(624) Biggs (later Yeatman-Biggs) of Stockton House

Biggs of Stockton

The Biggs family were yeomen farmers in south Wiltshire who leased gradually increasing areas of farmland in the 17th and early 18th centuries, chiefly from the Earls of Pembroke. From 1681, Tristram Biggs (d. 1721) was tenant of one of the manors of Little Langford (Wilts) and from 1753 his son, Tristram Biggs (1675-1757), held both the manors in that parish. His property at Little Langford passed to his elder son, Thomas Biggs (d. 1767), but on the latter's death without issue, passed to Tristram's younger son, Henry Biggs (1722-1800), with whom the genealogy below begins. Henry, who also inherited lands at Maddington (Wilts) from his grandmother's family, purchased the Stockton House estate in 1772. He died in 1800, when his extensive freehold and leasehold property passed to his only son, Harry Biggs (1766-1856). Although he does not seem to have attended a university or one of the inns of court, Harry was firmly established as a member of the landed gentry, serving as a JP and Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire, and as High Sheriff in 1811-12, and being noted as a sportsman in a wide range of traditional field sports. He further expanded the Stockton estate and remodelled the manor house, almost certainly to the designs of Jeffry Wyatt (later Sir Jeffry Wyatville), around 1802. When he died, aged nearly ninety, he had two surviving children. Stockton passed to his son, Henry Godolphin Biggs (1803-77), who was twice married but had no children, and so on his death it passed to his sister's second son, Maj-Gen. Arthur Godolphin Yeatman (1843-98), who took the additional name Biggs on succeeding to the estate. 

As his rank suggests, Maj-Gen. Yeatman-Biggs was a career soldier, who was in England relatively little and who was unmarried. He rented out Stockton House, and when he died on active service in India, his property passed to his younger brother, the Rt. Rev. Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1845-1922), who was then Suffragan Bishop of Southwark but who was soon promoted the see of Worcester and was later first Bishop of Coventry. The bishop had already purchased the Stock Gaylard estate in Dorset from Yeatman cousins who were struggling financially, and with the addition of the Stockton estate he is said to have become the richest member of the bench of bishops. From 1904 he lived at Hartlebury Castle (Worcs), and he continued to let Stockton House until he sold it in 1920, while retaining much of the associated estate. When he died, he divided his property between his surviving sons, with the elder, William Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (1878-1952) receiving the residue of the Stockton estate, now centered on a farmhouse called Longhall, and the younger, Lewys Legge Yeatman (1879-1962), inheriting Stock Gaylard. William's only son, Arthur Hushe Yeatman-Biggs (1908-44) was killed in the Second World War, so at his death in 1952 the Stockton estate descended to his grandson, Huyshe Nicholas Yeatman-Biggs (1936-2023), and the surviving part of the estate still remains in the hands of the family.

Stockton House, Wiltshire 

This is a well-documented house which has also been unusually thoroughly recorded and explored by artists and architectural historians from the early 19th century onwards. The wealth of evidence enables its story to be told in considerable detail, and makes clear just how much change and reworking may lie behind an apparently little-altered building.

Stockton House: watercolour of the house from the south-west by John Buckler, 1810. Image: Yale Center for British Art (B1991.40.75)

The house was built in two phases that together produced a fine gabled house of strikingly banded stone and flint, measuring four bays by three, and having two storeys and attics, closely similar to Keevil Manor and Boyton Manor (Wilts). John Topp (d. 1596) acquired the freehold of the manor in 1585, and bequeathed it to his nephew, John Topp (d. 1632). Both phases of the house are usually said to have been carried out for John (d. 1632) – the first between his inheritance in 1596 and about 1603, and the second a few years later, but before his wife’s death in 1617 – though it is possible that the first phase of the work could have been undertaken for John (d. 1596), with some later alterations at the time of the second phase.

Stockton House: photograph of the house from the south-east in 1905. Image: Country Life. A straight joint in the masonry
to the right of the two downpipes in the centre of the east front marks the division between the first (left) and second (right) phases of the house.

The house was apparently built on a former common pasture called the West Marsh, and much of the land around it was later imparked, causing the closure of the direct road from Codford Bridge to the village. This led to a legal dispute which was resolved in 1602 by the inclosure of the West Marsh and its division between the major landowners. The house was at first L-shaped, and only in the second phase of c.1610 was the north-east corner constructed and the three-storey ashlar porch tower added. It is thought that a service stair tower may have stood in the re-entrant angle before the addition was made to the north-east corner. The new work at the north-east corner of the house can be identified by a vertical joint in the masonry, though it continues the stripy effect of the main block. The new porch on the west front is of plain ashlar and provides a background to richly carved architectural sculpture. Internally, the addition provided a second kitchen and a buttery and pantry, and additional bedrooms, but at the same time the principal rooms were greatly enriched with plasterwork and panelling, further described below. The architect of these changes is likely to have been William Arnold, the architect of Montacute House (Som.) and Wadham College, Oxford, to whom the porches added to Keevil and Boyton are also attributed. 

Stockton House: west front c.1870. The mid 17th century chapel and minister's house form the wing on the left;
but the water tower and other additions by the Ferreys have yet to be added.

The porch entrance at Stockton has Doric columns, a triglyph frieze, and a cornice with vases. Above this, the first floor is glazed on three sides with mullioned and transomed windows, creating a charming little porch room with an elaborate plaster ceiling which is open on its fourth side to the great chamber. The top floor of the porch tower has a mullioned window and supports a strapwork cresting with a pierced ring at its centre: a motif perhaps copied from Longleat, where Arnold may also have worked. To either side of the porch are mullioned and transomed windows of three lights and then of four lights in the outer bays, while the gables have three-light mullioned windows. All this was perfectly symmetrical until the sills of the ground and first floor windows to the right of the porch were lowered in the early 19th century. The south and east fronts are equally regular, with the main windows all of four lights.

The first addition to the site after the building of the porch was the construction of a large chapel of chequered flint and stone (as at West Amesbury House, not far away), which stands north-west of the house and is connected to it by the former minister's dwelling, which has a big semicircular gable. The chapel is thought to date from the third quarter of the 17th century, and perhaps to the Commonwealth years. It has two-light windows with arched lights and an oval west light. In the more secular 1770s, it was converted into a stable block for the tenant of the house, but later – perhaps in the 1820s – this was abandoned in favour of a new gabled stable block, also in chequered flint and stone, designed by John Benett of Pythouse for Harry Biggs, which appears to incorporate some earlier work. Perhaps for that reason, it was designed in a vernacular style, and the damaged datestone for 16—mentioned above was built into the left side of the left gable. Soon afterwards, in 1828, the coach house and related buildings adjoining the stable block were rebuilt.

Stockton House: skylight on first-floor landing,
attributed to Jeffry Wyatville.  (Image: Moulding & Co.)

Harry Biggs had earlier made alterations to the house c.1802, perhaps in anticipation of his marriage. According to family tradition, his alterations were made to the designs of Jeffry Wyatt (later Sir Jeffry Wyatville), and although there is no documentary evidence to support this claim, it is plausible both stylistically and in terms of Biggs’ connections with other clients. In particular, the toplit landing which he created on the first floor has a star-vault rib pattern supporting the lantern which is a miniature version of the similar feature Wyatville created above the staircase at Longleat House (Wilts) at much the same time. Wyatville presumably also built the single-storey porch in the centre of the south front of the house, which provides access directly into the remodelled staircase hall; this was probably used as the main entrance to the house in the early 19th century, when a new approach drive was laid out to the south front rather than to the Jacobean porch on the west front. Another change made at the same time was to lower the window sills of the Great Chamber and the porch room opening off it by about a foot to make the room lighter. This damaged the external symmetry of the west front, and is thought to have displaced the datestone.

In 1877-82 there were further alterations and additions by Benjamin Ferrey (1810-80) and his son, Benjamin Edward Ferrey (1845-1900), which included a re-roofing, internal redecoration, the construction of a substantial two-storey service wing and a kitchen wing which doubled the footprint of the house, and the building of a tower containing a water tank. The rainwater heads around the house are dated 1879. A new lodge was built at the end of the drive and illustrated in The Builder in 1882.

Stockton House: design for gate lodge by B.E. Ferrey, from The Builder, 1882.

It was probably intended as part of these works to reinstate the former chapel, and with this in mind Maj-Gen. Yeatman-Biggs acquired much of the Georgian chapel woodwork from Winchester College, which had been removed during Butterfield’s refitting of the chapel in 1874 and placed in store. However, the restoration of the chapel was abandoned. The General’s brother explored the possibility of using it at Farnham Castle (Surrey) but his architect, Sir Arthur Blomfield, found it would not fit, and it was eventually reused at New Hall, Winchester, in 1960.

In 1906 and 1920 there were significant sales of Jacobean and Georgian furniture from the house, some of which may have been made for it but most of which was apparently collected in the 19th century. The second sale was occasioned by the Biggs family’s sale of the house, which then passed through several owners in the 20th century. Successive owners made significant alterations to the fabric. The economist Oswald Falk, who owned the house from 1924-34, removed much of the interior decoration installed by the Ferreys, including the elaborate fittings of the hall and the arched screen between this and the staircase.

During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned for military use, but the only lasting change to the building or grounds was the construction of a swimming pool next to the walled garden. In 1951, after the house was sold to Lady Lacey, the Victorian kitchen wing was mostly demolished, leaving only the water tower and the service wing of the Ferreys work still standing. The original kitchen of the house, in the north-east corner, which had been remodelled as a Victorian dining room, was returned to its original function. After 1998, the joinery company Stuart Interiors Ltd. was brought into refit the original hall in the south-west corner of the house as a neo-Jacobean library, and they also did work in three other rooms. Finally, the house has been given a thorough restoration and sensitive remodelling by Donald Insall Associates in 2014-17 for the present owner. Their work has combined the installation of modern services and facilities throughout the house, with the careful restoration of the historic fabric. The swimming pool created in the Second World War, which had been altered into a natural pond, was replaced by a new pool overlooked by a Modernist pool house.

Stockton House: the hall in 1905, showing the decoration applied by the Ferreys in 1877-82 and removed in 1927. Image: Country Life.

Stockton House: view from the hall into the staircase in 1905;
the screen was removed in 1927. 

The porch near the centre of the west front leads into what has been the hall since 1877 but was probably originally a winter parlour or back kitchen. The original hall seems to have been the south-west room, entered from a screens passage behind the porch. In the 19th century the larger new hall in the north-west corner of the house was given rich neo-Jacobean decoration, which was almost entirely stripped out in 1927, when the present plain 16th century fireplace and doors were brought in from elsewhere. The Victorian hall opened through a screen of three arches into the long narrow staircase hall created by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, which has a toplit upper landing at the northern end. The staircase itself is of timber with iron balustrades, and has an unusual form with two flights rising at opposite ends of the east wall to meet at a bridge across the room before dividing again against the west wall to climb to the first floor. The south-east corner of the ground floor is occupied by the Great Parlour or White Drawing Room, with a fireplace of stone and plaster with plenty of fretwork or arabesque motifs; the big scrolls on top, flanking the coat of arms, may have been added in the 1670s. There is a plaster frieze above the panelling with strapwork and moustachioed masks, and a cruder strapwork frieze above the cornice, with shields and initials that imply a date before 1617. The south-west corner room became a library with fitted bookcases in the late 20th century.

Stockton House: the White Drawing Room or Parlour in the south-east corner of the house in 1905. Image: Country Life.

Stockton House: the Great Chamber in 1905. Image: Country Life.

Stockton House: view from the Great Chamber into the porch room in 1905. Image: Country Life.

The majority of the surviving Jacobean interiors are on the first floor. By far the finest room is the Great Chamber in the south-west corner, which opens into the room above the porch. It has a fine ceiling of broad curvilinear bands framing panels decorated with flowers and animals in high relief, including an elephant. The splendid chimneypiece has coupled columns in two tiers, the upper ones framing an overmantel containing a strapwork cartouche and, in the centre, two detached heads said to represent Adam and Eve. This is so similar to chimneypieces at Montacute and Wayford Manor (Som.), Wolfeton Manor (Dorset) and The Hall, Bradford-on-Avon (Wilts) that it may be attributed with confidence to the workshop of William Arnold, but the details of the strapwork cartouche derive ultimately from designs published by Cornelis Bos in the 1540s. The panelling with fluted pilasters was added later, as it covers the ceiling edge, and although of similar date to the plasterwork it may have been imported much later. In the corner is a wooden lobby or internal porch with rich carving of figures and ornament.

Stockton House: chimneypiece of the 'Shadrach Room' engraved by C.J. Richardson, 1838.

On the east side of the house is the Shadrach Room, which takes its name from the overmantel relief depicting the Biblical 'Burning Fiery Furnace', with a text from Daniel 3;25, taken from the authorised version of the Bible published in 1611. The scene is surrounded by deeply moulded strapwork and flanked by a pair of male figures in an exotic costume of hats, tunics and boots. The fireplace below is flanked by female terms and has further elaborate strapwork below the cornice. The Shadrach Room also has a rich ceiling, with thin ribs forming love-hearts and lozenges, crowded with flowers, and a small central pendant. The Iris Room next door has a Tudor-arched fireplace in a chimneypiece of rusticated pilasters and a fretwork frieze. In the northern part of the first floor are two further bedrooms, the Elizabethan Room and the Georgian Room. The Elizabethan Room has the arms of Elizabeth I and her ER monogram amongst the thin ribs of the ceiling, but the arms of James I in a large strapwork cartouche flanked by terms, which suggests that it was in progress around 1603, when the change of dynasty took place. The ceiling is now thought to be a 19th century recreation of the original ceiling, large chunks of which were found under the floorboards during the recent restoration. The adjoining Georgian room was refitted in the mid 18th century; it retains a mildly Rococo chimneypiece which was said in 1924 to have a lapis lazuli surround, of which nothing remains.

Stockton House: a naive view of the house in its parkland setting, n.d. {c.1840]. Image: Wiltshire History Centre 401/1.

The area around the house was laid out as a park when the house was built, but ambitious formal gardens are said to have been created for Edward Topp during the reign of James II. Miles in 1847 records that these included an entrance court with gatepiers topped by lions holding armorial shields, a bowling green to the south of the house and private gardens to the east. A raised terrace on the south and west sides of the house had a parapet with twelve busts of Roman emperors and handsome vases. The formal gardens are said to have been cleared away at the time of Wyatville’s alterations to the house, and replaced by a Brownian landscape of greensward with a curving carriage drive leading up to the house. At the end of the 19th century the Ashley Dodds constructed a new two-acre kitchen garden, a separate walled garden, and a range of greenhouses, some heated, for vines, peaches, and exotic plants including orchids, and in 1937, the Hon. Michael Scott asked the leading landscape architects, Thomas H. Mawson & Son of Lancaster, to prepare a scheme for remodelling the gardens, but this appears to have been abandoned after Scott’s death the following year.

Descent: Crown sold 1547 to Sir William Herbert, later 1st Earl of Pembroke; to son, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who sold 1585 to the tenant, John Topp (d. 1596); to nephew, John Topp (d. 1632); to son, John Topp (d. 1640); to brother, John Topp (d. 1660); to brother, Edward Topp (d. 1665); to son, John Topp (d. 1675); to son, Edward Topp (d. 1740); to son, John Topp (d. 1745); to sister, Christiana, wife of Richard Lansdown, and niece, Susanna, wife of Robert Everard Balch (1724-79), of whom Balch was the survivor and sold 1772 to Henry Biggs (1722-1800); to son, Harry Biggs (1766-1856); to son, Henry Godolphin Biggs (1803-77); to nephew, Maj-Gen. Arthur Godolphin Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1843-98); to brother, Rt. Rev. Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1845-1922); sold 1920 to Lt-Col. Skeffington-Smyth, who sold 1927 to Oswald Toynbee Falk; sold 1934 to Hon. Michael Simon Scott (d. 1938); to widow, who sold c.1950 to J.M. Stratton; sold 1951 to Lady Lacey; sold 1970 to Capt. & Mrs. Derek O'Reilly; sold 1998 to Graham Wild; sold 2014 to Nicholas David Jenkins (b. 1967). 

The estate was leased by the Earls of Pembroke to Richard Ockeden of Boydon, who sublet it in 1565 to John Topp (d. 1596), who bought the freehold in 1585. It was leased in 1772/3 to Winchcombe Henry Hartley of Bucklebury (Berks) and in the later 19th and early 20th centuries, when the tenants included George Ashley Dodd of Godinton (Kent), c.1888-97; Edward Priaulx Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, c.1897-1906; and George Knowles from 1906. The house was requisitioned for military use in the Second World War.

Biggs (later Yeatman-Biggs) family of Stockton House

Biggs, Henry (1722-1800). Younger son of Tristram Biggs (1675-1757) of Little Langford (Wilts) and his second wife, Jane, daughter of Henry Miles of Maddington, born 24 January and baptised at Little Langford, 28 January 1721/2. He married, 3 June 1765 at Fisherton Delamere (Wilts), Diana (c.1729-1818), daughter of John Davis of Bapton (Wilts) and widow of John Potticary of Stockton, and had issue:

(1) Harry Biggs (1766-1856) (q.v.);

(2) Jane Biggs (1768-1854), born 1 April 1768; married, 28 April 1794, Rev. William Bond (1757-1852), rector of Tyneham (Dorset) and canon residentiary of Bristol Cathedral, fourth son of John Bond MP (b. 1717) of Creech Grange (Dorset), and had issue four sons and two daughters; buried at Tyneham, 17 March 1854.

He inherited his father's property at Little Langford and purchased the Stockton House estate in 1772. He also inherited lands at Bourton in Maddington (Wilts) from his grandmother's family.

He died 31 March and was buried at Stockton, 7 April 1800; his will was proved 20 June 1800. His widow died aged 89 on 30 June, and was buried at Stockton, 6 July 1818.

Harry Biggs (1766-1856) 

Biggs, Harry (1766-1856). Only son of Henry Biggs (1722-1800) and his wife Diana, daughter of John Davis of Bapton (Wilts) and widow of John Potticary of Stockton, born 4 December 1766. JP and DL (from 1825) for Wiltshire; High Sheriff of Wiltshire, 1811-12. He was a noted sportsman, being 'for considerably more than half a century a patron of the turf and the leash, as well as of most other British sports', and owned a number of notably successful racehorses during his career, as well as regularly serving as steward of local race meetings in Wiltshire. He married, 16 September 1802 at Christchurch (Hants), Margaretta Anna (1783-1861), only child and heir of William Godolphin Burslem (c.1754-1809) of Alton Grange and Ravenstone Hall (Leics), and had issue:

(1) Henry Godolphin Biggs (1803-77) (q.v.);

(2) Arthur William Biggs (1804-40), born 9 August 1804 and baptised at Stockton, 8 September 1805; an officer in the 7th Hussars (Cornet, 1824; Lt., 1826; Capt., 1829; Major, 1837); died unmarried and without issue at Doncaster (Yorks WR), 2/3 November, and was buried at Stockton, 10 November 1840;

(3) Margaretta Anne Biggs (1805-19), born 11 October 1805 and baptised at Christchurch, 28 April 1807; died young, 11 October 1819;

(4) Emma Biggs (1810-73) (q.v.).

He inherited the Stockton House estate from his father in 1800, and remodelled the house to the designs of Jeffry Wyatt (later Wyatville). In 1818 he bought the adjoining manor of Codford St Mary (Wilts) and added it to the estate; he also acquired further land in Codford St Peter.

He died aged 89 on 30 May and was buried at Stockton, 6 June 1856; his will was proved in the PCC, 26 September 1856. His widow died in Weymouth (Dorset) and was buried at Stockton, 16 October 1861.

Biggs, Henry Godolphin (1803-77). Elder son of Harry Biggs (1766-1856) and his wife Margaretta Anna, only child and heir of William Godolphin Burslem of Alton Grange (Leics), born 4 July 1803 and baptised at Stockton, 6 January 1804. Educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1825). An officer in the Hindon troop of Yeomanry Cavalry (Lt., 1829); JP and DL for Wiltshire. A servant who left his service with the promise of an annuity of £40 a year for life 'having looked after me like a mother' had to sue in 1861 for continued payment of the annuity, and stated that she had left because of his increasing ill-temper. He married 1st, 20 June 1837 at Dinton (Wilts), Marianne (1798-1838), daughter of William Wyndham MP of Dinton House (Wilts), and 2nd, Jul-Sept. 1859, Jane (1833-78), daughter of Jared Smith of Bath (Som.), grocer, but had no issue.

He inherited the Stockton House estate from his father in 1856, but also his father's considerable debts.

He died 19 February and was buried at Lansdown Cemetery, Bath, 26 February 1877; his will was proved 29 March 1877 (effects under £10,000). His first wife died at Dinton House, 12 February and was buried at Stockton, 16 February 1838. His widow died 5 March, and was buried at Lansdown Cemetery, Bath, 19 March 1878.

Biggs, Emma (1810-73). Second, but only surviving, daughter of Harry Biggs (1766-1856) and his wife Margaretta Anna, only child and heir of William Godolphin Burslem of Alton Grange and Ravenstone Hall (Leics), baptised at Stockton, 8 October 1810*. In the late 1840s she and her husband fled to Belgium and France to avoid his creditors. She married, 6 July 1837 at Stockton, Harry Farr Yeatman (1811-52) of Manston House (Dorset), eldest son of Rev. Harry Farr Yeatman (c.1786-1861) of Stock Gaylard (Dorset), and had issue:

(1) Emma Louise Yeatman (1838-42), born 25 May and baptised at Stock Gaylard, 6 August 1838; died young, 1 September, and was buried at Stock Gaylard, 5 September 1842, where she is commemorated by a monument;

(2) Harry Farr Yeatman (1839-84), born 19 September, and baptised at Stock Gaylard, 10 November 1839; an officer in the Royal Navy (Cadet, 1853; Midshipman, 1855; Mate, 1860; Lt., 1861; Cdr., 1871; retired 1873); a freemason by 1876; married, 6 February 1876 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster (Middx), Charlotte (1841-1908), daughter of William Temple esq., and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Sydenham (Kent), 7 July, and was buried at Stock Gaylard, 11 July 1884; will proved 23 January 1885 (effects £7,202);

(3) Rhoda Marwood Yeatman (1842-66), baptised at Manston, 24 April 1842; married, 3 October 1865 at Preston (Dorset), Percy Sandford Nevile (1840-1914) (who m2, 1873, Etheline, daughter of Charles H. Radcliffe of Salisbury, and had further issue two sons), son of John Pate Nevile of Skelbrooke (Yorks WR), and had issue one son; died, probably following childbirth, and was buried at Skelbrooke, 6 October 1866;

(4) Maj-Gen. Arthur Godolphin Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1843-98) (q.v.);

(5) Rt. Rev. Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1845-1922) (q.v.);

(6) Emily Frances Emma Yeatman (1851-1917), born in Brussels (Belgium), 22 November 1851; estate agent; died unmarried, 15 June 1917.

She and her husband lived at Manston House (Dorset) until they fled abroad. Her husband's father bequeathed Stock Court at Stock Gaylard to his second son, Marwood Yeatman, rather than to her children. As a widow, she lived latterly at Chalbury Lodge, Preston (Dorset).

She died at Chalbury Lodge, 9 February and was buried at Stock Gaylard, 15 February 1873; her will was proved 5 April 1873 (effects under £9,000). Her husband died at Boulogne, France, 22 May 1852, and was buried there, but his body was exhumed 2 September 1885, and reburied at Stock Gaylard (Dorset), 5 September 1885.

* The family monument in Stockton church says she was born 23 January 1811, but this seems to be an error.

Maj-Gen A.G. Yeatman-Biggs 

Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs), Maj-Gen. Arthur Godolphin (1843-98). Second son of Harry Farr Yeatman (1811-52) of Manston House (Dorset) and his wife Emma, second but only surviving daughter of Harry Biggs (1766-1856), born 22 March 1843 and baptised at Manston (Dorset), 22 July 1844. Officer in Royal Artillery (Lt., 1860; Capt., 1874; Maj., 1880; Lt-Col., 1882; Col., 1886; Maj-Gen, 1897; mentioned in despatches, 1882; retired on half pay 1 January 1894 but was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General in India later that month); he served in China, 1861-62, South Africa, 1879, Egypt, 1882 and on the Indian Frontier, 1897-98; JP for Wiltshire (from 1878). Awarded CB, 1891. He took the name and arms of Biggs in addition to Yeatman by royal licence on inheriting the Stockton estate, 1878. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited the Stockton House estate from his uncle in 1877.

He died of dysentery while on active service at Peshawar (India), 4 January, and was buried there, 5 January 1898; his will was proved 3 June 1898 (estate £11,216).

Rt. Rev. Dr. Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman-Biggs 

Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs), Rt. Rev. Dr. Huyshe Wolcott (1845-1922). Third son of Harry Farr Yeatman (1811-52) of Manston House (Dorset) and his wife Emma, second but only surviving daughter of Harry Biggs (1766-1856), born 2 February and baptised at Manston (Dorset), 7 July 1845. Educated at Winchester and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (matriculated 1864; BA 1867; MA 1871; DD 1891; Hon. Fellow, 1905-22). Ordained deacon, 1869 and priest, 1870. Curate of St Edmund, Salisbury (Wilts), 1869-77; chaplain to Bishop of Salisbury, 1875-85; vicar of Netherbury (Dorset), 1877-79; vicar of Sydenham (Kent), 1879-91; hon. canon of Rochester, 1884-91; Warden of Bishop's College, Blackheath (Kent), 1894; proctor of diocese of Rochester in Convocation and examining chaplain to Bishop of Winchester, 1891; Suffragan Bishop of Southwark, 1891-1904; Bishop of Worcester, 1904-18; first Bishop of Coventry, 1918-22; Provincial Chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Author of The efficiency and inefficiency of a diocese; Life in an English diocese; Lay Work and other works. He took the name and arms of Biggs in addition to Yeatman by royal licence on inheriting the Stockton estate, 1898. He married, 24 November 1875, Lady Barbara Caroline (1841-1909), sixth daughter of William Legge (1784-1853), 4th Earl of Dartmouth, and had issue:

(1) Barbara Margaret Yeatman-Biggs (1876-1962), born 18 October 1876; lived in Salisbury; died unmarried, 14 March, and was buried at Stock Gaylard, 17 March 1962; will proved 11 May 1962 (estate £13,302);

(2) William Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (1878-1952) (q.v.);

(3) Lewys Legge Yeatman (1879-1962), born 17 August 1879; educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1898; BA 1902); solicitor with Charles Russell & Co.; barrister-at-law, 1906; an officer in the Dorset Yeomanry (Lt., 1905; retired; returned to regiment as 2nd Lt., 1915); succeeded his father in the Stock Gaylard estate; High Sheriff of Dorset, 1940-41; married, 6 October 1910 at Tyneham (Dorset), Edith Cecily Garneys (1884-1979), daughter of William Henry Bond of Tyneham, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 8 April 1962; will proved 4 July 1962 (estate £87,276);

(4) Mary Godolphin Yeatman (b, & d. 1881), born 5 January 1881; died in infancy and was buried at Stockton, 25 January 1881;

(5) Arthur John Barrington Yeatman (1882-93), born 11 October 1882; died young at Shroton (Dorset), 9 September, and was buried at Stockton, 14 September 1893.

He purchased the Stock Gaylard estate from his Yeatman cousins in about 1880 and inherited the Stockton House estate from his elder brother in 1898, but sold the latter in 1920.

He died 14 April 1922 and was buried at Stockton, but is commemorated by a monumental effigy in Coventry Cathedral, which survived the bombing of 1940; his will was proved 4 August 1922 (estate £59,634). His wife died 5 January and was buried at Stockton, 9 January 1909.

Yeatman-Biggs, William Huyshe (1878-1952). Eldest son of Rt. Rev. Dr. Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman (later Yeatman-Biggs) (1845-1922) and his wife Lady Barbara Caroline, sixth daughter of William Legge, 4th Earl of Dartmouth, born 15 February 1878. Educated at Winchester, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1898) and Yorkshire Agricultural College (admitted 1902). Land agent to his father, 1903. An officer in the Royal Wiltshire Imperial Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1902; retired 1905), the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (Lt., 1915; Lt-Cdr., 1917; mentioned in despatches, 1918), and the Royal Flying Corps (Maj.; mentioned in despatches, 1918; retired 1919). JP for Wiltshire (from 1927); Income Tax Commissioner. He married, 15 August 1905 at Stockton, Muriel Barbara (1882-1973), daughter of J.F. Schwann (later Swann) of Oakfield, Wimbledon (Surrey), and had issue:

(1) twin, Barbara Godolphin Yeatman-Biggs (1906-94), born 6 August 1906; married, 7 May 1930, Arthur Frank Seton Sykes (1903-80) of Tytherington Manor, Heytesbury (Wilts), eldest son of Brig-Gen. Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, kt., and had issue one son; died 6 August 1994; will proved 21 March 1995 (estate £172,102);

(2) twin, Margaret Elizabeth Yeatman-Biggs (1906-78), born 6 August 1906 and baptised at St Mary, Wimbledon, 8 June 1907; married, 11 June 1932 at Salisbury Cathedral, Maurice Brenton Syndercombe Bower (1906-75), elder son of Maurice Syndercombe Bower of Bagber, Sturminster Newton (Dorset), and had issue two sons; died 26 January 1978; will proved 31 March 1978 (estate £63,051);

(3) Arthur Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (1908-44) (q.v.).

He inherited Longhall, Stockton (Wilts) and the remaining part of the Stockton estate from his father in 1922.

He died 5 November 1952 and was buried at Stockton; his will was proved 28 April 1953 (estate £5,316). His widow died 29 July 1973; her will was proved 16 November 1973 (estate £106,028).

Yeatman-Biggs, Arthur Huyshe (1908-44). Only son of William Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (1878-1952) and his wife Muriel Barbara, daughter of J.F. Swann of Oakfield, Wimbledon (Surrey), born 20 February 1908. Educated at Malvern, Royal Military College, Sandhurst and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1932; BA 1934). An officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1928; Lt., 1931; Capt., 1938; Temp. Maj., 1941, 1943-44), who served in Palestine, Shanghai (China) and with the 'Chindits' in Burma. He married, 14 November 1934, Kathleen Edith Clare (1909-61), only daughter of Eric Drayton Swanwick (1871-1955) of Old Whittington, Chesterfield (Derbys), and had issue:

(1) Huyshe Nicholas Yeatman-Biggs (1936-2023) (q.v.);

(2) Eric Jonathan William Yeatman-Biggs (b. 1941); company director; now living.

He was killed on active service in Burma, 13 May 1944, and was buried at Taukkyan Military Cemetery; his will was proved 15 February and 18 May 1945 (estate £19,225). His widow married 2nd, 26 February 1949, Lt-Col. Thomas Wolryche Guy Stansfield (1906-87) of Topps, Stockton, and died 24 October 1961; her will was proved 23 March 1962 (estate £34,515).

Yeatman-Biggs, Huyshe Nicholas (1936-2023). Elder son of Arthur Huyshe Yeatman Biggs (1908-44) and his wife Kathleen Edith Clare, only daughter of Eric Drayton Swanwick of Old Whittington, Chesterfield (Derbys), born 20 March 1936. He married, 1962, Susannah Louise (b. 1941), daughter of Michael Benjamin Norris Bomford (1916-2002) of Old Dunnington Farm, Alcester (Warks) and had issue :

(1) Harry William Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (b. 1963), born September 1963; educated at Winchester, Goldsmiths College, London (BA 1986), and Heatherley School of Art; professional artist, working in France, 1998-2010 and subsequently in Wiltshire; married, c.2009, Evelyn Dylewski;

(2) Annabelle L. Yeatman-Biggs (b. 1965), born Jan-Mar 1965; married August 1989, Adrian Barclay Leng (b. 1962), son of Gen. Sir Peter John Hall Leng (1925-2009), kt., and had issue one son and two daughters;

(3) Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs (b. 1968), born Jul-Sept 1968.

He later had an illegitimate daughter by Alexandra Mary Clare Wyndham Douglas, Marchioness of Queensberry:

(X1) Beatrice Alexandra Elizabeth Douglas (b. 1986).

He inherited Longhall, Stockton (Wilts) from his grandfather in 1952 and came of age in 1957.

He died 31 December 2023 and was buried at Stockton, 30 January 2024. His wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 176; Country Life, 21 October 1905, pp. 558-66; VCH Wiltshire, vol. 11, 1980, pp. 212-23; M. Binney, 'Stockton House, Wiltshire', Country Life, 9-23 February 1984; J. Chandler, Codford: wool and war in Wiltshire, 2007, pp. 66-69; A. Gomme & A. Maguire, Design and plan in the country house, 2008, pp. 249-50; A. Foyle, Stockton House Heritage Statement, 2014; C. Aslet, 'Stockton House, Wiltshire', Country Life, 28 January 2018; J. Orbach, Sir N. Pevsner & B. Cherry, The buildings of England: Wiltshire, 3rd edn., 2021, pp. 663-65; MS history of the house and village at Stockton by Rev. Thomas Miles, 1847, continued by W.H. Yeatman-Biggs, 1930-52.

Location of archives

Biggs of Stockton House: deeds, manorial records, estate and family papers, 1293-20th cent. [Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, 93, 108, 115, 153, 166, 185, 202, 384, 401, 906)

Coat of arms

Biggs: Per pale argent and azure, a lion passant within an orle engrailed, charged with ten fleurs-de-lis all counterchanged

Yeatman-Biggs: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, per pale argent and azure, a lion passant within an orle engrailed, charged with ten fleurs-de-lis all counterchanged (for Biggs); 2nd and 3rd, per pale argent and sable, on a fesse dovetailed, counter dovetailed or, between two gates in chief and a goat's head erased in base counterchanged, three boars heads gules (for Yeatman).

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 23 January 2026. I am grateful to Andy Foyle for suggestions and corrections about the development of the house.

(623) Biggs of Bellevue and Ashley Park

The origins of this family are unusually obscure. The genealogy below begins with Thomas Biggs (d. 1795), but the name Biggs occurs on a list of settlers in Ireland in 1642-46, and a John Briggs (sic) is said to have had a grant of Castle Biggs, an estate a few miles north of Bellevue at Terryglass (Co. Tipperary), in 1666.

Castle Biggs alias Drominagh House, Terryglass.

A more certain reference to the family is provided by a brief description of the title to Castle Biggs (alias Drominagh House) when it was sold in the Encumbered Estates Court in 1853, where it is stated that William Biggs of Cloughjordan (Co. Tipperary) was granted a lease of the estate, renewable in perpetuity, in 1711, and that it had passed by descent to the then owner, Edward Biggs (1807-76). It is possible to discover that Edward Biggs' father was William Ledger Biggs (b. 1780), and a William Biggs (1709-79) was buried at Terryglass, but any other holders of the property have eluded me. Castle Biggs is a substantial and quite handsome house of c.1770, with a seven bay front and three storeys, given some tension by the crowding of the three central windows. Like Bellevue, it stands close to Lough Derg, and the estate was of a similar size in the 19th century; around 1,000 acres. William Ledger Biggs was evidently related to Thomas Biggs' eldest son, George Washington Biggs (1783-1844) of Bellevue, since they were both parties to a marriage settlement in 1821, but the nature of the relationship is unclear.

Thomas Biggs (d. 1795) may be identifiable with the man of that name who went up to Trinity College, Dublin in 1772, in which case he was probably only in his early forties when he died. He is said by Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland (1912) to have been the son of George Biggs of Santa Cruz (Co. Tipperary) and later of Bellevue. I can find no reference to a house called 'Santa Cruz' in the county (or, indeed, anywhere in Ireland), but a George Biggs was the owner of a plantation called the Great Pond estate on the island of St Croix alias Santa Cruz in the Caribbean, which was then part of the Danish West Indies but is now the largest of the US Virgin Islands. He was mentioned (as George Biggs of St Croix in W[est] I[ndies]) in the will of Thomas Biggs (d. 1795) of Bellevue, written in 1788, and although the abstract by Sir William Betham which is the only record of the will that survives does not specify the relationship, he was perhaps the testator's father or uncle. Benjamin Biggs of Mota (Co. Tipperary), also mentioned in the will, was probably a brother or uncle. George Biggs owned the Great Pond estate from 1762-93, and although the fragmentary surviving parish registers of St Croix show that he had children, their names are lost, so we do not know if one of them was Thomas. A list of persons on the estate in 1787 includes only a white manager and 87 enslaved people, so George may have returned to Ireland by then. The estate changed hands frequently after George Biggs died or sold the estate in the 1790s, and by the early 19th century the property became burdened with a large debt, which in 1818 was owed partly to the Biggs family and partly to the Danish Crown, which took over full ownership of it in 1823.

It is thus not at all clear what the relationship of Thomas Biggs (d. 1795) was to the Biggses of Castle Biggs, but it seems probable that he was closely connected to them. His son, George Washington Biggs (1783-1844), married Anne Dickson in 1807 and they had ten children over a period of about 22 years, several of whom were notably long-lived. This was not true, however, of their eldest son and heir, Thomas Biggs (1814-44), who survived his father by only a few weeks. A newspaper report records rather affectingly how he returned home from market, went to bed in a room he shared with his brother, and was found dead the following morning. Since he was unmarried, Bellevue passed to his brother, Samuel Dickson Biggs (1818-1904), who did not marry until he was over fifty, and then produced four sons and two daughters in short order. His eldest son, George Washington Biggs (1872-1957) inherited Bellevue, while his youngest son, Thomas Bateman Biggs (later Biggs-Atkinson) (1878-1945) married the heiress of James Netterville Atkinson of Ashley Park, Nenagh (Co. Tipperary), and inherited that estate on her death in 1919. He then married again and left his second wife, Bessie Dyson, a life interest in Ashley Park at his own death.

George Washington Biggs (1872-1957) was a career officer in the British army, retiring as a Major. He married the daughter of a senior army surgeon, and they had three sons and one daughter. Although Bellevue survived the early 20th century Troubles, the family suffered in other ways: Bellevue was looted in 1922, and George's sister-in-law suffered a gang rape which left permanent physical and mental effects. He bequeathed Bellevue to his daughter, Zelie Biggs (1902-83), who also inherited Ashley Park on the death of Thomas Bateman Biggs' widow in 1963. She sold Bellevue in 1968 and the contents of Ashley Park in 1981; the house itself was sold shortly after her death by her executors and the sale may have been in train in her lifetime.

Bellevue, Co. Tipperary

A house on this site was described as 'newly built' when it was advertised to let in 1766, but the present building must date from about 1790, and perhaps incorporates the earlier dwelling. It stands in a prominent position close to Bellevue Point on the shores of Lough Derg, with a wide front elevation to take advantage of the views over the lake to the north. 

Bellevue: the north (entrance) front and west side elevation.

The main front, of good quality ashlar stone, is of seven bays and two storeys above a basement, with the central three bays stepped slightly forward, but no pediment. The side elevations are of three bays, although on the east side a single-storey bay window was added in the 19th century. Comparison of the footprint of the house shown on the 6" maps of 1840 and 1901 suggests that there was originally a porch on the south side of the house, where the house faced onto a stable court, but the formal entrance was probably always on the north side, where there is a cut stone doorcase with pilasters approached by steps over the basement area. In the second half of the 19th century the buildings around the stable court were greatly extended. The house has timber sliding sash windows, with stone sills, and a hipped stone roof. The house was ransacked and looted during the Irish Civil War in 1922, but fortunately not burned.

Bellevue: entrance hall.

Bellevue: drawing room

Inside, the main doorcase opens into a pine-panelled entrance hall with a stone chimneypiece. The north-west corner of the house is occupied by the dining room with a delicate neo-classical decorative panel on the ceiling; the north-east corner contains the drawing room, with a Pietro Bossi-style chimneypiece and another delicate ceiling decoration. The house had fallen into a state of severe delapidation by the late 20th century, and was very thoroughly restored for James King between 1997 and 2003.

The house has a derelict single-storey gate lodge to the southeast, with a pitched slate roof, rendered walls with stucco quoins and surrounds to the window and door openings. The main gateway has cast-iron vehicular and pedestrian gates with cut-stone piers and quadrant walls. The grounds extend to some 250 acres and include a harbour on Lough Derg with a boathouse.

Descent: Thomas Biggs (d. 1795); to son, George Washington Biggs (1783-1844); to son, Thomas Biggs (1814-44); to brother, Samuel Dickson Biggs (1817-1904); to son, George Biggs (1872-1957); to daughter, Zelie Doris Grace Biggs (1902-83), who sold 1968 to Mr & Mrs Harold Williams; sold 1997 to James King, who sold 2022.

Ashley Park, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

An account of this house was given in a previous post on the Atkinson family.

Biggs family of Bellevue and Ashley Park

Biggs, Thomas (d. 1795). Said to have been the son of George Biggs of Santa Cruz (Co. Tipperary) and later of Bellevue, but more probably the son of George Biggs of St Croix (Virgin Islands).  Possibly the man of this name educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1772). JP for Co. Tipperary. He married, 1781 (licence), Elizabeth Biggs, who is said to have been his cousin, and had issue:

(1) George Washington Biggs (1783-1844) (q.v.);

(2) Benjamin Biggs;

(3) Thomas Biggs;

(4) Mary Biggs.

He inherited Bellevue from his father and built the present house c.1790.

He died in 1795 and his will was proved in 1796. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Biggs, George Washington (1783-1844). Eldest son of Thomas Biggs (d. 1795) and his wife Elizabeth, born 1783. He married, about June 1807, Anne (d. 1860), daughter of Samuel Dickson of Ballinguile (Co. Limerick), and had issue:

(1) Maria Biggs (c. 1809-93), born about 1809; married, 1836 (licence), Howard Nethercoat Egan (1803-70) of Sharragh (Co. Tipperary) , who was imprisoned for debt in 1833 and 1841 and whose estates were sold in the Landed Estates Court, 1853, and had issue one daughter; died in Notting Hill, London, 18 August 1893; will proved 22 February 1894 (effects £1,056);

(2) Elizabeth Biggs (b. c.1811), second daughter, born about 1811; probably died young or unmarried;

(3) Catherine Biggs (c.1813-1900), born about 1813; married, 12 July 1847, John Davis Vanston (c.1822-83), solicitor, of Hildon Park (Co. Dublin) and Hacketstown (Co. Carlow), and had issue three sons; died 28 August 1900 and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery (Co. Dublin);

(4) Thomas Biggs (1814-44), born August 1814; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated, 1833) inherited Bellevue from his father in March 1844 but died unmarried, 18 June 1844;

(5) Anne Biggs (1816-1914), born August 1816; died unmarried, aged 97, on 5 February 1914; will proved in Dublin (estate £899);

(6) Samuel Dickson Biggs (1818-1904) (q.v.);

(7) Georgina Biggs (c.1821-1918), born about 1821; married, 24 April 1850 at St Mary, Donnybrook (Co. Dublin), Charles Ewer Young (1817-98), son of R.S. Young of Clonsingle House (Co. Tipperary), but had no issue; died aged 97 on 16 September 1918; will proved 26 March 1920;

(8) Stephen Dickson Biggs (c.1824-1910), born about 1824; died unmarried, 8 April 1910; will proved in Dublin, 13 May 1910 (estate £18,065);

(9) Helena Biggs (c.1828-1924), born about 1828; married, 30 April 1862 at St Mary, Donnybrook, John Parker (c.1801-87) of Brookfield (Co. Tipperary), son of Anthony Parker and had issue one son and one daughter; died aged 96 on 25 June 1924; administration of her goods granted 30 January 1925 (estate £3,362);

(10) Rev. George Washington Biggs (c.1829-1908), born about 1829; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1845; BA 1849; MA 1861); ordained priest, 1854; curate of Lorrha (Co. Tipperary), c.1854-58, Dromod (Co. Kerry), c.1858, and Killorglin (Co. Kerry), 1863, but there seems to be no later record of his holding a living and he probably remained unbeneficed; died unmarried, 17 April 1908; will proved in Dublin, 10 June 1908 (estate £18,030).

He inherited Bellevue from his father in 1795. His widow and unmarried children lived latterly at 140 Pembroke Rd, Dublin.

He died 25 March 1844, and was buried at Modreeny (Co. Tipperary). His widow died between 18 and 22 February 1860; administration of her goods with will annexed was granted 27 May 1860 (effects £296).

Biggs, Samuel Dickson (1818-1904). Second son of George Washington Biggs (1783-1844) and his wife Anne, daughter of Samuel Dickson of Ballinguile (Co. Limerick), born September 1818. Farmer and landowner. He married, 2 June 1870 at Monkstown (Co. Dublin), Elizabeth Geraldine Goodwin (1847-1921), step-daughter of William Johnston, and had issue:

(1) Anne Kathleen Biggs (1871-1958), born 8 March 1871; café proprietor in Llandudno (Caernarvons.); died 22 June 1958; will proved 25 September 1958 (estate £10,599);

(2) George Washington Biggs (1872-1957) (q.v.);

(3) Samuel Dickson Biggs (1874-1937), born 16 February and baptised at St Peter, Dublin, 27 February 1874; married, 10 January 1918  Eileen Mary Warburton* (1879-1950), daughter of Surgeon-Lt-Col. Robert Henry Robinson (1843-1916), but had no issue; lived at Dromineer (Co. Tipperary), where their lives were permanently blighted by an incident during the Irish Civil War when his wife was gang-raped by armed men in IRA uniform and he was given a running commentary on her ill-treatment; this had permanent effects on their mental health and after living subsequently at Monkstown (Co. Dublin), they both died in psychiatric hospitals; he died 12 February 1937; will proved 30 April 1937 (estate in England, £9,891) and 2 June 1937 (estate in Ireland, £133);

(4) William Johnston Biggs (1876-1923), born 19 February 1876; emigrated to Rhodesia, 1914; married, 10 November 1914, Violet Elizabeth (1887-1954) (who m2, 8 December 1926 in Salisbury Cathedral, Rhodesia), Francis Swinford Willmot (1891-1932), and had further issue two sons), daughter of William Richard John, and had issue three daughters; died at Bellevue Farm, Concession, Mazoe district, Mashonaland, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 17 September 1923;

(5) Thomas Bateman Biggs (later Biggs-Atkinson) (1878-1945) (q.v.);

(6) Avereena Maud Biggs (1880-1968), born in Dublin, 25 May 1880; emigrated to Southern Africa, 1904, but returned with her husband, 1910; married, 13 June 1904 at Salisbury (Rhodesia), Thomas Hardman Brereton (1866-1952), eldest son of Col. Thomas Sadleir Brereton (1834-1912) of Rathurles (Co. Tipp.), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 30 October 1968; will proved 25 March 1969 (estate in England, £738).

He inherited Bellevue from his elder brother in 1844. In 1876 he owned 1,075 acres in County Tipperary.

He died aged 86 on 2 November 1904; his will was proved 13 January 1905 (estate £9,145). His widow died 9 June 1921; her will was proved 30 August 1921 (estate in England, £1,680).

Biggs, George Washington (1872-1957). Eldest son of Samuel Dickson Biggs (1817-1904) and his wife Elizabeth Goodwin, born 20 March 1872. An officer in the Royal Irish Regiment (2nd Lt., 1891; Lt., 1892; Capt. 1896; Br. Maj.; retired as Maj., 1911 but returned to active service as Capt., 1914). He married, 1 August 1899 at St John, Sandymount (Co. Dublin), Grace Mary (c.1875-1943), daughter of Surgeon-Lt. Col. Robert Henry Robinson (1843-1916), and had issue:

(1) Samuel George Washington Biggs (1900-74), born 26 December 1900; served in Royal Flying Corps in First World War; land steward; married, 9 January 1935 at Holy Trinity, Rathmines (Co. Dublin), Ruby Margaretta, daughter of Robert Henry Jupe of Rathgar, Dublin, but had no issue; died as the result of being attacked by a bull on a neighbour's farm, 11 July 1974;

(2) Zelie Doris Grace Biggs (1902-83), born 26 January 1902; said to have lived partly in South Africa; inherited Bellevue from her father in 1957 and Ashley Park from her uncle's widow in 1963 but sold the former in 1968 and the contents of the latter in 1981; Ashley Park itself was sold after she died unmarried, 31 January 1983; will proved 19 October 1983;

(3) Cecil Raymond Biggs (1905-59), born 30 January 1905; died unmarried of lung cancer in Dublin, 23 November 1959 and was buried at Coolbawn (Co. Tipperary);

(4) Basil Benjamin St Clair Dixon Biggs (1908-40), born 12 April 1908; patient in Portrane Mental Hospital; died unmarried, 16/17 November 1940.

He inherited Bellevue from his father in 1904.

He died 9 June 1957; his will was proved  in February 1958 (estate in Ireland and England, £3,370). His wife died at Monkstown (Co. Dublin), 13 March 1943.

Biggs (later Biggs-Atkinson), Thomas Bateman (1878-1945). Fourth son of Samuel Dickson Biggs (1817-1904) and his wife Elizabeth Goodwin, born 1878. Admitted a solicitor in Dublin, 1900, but it is not clear that he practised as such after his marriage. During the First World War he served as an officer in Royal Irish Rifles (Capt., 1914). After the war, and a brief period of service in India, he settled down to a life of farming and dog- and cattle-breeding at Nenagh; JP for Co. Tipperary. He took the additional name of Atkinson by deed poll in November 1903. He married 1st, 9 September 1903 at Killodiernan (Co. Tipperary), Alice Margery (1882-1919), daughter and co-heir of James Netterville Atkinson (1843-93), and 2nd, 6 December 1923 at West Kirby (Cheshire), Bessie (1874-1963), youngest daughter of Alfred Dyson of Flint (Flints.), but had no issue.

His first wife inherited Ashley Park from her father in 1893 and bequeathed it to him at her death in 1919. He left it to his second wife for life, with remainder to his niece, Zelie Biggs (d. 1983).

He died suddenly, 5 August 1945, and was buried at Kilruane cemetery, Nenagh; his will was proved in Dublin, 28 January 1946 (estate in England and Ireland, £34,839). His first wife died 11 May 1919 and was buried at Kilruane Cemetery; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 27 January 1920 (effects £522). His widow died 9 January 1963.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1912, pp. 17-18; L. Bendtsen 'Intern slavehandel på St. Croix 1750-1848',  MA thesis, University of Copenhagen, 2010.

Location of archives

No significant archive is known to survive.

Coat of arms

None recorded.

Can you help?

• Can anyone throw further light on the relationship between Thomas Biggs (d. 1795) and the Biggs family of Castle Biggs, or show that he was indeed the son of George Biggs of St. Croix?
• 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 11 January 2026.

(622) Bigge (later Selby-Bigge) of Benton Hall and Linden Hall

Bigge, later Selby-Bigge,
of Benton Hall and Linden Hall 

This family was probably distantly related to the Bigg (later Bigg-Wither) family of Haines Hill etc. who were the subject of a previous post, but the parentage of William Bigge (1638?-90), with whom the genealogy below begins, remains uncertain. William became a lawyer in London, but took as his wife a lady from County Durham whose father divided his estates in that county and Northumberland between his two daughters, and in about 1680 William moved north to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, presumably the better to manage the property he had inherited in her right. The couple had a large family, several of whom died young, and all the survivors were minors when William died in 1690. Three of his sons survived him, although one of them died just a few weeks later. John Bigge (1670-1728), the eldest son, inherited farms in Kent and Hampshire, and purchased house property in London, and it was the younger surviving son, Thomas Bigge (1677-1758), who inherited the lands in Northumberland. He is said to have gone to India as a sailor in the 1690s and was not heard of for so long that the family presumed his death and his sisters received the income from his estate. When he at length turned up, safe and sound, around 1705, there was some difficulty in recovering his property, but a settlement was eventually arrived at and confirmed by a private Act of Parliament in 1710. Thomas married in 1706 and had three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, William Bigge (1707-58), who was a lawyer and one of the 'Six Clerks in Chancery', died a few months before his father but through his marriage brought additional property into the family at Stannington and Ovingham (Northbld) which was said to be worth £25,000. Edward Bigge (1708-64), the second son, was also a lawyer in London, but purchased an estate at Brenkley in Dinnington. As he was unmarried, he left this to the second son of his brother William. Thomas's youngest son and namesake, Thomas Bigge (1716-91) became a mercer in London in partnership with his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Carr, but returned to the north-east around 1760 and built Benton Hall on part of the family's estate.

Although William Bigge (1707-58) was a London lawyer, he retained a base in Northumberland and was active in developing coal mining on his father's estates. In 1750-51, he was High Sheriff of Northumberland, clearly marking the family's acceptance as part of the county elite. When he died, he left three sons, the eldest of whom, Thomas Charles Bigge (1739-94), was educated as a gentleman and sent on the Grand Tour.

Carville Hall, Wallsend

The second son, William Edward Bigge (1742-74) was educated as a lawyer and found a position as a junior clerk in the Six Clerks Office. He succeeded his uncle Edward in the Brenkley estate in 1764, but like him died unmarried, whereupon Brenkley passed to his younger brother, John Bigge (1743-97), who had been apprenticed to his uncle Thomas, the London mercer. John was evidently sufficiently prosperous to also buy Carville Hall at Wallsend from his Carr relatives, although he ended his days back in London.

Thomas Charles Bigge (1739-94), who was sent to Oxford and made a Grand Tour in the 1760s, was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1771-72 and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Whig interest in 1774. Although the family was becoming richer through the exploitation of the coal on their estates, he still lived at the property called Benton House, which was essentially an extended farmhouse. T.C. Bigge had three surviving sons, of whom the eldest, Charles William Bigge (1773-1849) inherited his property, while John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843) was a lawyer and civil servant specialising in colonial affairs, and Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824) became a banker in Newcastle, who bought Benton Hall from his cousin Thomas Bigge in about 1805. Charles William Bigge was arguably the most successful member of the family. After Oxford and the Grand Tour he became a partner in a Newcastle bank. He was active in local Whig politics and public affairs, and served as Lt-Col of the county militia from 1799 and as Chairman of Quarter Sessions, 1829-40, a position which clearly indicates his standing in the county gentry and their appreciation of his ability. He was a close friend of Earl Grey, the Whig leader, and of Sir Charles Monck of Belsay Hall, who in 1811-12 designed him a new house, Linden Hall at Longhorsley, which replaced Benton House as his chief seat. For the last ten years of his life he was president of the Newcastle 'Lit & Phil' Society. He might easily have been elected to Parliament, but resisted calls to stand on the grounds of cost, and in 1838 also turned down the offer of a baronetcy. He and his wife had an exceptionally large family of thirteen children, but his eldest son, Charles John Bigge (1803-46), a Newcastle banker, predeceased him, so at his death his property passed to his grandson, Charles Selby Bigge (1834-89).

When Charles Selby Bigge came of age in 1855, he inherited shares in the Northumberland & Durham District Bank and in 1856 he was invited to join his uncle, Matthew Robert Bigge, on the board of directors. This he did, but it proved to be a catastrophic decision, for in 1857 the bank was forced to suspend payment and he became liable for a share of the bank's debts. This required him to sell Linden Hall and much if not all of his land in Northumberland in 1861. He became a director of the Alliance Co-operative Coal Co. of Ruabon (Denbighs), and may have lived in Shropshire for a time.

Ightham Mote (Kent). Image: Katie Chan. Some rights reserved 

Happily, his financial difficulties were eased in 1867 when his maternal grandfather died and left him the 583-acre Ightham Mote estate in Kent, where he lived for the rest of his life. (An account of Ightham Mote is, however, reserved for a future post on the Selby family). After his death, Ightham Mote was sold, and his three sons, who all adopted the surname Selby-Bigge, pursued professional careers: Charles Prideaux Ogle Selby-Bigge (1857-1914) as a land agent; Sir (Lewis) Amherst Selby-Bigge (1860-1951), kt. and 1st bt., as a senior civil servant; and Lt-Col. Denys Leighton Selby-Bigge (1864-1945) as an electrical engineer. Sir Lewis achieved modest prosperity through his official appointments, and was able to retire to a farmhouse near Lewes (Sussex) in 1919, but none of the family prospered sufficiently to return to country house living. Sir Amherst's only surviving son, Sir John Amherst Selby-Bigge (1892-1973), 2nd bt. is best remembered today as an avant-garde artist (exhibiting surrealist works under the name John Bigge), but was variously a chicken farmer, estate agent, and an heroic Red Cross executive in post-Second World War Yugoslavia.

As noted above, Thomas Bigge (1716-91) was a younger son who joined his uncle's mercery business. In 1763 he married Elizabeth Rundell, who was the elder sister of the goldsmith and jeweller, Philip Rundell, and at much the same time he retired to the family lands at Longbenton (Northbld.), where he built a new house later known as Benton Hall. The couple's only surviving child was Thomas Bigge (1766-1849), who was educated at Oxford. In the 1790s he was active in the Newcastle area as a moderately radical Whig, but in about 1805 he sold Benton Hall to his kinsman, Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824) and moved south to London, where he became a partner in Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, the large and important goldsmithing and jewellery business founded by his uncle, Philip Rundell. From 1830 he owned a quarter of the business and was one of the managing directors, which for many years had prestigious commissions (including a new crown for the coronation of Queen Victoria) and delivered large profits. However, in 1843 the firm ceased trading, and in 1845 the partnership was dissolved. Thomas and his wife Maria, who was also a niece of Philip Rundell, had a quite exceptional family of fifteen children, all but three of whom survived to adulthood. They had varied and interesting careers, but only the youngest, Fanny Cecilia Bigge (1815-1908), who married Matthew Bell (1817-1903) of Bourne Park (Kent), returned to country house living.

Benton Hall, Longbenton, Northumberland

Longbenton, north-east of the city of Newcastle, was developed in the 18th and early 19th century for coal-mining, but also became home to a number of large houses which were mostly built by the men who derived their wealth from the coal works. Benton Hall (otherwise known as Little Benton Hall or the White House) was a case in point. The initial building is said to have been erected about 1760 for Thomas Bigge (1716-91), who was in partnership with his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Carr, as a mercer in London, but also owned a share in the Bigge family's coal interests around Longbenton. He married in 1763 and the house may have been erected in anticipation of his marriage or shortly after it. 

Benton Hall: entrance front

As first built, the house probably consisted of the five bay, three-storey centre, although the lower two storeys of the wings, with their full-height canted bow windows on the garden front, may also have been part of the original scheme. The single-storey outer wings and the rather ill-proportioned third storeys added to the wings were probably put on in the 19th century and although it is tempting to associated these with the exceptionally large family of Thomas Bigge (1766-1849), who lived at Benton Hall until about 1805, they are probably rather later. The entrance front had an off-centre porch leading into a staircase hall lit by a Venetian window at mezzanine level, set below a Diocletian window in the top storey. It seems likely that this awkward situation arose because the entrance was originally on the other side of the house and was moved to this side in the 19th century.

Benton Hall, Longbenton: garden front

In 1902 the substantial accommodation offered by the house included a drawing room, dining room, library, billiard room and study, 25 bedrooms, as well as the service accommodation, and in 1871 there was an indoor staff of fifteen. The house was surrounded by lawns and gardens, which were of sufficient note to be opened to the public on a commercial basis as the Northumberland & Durham Botanical Gardens in a short-lived enterprise in 1854-58. The gardens were kept up to an extent even after the house ceased to be occupied at the beginning of the 20th century, for in 1913 it was noted that '[though the] forsaken mansion gives an air of sadness to the immediate surroundings... the adjacent vinery, conservatories, and gardens are under proper guardianship and are not allowed to become waste. And above all the trees remain as they were'. However, the end was in sight: in 1927 part of the grounds was turned over to public tennis courts, and in 1931 the whole estate was sold to the North Heaton Development Company for suburban development. The house was demolished in about 1934 and the resulting rubble was used to infill an old quarry.

Descent: built c.1760 for Thomas Bigge (1716-91); to son, Thomas Bigge (1766-1849); sold c.1805 to Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824); sold after his death to William Losh (1770-1861); sold c.1854 to Northumberland & Durham Botanical Gardens; sold 1858 to John Anthony Woods (1816-1901); to son, James Edward Woods, who sold 1902 to William Henry Fitzpatrick Watson Armstrong (1863-1941), 1st Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside, who sold 1931 to North Heaton Development Company.

Linden Hall, Longhorsley, Northumberland

Linden Hall, Longhorsley.  Image: Xooo.co.uk

A very plain and beautifully ashlared five bay two storey house designed in 1812 by Sir Charles Monck of Belsay for his friend, Charles William Bigge. Linden Hall is the only house which Sir Charles designed apart from his own, much more heavily Greek, mansion at Belsay. John Dobson of Newcastle probably provided some assistance, but the drawings seem to be entirely in Monck's hand. The central bay is much wider than the rest and has an extremely heavy and severe four-column porch with unfluted Greek Doric columns.  Inside there is an elegant rectangular top-lit central hall in which the staircase rises along three walls, under an oval roof lantern.  The house is now an hotel, and the stable block and outbuildings were converted to domestic accommodation in the 1980s by Ainsworth Spark.

Linden Hall, Longhorsley: the staircase hall today

Descent:  built for Charles William Bigge (1773-1849); to grandson, Charles Selby Bigge (1834-89), who sold 1861 to Henry Metcalf Ames (1820-74); to son, Louis Eric Ames (1855-1933), who sold 1903 to Lawrence William Adamson (1829-1911); to son, Lt-Col. John George Adamson (1855-1932); to daughters Muriel Adamson (1884-1963) and Eve Adamson (b. 1890), who sold 1963 to John M. Liddell; who sold 1978 for conversion to hotel.

Bigge (later Selby-Bigge) family of Linden Hall and Ightham Mote

Bigge, William (1638?-90). Parentage uncertain; Hodgson suggested that he might be the son of William Bigge of Shalford (Essex) and his wife Melior Roper, who was born about 1620, but Burke's Landed Gentry preferred the suggestion that he derived from the Bigg family of Kent (and thus shared a common origin with the Bigg family of Haines Hill). In view of the fact that he owned property at Hawkhurst, the latter suggestion seems more likely, and he is perhaps to be identified with the William, son of William and Sara Bigge baptised at Benenden (Kent), on 19 August 1638. Attorney with chambers in Furnival's Inn, Holborn (Middx) until c.1680 and later at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He married, 30 August 1666 at Seaham (Co. Durham), Isabel (1648-1707), daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Dent, and had issue:

(1) William Bigge (b. 1667), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 19 September 1667; died young, perhaps in infancy and certainly before 1686;

(2) Isabella Bigge (b. & d. 1669), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 20 April 1669; died in infancy at Furnival's Inn, 6 November 1669;

(3) John Bigge (1670-1728), baptised at Holborn, 16 February 1670; placed in the custody of his father's 'cozen', John Bowles of Shaftesbury (Dorset) and settled at East Knoyle (Wilts); educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1691); inherited a farm at Hawkhurst (Kent) and a copyhold farm at Rotherwick (Hants) from his father; purchased one-sixth of Spital Square, London in 1696; said to have married, 1701 in Chester, Anne Jackson, but the marriage has not been traced; later declared a lunatic; died without issue at Bedlington (Northbld), and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 19 January 1727/8;

(4) James Bigge (1672-90), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 20 June 1672; inherited houses in the Great Market, Newcastle, and £1000 under his father's will; died unmarried and without issue just a few weeks after his father, and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 13 April 1690;

(5) Mary Bigge (1674-1727), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 27 January 1674/5; married, 14 October 1701 at St Andrew, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edward Collingwood of Byker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 15 October 1727;

(6) Roger Bigge (1676-77), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 29 April 1676; died in infancy at Furnival's Inn, 22 October 1677;

(7) Thomas Bigge (1677-1758) (q.v.);

(8) Anne Bigge (b. 1684), baptised at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 11 September 1684; married, 12 February 1701/2 at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edward Ward (d. 1717); death not traced.

He lived latterly at Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father-in-law divided his estates at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Darras Hall, Caistron, and East, West and North Coldcoats (all Northbld) between his two daughters (the other being Julian, wife of John Hindmarsh of Little Benton). She also inherited a moiety of Willington, which his mother-in-law bought after her husband's death from Sir Francis Anderson. She settled her lands upon her sons in succession, with remainder to her daughters.

He was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 18 March 1690, where he and John Hindmarch had erected a monument for their families in 1684; his will was proved in the PCC, 4 July 1690. His widow was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 15 July 1707.

Bigge, Thomas (1677-1758). Fifth and youngest son of William Bigge (d. 1690) and his wife Isabel, daughter and heiress of Thomas Dent, baptised at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), 21 June 1677. He is said to have gone to India as a sailor and not been heard of for a long time, whereupon his death was presumed and his sisters gained control of his and his brother John's property; at length he returned and a settlement was arrived at between Thomas and his sisters in 1709, which was confirmed by a private Act of Parliament in 1710. He married, 12 May 1706 at Longbenton (Northbld), Elizabeth (d. 1752), daughter and co-heiress of Edward Hindmarsh of the Six Clerks' Office, London, and had issue:

(1) William Bigge (1707-58) (q.v.);

(2) Edward Bigge (1708-64), baptised at Longbenton, 22 June 1708; attorney in Grays Inn, London; lived in London and at Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Northbld); purchased Brenkley estate in Dinnington (Northbld); died unmarried and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5 April 1764; will proved in the PCC, 11 May 1764;

(3) Grace Bigge (1710-64), baptised at Longbenton, 30 March 1710; married Sir Robert Carr (1707-91) (who m2, 1765, Mary Little, and had further issue one daughter), mercer, of London and Hampton (Middx), who claimed the baronetcy of Kerr of Greenhead (Roxb.), and had issue one daughter; buried at Ewell (Surrey), 27 May 1764;

(4) Mary Bigge (1712-90), baptised at Longbenton, 10 April 1712; died unmarried at Ripon in December 1790 and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 7 December 1790; will proved in the PCC, 16 June 1791;

(5) Elizabeth Bigge (1714-71), baptised at Longbenton, 24 May 1714; died unmarried and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 12 September 1771;

(6) Thomas Bigge (1716-91) [for whom see below, Bigge of Benton Hall].

He lived at Byker, Newcastle-on-Tyne and Benton House, Longbenton, which he enlarged.

He was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 28 December 1758; his will was proved 17 March 1759. His wife was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 23 June 1752.

Bigge, William (1707-58). Eldest son of Thomas Bigge (1677-1759) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Edward Hindmarsh of Benton (Northbld), baptised at Longbenton, 25 March 1707. Attorney and one of the Six Clerks in Chancery. Colliery owner in Northumberland and was involved inthe development of collieries elsewhere in Northumberland, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire (WR). High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1750-51. He married, 29 January 1736 at St Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mary (d. 1780), daughter and heiress of Charles Clarke of Ovingham (Northbld), attorney, and had issue:

(1) Thomas Charles Bigge (1739-94) (q.v.);

(2) William Edward Bigge (1740-74), born 6 January, and baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn (Middx), 1 February 1739/40; lawyer and one of the sworn clerks to the Six Clerks in Chancery by 1769, succeeded to the estate of his uncle Edward Bigge at Brenkley in Dinnington (Northbld), 1764; died unmarried at Bedlington (Northbld) and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 7 June 1774; will proved in the PCC, 20 June 1774;

(3) Charles Clarke Bigge (1741-43), born at Little Benton, 8 July 1741; died in infancy of measles, 3 February. and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 4 February 1742/3;

(4) John Bigge (1743-97), born in Newcastle, 14 January, and was baptised at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 22 February 1742/3; apprenticed to his uncle, Thomas Bigge, 1757; mercer in London in the same firm in which his uncles Thomas Bigge and Sir Robert Carr had been partners; inherited his brother William's estate at Brenkley in 1774 and purchased Carville Hall, Wallsend, where he lived for some years before retiring to chambers in King's Bench Walk, London; a Tory in politics, unlike most of this family; died unmarried, 11 March, and was buried at St Bride, Fleet St., London, 15 March 1797.

He lived at Benton (Northbld), where he had colliery interests, and inherited property at Stannington and Ovingham in right of his wife which was reputedly worth £25,000.

He died in the lifetime of his father, 30 June 1758 and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His widow died 5 May 1780 and was buried at Ovingham.

Bigge, Thomas Charles (1739-94). Eldest son of William Bigge (1707-58) and his wife Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles Clarke of Ovingham (Northbld), born in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn (Middx), 24 January and baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn (Middx), 22 February 1738/9. Educated at Westminster, Lincolns Inn (admitted 1755) and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1757). He travelled abroad, possibly partly for health reasons, in 1759 and 1763-66, and visited Turin, Florence, Rome, Naples and Parma in 1764-65. Colliery owner in Northumberland. JP for Northumberland; High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1771-72. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament in the Morpeth constituency in 1774. He was a member of the 'Roman Club' founded by Edward Gibbon in 1765. He married, 6 November 1772 at St Andrew, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Northbld), Jemima* (1748-1806), daughter of William Ord of Fenham (Northbld), and had issue:

(1) Charles William Bigge (1773-1849) (q.v.);

(2) Jemima Bigge (1776-79), born 17 February and baptised at Longbenton, 18 March 1776; died young and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 30 August 1779;

(3) Mary Anne Bigge (1777-1805), baptised at Longbenton, 26 August 1777; died unmarried and was buried at Weston, Bath (Som.), 18 June 1805;

(4) William Edward Bigge (1778-91), born 28 October 1778 and baptised at Longbenton, 6 January 1779; educated at Westminster School, where he died and was buried at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), 28 October 1791;

(5) John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843), born 8 March and baptised at Longbenton, 10 April 1780; educated at Newcastle GS, Westminster, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1797; BA 1801; MA 1804) and Inner Temple (admitted 1801; called 1806); barrister-at-law; Chief Justice of Trinidad, 1814-18; Commissioner of Inquiry into Colony of New South Wales, 1819-23 and also conducted an inquiry into the conduct of William Sorrell as governor of Tasmania, 1820-23; Chairman of Commission of Enquiry into the administration and finance of the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius and Ceylon, 1832-39; his reports on colonial administration in New South Wales led to the resignation of the progressive governor, Macquarie, and reduced the status of convict transportees to near slavery; he lived latterly at Dover (Kent); died unmarried at the Grosvenor Hotel, London, 22 December, and was buried at Fulham (Middx), 28 December 1843; his will was proved in the PCC 26 February 1845 (effects under £46,000);

(6) Charlotte Eleanor Bigge (1781-1800), born 13 February and baptised at Longbenton, 13 March 1781; died unmarried at Clifton (Glos), 29 June, and was buried at Weston, Bath (Som.), 3 July 1800;

(7) Eliza Bigge (1782-1819), baptised at Longbenton, 23 April 1782; died unmarried, 19 May 1819 and was buried at Fulham (Middx), 24 May 1819; her will was proved in the PCC, 8 June 1819;

(8) Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824), baptised at Longbenton, 2 October 1784; educated at Westminster; partner in Old Bank, Newcastle from 1806; inherited estates at Brinkley and Carville from his uncle John Bigge and purchased Benton Hall c.1805, all of  which were sold after his death; married, 26 March 1814 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Charlotte (d. 1874), daughter of Rev. James Scott, rector of St Lawrence, Southampton (Hants) and vicar of Itchenstoke (Hants), and had issue four sons and two daughters; buried at Ovingham (Northbld), 21 December 1824;

(9) Jemima Susannah Bigge (1788-1809), baptised at Longbenton, 4 September 1788; died unmarried, 9 March, and was buried at Ovingham, 13 March 1809;

(10) Grace Julia Bigge (1791-1872), baptised at Longbenton, 15 April 1791; married 1st, 24 March 1817 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, her cousin, Thomas Christopher Glyn (1789-1827), of Gaunts House (Dorset), son of Richard Carr Glyn, and had issue three sons; married 2nd, 20 June 1836 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Henry Barne Sawbridge (c.1778-1851) of East Haddon Hall (Northants), but had no further issue; died 30 September 1872.

He lived at Benton House.

He died 10 October 1794 and was buried at All Saints, Weston, Bath (Som.); his will was proved in the PCC, 6 November 1794. His widow died 25 November 1806 and was buried at Fulham (Middx).

* Her portrait by Angelica Kauffman was sold at auction in 2006.

Charles William Bigge (1773-1849) 

Bigge, Charles William (1773-1849). Eldest son of Thomas Charles Bigge (1739-94) and his wife Jemima, daughter of William Ord of Fenham (Northbld), born at Benton House, 28 October and baptised at Longbenton (Northbld), 18 November 1773. Educated at Westminster (admitted 1784), Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1791; BA 1795; MA 1798) and Middle Temple (admitted 1795), after which he undertook a grand tour of Germany and Italy, 1800-02. Partner in Ridley, Bigge, Gibson & Co. of Newcastle, bankers, later taken over by the Northumberland & Durham District Bank in Newcastle-on-Tyne, of which he became a director. JP (Chairman of Quarter Sessions, 1829-40) and DL for Northumberland; High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1802-03; Chairman of Morpeth Poor Law Union, 1836-41. An officer in the Northumberland Militia (Lt-Col., 1799). He was a prominent figure in Whig politics in Northumberland, but declined to stand for parliament on grounds of cost; he also declined the offer of a baronetcy in 1838. He was President of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Literary and Philosophical Society, 1838-49 and of the Mechanics Institute, and Vice-President of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries and of the Newcastle Natural History Society. He married, 27 January 1802, Alicia (1780-1848), only daughter of Christopher Wilkinson of Thorpe (Yorks) and Newcastle-on-Tyne, and had issue:

(1) Charles John Bigge (1803-46) (q.v.);

(2) Charles James Bigge (1805-06?), born 22 January and baptised at Whittingham (Northbld), 20 November 1805; probably the child of these parents who died 26 December and was buried (as 'William James Bigge') at Fulham (Middx), 30 December 1806;

(3) Henry Lancelot Bigge (1806-44), born 10 May and baptised at Whittingham, 14 June 1806; educated at Westminster (admitted 1818; Kings Scholar, 1820) and University College, Oxford (matriculated 1824); an officer in the 66th Bengal Native Infantry (Cadet, 1827; Ensign, 1828; Lt., 1834; Capt., 1844), who served as principal assistant to the Governor of the North-East Frontier, 1838-43; died unmarried and without issue at Barrisal in Assam, 9 December 1844 and is commemorated by a monument at Ovingham (Northbld); will proved 31 December 1844;

(4) Ven. Edward Thomas Bigge (1807-44), born 19 October and baptised at Whittingham, 18 November 1807; educated at Westminster (admitted 1821) and University College, Oxford (matriculated 1828; BA 1832; MA 1835); ordained deacon, 1834, and priest, 1835; Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, c.1834-42; vicar of Eglingham (Northbld), 1837-44 and archdeacon of Lindisfarne, 1842-44; died unmarried and without issue, 3 April 1844, and was buried at Ovingham (Northbld), where he is commemorated by a monument;

(5) Mary Bigge (1809-21), born 26 July and baptised at Whittingham, 1 October 1809; died young, 3 February, and was buried at Longhorsley, 7 February 1821;

(6) Charlotte Eliza Bigge (1810-84), born 1 November and baptised at Whittingham, 2 December 1810; married, 22 February 1849 at Longhorsley, David Smith (c.1804-80) of Edinburgh, son of Alexander Smith; died 11 February 1884 and is commemorated by a monument at Ovingham;

(7) William Matthew Bigge (1812-89), born 9 October and baptised at Whittingham, 26 November 1812; an officer in the 70th Foot (Ensign, 1831; Lt., 1836; Capt. 1839; Maj., 1845; Lt-Col., 1847; retired 1849); died unmarried, 2 January 1889; will proved 2 February 1889 (effects £2,107);

(8) Rev. John Frederick Bigge (1814-85), born 12 July and baptised at Longhorsley (Northbld), 29 December 1814; educated at Durham University (BA 1840; MA 1843); ordained deacon and priest, 1840; vicar of Ovingham, 1841-47 and of Stamfordham (Northbld), 1847-85; President of Tyneside Naturalists' Club, 1847; married, 14 December 1843, Caroline Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Ellison, and had issue five sons and six daughters (including Arthur John Bigge (1849-1931), 1st and last Baron Stamfordham); died 28 February 1885; will proved 2 May 1885 (effects £17,664);

(9) Julia Katherina Bigge (1816-1843), born 21 January 1816 and baptised at Longhorsley, 18 November 1817; married, 13 February 1840, as his first wife, Rev. Henry Joseph Maltby (c.1814-63) (who m2, 13 April 1847, Elizabeth Mary Bradford (1824-1906) and had further issue three sons and one daughter), son of Rt. Rev. Edward Maltby, bishop of Durham, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 27 April 1843;

(10) Arthur Bigge (1818-85), born 18 May and baptised at Longhorsley, 17 June 1818; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1836; BA 1840; MA 1843), and the Inner Temple (admitted 1839; called 1844); barrister-at-law; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1843-58; stipendiary magistrate at Brighton (Sussex), 1855-84; married, 24 September 1857, Elizabeth (d. 1882), daughter of James Henry Sclater of Newick Park (Sussex), and had issue one daughter; died 28 August 1885; will proved 27 November 1885 (effects £4,512);

(11) Jemima Bigge (1820-35), born 25 May and baptised at Longhorsley, 22 June 1820; died young, 23 May 1835, and was buried at Longhorsley;

(12) Matthew Robert Bigge (1822-1906), born 30 March and baptised at Longhorsley, 27 April 1822; JP for Northamptonshire; a director of the Northumberland & Durham District Bank, which became insolvent in 1858; sheriff of Newcastle, 1846; married 1st, 21 September 1848 at St Andrew, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mildreda Eliza (d. 1850), daughter of Col. Robert Bell (1772-1851) of Fenham Hall, Newcastle (Northbld), and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, 1 November 1854 at Stanhope (Co. Durham), Elizabeth Jane (c.1822-96), daughter of Rev. William Nicholas Darnell (1776-1865), rector of Stanhope (Co. Durham), and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Stamford (Lincs), 17 July 1906; will proved 15 October 1906 (estate £1,739);

(13) Rev. George Richard Bigge (1825-86), born 2 October and baptised at Longhorsley, 27 December 1825; educated at Durham University (BA 1847; MA 1850); ordained deacon, 1847 and priest, 1850; curate of Huntspill (Som.), 1848-50; vicar of Ovingham, 1850-69, Stanton and Snowshill (Glos), 1872-74, and Ingestre (Staffs), 1874-77; and rector of Bolam (Northbld), 1880-86; married, 18 June 1850 at Congresbury (Som.), Annette Henriette Wolff (1829-1913), daughter of Capt. Richard Francis Gibson Poore, and had issue four sons and five daughters; died 17 January 1886; will proved 26 March 1886 (effects £2,698).

He inherited estates and collieries at Benton, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Ponteland and Gosforth (all Northbld) from his father in 1794 and lived at Benton House until he built Linden Hall in 1811-12 to the designs of  Sir Charles Monck of Belsay.

He died 8 December, and was buried at Longhorsley, 13 December 1849; his will was proved in the PCC, 29 July 1850. His wife died 19 February 1848 and was buried at Longhorsley.

Bigge, Charles John (1803-46). Eldest son of Charles William Bigge (1773-1849) and his wife Alicia, only daughter of Christopher Wilkinson of Thorpe (Yorks) and Newcastle-on-Tyne, born 11 April and baptised at Whittingham (Northbld.), 20 April 1803. Educated at Westminster (admitted 1814) and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1821). Partner in the Northumberland & Durham District Bank at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Alderman of Newcastle (Mayor, 1832-37). He married, 29 May 1833 at Bamburgh (Northbld.), Lewis Marianne (1812-90), daughter and co-heir of Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867) of Twizell House (Northbld) and Ightham Mote (Kent), and had issue:

(1) Charles Selby Bigge (1834-89) (q.v.);

(2) Mary Lewis Bigge (1836-89), baptised at Whickham, 27 May 1836; married, 3 June 1863 at Ightham (Kent), Rev. John Clere Scott Darby (1830-1901) of Markby (Sussex), rector of Machen (Mon.) (who m2, 23 February 1892 at Machen, Emily Mary Potter (1866-1942)), son of George Darby, gent., and had issue seven sons; buried at Machen, 18 December 1889;

(3) Henry Bertram Bigge (1837-38), born December 1837 and baptised at Whickham (Co. Durham), 2 January 1838; died in infancy and was buried at Whickham, 4 January 1838;

(4) Fanny Alice Bigge (1839-1912), baptised at Whickham, 13 July 1839; married, 6 June 1867 at Ightham, Thomas St Leger Blaauw (1839-93), of Beechland (Sussex), son of William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870), and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 20 November and was buried at Newick, 26 November 1912; will proved 20 January 1913 (estate £3,323);

(5) Louisa Charlotte Bigge (1842-1915), born 11 March and baptised at Whickham, 28 March 1842; married, 8 August 1865 at Ightham, Charles Francis Massingberd-Mundy (1839-1913) of Ormsby Hall (Lincs), and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 12 March and was buried at South Ormsby (Lincs), 17 March 1915; will proved 12 April 1916 (estate £2,736);

(6) Sybil Constance Bigge (1846-1913), born posthumously, 6 April, and baptised at St Mary, Bryanston Square, Marylebone (Middx), 26 May 1846; married, 14 July 1875 at Ightham, Sir William Selby Church (1837-1928), 1st bt., and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 4 February 1913 and was buried at Hatfield (Herts); will proved 14 March 1913 (estate £4,425).

He died in the lifetime of his father, 16 March, and was buried at All Saints, Fulham (Middx), 23 March 1846. His widow married 2nd, 17 October 1850 at Ightham, Maj. Robert Luard (later Luard-Selby) (1800-80); she was buried at Ightham, 22 March 1890; administration of her goods (with will annexed) was granted 17 June 1890 (effects £6,869).

Bigge, Charles Selby (1834-89). Elder and only surviving son of Charles John Bigge (1803-46) and his wife Lewis Marianne, daughter and co-heir of Prideaux John Selby of Twizell House (Northbld) and Ightham Mote (Kent), born 21 July and baptised at Whickham (Co. Durham), 2 August 1834. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1853). JP for Northumberland from 1856. A freemason from 1854. He became a director of the Northumberland & Durham District Bank on achieving his majority, but the bank soon afterwards became insolvent and he found himself liable for a share of the debts, which forced him to sell Linden Hall. He was later a director of the Alliance Co-operative Coal Co. of Ruabon (Denbighs). He married, 24 July 1856 at Beckenham (Kent), Katharina (d. 1918), daughter of John Scott Ogle of Oakwood House, Beckenham, and had issue:

(1) Charles Prideaux Ogle Selby-Bigge (1857-1914) (q.v.);

(2) Sir Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge (1860-1951), 1st bt. (q.v.);

(3) Lt-Col. Denys Leighton Selby Bigge (1864-1945), born 11 September and baptised at Bourton (Shrops.), 9 October 1864; educated at Marlborough, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1882), and the University of Liège; a Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers; consulting electrical engineer with his own firm, D. Selby-Bigge & Co., from which he retired in 1942; before and during the First World War he was an officer in the Northumberland Hussars (2nd Lt., 1898; Lt., 1899; Capt., 1902; Maj., 1905; Temp. Lt-Col., 1915); DL for Northumberland; lived latterly at Ripon (Yorks WR); married, 25 July 1905 at Chillingham (Northbld), Marianne Mildred (1878-1944), daughter of Sir Jacob Wilson KCVO of Chillingham Barns, and had issue three daughters; died 22 January 1945.

He inherited Linden Hall from his grandfather in 1849 and Ightham Mote in 1867. He sold Linden Hall in 1861, and the 583 acre Ightham Mote estate was sold by auction after his death.

He died 16 January 1889; his will was proved 5 March 1889 (effects £12,327). His widow died 15 January, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 19 January 1918; her will was proved 18 April 1918 (estate £8,238).

Selby-Bigge, Charles Prideaux Ogle (1857-1914). Eldest son of Charles Selby Bigge (1834-89) and his wife Katharina, daughter of John Scott Ogle of Oakwood (Kent), born in Edinburgh, 25 July 1857. Land agent to the Norfolk estates of William Amherst Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1909), 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney. A freemason from 1907. He married, 14 August 1902 at St Mark, North Audley St., Westminster (Middx), Joan (1881-1949), second daughter of Seymour Pleydell-Bouverie of Whissendine House (Rut.), banker, and had issue:

(1) Arthur Charles Selby-Bigge (1903-37), born 1 September and baptised at Holy Trinity, Chelsea, 7 October 1903; clerk to Jackson Vinley & Co., chartered accountants; died unmarried, 31 July and was buried at Triberg, Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany), 2 August 1937; administration of goods granted to his sister, 22 October 1937 (estate £175);

(2) Bridget Joan Selby-Bigge (1905-84), born 30 June 1905; educated at Farlington House School, Haywards Heath (Sussex); lived at Brookhill, Fethard (Co. Tipperary); died unmarried, 13 September 1984; will proved in London, 12 March 1986 (estate in England & Wales, £243,020);

(3) Frances Grace Selby-Bigge (1909-14), born 25 August and baptised at Oakham, 25 September 1909; died young, about July 1914.

He lived at Foulden Hall (Norfk) while acting as agent to the Norfolk estates of Lord Amherst of Hackney, and later at The Limes, Oakham (Rut.).

He died 6 January 1914; his will was proved 2 April 1914 (estate £11,056). His widow died 9 July 1949; her will was proved 29 April 1950 (estate £5,228).

Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge,  (1860-1951), 1st bt. 
Image: Nat. Portrait Gallery.
Some rights reserved. 

Selby-Bigge, Sir (Lewis) Amherst (1860-1951), kt. & 1st bt. Second son of Charles Selby Bigge (1834-89) and his wife Katharina,  daughter of John Scott Ogle of Oakwood (Kent), born at Oakwood House, Beckenham (Kent), 3 April and was baptised at Beckenham, 8 May 1860. He was known by his second forename and took the name Selby-Bigge by deed poll in 1887. Educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1879; BA 1883; MA 1886) and Inner Temple (called 1891). Fellow of University College, Oxford and tutor in philosophy, 1883-94 (University proctor, 1891; Hon. Fellow, 1930). Barrister-at-law; Assistant Charity Commissioner, 1894-1902; with Board of Education, 1903-25 (Asst Sec, 1903-07; Principal Asst. Sec., 1907-11; Permanent Secretary, 1911-25). In retirement he became a member of the East Sussex County Education Committee. He was appointed CB, 1905; KCB, 1913; and raised to a baronetcy, 14 February 1919. In 1929 he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Unionist candidate for the Combined Universities seat. His published works include British Moralists (1897) and editions of two works by David Hume. He married, 15 September 1885 at Underriver (Kent), Edith Lindsay OBE (1865-1939), daughter of Rt. Hon. John Robert Davison QC MP of Underriver House, and had issue:

(1) Evelyn Mary Selby-Bigge (1887-1984), born 16 October and baptised at St Philip & St James, Oxford, 18 November 1887; married, 22 June 1908 at Holy Trinity, Chelsea (Middx), Henry Cecil Pember (1879-1917), stockbroker, second son of Henry George Pember of Fair Oak Park (Hants), and had issue one son and one daughter; lived latterly at Rodmell Hill Cottage, Rodmell (Sussex); died aged 96 on 1 April 1984; will proved 2 August 1984 (estate £15,573);

(2) Edith Katharine Selby-Bigge (1889-1971), born 31 March and baptised at St Philip & St James, Oxford, 3 May 1889; married, 31 October 1914, Capt. Geoffrey Francis Bowes-Lyon (1886-1951) of Vale Court, Colerne (Wilts), colliery owner and company director, son of the Hon. Francis Bowes-Lyon DL, and had issue one son and two daughters; lived latterly at Lewes (Sussex); died 19 September 1971; will proved 7 January 1972 (estate £28,521);

(3) Sir John Amherst Selby-Bigge (1892-1973), 2nd bt. (q.v.);

(4) Arthur Jeffrey Selby-Bigge (1894-95), born 14 March and baptised 15 April 1894; died in infancy, 20 September 1895 and was buried at Underriver.

He lived at Kings Sutton (Northants) and in London until he purchased a farmhouse called Kingston Manor, Lewes (Sussex) in 1919, to which he retired.

He died aged 91 on 24 May 1951, and was buried at Kingston (Sussex); his will was proved 10 August 1951 (estate £26,479). His wife died 28 May and was buried at Kingston, 31 May 1939; her will was proved 21 August 1939 (estate £14,655).

Sir John Amherst Selby-Bigge, 2nd bt.
Image: Nat. Portrait Gallery.
Some rights reserved.  

Selby-Bigge, Sir John Amherst (1892-1973), 2nd bt. Elder and only surviving son of Sir Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge (1860-1951) and his wife Edith Lindsay OBE, daughter of Rt. Hon. John Robert Davison QC MP of Underriver House (Kent), born 20 June and baptised at St Philip & St James, Oxford, 22 July 1892. Educated at Winchester, Christ Church, Oxford, University College, London (matriculated 1913) and Slade School of Art (admitted 1914). He served in the First World War, 1914-19, with Royal Army Service Corps (T/Lt.) and Military Intelligence. After the First World War he worked as a chicken farmer at Chiddingly (Sussex) and as an estate agent, but continued to paint in his spare time, and in the 1930s he exhibited (as John Bigge) a number of modernist and surrealist works at exhibitions; he was a founder member of the 'Unit One' coterie of artists led by Paul Nash. During the Second World War he worked first as sub-editor of BBC European News service, 1942-43 and then as Assistant Commissioner for Civilian Relief with the British Red Cross in Austria, where he was instrumental in preventing the massacre of 6,000 Slovenian civilian refugees by the forces of Marshal Tito. He was appointed OBE, 1946, and succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, 24 May 1951. He married 1st, 6 July 1914 (div. 1944), Ruth (1892-1962), eldest daughter of Edward Walter Humphries of Bradford (Yorks WR), and 2nd, 3 January 1946, Marija (c.1905-55), eldest daughter of Judge Martin Bacik of Vienna (Austria), and had issue:

(1.1) Annabella Joanna Lewis Selby-Bigge (1915-19), born 13 October and baptised at St Simon Zelotes, Chelsea (Middx), 24 November 1915; died young, 7 July 1919;

(1.2) Lydia Jane Selby-Bigge (1920-79), born 11 June 1920; married, 1941 (div. 1946), Gilbert Morand of Chambery, and had issue; died at Quartier le Ferrage, Tourrette sur Loup, Alpes Maritimes (France), 20 February 1979; will proved 22 May 1981 (estate in England, £1,417);

(1.3) Cornelia Diana Selby-Bigge (1922-88), born 14 August 1922; married, 10 August 1947, as his second wife, Hugh Max Bowden (1909-90) of Sheriff Mount, Low Fell (Northbld) and Port Douglas, Queensland (Australia), son of Hugh Hunter Bowden, and had issue two daughters; died 5 October 1988 and was buried at Port Douglas Cemetery, Queensland;

(1.4) Mary Elizabeth Selby-Bigge (1924-2023), born 8 April 1924; married 1st, 1951, John Sheals Pratt, MB BChir (d. 1956), and 2nd, 1967, Gp-Capt. Richard Irwin Knight Edwards DFC AFC (d. 1967); died aged 98 on 20 March 2023.

He lived in Sussex in the early 1920s and later in Chelsea (Middx), but latterly at Limeuil, Dordogne (France).

He died 3 October 1973, when the baronetcy became extinct; his will was proved 3 July 1974 (estate in England, £1,748). His first wife died 12 December 1962; administration of her goods was granted 8 May 1963 (estate £1,967). His second wife died 6 December 1955.

Bigge of Benton Hall

Bigge, Thomas (1716-91).  Third and youngest son of Thomas Bigge (1677-1758) [for whom see above] and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Hindmarsh of Longbenton, baptised at Longbenton, 27 December 1716. Mercer on Ludgate Hill, London, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Robert (later Sir Robert) Carr. He married, 4 August 1763 at Bath, Elizabeth (1730-1812), daughter of Richard Rundell of Norton St Philip (Som.) and elder sister of the jeweller and goldsmith, Philip Rundell, and had issue:

(1) Thomas Benton (1766-1851) (q.v.);

(2) Elizabeth Benton (1767-71), baptised at Longbenton, 23 April 1767; died young and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 12 September 1771. 

He inherited lands at Longbenton from his father, on which he built Benton Hall c.1760.

He was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 8 May 1791. His widow was buried at Hendon (Middx), 24 April 1812; her will was proved in the PCC, 4 May 1812.

Bigge, Thomas (1766-1849). Only son of Thomas Bigge (1716-91) and his wife Elizabeth Rundell, born at Longbenton, 8 January and baptised at Longbenton, 25 February 1766. Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford* (matriculated 1783; BA 1787; MA 1791). A Whig in politics, he became a writer of political tracts in the 1790s, occupying a position somewhere between the moderate Whigs and the radicals; he was also active in local political meetings and supported a monthly periodical, The Oeconomist, in 1798-99. In later life he became a partner in the family firm of Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, which was one of the leading goldsmiths in London; from 1830 he owned 25% of the business but the firm ceased trading in 1843 and the partnership was dissolved two years later. He married, 16 July 1792 at St Swithin, Walcot, Bath (Som.), Maria (d. 1846), daughter of Thomas Rundell of Bath, surgeon, and niece of Philip Rundell, and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Bigge (1793-1869), born 28 October 1793 and baptised at Longbenton, 14 January 1794; married, 8 April 1817 at Kensington (Middx), Lt-Col. Sir Alexander Anderson, KB CB KTS (c.1787-1842) of Palmers Cross, Elgin (Morays), and had issue at least two sons and two daughters; died 18 March 1869 and was buried at Brackley (Inverness), where she is commemorated by a tombstone in the kirkyard;

(2) Maria Bigge (1795-97), baptised at Longbenton, 14 September 1795; died in infancy and was buried at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 24 May 1797;

(3) Jane Eleanor Bigge (1796-1812), baptised at Longbenton, 5 September 1796; died unmarried and was buried at Hendon (Middx), 12 April 1812;

(4) Thomas Charles Bigge (b. 1796), baptised at Longbenton, 29 December 1796; probably died in infancy;

(5) Augusta Bigge (1797-1866), baptised at Longbenton, 20 December 1797; married, May 1835, as his second wife, Ven. Edward Pope (1793-1855), of St Catherine's (Surrey), formerly Archdeacon of Jamaica, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 19 June and was buried buried at Puttenham (Surrey), 25 June 1866; will proved 20 July 1866 (effects under £10,000);

(6) Emily Maria Bigge (1799-1806), born 28 September, and baptised at Longbenton, 6 December 1799; died young and was buried at Hendon (Middx), 7 January 1806;

(7) Thomas Edward Bigge (1801-80), born 20 January and baptised at Longbenton, 27 March 1801; army officer (2nd Lt., 1819; Lt., 1825; Capt., 1826); a director of railway companies; commanding officer of 'The Railway Rifles', 1859; married, 13 June 1850 at St James, Paddington (Middx), Ellen Fanny (1822-1912), daughter of George O'Brien; died 29 December 1880; will proved 25 January 1881 (effects under £45,000);

(8) Maria Bigge (1802-29), born 20 May and baptised at Longbenton, 30 June 1802; died unmarried and was buried at Edmonton (Middx), 9 May 1829; will proved in the PCC, 14 May 1829;

(9) Philip Edmund Bigge (1803-23), born 21 November 1803 and baptised at Longbenton, 5 January 1804; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1821); died in Madeira (Portugal), 17 August, and was buried there, 19 August 1823;

(10) Georgiana Bigge (1805-76), born 16 March and baptised at Longbenton, 18 August 1805; married, 28 April 1835 at Beddington (Surrey), George Scovell (1803-90) of Carshalton (Surrey), and had issue four sons and three daughters; buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 25 July 1876;

(11) James Rundell Bigge (1806-53), born 3 March and baptised at St James, Paddington (Middx), 6 April 1806; an officer in the HEICS Bengal army (Cadet, 1821; Ensign, 1822; Lt., 1823; on sick leave, 1830-32 when he retired); married, 7 October 1845 at St Mary-le-Bow, Durham, Margaret (1818-53), daughter of Calverley Bewicke (1780-1865) of Coulby Manor, Hemlington (Yorks NR); died 10 July and was buried at Torquay (Devon), 16 July 1853; administration of his goods (with will annexed) granted in the PCC, 1 November 1853;

(12) Charles Richard Bigge (1808-74), baptised at St Mary Abbotts, Kensington (Middx), 21 January 1809; educated at Westminster School (admitted 1818); partner in Rundell, Bridge & Rundell until the firm was dissolved in 1845; married, 19 May 1835 at Carshalton (Surrey), Kate Sarah (1810-37), daughter of John Thomas Scovell (1776-1854), and had issue one son and one daughter; died 21 April and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 25 April 1874; will proved 8 May 1874 (effects under £4,000);

(13) Emily Jane Bigge (1811-89), born 25 November 1811 and baptised at Kensington, 21 June 1812; died unmarried, 13 October 1889 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery; will proved 13 November 1889 (effects £30,727);

(14) John Francis Bigge (1813-56), born 17 September 1813 and baptised at Kensington, 13 April 1814; admitted to Hayes Mental Asylum, 1852; died unmarried and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, 6 March 1856;

(15) Frances Cecilia Bigge (1815-1908), baptised at Chislehurst (Kent), 7 January 1816; married, 13 June 1839 at St Mary, Bryanston Sq., Marylebone (Middx), Matthew Bell (1817-1903) of Bourne Park (Kent), son of John Bell (1764-1836), and had issue five sons and six daughters; died at Bordighera (Italy), 17 December 1908 but was buried at Bishopsbourne, where she is also commemorated by a brass plaque; her will was proved 4 February 1909 (estate £3,906).

He inherited Benton Hall from his father in 1791 but sold it to his kinsman, Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824) in c.1805, and lived subsequently at various addresses in and around London.

He died 31 October, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, 3 November 1849. His wife died 30 March and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, 4 April 1846.

* Though the Alumni Oxoniensis confuses him with Thomas Hanway Bigge (1784-1824).

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1967, p. 247; J. Hodgson, A history of Northumberland, vol 2, part 2, 1858, pp. 97-99; Sir N. Pevsner, I. Richmond, J. Grundy, G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare, The buildings of England: Northumberland, 2nd edn., 1992, p. 377; J. Davidson, Northumberland's Lost Houses, 3rd edn., 2022, p.18;

https://kingssutton-pc.gov.uk/the-parish/parish-history/

https://heatonhistorygroup.org/2025/10/23/benton-hall-a-lost-mansion/

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive.

Coat of arms

Ermine, on a fesse engrailed gules, between three martlets sable, a mullet between two crescents or.

Can you help?

• If anyone can conclusively demonstrate the parentage of William Bigge (1638?-90) or prove the connection of this family to the Bigges of Benenden, I should be very pleased to hear from them.
• 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 5 January 2026.