(641) Blaauw of Beechland

Blaauw of Beechland

This family claimed descent from the innovative and successful 17th century Dutch cartographer Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), and may have had long-standing connections with England (the will of a Willem Blaauw of Amsterdam was proved in the PCC in 1728), but I have traced them back no further than Gerrit Blaauw (1708-75), a prominent merchant and banker in Amsterdam (Netherlands), who arranged the refinancing of a large part of the national debt of the States General in the mid 18th century. His younger son, Gerrit Blaauw (1750-1825) became Burgomeister (Mayor) of Amsterdam, 1816-24 and was also employed in diplomatic contacts between the French republic and the Dutch States in the 1790s. The mayor's elder brother, Willem (later William) Blaauw (1748-1808), settled in London in about 1788 as a widower with one surviving daughter, and the following year married an Englishwoman as his second wife and produced a second family. He may have come to London initially for business reasons, but neither official sources nor contemporary newspapers contain any reference to him being involved in business or public affairs, and he was always described as 'esquire' in legal records. He was naturalised as a British subject in 1790, and anglicised his forename to William, but neither he nor his descendants sought to anglicise the spelling of their obviously foreign surname. By his second wife he produced a son and two daughters, and the daughter of his first marriage also stayed in England and married into an Essex gentry family.

William's only son was William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870), who was educated as an English gentleman at Eton and Oxford. In 1834 he purchased the modest Beechland estate in Sussex for £7,000 and enlarged the house. From the windows of his new abode he had a distant prospect of the site of the Battle of Lewes (1264), which is said to have stimulated an interest in the constitutional conflicts of the 13th century, and led him to write a history of The Barons' War (1844), which was well-regarded and remained a standard work into the late 20th century. Two years later, Blaauw played a leading part in the founding of the Sussex Archaeological Society, becoming its secretary and editor of its journal, and in 1850 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Blaauw was married twice. His first wife, Harriet King (1797-1828) brought him an additional income of £1,000 a year for life, which may explain how he was able to afford the estate in Sussex, but their two daughters both died young. His second wife, Margaret Emily Gillman (1798-1881), was the daughter of an obscure Irish baronet and probably did not contribute much to his exchequer, but gave him two sons and a daughter. After Eton and Oxford, his eldest son, Henry William Gillman Blaauw (1834-57), undertook a Grand Tour with friends, which took him rather adventurously to Egypt, where he sadly contracted a fever and died. The heir to Beechlands was therefore his younger brother, Thomas St. Leger Blaauw (1839-93), who inherited on his father's death in 1870.

Thomas inherited the estate but not the thousand a year which his father had received under his first marriage settlement, and this perhaps made a critical difference to the sustainability of the estate. He continued to live at Beechland, but when he died in 1893 the value of his personal estate was only two-thirds that of his father, and his widow Fanny (1839-1912), who inherited a life interest in Beechland, promptly let it and moved to a suburban villa in Bournemouth. Their elder son, Henry Thomas Gillman Blaauw (1874-1949) went to Oxford and then attended the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, but his heart does not seem to have been in estate management. In 1911 he was working as a bookbinder and he later employed a farm manager to run the estate. He himself was an officer in the army during the war until he was invalided out after being severely injured in the leg in 1917. He then found himself unable to move around easily enough to manage the farm, and in 1920 he sold the entire Beechland property and moved to a rambling Edwardian house at Wivelisfield (Sussex) called Towning's Place, and later to a smaller house at Chailey (Sussex). He married in 1912 but he and his wife had no children, and eventually adopted a daughter, who took his name and married into an Irish gentry family. His younger brother, Bertram William St Leger Blaauw (1876-1946), who was a nurseryman and fruit grower in Sussex, also had no issue, so the Blaauw name died out in England with this generation.

Beechland, Newick, Sussex

Earlier called Fuller's Lands and Mount Pleasant, the estate was renamed Beechland(s) in about 1820. The house may have genuine Tudor or 17th century origins, but it seems to have been extensively remodelled or rebuilt in the early 1820s as a large gabled gentleman farmer's house with a central porch, elaborately carved bargeboards on the gables, and hood-moulds over the mullioned and transomed windows. Sale notices of 1820 and 1824 suggest that the remodelling was carried out between those dates, and it was acquired in 1824 by William Thomson, one of the founders (and first president) of the Newick Horticultural Society. A highway diversion order in 1825 allowed Thomson to move a public road and footpath to expand his grounds. The only visual record of the house at this time is an engraving showing the grounds in use for the Horticultural Society's annual show in the early 1830s. 

Beechland, Newick: the house in the 1830s, from an engraving in Horsfield's history of Sussex, 1835.

In 1834 the Beechland estate was bought by William Henry Blaauw for £7,000, and soon after gaining possession he added two wings on a larger scale to the existing house. His architect is unknown, but the plain ashlar walls with plate glass hood-moulded mullioned and transomed windows, projecting square bay windows and oriels, and steep-sided gables with a profusion of stubby pinnacles, are reminiscent of the work of William Burn or David Brandon.

Beechland, Newick: north-west (entrance) front as remodelled c.1835-37

Beechland, Newick: the house from the south in the mid 20th century.

Beechland, Newick: south-east front of the enlarged house built c.1835-37.

At the end of the 19th century, Beechland was let to a series of tenants, and the estate was sold by the Blaauw family in 1920. It remained in use as a private house, but after the Second World War, the house was subdivided into three units, which remains the case today.

Descent: sold 1820; sold 1824 to William Thomson, who sold 1834 to William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870); to son, Thomas St. Leger Blaauw (1839-93); to widow and then to son, Henry Thomas Gillman Blaauw (1874-1949), who sold 1920 to Charles L. Bower... divided into three dwellings c.1955. The house was let by Mrs. Blaauw after 1893 to Edmund Deacon (fl. 1895), Capt. Harcourt Rose (fl. 1899) and his widow (fl. 1915). The central portion of the house (Centre House) was owned after subdivision by Dr. Blake, who sold 1962 to Daphne MacDonald (d. 1977) and Naomi Whittle (d. 1985), who sold 1980 to Mr & Mrs Poffle.

Blaauw family of Beechland

Blaauw, Willem (later William) (1748-1808). Elder son of Gerrit Blaauw (1708-75) of Amsterdam (Netherlands), merchant and banker, and his wife Maria Agneta (1710-77), daughter of David van Heijst, born in Amsterdam, 9 November 1748. He settled in England about 1788 and was naturalised as a British subject by private Act of Parliament, 28 April 1790. He married 1st, 5 April 1772 at Amsterdam, Anne Charlotte (1747-82), daughter of M. Charles Le Maitre, and 2nd, 1 August 1789 at Woodford (Essex), Louisa (1754-1842), daughter of Christopher Puller of Woodford, and had issue:

(1.1) Marie-Anne Blaauw (1773-1821), born 20 December and baptised at Amsterdam, 23 December 1773; married, 6 February 1796 at St Marylebone (Middx), Thomas Gardiner Bramston (1770-1831) (who m2, 1823, Charlotte (1782-1847), daughter of Sir Henry Hawley (1745-1826), 1st bt. of Leybourne Grange (Kent) and widow of Rev. Brook John Bridges (1782-1812)), of Skreens (Essex), briefly MP for Essex, 1830, and had issue two sons and six daughters; died 6 February 1821;

(1.2) Charlotte Julie Blaauw (1777-87), born 19 April and baptised in Amersterdam, 15 May 1777; said to have died young, 1787;

(2.1) Louisa Agnes Blaauw (1790-1876), born 20 September and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 21 October 1790; married, 24 April 1813 at St Marylebone, Capt. Charles Robert Manners Molloy (1787-1824) of the Grenadier Guards, son of Capt. Anthony James Pye Molloy RN (c.1746-1814); died 18 January 1876; will proved 10 February 1876 (effects under £20,000);

(2.2) Frances Elizabeth Blaauw (1792-1878), born 24 January and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 25 February 1792; married, 14 June 1817 at St Marylebone, Frederick Burmester (1783-1856), a founder director of the Westminster Bank, son of Henry Burmester (d. 1823) of Gwynne House, Woodford Bridge (Essex), corn merchant; died 30 May 1878; will proved 14 June 1878 (effects under £100,000);

(2.3) William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870) (q.v.).

He lived at Queen Anne St., Marylebone; his house was later occupied by his daughter Louisa.

He died 27 December 1808; his will was proved in the PCC, 16 January 1809. His first wife was buried in Amsterdam, 11 April 1782. His widow died 26 October 1842; her will was proved in the PCC, 9 December 1842.

William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870) 

Blauuw, William Henry (1793-1870). Only son of William Blaauw (1748-1808) and his second wife, Louisa, daughter of Christopher Puller of Woodford (Essex), born 25 May and baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), 26 June 1793. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1812; BA 1815; MA 1818), and incorporated at Cambridge University (MA 1854). JP and DL for Sussex; High Sheriff of Sussex, 1859-60. His chief interests were antiquarian, and he was the author of The Barons' War (1844; revised ed. issued posthumously, 1871), which remained the standard work on the subject for more than a century. He was on the council of the Camden Society, 1848-65; was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850 and also of the Royal Geographical Society; and was the leading founder of the Sussex Archaeological Society in 1846. He edited (and until 1861 was a frequent contributor to) the latter Society's Collections, 1846-56 and was its honorary secretary, 1846-67. He married 1st, 14 June 1825 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), with £1,000 a year for life, Harriet (1797-1828), daughter of John King MP (1759-1830), and 2nd, 16 June 1832 at St Marylebone, Margaret Emily (1798-1881), fourth and youngest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John St. Leger Gillman (1756-1817), 1st and only bt. of Curraheen (Co. Cork), and had issue:

(1.1) Louisa Henrietta Blaauw (1826-41), born 16 August and baptised at All Souls, Langham Place, Marylebone, 13 September 1826; died young, 14 July, and was buried at Newick, 21 July 1841;

(1.2) Caroline Jane Blaauw (1827-28), born 19 November and baptised at Danbury (Essex), 18 December 1827; died in infancy, 6 May, and was buried at Clifton (Glos), 10 May 1828;

(2.1) Emily Hannah Blaauw (1833-1919), born 9 March and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, 22 May 1833; married, 30 October 1860 at Newick, Maj. the Hon. Charles Cornwallis Chetwynd (1834-84), fourth son of Richard Walter Chetwynd (1800-79), 6th Viscount Chetwynd, and had issue two sons and seven daughters; as a widow lived at Cissbury, Ascot Heath (Berks); died 24 September 1919; will proved 12 December 1919 (estate £29,936);

(2.2) Henry William Gillman Blaauw (1834-57), born 9 March 1834; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; an officer in the West Sussex Militia; died unmarried at Cairo (Egypt), 25 March 1857, and was buried at Newick, 8 April 1858;

(2.3) Thomas St Leger Blaauw (1839-93) (q.v.).

He purchased Beechland in 1834 and extensively remodelled and enlarged it c.1834-37.

He is said to have become increasingly melancholic after the death of his elder son, and ceased new writing on antiquarian subjects from 1861; he died 26 April and was buried at Newick, 3 May 1870; his will was proved 4 July 1870 (effects under £40,000). His first wife died 26 May and was buried at Clifton (Glos), 31 May 1828. His widow died 13 August 1881; her will was proved 4 November 1881 (effects £19,518).

Blaauw, Thomas St. Leger (1839-93). Second, but only surviving, son of William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870) and his second wife, Margaret Emily, daughter and heiress of Sir John St. Leger Gillman (1756-1817), 1st bt., of Curraheen (Co. Cork), born 1 July 1839. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (matriculated 1859). An officer in the Sussex Light Infantry militia battalion (Ensign c.1864; Lt., 1865; retired 1868). JP for Sussex. He married, 6 June 1867 at Ightham (Kent), Fanny Alice (1839-1912), second daughter of Charles John Bigge (1803-46) of Linden Hall (Northbld.), and had issue:

(1) Alice Agneta Emily Mitford Blaauw (1868-1935), born 31 March and baptised at Newick, 3 May 1868; lived latterly at Bournemouth (Hants); died unmarried, 2 May 1935; will proved 17 June 1935 (estate £999);

(2) Frances Catherine Blaauw (1869-1948), baptised at Newick, 31 October 1869; lived latterly at Bournemouth; died unmarried, 25 February, and was buried at Newick, 28 February 1948; will proved 26 May 1948 (estate £5,293);

(3) Margaret Louisa Blaauw (1871-1928), baptised at Newick, 1 November 1871; died unmarried, 16 December, and was buried at Newick, 20 December 1928; will proved 9 February 1929 (estate £5,167);

(4) Henry Thomas Gillman Blaauw (1874-1949) (q.v.);

(5) Bertram William St. Leger Blaauw (1876-1946), born 6 May and baptised at Newick, 12 July 1876; in partnership with Hubert Patrick Gray as a nurseryman and fruit and flower grower to 1916; served in Second World War as a special constable; married, 11 April 1913 at Hampton Hill (Middx), Edith (1881-1947), daughter of Rev. Henry Mellowes, rector of Moor Monkton (Yorks WR), but had no issue; died 27 September 1946; administration of goods (with will annexed) granted 11 July 1947 (estate £6,762).

He inherited Beechland from his father in 1870. At his death it passed to his widow for life, but she lived at Bournemouth (Hants) and let the house.

He died at Binfield (Berks), 11 September, and was buried at Newick, 15 September 1893; his will was proved 28 November 1893 (effects £28,162). His widow died 20 November and was buried at Newick 26 November 1912; her will was proved 20 January 1913 (estate £3,323).

Blaauw, Henry Thomas Gillman (1874-1948). Elder son of Thomas St. Leger Blaauw (1839-93) and his wife Fanny Alice, second daughter of Charles John Bigge of Linden Hall (Northbld.), born 4 July and baptised at Newick, 9 August 1874. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1893; BA 1898) and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester (Honour Diploma, 1901). Before the First World War he worked as a bookbinder. During the First World War he was an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1915; Lt., 1916; severely wounded in leg and invalided out 1917). JP for Sussex, 1925. He married, 29 August 1912 at Holy Trinity, Weymouth (Dorset), Mary Verner (1878*-1963), younger daughter of Maj. James William Anderson of the Indian army, and had no issue, but adopted one daughter:

(A1) Margaret Esme Blaauw (b. c.1915); married, 9 July 1940 at Chailey (Sussex), Capt. Conor John O'Callaghan-Westropp (b. 1913) of Maryfort (aka Lismehane), Tulla (Co. Clare), which he demolished in 1967, and had issue one son; death not traced.

He inherited Beechland on the death of his mother in 1912, but continued to let it until he sold the estate in 1920. He lived subsequently at Towning's Place, Wivelisfield (Sussex) and later at Marriners, Chailey (Sussex).

He died 6 February 1948; his will was proved 27 May 1949 (estate £63,047). His widow died 10 November 1963, and was buried at Ditchling (Sussex), 14 November 1963; her will was proved 16 December 1963 (estate £3,675).

* Her date of birth and/or age are given inaccurately in several official sources, but this appears to be the correct date, based on her baptism in India.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1925, pp. 147-48; T.W. Horsfield, The history, antiquities, and topography of the county of Sussex, 1835, p.223; L.F. Saltzman (ed.), Victoria County History of Sussex, vol. 7, 1940, p. 88; ODNB article on William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870). 

Location of archives

Blaauw of Beechland: family papers, 19th cent-1993 [East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Record Office, Acc. 6051]; prints and drawings of W.H. Blaauw, 19th cent. [East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Record Office, BMW/C29]; antiquarian and other papers of W.H. Blaauw, 19th cent. [Sussex Archaeological Society, Blaauw]

Coat of arms

Azure, a human foot couped argent, on a canton or, an anchor gules.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide any evidence for an attribution of the remodelling of Beechland in 1834-37?
• 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 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 1 August 2026.