,427). His widow died 20 October 1995; her will was proved 14 May 1996.

Bigham, Richard Maurice Clive (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne. Eldest son of Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey and his wife Lady Katherine Evelyn Constance, 12th Lady Nairne, daughter of 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, born 8 July 1934. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Undertook compulsory military service as an officer in the Irish Guards (Lt.), 1952-54. He succeeded his father as 4th Viscount Mersey, 2 August 1979, and his mother as 13th Lord Nairne, 20 October 1995. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer, 1980-99, when he was one of the hereditary peers ejected from the House. He achieved some acclaim as a documentary film maker, and some notoriety after he was involved in an unsavoury sex trial in 1977, where he received a two-year suspended prison sentence. President of the Society of Industrial Emergency Services Officers, 1987-91 and of Combined Heat and Power Association, 1989-92. Fellow of Royal Geographical Society and Hon. Fellow of Royal Academy of Music, 1996. He was author of The Hills of Cork and Kerry (1987) and Pole Power (2001). He married, 6 May 1961 at Christ Church, Hampstead (Middx), Joanna Dorothy Corsica Grey (b. 1940), elder daughter of John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray CBE of Hampstead and Mayfair, and had issue:

(1) A son (b. & d. 1964), born 30 June 1964, but died the same day;

(2) Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne (q.v.).

He inherited Bignor Park from his father in 1979.

He died 5 August 2006, and was buried at Bignor; his will was proved 22 February 2007 (estate £25,241,615). His widow is now living.

Bigham, Edward John Hallam (k/a Ned) (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne. Only surviving son of Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne, and his wife Joanna Dorothy Corsica Grey, elder daughter of John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray CBE of Hampstead and Mayfair, born 23 May 1966. Educated at Eton, Balliol College, Oxford, Trinity College of Music, London and Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich (Germany). Music producer, composer and drummer. Director of Bignor Park Ltd, 2009-date; Edward James Foundation Ltd, 2013-15, and Millpepper Ltd, 2016-date. He succeeded his father as 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne, 5 August 2006. He married 1st, 26 May 1994 (div. 1997), Clare Louise, daughter of David Haigh of Woking (Surrey), and 2nd, 8 December 2001 at St Cuthbert, Dalmeny (West Lothian), Caroline Clare (b. 1965), daughter of Robert Grant Schaw Miller (1925-97) of Dalmeny, and had issue:

(2.1) Hon. Flora Diana Joan Bigham (b. 2003), Mistress of Nairne, born 17 May 2003; educated at Oxford University (matriculated 2021; BA 2024) and City St. George's, University of London; journalist; heir presumptive to the Lordship of Nairne;

(2.2) Hon. Polly Joanna Jean Bigham (b. 2006), born 3 July 2006; educated at Westbourne House School and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

He inherited Bignor Park from his father in 2006.

Now living. His first wife is now living. His second wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 2668-69; J. Dalloway & E. Cartwright, The parochial topography of the rape of Arundel, 1832, vol 2, pt. 1, pp. 249; W.H. Godfrey & L.F. Salzman, Sussex views, 1951, pl. 19; G. Nares, 'Bignor Park, Sussex', Country Life, 26 April-3 May 1956; J. Farrant, Sussex depicted, 2001, p. 161; Sir H.M. Colvin, A biographical dictionary of British architects, 4th edn., 2008, pp. 485-87, 519-20; E. Williamson, T. Hudson, J. Musson and I. Nairn, The buildings of England: Sussex - West, 2019, pp. 132-33, 735; P. Holden, 'Antiquaries, archaeologists and architects: the building of Bignor Park in Sussex', Georgian Group Journal, 2020, pp. 177-88.

Location of archives

No significant accumulation has been deposited in a public archive, so it is likely that the family retain their papers.

Coat of arms

Bigham family, Viscounts Mersey: Per bend dancettée azure and or, a bend invected between three crosses patée in chief and as many horseshoes in base, all counterchanged.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide photographs or 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 30 January 2026.