(461) Baumgartner of Island Hall

This family traces its origins to a Swiss émigré, Jacob Julien Baumgartner (1733-1816), the son of a physician, who moved to England in 1760 and entered into business as a merchant. The business, later a partnership called Baumgartner & Hoofstetter, acted as Continental agents for a number of high profile British businessmen, including Josiah Wedgwood and the Boulton & Watt steam engine company, and had offices in London, Birmingham and Nottingham. Jacob himself seems to have lived in or near Nottingham until 1804, when he bought Island Hall at Godmanchester (Hunts), probably at the time of his retirement. He had two sons, John Thomas (1778-1874) and Robert Jacob (1779-1810), who were both sent to Geneva and then to Edinburgh University for their education. At Edinburgh, they qualified as physicians and they evidently practised in and around Godmanchester. Robert became ill in 1810 and after failing to treat himself successfully, sought the advice of Robert Waring Darwin (1766-1848), the son of Erasmus Darwin and father of Charles Darwin. He recommended a preparation of arsenic and sugar, which Robert was doubtful about taking, but perhaps he did, since he was dead within a month.

The Island Hall estate descended in 1816 to Jacob's surviving son, Dr. John Thomas Baumgartner (1778-1874), who remained exceptionally vigorous into old age: he was still taking a dip in the River Ouse at the bottom of the garden until a few weeks before his death, aged 96! In this second generation, the links with Switzerland and Austria remained strong: John Thomas had been educated in Geneva and he and his wife made frequent extended stays on the Continent, where a number of their children were born. Around 1830, they seem to have lived permanently near Salzburg (Austria) for several years, before returning to England. In 1842 their eldest son, John Percy Baumgartner (1812-1903), came into possession of his mother's family seat, Milton Hall (Cambs), a Tudor and 18th century house set in a landscaped park designed by Humphry Repton, and the family lived there until the 1850s. When they eventually moved back to Island Hall it was because John Percy had run into debt and needed to sell the estate at Milton, which he did in 1860-62. 

When he died in 1874, John Thomas divided his property equally between his ten surviving children, which had the effect of severing the house from the small associated estate that had helped to support it. The house itself was left to his second son, General Robert Julian Baumgartner (1814-95). He purchased the freehold of the island in the River Ouse from which Island Hall takes its name, which had previously only been rented by the family from the descendants of the Jacksons who built the house. He can, however, have used the house comparatively little, since he was in India with the army a good deal, and also seems to have spent some time in Ireland, where his wife's family lived in County Down. When he died he left Island Hall to his second daughter, Violet Julia Beart (1863-1947), who had recently been widowed. She later had a second brief marriage and lived at Island Hall as Mrs. Bevan until it was requisitioned in the Second World War. She never moved back to the house, for after the war, the house was taken over by the local authority for emergency housing and divided into small flats; she died in Cheshire in 1947.

That might well have been the end of the family's association with Island Hall. They retained the freehold for some years, but that too was sold in 1958. The house continued to be used as local authority housing until 1977, when a fire damaged the south wing and the whole property was sold two years later and restored as a single private residence. Once this work was completed, the house was sold to Christopher Vane Percy (b. 1945), an interior designer from London, who had seen the house from the river and coveted it as a teenager. Only after he bought the house did he realise his strong family connection to the place: he stood in a direct male line from Dr John Thomas Baumgartner, who was his great-great-great-grandfather, the difference in surname being accounted for by the decision of many branches of the family to change their name from the Germanic Baumgartner to Percy during the First World War. The name Percy was chosen because the wife of Jacob Julien Baumgartner was heir to the Percy estates in Cambridgeshire.

Island Hall, Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire

The situation of the house on one of the main streets of the little town of Godmanchester, albeit set back behind railings, arguably makes Island Hall a town house rather than a country house, but the rear has a more rural aspect, as the gardens run down to the Great Ouse river and have a Chinoiserie footbridge across to an island in the river, which was also part of the garden. The house is first recorded as 'new built' in 1749 and was built by Original Jackson (d. 1771) as a wedding present for his son John Jackson (1729-88), later Receiver-General for Huntingdonshire, whose new wife brought him 600 acres of land around the town. It is built of red brick and consists of a three-bay centre of two-and-a-half storeys, which breaks slightly forward from lower two-bay wings to either side. The front and rear elevations are identical (slight evidence, perhaps, that no professional architect was involved with the design), and have a central pediment with stone modillions, Tuscan porches, and windows with stone architraves on brackets.

Island Hall, Godmanchester: garden front, 2011. Image: sps1955. Some rights reserved.

Inside, there is an unexpectedly large entrance hall, the width of the central block, with a handsome chimneypiece and overmantel with consoles, and doorcases with enriched friezes. It has been conjectured that the hall was so large because it was originally intended that the staircase should rise within it, with the space behind it - now occupied by the staircase - being the saloon, but that this plan was changed during construction so as to create a fashionable first-floor saloon with a more imposing approach. (The other great house of Godmanchester, Farm Hall, finished in 1746, has a suite of reception rooms on its first floor, and there may have been some rivalry!). As built, the hall opens through a fine Doric screen with fluted columns and a full entablature to the staircase hall behind. In the 19th century, the hall became a library and the screen was partly infilled to create a more enclosed space, but the original layout was recreated when the house was restored in 1979. 

Island Hall: entrance hall with the partially Gothic infilling of the screen in place. Image: Historic England.

Island Hall: the screen wall and staircase from the screen today.

The staircase itself has elegantly slender twisted balusters and a string carved with acanthus foliage. It rises to emerge through a screen of Ionic columns into a transverse passage, which has arches at each end. Above the hall is the saloon, with a fine Kentian doorcase which was originally on the staircase side of the wall but now faces into the room. Without it, the saloon would have been remarkably plain, and it seems possible that an intended decorative scheme was never carried out. The best chimneypiece is in the small drawing room (originally the dining room), with console brackets and overmantel flanked by volutes inset with a lugged frame and topped by a broken pediment. The adjoining dining room (originally the drawing room) has lovely carved overdoors. To the south of the original house is a later kitchen wing, built in 1768, and beyond this stand the former stables with a pretty Gothick cupola. 

During the Second World War the house was requisitioned for use by the WAAF and later the RAF, for whom a series of Nissen huts were constructed in the garden. After the war the property was acquired by the local authority and the house and huts were converted into fifteen tiny flats. The house was seriously damaged by a fire in 1977 which largely gutted the south wing, and the house was at some risk of demolition at this time. Fortunately it was bought by a private owner who engaged Marshall Sisson to restore the house. The post-war partitioning was removed, the fire damage restored and the Nissen huts cleared away before the house was sold in 1983 to Christopher Vane Percy, a collateral descendant of the family which owned the house from 1804-1958. He has carried out further restoration work and redecorated the house beautifully, and the house is now accessible for private group visits as well as being used for weddings and other events (see https://www.islandhall.com/).

When first built the house had gardens both at the rear and on the opposite side of the road, where there is now a school. The Chinese bridge linking the rear garden to the island in the Ouse from which the house takes its name was first recorded in the 18th century, but collapsed in the 1930s. It was reconstructed on the basis of photographic evidence as part of the general restoration of the house after 1983, and has had to be rebuilt again since.

Descent: built c.1740-49 for Original Jackson (c.1697-1771); to son, John Jackson (1729-88); to son, John Jackson, junior (1750-1807), who sold 1804 to Jacob Julian Baumgartner (1733-1816); to son, Dr. John Thomas Baumgartner (1778-1874); to son, Gen. Robert Julian Baumgartner (1814-95); to daughter, Violet Julia (1863-1947), widow of Frederick W. Beart (d. 1895) and later wife of Cyril Mountain Bevan (1851-1916); requisitioned in 1941 for WAAF and later RAF; transferred to the local authority under the Emergency Housing Act and converted into flats; freehold sold 1958 to Huntingdonshire County Council; sold 1979 to Simon Herrtage; sold 1983 to Christopher Vane Percy (b. 1945).

Baumgartner family of Island Hall

Dr. J.J. Baumgartner 

Baumgartner, Jacob Julien (1733-1816). Second son of Jean Baumgartner of Soleure (Switzerland), physician, and his wife Susanne Villemejanne of Geneva (Switzerland), born at Liestal, Basel-Landshaft (Switzerland), 23 January 1733. He emigrated to England in 1760 and became a naturalized British subject in 1774. Merchant, in partnership with a Mr. Hoofstetter (probably John Lewis Hoofstetter, naturalised in 1781) in London, Birmingham and Nottingham. He married, 19 January 1774 at Nottingham, Tryce Mary (1752-1815), daughter of Rev. Thomas Parratt and his wife Tryce (who was only daughter and heiress of the Rev. Joscelyn Percy), and had issue:

(1) Jacob Julien Baumgartner (b. & d. 1775), born 18 March 1775; died in infancy, 13 August 1775;

(2) Tryce Mary Baumgartner (1777-1835), born 14 March 1777; died unmarried, 19 March 1835, and was buried at Godmanchester;

(3) Dr John Thomas Baumgartner (1778-1874) (q.v.);

(4) Robert Jacob Baumgartner (1779-1810), born 11 October 1779; educated at Geneva and Edinburgh University (admitted 1797; MD 1800); physician; died unmarried, possibly as a result of taking a remedy compounded of arsenic and sugar prescribed by Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, 6 December 1810 and was buried at Godmanchester.

He lived in London and later at Nottingham after coming to England. He purchased Island Hall in 1804.

He died 2 December 1816 and was buried at Godmanchester. His wife died 26 November 1815 and was buried at Godmanchester.

Dr. J.T. Baumgartner (1778-1874): colourized
photograph. Image: C. Vane Percy. 

Baumgartner, Dr. John Thomas (1778-1874). Elder son of Jacob Julian Baumgartner (1733-1816) and his wife Tryce Mary, daughter of Rev. Thomas Parratt, born at Wilford (Notts), 20 March 1778. Educated at Geneva and Edinburgh University (admitted, 1796; MD, 1799). Physician in Godmanchester. He was a keen swimmer and used regularly to swim around the island in the Great Ouse in the garden of Island House; he was still taking a dip in the river a few weeks before his death, aged 96! He married, 11 October 1810, Phillipa (1792-1882), third daughter of Samuel Knight of Milton Hall (Cambs), and had issue:

(1) Philippa Julia Baumgartner (1811-85), baptised at Godmanchester, 31 July 1811; married, 6 May 1834 at Godmanchester, Philip Tillard JP DL (1811-87) of Stukeley Hall, Great Stukeley (Hunts), eldest son of Rev. Richard Tillard of Street End House (Kent), and had issue five sons and four daughters; died 16 December 1885;

(2) John Percy Baumgartner (1812-1903), of Gorleston (Norfk), born 27 June and baptised at Godmanchester, 29 June 1812; educated in Geneva and at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (admitted 1831); JP for Cambridgeshire; inherited Milton Hall from his grandfather in 1835, subject to the life interest of his step-grandmother, extinguished in 1842; having heavily mortgaged his expectations from the estate, he sold it in 1860-62; later collector of customs at Great Yarmouth (Norfk); he married, 17 February 1849 at St Saviour, Southwark (Surrey), Eliza (1817-92), daughter of John Brunskill of Southwark, and had issue four sons and five daughters; died aged 90 at Gorleston (Suffk), 10 June 1903; will proved 31 July 1903 (estate £7,054);

(3) General Robert Julian Baumgartner (1814-95) (q.v.);

(4) Edward Jocelyn Baumgartner (1815-99), born 3 April 1815 and baptised at Godmanchester, 16 March 1817; articled clerk to Henry Owen of Worksop (Notts), solicitor, 1832; later retrained at Middle Temple (admitted, 1838; called, 1841); barrister-at-law; JP for Hunts; Master and Registrar of the Supreme Court at Gibraltar, 1867-91; a freemason from 1839; married 1st, 26 August 1851 at St Luke, Chelsea (Middx), Catherine (1828-54), daughter of William Taylor of Histon (Cambs), but had no issue; married 2nd, 11 January 1860 at St Mary Abbots, Kensington (Middx), Sarah Woodland (1832-86), and had issue four sons and seven daughters; died 8 February 1899;

(5) George Jasper Baumgartner (1816-17), born 7 April 1816 and baptised at Godmanchester, 16 March 1817; died in infancy, 5 May and was buried at St Luke, Chelsea (Middx), 9 May 1817;

(6) Georgiana Baumgartner (1820-1911), born 6 May and baptised at Godmanchester, 25 July 1820; married, 18 September 1839 at Godmanchester, Edward Charrington (1811-88) of Buryscourt, Leigh (Surrey), brewer, and had issue nine sons and four daughters; died aged 90 on 16 February 1911 and was buried at Leigh; will proved 28 March 1911 (estate £10,671);

(7) Rev. Henry Algernon Baumgartner (1821-1909) (q.v.);

(8) George Samuel Baumgartner (1823-66), born 26 January and baptised at Godmanchester, 10 April 1823; worked in Birmingham for Moilliet & Co., gem merchants; had a relationship with Susan Woods of Milton (Cambs) which resulted in an illegitimate daughter, but in 1853 emigrated to Australia with his brother Charles; said to have married, 15 August 1863, Christina Forbes, and had issue three sons and two daughters (some of whom were born before their parents' marriage); died 6 May 1866 and was buried at Camberwell, Victoria (Australia);

(9) Gen. Thomas Mowbray Baumgartner (1824-1915), born 21 July 1824; an officer in the Indian Army Staff Corps (Ensign, 1845; Lt., 1847; Capt., 1856; Maj., 1865; Lt-Col. 1871; Col., 1876; retired from active service, 1883; Maj-Gen., 1886; Lt-Gen., 1890; General, 1894); died unmarried aged 90 in London, 23 January 1915, and was buried at Godmanchester; will proved 23 March 1915 (estate £820);

(10) Charles Astrey Octavius Baumgartner (1825-1910), born in Geneva, 8 October and baptised at the British chaplaincy there, 1 November 1825 and again at Godmanchester, 23 January 1832; educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1844; BA 1848); emigrated to Australia with his brother George in 1853 and worked with him for a time in the Australian goldfields, but return to England in 1862 at the request of his godfather, Charles Hoofstetter, with whom he lived in Thurloe Sq. until 1870; lived latterly at Hammersmith (Middx); died unmarried, 1 July 1910; administration of goods granted 25 August 1910 (£17,477);

(11) Emma Frances Baumgartner (b. & d. 1827), born 11 March 1827; baptised at British chaplaincy in Geneva (Switzerland), 11 July 1827; died at Geneva, 26 July 1827;

(12) Emma Frances Amelia Baumgartner (1828-1911), born 30 November 1828 and baptised at Godmanchester, 23 July 1832; established a night school for boys and young men at Godmanchester c.1870; author of A Medley of Birthdays (1911); died unmarried, 28 January 1911, and was buried at Godmanchester, where she is commemorated by a monument; will proved 6 March 1911 (estate £10,008);

(13) Elizabeth Charlotte Olivia Baumgartner (1831-44), born 1 September 1831; died young at Leopoldskron, Salzburg (Austria), 15 July 1844 and was buried at Anif (Austria); she is commemorated on monuments at Godmanchester.

He inherited Island Hall from his father in 1816, but lived chiefly at Milton Hall (Cambs) until the 1850s, when his son sold that estate. He then moved to Island Hall. At his death he divided his property between his ten surviving children, separating the house from its estate.

He died aged 96 on 12 August, and was buried at Godmanchester, 18 August 1874, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 8 October 1874 (effects under £3,000). His widow died aged 90 on 31 March, and was buried at Godmanchester, 5 April 1882; her will was proved 23 June 1882 (effects £592).

Gen. Robert Julian Baumgartner (1814-95) 

Baumgartner, General Robert Julian (1814-95). Second son of Dr. John Thomas Baumgartner (1778-1874) and his wife Phillipa, third daughter of Samuel Knight of Milton (Cambs), born 17 March 1814. Educated in Geneva (Switzerland). An officer in the army (Ensign, 1833; Lt., 1837; Capt., 1841; Maj., 1851; Lt-Col., 1854; Col., 1860; Maj-Gen., 1868; Lt-Gen., 1877; Gen., 1881), who served in the Crimean War, when he made serious proposals for the raising of 10,000 troops in Switzerland for British service; wounded, and appointed CB and awarded the Turkish Order of Medjidie (4th class), 1855; Colonel of Royal Sussex Regiment, 1888-95. He was a Conservative in politics, and a freeman of Godmanchester, but took no part in local public affairs. He married, 6 July 1859 at Newry (Co. Down), Helen (1835-1911), daughter of Ross Thompson of Greenwood Park (Co. Down), and had issue:

(1) Philippa Helen Surman Baumgartner (1861-1909), born 24 September and baptised at Gwalior, Bengal (India), 19 October 1861; married, 13 September 1885, Rev. Harry Darwin Burton (1859-1943), vicar of St Saviour, St. Albans (Herts), and had issue six daughters; died 20 May 1909;

(2) Violet Julia Baumgartner (1863-1947) (q.v.);

(3) Henry Percy Julian Baumgartner (later Percy) (1865-1944), born 4 September and baptised at Calcutta (India), 7 October 1865; educated at Cheltenham College; engineer, working chiefly in India; married, Jul-Sept. 1903, Elvira Helen (c.1872-1935), daughter of Arthur Keegan of Dublin, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 1 September 1944;

(4) Charles Thomas Jocelyn Baumgartner (1868-1964), baptised at Godmanchester, 11 December 1868; emigrated to Canada, 1900; patient at Essondale Provincial Mental Hospital by 1922; died unmarried, aged 95, at Colquitlam, British Columbia (Canada), 23 September 1964; administration of goods granted 12 March 1965 (effects in England, £5,946);

(5) Ethel Nixon Baumgartner (1871-1948), born at Drumesk, Rostrevor (Co. Down), 8 February 1871, and baptised at Newry (Co. Down); married, 2 September 1896 at Godmanchester, Rev. Charles Leonard Thornton-Duesbery (1867-1928), rector of Holy Trinity, St. Marylebone (Middx) and had issue one son and one daughter; died at Ramsey (Isle of Man), 4 February 1948; will proved 27 May 1948 (estate in England, £5,824);

(6) Grace Eva Baumgartner (1873-1954), born 24 December 1873; died unmarried in Hastings (Sussex), 4 May 1954; will proved 3 July 1954 (estate £6,939).

He inherited Island Hall from his father in 1874, and purchased the freehold of the island in the River Ouse (which had only been leased by the family since 1804) in 1882.

He died 24 September and was buried at Godmanchester, 27 September 1895; his will was proved 15 November 1895 (effects £276). His widow died 6 July 1911 and was buried at Godmanchester, where she is commemorated by a monument; her will was proved 27 October 1911 (estate £227).

Baumgartner, Violet Julia (1863-1947). Second daughter of Gen. Robert Julian Baumgartner (1814-95) and his wife Helen, daughter of Ross Thompson of Greenwood Park (Co. Down), baptised at Gonda, Bengal (India), 12 June 1863. She married 1st, 8 April 1891 at Godmanchester, Maj. Frederick Robert Beart (1850-95) of The Chestnuts, Godmanchester and 2nd, 4 January 1915 at St Giles, Cambridge, as his second wife, Cyril Mountain Bevan (1851-1916) of Lilliput (Dorset), and had issue:

(1.1) Robert (otherwise Robin) Baumgartner Beart (1892-1972), born 10 April 1892; educated at Winchester; travelled to USA and South America in 1913-14 but came back for war service as an officer in the 18th Hussars (Lt., retired 1921) before returning to South America; farmer at Estancia El Espanillo, San Luis (Argentina); married, 1 July 1926 at Chester Cathedral, Agnes Pamela (1905-75), daughter of John Montagu Tharp of Denston Hall (Suffk), and had issue one son and one daughter; died 22 February 1972; administration of goods granted 17 March 1978 (estate in England, £2,898);

(1.2) Helen Tryce Beart (1893-1980), born 16 May 1893; served in First World War as Lady Superintendent with Voluntary Aid Detachment and Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps; married, 15 April 1922 at Trinity church, St Marylebone (Middx), Arthur Percival Vernon Pigot (1890-1966), of Grappenhall (Ches.), solicitor, son of Rev. Harry Vernon Pigot, vicar of Grappenhall, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died at Willington Hall (Ches), 18 February 1980; will proved 16 January 1981 (estate £65,100);

(1.3) Brig. Charles William Beart (1894-1982), born 10 May 1894; educated at Winchester College and RMC Sandhurst; an officer in the Durham Light Infantry (2nd Lt., 1914; Lt., 1914; Capt., 1920; Maj. 1933; Lt-Col., 1941; temp. Col., 1942; retired as Brig., 1947); served in First and Second World Wars and was awarded MC, 1917 and OBE, 1946; married, 1955, Ann Bowman, and had issue one daughter; died in Shrewsbury (Shrops.), 22 May 1982; will proved 23 August 1982 (estate £35,256).

She inherited Island Hall from her father in 1895 and lived there until it was requisitioned for military use in 1942. She lived latterly at Ruloe, Cuddington (Cheshire).

She died 16 November 1947; her will was proved 20 February 1948 (estate £13,228). Her first husband died 4 March 1895. Her second husband died 15 July 1916; his will was proved 30 September 1916 (estate £19,971).

Rev. H.A. Baumgartner (1821-1909) 

Baumgartner, Rev. Henry Algernon (1821-1909). Fourth son of Dr. John Thomas Baumgartner (1778-1874) and his wife Phillipa, third daughter of Samuel Knight of Milton (Cambs), born 25 October 1821 and baptised at Godmanchester, 24 April 1822. Educated at Rugby and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (matriculated 1840; BA 1844; MA 1847). Ordained deacon, 1845 and priest, 1846. Vicar of Coniscliffe (Co. Durham), 1849-57; perpetual curate of Emmanuel Church, Camberwell (Surrey), 1858-63; vicar of St Paul, Worcester, 1863-67, Mevagissey (Cornw.), 1867-81 and Nettlebed (Oxon), 1881-1908. He married, 30 April 1849 at Witton-le-Wear (Co. Durham), Frances Octavia (1826-1907), fourth daughter of George Hutton Wilkinson of Harperley Park (Co. Durham), Recorder of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and had issue:

(1) George Algernon Baumgartner (later Percy) (1850-1944), born 2 March 1850; an official in the Ceylon Civil Service; married, 16 November 1878 at Trincomalee (Ceylon), Florence Harper, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died aged 94 at Germoe (Cornw.) on 21 March 1944; will proved 30 June 1944 (estate £2,625);

(2) Kate Harriet Baumgartner (1851-1940), born 1 June 1851; married, 8 February 1881 at Dodbrooke (Devon), Philip Furse Marshall (1857-1942), farmer and later shopkeeper, son of John Marshall, yeoman, and had issue; died in Sussex, Oct-Dec 1940;

(3) Alice Mary Annie Baumgartner (1852-1918), born 3 June 1852; married, 6 July 1886 at St Mary Abbotts, Kensington (Middx), Lt-Col. John James Davy (1844-1925) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 14 March 1918;

(4) Harry Percy Baumgartner (1853-98) (q.v.);

(5) Amy Millicent Baumgartner (1854-1931), born 6 November 1854; amateur woodcarver, a skill which she taught in boys' clubs around Henley-on-Thames; lived with her sister Juliet in Henley; died unmarried, 24 November 1931; will proved 1 January 1932 (estate £459);

(6) Violet Sibella Baumgartner (1856-1946), born 3 January 1856; lived in Reading (Berks); died unmarried, aged 90, on 17 February 1946 and was cremated at Henley Road Crematorium, Caversham (Berks);

(7) Juliet Frances Baumgartner (1857-1937), born Jan-March 1857; lived with her sister Amy in Henley-on-Thames; died unmarried, 24 April 1937; will proved 25 May 1937 (estate £1,396);

(8) Wilfred Octavius Baumgartner (1858-1915), born 14 September and baptised at Emmanuel Church, Camberwell, 4 November 1858; mining engineer in a colliery in Co. Durham; married, Jan-Mar 1893 Charlotte Annie Reynolds (1871-1959), and had issue five children (of whom three died young); died Jul-Sept 1915;

(9) Ethel Leonora Baumgartner (1859-1943), born 14 September and baptised at Emmanuel Church, Camberwell, 16 October 1859; lived latterly at Henley-on-Thames; died unmarried, 8 December 1943; will proved 21 January 1944 (estate £2,374).

He died 18 May 1909 and was buried at Nettlebed, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 6 August 1909 (estate £1,736). His wife died 10 January 1907.

Baumgartner, Harry Percy (1853-98). Second son of Rev. Henry Algernon Baumgartner (1821-1909) and his wife Frances Octavia, daughter of George Hutton Wilkinson, born 11 November 1853. Collector of customs in the Ceylon Civil Service. He married, 1881 in Ceylon, Ethel May Vane (1860-1949), and had issue:

(1) Bertram Wilfred Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) (1882-1959) (q.v.);

(2) Harold Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) (1883-1938), born 17 November and baptised at Nettlebed, 2 December 1883; emigrated to South Africa before 1908 but returned to England in 1912, although he apparently played in one cricket test match for South Africa in December 1913; took the name Percy in lieu of Baumgartner in 1915; later a civil servant in the Gold Coast (now Ghana); married, c.1926, Dr. Nora Aileen MB BS MRCS LRCP (1892-1956), physician and surgeon, daughter of James Theodore Robinson of Mooradabad (India), but had no issue; died in Accra (Ghana), 8 April 1938;

(3) Eric Joselyn Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) (1887-1962), born in Ceylon, 20 April 1887; bank manager; married, 5 June 1915 at All Saints, Notting Hill (Middx), Kathleen (1888-1975), daughter of George Frederick Neil McKenna, wine merchant; died 6 January 1962; will proved 21 February 1962 (estate £4,706);

(4) Julian Mowbray Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) (1891-1961), born 22 July and baptised at Nettlebed (Oxon), 17 August 1891; commercial traveller and later company director; served in First World War with Suffolk Regiment (L/Cpl; commissioned as 2nd Lt., 1915); possibly also the man of this name who served in King's Royal Rifle Corps (Lt. 1940); married 1st, 1925, (div. 1927), Pearl Verner Fisher; married 2nd, Apr-Jun 1928, Erna Joyce alias Jaeger (1892-1931); married 3rd, 1941, Irene Lynn (1891-1983), daughter of Harry Martin Dennes of Sydney (Australia) and widow of George Arthur Williams (1892-1934); died in London, 29 April 1961; will proved 21 July 1961 (estate £22,640);

(5) Una Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) (1892-1985), born 12 November 1892; actress; married 1st, 1917, Malcolm Gibson Cherry (1878-1925), actor; married 2nd, Oct-Dec 1929, Gordon Brooke Willoughby Hamilton Gay (1895-1973); died 9 March 1985; will proved 24 June 1985 (estate £96,257).

He spent most of his working life in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), but retired to Bedford. His widow lived latterly in Wimbledon (Surrey).

He died in Bedford, 31 December 1898; administration of his goods was granted 28 March 1899 (effects £1,426). His widow died 12 January 1949; her will was proved 26 February 1949 (estate £1,732).

Baumgartner (later Percy), Bertram Wilfred Vane (1882-1959). Eldest son of Harry Percy Baumgartner (1853-98) and his wife Ethel May Vane, born at Colombo (Sri Lanka), 9 October 1882. Bank agent with Bank of Bengal; a freemason from 1910. He joined other members of his family in changing his surname to Percy in 1915. He married, 23 January 1915 at St Thomas' Cathedral, Bombay (India), Dorothy Marian (1885-1973), daughter of Thomas George Treadgold, and had issue:

(1) Kenneth Vane Percy (1917-98) (q.v.);

(2) David John Vane Percy (1920-2001), born 4 July 1920; an officer in the Hon. Artillery Company, 1939-40 and Royal Artillery, 1941; chartered accountant and liquidator; lived in south-east London and later in Hampshire; married, 21 December 1943, Celia Blanche (1910-88), daughter of Dr. W. Carrick Allen MD; died August 2001;

(3) Pauline Margaret Vane Percy (1922-2000), born in Bombay (India), 26 October 1922; married, 25 January 1943 at Westcliff-on-Sea (Essex), Derek Plummer (1923-2010), second son of Capt. R.M. Plummer, and had issue one son; died 3 March 2000; will proved 13 June 2000.

He lived in India for much of his working life, but retired to Bedford.

He died 14 January 1959; will proved 23 April 1959 (estate £24,419). His widow died 1 November 1973; her will was proved 8 February 1974 (estate £12,570).

Percy, Kenneth Vane (1917-98). Elder son of Bertram Wilfred Vane Baumgartner (later Percy) and his wife Dorothy Marian, daughter of Thomas George Treadgold, born in Hyderabad (India), 10 March and baptised at Secunderabat, 14 April 1917. He served in the Royal Artillery in the Second World War (2nd Lt., 1940; Lt.; retired on account of disability as Capt. 1946). Captain of the Bedfordshire County Cricket team, 1947, and later of Bedfordshire Golf Club. He married 1st, 10 March 1940 at Stow-on-the-Wold (Glos), (div.) Jean (1919-2012), daughter of Lt-Col. C.W. Farquharson OBE, and 2nd, Jul-Sept 1957, Dorothy Edith Joyce Tetley (1914-2002), and had issue:

(1.1) Alison Jane Vane Percy (1941-2012), born 5 December 1941; artist; married, Apr-Jun 1965, Shaun Martindale (b. 1944), engineer; died 17 December 2012; will proved 24 July 2013;

(1.2) Christopher David Vane Percy (b. 1945) (q.v.).

He lived at Biddenham (Beds).

He died 22 December 1998; his will was proved 19 February 1999. His first wife died at Island Hall aged 92 on 18 January 2012. His second wife died 16 November 2002; her will was proved 10 February 2003.

Percy, Christopher David Vane (b. 1945). Only son of Kenneth Vane Percy (1917-98) and his first wife, Jean Farquharson, born 15 March 1945. Interior designer who established his own business (CVP Designs) in 1971 and has secured many high profile commissions including the Connaught Hotel, London and Hagley Hall (Worcs); sometime President of the British Interior Design Association and of the International Interior Design Association; Mayor of Godmanchester, 2013; Trustee of Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust, 2013-20. He obtained a grant of arms. He married, 17 May 1973, Lady* Linda Denise Grosvenor (1948-2019), daughter of Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury by his second wife, and had issue:

(1) Maximilian Egerton Vane Percy (b. 1979), born November 1979; educated at Oakham School; surveyor; partner in Montagu Evans with responsibility for managing the Berkeley Square Estate in London; married, 2009, Lisette Sara (b. 1978), daughter of Andrew Cooper of Rowlands Castle (Hants) and has issue three sons;

(2) Grace Dorothy Denise Vane Percy (b. 1981), born August 1981; educated at Oakham School and Central St Martins; photographer specialising in the female nude since 2008; author of Venus (2014); general manager of Island Hall since 2011; married, 2011, Panagiotis (Takis), theatre designer, younger son of Nikolaos Chatoupis, of Sikion (Greece), and has issue one daughter;

(3) Tryce Mary Susanne (b. 1991), born July 1991; educated at Oakham School; works in the fashion industry.

He repurchased Island Hall in 1983 and restored it. He handed the house over to his elder daughter in about 2020.

Now living. His wife died 19 May 2019.

* Her half-brother, Francis Egerton Grosvenor (b. 1934), 6th Baron Ebury, succeeded to the Earldom of Wilton in 1999, and she and her siblings were raised to the rank of an Earl's sons and daughters in 2001.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1925, pp. 102-03; VCH Cambridgeshire, vol. 9, 1989, pp. 179-82;  Debrett's Illustrated Peerage, 2014, p. P1303; https://www.islandhall.com/.

Location of archives

Baumgartner of Godmanchester: deeds, estate and manorial papers, family correspondence, notebooks, commonplace books and photographs, 1599-1956 [Cambridgeshire Archives, 17, L.3; L.35; R.55.31, 38; Huntingdonshire Archives 5614]

Coat of arms

No coat of arms is recorded for the Baumgartner family.

Vane Percy of Island Hall

Christopher Vane Percy has, however, received a new grant of the following arms: Azure on a bend Erminois between two lions rampant each holding a branch of Swiss Stone Pine Or a spur between two pierced mullets of the field.

Can you help?

• If anyone knows more about the Baumgartner & Hoofstetter company and its activities, I would be pleased to learn more.
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from descendants of the family who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 June 2021 and updated 26 February and 15 March 2022 and 31 March-6 April 2024. I am grateful to Christopher Vane Percy and Elma Dostine for additional information and images.

(444) Bateman of Shobdon Court, Viscounts Bateman

Bateman, Viscounts Bateman 

This family traced their origins to Haesbrok near St. Omer in a part of Flanders that was annexed to France in the 17th century. As a young man, Joas Bateman (c.1620-1704), with whom the genealogy below begins, came to London, where he worked first as a book-keeper for the cloth merchant, Giles Vanbrugh (father of the architect and playwright, Sir John Vanbrugh) and later became a merchant on his own account, trading with Flanders. In 1648 he married the daughter of another French Protestant émigré merchant, John de la Barre, and over the next twenty years they produced a large family, many of whom died young. Joas is said to have been naturalised as an Englishman in 1660, although I have been unable to trace any record of this. He built a solid reputation for honest dealing and in the fullness of time traded his way to modest wealth. Those of his children who survived to maturity married well, and his only surviving son, James (1660-1718) was established as a wine merchant in Alicante (Portugal), although he also seems to have built up connections in Flanders - and particularly in Antwerp - which were to be useful to him later. In 1694, when he was back in England, James became a major investor in the new Bank of England, which was established originally to raise money for King William III's war with France, and he was one of the twenty-four founding Directors appointed by the major shareholders. He spent most of 1696 and the early months of 1697 in Antwerp on behalf of the Bank, managing loans to the English government by Flemish merchants, and he remained a director until 1711, rising to serve as Deputy Governor in 1703-05 and Governor in 1705-07, and collecting a knighthood in 1698. Sir James was a Whig in politics, and he became a director of the New East India Company which was set up to rival the older Tory-dominated East India Company. The new body had a short independent life and he was later involved in the negotations for the merger of the two concerns, serving as a director of the united company in 1709-10. Sir James' financial wizardry was recognised across the political spectrum, and when Sir Robert Harley's Tory government was having difficulty in raising money in 1711, he agreed to help by throwing his weight behind the South Sea Company, of which be became Sub-Governor (effectively the Chief Executive, as Harley, who was titular Governor, was otherwise occupied as de facto Prime Minister). For this he was rewarded with the seat in Parliament which he had long coveted, but after the death of Queen Anne and arrival of George I he reverted to his natural loyalty with the Whigs. He was also increasingly prominent in the City, where he was Lord Mayor in 1716-17.

A long career at the top of the City of London's financial institutions brought great rewards, and at his death in 1718 it was estimated that Sir James was worth about £400,000. In addition to £30,000 in cash and his investments in the various public funds, much of his wealth had been translated into property:

Monmouth House, Soho Square, London,
as altered for Sir James Bateman, probably to the designs of Thomas Archer,
 in 1718-19. It was pulled down in 1770.

the Shobdon estate in Herefordshire, which he purchased in 1705 from his friend, Sir Robert Chaplin; urban property in London, some of which he had inherited from his father; the Holywell estate at Shoreditch (Middx); Harolds Park at Waltham (Essex); and the manor of Tooting (Surrey), which he bought in 1714, although he had a house there by 1699. At the end of his life he acquired the palatial Monmouth House in Soho Square, built in the 1680s for the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, which he began remodelling, almost certainly to the designs of Thomas Archer, as his town house. He died, rather unexpectedly, before the works at Monmouth House had been completed, and the majority of his property was divided between his three sons. The eldest son, William Bateman (1696-1744), inherited Shobdon Court and Monmouth House; the second son, James Bateman (1697-1758), inherited the City of London real estate and the manor of Tooting Graveney (which he sold in 1725, having bought the Well Vale estate in Lincolnshire); while the third son, Richard Bateman (1705-73) - usually known as Dickie - inherited the Shoreditch and Waltham properties. The income from these properties and from Sir James' extensive holdings in the public funds ensured that none of his sons would need to earn a living.

William Bateman completed his father's building works at Monmouth House and was soon afterwards, in 1720, married to Lady Anne Spencer. This was a highly prestigious match, as Anne was a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Marlborough - the great military hero of the age - and the daughter of Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who was the king's chief minister at the time. Anne clearly felt that in recognition of her rank, her rich but rather plebeian husband should receive a title. She suggested that he be made a Knight of the Bath, but this George I declined to do, instead making him Viscount Bateman in the Irish peerage in 1725. The king's catty comment on this ('I can make him a peer, but I cannot make him a gentleman') is oft-quoted, but it also had the effect of leaving Lady Anne's place in the table of precedence almost exactly as it had been (since the daughters of Earls married to commoners came next after the wives of Irish viscountesses). Soon after their wedding, William and Anne travelled to Shobdon, where they were soon planning fairly radical internal alterations, which were carried out in 1721-22. In 1723 William purchased an estate at Totteridge (Middx), where he built Totteridge Park, a large U-shaped Palladian house, whose architect is unknown. 

Totteridge Park: the Palladian house built for the 1st Viscount, probably in the late 1720s.

At the time of her marriage, Lady Anne had been a favoured grandchild of the famously difficult Duchess of Marlborough, but in 1732 they had a spectacular falling-out, and the Duchess - who turned holding a grudge into an art form - set out to isolate Lady Anne from her family and largely succeeded. As a result, when in 1738 Anne discovered with horror that William had been conducting homosexual liaisons with some of the stable boys at Shobdon, she had very few people to turn to for help. Fortunately, her brother responded to her plea to come to Shobdon, and take her away, and she spent the rest of her life living with him at Althorp, after formally separating from her husband. William, who risked prosecution and social ostracism in England, subsequently lived abroad a good deal, and rented out Monmouth House in London, although he does seem to have travelled back and forth between England and the Continent a fair bit, and was at Shobdon again for part of 1740. He died in Paris at the beginning of December 1744.

Despite William's homosexual inclinations, he and his wife produced two sons, the elder of whom, John Bateman (1721-1802), succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Bateman and inherited the Shobdon, Totteridge and Monmouth House properties in 1744. The 2nd Viscount seems to have been as conventional as his father and uncle were unconventional: he was a long-serving MP (as an Irish peer he did not have a seat in the House of Lords) and was rewarded for his loyalty to successive governments by being made Master of the Royal Buckhounds, a piece of patronage which he held from 1757-82 and which brought both access to the King and a residence near Windsor. His life was thus very much focused on London, and he seems to have left the management of Shobdon very much to his uncle Dickie, who remodelled the house, rebuilt the church in the Gothick style, and landscaped the park in the 1740s and 1750s.

40 Park Lane (later Somerset House): the house built for the 2nd Viscount
 by John Phillips in 1769-70.  It was pulled down in 1913.

The 2nd Viscount sold Totteridge Park in 1748 and gave up Monmouth House in 1756 (when Soho Square was ceasing to be fashionable), although he retained the lease until 1770, by which time he had built a new town house on Park Lane. After leaving politics in the 1780s, he lived mainly at Shobdon, and in 1789 he sold the Park Lane house to Warren Hastings. He and his wife of more than fifty years had no children, and when he died in 1802 he left Shobdon to her for life. However, she died only a few months later, and under the terms of his will the estate then passed to his cousin, William Hanbury of Kelmarsh Hall (Northants). The subsequent history of that family, who took the surname Bateman-Hanbury and were created Barons Bateman in 1837, will be told in a future post. The second Bateman title became extinct in 1931 and Shobdon Court was sadly demolished soon afterwards, leaving only the service wing, which was remodelled to serve as a new centre for the estate.

In many ways the most interesting member of this family was Sir James Bateman's youngest son, Dickie Bateman (1705-73). He is well-known to literary and architectural historians as a member of Horace Walpole's homosexual circle at Strawberry Hill, and as the man responsible for creating (though not for designing) the delicious Gothick church at Shobdon, built in 1751-58. What has emerged more recently is how influential he was as a leader of decorative fashion in his own right from the 1730s onwards, particularly through the house and garden he created at Old Windsor (Berks). It is also becoming clear that despite his 'fribblish' or camp and affected manner, he was an acute and painstaking businessman: qualities that he no doubt inherited from his father. We have already seen how the management of the Shobdon estate was left largely in his hands during his lifetime, and it is notable how frequently he was made the executor and/or trustee of his siblings and cousins. It is clear that he was trusted to manage property and investments, and to prioritise the demands of business above his social obligations to his friends. When he died, he left a very simple will - written decades earlier - leaving everything to his nephew, the 2nd Viscount, who proved a poor steward of his legacy. Within months, Dickie's collections had been dispersed at auction, part of his house had been pulled down, and the rest was soon sold off. It was a very poor return for Dickie's careful and sensitive stewardship of the Shobdon estate over many decades.

Shobdon Court, Herefordshire

There is a Norman castle motte of considerable size within the gardens at Shobdon, built no doubt by the Mortimers, but in the 12th century they gave the estate to their steward, Oliver de Merlimond, who in turn founded a priory of Augustinian canons in the parish. The canons later moved to Wigmore (Herefs), and as Wigmore Abbey they retained ownership of Shobdon until the dissolution of the monasteries. However, by the early 16th century a family called Wigmore were in possession of Shobdon as lord farmers of the manor, and they retained it as tenants of the Crown after the dissolution, before eventually acquiring the freehold in the early 17th century. Nothing is known about their manor house, which was replaced by a new house on an immensely grand scale for Robert Chaplin (d. 1704), a London commission agent trading with Barbados, who bought the estate in 1690. Although his family were minor gentry in Suffolk, his wealth was entirely self-made, and by the 1690s he was rich enough to lend money to the Government on a considerable scale. He was the brother of Sir Francis Chaplin (1627-80), Lord Mayor of London in 1672, but unlike his brother he made no mark in civic affairs, probably because he spent so much time abroad or at sea. He has often been confused with his nephew and namesake, Sir Robert Chaplin (c.1670-1728), 1st bt., who was indeed his heir at Shobdon; but it was the uncle not the nephew who was responsible for building Shobdon Court.

Shobdon Court: engraving by John Harris the elder, c.1710

The new house is not very closely dated but we know Chaplin bought the manor of Shobdon in 1690, and it seems likely that the house had been completed by 1697 when the body of his wife (who had died in 1684 and been buried in London) was exhumed and reburied at Shobdon. The new house is recorded in a bird's eye view engraving of about 1710 by John Harris the elder, and in a drawing, apparently by Colen Campbell, which was later engraved for inclusion in Vitruvius Britannicus (vol. 2, 1717), although the latter omits the cupola which originally stood over the centre of the house and adds a sculptural panel in the pediment which it is doubtful ever existed. Vitruvius Britannicus also includes a plan which shows that the house was about 103 feet square, with an ambitious triple pile arrangement combined with an axial hall. The plan lacks close parallels in contemporary houses, the nearest probably being Ragley Hall (Warks), designed and built in 1679-83 by the Warwickshire mason-architect, Roger Hurlbutt (d. c.1710), with input from the polymath, Robert Hooke (1635-1703). As a London merchant, Robert Chaplin is quite likely to have encountered Hooke, who is known to have had dealings with Sir Francis Chaplin over the accounts for the Great Fire monument in London in 1677, and it is possible - to put it no more strongly - that Hooke had some input into the design of Shobdon.

Shobdon Court: plan of principal floor from Vitruvius Britannicus (1717)
As shown, the plan is correctly oriented, with north at the top.

The house was of two full storeys above a half-exposed basement, and had a hipped roof carried on a wooden cornice and surmounted by a tall cupola, which stood in the centre of the roof and provided top-lighting into the inner end of the full-height entrance hall. The main fronts to north and south were of thirteen bays, each having projecting two bay wings with quoins at the angles, either side of a more closely-spaced nine bay centre, the middle five bays of which were stepped slightly forward and pedimented. A plat band ran between the ground and first floor windows on the wings and the two bays at either side of the centre. The side elevations, to east and west, were of eleven evenly-spaced bays, the centre three of which were boldly recessed. A modest pedimented doorcase was set in the centre of each elevation, but curiously the principal entrance was actually that on the west side elevation, where the house faced the lane leading from Shobdon village to the mansion. The conflict between the principal axis implied by the external architecture (north-south) and the actual axis (east-west) seems clumsy, and perhaps not the sort of thing an experienced architect like Hooke would have done. South-west of the house stood a detached service block, seven bays by five, which echoed the form of the main house with a cornice, hipped roof, and plat band between the ground and first floors; it was connected with the basement of the house by an underground corridor, allowing servants to pass unseen between the two. The medieval village church stood north-west of the house and is visible in Harris' view, although as we shall see it was later rebuilt. The stable block and a large octagonal dovecote stood on the west side of the lane to Shobdon village, and were also part of the general rebuilding of the 1690s.

Shobdon Court: watercolour by James Wathen showing the east front of the house in 1791. This view probably provides the best impression of the house before the major Victorian remodelling of 1856-58, and of how it related to its parkland setting. Image: Hereford City Library.

The plan in Vitruvius Britannicus shows that the pedimented doorcase on the west front led into a very large, top-lit entrance hall, which occupied about 60% of the middle pile of the house. Behind it to the east was a further large space containing the principal staircase, which was a surprisingly modest affair for such a grand building. The southern half of the staircase hall was apparently later partitioned off to form a billiards room. An axial corridor led through the house from the north door to the south door across the inner end of the entrance hall, and further corridors flanked the entrance hall to north and south and provided access to the rooms in the north and south piles. The principal reception rooms were arranged along the south front, but their respective functions cannot now be determined with certainty. The largest room, after the entrance hall, was that in the south-east corner, and this may have been the dining room, in which the case the room at the south-west corner was probably the withdrawing room, and the rooms in between may have functioned as a library, study or second drawing room. On the north side of the house were two principal apartments, each with a closet and service rooms and one - probably designed the state apartment - also with a dressing room with a bed in it.

At his death in 1704, Robert Chaplin left the house to his nephew and namesake, later Sir Robert Chaplin (c.1670-1728), 1st bt., who very quickly sold the estate to his friend, Sir James Bateman, kt., for £30,428. We can be sure the house had been built by then as the sale included 'a large new-built seat with outhouses and barns, stables, malt kilns and other offices, pigeon's house, gardens, orchards, fishponds and plantations'. Sir James seems to have been satisfied with the house as it stood, but his son, William Bateman (later the 1st Viscount Bateman), who inherited in 1718, was making internal alterations with the assistance of a series of well-known craftsmen as early as 1721-22. Unfortunately, we have no information about the nature of these changes, but at the same time Thomas Greening, chief gardener to George II, who had a farm nearby at Aymestrey, began the process of landscaping the grounds. Greening promoted an irregular style of landscaping, with serpentine walks threading a well-wooded landscape. He did not, however, wholly sweep away the parterres shown by Harris, for some of them still existed in the mid-1740s.

The 1st Viscount Bateman died in Paris in 1744, leaving as heir his son John, who had recently come of age. He very quickly began a series of improvements to both the house and grounds under the management of his uncle, Dickie Bateman, who was part of the charmed circle around Horace Walpole, and who was building on his own account at Windsor at much the same time. Dickie's letters to the estate steward, Benjamin Fellows, give tantalising glimpses of the works in progress, which included internal alterations to the house in accordance with the plans of Henry Flitcroft; and also the rebuilding of the church and the landscaping of the park. We know nothing about the new interiors Flitcroft created in the house (which were all swept away in the 19th century), except that Bishop Pococke remarks 'the house is finished and furnished in a very grand manner', which may imply a classical rather than a Gothick or Chinoiserie scheme.

Shobdon church: interior looking east. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

In 1745, the Norman and Early English church was in poor condition: its central tower had collapsed in 1719, and the present west tower was built to replace it in 1725-30. The idea of rebuilding the rest was under discussion by 1746, although the first scheme seems to have been for a remodelling rather than a complete demolition and new building. New plans for a complete rebuilding were sent to Shobdon in March 1751, and the work was largely complete by 1756. The result is the finest 18th century church in the county, and one of the prettiest anywhere in England. The exterior is a plain ashlar block with moulded ogee-headed windows and plate tracery, but the interior is a rich fantasy of powder blue and white woodwork and plasterwork, with motifs drawn eclectically from works or published designs by William Kent and Batty Langley. Unfortunately, we do not know who the designer was. A letter of 1749 from Dickie Bateman in London to Benjamin Fallowes, the steward at Shobdon says 'The enclosed is what the architect wants regarding the church', which implies that there was a single designer (something which the unity of the design itself proclaims) and perhaps also that he was in London, but he is never named in the surviving documentation. A great deal of ink has been expended on trying to work out who he was. The idea that it was William Kent himself seems to be ruled out by the fact that he died in 1748 and that the plan was changed from remodelling to rebuilding two years later. Others in the frame include people in Kent's circle such as Daniel Garrett, Stephen Wright or John Vardy; Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, who was local; Richard Bentley, another member of Walpole's Committee of Taste; William Robinson, who also worked at Strawberry Hill; Henry Keene; and Henry Flitcroft. Stylistically, my own view is that John Vardy is probably the most likely man, but unless new evidence comes to light we shall probably never know for certain.

Shobdon Court: the Arches in 1959, before extensive woodland planting.
Image: Miss Wight/Historic England AA65/689.

The demolition of the old church displaced extensive Norman fabric, including the chancel arch and two elaborate Norman doorways, and in 1751-52, as part of the landscaping works in the grounds, they were rebuilt as an eyecatcher called the Shobdon Arches at the top of a grass avenue in the park. The carvings, which have now weathered so far as to be largely lost, were happily recorded in a series of lithographs published in 1852, for they are of great interest for the mix of French and Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon influences which they show. The park also contains a mid 18th century temple facade, set in a copse about a quarter of a mile east of the church, with four tall Ionic columns and a pediment with a modillion cornice; this was in place by 1752, when Bishop Pococke mentions seeing it. Pococke also records that the Norman castle mound had been 'improved into a bowling green with a summer-house'.

In 1807 the estate descended to William Bateman Hanbury (1780-1845), who was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Bateman in 1837. Shortly before his elevation, he commissioned further work on the interior from Edward Haycock of Shrewsbury, who was active here from about 1830-35, and working with advice from Sir Jeffry Wyatville. We know very little about what was done, except that it included the fitting up of a new library. 

Shobdon Court: the north and east fronts as remodelled in 1856-58 for 2nd Lord Bateman. Image: Maj. D. Hill-Wood/Historic England BB87/10421

We know so little about the 18th and early 19th century interiors of Shobdon, because after the 2nd Baron Bateman was married in 1854 he commissioned a comprehensive remodelling of the house to the designs of Alexander Milne of Northampton. Although there was apparently a fairly serious fire in an outbuilding at Shobdon in 1854, this did not affect the main house, and the works were not, as is sometimes stated, occasioned by the need for reinstatement.  Work began in 1856, and was largely complete by 1858, when the Hereford Journal recorded that:

"The building, which dates from the closing period of the 17th century, was of red brick of the plainest description, and consisted of a block about 110 ft. square, connected by an underground passage, with the offices in a second similar block, 70ft. by 50ft. This general arrangement... has not been disturbed, but extensive additions have been made to the offices... With regard to the house itself, the process of renovation, either within or without, could hardly have been more complete. The old chimney shafts have been replaced by new brick with stone caps and bases ; a cornice, open parapets, pedestals, and finials have been added both to the main building and to the offices; the windows have new stone dressings, and the whole of the brickwork, old and new, has been coloured down, and pointed with black mortar. The old window frames and sashes of the house with their heavy sash bars and small panes, have given place to new ones of wainscot oak, each sash holding a single sheet of plate glass. The slates and timber of the roofs have been taken off, and the floor boards and timbers pulled out and replaced with new".

Shobdon Court: the saloon formed in 1856-58 out of the Georgian entrance hall. Image: Batsford & Co.

Shobdon Court: the drawing room created in 1856-58. Image: Maj. D. Hill-Wood/Historic England BB87/10390.

"This has afforded the opportunity to increase by 2ft. 6in. the height of the rooms on the principal floor. The whole of the plaster work throughout the house is fresh, the new ceilings and cornices in some of the rooms being of elegant and costly design. The greater portion of the doors, shutters, architrave mouldings, skirtings, etc., will be new; in the chief rooms will be used carved or papier maché mouldings, while the floors are to be of polished oak with parquet borders.

Shobdon Court: plan after the 1856-58 remodelling.

Great changes have been made in the principal rooms of the house, dependant in some measure upon the removal of the chief entrance from the west to the north front. The principal staircase has been removed thither from the east front where it originally stood. A new dining room has been formed out of the old staircase and billiard room; the drawing room has been converted into a billiard room, and the old dining and serving rooms have become a drawing room and a boudoir. No less considerable have been the alterations on the basement chamber and attic floors. The chamber floor consists at present of nine large and lofty bed-rooms, with a dressing room to each. Of the old entrance hall, etc., has been formed a saloon 37 ft. in height, measuring 50 ft. 30ft., in the ceiling of which is fixed a very handsome skylight... of eliptical form, with scroll work attached to the bars, it is glazed with bent ground glass, in sheets each 12 ft. long. With a view to regulate the temperature of the room an outer skylight has been fixed over this, not visible however from the exterior of the house. Between these, in order to light the apartment by night, numerous gas [lights] will be fixed".

Shobdon Court: the south and west fronts as remodelled in 1856-58. Image: Maj. D. Hill-Wood/Historic England BB87/10444.

"We have reserved to the last to mention improvements which will first attract the eye of a stranger, and which give an altogether new character and an appropriate finish to the whole edifice. At the new carriage entrance on the north front has been erected a stone porch, having an arcade on either side, consisting of four arches, with cornice and open parapet. There has also been made a covered area, intended to keep dry the offices in the basement. On the south front, the ground lying very low, a terrace has been built 20 ft. wide and 200 feet long. The floor of the terrace is of syssel asphalte, and it is supported by wrought iron girders. The front is formed of a number of stone arches, with cornice and open balustrades, and flower vases on the pedestals. A flight of seven steps leads down from the sash door of the library to the centre of the terrace, at either end of which is a flight of 20 very wide and handsome steps, conducting to the flower garden. On the two sides of the house four areas have been made, each 10 ft. wide, where formerly the earth lay to the height of 9 ft. against the walls of the basement offices. These areas are furnished with an open balustrade, pedestals and vases on the same level with the terrace, and made in every respect to correspond. They have also two flights of stone steps, each 35 ft. long, to the landings at the east and west doors. The general effect of these alterations is very striking. The entire cost of the works will be about £20,000... The whole of the works, building and engineering, have been carried out from the plans and specifications, and under the superintendence of the architect, Mr. Alexander Milne, of Northampton".

After the 3rd Lord Bateman died without an obvious heir in 1931, his executors sold the contents of the house in July 1932 and then sold the estate itself in January 1933 to Mr. G.M. Kent of Pudleston Court. He wanted the land and decided to demolish the main house, prompting a demolition sale of the fixtures and fittings in October 1933, The saloon was sold as a unit for £465; one wonders where it is now. Another room was acquired for the Art Institute of Chicago as one of its period room exhibits (but was sold in the 1950s), and more portable fixtures and fittings from Shobdon such as doors and chimneypieces were reused in other houses, including Ashford Hall, Ashford Bowdler (Shrops.) and Bodnant (Denbighs.). The service wing was retained and refashioned as a much smaller house, and the large brick stables of c.1700 were also retained and converted into residential accommodation, with a tall turret that gives the building the air of a 1930s town hall. The terrace built in front of the south front of the house in the 1850s was also kept as a garden walk.

Shobdon Court: the remodelled service wing from the south-east in 1950, also showing the retained Victorian terrace.

Shobdon Court: the present house, remodelled out of the 18th century service block after 1933. Image: Philip Pankhurst. Some rights reserved.

Descent: Queen Elizabeth granted to William Raven and others, who sold soon afterward to Thomas Handford and Kynard Delabere, who were perhaps trustees for Thomas Wigmore, whose family had been tenants since the 16th century; to son, Warncomb Wigmore; sold c.1655 to John Handford (d. 1669); to son, John Handford (d. 1676); ... sold 1690 to Robert Chaplin (d. 1704); to nephew, Robert Chaplin (c.1670-1728), later 1st bt.; sold 1705 to Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt.; to son, William Bateman (1696-1744), 1st Viscount Bateman; to son, John Bateman (1721-1802), 2nd Viscount Bateman; to first cousin once removed, William Hanbury (1748-1807); to son, William Hanbury (later Bateman-Hanbury) (1780-1845), 1st Baron Bateman; to son, William Bateman Bateman-Hanbury (1826-1901), 2nd Baron Bateman; to son, William Spencer Bateman-Hanbury (1856-1931), 3rd Baron Bateman; sold by his executors in 1933 to George Malcolm Kent, who demolished the main house; sold c.1945 to Commander (Ughtred) Henry Ramsden James RN (1902-89); sold 1950 to Peter Douglas Conyers Walker (1912-84); sold 1957 to Lt-Col. Uvedale Corbett (1909-2005); to son, David Uvedale Corbett (1936-2001); to son, Richard George Uvedale Corbett (b. 1965).

Totteridge Park, Middlesex

An account of this house has been given previously in an earlier post.

The Priory (formerly Grove House), Old Windsor, Berkshire

Richard 'Dickie' Bateman (1705-73) acquired the lease of a small 17th century red brick house or inn adjoining the River Thames with about fourteen acres in 1730. He turned his attention first to creating ornamental grounds around the house in the fashionable ferme ornée style, with buildings which Richard Pococke described in 1754 as being 'in the Chinese taste', although 18th century drawings show they were actually in a variety of different styles. 

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: extract from the inclosure map of 1817 showing the key buildings around the site. A=The Priory; B=The Vicarage; C=Old Windsor Church; D= The Hermitage; E=Site of gazebo on boundary (perhaps demolished by the date of this map); F=Site of Chinese bridge; G=Site of China House (demolished by 1817); H=Manor Cottage.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: the 'China House' in the grounds, decorated by Dickie Bateman before 1735 in a mixed style.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: watercolour by Paul Sandby dated 1750 showing, on the left, the old gazebo 'improved' by Dickie Bateman 
and on the right the Chinese bridge. The house in the background must be Manor Cottage, although its later appearance was very different.
Image: Royal Collection Trust 914615.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: detail of the watercolour above showing the Chinese bridge. Image: Royal Collection Trust 914615.

Work on the house seems not to have commenced until the 1740s, but by the time time Thomas Robins made drawings of the estate from the west-north-west and east-south-east (probably between 1748 and 1758), Dickie Bateman had installed fanciful ogee arches in place of some of the original windows, dressed the main front with two canted bays and a porch in a mixed style, and built a detached wing (known as The Offices) adjoining the house, one end of which was dressed up with Gothick arcading and windows, and a crocketed gable-end. The house and this wing partly enclosed a walled courtyard entered by Gothick archway with pinnacled gatepiers. 

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: view from the east-south-east (across the River Thames) by Thomas Robins, probably dating from the 1750s. The Priory is on the left, the old gazebo visible in Sandby's view is just right of centre, and the Hermitage is on the right.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: view from the west-north-west by Thomas Robins, probably dating from the 1750s. The China House is on the left, with the church behind it; the vicarage is just left of centre, the old gazebo on the skyline, and Priory House right of centre.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: detail of the house from the east 
from the Thomas Robins painting above.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: detail of the house from the west 
from the Thomas Robins painting above.

Less is known about the interiors of this date, but in 1750 Bateman was buying painted glass from an Italian merchant, and in 1754 Pococke saw painted and gilt ceilings, an eccentric collection of furniture, and a miniature long gallery. The result was characterised by Lord Lyttelton in 1759 as ‘half Gothick, half Attic, half Chinese and completely fribble’, and although Bateman may have had professional assistance in execution, it all sounds exactly like the sort of thing he would have designed himself.

Much later, between about 1758 and 1768, Bateman extensively remodelled and enlarged the house in the Gothick style, and this time he commissioned the improvements from more experienced architects within the Strawberry Hill circle. Walpole took the credit for his new focus on Gothick: "[I] converted Dickie Bateman from a Chinese to a Goth", he wrote; "I preached so effectively that his every pagoda took the veil". By 1768, when Mrs Delany visited, she recorded "its outward appearance is venerable - arched porticoes and windows, Gothic towers and battlements, encompassed and shaded with large trees... Were I to particularize all I saw within and without the house - the vestibules, the 'refectories', the 'monuments' etc etc, you would think I was quoting old Dugdale". As at Strawberry Hill, elements of the house such as fireplaces and bookcases were designed as recognisable paraphrases of medieval monuments copied from antiquarian engravings. 

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: design by J.H. Muntz for the octagonal dining room, 1761.
Image: Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut.

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: the octagonal dining room today.

Richard Bentley was employed in 1758 to design alterations to the 'The Offices', and in 1761 Johann Heinrich Muntz designed an octagonal Gothic dining room with a vaulted roof, which survives, although most of its Gothick external features have been removed. The dining room was connected to the house by a Gothick cloister walk, designs for which were submitted by both Bentley and Muntz. Although Muntz's design was far more elaborate and sophisticated, Bentley's design was chosen, perhaps on the grounds of expense, or perhaps because Muntz fell out with Walpole and Bentley while the decision was pending. To mark the strengthened Gothick character of the house, it became known as The Priory (confusingly, another house on the riverside, a little further south, was later called Grove House).

Genuine antiquities were mixed with modern Gothick: Dickie Bateman removed the 13th century tomb chest and effigy of Caducanus, bishop of Bangor from Abbey Dore church (Herefs) and installed it in his new cloister under a canopy designed by Muntz; and he also placed in the cloister a set of triangular chairs from Wales which were thought at the time to be medieval. Inside the house proper there was a bewildering assortment of collections reflecting Bateman's enthusiasms over many years for stained glass, painted heraldry, Chinese weaponry and other artefacts, medieval art and especially Catholic religious artefacts. These last were concentrated particularly in an octagonal 'chapel' off Bateman's bedchamber, which offended Mrs Delany and no doubt others: "if he does not make use of it in good earnest, his making a joke of it is shocking... I don't suppose he desires to be thought a papist, and perhaps he would rather be thought a heathen!".

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: the house from the south today

Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor: the house from the south-west today.

On Dickie Bateman's death the ownership of the Priory passed to his nephew, the 2nd Viscount, who pulled down the cloister and other parts of the house and sold its contents at Christies in 1774: Horace Walpole bought some pieces including the chairs from the cloister for Strawberry Hill. The house has changed hands frequently since 1775, and the only family to stay here for any length of the time were the Romaines, who acquired it before 1874 and held it until 1924. It was presumably they who further remodelled the house in the late 19th century and removed much of the Gothickry that had not already been abraded by time. 

Descent: lease sold 1730 to Dickie Bateman (1705-73); to nephew, John Bateman (1721-1802), 2nd Viscount Bateman; sold 1775 to Lord Cholmondeley; sold 1783 to Mary (d. 1812), widow of Richard Onslow (1713-76), 3rd Baron Onslow; sold 1812 to HRH Princess Elizabeth (1770-1840); sold 1826 to J. Sivewright (fl. 1826-34); sold to John Sturges (d. 1850); sold to H. Wrench (d. c.1866); sold 1866 to Dr. William Hurman; sold by 1874 to William Govett Romaine (1815-93); to son, William Colin Campbell Romaine (d. 1924); sold to John Richard Brinsley Norton (1855-1943), 5th Baron Grantley... sold to William George Cleghorn (fl. 1969)... Peter John Francis (b. 1953); sold 2007... sold 2018.

Bateman family of Shobdon Court

Joas Bateman (c.1620-1704) 

Bateman, Joas (c.1620-1704). Son of Giles Bateman of Haesbrok near St. Omer (France) and his wife Jacomina de Swort, born about 1620. He evidently came to England as a young man, and worked as book-keeper to Sir John Vanbrugh's father, Giles Vanbrugh, a London cloth merchant of similar Flemish-Protestant background. He later became a Flanders merchant on his own account, in which capacity he was a signatory to several petitions to Parliament about tariffs on overseas trade. It was said of him that 'by his justice and fair dealing, he acquired a good fortune', but his wealth was always moderate. He is said to have been naturalised in 1660, and appears in the records as Joas, Joos, Joseph and even John Bateman. He was selected as an Alderman of the City of London, 1687, but discharged, on payment of a fine of £520. His widow founded a set of almshouses at Tooting, erected in 1709-10. He married, 24 October 1648 at St Olave, Hart Street, London, Judith (d. 1712), daughter of John de la Barre, another French Huguenot refugee merchant, of Fenchurch St., London, and had issue, with two other children, born dead:

(1) John Bateman (1649-74), baptised at St Katherine Coleman, London, 19 July 1649; died unmarried and was buried at St Martin Orgar, 29 August 1674;

(2) Mary Bateman (1650-1730), baptised at St Katherine Coleman, London, 7 November 1650; married, 21 July 1670 at St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, Abraham Tillard (1635-1704) of Norton Folgate, London, merchant, and had surviving issue three sons and one daughter; buried at St Stephen Walbrook, London, 26 February 1729/30; will proved 5 March 1729/30;

(3) Jane Bateman (1651-54), baptised at St Martin Orgar, London, 20 December 1651; died young and was buried in St Martin Orgar, 14 March 1653/4;

(4) Barbara Bateman (b. 1654), born 10 October and baptised at St Martin Orgar, London, 18 October 1654; probably died young but death not traced;

(5) Giles Bateman (b. & d. 1656), baptised at St Martin, Orgar, London, 10 December 1656; died in infancy and was buried at St Martin, Orgar, London, 30 December 1656;

(6) William Bateman (1658-78?), baptised at St Martin Orgar, London, 25 April 1658; died unmarried and was possibly the man of this name buried at St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, 29 October 1678;

(7) Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt. (q.v.);

(8) Judith Bateman (1661-1729), baptised at St Martin Orgar, London, 2 March 1661/2; married 1st, 13 March 1676/7 at Shoreditch (Middx), Sir Richard Shirley (c.1655-92), 2nd bt., of Preston (Sussex), and had issue two sons and four daughters; married 2nd, 26 August 1697 at Crayford (Kent), Sir Henry Hatsell, kt. (1641-1714) of The Temple, London, a Baron of the Exchequer; buried at Preston, 4 June 1729; will proved 9 June 1729;

(9) Elizabeth Bateman (b. 1665), born 27 March and baptised at St Martin Orgar, 9 April 1665; probably died young but death not traced;

(10) Seavell Bateman (male) (b. 1668), baptised at St Martin Orgar, 6 December 1668; probably died young but death not traced.

He lived at a house in St Martin's Lane near Cannon St.. London, and later at a house in Ongar (Essex) provided by his son. His widow lived with her son at Tooting (Surrey). 

He died 13 April, and was buried in the Dutch church at Austin Friars, London, 18 April 1704; his will was proved in the PCC, 3 May 1704. His widow was buried in the Dutch church at Austin Friars, 5 January 1712/3.

Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt. 

Bateman, Sir James (1660-1718), kt. Only surviving son of Alderman Joas Bateman (c.1720-1704) of Tooting (Surrey), merchant, by his wife Judith, daughter of John de la Barre, merchant, of Fenchurch St., London, baptised at St Martin Orgar, London, 29 April 1660. His Dutch Calvinist upbringing and his family’s marriage connections with several leading dissenting families in London ensured he developed a Whig outlook. Although he may have had interests in trade with the Low Countries (he seems to have had a house in Rotterdam at one point), for nearly ten years from c.1683 he was resident at Alicante (Portugal), where he quickly made a lot of money in the wine trade. He had returned to London by the early 1690s, and having already amassed a sizable fortune he continued to operate on a large scale as an Iberian wine importer. His financial acumen and growing wealth enabled him to take a prominent position in the City of London financial world, and he became a major subscriber to the Bank of England at its inception in 1694 and one of its founding directors, serving (subject to the statutory intervals) until 1711 and being Deputy Governor, 1703-05 and Governor, 1705-07. In 1695 he became a Director of the Company of Scotland and was accused of 'high crimes and misdemeanours' in a House of Commons report into its affairs, but although his impeachment was proposed it was never carried forward. He was knighted at Kensington Palace, 14 December 1698 and became a Director of the New East India Co. (set up by prominent Whigs in opposition to the old Tory-dominated East India Company), 1698-1700, 1703-04, 1707-09 and of the United East India Co., 1709-10. He made strenuous efforts to get into Parliament in 1695 (at Totnes) and 1701 (at St Mawes), but was unsuccessful until a personal acquaintance with Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, chief minister in the Tory administration led to his agreeing to help the Government with its fundraising activities. He became Sub-Governor of the South Sea Co.*, 1711-18 and was rewarded with a seat in Parliament as Tory MP for Ilchester, 1711-15. His flirtation with the Tories did not survive the Hanoverian succession, but he remained in Parliament as Whig MP for East Looe, 1715-18. He also served as a Director of Greenwich Hospital, 1703-18 and a Commissioner for building fifty new churches, 1712-15. In London, he was a member of the Lorimer's Company to 1709 and then of the Fishmongers Co., 1709-18 (Prime Warden, 1710-12); Sheriff of London, 1702; Alderman of London, 1708-18, and finally Lord Mayor, 1716-17. He married, 1691 (licence 3 December), Esther (1672-1709), daughter and co-heiress of John Searle of Finchley (Middx), merchant, and had issue:

(1) Anne Bateman (1692-1773) (q.v.);

(2) Sir William Bateman (1695-1744), KB, 1st Viscount Bateman (q.v.);

(3) James Bateman (1697-1758), born 24 April and baptised at St Mary, Aldermanbury, London, 25 April 1697; inherited his father's property in the City of London and Tooting, 1718 but sold the latter in 1725; stepped in at the last moment for his brother William and was elected MP for Carlisle, 1722-27; purchased the Well Vale estate near Alford (Lincs), about 1719-20; married, 21 September 1721 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), Anne (d. 1733), daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert Chaplin, 1st bt., of London, and had issue one daughter (Ann, wife of Samuel Dashwood of Well (Lincs), from whom descended the Bateman-Dashwood family); died 9 April 1758; will proved 10 April 1758;

(4) John Bateman (b. 1699), born 2 October and baptised at St Mary, Aldermanbury, London, 11 October 1699; died young before September 1709 but death not traced;

(5) Judith Bateman (1703-25), baptised at St Michael Bassishaw, London, 26 September 1703; married, 11 April 1724 at Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, Westminster, Thomas Bouchier MP (1701-72) of Heath Lane House, Twickenham (Middx) and Christian Malford (Wilts), and had issue one daughter (Judith, who married 1750, the Hon. William Fitzwilliam); died in childbirth, 11 March and was buried at Tooting (Surrey), 24 March 1724/5;

(6) Richard Bateman (1705-73) (q.v.);

(7) Elizabeth Bateman (1707-65), baptised at St Michael Bassishaw, London, 18 May 1707; died unmarried; will proved 20 April 1765;

(8) Henry Bateman (1709-10), baptised at St Botolph Bishopsgate, London, 7 May 1709; died in infancy and was buried at Tooting (Surrey), 18 August 1710.

He purchased the site of Holywell Priory, Shoreditch (Middx) in 1692, and inherited property in London, Hertfordshire and Kent from his father in 1704. He purchased the Shobdon Court estate in (Herefs) in 1705 and the manor of Tooting (Surrey) in 1714. In February 1717 he purchased the Crown lease of Monmouth House, Soho Square, London, from the Duchess of Monmouth. He altered Monmouth House in 1717-18, probably to the designs of Thomas Archer, whom he would have known through the Commission for building fifty new churches.

He died at Monmouth House in Soho Square, London, 10 November, and was buried at Tooting (Surrey), 19 November 1718; his will was proved 25 November 1718; his estate was reputed to be worth £400,000, including £30,000 in cash. His wife died 30 September, and was buried at Tooting, 10 October 1709, where she was commemorated by a monument.

* The South Sea Company was not at this time the scandalous vehicle for insider trading and fraud that it became shortly afterwards, during the infamous 'South Sea Bubble'.

William Bateman, 1st Viscount Bateman 

Bateman, Sir William (1696-1744), KB, 1st Viscount Bateman. Eldest son of Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt., and his wife Esther, daughter and co-heiress of John Searle of Finchley (Middx), merchant, born 6 January and baptised at St Mary, Aldermanbury, London, 9 January 1695/6. Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge (matriculated 1712) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1712), and travelled extensively in Europe; he also made an extended trip to France with his wife in 1723. Whig MP for Leominster, 1721-22, 1727-34; he also stood for Carlisle in 1723 but at the last moment asked his brother James to substitute for him, perhaps because he had decided to go abroad. His wife used her influence as the daughter of a former Prime Minister to campaign for him to be given an honour that would reflect her rank, such as being a Knight of the Bath, but King George I chose rather to make him an Irish peer as Viscount Bateman and Baron Culmore of Londonderry, 12 July 1725, reputedly saying 'I can make him a lord, but I cannot make him a gentleman'. George II took a different view and he was made a Knight of the Bath, 12 January 1731/2.  He was a notable art collector, making a large collection of paintings and statues during his foreign travels, where (according to Lodge's Peerage), 'he made a better figure than some of the foreign princes through whose dominions he passed'. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1733-44. Despite his marriage, it would appear he was primarily homosexual and in 1738 he was shown to have been having liaisons with the stable boys at Shobdon. His wife was horrified, and went to live at Althorp (Northants) with her brother. He spent the rest of his life in London and on the Continent, only visiting Shobdon once, in 1740. Although he may have gone abroad in some haste when his activities first came to light, it does not appear to be true that he went into exile to avoid prosecution. He married, a few days before 10 July 1720, probably in the chapel at Blenheim Palace (Oxon), Anne* (d. 1769), daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (then the Prime Minister) and granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, and had issue:

(1) John Bateman (1721-1802), 2nd Viscount Bateman (q.v.);

(2) Capt. The Hon. William Bateman (1725-83), born 13 February and baptised at St Anne, Soho, London, 24 February 1724/5; an officer in the Royal Navy, 1737-51 (Lt., 1743/4; Capt., 1745; retired 1751); Equerry to HRH Princess Amelia, 1745-56; MP for Gatton, 1752-54; Extra Commissioner of the Navy, 1756-61; Comptroller of the Storekeeper's Accounts, March-June 1783; married, 17 February 1755 at St James, Bath (Som.), Anne Maria (1727-1802), daughter of Charles Hedges of Finchley (Middx), but had no issue; died 19 June 1783 and was buried at Shobdon (Herefs); will proved in the PCC, 25 June 1783.

He inherited Shobdon Court and Monmouth House, Soho Square, London, from his father in 1718. He completed his father's alterations at Monmouth House by March 1719. He made alterations to Shobdon Court in 1721-22, and purchased additional lands to consolidate the estate. In 1723 he purchased a property at Totteridge and built Totteridge Park. After their separation his wife lived at Althorp.

He died in Paris early in December 1744; his will was proved in the PCC, 31 January 1744/5. His widow died in London, 19 February 1769; her will was proved 27 February 1769.

* Anne was described as clever, but plain and unattractive, awkward, with a big nose and no-nonsense manner, so finding her a rich if rather plebeian husband was counted a success. After 1732, she fell out spectacularly with the Duchess of Marlborough over her own piece of matchmaking for her brother; the Duchess cut off all contact and blackened the face of her portrait, writing on the frame 'she is much blacker inside'. As others found to their cost, the Duchess was a very good hater: in 1738 she called Anne 'the vilest woman I ever knew in my life and deserves to be burnt'.

Silhouette of John Bateman,
2nd Viscount Bateman

Bateman, Rt. Hon. John (1721-1802), 2nd Viscount Bateman. Elder son of Sir William Bateman (1696-1744), KB, 1st Viscount Bateman, and his wife Anne, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, born 12 April 1721, baptised privately at Blenheim Palace (Oxon), where the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough were among his godparents, and publicly at St Anne, Soho, 22 April 1721. He came of age in 1742 and succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount, in December 1744 or June 1745. As an Irish peer, he did not have a seat in the House of Lords, and he became Whig MP for Orford, 1746-47, Woodstock, 1747-68 and Leominster, 1768-84. He was briefly in Government as a Lord of the Admiralty, 1755-56 and Treasurer of the Household, 1756-57, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1756. He was Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire for more than half a century, 1746-1802; Chief Steward of Leominster, 1759-1802; and Master of the Buckhounds, 1757-82, only being dismissed from the latter post on a change of government. The Mastership brought him Swinley Lodge in Windsor Great Park and a salary of £2,341, although the expenses of the office always exceeded this sum. Some commentators found him pompous, but he was a great favourite of the King. For Sir Nathaniel Wraxhall, 'His understanding was good, though he loved pleasure of every description more than business and he possessed that mediocrity of talents which, never inspiring awe, forms the best recommendation to Royal favour'. Mrs. Delany found him 'excessively thin, polite, and modest in behaviour', characteristics which may explain why the traditional annual dinner for local farmers and foresters he was obliged to give as Master of the Buckhounds was regarded as parsimonious (his predecessor, Ralph Jenison, had by contrast been noted as 'a five bottle man' and was accordingly much better liked!).  His portrait was painted by Gainsborough, but its current whereabouts are not known. (A picture at Waddesdon Manor traditionally identified as being of him has now been recognised as being of the artist's nephew, Gainsborough Dupont). He married, 2 July 1748 at St Anne, Soho, Elizabeth (1726-1802), daughter and co-heir of John Sambrooke MP, but had no issue.

He inherited Shobdon Court, Totteridge Park, and Monmouth House, London from his father in 1744. He sold Totteridge Park to Sir William Lee (1688-1754) in 1748. He continued to occupy Monmouth House until 1756, after which the house was let to tenants including the French ambassador, who built a new chapel. In 1770 Lord Bateman negotiated an extension of his Crown lease to 1819 and entered into contracts for the redevelopment of the site with two large houses on the frontage and a warren of tiny ones behind; Monmouth House had been pulled down by 1773. At his death Shobdon passed to his widow for life, and then to his cousin, William Hanbury of Kelmarsh Hall (Northants). In 1769-70, he built a town house at 40 (now 140) Park Lane, London, to the designs of John Phillips. It was sold to Warren Hastings in 1789 and demolished in 1913.

He died 2 March 1802, when his titles became extinct; his will was proved in the PCC, 4 April 1802. His widow died 20 December 1802; her will was proved in the PCC, 12 January 1803.

Richard Bateman (1705-73)

Bateman, Richard (k/a Dickie) (1705-73). Third and youngest surviving son of Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt., and his wife Esther, daughter and co-heiress of John Searle of Finchley (Middx), merchant, baptised at St Michael Bassishaw, London, 4 April 1705. In his youth he is said to have travelled extensively, both at home and on the Continent. He was Joint Receiver-General for South Wales (with his friend Henry Fox), from 1732, and one of the five Under-Searchers in the Port of London until 1765, posts which he would have discharged by deputy. He became a well-known man of taste in London, and seems to have acted as a consultant for several of his aristocratic friends, helping them to choose decoration and furnishings in the exotic styles he favoured. Among other clients, he worked extensively in this way for Lord Ilchester, and in 1748 offered his services to Princess Caroline. He also played an important part in the management of the Shobdon estate, supervising the architectural and gardening projects there, including the rebuilding of the parish church, although it is not clear how often he actually visited the house. In an age which was intolerant of homosexuality, he was overtly effeminate and he was regularly mentioned  in letters and even portrayed on the stage as a member of 'the third sex'. When Horace Walpole returned to London from his Grand Tour, Dickie Bateman became one of his role-models, and later a member of the group of gay friends who surrounded Walpole, and of the Committee of Taste which advised on Strawberry Hill. Mary Delany said rather waspishly that 'he was a typical eccentric, who resembled his friend Horace Walpole in his Gothic affectation, and Wilkes in his impious buffoonery', but she also counted Bateman as a friend. At Old Windsor, he played the role of the squire with enthusiasm, entertaining the villagers at Christmas, Twelfth Night, Easter and Whitsuntide, and ensuring the ancient May Day rites were regularly celebrated, providing every couple married on that occasion with a complete outfit and each attendant maiden with a white frock. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Harolds Park, Waltham Holy Cross (Essex) and Holywell Priory, Shoreditch (Middx) from his father in 1718 and came of age in 1726, but he never lived at either property and sold Harolds Park in 1758. From 1730 he leased Grove House/The Priory, Old Windsor, which he developed from a former inn on the banks of the Thames into a Chinese and later a Gothick fantasy. He also had a London house at 5 Argyll St., Soho, from 1739 until his death.

He died 1 March 1773; his will (a very short document signed in 1747) was proved in the PCC, 20 March 1773, and left all his property to his nephew, the 2nd Viscount.

Bateman, Anne (1692-1773). Eldest daughter of Sir James Bateman (1660-1718), kt., and his wife Esther, daughter and co-heiress of John Searle of Finchley (Middx), merchant, born and baptised at St Mary Aldermanbury, London, 21 October 1692. She married 1st, 1712 (with £10,000; agreement 6 June), William Western (1694-1729) of Rivenhall Place (Essex) and 2nd, 21 February 1735/6 at St George's Chapel, Mayfair, Westminster (Middx), James Dolliffe (1693-1747) of Bedford Row, London and Busbridge Hall, Eashing (Surrey), and had issue:

(1.1) James Western (1715-30), born 31 December 1715 and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, on the same day; died young, 19 March, and was buried at Rivenhall, 22 March 1729/30; administration of his goods was granted to his mother, May 1730;

(1.2) Sarah Western (1718-65) (q.v.);

(1.3) Wilhelmina Anne Western (c.1720-79), born about 1720; married 1st, illegally (in view of her age) and without the knowledge or permission of her mother, 21 December 1734 at the Portuguese Embassy chapel, London, John Dumenil, Lord Bateman's valet, who was subsequently tried in absentia after pursuing her to France, where she had been sent, and sentenced to seven years in gaol; she married 2nd, 5 October 1758 at St George, Hanover Sq., London, Richard Stephens (d. 1782), and had issue one son; died in August 1779 and was buried at Hampton (Middx), 17 August 1779.

She inherited a life interest in Rivenhall Place from her first husband, but lived chiefly in London. She inherited the Busbridge estate from her second husband in 1747 but sold it the following year to Philip Carteret Webb.

She died 14 June and was buried under the Tower of Rivenhall church, 24 June 1773; her will was proved 2 August 1773. Her first husband died 12 August 1729, and was buried at Rivenhall, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 3 September 1729. Her second husband may be the man of this name buried at St Michael, Bristol, 19 May 1747; his will was proved in the PCC, 18 May 1747.

Western, Sarah (1718-65). Elder daughter of William Western (1694-1729) of Rivenhall Place (Essex) and his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Sir James Bateman, born 18 March 1717/8 and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (as Sweet Western), 26 March 1718. She married, 10 February 1735/6 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx) (with a dowry of £30,000), William Hanbury (1703-68) FRS FSA of Kelmarsh Hall (Northants), and had issue:

(1) Charlotte Hanbury (1738-39), born 28 October and baptised at St Anne, Soho, London, 7 November 1738; died in infancy and was buried at Kelmarsh, 9 June 1739;

(2) Anne Hanbury (1742-78), born 5 May and baptised at St Anne, Soho, 23 May 1742; married, 11 June 1765 at St Marylebone (Middx), John Harvey Thursby (1734-98) of Abington Abbey (Northants), and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 22 April and was buried at Abington, 29 April 1778, where she is commemorated on her husband's monument;

(3) William Hanbury (1748-1807), baptised at St George-the-Martyr, Queen Sq., London, 20 January 1747/8; inherited Shobdon Court on the death of his second cousin, the 2nd Viscount Bateman, in 1802; married, 24 October 1775 at Prestwold (Leics), Charlotte (1755-1815), daughter of Charles James Packe of Prestwold Hall (Leics), and had issue one daughter and three sons, the eldest of whom became Baron Bateman by a new creation in 1837 (an account of him and his descendants is reserved for a future post on the Hanbury and Bateman-Hanbury family); died 16 November 1807; will proved in the PCC, 28 November 1807. 

She and her husband lived at Kelmarsh Hall (Northants).

She was buried at Kelmarsh, 16 August 1765. Her husband was buried at Kelmarsh, 26 March 1768; his will was proved in the PCC, 8 April 1768.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1924, p. 220; J.J. Cartwright, The travels through England of Dr. Richard Pococke, Camden Society, 1889, vol. ii, pp. 219-20; J. Harris, Gardens of Delight, 1978, pp. 12-14; M. McCarthy, The origins of the Gothic Revival, 1987, pp. 105-15; I. Pfuell, A history of Shobdon, 1994; S. Daniels & C. Watkins, The Picturesque Landscape: visions of Georgian Herefordshire, 1994, pp. 20-21; D. Whitehead & R. Shoesmith, James Wathen's Herefordshire, 1770-1820, 1994 (unpaginated); D. Whitehead, A survey of historic parks and gardens of Herefordshire, 2001, pp. 334-36; C.J. Robinson, A history of the mansions and manors of Herefordshire, 2009 edition, pp. 285-86; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, p. 417; A. Brooks & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Herefordshire, 2nd edn., 2012, pp. 596-601; T. Mowl & J. Bradney, The historic gardens of Herefordshire, 2012, pp. 81-87; M.M. Reeve, Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the circle of Horace Walpole, 2020, pp. 119-44.

Location of archives

Bateman and Bateman-Hanbury families, Viscounts and later Barons Bateman: Shobdon estate records [Herefordshire Archives, G39]. Additional records of the Kelmarsh Hall and Suffolk estates will be found in the Northamptonshire and Suffolk Record Offices, respectively.

Coat of arms

Bateman, Viscounts Bateman: Or on a fesse sable between three Muscovy Ducks proper, a rose of the field

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide further information about the 20th-21st century ownership of The Priory, Old Windsor?
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated. 
• Any additions or corrections to the text above will be gratefully received and incorporated. 

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 28 January 2021.