(642) Blackburn of Hayne

This family came to affluence as one of the leading wine exporters on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Their business at Quinta da Palmeira is said to have been established in 1760 or 1784 by Thomas and John Blackburn, or by Henry Blackburn, and was inherited by the brothers Robert and George Blackburn, who may have been brothers or cousins. Robert Blackburn (1779-1841), with whom the genealogy below begins, was perhaps responsible for building the rather English-looking house at Quinta da Palmeira, where he lived with his family for much of the early 19th century.

Quinta da Palmeira, Madeira, in 1843.

He then moved back to England, taking a house at Clapham (Surrey) and establishing a wine importing business at 58 Old Broad St., London; the firm later traded as Blackburn, Temple & Robinson. In 1810, Robert married Mary Bellas (1783-1829), who had recently inherited the Brampton Hall estate near Appleby (Westmld) from her uncle, the Rev. Lancelot Bellas, although the hall itself had fallen out of gentry use long before and was never occupied by the Blackburns. Robert and Mary had four sons and three daughters. Their eldest son, the Rev. Robert Blackburn (1812-99), who inherited the Brampton estate, was sent to Oxford and became a Fellow of Brasenose College before taking holy orders and serving as rector of Selham (Sussex) for more than fifty years. The next two sons, Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and Herbert Cautley Blackburn (1816-76), inherited their father's wine importing business, although their interests in Madeira were probably sold in the 1840s. Instead, the brothers opened a wine merchant's business in New York (USA), and acquired a house in Brooklyn which became their American base for the next half century. Edward seems to have managed the New York business and Herbert the London company. Their youngest brother, Henry Leith Blackburn (1822-1905) was never involved in the wine business, but joined the East India Company's Bengal Army. He retired from this service in 1856 and thereafter exhibited increasingly erratic behaviour, which be blamed on sunstroke in India. After a string of prosecutions for indecent assault on young women, he was confined for much of his life in a lunatic asylum.

Edward Blackburn spent much of the 1840s and 1850s living in New York and developing his wine merchant business, although he is known to have made several trips home during this time. By 1855, he evidently felt that the business could be left in the hands of a manager, and he returned to England full-time. After renting houses in south Devon for a number of years, in 1867 he purchased the Hayne estate at Stowford (Devon), where an attractive early 19th century Gothick house had been built about fifty years before. According to one account, the house had been damaged by fire in the 1860s, and repairs were not quite complete at the time of the sale, but I have been unable to find any evidence of a fire, although there do seem to have been alterations and additions to the house at this time. Edward Blackburn and his wife Charlotte Brooking had a large family of six sons and four daughters. Their eldest son, Edward Brooking Blackburn (1844-1900) was born in New York and educated at Oxford, but was largely cut out of his father's will, being left only a modest (and discretionary) annuity. It is unclear what caused the rift between them, but the result was that the next surviving son, Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), was sent to New York to manage the family business in the 1870s, and eventually inherited the Hayne estate, while the younger sons received increased cash bequests. Ernest Murray Blackburn (1856-1943) gave up his post as assistant master at Westminster and used his legacy to found his own prep school at Park House, Southborough (Kent), from which he retired by 1901. 

Little Thakeham: the house built by Lutyens for Ernest Murray Blackburn in 1901-03, which he sold in 1918. 
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

He then bought a small estate of around 130 acres at Thakeham (Sussex) on which he built a new country house, Little Thakeham, to the designs of Edwin Lutyens, although he sold it about 1918. Harold Bellas Blackburn (1859-1942) at first farmed one of the Stowford farms but in 1896 bought Donhead Hall at Donhead St. Mary, which was sold in 1943 following his death. Edward's third daughter, Laura (c.1854-1937), married the rector of Stowford, whose father, the Rev. John Bidlake Woolocombe, published a volume of reminiscences which is one of our chief sources for the history of Hayne and the families associated with it.

Donhead Hall, Donhead St Mary, from the sale particulars of 1943. 

Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), who inherited Hayne in 1887, married in 1875 Manuela Stubbs, the half-Peruvian daughter of an English merchant. She bore him a son and two daughters, but in 1885 she applied for a divorce on the grounds of his cruelty and adultery. Her application was withdrawn and instead she agreed a separation from him in 1886. For some twenty years she maintained her own household with her daughters. In 1906 she again applied to the courts for a judicial separation and alimony after further evidence of his persistent adultery, and this was granted, but by 1911 she was again living with her husband at a house called Rock End in Torquay. Hayne seems to have been let or unoccupied at this time, and Arthur sold it in 1923. Rock End remained the couple's home until their deaths in 1930 and 1934, and was then sold. Their son moved permanently to New York in about 1904, where he was employed in a  stockbroking firm; their elder daughter married a retired New York stockbroker who had settled in Bermuda, but after his death returned to Devon and rather improbably married a Plymouth ironmonger; and their younger daughter lived all her adult life at Paignton (Devon), where she died unmarried in 1963.

Hayne, Stowford, Devon

There has been a residence on the estate since shortly after the Norman Conquest, when the Hayne family built Stowford Castle on high ground to the east of the present house. In the mid 16th century John Harris, serjeant-at-law, 'fairly rebuilded his house at Hayne', making 'a gentile and commodious dwelling for himself and his posterity', and reusing stone from the old castle. Nothing is known of the form of the Tudor house, although it has been suggested that the present service wing may incorporate parts of the building, and the foundations of outbuildings have been discovered north-east of the house. It was a large mansion, being taxed on 26 hearths in 1674, making it the third or fourth largest house in the county.

Hayne, Stowford: engraving of the house from the north-east in about 1850

The present house was built in the first decade of the 19th century for Isaac Donithorne (later Harris), and was evidently completed by 1810. It has distinct similarities to nearby Lifton Park, begun in 1815, and it seems likely that the two houses were designed by the same person; both houses had belonged to the Harris family, although by the early 19th century they had descended through the female line to men who added the Harris name to their patronymic. In his 1898 memoir, From morn till eve, the Rev. John Bidlake Woollocombe, who lived at Stowford and came from gentry family of Great Bidlake, stated that Lifton was designed by George Webber, a relative of the owner, who is not recorded as an architect, and must have been a gentleman amateur. Both houses seem slightly old-fashioned for their date in the limited extent to which they are influenced by the more archaeological approach to Gothic design that became popular in the early 19th century, and there is an amateurish feel about the eclectic choice of motifs used in the designs. Webber therefore seems a more likely candidate than Sir Jeffrey Wyatville (whose authorship of Hayne was first asserted by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1919). Wyatville's career is well documented, and there is nothing to connect him with these houses except that he designed Endsleigh Cottage, a few miles south of Lifton, for the Duke of Bedford in 1810.

Hayne, Stowford: the entrance front in 1984, when the house was semi-derelict.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

The rubble stone entrance front faces north-east and is balanced in outline but not symmetrical in detail. Its nine bays are grouped 2-1-3-1-2, and are united by a castellated parapet, with angled buttresses at the corners, topped with pinnacles. Set into the walls are varied Gothick windows with robust but un-historical tracery, some of it executed in timber. 

Hayne, Stowford: the house from the south in the late 19th century. The pyramid-roofed tower is absent from the earlier engraving
 and was presumably added in the work of the 1860s.

The south-east and south-west fronts use the same palette of castellations, buttresses and tracery, but have three central bays flanked by a tower at one end and a gabled bay at the other. The north-west side forms the service wing and is an irregular L-shape, with a turret in the angle. It overlooks the kitchen court and the kennels and stables which formed the raison d'être of the estate in the early 19th century. There are reports of a fire in the 1860s, and there seem to have been additions at that time - including a pyramid-roofed tower - but it was apparently financial difficulties which forced the sale of the house in 1864, and the repairs are said to have been unfinished at that time. By 1898, the reception rooms were divided between the ground and first floors, and Woollocombe describes the hall, billiard room and dining room being on the ground floor, with the library and drawing room on the first floor, but the internal layout has been further altered since then.

In the later 20th century the house was caught up in an unfortunate family dispute between two branches of the Chichester family, one of whom wished to sell while the other did not, with the result that house rapidly decayed and the grounds were completely neglected. In 1987 Hayne was described as 'semi-ruinous', but the shell was restored over the next five years by Mr & Mrs Brian Richardson, who stripped out many of the decayed interior fittings. In 1994 they sold the estate to the Earl and Countess of Stockton, who embarked on a comprehensive programme of restoration, creating new interiors within the historic shell to the designs of Michael Brooke. The most striking of the new rooms is the remodelled entrance hall, which was given a rib-vaulted Gothick ceiling rising from slender colonettes executed in plasterwork by Hales & Howe of Bristol. At the same time, a long L-shaped galleried library was created out of former service accommodation to the right of the hall. In the south-east corner of the house is the former dining room, which retains a timber-ribbed ceiling and a Gothick chimneypiece, moved here from the hall. Between the dining room and the hall is the main staircase, converted from its original imperial form into a cantilevered dog-leg flight built with slate treads, iron balusters, and a brass rail. The Gothick theme of the house is continued by arched screens on the landing and the details of the skylights. On the first floor the former drawing room has become a ballroom, linked by folding doors to the library next door; both rooms retain their ribbed ceilings and chimneypieces, although the panelling was a casualty of 20th century neglect.

Hayne, Stowford: the house and grounds in 1883 from the Ordnance Survey 1st edn 25" plan

The Tudor house at Hayne was evidently accompanied by a terraced garden, of which some traces were recorded on the first Ordnance Survey 25" plan in 1883. What exists today, however, is the result of a landscaping scheme carried out for Christopher Harris in the early 19th century, and restored and enhanced for the Stocktons around 2000. Harris' ruling passion was hunting (he was a friend of the hunting parson, the Rev. Jack Russell), and in a shallow old quarry in the Wilderness, he created a curious structure which was known as St. Hubert's Hall.

"St Hubert's Hall", Hayne in 1984: the monument to a shared passion for hunting created in the early 19th century by Christopher Mohun-Harris. 
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

This consisted of 22 granite seats set in a circle, each dedicated to one of his hunting companions; according to Woollacombe 'the seats presented a picturesque appearance and were ornamented with a flat wooden fox's head and coat of arms at their back', while over each seat was hung a flag bearing the arms, motto and residence of the stallholder. It is not clear whether gatherings at St Hubert's Hall were abandoned after Harris gave up hunting in 1834, perhaps in response to the death of his huntsman, who was eaten alive by the hounds in the estate kennels. The other main survival in the grounds is a grotto, built of cyclopean masonry, with a shallow pedimental gable and a rustic entrance arch. Inside there were niches around the walls and a vault faced with flints and shells. Woollocombe also mentions a pagoda and a temple in the grounds, but no trace of these remains.

Hayne, Stowford: the grotto in 1984.  Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Descent: John Harris (1507-51); to son, William Harris (c.1526-91); to son, Arthur Harris (1561-1628); to son, John Harris (c.1586-1657); to son, Sir Arthur Harris (d. 1686), 1st bt.; to first cousin once removed, Christopher Harris (fl. 1718); to son, John Harris (d. 1767); to brother, William Harris; to son, Christopher Harris (d. 1775); to son-in-law, Isaac Donithorne (later Harris) (d. 1848); to son, Christopher Harris Mohun Harris (1801-86), who sold 1867 to Edward Blackburn (1815-87); to son, Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), who sold 1923 to Mrs Lillian Wingfield; sold 1951 to Gp. Capt. Chichester... sold 1987 to Mr & Mrs Brian Richardson; sold 1994 to Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan (b. 1943), 2nd Earl of Stockton; sold 2007

Blackburn family of Hayne

Blackburn, Robert (1779-1841). Son of John Blackburn (1733-98) of Sneaton (Yorks) and his wife Bethiah Turner, baptised at Old Malton (Yorks NR), 11 June 1779. Wine merchant at Quinta da Palmeira on the island of Madeira, in partnership with his brother or cousin George. He married, 3 March 1810 at St Chad, Rochdale (Lancs), Mary (1783-1829), daughter of Rev. Thomas Bellas of Rochdale and Long Marton (Westmld.), and had issue:

(1) Mary Eleanor Blackburn (1811-92), born 3 August, and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 26 August 1811; married, 17 January 1838 at St Mark, Kennington (Surrey), Robert Chapman (c.1803-80), of Old Charlton, Greenwich (Kent), inspector general of customs, son of Robert Chapman, gent., and had issue at least one son and three daughters; probably the woman of this name who died at Weymouth (Dorset), 24 July, and was buried at Semington (Wilts), 29 July 1892;

(2) Rev. Robert Blackburn (1812-99), born 17 October and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 29 October 1812; educated at Sherborne School, Queen's and Balliol Colleges, Oxford (matriculated 1830; BA 1834); Fellow of Brasenose College, 1834-44; ordained 1838; rector of Selham (Sussex), 1842-99; inherited the Brampton estate from his father in 1841; married, 11 April 1844 at North Cadbury (Som.), Eliza Frances (1810-75), younger daughter of Charles Casper Clutterbuck of North Cadbury, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 17 January 1899; will proved 20 February 1899 (estate £10,764);

(3) Edward Blackburn (1815-87) (q.v.);

(4) Herbert Cautley Blackburn (1816-76), born 16 December and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 25 December 1816; succeeded to his father's business as a Madeira wine merchant in Old Broad St., London; admitted a freeman of the city of London, 1856; married 1st, 22 June 1851 at St Paul, Edinburgh, Catherine (d. 1855), niece of Sir William Allan RA PRSA (1782-1850), artist, and 2nd, 12 December 1860 at Edinburgh, Alice Horner (1836-91), daughter of Robert Nasmyth of Edinburgh, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; died 25 June 1876 and was buried at Paddington Old Cemetery (Middx); will proved 16 October 1876 (effects under £18,000);

(5) Emma Blackburn (1818-58?), born 20 April and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 30 April 1818; married, 16 February 1841 at Kennington (Surrey), Edward Digby Bickerton Murray (1812-76), of Liverpool and later of Portsea (Hants), insurance broker and later wine merchant (who m2, 20 December 1864 at Cheetham (Lancs), Mary (1821-91), daughter of William Holdsworth), son of Admiral Robert Murray (c.1763-1834), and had issue two sons; probably the Emma Murray who died in Liverpool in 1858;

(6) Henry Leith Blackburn (1822-1905), born in Madeira, 12 February 1822; educated at Sherborne and Winchester; an officer in the East India Co.'s Bengal Army (Ensign, 1842; Lt., 1844; Capt., 1852; retired 1856), who was court martialled for 'conduct unbecoming' in 1848 and severely reprimanded; he later claimed to have suffered from sunstroke in India with permanent effects on his mental health, and he spent periods in mental hospitals at Hackney and Carmarthen; he was prosecuted for indecent assault and exposing himself on three occasions, in 1859, 1869 and 1873, and on the last occasion was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour, but was removed to the Royal India Lunatic Asylum, Ealing (Middx), where he seems to have spent much of the rest of his life; he died unmarried in the Royal Naval Hospital, Great Yarmouth (Norfk), 9 April, and was buried at Great Yarmouth,14 April 1905; administration of goods granted 1 July 1905 (estate £5,281);

(7) Frances Elizabeth Blackburn (1823-61), born 15 October 1823 and baptised at Holy Trinity, Clapham (Surrey), 7 April 1824; lived in an all-female household at Bishop Tawton (Devon), and died unmarried, June 1861.

He lived at Quinta da Palmeira on the island of Madeira, and later at Clapham Rise (Surrey). He bequeathed his estate in Madeira to his brother and nephew, as trustees for sale. In 1809 his wife inherited, from her uncle, Rev. Lancelot Bellas, the manor house of Brampton Hall nr Appleby (Westmld).

He died 22 January, and was buried at Clapham (Surrey), 27 January 1841; his will was proved in the PCC, 19 March 1841. His wife died 17 May 1829.

Blackburn, Edward (1815-87). Second son of Robert Blackburn (1779-1841) and his wife Mary, daughter of Rev. Thomas Bellas of Rochdale (Lancs) and Long Marton (Westmld.), born 9 June and baptised at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), 1 July 1815. Educated at Sherborne. Wine importer in New York (USA) and London. He married, 11 July 1843 at Dartmouth (Devon), Charlotte (1822-1919), daughter of Nicholas Brooking of Dartmouth, and had issue:

(1) Edward Brooking Blackburn (1844-1900), born at Brooklyn, New York, 5 April 1844; educated at Marlborough and Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1863; BA 1868; MA 1899); lived at Stowford Cottage; excluded from his father's will apart from a discretionary annuity of no more than £500 a year; died unmarried in Florence (Italy), 4 December 1900; administration of goods granted to his eldest sister, 22 January 1901 (estate £192);

(2) Emma Brooking Blackburn (1845-1919), born 4 October and baptised at St Saviour, Dartmouth, 31 October 1845; lived in Westminster (Middx); died unmarried at Brighton (Sussex), 11 May 1919; will proved 28 July 1919 (estate £26,300);

(3) Henry Blackburn (1847-48), born about February 1847; died in infancy at Brooklyn, New York, 14 November 1848;

(4) Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930) (q.v.);

(5) Mary Charlotte Blackburn (1851-1947), born in New York, 28 February 1851; married, 25 September 1905 at St Peter, Bournemouth (Hants), Henry Francis Garnier le Patourel (1871-1906), son of Messurier le Patourel, of St Peter Port (Guernsey), journalist, but had no issue; died aged 96 on 17 September 1947 and was buried at Torquay (Devon); will proved 9 January 1948 (estate £65,887);

(6) Laura Blackburn (c.1854-1937), born in the USA; married, 2 January 1878 at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, Paddington (Middx), Rev. John Henry Bidlake Wollocombe (1854-1930) of Stowford (Devon), son of Rev. John Bidlake Wollocombe of Great Bidlake (Devon), vicar of Lamerton (Devon), and had issue four sons; died 4 January 1937; will proved 16 February 1937 (estate £7,858);

(7) Alice Maud Blackburn (1855-1939), born in New York, 7 March 1855; married, 30 April 1881 at St Augustine, Queen's Gate, South Kensington (Middx), as his second wife, Stephen Roland Woulfe (1822-99) of Tiermaclane House* (Co. Clare) and London, and had issue one son (who died young) and one daughter; as a widow lived at Shaftesbury (Dorset); died 18 October 1939 and was buried at Donhead St Mary (Wilts); will proved 2 January 1940 (estate £56,521);

(8) Ernest Murray Blackburn (1856-1943), born 26 November 1856 and baptised at West Teignmouth (Devon), 26 January 1857; educated at Winchester and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1876; BA 1880; MA 1882); schoolteacher; assistant master at Westminster, 1881-86; headmaster of Park House Preparatory School, Southborough (Kent), 1887; he retired by 1901 and built a country house at Little Thakeham to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens, which he sold in about 1918; married, 28 July 1891 at St Mark, Broadwater, Frant (Sussex), Fanny Julia (1870-1954), third daughter of George James Greystone Reid, and had issue two sons and four daughters; died 13 February 1943; will proved 9 July 1943 (estate £4,475);

(9) Harold Bellas Blackburn (1859-1942), born 6 July and baptised at West Ogwell (Devon), 24 July 1859; educated at Winchester College; purchased Donhead Hall, Donhead St Mary (Wilts), in 1896 and lived there until his death**; married, 1 January 1895 at St John, Bathwick (Som.), Constance Verena (1869-1956), younger daughter of Rev. Richard Thomas Blagden (1826-98), vicar of Broadwoodwidger (Devon), and had issue two daughters; died 25 January 1942; will proved 28 May 1943 (estate £14,952);

(10) Robert Blackburn (1860-1926), born 28 July and baptised at West Ogwell, 14 October 1860; merchant; said to have married but had no issue; died at Levallois-Perret, Paris (France), 6 October 1926.

In 1861 he was living at West Ogwell (Devon). He purchased the Hayne estate at Stowford in 1867.

He died 27 August, and was buried at Stowford, 1 September 1887; his will was proved 9 January and 14 March 1888 (effects £92,117). His widow lived latterly in London and died aged 96 on 26 February 1919; administration of her goods was granted 12 November 1919 (estate £30,901).

* Tiermaclane House was in ruins by 1840, possibly following a fire. 

** It was sold in 1943, following his death.

Blackburn, Arthur (1849-1930). Third son of Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Nicholas Brooking of Dartmouth (Devon), born 21 August 1849. Manager of his father's wine importing business in New York (USA) in the 1870s. His wife sought a divorce in 1885 but withdrew her petition and agreed a separation the following year; she was granted a judicial separation in 1906 on the grounds of his repeated adultery with Bessie Pengelly (a servant at Hayne) and Maria Augusta Dalton, but had returned to live with her husband by 1911. He married, 4 August 1875, at St James, Paddington (Middx), Manuela Georgina Alice (1853-1934), second daughter of Charles Edward Stubbs of Arequipa (Peru) and later of London, and had issue:

(1) Claud Arthur Charles Blackburn (1876-1941), born in New York 15 June 1876 but was brought to England by his parents; returned to New York about 1904; employed as clerk at Chisholm & Chapman, stockbrokers, on Broadway, New York; married, 12 November 1902 at the Church of the Resurrection, Richmond Hill, New York, Edna Isobel Summerfield (1875-1953), but had no issue; lived at Brooklyn, New York, and died there 25 April 1941; will proved 13 December 1945 (estate in England, £13,647);

(2) Violet Ethel Blackburn (1877-1965), born 9 September and baptised at All Saints, Margaret St., Marylebone (Middx), 5 October 1877; married 1st, 10 May 1923 at the Church of the Transfiguration, New York, Alexander Ewing Tucker (1852-1934) of Paget (Bermuda), a retired American stockbroker and a member of the Bermudan Parliament; and 2nd, 19 November 1941 at St Jude, Plymouth (Devon), as his second wife, (Thomas) Harold Hearn Martin (1886-1967); died 13 March 1965; will proved 14 March 1966 but subject of a Chancery order, 28 April 1967 (estate £7,146);

(3) (Kathleen) Olive Blackburn (1884-1963), born 1 September and baptised at Stowford, 19 October 1884; educated at Queen Anne's School, Caversham (Oxon) and Kensington High School (Middx); lived at Paignton (Devon) and was president of Paignton Cage Bird Fanciers' Society, 1942-48; died unmarried, 2 February 1963; will proved 10 April 1963 (estate £14,968).

He inherited the Hayne estate from his father in 1887, but sold it in 1923. He was already resident at Rock End, Torquay in 1911; it was sold by the executors of his widow in 1935.

He died 1 April 1930 and was buried at Torquay Cemetery; his will was proved 27 May 1930 (estate £34,040). His widow died 5 November 1934 and was buried with her husband at Torquay Cemetery; her will was proved 11 March 1935 (estate £3,621).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 194; Rev. J.B. Woollocombe, From morn till eve, 1898; B. Cherry & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Devon, 2nd edn., 1984, pp. 465-66; H. Meller, The country houses of Devon, 2015, pp. 496-98;

http://www.rawes.co.uk/families/brooking/brookingmanuscript.htm. 

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive.

Coat of arms

None recorded.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide evidence for the fire that is supposed to have occurred at Hayne in the 1860s, or what was done by way of post-fire reconstruction?
• Does anyone know what caused the rift between Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and his eldest son, Edward Brooking Blackburn?
• Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 9 August 2026 and was updated 17 August 2026.

(641) Blaauw of Beechland

Blaauw of Beechland

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

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

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

Beechland, Newick, Sussex

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blaauw family of Beechland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

William Henry Blaauw (1793-1870) 

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

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

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

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

(2.2) Henry William Gillman Blaauw (1834-57), born 9 March 1834; educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1852; BA 1856) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1856); an officer in the West Sussex Militia; died unmarried at Cairo (Egypt), 25 March 1857, and was buried at Newick, 8 April 1858;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Principal sources

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

Location of archives

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

Coat of arms

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

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide any evidence for an attribution of the remodelling of Beechland in 1834-37?
• Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 1 August 2026 and updated 2 August 2026.

(639) Bisset of Lessendrum

Bisset of Lessendrum

The Bissets are a very ancient Scottish family, who are said to have acquired Lessendrum in 1252. They built a tower house on the estate in the late 15th century, and this in turn was replaced by an L-plan mansion in the 17th century. The estate was forfeited after the death in battle of Patrick Bisset in 1562, and was out of the family until 1611, when George Bisset (c.1550-1623), 'the restorer' recovered possession. The genealogy below begins with him. The family were at this time staunch Roman Catholics, and George's son Robert Bisset (d. 1646) and the latter's daughter Isobel were both arraigned before the Turriff Presbytery for failure to sign the Solemn League and Covenant and excommunicated, while one of his younger sons was a Catholic priest. In the late 1640s, Robert's son and heir, Alexander Bisset (d. 1693) was also in trouble with the Presbytery and with the Scottish Privy Council, although he seems to have avoided excommunication. Subsequent generations appear to have conformed to the established church. Alexander's eldest son, Robert Bisset (d. 1651) married a daughter of Sir Alexander Abercromby of Birkenbog and had several children, but only one surviving son. This was James Bisset (1682?-1747), who had a large family but only two sons, one of whom died in his lifetime. His heir was therefore his younger son, Alexander Bisset (1734-95), who was unmarried and settled the estate on his surviving sisters for life, with remainder to his cousin, Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821). Maurice was descended from Major William Bisset (1661?-1727), the second son of Alexander Bisset (d. 1693), who became an officer in the army and settled first in Westminster and later in Southampton (Hants).

In 1741, Major Bisset's daughter, Sophia (b. 1711), became the second wife of Maj-Gen. Maurice Bocland (c.1695-1765) of Knighton House (Isle of Wight), and ten years later Sophia's brother, the Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82), married the General's daughter (by his first marriage), Jane. Alexander was ordained in the Church of England but after five years in a country parish in Northamptonshire, found preferment in the Church of Ireland, where he quickly rose to become Archdeacon of Connor and eventually Chancellor of Armagh Cathedral. Although senior Church of Ireland clergy were quite often non-resident at this time, Alexander does seem to have lived in Ireland, and his second son, the Rt Rev. William Bisset (1758-1834), had a similarly illustrious clerical career and ended his days as Bishop of Raphoe. It is said that he was invited in his last years to became Archbishop of Dublin, but declined due to his age and increasing infirmity.

Gillray cartoon of Sir Richard Worsley assisting his friend
 Maurice Bisset to watch Lady Worsley bathing. 

Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821) was the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset, and inherited Knighton House from his maternal grandfather in 1765. After coming of age in 1778 he seems to have moved to the Isle of Wight, where he soon began a scandalous affair with Lady Worsley, the wife of his neighbour, Sir Richard Worsley of Appledurcombe, which resulted in the birth of a child, who died in infancy. Although Worsley appears to have been not only tolerant of, but also complicit in, his wife's affairs, he eventually brought an action for 'criminal conversation' (adultery) against Bisset. The jury convicted Bisset but awarded damages of a derisory shilling, as the evidence given at the trial demonstrated that Sir Richard knew Lady Worsley had been serially unfaithful and that her husband had invited his friends to admire her charms while she was naked in her bath. Whether the scandal affected Maurice Bisset's eligibility is unclear, but when he married in 1787 it was to an illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Peterborough; they had two daughters, Jane Harriott Bisset (1789-1866) and Ann Bisset (1798-1879), who sold the Knighton estate in 1823.

In 1815, Maurice George Bisset inherited the Lessendrum estate on the death of his kinswoman, Mary Abel, the last surviving sister of Alexander Bisset (1734-95). When he died in 1821, this property passed to his next brother, the Rt. Rev. William Bisset (1758-1834), under the entail established by Alexander Bisset. Since the bishop lived in Ireland he seems to have let the house at Lessendrum, although he did occasionally visit it for holidays, and it was on one such holiday that he died in 1834. Under the entail, the estate then passed to his nephew, William Bisset (1797-1858), who probably found the house in poor repair after nearly half a century when it had been mostly let. In 1837 he employed Archibald Simpson to undertake a major campaign of repairs and enlargement, but although it became his principal residence he seems also to rented a succession of properties in England where he spent a good deal of his time. William and his wife had only one child, a daughter, Jane Frances Bisset (1832-91), who was twice married and lived in Devon. She was excluded from succession to Lessendrum by the operation of the entail, which instead dictated that on the extinction of male heirs of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82), the property should pass to the eldest daughter of the senior line of his descendants. This was Jane Harriot Bisset (1789-1866), the elder daughter of Maurice George Bisset of Knighton House.

Jane Harriot Bisset had inherited Dauntsey House (Wilts) from her uncle, the 5th and last Earl of Peterborough, in 1814, and in 1824 married her cousin, the Rev. Maurice George Fenwick (1797-1879), who began life as an officer in the King's Dragoon Guards but later took holy orders and was rector of Drumholm (Co. Donegal) and from 1846-51, archdeacon of Raphoe. She handed over the Dauntsey estate to their son around 1840, and it is unclear where they lived after her husband resigned the archdeaconry in 1851 until in 1858 she inherited Lessendrum under the entail. She and her husband took the surname Fenwick-Bisset soon afterwards and they moved to Scotland. Their son, Mordaunt Fenwick (later Fenwick-Bisset) (1825-84) sold Dauntsey House in 1853 and rented Pixton Park (Somerset), which was ideally located for the indulgence of his passion for stag hunting. In 1851 he married Susan Popham and they inherited Bagborough House (Somerset) from her family. He also acquired Lessendrum on the death of his mother in 1866, although it continued to be occupied by his father until 1879. When he died without issue in 1884, Bagborough reverted to the Pophams and Lessendrum passed to his sister, Janet (1826-1905), the widow of Dr Joseph Favière Elrington, an Irish lawyer. She took the name Elrington-Bisset after inheriting Lessendrum, and left the estate to her eldest surviving son, Maj. Maurice Elrington-Bisset (1854-1909), who served with the Royal Engineers and the Ordnance Survey. He and his wife had one son and one daughter, who succeeded in turn to the Lessendrum estate. His son, Walter Favière Elrington-Bisset (1889-1915) was killed in action at the Battle of Loos during the First World War, whereupon the estate devolved on his sister, Janet (1886-1953) later the wife of Lt-Col. William Turner Murray (1889-1949). They took the name Murray-Bisset, and had one son and two daughters, but Lessendrum was burned down in 1928 and never repaired or rebuilt. They retained the estate but lived at Mayen, Rothiemay (Banffs.) and later in a dower house at Lessendrum. The estate descended to their son, John Mordaunt Murray-Bisset (1926-90), who built a new farmhouse on the estate in the 1970s but subsequently sold the estate in 1981.

Lessendrum House, Drumblade, Aberdeenshire

The Bissets are said to have built a tower house here in about 1470, which was in turn replaced by a L-plan house in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, this building was developed into a courtyard house with additions and alterations in 1816 and 1837. The latter works largely produced the house that was recorded later, and were designed by Archibald Simpson for William Bisset (1797-1858) on a bold scale, with a series of large reception rooms with big windows set above a much lower ground floor containing service accommodation. The main (north-west) front is all Simpson's work, and has a gabled bay and tower at the north end balanced by a larger canted bay gable with octagonal buttresses at the south end. The house is built of rubble stone, originally harled, and has diagonally-shafted chimneystacks of Tudor inspiration.

Lessendrum House: the older part of the house before the fire of 1928.

Lessendrum House: the wing added by Archibald Simpson in 1837, before the fire.

Regrettably, the house was completely gutted by a fire on 12 January 1928, which is understood to have started in the furnace room where the central heating boiler was kept. A shortage of equipment prevented the Huntly fire brigade from bringing the fire under control, and although the most important paintings and some furniture and personal possessions were rescued before the fire became too intense, the majority of the family's belongings were destroyed, including a valuable library and the family muniments. 

Lessendrum House: the ruins in 2015. Image: Anne Burgess. Some rights reserved.

In the end only the external walls were left standing, and parts of those have since collapsed: the house has remained a ruin ever since, slowly disintegrating and being swallowed by ivy. The family retained the estate after the fire, but lived elsewhere until 1958, when they returned to live on the estate, and in 1972 a new farmhouse was built as a replacement for the old mansion. The estate was finally sold in 1981.

Descent: Patrick Bisset (d. 1562); to son, George Bisset (c.1550-1623); to son, Robert Bisset (d. 1646); to son, Alexander Bisset (d. 1693); to son, Robert Bisset (b. 1651); to son, James Bisset (1682?-1747); to son, Alexander Bisset (1734-95), who settled the property on his sisters for life with remainder to his cousin, Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821); to brother, Rt Rev. William Bisset (1758-1834), bishop of Raphoe; to nephew, William Bisset (1797-1858); to cousin, Jane Harriot Bisset (1789-1866), wife of Ven. Maurice George Bisset (1797-1879); to son, Mordaunt Fenwick Bisset (1825-84); to sister, Janet (1826-1905), wife of Dr Joseph Faviere Elrington (1823-83); to son, Maj. Maurice Elrington (later Elrington-Bisset) (1854-1909); to son, Walter Faviere Elrington-Bisset (1889-1915); to sister, Janet Kathleen (1886-1953), wife of Lt-Col. William Turner Murray (later Murray-Bisset) (1889-1949), during whose ownership the house was destroyed by fire; to son, John Mordaunt Murray-Bisset (1926-90), who sold 1981...

Knighton House (aka Knighton Gorges), Newchurch, Isle of Wight

The house was described by Sir Henry Englefield in his Description of the principal picturesque beauties, antiquities etc. of the isle of Wight in 1816 as 'by far the most considerable and beautiful of the ancient mansions of the island'. The irregular plan and elevations revealed by surviving drawings and engravings suggest that it was a substantial medieval house to which piecemeal later alterations and additions were made. 

Knighton Gorges House: the mansion in 1781 from Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight.

Knighton Gorges House: the mansion in 1816, from Englefield's Description.. of the Isle of Wight.

Most of the identifiable features at the time it was recorded seem to have been 16th or early 17th century. Englefield's description is worth quoting in full:

The principal front to the north is of the age of Elizabeth, irregular and broken by projections. The windows are large, divided by stone mullions, square headed and without any smaller arches in the angles of the lights. The general form very good, and the stone of which the whole house, except the chimneys, is built , is of an extremely fine grey tint. The west end of the house is enveloped in ivy which winds lightly round a tall stack of clustered chimneys, and embroiders with its deep green shoots the glowing yellow of the ancient mossy-tiled roof. This has been closely trimmed, injuring its beauty and giving a rather formal appearance. At the north-east angle of the house is a plain square tower of great strength and antiquity, in whose foundations there is a dungeon of considerable depth. Near this tower part of a very handsome pointed window, similar to windows in Arreton church and the chapel at Swainston. This has been partly obliterated by the insertion of a window of the same date as the north front. The south front has been modernised by sash windows, but the colour is good and two great gables remain uninjured.

The house contains several large and convenient rooms. Some have a handsome wainscot, probably contemporary with the north front. The drawing room on the first floor is spacious and handsome. A long gallery, low and ill-lighted, extends through the centre of the house, under the roof. No painted glass remains in the windows, except one coat with the arms of Isabella de Fortibus, but this appears to be of date much later than her time.

Englefield's description is all we have to go on, for the house was completely demolished soon afterwards. It is often said that Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821) objected so strongly to his elder daughter's marriage to her cousin, the Rev. Maurice George Fenwick, that when they disregarded his wishes and married anyway, he pulled down the house to ensure that his oath that they would never set foot in Knighton Gorges again was realised. This is just a fairy story, however, for the marriage did not take place until three years after his death and his will left generous provision for his wife and both daughters. The Victoria County History records that in fact the house was demolished in 1820 after a serious fire. The gardens west and south-west of the house site have been the subject of archaeological investigation, and continued to be maintained for some time after the house was pulled down. They comprised a series of compartments surrounded by 18th century banks and brick walls, and in the east wall there is still an alcove with an arched entrance. The only other survival is a pair of 18th century gatepiers south of the house site. Of the ancient chapel on the edge of the lake mentioned in Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight (1781) and Englefield, no trace remains.

Descent: sold 1563 to Anthony Dillington; to son, Sir Robert Dillington (d. 1604); to nephew, Sir Robert Dillington (d. 1664), 1st bt; to son, Sir Robert Dillington (c.1634-87), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir Robert Dillington (c.1664-89), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir John Dillington (d. 1706), 4th bt.; to half-uncle, Sir Tristram Dillington (c.1678-1721), 5th bt.; to sisters, Mary and Hannah Dillington; to nephew, Gen. Maurice Bocland (d. 1765); to grandson, Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821), who pulled the house down after a fire; estate sold 1823 to Sir Samuel Spicer...

Bisset family of Lessendrum

Bisset, George (c.1550-1623). Son of Patrick Bisset (d. 1562) and his wife, born about 1550. He married and had issue, probably among others:

(1) Robert Bisset (d. 1646) (q.v.);

(2) Fr. George Bisset, a Roman Catholic priest.

In 1611 he recovered the Lessendrum estate, which had been forfeited after his father was killed in rebellion at the Battle of Corrichie in 1562.

He died 25 January 1623 and was buried at Drumblade (Aberdeens.), where he is commemorated by a monument. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bisset, Robert (d. 1646). Elder recorded son of George Bisset (c.1550-1623) and his wife. He was a Roman Catholic in religion and was excommunicated by the established church for refusing to attend the kirk of Turriff or to sign the Solemn League and Covenant. He married, [forename unknown], second daughter 0f George Gordon of Cocklarachie, and had issue including:

(1) Alexander Bisset (d. 1693) (q.v.);

(2) Jean Bisset; married, 1633/4, James Gordon (d. 1643), and had issue at least one son;

(3) Isobel Bisset; a Roman Catholic in religion, she was excommunicated by the Presbytery of Turriff for refusing to attend the kirk or sign the Solemn League and Covenant; died unmarried;

(4) Helen Bisset; married 1st, Robert Crichton of Bainshole and Drumdollo, and 2nd, Alexander Gordon of Birkenburn and had issue three sons.

He inherited Lessendrum from his father in 1623, and was probably responsible for replacing the castle with an L-plan house.

He died in 1646. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bisset, Alexander (d. 1693). Son of Robert Bisset (d. 1646) and his wife [forename unknown], second daughter of George Gordon of Cocklarachie, born before 1632. A Roman Catholic in religion, like his father, he was denounced as a rebel by the Privy Council, and was repeatedly hauled before the Presbytery of Turriff, who ordered him to sign the Solemn League and Covenant and then to confess to other sins and do penance on his knees before the congregation. He married, 1650, Anne (d. 1714), daughter of Robert Gordon of Straloch, and had issue including:

(1) Robert Bisset (b. 1651) (q.v.);

(2) Maj. William Bisset (b. 1661?) (q.v.);

(3) George Bisset (fl. 1742);

(4) Charles Bisset (d. 1742);

(5) Lewis Bisset;

(6) Alexander Bisset.

He inherited Lessendrum from his father in 1646, but was not served heir until 1652.

He died in 1693. His widow died in 1714.

Bisset, Robert (b. 1651). Eldest son of Alexander Bisset (d. 1693) and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Gordon of Straloch, born 1651. He married, 1681 (contract 6 June), Agnes (b. 1663), eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Abercromby (1608-84), 1st bt., of Birkenbog, and his second wife, Jean Sutherland of Kinminity, and had issue:

(1) James Bisset (1682?-1747);

(2) Alexander Bisset; accidentally drowned;

(3) Jane Bisset; married, 1730, James Gordon (d. 1771), of Cocklarachie, and had issue two sons and two daughters;

(4) Margaret Bisset;

(5) Ann Bisset; married, 1706, Peter Gordon (d. 1762) of Ardmeallie (who m2, Mary, eldest daughter of James Duff of Crombie, and had further issue two sons and two daughters), and had issue three children, who all died young.

He inherited Lessendrum from his father in 1693.

His date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bisset, James (1682?-1747). Elder son of Robert Bisset (b. 1651) and his wife Agnes, daughter of Sir Alexander Abercromby, 1st bt., of Birkenbog, born after 1681. He married, 1722, Anne (1706-82), daughter of Alexander Dun of Tarty, and had issue, perhaps among others:

(1) Robert Bisset (b. 1723), baptised at Drumblade, 14 October 1723; died in the lifetime of his father;

(2) Anne Bisset (fl. 1795); she and her sisters inherited the Lessendrum estate from her brother in 1795 as co-heirs; died unmarried;

(3) Agnes Bisset (b. 1726), baptised at Drumblade, 22 November 1726; she and her sisters inherited the Lessendrum estate from her brother in 1795 as co-heirs; died unmarried;

(4) Mary Bisset (d. 1815); married, 25 April 1769 at Drumblade, Rev. George Abel (c.1737-94) of Drumblade (Aberdeens.); she and her sisters inherited the Lessendrum estate from her brother in 1795 as co-heirs, of whom she was the last survivor; died in Aberdeen, 6 December 1815;

(5) Jean Bisset (b. 1728), baptised at Drumblade, 12 April 1728;

(6) Margaret Bisset (b. 1730), baptised at Drumblade, 24 December 1730; she and her sisters inherited the Lessendrum estate from her brother in 1795 as co-heirs;

(7) Elizabeth Bisset (b. 1732), baptised at Drumblade, 22 June 1732; she and her sisters inherited the Lessendrum estate from her brother in 1795 as co-heirs;

(8) Alexander Bisset (1734-95) (q.v.);

(9) Catherine Bisset; probably died young.

He inherited Lessendrum from his father. At his death the estate passed to his son Alexander and then to his daughters as co-heirs.

He died in 1747; his will was confirmed 18 June 1747. His widow died in 1782.

Bisset, Alexander (1734-95). Second, but only surviving, son of James Bisset (d. 1747) and his wife Anne, daughter of Alexander Dun of Tarty, baptised at Drumblade, 27 January 1734. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited the Lessendrum estate from his father in 1748 and came of age in 1755. He later settled the estate on his sisters for life with remainder to his cousin, Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821) (q.v.).

He died in London, 1 August 1795; his will was confirmed in Edinburgh, 6 November 1795.

Bisset, Maj. William (1661?-1727). Second son of Alexander Bisset (d. 1693) and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Gordon of Straloch, said to have been born in 1661. An officer in the army (Capt. 1695; Maj., 1711; still serving in 1717). He married, 1 September 1698 at All Hallows the Great, London, Mary, daughter of Thomas Sutton of Kensington (Middx), and had issue:

(1) Mary Bisset (c.1700-61?), born about 1700; married, 8 December 1718* at St Edmund King & Martyr, Lombard St., London, William Trelawny (b. 1696), army officer (Capt.), son of Brig-Gen. Henry Trelawny MP, and had issue four sons (including Capt. Sir William Trelawny RN, 6th bt., Governor of Jamaica); said to have died in 1761;

(2) William Bisset (1703-17), born 7 November and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 18 November 1703; said to have died young at Southampton (Hants) in 1717, and is not mentioned in his father's will;

(3) Martha Bisset (b. 1705), born 27 July and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, 31 July 1705; probably the woman of this name who married, 6 August 1726 at St Clement Danes, Westminster (Middx), Arthur Pye; death not traced;

(4) Ann Bisset (1708-15); died young and was buried at Holy Rood, Southampton, 27 July 1715;

(5) Sophia Bisset (b. 1711); married, 4 November 1741 at Bristol Cathedral (Glos), as his second wife, Lt-Gen. Maurice Bocland (c.1695-1765) of Knighton House, Newchurch (IoW), MP for Yarmouth (IoW), 1733-34, Lymington (Hants), 1734-41, Yarmouth, 1741-47 and Newtown (IoW), 1747-54, but had no issue; death not traced;

(6) Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82) (q.v.).

He lived in Westminster (Middx) and probably later at Southampton.

He is said to have died in Southampton, 18 July 1727; his will was proved 10 November 1727. His wife predeceased him, and is said to have died in Southampton in 1722.

* The parish register gives her name as Ann Bisset, but her father's will makes it clear that it was Mary who married William Trelawny.

Bisset, Rev. Dr. Alexander (c.1714-82). Second son of Maj. William Bisset and his wife, born about 1714. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1734; BA 1738; MA 1741; BD and DD 1753). Ordained deacon, 1742, and priest, 1742. Rector of Ravensthorpe (Northants), 1742-47, Ballinderry and Tamlaght (Co. Armagh), 1751-57, and Carrick (Co. Louth), 1757-65; Chancellor of Down Cathedral, 1748-59; prebendary of Armagh Cathedral, 1757-65; archdeacon of Connor, 1759-82; Chancellor of Armagh Cathedral, 1765-82. He married, 14 October 1752 at Charlton Mackrell (Som.), Jane, daughter of General Bocland alias Buckland (1695-1765) of Knighton House, Newchurch (IoW), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Bisset (c.1755-1846), born about 1755; married, 4 August 1786 at Conway in Clynnog Fawr (Caernarvons.), William Fenwick (1750-1825) of Dublin and later Beaumaris (Anglesey), an official of the Customs House in Dublin, son of Robert Fenwick (1717-1802) of Lemmington (Northbld.), and had issue five sons (including the Ven. Maurice George Fenwick (later Bisset), who married his cousin, Jane Harriot Bisset (1789-1866) (q.v.)) and one daughter; died 2 October 1846 and was buried in the Cathedral churchyard at Raphoe;

(2) Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821) (q.v.);

(3) Rt. Rev. William Bisset (1758-1834) (q.v.);

(4) Alexander Bisset (b. 1761) (q.v.);

(5) Jane Bisset (1762-71), born 11 May 1762; died young, 12 February 1771 and was buried at Kilmore (Co. Armagh), where she is commemorated by a monument;

(6) Henry Bisset (1764-80), born about 1764; died at sea, off Ushant, 10 August 1780;

(7) Rev. Dr. George Bisset (c.1765-1828); educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1783; BA 1787; MA 1790); ordained deacon, 1793, and priest, 1793; vicar of Malmesbury, 1793-1828 and rector of Dauntsey, 1800-28; chaplain to Charles Henry Mordaunt, 5th Earl of Peterborough, 1800-14; curate of Stratton (Glos), 1823; married, 2 September 1820 at Westport St Mary (Wilts), Lady Catherine (1775-1850), daughter of John Howard (1739-1820), 15th Earl of Suffolk and 8th Earl of Berkshire, but had no issue; buried at Dauntsey, 29 November 1828; administration of goods with will annexed granted in the PCC, 23 December 1828;

(8) Sophia Bisset (c.1767-1837), born about 1767; married, 27 June 1810 at Hampstead Norris (Berks), Gen. Sir Robert Brownrigg (1758-1833), 1st bt., Governor of Ceylon, 1813-19, but had no issue; died 25 April 1837; will proved 29 June 1837.

His date of death is unknown; his will was proved in the PCC, 14 March 1782. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bisset, Maurice George (1757-1821). Eldest son of Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82) and his wife Jane, daughter of Lt-Gen. Maurice Bocland of Knighton (IoW), born 1757. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1775) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1779). An officer in the South Hampshire Militia; JP for Hampshire. In 1781-82 he had a scandalous affair with Lady Worsley, the wife of his neighbour, Sir Richard Worsley of Appledurcombe (IoW), and she bore him an illegitimate daughter, whose paternity was accepted by Sir Richard to avoid scandal. Lady Worsley had at least half a dozen known lovers (some accounts say there were dozens), and when her marriage broke down she eloped with Maurice Bisset, bringing charges of 'criminal conversation' on him from Sir Richard, who sought £20,000 in damages; he was found guilty but nominal damages of one shilling were awarded, as there was evidence that Sir Richard had not only been aware of his wife's affairs but had encouraged them. He subsequently married, 14 October 1787 at All Saints, Southampton (Hants), Harriet (1752-1833), illegitimate daughter of Charles Mordaunt (c.1710-79), 4th Earl of Peterborough (by his mistress and subsequently second wife, Robiniana), and had issue:

(1) Jane Harriot Bisset (1789-1866) (q.v.);

(2) Ann Bisset (1798-1879), baptised at Newchurch (IoW), 19 September 1798; lived latterly at Forest Cottage, Binfield (Berks); died unmarried, 16 June, and was buried at Binfield, 21 June 1879; will proved 18 July 1879 (effects under £12,000).

His daughter by Lady Worsley was:

(X1) Jane Seymour Worsley (1781-82), baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), 25 August 1781; died in infancy and was buried at St James, Paddington (Middx), 10 February 1782.

He inherited Knighton House from his maternal grandfather in 1765 and came of age in 1778. He inherited Lessendrum in 1816 under the settlement made by Alexander Bisset (1734-95) on the death of the latter's sister, Mary Abel.

He died at Lessendrum, 16 December 1821 and was buried at Drumblade; his will was proved in the PCC, 25 May 1822. His widow died in 1833; her will was proved in the PCC, 31 December 1833.

Rt. Rev. William Bisset (1758-1834) 

Bisset, Rt. Rev. William (1758-1834). Second son of Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82) and his wife Jane, daughter of Lt-Gen. Maurice Bocland of Knighton (IoW), born 27 October 1758. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1775; BA 1779; MA 1782); incorporated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1804). Ordained deacon, 1782, and priest, 1782. Perpetual curate of Dunbin and Ballymakenny, 1785-91; prebendary of Loughgall in diocese of Armagh, 1791-1807; rector of Clonmore, 1794-1807, Donoughmore, 1807-12 and  Loughgilly, 1812-17; Archdeacon of Ross, 1804-22; Chancellor of Armagh Cathedral, 1817-22; Bishop of Raphoe, 1822-34, where he built several churches in the diocese and improved the bishop's palace. He was the author of The Complete History of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1807. He married, 14 May 1789 at St Thomas, Salisbury (Wilts), Jane (1762-1823), daughter of Walter Earle of Blandford Forum (Dorset), but had no issue.

He inherited Lessendrum from his brother in 1821, but did not occupy it; it was mostly let to tenants.

He died while on holiday at Lessendrum, 4 September 1834, and was buried there; a tablet to his memory was erected at Raphoe. His wife died 20 March 1823 and was buried in the Cathedral churchyard at Raphoe.

Bisset, Alexander (b. 1761). Third son of Rev. Dr. Alexander Bisset (c.1714-82) and his wife Jane, daughter of Lt-Gen. Maurice Bocland of Knighton (IoW), baptised at Newchurch (IoW), 23 February 1761. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1777). An officer in the army (Lt., 1781; retired 1783) and later in the Hampshire Volunteer Cavalry (Maj. by 1800); he needs to be distinguished from the man of the same name who ran a crammer at Croydon (Surrey) and died in 1821. He married, 26 August 1783, at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), reputedly without her father's knowledge or consent*, Catherine, daughter of Beauchamp Bagenal (c.1735-1802) of London and Dunleckney Manor (Co. Carlow), and had issue:

(1) Mary Bisset (b. 1784), baptised at All Saints, Southampton, 14 October 1784; mentioned in her maternal grandfather's will written in 1797;

(2) Jane Bisset (b. 1785), baptised at Fordingbridge, 26 November 1785; died young before 1795;

(3) Catherine Bisset (fl. 1797); mentioned in her maternal grandfather's will written in 1797;

(4) Eliza Bisset (fl. 1797); mentioned in her maternal grandfather's will written in 1797;

(5) Jane Robiniana Bisset, baptised at St Mary, Southampton, 20 January 1795; mentioned in her maternal grandfather's will written in 1797;

(6) William Bisset (1797-1858) (q.v.).

He appears to have lived in or around Southampton.

He died before 1834 or he would have succeeded his elder brother at Lessendrum under the entail. His wife's date of death is unknown.

* Although how that could be achieved in such a public setting as St George's is hard to understand!

Bisset, William (1797-1858). Only son of Maj. Alexander Bisset and his wife Catherine Bagenal, born 1797. He married, 11 May 1830 at Swords (Co. Dublin), Lady Alicia (d. 1836), fourth daughter of William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow, and 2nd, 7 April 1840 at Cheltenham (Glos), Harriet Florence, daughter of Henry Bill and widow of [forename unknown] Caulfeild, and had issue:

(1.1) Jane Frances Bisset (1832-91), born 23 November 1832 and baptised at Swords, 5 February 1833; married 1st, 11 September 1856 at Berry Pomeroy (Devon), William Gillard (1808-78), surgeon, and 2nd, 12 July 1881 at West Bagborough (Som.), Rev. Robert Bisset Fenwick Elrington (c.1822-97), vicar of Lower Brixham (Devon); died 27 November 1891 and was buried at Milverton Cemetery, Leamington Spa (Warks).

He inherited Lessendrum from his uncle, the bishop of Raphoe, in 1834, and remodelled the house to the designs of Archibald Simpson in 1837, but he seems to have spent a good deal of his time at addresses in England.

He died in Islington, 7 January, and was buried at Islington & St Pancras Cemetery, 13 January 1858; his will was proved 22 January 1858 (effects under £3,000). His first wife died in 1836. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Bisset, Jane Harriot (1789-1866). Elder daughter of Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821) and his wife Harriet Mordaunt, born 13 November and baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), 10 December 1789. She and her husband adopted the additional name Bisset in about 1853. She married, 11 March 1824 at Stratton (Glos), her cousin, the Ven. Maurice George Fenwick (later Fenwick-Bisset) (1797-1879), rector of Drumholm (Co. Donegal), 1828-46 and archdeacon of Raphoe (Co. Donegal), 1846-51, son of William Fenwick of Lemmington Hall (Northbld.), and had issue:

(1) Mordaunt Fenwick (later Fenwick-Bisset) (1825-84) (q.v.);

(2) Janet Fenwick (1826-1905) (q.v.);

(3) Harriot Fenwick (later Fenwick-Bisset) (c.1828-93), born about 1828; died unmarried at Old Machar (Aberdeens.), 19 November 1893; will confirmed at Aberdeen, 16 January 1894 (estate £31,895).

She inherited Dauntsey House (Wilts) from her uncle, the 5th and last Earl of Peterborough, in 1814 but had made it over to her son by 1840. She inherited Lessendrum in 1858 from her cousin, William Bisset (1797-1858).

She died 2 May 1866 and was buried at Drumblade. Her husband died 6 August 1879 and was buried at Drumblade; his will was confirmed 9 October 1879 (effects £6,132).

Fenwick (later Fenwick-Bisset), Mordaunt Fenwick (1825-84). Only son of the Ven. Maurice George Fenwick (later Bisset) (1797-1879) and his wife Jane Harriot, elder daughter of Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821), born 27 February 1825. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1843). An officer in the army (Cornet, 1844; Lt., 1848; retired 1850). JP for Somerset. High Sheriff of Somerset, 1872-73; MP for West Somerset, 1880-83. He was Master of Devon & Somerset Staghounds, 1855-81, building new hunt kennels, and reviving the native population of red deer on Exmoor; his thirteen volumes of hunting diaries formed the basis of the Hon. John Fortescue's Record of staghunting on Exmoor (1887). He adopted the additional name Bisset in 1853. He married, 17 July 1851 at West Bagborough (Som.), Susan (1826-1903), daughter and heir of Francis Popham of Bagborough (Som.), but had no issue.

He was given Dauntsey House (Wilts) by his mother by 1840 and came of age in 1846, but sold the estate in 1853. He inherited Bagborough House (Som.) in right of his wife and Lessendrum on the death of his mother in 1866. He rented Pixton Park (Som.) as a residence because of its central location in the stag hunting country.

He died 7 July and was buried at West Bagborough, 11 July 1884; his will was proved 24 November 1884 (effects £83,648). His widow died 8 May and was buried at West Bagborough, 12 May 1903; her will was proved 12 October 1903 (estate £21,193).

Fenwick, Janet (1826-1905). Elder daughter of the Ven. Maurice George Fenwick (later Bisset) (c.1798-1879) and his wife Jane Harriot, elder daughter of Maurice George Bisset (1757-1821), born 31 May 1826. She assumed the name of Bisset as an additional surname on inheriting the Lessendrum estate, 1884. She married, 28 August 1849 at Dauntsey (Wilts), Dr. Joseph Favière Elrington (1823-83), of Carrickbrennan, Monkstown (Co. Dublin), barrister-at-law (QC) and recorder of Londonderry, son of Rev. Prof. Charles Richard Elrington, rector of Armagh and regius professor of divinity at Trinity College, Dublin, and had issue:

(1) Rev. Charles Elrington (later Elrington-Bisset) (1850-88), born 20 September 1850; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (MA 1884); vicar of Newbarns, Barrow-in-Furness (Lancs); took the additional name of Bisset in 1884; married, 30 July 1880 at Crofton (Yorks WR), Edith Emily Helena (1850-1901), daughter of Rev. Josiah Samuel Moore, rector of Crofton, but had no issue; died of a brain tumour, 12 December 1888 and was buried at Drumblade; administration of his goods was granted 12 March 1889 (effects £1,087);

(2) Isabella Elrington (1852-1925), born 16 June 1852; married, 28 December 1871, Sir Robert William Arbuthnot Holmes KCB (1843-1910), Treasury Remembrancer for Ireland, and had issue two sons and six daughters; lived latterly at Bemerton House (Wilts); died 3 March and was buried at Bemerton, 5 March 1925; will proved 8 September 1925 (estate £14,370);

(3) Maj. Maurice Elrington (later Elrington-Bisset) (1854-1909) (q.v.);

(4) Rev. Mordaunt Elrington (later Bisset) (1859-1927), born 8 December 1859 and baptised at Wrington (Som.), 12 February 1860; educated at Cheltenham College and Pembroke College, Cambridge (matriculated 1878; BA 1882; MA 1886); ordained deacon, 1884, and priest, 1885l rector of Bangor-on-Dee (Flints.), 1896-1909; served in First World War as a chaplain, 1914-19 and was awarded MBE; married 1st, 27 October 1896 at St Michael, Chester Sq., Westminster (Middx), Florence Isabella Maud (d. 1909), youngest daughter of Col. Charles John Tottenham of Woodstock (Co. Wicklow) and 2nd, 29 April 1911, Amabel Mary (1859-1916), daughter of Maj. G. Cumberland; died 23 October 1927; will proved 23 December 1927 (estate £16,154).

She inherited Lessendrum on the death of her brother in 1884.

She died at Marlay Grange, Rathfarnham (Co. Dublin), 21 March 1905; will proved in Dublin, 5 September 1905 (estate £16,749). Her husband died 3 September 1883 and was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin; his will was proved 16 November 1883 (effects £7,247).

Elrington (later Elrington-Bisset), Maj. Maurice (1854-1909). Second son of Dr. Joseph Favière Elrington LLD QC (d. 1883), of Carrickbrennan, Monkstown (Co. Dublin) and his wife Janet, elder daughter of the Ven. Maurice George Bisset of Lessendrum, born 12 June 1854. Educated at Royal Military Academy. An officer in the Royal Engineers (Lt., 1874; Capt., 1885; retired, 1889; returned to colours, 1900; promoted Maj., and finally retired 1902), attached to the Ordnance Survey, 1883-89. JP for Aberdeenshire. He took the additional surname of Bisset in 1884. He married, 3 December 1884 at Bath Abbey (Som.), Anna Isabella (1857-1930), second daughter of Capt. Walter Stephens Brinkley (1826-84) of Knockmaroon House, Castleknock (Co. Dublin), and had issue:

(1) Janet Kathleen Elrington-Bisset (1886-1953) (q.v.);

(2) Walter Favière Elrington-Bisset (1889-1915) (q.v.).

He inherited Lessendrum from his mother in 1905.

He died at Carlsbad (Germany), 15 June 1909 and was buried at Drumblade; his will was confirmed 30 August 1909 (estate £59,214). His widow died 20 July 1930 and was also buried at Drumblade; her will was confirmed 13 December 1930 (estate £2,477).

Elrington-Bisset, Walter Favière (1889-1915). Only son of Maj. Maurice Elrington Bisset (1854-1909) and his wife Anna Isabella, second daughter of Capt. Walter Stephens Brinkley of Knockmaroon House (Co. Dublin), born 21 February 1889. Educated at Repton and Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA 1910). A patron of the Drumblade Curling Club, 1912. He served in the Gordon Highlanders in the First World War (2nd Lt.), 1914-15. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Lessendrum from his father in 1909 and came of age the following year.

He was killed in action at the battle of Loos, 25 September 1915; his will was confirmed at Aberdeen, 15 September 1919 (estate £35,795).

Elrington-Bisset, Janet Kathleen (1886-1953). Only daughter of Maj. Maurice Elrington-Bisset (1854-1909) and his wife Anna Isabella, second daughter of Capt. Walter Stephens Brinkley of Knockmaroon House (Co. Dublin), born 14 June 1886. She and her husband took the name Murray-Bisset in 1919. She married, 13 March 1917 at St Paul, Portman Sq., St Marylebone (Middx), Lt-Col. William Turner Murray (1889-1949), son of Rev. Thomas Murray, and had issue:

(1) Kathleen Helen Murray-Bisset (1918-97), of Mayen, Rothiemay, born 25 August 1918; married 1st, 27 July 1939 at Drumblade (Aberdeens.), Ian Caldwell Perston Sloan (d. 1940), son of William H.P. Sloan of Dalmore, Helensburgh (Dunbartons.), and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, 15 March 1945, Maj. Wilfrid Harold Kerton Baker (1920-2000), Tory MP for Banffshire, 1964-74, son of W.H. Baker of Weymouth (Dorset), and had further issue one son and one daughter; died December 1987 and was buried at Drumblade;

(2) Jean Marion Murray-Bisset (1920-2004), born 4 April 1920; served in Second World War with Women's Army Corps; married, 30 April 1946 at Drumblade, Lt. Charles Edson Ennis (c.1920-95), son of Charles Taft Ennis of Richmond Hill, Lyons, New York State (USA), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died at Clifton Springs, New York, 5 June 2004;

(3) Sheelah Rachel Murray-Bisset (1923-2003), born 18 July 1923; married, 3 May 1947 at Drumblade, Lt-Col. Anthony Wynter Lister (1917-2002) of Winson Manor (Glos) and later of Milford (Surrey), elder son of Edmund Algernon Coryton Lister (1870-1936), and had issue three daughters; died 12 July 2003; will proved 4 June 2004;

(4) John Maurdant Murray-Bisset (1926-90) (q.v.).

She inherited Lessendrum when her brother was killed in the First World War. The house was destroyed by fire in 1928, but she retained the estate. She lived subsequently at Mayen, Rothiemay, and later in a dower house at Lessendrum.

She died 18 May 1953 and was buried at Drumblade. Her husband died 4 April 1949 and was buried at Drumblade.

Murray-Bisset, John Mordaunt (1926-90). Only son of Lt-Col. William Turner Murray (later Murray-Bisset) (1889-1949) and his wife Janet Kathleen, only daughter of Maj. Maurice Elrington Bisset (1854-1909) , born 19 September 1926. He married, 16 March 1957 at St Paul, Portman Sq., St Marylebone (Middx), Patricia Edith Baggs (1929-2017) of Taunton (Som.).

He inherited the Lessendrum estate from his mother in 1949, and built a new house on the estate in 1972, but sold the estate in 1981.

He died in 1990 at was buried at Durras (Co. Cork). His widow died in 2017.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 192; Rev. W. Temple, The Thanage of Fermartyn, 1894, pp. 244-56; VCH Hampshire, vol. 5, 1912, pp. 177-87; C.W.R. Winter, The manor houses of the Isle of Wight, 1984, pp. 92-97; D. Miller, Archibald Simpson, architect, 2006, pp. 217-18; D.W. Lloyd & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Isle of Wight, 2006, p. 170; J. Sharples, D.W. Walker & M. Woodworth, The buildings of Scotland: Aberdeenshire - south and Aberdeen, 2015, p. 454.

Location of archives

Most of the family archives are said to have been destroyed in the fire at Lessendrum in 1928.

Coat of arms

Azure, a bend argent.

Can you help?

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

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 3 July 2026.