(510) Beauclerk of Bestwood Lodge, Dukes of St. Albans

Beauclerk, Dukes of St. Albans 

This post has been divided into two parts. This first part consists of my introduction to the family and its property, and a description of the houses built or acquired by the Beauclerks. Part 2 gives the biographical and genealogical details of the Dukes of St. Albans from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Three main cadet branches of the family (the Beauclerks of Little Grimsby Hall; the Beauclerks of St. Leonard's Lodge; and the Beauclerks of Winchfield Hall) have been identified, and these will be subject of separate future posts.

The Beauclerk family descends from the elder illegitimate son of King Charles II (1630-85) and his most famous mistress, Nell Gwyn (1650-87). Nell's background is obscure, but her illiteracy and ready Cockney wit suggest she was brought up in London's poorest districts. As a teenager she became an orange-seller and then an actress in the London theatres. The casting of women in female roles on the stage was a novelty in Restoration London, and the (usually good-looking) young women who took up this new career were widely suspected of immorality. Coupled with her personal background, this helps to explain why she achieved less ready acceptance at Court than the king's other mistresses, who were ladies, even if they were ladies of negotiable virtue.

Nell Gwyn, by Simon Verelst

The king never felt able to give Nell a peerage, as his did with his other two leading mistresses, Barbara Villiers  (Duchess of Cleveland) and Louise de Kerouaille (Duchess of Portsmouth). Nell seems not to have particularly cared about that, but did want titles for the two sons she bore the king: Charles (1670-1726) and James (1671-81), who died while at school in Paris. The two boys had neither surnames nor titles until 1676, when Nell is said to have made a scene about the matter: the king responded by calling them Beauclerk (pronounced 'Boh-clare') and making the elder boy Earl of Burford and Baron Heddington, while James was given the rank of an Earl's younger son and the courtesy title Lord Beauclerk. Charles was further promoted to the Dukedom of St. Albans at the beginning of 1684, just eight days after the death without heirs of Charles' old friend, Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, had made the title available.

In the 1670s and 1680s Nell Gwyn secured for herself and her son both pensions and property. In London, she was given a lease (and in 1676 the freehold) of 79 Pall Mall, a house which was convenient for the king's court and which had (perhaps coincidentally) previously been occupied by the Earl of St. Albans. At Windsor, a new house (Burford House) was built for her to the south of the castle, which was a substantial residence although it did not have an attached estate. In 1681 the king granted her the 3,723 acre Bestwood Park estate in Nottinghamshire, a hunting preserve in Sherwood Forest, where there was a medieval semi-timbered hunting lodge with 38 rooms. This estate, which remained in the family until 1940, was never, however, regarded as a place of residence until 1860s, when the 10th Duke built a large new house there. These properties descended, on Nell's death in 1687, to the young Duke of St. Albans, but they did not generate much income, and even with the Duke's pensions and official positions his income is thought to have peaked at around £10,000 a year in the early years of Queen Anne's reign, which was hardly sufficient to sustain ducal splendour. Charles II's other illegitimate sons married great heiresses, but the Duke of St. Albans married Diana de Vere, daughter of the 20th and last Earl of Oxford, who was regarded as a great beauty and who had a pedigree stretching back to the Norman Conquest, but whose material expectations as heiress to her father were very limited. The marriage produced twelve children, including nine sons, eight of whom survived to adulthood, although all three of the daughters seem to have died young. Descendants of the three eldest sons have all inherited the Dukedom in turn and their careers are described in the genealogy in part 2 of this post, while two of the younger sons founded cadet branches of the family which will be the subject of future posts. 

The 1st Duke was in a position of some political delicacy at the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1689, since he was a Stuart by blood even if he was illegitimate. However, his uncle James II seems to have managed him badly, urging him to convert to Roman Catholicism and planning to send the young man to Hungary with a Catholic tutor in the face of his disinclination. He was given command of a regiment in 1687 (aged 17!) and although the Duke seems to have been in Europe at the time of William III's invasion, his regiment was one of the first to join King William's cause. During the 1690s, the Duke became a close associate of William III. He was a Whig in politics, and thus eclipsed during the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, but he maintained his principles, supported the Hanoverian Succession and was close to George I. Although there was a rift between George I and his son in which the Duke and his wife became involved, the 2nd Duke was even closer to George II and Queen Caroline than their fathers had been. Up until the time of the 2nd Duke's death in 1751, therefore, royal goodwill, offices and pensions combined to keep the Dukes of St. Albans in the style expected of their rank, but that was to change radically in the next generation. 

Over more than two centuries, the Dukes of St. Albans often married well, to heiresses whose wealth or property could have put the family on a sound financial footing, but through misfortune in the matter of heirs, or through habits of indolence or dissipation, these inheritances have slipped through their fingers. The 3rd Duke is the earliest instance of this. His father and his uncle, Lord William Beauclerk, had married the two daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Werden, 2nd bt., who owned estates in Lancashire, Cheshire and Berkshire. Sir John's second wife died at much the same time as the 1st Duke, in 1726, and his sons-in-law at once became apprehensive that he would marry again and produce a son who would inherit the Werden estates to the destruction of their own expectations. Sir John did marry again - twice - but his third wife had no children and left him £30,000, while his fourth wife produced only a daughter, who seems to incurred her father's displeasure and was cut out of his will. Sir John survived both his Beauclerk sons-in-law, living until 1758, by which time the bulk of his property had already been made over to his daughter Charlotte, widow of Lord William Beauclerk, and her son Charles Beauclerk (c.1728-75), whose son George (1758-87), succeeded briefly as 4th Duke of St. Albans in 1786. The 3rd Duke was not totally cut out of Sir John's will, but he was only a minor beneficiary, receiving a life interest in the site of Durham House in London and an annuity. He had already given signs of dissolution and excess by siring an illegitimate child while still a schoolboy at Eton and by the failure of his marriage after less than three years, and Sir John was perhaps disinclined to reward such conduct. 

The 3rd Duke was married in 1752 to Jane Roberts, heiress of Sir Walter Roberts, 6th bt., of Glassenbury Park (Kent), whose father was already dead, and who brought him estates in Kent (Cranbrook, Goudhurst, Hunton and Brenchley), Surrey (Streatham and Peckham) and Leicestershire (Wigston Magna, Frisby and Galby), with the latter passing to him outright on his marriage. But within two and a half years their marriage had foundered on the grounds of his cruelty and unfeeling treatment of his wife, leaving him with no legitimate issue. Jane received an income of £2,000 a year and the use of the secondary house on the Kent estate (Gennings at Hunton), while the 3rd Duke retained a life interest in the Kent and Surrey property, which provided a useful addition to his income in view of the failure of his expectations from his grandfather. Once separated from his wife, the 3rd Duke embarked on a 'glittering crescendo of feats of incompetence quite unparalleled in the lives of any other dukes in the eighteenth century, and involving mistresses, elopements, debts, bankruptcy, fleeing from creditors, self-imposed exile, imprisonment', and a further five illegitimate children. By the time the 3rd Duke died he was pressed on all sides by creditors, and had sold almost all his freehold property. Only Bestwood, which was entailed, survived to be passed on to his first cousin once removed, George Beauclerk (1758-87), 4th Duke of St. Albans. As we have seen, the 4th Duke was the ultimate principal beneficiary of the Werden family estates, but he died young and without issue. The heir to the Dukedom and to Bestwood was his father's first cousin, the 2nd Baron Vere of Hanworth, who was not descended from the Werdens, so the 4th Duke bequeathed his share of the Werden estates to his father's elder sister, Charlotte Drummond. She was the widow of the immensely rich banker, John Drummond, so this was a quixotic and sentimental gesture which the 5th Duke can hardly have appreciated.

Aubrey Beauclerk (1740-1802), 2nd Baron Vere of Hanworth, who became 5th Duke of St. Albans in 1787, was the son of Lord Vere Beauclerk (1699-1781), the third son of the 1st Duke, who had made a career in the Navy and been created a peer in his own right in 1750 as Baron Vere of Hanworth. Lord Vere was another member of the Beauclerk family who made an advantageous marriage, for Hanworth Park in Middlesex was an estate which he and his wife, Mary Chambers, inherited from her father in 1736. They were also among the heirs of Mary's aunt, Lady Betty Germaine (1680-1769), who had already settled £10,000 on Mary at the time of her marriage, and although they did not, as they hoped, inherit the Drayton House estate in Northamptonshire from her, she left each of them £30,000 in Government stocks and her niece a £20,000 cash legacy as well. When their son Aubrey came into the Dukedom and the Bestwood estate in 1787, it must have seemed that the Dukedom was at last allied to the resources required to support the dignity. Unfortunately, the conjunction was short-lived. His wife died in 1789 and from 1793 Hanworth Castle was leased out. In 1797 it burned down, and in order to rebuild it, the 5th Duke sold a significant collection of art which he had acquired in Italy. The new house was much smaller than its predecessor, but was almost finished by the time of the 5th Duke's death in 1802. His eldest son, Aubrey Beauclerk (1765-1815), 6th Duke of St. Albans, inherited, but in 1811 sold much of the estate (not including the new house). He died in 1815, leaving a widow and an infant son, the 7th Duke. While the title and entailed estate passed to his son, his unentailed property and personal estate, including the house at Hanworth, was effectively left to his widow absolutely. Had the infant 7th Duke survived to adulthood, his mother would no doubt have left him the bulk of her estate, but he did not: they both died of a fever on 19 February 1816. To make matters worse, the 6th Duke's two younger brothers had been stirring up trouble over his will and his widow's conduct. They accused her of having an affair and suggested that the 7th Duke might be her lover's son and not her husband's. Whatever the truth of this (and it seems quite plausible and circumstantial), the Duchess not unnaturally resented the accusations, and made a will leaving all her property to her sister, Mrs. Laura Dalrymple, rather than passing it back to the Beauclerks. Once again, the Beauclerks had contrived to lose control of an inheritance gained through marriage.

With the death of the infant 7th Duke the title and entailed estate passed to his uncle, Lord William Beauclerk (1766-1825), the second son of the 5th Duke, who became the 8th Duke of St. Albans. He had pursued a naval career, retiring as a Commander, and lived from 1816 in a rented house in Surrey called Upper Gatton. He married twice, on both occasions to heiresses. His first wife, Charlotte Carter-Thelwall (d. 1797), brought him the Redbourne Hall estate in Lincolnshire, together with lands at Pickworth (Lincs) and elsewhere, but their only child died in infancy. His second wife, Maria Jenetta Nelthorpe (d. 1822), brought him Little Grimsby Hall (Lincs) and also a further fourteen children, twelve of whom survived to maturity. It is in this generation of the family that there first becomes apparent a certain mental instability which became more marked later: two of the 8th Duke's children died in a mental hospital at Ticehurst (Sussex). To accommodate his large family, he built a new wing at Redbourne Hall, which became the principal seat of the family for the next half-century. Little Grimsby Hall was bequeathed to his second surviving son, Lord Frederick Charles Peter Beauclerk (1808-65), whose descendants owned it until 1943 and will be subject of a future post.

When the 8th Duke died in 1825, his title and estates at Bestwood, Redbourne and Pickworth descended to his eldest son, William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1801-49), 9th Duke of St. Albans. Although William was regarded at the time as both unintelligent and ill-informed, it was hoped that he would marry Fanny Gascoyne, a great friend of his sister Charlotte, who would have brought him £10,000 a year, though in the end she chose Lord Cranborne, heir to the Marquess of Salisbury. In 1824 the 8th Duke took his son to a party at Holly Lodge in Highgate (Middx), which was the seat of Harriot Coutts, the exceedingly rich widow of the banker Thomas Coutts, in the hope that he might meet an eligible young woman there. The 8th Duke, himself a widower for a second time, may also have nursed hopes of securing Mrs Coutts as his third duchess, but unexpectedly the relationship that flowered was between Mrs Coutts, and his son, who was half the lady's age.

Harriot Coutts (d. 1837), later Duchess of St. Albans

Like Nell Gwyn, Harriot had begun life as an actress, but her beauty and intelligence captivated Thomas Coutts, who admired and supported her for years before his first wife died and he was free to marry her in 1815. When he died in 1822 she was his principal legatee, inheriting at least half a million pounds and possibly more, and becoming the senior partner in Coutts Bank. Money opens many doors, but in Regency England it did not open them all, and there were plenty of ladies in high society who would not receive her because of her low birth. It is said to have been a mutual interest in Shakespeare which first kindled her friendship with the 9th Duke, and although for a long time she did not encourage him, they were married in 1827. It must, at some level, have been a marriage of convenience, for Harriot gained the title of Duchess which made her harder to ignore socially, and the Duke benefited from her almost limitless wealth: as a wedding present she gave him a cheque for £30,000 and the manor of Woodham Walter (Essex), valued at £26,000. Harriot died in 1837 and left her husband £10,000 a year, Holly Lodge and her town house at 80 Piccadilly, all for life, but the bulk of her estate passed to Thomas Coutts' granddaughter, Angela Burdett (1814-1906), who took the additional name Coutts and became one of the greatest 19th century philanthropists.

The 9th Duke married again in 1839, this time to a younger woman who could provide him with a family: a son and heir was born in 1840 and a daughter in the following year. In the late 1840s the Duke, who had deteriorating eyesight, had a hunting accident and suffered a blow on the head which left him subject to epileptic fits, and he died in 1849, when his son was just nine years old. It may not have been an auspicious beginning, but William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1840-98), 10th Duke of St. Albans, was to become the most energetic and admirable of his family, active in politics, locally and nationally, estate management, and sporting and literary pursuits. He inherited the family estates at Bestwood, Redbourne, Pickworth and Woodham Walter, but sold the latter two properties to fund the building of the first really grand country house the family had ever owned at Bestwood Lodge, choosing as his architect the inventive Samuel Sanders Teulon, who delivered a characteristically unconventional building. He also invested in developing Bestwood Colliery, exploiting the rich seam of coal which lay under the Bestwood estate, and creating an important new source of revenue for the family. He married twice and had children by both marriages, but he was singularly unfortunate in his sons, in whom the mental instability referred to earlier returned with a vengeance. His eldest son, Charles Victor Albert Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1870-1934), 11th Duke of St. Albans, suffered from severe depression and paranoid delusions, and was confined from 1899 in the same mental hospital at Ticehurst where his great-aunt and great-uncle had been treated. The 10th Duke's youngest son, Lord William Huddleston de Vere Beauclerk (1883-1954) was sent to Eton, but set fire to a building there, and spent his life confined in mental institutions. Only the middle son, Osborne de Vere Beauclerk (1874-1964), who succeeded his elder brother in 1934 as 12th Duke of St. Albans, was comparatively normal, and even he recognised in himself a susceptibility to mental illness, which he sought to control throughout his long life. Perhaps as a result, he exhibited an inconsistency of manner which meant he had few friends, and he became increasingly eccentric as he got older. He married, but he and his wife lived increasingly separate lives and had no children, so that when the 12th died, the title passed to a second cousin, descended from a younger son of the 8th Duke.

The 10th Duke's second wife came from an Irish family, and in 1880 she inherited Newtown Anner (Co. Tipperary) from her mother. With the 11th Duke in an institution and his affairs in the hands of trustees, Bestwood Lodge was leased out from 1915 (and sold in c.1943) and Redbourne Hall was sold in 1917. Newtown Anner therefore became the country seat of the 12th Duke by default. After he and his wife separated, it was the Duchess who was usually resident at Newtown Anner, while the Duke lived chiefly in London. The Duchess died in 1953 and for a time the Duke took more interest in the place, but in 1958 he made the estate over to Col. John Silcock (1913-2005), his wife's daughter-in-law's second husband, and he ended his days at Holker Hall in Lancashire, the seat of his nephew.

Burford House, Windsor, Berkshire

The house later called Burford House seems to have been built or remodelled in the 1670s by King Charles II for his mistress, Nell Gwyn, on a site to the south of Windsor Castle which had formerly been part of the castle gardens or vineyard. It is less a country house than a satellite of the castle, but it was the main residence of the first two Dukes. The architect is unknown, but the Office of Works team was not, apparently, involved in its construction, as there are no payments relating to the project in the Works accounts until 1678, the year when Nell Gwyn actually moved in, when one John Bodevin was paid £100 for unspecified repairs and Antonio Verrio was paid for decorating the staircase with scenes from Ovid. In 1680, the freehold was granted to trustees for Nell Gwyn, with remainder to her son by the king, then known as the Earl of Burford, hence the name of the house. The building is shown in a number of views of Windsor and the castle in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Burford Lodge, Windsor: detail of the Kip engraving showing the house in the foreground, c.1708

Johannes Kip made an engraving after a painting by Leonard Knyff in about 1708, which depicts the house, with the castle in the background. This view, and a painting of c.1745 in the Royal Collection which shows the view down the Long Walk from the castle, give a fairly clear idea of what the house was like. It was a fairly plain rectangular two-storey red brick house, rather typical of its date, with a double pile plan and an eleven bay elevations to the east and probably to the west as well. The two bays at either end of the elevations were brought slightly forward, and a wooden cornice supported a hipped roof with dormers. The house was approached from the road to the west through a forecourt with a pair of porter's lodges either side of the entrance. On the east side was an extensive garden with a plain fifteen-bay brick greenhouse set at right-angles to the house, which would seem to have been demolished by the time of the view of c.1745.

Burford Lodge: the house as remodelled c.1779-82, can be seen in the background of this view of Queen's Lodge by James Fittler, 1783.

In 1749, the house was described as "a stately and handsome seat with beautiful gardens that extend to the park wall…..[the 2nd Duke] is at present making farther improvements by opening a view into the High Street of the town". The 3rd Duke, who was a great spendthrift, sold Burford House to King George III in 1779 for £4,000, and it became an annexe to the Queen's Lodge that the king constructed just to the north, and was renamed Lower Lodge. The two houses became the royal family's residence at Windsor (the castle then being old-fashioned and in poor repair), and the younger princesses lived in the Lower Lodge. By 1782 the house had been remodelled, with the conversion of the dormered attics into a third full storey, and the addition of a castellated parapet and a coat of stucco. The works were supervised by Sir William Chambers as Comptroller of the Royal Works, and the detailed plans were drawn up in his office, but it is believed that the design originated with the King himself, who had a considerable reputation as an amateur architect: a reputation not obviously justified by the barrack-like quality of the Queen's Lodge and Lower Lodge!

Burford House: the buildings as remodelled by Edward Blore c.1842. 

After Queen Charlotte’s death in 1818, the Lower Lodge became the property of Princess Sophia, who gave it up to her brother, the Prince Regent. During his extensive transformation of the castle and park at Windsor, he demolished the Queen’s Lodge in order to improve the view of the Long Walk, and it was intended that Burford House would also be pulled down. This never happened, however, and it was further altered by Edward Blore in c.1842, who gave it a more substantial Gothic refronting and made some additions. It reverted to the name Burford House, and became the married quarters for workers in the Royal Mews. In the 1940s there was yet another remodelling, when it was adapted to form eleven separate flats, and very few if any features now remain to remind the visitor of its 17th century origins.

Descent: granted 1680 to Nell Gwyn (1650-87); to son, Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726), 1st Duke of St Albans; to son, Charles Beauclerk (1696-1751), 2nd Duke of St. Albans; to son, George Beauclerk (1730-86), 3rd Duke of St. Albans; sold 1779 to King George III and given to Queen Caroline (d. 1818); to daughter, HRH Princess Sophia (1777-1848); given to King George IV (1762-1830) and descended with the Crown as part of the Windsor Castle estate.

Bestwood Lodge, Nottinghamshire

A royal hunting lodge in Sherwood Forest was built in 1284 close to the site of the present house, and a park was enclosed around it in 1349 which is marked on the remarkable medieval map of Sherwood now at Belvoir Castle. The lodge was built of timber and lath and plaster and had a slate roof, and in 1573 and again in 1593 the keeper of the park, Thomas Markham (d. 1606) made repairs to the lodge. Further work was done in 1627, and by 1650 the lodge contained 38 rooms but was in disrepair again. It was estimated that if it was pulled down the value of the materials would be only about £100 more than the cost of demolition. By 1681, King Charles II had granted a lease of the park to his mistress, Nell Gwyn, and before her death in 1687 she had acquired the freehold. The property passed to her son, the Duke of St. Albans, and it descended in his family, but since successive dukes lived elsewhere and were usually short of funds, the timber-framed Bestwood Lodge survived until the mid 19th century, no doubt with some alterations and further repairs. In the late 18th century, Lord Amelius Beauclerk had built what sounds like a habitable folly near the old house: a 'strange architectural toy' in the form of a 'naval castle' which 'closely resembled a warship' and was the exact length of a naval quarterdeck, with rooms inside modelled on ship's cabins. Both houses were pulled down in 1860 by the 10th Duke, who came of age in 1861. The first wife of the 9th Duke had been the widow and principal heiress of the millionaire banker, Thomas Coutts, and although she left the bulk of her fortune to Coutts relatives, the annuity she left to her husband meant that the 10th Duke was in a better position to build extravagantly than any of his predecessors.

Bestwood Lodge: the entrance front and forecourt in 2021. Image: Andy. Some rights reserved.

The new Bestwood Lodge was designed on a slightly higher site than its predecessors, which commanded a view over the city of Nottingham. The architect was the vigorous and crazily inventive Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-73), and Bestwood is one of his five largest houses. It was constructed in red brick with generous stone dressings, and is essentially in an early Gothic style, with an exceptionally spiky skyline. Photographs of the house when it was first built show that it had then a visual coherence and a picturesque composition, especially as seen from the west, which is not apparent now, when injudicious later alterations have obscured much of Teulon's original scheme. 

Bestwood Lodge: the house as first built, c.1865.

Bestwood Lodge: the entrance front after the construction of the conservatory block c.1870.

The house occupies a platform from which the land falls steeply away to the north-east and south-east, and it is therefore approached from the west. The drive leads into a forecourt with the main block of the house to the east and an enclosing service wing to the north, which terminates in a building with a crowstepped gable-end and a bellcote, suggestive of a chapel but in fact housing the servants hall (a frivolity of which The Ecclesiologist disapproved). The forecourt is now also enclosed on the south by a second wing which was first built about five years after the house was finished as a conservatory range, but which was radically remodelled as a drill hall after 1896, with very little sensitivity, in the most lumpen timber-framed manner. A rough brick octagonal tower with a tall roof was added at the junction with the main house at the same time. 

Bestwood Lodge: detail of the porch when the house was first built, c.1865.

Fortunately, the approaching visitor does not notice the wing particularly, for the eye is caught and held by the extraordinary porch on the main block, which scampers up the house with great agility in a tour-de-force of what Mark Girouard termed 'acrobatic Gothic'. Flying buttresses clasp the porch and a canted oriel window above it, and the line of the porch is further carried up by a second canted bay at attic level and then by a slender tower with a pyramidal roof embellished with lucarnes and a tall weathervane. The archway of the porch itself is decorated with carved heads of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men carved by Thomas Earp, who also executed panels of scenes from local history elsewhere in the building.

Bestwood Lodge: the south front in the late 19th century.

Bestwood Lodge: the south and east fronts as first built, c.1865.

The other principal facades of the building are those to the south and east. The south side is less playful than the entrance front, but hardly more restful. It is composed of six irregular bays, and has two storeys with gabled attics. Every bay stands in a different plane to its neighbours and is topped by a gable, tower or dormer of different form. The windows are mostly of plate tracery, but some are two lights and others three, while those on the end bay are wrapped around a canted two storey bow. The staircase windows on the first floor of the second bay project down into the ground floor and have stepped bases, while a slim turret with a conical cap projects towards the right hand end. Despite all this irregularity there was originally a detectable balance, well short of symmetry, between the left and right hand halves of the facade, which was spoilt by the addition of the drill hall wing, that stands forward of the rest of the elevation.

Bestwood Lodge: the east front after the addition of the staircase tower.

The east side of the house has a recessed centre between two projecting wings, but is designed to express clearly that the left-hand part, mostly of three storeys, with large plate tracery windows and elaborate gables and dormers, belongs to the polite part of the house, whereas the right-hand section, mostly of two storeys, with much smaller and rather ugly square windows and tiny wooden dormers, belongs to the service wing. An exceptionally muscular tower, with two rows of lancet windows following the rise of the staircase inside, was added to the polite end of the elevation, probably in the 1870s, and further unbalances the composition.

Bestwood Lodge: ground floor plan (omitting the conservatory/drill hall wing) (after Jill Franklin).

Although Bestwood Lodge could not be called a small house, its plan suggests that it was perhaps conceived of more as a hunting lodge than as a full-blown country house. A considerable part of the footprint is taken up by a large central courtyard between the main rooms and the service wing, and the former comprise only a hall, drawing room, dining room, billiard room and study. The original interiors were badly damaged by a fire in 1885, and the best preserved room is now the two-storey, top-lit inner hall, which has a really chunky fireplace and a two-storey screen across one end. 

Bestwood Lodge: inner hall. Image: Best Western Hotels Ltd.

The gardens were landscaped by Teulon and a 'Mr. Thomas' - perhaps the estate gardener - with terraces and lawns amid woodland, but were altered in the early 20th century and later. The Alexandra Lodge, NW of the house, is attributed to Teulon, but may not have been built until after his death, as it carries dates of 1877 and 1878. It is of brick and takes the form of a pair of lodge houses either side of an archway with a timber-framed room over the archway under a tall roof. 

Bestwood Lodge: Alexandra Lodge. Image: Andy. Some rights reserved.

The house was generally let in the early 20th century, and was put on the market to pay the death duties arising from the death of the 11th Duke in 1934. Efforts to sell it in 1940 and 1943 were unavailing, but it was eventually sold to the Government, which had already requisitioned it for use as the headquarters of Northern Command. It remained in military use until the early 1970s, when the county and district councils combined to purchase the wooded parkland to the north-west, which became Bestwood Country Park in 1973. The house itself was converted into a hotel, now part of the Best Western Group. In a slightly ironic twist, the servants' hall, whose chapel-like appearance so distressed The Ecclesiologist, is now used as a wedding venue.

Descent: Crown granted 1681 to Nell Gwyn (1650-87); to son, Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726), 1st Duke of St Albans; to son, Charles Beauclerk (1696-1751), 2nd Duke of St. Albans; to son, George Beauclerk (1730-86), 3rd Duke of St. Albans; to first cousin once removed, George Beauclerk (1758-87), 4th Duke of St. Albans; to first cousin once removed, Aubrey Beauclerk (1740-1802), 2nd Baron Vere of Hanworth and 5th Duke of St Albans; to son, Aubrey Beauclerk (1765-1815), 6th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Aubrey Beauclerk (1815-16), 7th Duke of St. Albans; to uncle, William Beauclerk (1766-1825), 8th Duke of St. Albans; to son, William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1801-49), 9th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Rt. Hon. William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1840-98), 10th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Charles Victor Albert Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1870-1934), 11th Duke of St. Albans; to half-brother, Osborne de Vere Beauclerk (1874-1964), 12th Duke of St. Albans, who sold c.1943 to HM Government.

Hanworth Palace and Hanworth Park House, Middlesex

Immediately south of the medieval church of Hanworth was a moated hunting lodge acquired by Henry VII in about 1507, which according to Camden was Henry VIII's 'chief place of pleasure', and was referred to as Hanworth Palace. The Office of Works accounts indicate extensive works took place on the house, gardens and park in 1507-09. In 1532 the king gave the house and park to Anne Boleyn, and workmen at Hampton Court were diverted to fitting up new interiors and other works. Some of the exterior walls and chimneys were embellished by a painter with 'antike work', and Antony Toto and John de la Mayn set up and repainted 'certen antique heds brought from Grenewiche to Hanworthe at the kyng's comandment'. The site still has the remains of large Tudor walls and fireplaces, interpreted as being remains of the royal kitchens, but much of the site was built over in the 20th century to create a cul-de-sac called Seymour Gardens. Two later garden buildings in the entrance court at Hanworth have terracotta roundels with classical busts similar to those set into the walls of Hampton Court, and these could be the panels brought from Greenwich in 1532, but they are said to have been acquired in 1759 by Lord Aubrey Beauclerk and to have come from the Holbein Gate in Whitehall.

Hanworth Palace: the house in the late 17th century. Image: London Metropolitan Archives

The house was evidently remodelled in the 17th century by Sir Francis Cottington (c.1579-1652), 1st bt. and 1st Baron Cottington, who described his improvements to a friend:

"There is a certain large room under the new building, with a fountain in it, and other rare devices, and the open gallery is painted by the hand of a second Titian. Dainty walks are made abroad, in so much that the old porter with the long beard is like to have a good revenue by admitting strangers". 

The only illustration of the house at this time is a little hard to interpret, but seems to show a timber-framed house twelve bays square. This house was rebuilt or remodelled by the Chambers family, who had a ceiling painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), more usually known as a portraitist. By 1738, it was a three-storey block of eight (7+1) bays, with a full-height canted bay in the centre. To one side was a lower and evidently older range, of two storeys with gabled dormers, but with the windows remodelled to match those of the main block. Above the centre of the main block was a tall cupola.  This house burned down in 1797, and was almost totally destroyed apart from the stable block, which survived and was converted into flats, now called Tudor Court, c.1924. 

Hanworth Palace and church in 1738, from an estate map. Image: London Metropolitan Archives ACC/1023/379.

The stable block was either rebuilt or remodelled for the 1st Lord Vere of Hanworth to the designs of Sanderson Miller (who never visited the site but supplied a design at the request of a mutual friend in 1750), and consists of a two-storey L-shaped brick block of symmetrical design, with battlemented corner towers. The present Gothic windows are a later alteration, since they are not shown on the drawing of the park below. 

Hanworth Palace: a drawing of c.1801 showing the new house and the stable block as originally designed by Sanderson Miller in 1750. 
Image: Yale Center for British Art.

Hanworth Park: the stable block in the mid 20th century, after conversion to flats.

A new house was built between 1798 and 1802 on the original site to the designs of an unknown architect; this was a much smaller five bay, three-storey block recorded in an early 19th century drawing. This in turn was replaced by a larger new house on a site about half a mile to the north in 1828 for Henry Perkins, the London brewer (a partner in Barclay & Perkins), who was the tenant of the estate and later bought the freehold.  This house just about survives today, and has a long frontage of eleven bays in London stock brick, grouped 2-2-3-2-2, of two storeys above a high basement. In the centre is a portico with four Greek Doric columns approached up a grand flight of steps. All along the front, and above the portico, is a two-storey cast-iron veranda. The end pavilions have hipped roofs, and in the centre is a low pediment with incongruous and presumably later decorative bargeboards. To the rear of this block are two long wings. That on the east is perhaps a contemporary service wing, but that on the west was rebuilt in a loosely Italianate style by the Perkins family c.1860. It has groups of narrow arched windows, and terminates in a stumpy campanile. Inside, there is a large entrance hall and behind it a top-lit staircase hall with cast-iron balustrades. In the 1860s wing there is a high-ceilinged ballroom with elaborate plasterwork, and other rooms have the remains of good cornices and other decoration.

Hanworth Park House: the house in its current derelict condition.

In 1917, the grounds of the house became a private aerodrome belonging to J.A. Whitehead, and from 1929 this became the London Air Park, which operated until the Second World War. The house was used as a clubhouse, and some of the present decoration may be neo-Georgian work of c.1935. After the War, the grounds were acquired by the local Urban District Council, and opened as a public park in 1959. The house became an old people's home, and has been empty since this closed in 1992. Proposals for conversion to hotel use came to nothing, but more recently there has been a scheme for the house to be adapted for a museum and other community purposes, with enabling development in the grounds.

Descent: Sir John Crosby (d. 1475); to son, Sir John Crosby (d. 1501); to kinsman Peter Christmas, whose trustees sold c.1507 to Crown; given 1532 to Anne Boleyn (d. 1536) and reverted to Crown; given 1544 to Queen Catherine Parr (d. 1548) when it again reverted to Crown; granted in 1558 for life to Anne Stanhope (c.1510-87), widow of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset; freehold sold to tenant, Sir Francis Cottington (c.1587-1652), 1st bt. and 1st Baron Cottington, whose estates were assigned in 1649 to the regicide John Bradshaw, but recovered in 1660 by his nephew, Charles Cottington; sold 1670 to Sir Thomas Chambers (d. 1692); to son, Thomas Chambers (d. 1736); to daughter Mary (d. 1783), wife of Lord Vere Beauclerk (d. 1781), 1st Baron Vere of Hanworth; to son, Aubrey Beauclerk (1740-1802), 2nd Lord Vere of Hanworth, and later 5th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Aubrey Beauclerk (1765-1815), 6th Duke of St. Albans; to widow, Grace Louisa (1777-1816), Duchess of St. Albans; to sister, Mrs. Laura Dalrymple; to niece, Lady Ailesbury, who sold 1840 to the tenant, Henry Perkins; to Algernon Perkins (d. by 1866); sold to Messrs. Pain & Bretell, solicitors, of Chertsey; who sold c.1873 to Alfred Lafone (c.1821-1911); to son, Alfred William Lafone (d. 1938) who sold sold 1929 to National Flying Services/London Air Park; sold? 1935 to National Flying Syndicate; sold c.1956 to Feltham Urban District Council; transferred 1965 to London Borough of Hounslow... Gary Cottle.

Redbourne Hall, Lincolnshire

A substantial but now much subdivided house, the architectural history of which is not well understood, although there is a fair amount of archival evidence on which to draw. The main body of the building consists of two wings at at right-angles to each other. The earlier, aligned roughly east-west, was apparently originally of two storeys, and has seven windows on the ground and first floors. Panelled interiors suggest this block dates from the 1720s or 1730s, and it was probably built for the Carter family after they sold Kinmel Hall (Denbighs.) in 1729, paid off their considerable debts, and made Redbourne their seat. Two carved relief panels now in the outbuildings to the east, depicting Harvest and Autumn, one of which is dated 1734, may be an indication of the date of the building. This part of the house was given a third storey, with only three windows on the courtyard front, in the late 18th or early 19th century, and a lower two-storey kitchen wing was added to its right in c.1820-30.

Redbourne Hall: view of the house from the entrance court in 1958. The three-storey block in the centre is the oldest part of the house.
Image: Historic England.

Redbourne Hall: view of the west front of the house by J.C. Nattes, 1795. Image: Lincolnshire Archives.

The west wing consisted of a miscellaneous collection of buildings when Nattes drew his view of the house in 1795. By then it had acquired a single-storey curved bow at the right hand end, which can probably be identified with payments for the construction of a bow window in 1770. It was built in brick and later raised to provide a bow on the first-floor room as well, an alteration which is marked in a change in the colour of the brickwork. In 1778 a carver and gilder called Hudson and a joiner called Bunning were paid for work, but what they did is unclear. 

Redbourne Hall: the west wing in 1958. Image: Historic England.

The range was apparently rebuilt, except for the bow window, in the first quarter of the 19th century, and is now of two storeys, which are almost the same height as the three storeys of the main block; it contains three principal rooms on the ground floor. The range is constructed of squared limestone blocks, but the window surrounds are of red brick; an unappealing effect which may imply the range was originally stuccoed or painted. The range has seven bays, the right hand two of which are masked by the earlier bow window. The ground-floor drawing room behind the bow now has plasterwork decoration of the 1820s. At the far end of the room, opposite the bow window, is a semicircular recess, which in 1958 still contained a mahogany serving buffet, which must have been made for the room and implies that this was originally the dining room. Another room, which was in use as the dining room in 1958 but was probably originally the drawing room, has a Rococo plasterwork ceiling which must have been preserved when the wing was rebuilt. A terminus ante quem for the completion of the early 19th century refitting is provided by payments made for furnishings to John Lovitt of Hull and for chimney pieces to John Earle in 1827-8. A new staircase hall was built to the south of the west range in the later 19th century.

Redbourne Hall: entrance lodges and gateway, attributed to John Carr. Image: Brian Westlake. Some rights reserved.

In 1773 and again in 1784 John Carr of York was paid for making plans for the Rev. Robert Carter-Thelwall, but nothing about the house suggests his hand. What is very much in his style is the castellated boundary wall and gateway built at the entrance to the estate in 1776, and indeed the RIBA has a drawing attributed to Carr which shows a similar gateway, albeit with Batty Langley-ish quatrefoils and arched recesses in place of the cross-shaped arrow slits and carved panels that decorate the Redbourne gateway. There is also a range of Gothick outbuildings at the back of the hall which could have been built to Carr's design. The carriage house of 1854, now partly incorporated into the house, is built of yellow brick and has a large lunette window, like a miniature Kings Cross station. The west wing now forms a single dwelling, but the rest of the house and outbuildings are now divided into flats and small houses.

Descent: sold 1613 to Oliver and Thomas Style... Sir Thomas Style; to four daughters, who in 1708 obtained an Act of Parliament for the division of their inheritance, with Redbourne passing to Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Carter (d. by 1703) of Kinmel (Denbighs); to son, William Carter; to son, Thomas Carter; to brother, Rev. Robert Carter-Thelwall (d. 1788); to daughter, Charlotte (1769-97), first wife of William Beauclerk (1766-1825), 8th Duke of St. Albans; to son, William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1801-49), 9th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Rt. Hon. William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1840-98), 10th Duke of St. Albans; to son, Charles Victor Albert Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1870-1934), 11th Duke of St. Albans; sold 1917... Sir Arthur Colegate; requisitioned for RAF 1939...

Newtown Anner, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary

Newtown Anner: the house in the late 19th century. Image: Tipperary Museum of Hidden History.

A nine bay late Georgian house, with a two storey centre of three bays and taller, three-storey wings to either side that break slightly forward. The date usually associated with the house is 1829, but this may refer only to the addition of the wings, reputedly built for Sir Ralph Bernal (later Bernal Osborne) MP. The central doorcase has engaged columns and a large semi-circular fanlight over the door and sidelights. On the left hand end of the house is a two-storey bow window. Inside, there is a fine saloon. The grounds are enhanced by a shell grotto, well-preserved walled garden and a ruined temple.

Descent: Clonmel Corporation sold 1774 to ?? Osborne...Catherine Isabella Osborne (1819-80), wife of Ralph Bernal Osborne (1808-82); to younger daughter, Grace (1848-1926), wife of Rt. Hon. William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1840-98), 10th Duke of St. Albans; to younger son, Osborne de Vere Beauclerk (1874-1964), 12th Duke of St. Albans.; given 1958 to Col. John Eric Durnford Silcock (1913-2005); sold c.2000..Nigel Cathcart.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 3459-64; VCH Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911, pp. 109-12; M. Girouard, 'Acrobatic Gothic', Country Life, 31 December 1970, pp. 1282-86; P. Beauclerk Dewar & D. Adamson, The house of Nell Gwyn, 1974; H.M. Colvin et al., The history of the King's Works, vol. 5, 1660-1782, 1976, pp. 323-40; S. Gillott, 'Bestwood: a Sherwood Forest Park in the 17th century', Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, vol. 89, 1985, pp. 57-74; Sir N. Pevsner, J. Harris & N. Antram, The buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 2nd edn., 1989, pp. 608-09; J. Roberts, Royal Landscape, 1997, pp. 163-70; B. Wragg, The life and works of John Carr, 2000, pp. 196-97; D. Crook, 'The foundation of Bestwood Lodge', Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, vol. 106, 2002, pp. 71-72; D.L. Roberts, Lincolnshire Houses, 2018, pp. 228, 388; C. Hartwell, Sir N. Pevsner & E. Williamson, The buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 3rd edn., 2020, pp. 128-29.

Location of archives

Beauclerk family, Dukes of St. Albans: Redbourne estate deeds and papers, 17th-20th cents [Lincolnshire Archives RED and 2RED]; Bestwood Park estate records, 1785-1841 [Nottingham University Library, BP]; Hanworth estate deeds and papers, 17th-20th cents, legal and family papers [London Metropolitan Archives, 1005; LMA/4245; Acc/0918] 

George Beauclerk, 3rd Duke of St. Albans:  Glassenbury Park estate and household papers, 18th century [Kent Archives Centre, U410]

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th grand quarters, the arms of Charles II (1st and 4th, France and England quarterly, 2nd Scotland, 3rd, Ireland) all over a sinister baton gules, charged with three roses argent, barbed and seeded proper; 2nd and 3rd, quarterly, gules and or, in the first quarter a mullet argent.

Can you help?

• Does anyone know of an image of any kind of the medieval hunting lodge at Bestwood that was pulled down in 1860, or of the 'naval castle' built by Lord Amelius Beauclerk in the late 18th century?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 25 March 2022 and updated 27 April 2022.

(423) Barton of Grove, Clonelly, The Waterfoot, Straffan House and Rochestown Castle - part 2

This post is divided into two parts: Part 1 includes the introduction to the family and the descriptions of the houses they built. This part contains the biographical and genealogical details of the owners.

Barton family of The Grove

'French Tom' Barton (1694-1780) 

Barton, Thomas (1694-1780). Eldest son of William Barton (1658-1729) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Dickson of Ballyshannon, born 21 December 1694. He travelled in the Mediterranean area before settling in Bordeaux, where he founded a wine export business in 1725, latterly in partnership with his nephew John Barton, whom he suspected of trying to defraud him and excluded from his will. By 1747, he was the single largest shipper of Bordeaux wines. In 1756 he was selected to head a delegation of negociants, and ever since the firm has been one of the leading wine exporters in Bordeaux; the business remained in family control until the 1980s. He married, 1 November 1722 at Ballyshannon (Co. Donegal), his cousin Margaret (d. 1775), youngest daughter of Robert Delap of Ballyshannon, and had issue:

(1) William Barton (1723-93) (q.v.).

He inherited part of Boa Island in Lough Erne from an uncle and the adjoining property of Curraghmore from his father. He purchased the Grove estate of some 2,650 Irish acres at Fethard (Co. Tipperary) in 1751 and 1757 for £30,500, and also bought further land in Co. Fermanagh and Co. Leitrim. However, he spent very little time in Ireland and lived chiefly at the Chateau Le Boscq, St. Estephe (France), which he rented from 1749.

He died at Bordeaux, 18 October 1780; his will was proved at Dublin, 2 February 1781. His wife died 27 January 1775.

Barton, William (1723-93). Only child of Thomas Barton (1694-1780) and his wife Margaret, youngest daughter of Robert Delap of Ballyshannon, born 5 August 1723. "A man whose acrimonious character caused numerous disagreements both inside and outside of the family circle". In 1772 he fought a famous duel over a contest to elect the 'Sovereign' of Fethard to Parliament, and was wounded in the thigh. He married, 1 August 1754, Grace (c.1731-1808), eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, and had issue:

(1) Thomas Barton (1757-1818) (q.v.);

(2) William Barton (1758-1835) [see below, Barton family of Clonelly];

(3) Lt-Gen. Charles Barton (1760-1819) [see below, Barton family of The Waterfoot];

(4) Grace Barton (1762-1844), born 21 March 1762; married, 1784, John Palliser (1760-1833) of Derryluskan (Co. Tipperary), and had issue three sons and four daughters; died in Dublin, 13 March 1844;

(5) Elizabeth Barton (1764-1852), born 25 July 1764; married, 15 February 1796, Lt-Gen. Sir Augustine Fitzgerald (d. 1834), 1st bt., of Newmarket-on-Fergus (Co. Clare), but had no issue; died in Dublin, 8 May 1852; will proved in Dublin, 1852;

(6) Hugh Massy Barton (1766-1854) [see below, Barton family of Straffan House];

(7) Gen. Sir Robert Barton (1768-1853), born 26 July 1768; army officer, first with the National Guard in France in 1790 and later in the 2nd Life Guards (Ensign, 1794; Lt., 1794; Capt., 1796; Maj., 1803; Lt-Col., 1805; Col. 1813; Maj-Gen., 1819; Lt-Gen. 1837; Gen. 1851); appointed KB and KCH, 1837; married 1st, 8 February 1802 at St Helen, York (Yorks), Mary Ann (1777-1821), daughter and co-heiress of William Paynter, and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, 11 June 1834 at St Mary, Bryanston Sq., London, Marion Colette (1792-1875), daughter of John Addison and widow of Col. John McPherson, and had further issue one daughter; died in London, 17 March 1853;

(8) Dunbar Barton (1769-1848) [see below, Barton family of Rochestown];

(9) Margaret Everina Barton (1772-1820), born 4 November 1772; married, 12 March 1792 at Portpatrick (Wigtowns.), Hugh Massy (1761-1812), 3rd Baron Massy, and had issue four sons and five daughters; died 14 September 1820.

He was bequeathed a life tenancy of Grove but his father bequeathed the freehold to his eldest son.

He died while under house arrest in Bordeaux, 29 October 1793; his will was proved in Dublin in 1794. His widow was buried at St. Lawrence-in-Thanet (Kent), 21 September 1808.

Barton, Thomas (1757-1818). Eldest son of William Barton (1723-93) and his wife Grace, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, born 26 January 1757. Educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1777). A freeman and burgess of Fethard, 1780-95, 1801-09 (Sovereign (ie Mayor), 1787-88, 1791-92, 1801-02, 1811-14); MP for Fethard in the Irish Parliament, 1783-97; Recorder of Fethard, 1801-09; Town Clerk of Fethard, 1801-06; High Sheriff of Co. Tipperary, 1785-86; Captain of the Fethard Cavalry, 1796; Governor of the Hibernian Marine Society, 1775-79. He married, November 1786 at Kilcooley Abbey, Mary (b. c.1760; fl. 1818), daughter of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby MP of Ashgrove and sister of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby-Barker of Kilcooley Abbey (Co. Tipperary), and had issue including:

(1) Thomas Barton (b. c.1789), born about 1789; educated at Kilkenny School (admitted 1797), but presumably predeceased his father;

(2) William Barton (1790-1857) (q.v.);

(3) Mary Barton (c.1792-1866), born about 1792; married, 8 September 1834 at Celbridge (Co. Kildare), George FitzGerald (1809-53), only son of Lord Robert Stephen FitzGerald and grandson of Lt-Gen. James Fitzgerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, but had no issue; died 25 January and was buried at Cheltenham (Glos), 30 January 1866;

(4) Lt-Col. Chambré Brabazon (k/a Chum) Barton (c.1794-1834), born about 1794; an officer in 2nd Life Guards (Cornet, 1812; Lt. 1814; Capt. 1818; Maj., 1825; Lt-Col., 1825; retired 1826), who was present at the Battle of Waterloo; died 1834;

(5) Grace Barton (c.1796-1864), born about 1796; married 1st, 1816, as his second wife, Lt-Col. Kingsmill Pennefather (1782-1819), eldest son of Lt-Col. Richard Pennefather MP of New Park, Cashel (Co. Tipperary) and had issue two daughters; married 2nd, before 1832, Maj. Michael Angelo Galliazzi, of the Austrian army, and lived in Florence (Italy); died at Berne (Switzerland), 27 August 1863; administration of her goods granted to her daughter, 8 March 1864 (effects under £3,000);

(6) Catherine Barton (c.1800-43), born about 1800; married, 1821, Edmund Staples (c.1799-1863) of Dunmore (Co. Leix), High Sheriff of Co. Leix in 1842; died 24 December 1843;

(7) Maj. Charles Robert Barton (c.1806-62), born about 1806; an officer in the 14th Light Dragoons (Cornet, 1825; Lt., 1828; Capt. 1833; Maj. 1838; retired 1842); died unmarried in London, 6 February 1862; will proved 12 April 1862 (effects under £5,000).

He inherited the Grove estate from his grandfather in 1780, but lived at Lamberhurst (Kent).

He died at Cheltenham (Glos) in August or September 1818; his will was proved in the PCC, 3 July 1820. His wife was living in 1818; her date of death is unknown.

Barton, William (1790-1857). Eldest son of Thomas Barton (1757-1818) and his wife Mary, daughter of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby MP of Ashgrove, born 21 June 1790. Educated at Kilkenny School. JP and DL for Co. Tipperary; High Sheriff of Co. Tipperary, 1825; six times 'Sovereign' (ie Mayor) of Fethard between 1816 and 1830. He was a keen foxhunter and kept a private pack of hounds until in 1820 he founded The Grove Hunt, which became known as the Tipperary Foxhounds after he sold the pack in the 1830s. He married, 21 April 1815, Catherine (c.1795-1872), eldest daughter of Samuel Perry of Woodrooff, Clonmel (Co. Tipperary), and had issue:

(1) Thomas Barker Barton (1816-71) (q.v.);

(2) Samuel Henry Barton (1817-91) (q.v.);

(3) Deborah Barton (c.1819-75), born about 1819; married, May 1839, John Wade (1811-89) of St. Canice's Cottage, Kilkenny, high sheriff of city of Kilkenny, 1853, younger son of William Blaney Wade of Clonebraney (Co. Meath), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 24 March 1875;

(4) William Hugh Barton (1820-96), born 1820; an officer in the 76th Foot (Ensign, 1839; Lt., 1843; retired as Capt., 1851); married, before 1852 on Paxos (Greece), Mary, second daughter of Capt. Robert Blakeney of the Island of Paxos, and had issue five sons and four daughters; died at Youghal (Co. Cork), 14 October 1896; will proved 5 December 1896 (effects £39);

(5) Mary Frances Barton (c.1821-65), born about 1821; married, 14 October 1845 at Fethard, Charles Shaw QC (1817-70), youngest son of Col. Sir Robert Shaw MP, 1st bt., of Bushy Park (Co. Dublin), and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 17 March 1865;

(6) Catherine (k/a Kate) Grace Barton (1823-1902), born 1823; married, 19 June 1852, her brother-in-law, Lt-Col. Sir Robert Shaw (1821-95), 4th bt., of Bushy Park, and had issue one son; died at Pau (France), 15 December 1902; will proved 27 February 1903 (estate £602);

(7) Anne Margaret Barton (c.1825-1915), born about 1825; married, 7 December 1864 at Fethard, as his fourth wife, George Gough (1802-89) of Rathronan (Co. Tipperary) but had no issue; died 22 January 1915; will proved 20 March 1915 (estate £2,703);

(8) Emily Martha Barton (c.1829-1914), born about 1829; lived latterly with her sister at Rathronan; died 28 May 1914; will proved 27 June 1914 (estate £1,399).

He inherited the Grove estate from his father in 1818.

He died 7 February 1857. His widow died 6 April 1872.

Barton, Thomas Barker (1816-71). Eldest son of William Barton (1790-1857) and his wife Catherine, eldest daughter of Samuel Perry of Woodrooff, Clonmel (Co. Tipperary), born 1816. Educated at Harrow. JP for Co. Tipperary and a regular member of the Grand Jury for that county. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited the Grove estate from his father in 1857, and at his death it passed to his brother, Samuel. T.B. Barton leased the house to tenants including William Heffernan (fl. 1868).

He was accidentally drowned in a small river on his demesne, 21 February 1871, but curiously no inquest seems to have been held; his will was proved 16 August 1871 (effects under £8,000).

Barton, Samuel Henry (1817-91). Second son of William Barton (1790-1857) and his wife Catherine, eldest daughter of Samuel Perry of Woodrooff, Clonmel (Co. Tipperary), born 26 October 1817. Educated at Harrow, 1831-35, and Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1836). JP and DL for Co. Tipperary; High Sheriff of Co. Tipperary, 1888-89. He was a member of the Provisional Committee of the Clonmel and Thurles Railway, 1863. He married, 23 December 1862 in St. Luke, Cheltenham (Glos), Mary Elizabeth (1837-1927), only daughter of Maj. Thomas Frobisher of Cheltenham, and had issue:

(1) William Henry Hugh Barton (1871-1931), born 26 February 1871 and baptised in Cheltenham, 1 May 1871; lived in Liverpool but emigrated to New Zealand, 1916; married, 3 March 1893 at Cheltenham, Kathleen (k/a Kate) (c.1869-1955), metal finisher, daughter of Joseph Davenport of Birmingham, book-keeper; died 12 April 1931 and was buried at St John, Trentham, Wellington, New Zealand;

(2) Rose Catherine Florence Barton (1872-1947), born 9 August 1872; lived at Leckhampton (Glos); died unmarried, 15 September 1947; will proved January 1948 (estate £9,948);

(3) Charles Robert Barton (1877-1955) (q.v.).

He inherited the Grove estate (5,119 acres in 1878) from his elder brother in 1871. At his death it passed to his widow for life, and then to his second son. He and his wife moved to her family home at 15 Lansdown Place, Cheltenham in about 1890, and Grove was let to Richard Burke MFH until c.1917.

He died in Cheltenham, 27 October 1891 and was buried at Cheltenham Cemetery; his will was proved 6 May 1892 (effects £1,874). His widow died 26 January 1927 and was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery; her will was proved March 1927 (estate £8,172).

Barton, Charles Robert (1877-1955). Second son of Samuel Henry Barton (1817-91) and his wife Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Maj. Thomas Frobisher of Cheltenham (Glos), born 4 March and baptised at St Mary, Cheltenham, 20 April 1877. Educated privately. He served as a trooper in 3rd Paget's Horse unit of the Imperial Yeomanry and in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (2nd Lt., 1901; Capt. 1915) in the Boer War and First World War. JP and DL (from 1919) for County Tipperary. He married, 15 October 1904 at Clonmel (Co. Tipperary), Ethel Mary (1876-1935), daughter of Capt. George Edward Cobden of Raheen, Clonmel (Co. Tipperary), but had no issue.

He inherited the Grove estate from his mother in 1927, but was resident from about 1919. At his death it passed to his kinsman, Henry Jeffrey Ponsonby (1930-2018).

He died 8 December 1955; his will was proved in Dublin, 23 May 1956 (estate £37,140). His wife died at Grove, 15 May 1935; her will was proved in Dublin, 14 November 1935 (estate £7,493).

Barton family of Clonelly

Barton, William (1758-1835). Second son of William Barton (1723-93) and his wife Grace, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, born 20 August 1758. An officer in his father's troop of Irish Volunteers; High Sheriff of County Fermanagh, 1787. A Governor of the Fermanagh Infirmary. He is said to have been 'a modest man, of simple tastes' and rather scholarly. He married, 6 July 1796 at St Anne, Dublin, Anne Isabella (1765-1810), daughter of Folliott Warren of Lodge (Co. Kilkenny) and had issue, possibly among others:

(1) William Thomas Barton (1797-1818), born in 1797; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1812; BA 1817) and Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1816); died 1818;

(2) Folliott Warren Barton (1798-1870) (q.v.);

(3) Thomas Robert Barton (c.1800-27), an officer in the Madras Army (Lt, 1818); died at Bangalore (India), 26 May 1827;

(4) Samuel Dunbar Barton (c.1801-19), an officer in the Madras Army (Cadet 1817); died in camp at Nagpore (India), 12 March 1819;

(5) Hugh Barton (c.1805-28), baptised at St Peter, Dublin, 15 January 1805; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1821; BA 1827); died unmarried, 19 January 1828;

(6) Edward George Barton (1806-37), born 10 August 1806; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1824; BA 1828; MA 1832), Grays Inn (admitted 1832) and Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1831; called 1835); barrister-at-law; died unmarried, 3 February 1837.

He inherited Clonelly from his grandfather in 1780, and built a new house there c.1805.

He died 18 May 1835. His wife died, probably in childbirth, 13 April 1810.

Barton, Folliott Warren (1798-1870). Second son of William Barton (1758-1835) and his wife Anne Isabella, daughter of Folliott Warren of Lodge (Co. Kilkenny), born 15 September 1798. JP and DL for Co. Fermanagh; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1834. On 31 October 1845 he was severely injured while riding home from visiting his cousin at The Waterfoot when he was shot by an gunman lying in ambush on his road. A modern analysis of the case shows the motive for the crime to have been resentment of Barton's predatory sexual behaviour by the male relative of one of the mistresses he took from the local population. The combination of the community's desire to shield the perpetrator and the gentry's desire to hush up the scandal meant that attempts to investigate the crime were frustrated, and no one was ever convicted. The investigation was misdirected as the crime was thought to be an anti-landlord atrocity, one of many in the area at the time. He was unmarried but had issue by his mistresses:

(X1) Hugh Barton (1834-1902) (q.v.); 

(X2) Thomas Barton (1837-98) (q.v.); 

(X3) Edward Barton (1848-85) (q.v.). 

He inherited Clonelly from his father in 1835. At his death it passed to his youngest illegitimate son.

He died 28 September 1870 and was buried at Carne (Co. Donegal); his will was proved in Dublin, 20 February 1871 (effects under £10,000).

Barton, Edward (1848-85). Youngest illegitimate son of Folliott Warren Barton (1798-1870) and his mistress, born 17 August 1848. An officer in the 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers (Ensign, 1867; Lt. 1871; Capt. 1878); JP for Co. Fermanagh and (from 1875) Co. Donegal. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Clonelly from his father in 1870.

He died in London, 10 April 1885. His will was proved in Dublin, 6 November 1885 (estate £22,787), after a sensational conspiracy case in which a group of his friends (including a magistrate - who was jailed for six months - and the local rector - who committed suicide) were accused of attempting to defraud the estate of £12,000.

Barton, Hugh (1834-1902). Eldest illegitimate son of Folliott Warren Barton (1798-1870) and his mistress, born 1834. Emigrated to New Zealand by 1871, when he applied for a licence to mine gold, but by 1880 had moved to Colorado (USA). He became an American citizen in 1880, but returned to Ireland on inheriting the Clonelly estate from his younger brother in 1885, and was renaturalised as a British citizen, 12 January 1893. JP for Co. Fermanagh (from 1892); High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1898-99. He married 1st, before 1857, Rebecca Burnside, and 2nd, 14 June 1883 at Fort Collins, Colorado (USA), Emma Lila Gibson (1845-1901), and had issue:

(1.1) Alice Barton (b. 1857), baptised at Carn RC church (Co. Donegal), 2 June 1857; married, c.1875 (div. by 1880) [forename unknown] McBride.

He inherited Clonelly from his younger brother in 1885.

He died 10 August 1902 and was buried at Carne (Co. Donegal). His first wife died before 1880. His second wife died 26 March 1901.

Barton, Thomas (1837-98). Second illegitimate son of Folliott Warren Barton (1798-1870) and his mistress, born 1837. Emigrated to Australia before his father's death. He married, 11 December 1875 at Toogong, New South Wales (Australia), Anne Irvine (1841-1910) and had issue:

(1) Folliott Warren Barton (1876-1922) (q.v.); 

(2) Ann Isabella Barton (1878-1950), born 1878; married, 31 August 1926 at Old Homestead, Lowery, New South Wales, George Hamilton (1877-1968), but had no issue; died 30 November 1950 and was buried at Toogong, New South Wales; administration of goods granted 7 February 1951;

(3) William Hugh Barton (b. & d. 1880), born at Molong, New South Wales, 1880; died in infancy and was buried there, 1880.

He died 1 January 1898 at Clonelly, Murga, New South Wales (Australia) and was buried at Toogong. His widow died at Cudal near Orange, New South Wales, 13 April 1910 and was also buried at Toogong; her will was proved in Armagh, 8 December 1910 (effects £20).

F.W. Barton (1876-1922) 

Barton, Folliott Warren (1876-1922). Only surviving son of Thomas Barton (1837-98) and his wife Anne Irvine, born at Murga, New South Wales, 2 September 1876. Educated at Cudal, New South Wales, and privately. Farmed in Australia until 1902, when he moved to Ireland after inheriting the Clonelly estate on the death of his uncle. An officer in North of Ireland Horse (2nd Lt., 1904; retired 1908); JP for Co. Fermanagh by 1903; a freemason from 1903; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1905. He briefly went out to Australia again and married, 18 March 1913 at Penrith, New South Wales, Margaret Davis (1867-1944), daughter of Charles Fraser and widow of George Hart (d. 1895), but had no issue.

He inherited Clonelly from his uncle, Hugh Barton, in 1902. At his death it passed to his widow, who was succeeded by her son by her first marriage, Henry George Hart (1894-1964).

He died 27 March 1922 and was buried at Tubrid church, Kesh (Co. Fermanagh); will proved 4 April 1923 (effects £3,347). His widow died 29 November 1944 and was also buried at Tubrid; her will was proved 6 July 1945 (estate £1,696).

Hart, Henry George (1894-1964). Only child of George Hart (d. 1895) of Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) and his wife Margaret Davis, daughter of Charles Fraser, born at Forbes, New South Wales, 1894. Emigrated to England in 1914 and served in the First World War with King Edward's Horse and later Royal Engineers (Lt.), before returning to Australia after his marriage. Following the death of his stepfather in 1927 he finally left Australia and settled at Clonelly. He married, 13 March 1920 at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, Westminster (Middx), Margaret Alice (k/a Peggy) (1894-1979), daughter of George William Henry Smith, and had issue:

(1) Alice Margaret (k/a Marjorie) Hart (1924-98), born at Orange, New South Wales; married, 1945 (div.), and had issue one son and one daughter; she and her children took her maiden name after her divorce; died 23 November 1998;

(2) William Folliott Hart (1929-2010), born 18 September 1929; died unmarried at Irvinestown (Co. Fermanagh), 9 September 2010.

He inherited Clonelly on the death of his mother in 1944. He moved out of the house in about 1960 and lived latterly at Kesh (Co. Fermanagh).

He died 8 February 1964. His widow died at Kesh, 29 November 1979, and was buried at Tubrid (Co. Fermanagh), near the site of Clonelly.

Barton family of The Waterfoot

Barton, Lt-Gen. Charles (1760-1819). Third son of William Barton (1723-93) and his wife Grace, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, born 20 April and baptised at St Peter, Dublin, 25 April 1760. An officer in the 2nd Life Guards (Cornet, 1779; Lt., 1781; Maj. & Lt-Col., 1793; Col., 1796; Maj-Gen., 1802; Lt-Gen, 1808). He married, 26 November 1799 at Wimbledon (Surrey), Susannah (c.1775-1847), daughter of Nathaniel Weld Johnston of Bordeaux (France), wine merchant, and had issue:

(1) Lt-Col. Hugh William Barton (1800-70) (q.v.);

(2) Susannah Barton (1801-43), baptised 7 January 1802; married, 2 November 1830 at St Marylebone, Rev. John Sterling (1806-44), an unbeneficed clergyman (briefly curate of Herstmonceux in Sussex in 1834) and poet, and had issue three sons and four daughters (who after being orphaned were placed in the guardianship of their uncle, Anthony Coningham Sterling); died following childbirth, 18 April 1843;

(3) Col. Nathaniel Dunbar Barton (1803-85), born 7 June and baptised at St. Marylebone (Middx), 7 July 1803; an officer in the Bengal Cavalry (cadet, 1822; cornet, 1822; Lt. 1824; Capt. 1837; Maj. 1855; Lt-Col., 1856; on furlough from 1859 and retired as Hon. Col., 1861); married, 28 October 1831 at Karnal (India), Honoria Angeline (d. 1889), second daughter of Lt-Col. Alexander Lawrence; died in Brighton (Sussex), 23 June 1885; will proved 25 July 1885 (estate £4,077);

(4) Thomas Charles Barton (1806-56), born 1 December 1806 and baptised at St Marylebone, 13 January 1807; educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (matriculated 1826; BA 1830; MA 1833), where he was an early member of the Apostles; he was a friend of the historian, John Mitchell Kemble, another Apostle, with whom he travelled in Germany in 1829; he later lived in Bonn (Germany) for many years, where he obviously had business interests, but what they were is unclear, unless he was an agent for his uncle's wine business; died unmarried, 16 February 1856 and was buried at Bonn (Germany); will proved in the PCC, 31 July 1856;

(5) Robert Johnstone Barton (1809-63), born 30 June and baptised at St Marylebone, 1 August 1809; said to have been in the Royal Navy but does not appear in the Navy List and so was presumably not an officer; emigrated to Australia, 1839; grazier at Boree Nyrang Station, Molong, New South Wales (Australia); JP for New South Wales, 1841; married, 30 July 1840 at St James, Sydney (Australia), Emily Maria (1817-1909), poet, eldest daughter of Maj. Edward Darvall, and had issue four sons and four or five daughters; died 4 October 1863, after which his widow sold Boree Nyrang and moved to Sydney;

(6) Anna Eleanor Stewart Barton (1810-45), born 10 December 1810 and baptised at St Marylebone, 15 January 1811; married, 7 October 1837 at Clifton, Bristol (Glos), Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-72), theologian and author, one of the founders of Christian Socialism, chaplain of Guy's Hospital, London, 1836-50, professor at Kings College, London, 1840-53 (dismissed) and Knightbridge professorship of casuistry, moral theology, and moral philosophy at Cambridge, 1866-72 (who m2, 4 July 1849, Georgina Hare-Naylor), son of Michael Maurice, a Unitarian minister; she and her husband lost a lot of money through an unwise American speculation, but had issue two sons (the elder of whom was Maj-Gen. Sir John Frederick Maurice (1841-1912), kt.); she died at Hastings (Sussex), 26 March 1845;

(7) Albert Evelyn Barton (1812-74), born 10 July and baptised at St Marylebone, 20 August 1812; educated at St. Paul's School, London; died unmarried, at Pettigo, 11 March 1874; will proved at Dublin, 3 June 1874 (effects under £1,500).

He built a new house at The Waterfoot in about 1790.

He died 11 June 1819; his will was proved in the PCC, 28 June 1819. His widow died 4 February 1847; her will was proved in the PCC, 26 March 1847.

Barton, Lt-Col. Hugh William (1800-70). Eldest son of Lt-Gen. Charles Barton (1760-1819) and his wife Susannah, daughter of Nathaniel Weld Johnston of Bordeaux (France), born and privately baptised at Fethard (Co. Tipperary), 13 December 1800. An officer in the 2nd Life Guards (Cornet, 1812; Lt., 1815; Capt., 1822; Maj. & Lt. Col., 1829; retired on half pay, 1829); returned to service with 69th Foot (Maj. & Br. Lt-Col., 1840), but evidently retired again soon afterwards. JP and DL (from 1832) for County Fermanagh; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1837-38. He exhibited a sketching compass of his own design at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He married, 9 February 1832 at Kinlough (Co. Leitrim), Mary Caroline (1812-99), eldest daughter of Robert Johnston of Kinlough House and Mountjoy Sq., Dublin, and had issue:

(1) Charles Robert Barton (1832-1918) (q.v.);

(2) Capt. James Barton (1834-1919), born 13 August 1834; an officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1853; Lt., 1854; 2nd Capt., 1860; Capt., 1870; retired 1870); lived latterly at Streatham (Surrey); married, 23 August 1859, Mary Barbara (1841-1929), youngest daughter of Sir David William Barclay, 10th bt., and had issue four sons and four daughters; died 19 March 1919; will proved 6 January 1920 (estate £4,154);

(3) Florence Anna Barton (1836-1923), born September 1836; married Maj-Gen. Richard William Erskine Dawson (1832-90), son of Erskine Dawson, but had no issue; died in Chiswick (Middx), 23 December 1923; will proved 26 February 1924 (estate £262);

(4) Folliott Barton (1838-84), born 23 May 1838; educated at Rugby and then served a pupillage with William Richard Le Fanu, railway engineer; civil engineer (MICEI, 1874); worked on railway projects across Europe and later engaged in baryte mining in Co. Sligo before being bankrupted and emigrating to South Africa; a freemason from 1864; married, 19 March 1873 at Killargue (Co. Leitrim), Florence Maud, sixth daughter of Hugh Lyons-Montgomery MP of Belhavel (Co. Leitrim), and had issue one son and one daughter; died at Kentore, Transvaal (South Africa), 25 April 1884; administration of goods granted 4 August 1886 (effects £461);

(5) Hugh St. George Barton (1839-75), born 19 November 1839; educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst;  officer in the 60th Regt. (Ensign, 1857; Lt., 1858; Capt. 1867); died unmarried, 12 June 1875; administration of his goods granted 4 March 1876 (effects under £1,000);

(6) Robert Barton (1841-69), born 3 November 1841; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1865); died unmarried, suddenly, at The Waterfoot, 3 April 1869; administration of his goods granted to his father, 13 May 1870 (effects under £1,000);

(7) Mary Everina Barton (c.1850-1925), born about 1850; 'a keen and thoughtful political controversialist' and able platform speaker, she was one of the leaders of the North Tyrone Women's Unionist Association and a member of the Ulster Unionist Council, and put her grounds at the disposal of the Ulster Volunteer Force for training purposes; she married, 29 January 1868 at Pettigo (Co. Donegal), James Montgomery Sinclair (1841-99) of Holly Hill, Strabane (Co. Tyrone) and Bonnyglen, Inver (Co. Donegal), eldest son of William Sinclair of Holly Hill, and had issue one son and two daughters (including the Arts & Crafts woodworker and teacher, Everina Sinclair (1870-1966)); died 22 April 1925; will proved 25 February 1931 (effects £25);

(8) Thomas Lloyd Barton  (1854-1936), born 2 December 1854; tea and coffee merchant; lived in Hammersmith (Middx); married, 15 April 1890 at Eltham (Kent), Fanny Roberta (1857-1931), second daughter of Lionel Isaacs of Mandeville (Jamaica) and had issue one son and two daughters; died 13 January 1936; will proved 10 February 1936 (estate £2,813);

(9) Lt-Col. Nathaniel Albert Delap Barton (1857-1938), born 29 November 1857; an officer in the Connaught Rangers (2nd Lt, 1878; Lt., 1880; Capt. 1887; Maj., 1897; Lt-Col., 1915), who served in the Boer War and First World War; awarded DSO, 1917; lived at Castletownroche (Co. Cork); married, 6 October 1888 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Ellen Duffield, daughter of John M. Jordan of the USA, and had issue one son; died at Dinard (France), 26 October 1938; will proved in Dublin, 3 March 1939 (estate in Ireland, £315) and in London, 26 May 1939 (estate in England, £45).

He inherited The Waterfoot from his father in 1819.

He died 4 December 1870; his will was proved 1 March 1870 (effects under £3,000). His widow died 11 March 1899; her will was proved 18 July 1899 (estate £1,456).

Charles Robert Barton (1832-1918) 

Barton, Charles Robert (1832-1918). Eldest son of Lt-Col. Hugh William Barton (1800-70) and his wife Mary Caroline, eldest daughter of Robert Johnston of Kinlough House (Co. Leitrim) and Mountjoy Sq., Dublin, born 15 November 1832. An officer in the Co. Fermanagh militia (Capt.); JP (from 1863) and DL for County Fermanagh; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1863-64. He was a Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and a founding member of the Fermanagh Protestant Defence Association, 1868. He married, 1 August 1872 at Irvinestown (Co. Fermanagh), Henrietta Martha Mervyn (1846-1915), youngest daughter of Henry Mervyn Richardson DL of Rossfad, Ballinamallard (Co. Fermanagh), and had issue:

(1) William Hugh Barton (1874-1945) (q.v.);

(2) Henry Charles Johnston Barton (1876-1964), born 12 October 1876; principal tea buyer for Lyons; lived in Barnes (Surrey); married, 30 April 1910 at St Mary Abbots, Kensington (Middx), Ethel Maude (c.1880-1961), youngest daughter of William Bancroft Espeut of Spring Gardens (Jamaica) and had issue one son and two daughters; died 26 November 1964; will proved 9 February 1965 (estate £37,339);

(3) Mary Jane Florence Barton (1878-1932), born 10 March 1878; married, 27 October 1897, Henry Burnley Rathborne (1866-1943) of Dunsinea (Co. Dublin) and Blen-na-Lung, Legys (Co. Fermanagh), son of John Garrett Rathborne of Dunsinea, and had issue two sons; died 20 February 1932; administration of goods granted to husband, 19 December 1934 (estate £50);

(4) Everina Margaret Barton (1879-1922), born 28 December 1879; married, May 1919, George Lowry of Letter (Co. Fermanagh), farmer, eldest son of John Lowry, but had no issue; died 18 November 1922; administration of goods granted 17 January 1932 (estate £810):

(5) Caroline Angel Charlotte Barton (1881-1953), born 4 April 1881; lived at Lakeside, Letter (Co. Fermanagh); died unmarried, 12 July 1953; will proved 24 March 1954 (estate £2,814);

(6) Henrietta Emily Violet Barton (1882-1968), born 21 April 1882; emigrated with her husband to Canada in 1913; married, 2 October 1902, Frederick William Lambert Sladen (1876-1921), bee breeder, fifth son of Lt-Col. Joseph Sladen of Ripple Court (Kent), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died in Vancouver (Canada), 13 September 1968 and was buried at Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa (Canada);

(7) Rev. Charles Nathaniel Barton (1884-1949), born 5 January 1884; educated at Warwick Sch. and Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1905; BA 1909); ordained deacon, 1909 and priest, 1910; missionary in Sudan and northern Nigeria, 1910-23; lived in the 1930s at Whonnock, British Columbia (Canada), but later returned to England; married, 22 March 1917 at Edgware (Middx), Marion Augusta (1890-1978), only daughter of Rev. James Consterdine and had issue two sons; died at Germinstown, Transvaal, (South Africa), 6 July 1949; administration of goods granted to widow, 28 May 1951 (estate £10);

(8) Mildred Penelope Matilda (k/a Penny) Barton (1885-1971), born 25 April 1885; preacher for 'The Church with No Name', who undertook missionary work in Italian-speaking Switzerland, 1913-14; married, 27 August 1918, Simon Christopher Loane (1880-1940), farmer, eldest son of Robert Loane of Dernanesk, Kesh (Co. Fermanagh) and had issue four sons (of whom Bertram Ronald Barton Loane inherited The Waterfoot on the death of his aunt in 1970); died 6 August 1971;

(9) Susannah Cecil Grace Barton (1886-1968), born 24 December 1886; spent her life as a preacher for 'The Church with No Name' in Britain, Ireland and the United States; died unmarried in Cheadle (Staffs), 2 March 1968; will proved 30 April 1968 (estate £1,597);

(10) Bertram James Richardson Barton (1891-1960) of Eden House, Rosbeg (Co. Donegal), born 23 February 1891; educated at Warwick School; served in First World War with Royal Field Artillery (Lt.); member of the State and Executive Council of Johore (Malaya), 1934-40; served in Second World War with Home Guard (Capt.); JP (from 1944) and DL (from 1945) for Co. Fermanagh; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1946-47; married, 14 May 1952, Anne Vaughan MSc (c.1918-2016), younger daughter of George Vaughan Hart of Waltersland, Stillorgan (Co. Dublin), and had issue one daughter; died 19 February 1960; will proved in Dublin, Belfast and London, 1961 (estate £21,500).

He inherited The Waterfoot from his father in 1870.

He died 23 November 1918; will proved in Dublin, 14 May 1919 and sealed in London, 12 July 1919 (estate in England, £1,824). His wife died 12 November 1915; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 29 August 1916 (estate £1,696).

Barton, Lt-Col. William Hugh (1874-1945). Eldest son of Charles Robert Barton (1832-1918) and his wife Henrietta Martha Mervyn, youngest daughter of Henry Mervyn Richardson of Rossfad, Ballinamallard (Co. Fermanagh), born 30 May 1874. An officer in the Scottish Rifles, 1894-1902 and Royal Army Service Corps, 1902-18 (2nd Lt., 1894; Lt., 1896; Capt., 1900; Maj., 1913; Lt-Col., 1915), and was awarded the DSO, 1917. JP and DL (from 1922) for Co. Fermanagh; High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1924; County Councillor for Co. Fermanagh, 1924-43 (Vice-Chairman). He married, 20 February 1917 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Ardyn Marion (1887-1970), second daughter of Lt-Col. Henry Tyrwhitt Staniforth Patteson of Beeston Hall, Beeston St. Andrew (Norfk), and had issue:

(1) John Charles Barton (1918-43), born 6 April 1918; educated at Rugby and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; an officer in Royal Artillery (Capt.); awarded French Croix de Guerre twice and made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur; died unmarried, of wounds received in action in North Africa, 8 April 1943; will proved 1 September 1943 (estate £65);

(2) Ruth Ardyn Barton (1921-51), born 15 February 1921; married, 24 March 1940, Lt-Col. Henry Arthur Brinsley Cavendish Butler of Silver Hill, Rostrevor (Co. Down), eldest son of Maj. Henry Halpin Cavendish Butler of Innisrath, Lisnaskea (Co. Fermanagh) and Penicuik House (Midlothian), and had issue one son; died (with her son) of injuries received in a train crash at Weedon (Northants), 21 September 1951; administration of goods granted to her husband, 1 April 1951 (estate £2,958).

He inherited The Waterfoot from his father in 1918. At his death it passed to his wife for life and then to Bertram Ronald Barton Loane, his nephew.

He died 1 February 1945; his will was proved 21 August 1945 (estate £3,583). His widow died 6 January 1970; her will was proved 16 June 1970 (estate £246,420).

Barton family of Straffan House

Hugh Barton (1766-1854) 

Barton, Hugh (Massy) (1766-1854). Fourth son of William Barton (1723-93) and his wife Grace, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, born in Limerick, 8 January 1766. He joined the family wine business at Bordeaux (France) in 1786 and despite being imprisoned for a month during the Reign of Terror, 1793, and then relocating to England and Ireland, leaving the wine business in the hands of Daniel Guestier as manager until 1802, he made a large fortune from it: in the last years of his life he calculated that he was worth £1,000,000.  On his return to France in 1802 he made Guestier a partner, and the firm of Barton & Guestier was maintained by their descendants until 1986, after which it passed out of family hands. High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1840-41. He built the parish church at Straffan in about 1830. He married, 17 December 1791, Anne (1772-1841), daughter of Nathaniel Weld Johnston of Bordeaux, a naturalised Frenchman of Scottish origin, and had issue:

(1) Susan Barton (1793-1803), born 11 March 1793; died young, 22 December 1803;

(2) Hugh Barton (b. 1797), born 7 March 1797; died young;

(3) Anna Barton (1798-1811), born 1798; died young and was buried at St Lawrence in Thanet (Kent), 27 August 1811;

(4) Nathaniel Barton (1799-1867) (q.v.);

(5) Grace Barton (b. & d. c.1800); died in infancy;

(6) Thomas Johnston Barton (1802-64) [for whom see my account of the Bartons of Glendalough House];

(7) Isabella Barton (1804-97), born 29 June and baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), July 1804; lived in Monkstown (Co. Dublin); died unmarried aged 92 on 28 March 1897; will proved in Dublin, 27 April 1897 (estate £50,914);

(8) Capt. Daniel Barton (1806-79), born 21 February 1806; an officer in the 7th Foot (Lt., 1826; Capt., 1833; retired on half-pay, 1839); lived in Argyllshire and later in Edinburgh; married, 30 April 1846 at Hampton (Middx), Margaret (1812-82), daughter of George Bentley Sampson of Hampton, and had issue two sons; died 'of exhaustion, after a long journey from London' in Edinburgh, 5 June 1879; will confirmed, 4 July 1879 (estate £257,835);

(9) Hugh Barton (1807-60), born 21 March 1807; banker and army agent (in partnership with Charles Hopkinson and Henry Knyvett in Regent St., London) until 1843; died unmarried at Brighton (Sussex), 8 November 1860; will proved 1 December 1860 (effects under £60,000);

(10) Susan Elizabeth Barton (1810-86), born 2 May and baptised at St Marylebone, 22 June 1810; married, 9 September 1828 at Battle (Sussex), Eyre Massey (1796-1872), 3rd Baron Clarina, of Elm Place (Limerick), and had issue five sons and two daughters; died 14 November 1886; will proved 3 March 1887 (effects £10,839);

(11) Charlotte Maria Barton (b. 1812), born 8 June and baptised at St Marylebone, 7 July 1812; died in infancy.

He rented Battle Abbey (Sussex) in the early 19th century. He purchased the Straffan estate (Co. Kildare) in 1831, and also other lands in Ireland including Cootehill (Co. Roscommon). The house at Straffan was rebuilt or remodelled in 1832-33. In France he acquired the Château Langoa in 1821, and a portion of the adjacent property of Leoville (now known as Leoville-Barton) in 1826, both in the parish of St. Julien Médoc, near Bordeaux.

He died 25 May 1854 and was buried at Straffan; his will was proved 4 July 1854. His wife died at Straffan House, 3 August 1841.

Nathaniel Barton (1799-1867) 

Barton, Nathaniel (1799-1867). Second but eldest surviving son of Hugh Massy Barton (1766-1854) and his wife Anne, daughter of Nathaniel Weld Johnston of Bordeaux (France), born 7 September 1799. JP and DL (to 1856) for Co. Kildare; High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1851-52. Member of the Board of Management (1849-56) and Trustee (1859-66) of the London Homeopathic Hospital. He was a supporter of the Kildare Hunt and the Kildare Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, through which he encouraged agricultural improvement. He married, 12 July 1823 at the British ambassador's house in Paris, Mary Susanna (c.1804-67), daughter of Harry Harmood Scott, British consul at Bordeaux, and had issue:

(1) Hugh Lynedoch Barton (1824-99) (q.v.);

(2) Harry Fitzgerald Barton (1826-48), born 21 August 1826; died unmarried at Bordeaux, 17 May 1848; administration granted 19 December 1860 (effects under £3,000);

(3) Mary Esther Isabella Barton (1828-44), born 23 January 1828; died young at Bordeaux, 11 January 1844;

(4) Bertram Francis Barton (1830-1904) (q.v.);

(5) Anna Susan Frederica Barton (1831-1920), born November 1831; lived in London; died unmarried, 2 May 1920; will proved 9 June 1920 (estate £48,661);

(6) Charles Thomas Hugh Barton (1834-71) of Bordeaux (France), born 23 November 1834; educated at Eton; married, 21 June 1859 at Surbiton (Surrey), Clara Sophie, youngest daughter of Frank Cutler RN of Upton Lodge, Brixham (Devon), and had issue two sons; died  at Chateau Langoa, 11 September 1871; administration of goods granted 8 February 1872 (effects under £2,,000);

(7) Francis Savile Barton (1836-60), born 23 November 1836; educated at Eton; died unmarried in Rome, 3 January 1860; administration granted 19 December 1860 (effects under £3,000);

(8) Isabella Charlotte Barton (1840-1930), born 4 December 1840; lived in London and later at Torquay (Devon); died unmarried, 3 December 1930; will proved 27 February 1931 (estate £49,156);

(9) Alice Catherine Harriet Barton (1843-67), born at Bordeaux, 28 April 1843; died unmarried in Paris (France), 17 April 1867; administration granted 19 December 1860 (effects under £3,000);.

He lived chiefly in France in the 1820s and 1830s. He inherited the Straffan estate and the family vineyards in St. Julien (France) from his father in 1854.

He died 29 November 1867 and was buried at Straffan; his will was proved 21 December 1867 (effects under £140,000). His wife died at Nice (France), 18 March 1867.

Barton, Hugh Lynedoch (1824-99). Eldest son of Nathaniel Barton (1799-1867) and his wife Mary Susanna, daughter of Harry Harmood Scott, British consul at Bordeaux (France), born 30 August 1824. An officer in 1st Foot and later 6th Inniskilling Fusiliers (Ensign, 1842; Lt., 1845; retired 1852) and later in Kildare Rifles (Maj.; retired 1872). JP and DL (from 1856) for Co. Kildare; High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1861-62. President of the Kildare Horticultural Society. He married, 18 April 1855 at Kilkeedy (Co. Clare), his first cousin, the Hon. Anna Emily (1829-1907), elder daughter of Eyre Massey, 3rd Baron Clarina, but had no issue.

He inherited the Straffan estate and the family vineyards in St. Julien (France) from his father in 1867. His widow rented Luttrellstown (Co. Dublin) from 1899 until her death.

He died 23 February 1899; his will was prove in Dublin, 15 April 1899 (estate £84,378).  His widow died 26 October 1907; her will was proved 21 December 1907 (estate £33,360).

Barton, Bertram Francis (1830-1904). Third son of Nathaniel Barton (1799-1867) and his wife Mary Susanna, daughter of Harry Harmood Scott, British consul at Bordeaux (France), born at Bordeaux, 19 March 1830. Educated at Eton. Partner in Barton & Guestier, wine merchants of Bordeaux, based in London. An officer in the 6th Surrey Rifle Volunteers (Ensign, 1864; Lt., 1867); JP and DL (from 1899) for Co. Kildare; High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1903-04. He married, 27 September 1855 at the British Embassy in Paris, Fannie Annie (c.1834-1907), eldest daughter of Frank Cutler RN of Upton Lodge, Brixham (Devon), and had issue:

(1) Mary Fannie Barton (1856-1935), born 3 August, and baptised at Mortlake (Surrey), 25 September 1856; married, 25 October 1883 at Hersham (Surrey), Thomas Edward Studdy (1855-1924), surveyor and land agent, youngest son of Henry Studdy of Waddeton Court, Brixham (Devon), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 29 July 1935; will proved 25 September 1935 (estate £2,685);

(2) Bertram Hugh Barton (1858-1927) (q.v.);

(3) Isabel Eleanor Barton (1860-1950), born 2 March and baptised at Long Ditton (Surrey), 8 July 1860; died unmarried, aged 90, on 30 May 1950; will proved 21 July 1950 (estate £18,761);

(4) Harry Scott Barton (1862-1933), of Hewshott House, Liphook (Hants) and later Jesmond Hill, Pangbourne (Berks), born 11 January and baptised at Long Ditton, 8 June 1862; married, 18 June 1893 at St Peter, Cranley Gardens, Kensington (Middx), Mary Augusta (1866-1941), daughter of Leedham White, manufacturer, but had no issue; died 26 August 1933; will proved in London, 9 January 1934 (estate £24,748) and sealed in Vancouver (Canada).

He lived at Hersham Lodge, Walton-on-Thames (Surrey) and later at Burley House, Woolton Hill (Hants) before he inherited the Straffan estate and the family vineyards in St. Julien (France) from his elder brother in 1899. He also maintained a household in the Strand area of London. His widow lived at Bramley (Surrey).

He died in a hotel at Cromer (Norfk), 11 September 1904; his will was proved 1 November 1904 (estate £165,193). His widow died 29 November 1907; her will was proved 20 January 1908 (estate £31,862).

Bertram Hugh Barton 
(1858-1927) 

Barton, Bertram Hugh (1858-1927). Elder son of Bertram Francis Barton (1830-1904) and his wife Fannie Annie, eldest daughter of Frank Cutler RN of Upton Lodge, Brixham (Devon), born 24 September and baptised at Long Ditton (Surrey), 31 October 1858. Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1877; BA 1880; MA 1885). Partner in Messrs. Barton & Guestier of Bordeaux (France), based in their London office. JP and DL for Co. Kildare by 1908; High Sheriff of Co. Kildare, 1908-09. During the First World War he converted his saloon car into a field ambulance, and acted as a volunteer ambulance driver in France. He was a noted breeder of shorthorn dairy cattle. He married, 26 July 1899 at St Matthew, Bayswater, London, Lilian Edith Laura (1871-1937), only daughter of Lt-Col. Sir Frederick Waller Carden, 2nd bt., of Stargrove House, Newbury (Berks), and had issue:

(1) Frederick Bertram (k/a Derrick) Barton (1900-93) (q.v.);

(2) Hugh Ronald Barton (1902-86) of Chateau Langoa, St. Julien (France), born 29 June and baptised at St John, Paddington (Middx), 28 July 1902; educated at Eton and New College, Oxford; served in Second World War as an officer in Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (2nd Lt., 1940; Capt., 1941; Maj.), attached to the Free French forces, and was awarded the MBE, 1942, the Croix de Guerre, 1944 and the Légion d'honneur, 1951; Chairman of Barton & Guestier, wine shippers of Bordeaux, 1927-84, and inherited Chateau Langoa and the vineyards there and at Léoville-Barton from his father in 1927; married, 29 April 1963, Phyllis Melva (1917-2003), daughter of Percival James Roadknight of Atherstone (Warks) and Deal (Kent), widow of Arthur Lushington Vipan (1914-44) and formerly wife of Thomas Dickson Cassels Cordner (1906-84), but had no issue; died 6 January 1986; will proved in Dublin, October 1986 (estate £168,917) and in London, 4 November 1986 (effects in England, £2,185);

(3) Storeen Lily Barton (1906-76), born 21 June 1906; married, Jul-Sept 1940, Wilfred Sharp (d. 1953), son of Thomas William Sharp of Blythswood South, Newcastle-on-Tyne (Northbld); died at Killiney (Co. Dublin), 8 March 1976; will proved in London, 23 May 1976 (estate £26,109) and in Dublin, 15 November 1976 (estate £49,323).

He lived in Surbiton (Surrey) until he inherited the Straffan estate and the family vineyards in St. Julien (France) from his father in 1904.

He died as the result of a hunting accident, 5 December 1927; his will was proved in Dublin, 22 May 1928 (estate in Ireland, £40, 354) and in London, 19 June 1928 (estate in England, £24,016).  His widow died 19 October 1937; her will was proved in London, 2 February 1938 (effects £3,717).

Frederick Bertram (Derrick) 
Barton (1900-93) 

Barton, Frederick Bertram (k/a Derrick) (1900-93). Elder son of Bertram Hugh Barton (1858-1927) and his wife Lilian Edith Laura, only daughter of Lt-Col. Sir Frederick Waller Carden, 2nd bt., born 19 June 1900. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. An officer in the 17th/21st Lancers (2nd Lt., 1920; Lt., 1922; retired 1928) and served in Second World War (2nd Lt., 1942, retiring as Hon. Capt). A partner in the firm of Barton & Guestier of Bordeaux. After leaving the army he was involved in party politics for some years as a member of the Farmers & Ratepayers Party (for which he stood unsuccessfully for the Dáil in Co. Kildare) and later for Fine Gael (for which he was a County Councillor for Naas), but he retired from politics altogether in 1934. He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland and later President of Royal Dublin Society, 1966-68. As a young man he could run very fast and he represented Great Britain in the Modern Pentathlon at the 1924 Olympics in Paris; he was also a passionate point-to-pointer and for many years was Chairman of the Kildare Hunt Club. He married, 16 February 1927 at Aghade (Co. Carlow), Joan Aileen (1902-90), second daughter of Maj-Gen. Robert St. Clair Lecky CMG DSO of Ballykealey, Tullow (Co. Carlow), and had issue:

(1) Christopher Bertram Ronald Barton (1927-2013), born 21 November 1927; educated at St. Columba's College and Jesus College, Cambridge (BA), where he rowed in the victorious 1948 Cambridge team in the Boat Race, and also for the UK in the 1948 Olympic Games (silver medal); married 1st, 8 February 1956 (div. 1964), Dorothy Margot, second daughter of Walter Jack Bushell of Fullerton Station, Laggan, New South Wales (Australia) and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, Jul-Sept 1966 in London, Rosemary H. King, and had further issue one daughter; died in Christchurch (New Zealand), 18 August 2013;

(2) Anthony Frederick Barton (b. 1930) (q.v.).

He inherited the Straffan estate of some 1200 acres, half of his father's share in the wine business, and a share in the Chateau Langoa and Léoville estates from his father in 1927, but finding the Straffan estate was haemorrhaging money he sold off some land in 1933, reduced the size of the house in 1937-39 and eventually sold the remainder of the property in 1949. His French interests were divided between his sons at his death.

He died 20 November 1993; his will was proved in November 1994 (estate £289,322). His wife died 19 October 1990; her will was proved in London, 20 March 1991 (estate £22,086).

Antony Barton (b. 1930) 

Barton, Anthony Frederick (1930-2022). Younger son of Frederick Bertram (k/a Derrick) Barton (1900-93) and his wife Joan Aileen, second daughter of Maj-Gen. Robert St. Clair Lecky CMG DSO of Ballykealey, Tullow (Co. Carlow), born 6 July 1930. Educated at Stowe and Jesus College, Cambridge. He moved to France in 1951 to work for Barton & Guestier and in 1967 set up his own company (Vins Fins Anthony Barton). He succeeded his uncle Ronald as owner of the family vineyards of Langoa-Barton and Léoville-Barton at St Julien, 1983 and in recognition of his work in improving standards on his estates and as an ambassador for Bordeaux wines around the world, he was Decanter Magazine's Man of the Year, 2007. He married, 14 January 1955, Eva, daughter of Paul Frederik Sarauw of Copenhagen (Denmark), author and translator, and had issue:

(1) Lilian Anna Barton (b. 1956), born 13 February 1956; joined her father in managing Vins Fins Anthony Barton and the vineyards at Langoa and Léoville, 1978, and succeeded him as owner in 2010; married, 1985, Michel Sartorius and had issue one son and one daughter, both now also working in the wine business;

(2) Thomas Barton (1958-90), born in Copenhagen, 5 January 1958; died unmarried in a motor accident in France, 1990.

He inherited Chateau Langoa and the vineyards there and at Léoville-Barton from his uncle in 1984 and restored the house. In 2011 his daughter and grandson also bought Château Mauvesin in Moulis (Médoc).

He died in January 2022. His widow is now living.

Barton family of Rochestown House

Barton, Dunbar (1769-1848). Sixth son of William Barton (1723-93) and his wife Grace, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Massy of Doonas (Co. Clare), Dean of Limerick, born 7 November 1769. An officer in the army (Cornet, 1789; Lt. 1793; Capt. 1796; retired 1798). High Sheriff of Co. Tipperary, 1810-11. He married, 1798, Elizabeth (1778-1853), daughter of the Rev. Samuel Riall, rector of Killenaule (Co. Tipperary) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Col. Lawford Miles of Rochestown House (Co. Tipperary), and had issue:

(1) Samuel William Barton (1803-55) (q.v.);

(2) Dunbar Thomas Barton (1806-29), born 1806; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1822); an officer in the army (Ensign, 1825; Lt., 1826); died in Dublin, 20 January 1829;

(3) Augustine Hugh Barton (1815-74) of Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, born 3 August 1815; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1830), Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1835; called 1845) and Grays Inn (admitted 1842); barrister-at-law; married, 12 October 1853 at St Peter, Dublin, Emily Anne (1827-1907), second daughter of James Martin of Ross (Co. Galway) and widow of James McCalmont of Abbeylands and Breen (Co. Antrim), and had issue two daughters (one of whom was the artist, Rose Barton (1856-1929)); died 23 October 1874; administration of his goods (with will annexed) granted to his widow, 29 January 1875 (effects under £800);

(4) Thomas Henry Barton (1816-78) (q.v.).

He inherited Rochestown House in right of his wife, whose maternal family estate it had been.

He died 19 May 1848. His widow died 16 October 1853.

Barton, Samuel William (1803-55). Eldest son of Dunbar Barton (1769-1848) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Riall, rector of Killenaule (Co. Tipperary), born 10 April 1803. Educated at Eton, Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1820; BA 1825; MA 1831) and Grays Inn (admitted 1825; called 1828). Barrister-at-law. JP (by 1827) and DL (from 1835) for Co. Tipperary. He was a Conservative in politics, and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Tipperary constituency in 1838. He was a Guardian of the Poor for Clogheen Union in the 1840s and 1850s, and Vice-President of the Ardfinnan & Newcastle Agricultural Society. He married, 13 July 1831, Emma Maria (1810-89), daughter of the Hon. Christopher Hely-Hutchinson MP of Knocklofty (Co. Tipperary), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Mary Barton (1832-96), born April 1832; married, 11 July 1872 at Tunbridge Wells (Kent), Antoni Marcelli Szymanski (1813-94), a Polish army officer and author living in exile in Paris; died in London, 4 January 1896; will proved 31 January 1896 (estate £7,174);

(2) Anna Grace Barton (1833-90), born early in 1833; died unmarried at Pau (France), 10 September 1890;

(3) Lt-Col. Christopher Barton (1834-1913) (q.v.);

(4) Mary Barton (c.1837-65), born about 1837; married, 27 August 1864 at Clogheen (Co. Tipperary), Theodore Cooke, son of John Cooke, but had no issue; died of cholera at Kirkee, Bombay (India), 21 June 1865 and was buried there the following day; administration of goods granted 24 December 1865 (estate under £1,000);

(5) Evelyn Isabella Barton (1839-65), born 30 October 1839; died unmarried of tuberculosis in Paris while travelling to Mentone with her mother, 3 December 1865; will proved 31 January 1866 (effects under £1,500);

(6) Dunbar Henry Barton (1841-87), born 16 October and baptised at Ardfinnan (Co. Tipperary), 19 November 1841; emigrated to Queensland (Australia), where he was proprietor of the St. Lawrence Hotel but was judged to be insolvent, 1879; married, 22 October 1867, Anne Macmillan, and had issue at least two sons (one born before the marriage); died intestate, 6 March 1887 and was buried in Alpha Cemetery, Barcaldine, Queensland (Australia);

(7) Lt-Col. Crosbie Barton (1845-1902), born in Dublin, 29 June 1845; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1863; Lt., 1868; Capt., 1878; Maj. 1881; retired as Lt-Col., 1886, but returned to active service with Imperial Yeomanry in Boer War, 1898-1900); lived in retirement at Dunnington (Warks) and later at Frampton Lodge, Frampton-on-Severn (Glos); married, 12 December 1878 at British Embassy in Paris, Catherine Janette (1849-1929), eldest daughter of Richard Warburton of Garryhinch (Co. Offaly) and widow of Charles Lockhart Hamilton (d. 1874), and had issue three daughters; died 25 August 1902; administration of his goods (with will annexed) granted to his widow, 2 October 1902 (effects £114);

(8) William Archer Barton (1849-1920), born in Dublin, 15 May 1849*; civil engineer; living in Surrey with his mother by 1871; died in Hastings (Sussex), Jul-Sept 1920.

He inherited Rochestown House from his father in 1848. His widow lived after his death at Tunbridge Wells (Kent) and later at Surbiton (Surrey).

He died of heart disease in Dublin, 19 November 1855; his will was proved in 1855. His widow died in Surbiton, 7 March 1889.

* Some sources give the date as 29 May 1847.

Barton, Lt-Col. Christopher (1834-1913). Eldest son of Samuel William Barton (1803-55) and his wife Emma Maria, daughter of the Hon. Christopher Hely-Hutchinson, MP for Cork, born 22 February 1834. An officer in the Tipperary Light Infantry (Capt. by 1855), and later in the 7th Dragoons Guards and 18th Hussars (Cornet, 1856; Lt., 1857; Capt., 1860; Maj. 1867; Lt-Col., 1876; retired 1877). JP for Co. Tipperary. He was a Conservative in politics, and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Tipperary South constituency in 1885. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Rochestown House from his father in 1855, but sold it in about 1866. He lived latterly at the Army & Navy Club in London.

He died in London, 21 July 1913. His will was proved 6 November 1913 (estate £40).

Barton, Thomas Henry (1816-78). Fourth and youngest son of Dunbar Barton (1769-1848) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Riall, rector of Killenaule (Co. Tipperary), born 29 March 1816. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1830; BA 1838; MA 1847; LLD 1867), King's Inns, Dublin (admitted, 1840; called 1844) and Middle Temple (admitted 1842). Barrister-at-law; Law Lecturer at King's Inns, 1864-67; Dublin Metropolitan Police Magistrate, 1867-78. He was a Conservative in politics and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Clonmel constituency in 1853. He married, 6 January 1853 at 30 Upper Fitzwilliam St., Dublin, the Hon. Charlotte (c.1832-1918), third daughter of John Span Plunket QC, 3rd Baron Plunket, and had issue:

(1) Rt. Hon. Sir Dunbar Plunket Barton (1853-1937), 1st bt. (q.v.);

(2) Augustine Frederick Palliser Barton (1854-1919), born 29 December 1854 and baptised at Kinrossanty (Co. Waterford), 18 March 1855; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1876) and Middle Temple (called 1901); barrister-at-law; clerk with Civil Service Commission, 1876-91; private secretary to Paymaster General, 1880; Local Government Board auditor for Oxfordshire, 1891-1919; a freemason from 1892; died unmarried, 1 April 1919; will proved 16 June 1919 (estate £3,286);

(3) Sylvia Charlotte Elizabeth Barton (1857-1916), born 1 October 1857; married, 22 September 1881 at Navan (Co. Meath), Arthur George Kennedy Woodgate (1845-1929), civil servant and later HM Inspector of Factories, only son of Arthur Woodgate of Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), and had issue two sons and three daughters; buried at Putney Vale Cemetery, London, 19 February 1916;

(4) Eleanor Constance Barton (1859-1939), born 5 November 1859; nurse; matron of the Chelsea Infirmary; president of the Poor Law Infirmary Matrons' Association; member of the British Nursing Council; author of Hints to VAD Nurses in Hospitals (1915); awarded Royal Red Cross (First Class), 1916; lived in Danvers St., Chelsea (Middx); died unmarried, 19 February 1939; will proved 16 March 1939 (estate £1,979);

(5) Aubrey David Plunket Barton (1864-1912), born 11 May 1864; educated at Charterhouse; emigrated to America before 1894, where he worked at different times as a ranch manager in Colorado; a manufacturer of regalia in West Virginia, and as manager of the 'news department and museum' at Albuquerque, New Mexico, before settling in Los Angeles; married, 12 November 1901 in Los Angeles, California (USA), Kathryn Virginia Floding (1882-1960) (who m2, 31 December 1913 at Riverside, California, Wallace Ward Barclay (1892-1941)), and had issue one daughter; died in Los Angeles, 9 December 1912; 

(6) Violet Grace Louisa Barton (1866-1939), born 7 February 1866; lived with her mother and later at Wimbledon (Surrey); died unmarried, 24 December 1939; will proved 27 January 1940 (estate £1,497);

(7) Ion Plunket Barton (1872-99), born 1 June 1872; an officer in the Royal Navy (Midshipman, 1886; Sub-Lt., 1892; Lt., 1894); died at Hankou (China), now part of Wuhan City, 2 October 1899.

He died at his home in Monkstown (Co. Dublin), 19 April 1878; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 28 May 1878 (effects under £12,000). His widow died 30 May 1918; her will was proved in Dublin and sealed in England, 13 August 1918 (effects in England, £770).

Sir Dunbar Plunket Barton, 1st bt. 

Barton, Rt. Hon. Sir (Dunbar) Plunket (1853-1937), 1st bt. Eldest son of Thomas Henry Barton (1816-78) and his wife, the Hon. Charlotte, third daughter of John Span Plunket QC, 3rd Baron Plunket, born 29 October 1853. Educated at Harrow (where he was 'the most brilliant pupil of the year' in 1872), Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1873; President of the Oxford Union), the Inner Temple (admitted 1875; called 1893; bencher) and King's Inns, Dublin (called 1880; bencher). Barrister at law (QC 1889); Private Secretary to Duke of Marlborough as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1880; Private Secretary to Lord Ashbourne as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1885; Professor and Lecturer at King's Inns, Dublin, 1885-91; Conservative MP for Mid Armagh, 1891-1900; Solicitor-General for Ireland, 1898-1900; Judge of High Court in Ireland, 1900-18; Chairman of the Industrial Court, 1920. He was created a baronet, 28 January 1918 and sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland, 1919. Senator of National University of Ireland, 1909-23; Chairman of National Committee for Irish War Memorial, 1919; Trustee of National Library of Ireland, 1920; President of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital of Ireland; a Governor of the Royal City of Dublin Hospital; a member of the Royal Irish Academy; a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Irish College of St Columba, and the Irish Society of Antiquaries. A keen golfer, he was President of the Golfing Union of Ireland and of several clubs. He was the author of a Treatise on the Irish Land Act (1896); Bernadotte, the First Phase (1914); Links between Ireland and Shakespeare (1919); Bernadotte and Napoleon (1920); Bernadotte, Prince and King, 1810–1844 (1925); The Story of our Inns of Courts (1924); Links between Shakespeare and the Law (1929); The Amazing Career of Bernadotte, 1763–1844 (1929) and Timothy Healy (1933). He married, 5 October 1900 at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Mary Tottenham (c.1865-1928), daughter of Joseph Manly of Dublin, and had issue:

(1) Dunbar Patrick Barton (1901-29), born 18 August 1901; died unmarried in the lifetime of his father, 14 September 1929; administration of his goods granted to his father, 8 October 1929 (estate £2,911).

He lived at 2 Grays Inn Square, London.

He died 11 September 1937, when his baronetcy became extinct; his will was proved 29 November 1937 (estate £3,285). His wife died 12 October 1928; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 16 March 1929 (estate £332).

Principal sources

Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976, pp. 77-82; A. Rowan, The buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster, 1979, p. 453; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn., 1990, pp. 146-47, 266, 282, 302-03; J.B. Cunningham, 'The Investigation into the Attempted Assassination of Folliot Warren Barton near Pettigo, on 31 October 1845', Clogher Record, 1990, pp. 125-45; E.M. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament, 2002, iii, pp. 144-45; T. Blake, Abandoned mansions of Ireland, 2016, p. 298; J.A.K. Dean, The gate lodges of Leinster: a gazetteer, 2016, p. 203; J.A.K. Dean, The gate lodges of Munster: a gazetteer, 2018, pp. 200-01, 215; A. Tierney, The buildings of Ireland: Central Leinster, 2019, pp. 603-05;

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_barton.html

https://www.decanter.com/features/man-of-the-year-anthony-barton-247472/

Location of archives

Barton family of Clonelly: deeds, legal and estate papers, 1835-1935 [Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D1028]

Barton family of Grove: deeds and papers, 1667-19th cent. [National Library of Ireland, Barton papers]

No significant archives are known to survive for other branches of the family in Ireland. Barton & Guestier are believed to retain a significant archive of material relating to the firm's activities.

Coat of arms

Argent, a rose gules seeded or and barbed vert, between three boars' heads erased proper.

Can you help?

• 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 account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated. I am always particularly pleased to hear from members of the family who can supply recent personal information for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 16 July 2020 and updated 13 November 2021, 5 July and 30 December 2023, 3-4 January and 15 September 2024, and 4 January 2025. I am grateful to Aidan O'Boyle for the suggestion that Sir Richard Morrison may have designed the remodelling of Grove; to Patricia Barton for information and images, and to Mrs Rosemary Ponsonby of Grove, Harriet Landseer, Steve Breame, and Jan & Steven Hart for their suggestions and information.