Landed families of Britain and Ireland

This site, which was short-listed for the Society of Architectural Historians (GB) Colvin Prize in 2019, presents my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

(172) Arkwright of Hampton Court and Kinsham Court

Arkwright of Hampton Court

The 6,220 acre Hampton Court estate was bought in 1810 for the princely sum of £226,535 by Richard Arkwright (1755-1843) of Willersley Castle (Derbys). Richard inherited substantial wealth from his father, Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-92), kt., who first developed and patented cotton spinning and carding machines for the textile industry and developed the factory system at his mill at Cromford (Derbys). Richard had independently made a fortune from cotton spinning before his father died, and he further grew his fortune throughout a long life by judicious investment and careful accountancy; by the time he died he was the richest commoner, and one of the richest men, in England. From 1792 he began investing capital in the acquisition of landed estates, apparently because agriculture was producing good returns during the long period of war with France up to 1815, and land was therefore a good investment; although as matters worked out these estates also ended up providing homes for his six sons, four of whom founded gentry families that endured over several generations. Hampton Court was the largest of Richard's acqusitions.

In 1814 his fourth son, John Arkwright (1785-1858), who was still unmarried but wished to settle down, asked his father if he might live at Hampton: "of all the situations I know, there is none which suits my tastes so well as Hampton Court... I should like a small farm, grazing or breeding, with liberty to preserve, Shoot and Fish". His father agreed and John settled into the medieval mansion which had been much altered in the early 18th century and more recently modernised in the 1790s. Until his father's death in 1843, however, John had to ask his father for, and justify, expenditure on the estate, and occasionally to persuade his father to soften some decisions which while financially advantageous were not consistent with what was expected of the owner of a landed estate. This no doubt provides the context for Repton's criticism of some very un-Picturesque 'improvements' at Hampton Court which he illustrated by before and after views in his Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening. These show the ancient pleasure ground replaced by a closely planted mass of conifers while across the road the old deer park has been ploughed up.

In 1830, the 45 year old John married Sarah (known as Tally), the pretty daughter of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns bt. of Harewood Park (Herefs), who was half his age, and they produced seven sons and five daughters in eighteen years. Accommodating this large family in modern comfort encouraged the Arkwrights to embark on changes to the house, using first John Atkinson and from 1834 the gentleman amateur, Charles Hanbury-Tracy, as architect. Work proceeded under his direction until 1843, but the relationship was soured by disagreements between Hanbury-Tracy and Tally over the location of the nurseries and other matters. Hanbury-Tracy was also not very sympathetic to the 'domestic Gothic' of the 15th century house and as both Hampton Court and his own house, Toddington Manor (Glos) demonstrate, his interiors could be rather bleak. By the end of his life, John wished he had 'never touched a stone' at Hampton Court.

On his father's death in 1843, John inherited the Hampton estate, a personal legacy of £50,000, and a share in the residual estate of over a quarter of a million pounds. Over the next fifteen years he expanded the estate so that by 1883 it extended to 10,559 acres, worth some £15,000 a year. He was, however, always conscious of his position as an 'incomer' to county society, and was careful to avoid ostentatious displays of his wealth. He sought to earn his position among the county elite through his personal contributions in public affairs and his private subscriptions, and by the end of his life he was widely accepted by the established families of Herefordshire as 'one of us'.

When John Arkwright died in 1858, he left the house and estate in trust for his eldest son, Johnny Arkwright (1833-1905) to whom he also bequeathed him a share of his cash wealth, which was distributed among John's twelve children. This, combined with large borrowings in the 'High Farming' years of the 1860s and early 1870s meant that, when the estate was hit by the Agricultural Depression of the 1870s and 1880s, Johnny neither had sole power to dispose of parts of his estate to realise capital nor the cash reserves to cover his losses and maintain his family in the style to which it was accustomed. It was a seriously indebted estate which he passed on to his son John (later Sir John Stanhope Arkwright (1872-1954), kt) in 1905.

Sir John, who was MP for Hereford, took the measure of his new responsibilities and the changed times, and decided that his only course was to sell the Hampton estate and buy somewhere smaller. He was perhaps fortunate to take this course before the First World War when there were still buyers available for large estates. He bought Kinsham Court near Presteigne from the executors of his brother-in-law, Francis Lyndon Evelyn, in 1911 and sold Hampton Court the following year. Kinsham was a smaller house with a much smaller but still notably Picturesque estate, where he was able to devote himself to poetry, fishing and gardening; and particularly the breeding of daffodils. Kinsham passed at his death to his surviving son, the publisher David Lyndon Arkwright (1911-83), who was unmarried. It is still in the family, having passed to a great-niece of Lady Arkwright.

Hampton Court, Herefordshire

Hampton Court in 1979. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence

Seen from a distance, Hampton Court is almost unimaginably picturesque and romantic; a perfect quadrangular medieval manor house complete with battlements, towers, turrets and Gothic windows, apparently dropped into the farming landscape of 21st century north Herefordshire through some freak temporal dislocation. And it is indeed essentially medieval; Sir Rowland Leinthall was given licence to crenellate in 1434 and the size and layout of the house he built largely coincide with the present building. But the house has been through many vicissitudes, and what stands today owes something to a remodelling between c.1680 and 1710 and another of the early 1790s, and a great deal more to the changes made by John Atkinson and Charles Hanbury-Tracy for John Arkwright in 1832-43. The house captures perfectly the romantic spirit of the Eglinton Tournament of 1839; it was designed to be, and remains, a powerfully evocative stage set, and one that has captivated successive owners since it was completed.

Hampton Court: plan showing how much of the structure is medieval. Image: Historic England.

The four ranges around a courtyard which Sir Rowland Leinthall built in the 1430s form the core of the present building, but almost all the details have been altered. Only the central tower on the north front and the chapel at the north-east angle preserve any significant medieval work, and even on the tower the archways, vaulting and the tall window over the entrance are of 1841-42, as the Turner drawing below makes clear. Across the courtyard from the gatehouse is the 15th century porch to the former great hall, now embraced by the 19th century corridors added to the south and east sides of the courtyard. The fine 15th century chapel projects from the east end of the north front, and has three large Gothic windows on the north side, and another in the east end. Inside, it has a fine painted ceiling only the eastern half of which is preserved.

Hampton Court by J.M.W. Turner c.1806. Comparison with the photo above shows the extent of Victorian changes. Image: Tate Gallery.

Known alterations to the medieval fabric began with a remodelling for Thomas, Lord Coningsby, in about 1680. A bird's-eye view of the house by John Stevens dated to c.1705 suggests that this work involved the almost complete classicising of the exterior, the insertion of sash windows, and the addition of a new block at the south-west corner of the house. Catherine Beale suggests the work may have been influenced, and perhaps even paid for, by Coningsby's father-in-law, Ferdinando Gorges of Eye Manor (Herefs), whose own house bears points of similarity to the new block.

Hampton Court from the south, by John Stevens, probably c.1705.

Hampton Court from the north, by Leonard Knyff, 1699 (detail)

The north front was altered again between 1706 and 1710, perhaps to the designs of William Talman, who was certainly consulted about the work in 1703. What may have been the executed design was published in the third volume of Vitruvius Britannicus in 1725.

Hampton Court: elevation of the north front, from Vitruvius Britannicus, 1725.

The architect gave the facade greater regularity by balancing the tower at the east end of the facade with another at the west end, and a more dramatic skyline by building new turrets to flank the central tower. That to the west of the tower houses a fine early 18th century cantilevered stone staircase with a scrolling wrought iron balustrade. Little else survives of the interiors of the 18th century house, but the fireplace now in the large room between the the gatehouse and the chapel, which was formed in the 19th century and called the Coningsby Hall, gives some idea of the scale and monumentality of the scheme.

The fireplace in the Coningsby Hall is a survivor of the interior decoration of the early 18th century remodelling. Image: © Paul Larsen

Further remodelling was undertaken for the 5th Earl of Essex in the early 1790s. It has been suggested that this was the work of James Wyatt who was working at Hereford Cathedral in the 1790s and who later remodelled Cassiobury (Herts) for the Earl in 1800-05, but whether or not this is so the changes were much in Wyatt's style. Views by James Wathen suggest that a major element of his work was the remodelling of a late 17th century range with dormer windows at the south-west corner of the house, which was raised to three storeys and given battlements and a big round bow window. No doubt changes were made elsewhere in the house too.

Hampton Court from the south-west by James Wathen, 1791. This view shows the house before the Wyatt style alterations. Image: © Hereford City Library

Hampton Court from the south by James Wathen, 1795, after the 'Wyatt' alterations. Image: © Hereford City Library

The house as it exists today, however, is largely the result of work done between 1832 and 1843 at an astonishing total cost of some £46,000. John Arkwright was married in 1830, and the desire to create a family home no doubt provided the stimulus for remodelling, although by the time he had finished he reputedly wished that ‘he had never touched a stone’. Work began in 1832-33 under the direction of John Atkinson (c.1799-1856), the architect son of a London contracting mason, who also rebuilt Bodenham church (Herefs) for Arkwright. By 1834, however, Arkwright had turned to the amateur architect, Charles Hanbury-Tracy (later 1st Lord Sudeley), who had just finished building his own Gothic house at Toddington Manor (Glos) and who in 1835 became chairman of the Parliamentary committee that chose Barry and Pugin's scheme for rebuilding the Houses of Parliament. Hanbury-Tracy was largely responsible for the work undertaken in 1835-43, although John Atkinson was kept on as a professional adviser and exerted a restraining influence, urging Arkwright to preserve original features and to avoid too eccleasiastical a character in the alterations: 'Do not make Hampton Court a cell to the Abbey of Toddington' he advised. Arkwright's friend, John Gray (County Surveyor from 1842) acted as clerk of works.

Hampton Court from the south-east, as remodelled in 1836-45. Image: © Paul Larsen.

The south and east fronts were radically altered by Hanbury-Tracy. The south front was rebuilt in 1836-37 and avoids symmetry by the placing of its square bay windows, and also by mixing windows of different types along the facade. A projecting drawing room at the south-east angle was added c.1838-39 and a conservatory, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton in 1845-46, was built onto the south-west corner.

At the centre of the house is a substantial courtyard, in which Hanbury-Tracy constructed cloister-like corridors on the south and east sides which were first suggested by John Atkinson in 1833. They improved the circulation to the main rooms of the house, and with their four-centred rib vaults, contributed to the medievalising effect of the remodelling. On the south side, they incorporate the 15th century porch of the great hall and a contemporary projection into the courtyard which housed a staircase from the hall (perhaps to the solar) in the medieval building.

Hampton Court: the dining room created by Charles Hanbury-Tracy for John Arkwright. Image: © Paul Larsen.

Inside the house, Hanbury-Tracy created a series of major new interiors, including the Coningsby Hall, noted above, which has a typical panelled ceiling of the period; the dining room and library which occupied the site of the great hall and parlour (both marked as great hall on the plan above) and a new main staircase in the south-east corner of the house, which has a pierced stone balustrade and octagonal skylight. The drawing room, which was built out from the medieval house on the east side, has an elaborate plaster ceiling with cusped diamond patterns. Altogether, as at Toddington, the interiors disappoint: Hanbury-Tracy lacked the ability to create interiors with the same intensity of medieval feeling as he evoked in his picturesquely-composed external elevations.

Hampton Court from the south by Leonard Knyff, c.1699, showing the extensive garden layout.

At the same time as Sir Rowland Leinthall was given licence to crenellate in 1434 he was given licence to empark 1,000 acres around his house. Sir Thomas Coningsby (d. 1625), who visited Italy with Sir Philip Sidney in 1573 and was a noted Italophile, made a garden at Hampton Court, and a drawing of his fountain in the courtyard - presumably the central courtyard of the house - was published in 1684: this was a fine Doric column with an obelisk finial. A portrait of the 1st Lord Coningsby painted in 1692 has a romanticised view of the landscape at Hampton in the background and gives some impression of the appearance of the estate at that time.

Coincidentally, 1692 was the year when George London, the greatest landscape gardener of the years around 1700, was paid £80 for his designs for a much grander formal garden. His layout is recorded in the paintings by Knyff, 1699 and Stevens, c.1705 reproduced above, and in the garden plan published in Vitruvius Britannicus in 1725 (below). William Talman may also have played a role in the design, since he and London frequently worked together, and are both recorded as working for Lord Coningsby at Hampton Court. The Court is shown surrounded by a series of formal enclosures of different sizes, each treated in a different way, but displaying strong French influence in the elaborate parterres of topiary and coloured gravels.

The Knyff bird's-eye views of the house reproduced above both emphasise its setting in the wider landscape, but an engraving by John Kip, published in Britannia Illustrata in 1707 concentrates more closely on the house and its gardens. This view was probably made in the mid 1690s as it does not show the extension of the canal south of the house into an angular pool which is recorded in the Knyff pictures, nor the elaborate Neptune fountain which had been constructed in it by the time of Stevens' view. A few years later, the influential garden writer Stephen Switzer was also working at Hampton Court, but his contribution seems to have been limited to drainage and irrigation works in the park rather than to any further elaboration of the gardens. He dedicated the second volume of his Iconographia Rustica to Lord Coningsby in 1718.

Plan of the house and gardens at Hampton Court, published in Vitruvius Britannicus, 1725.

The formal gardens were still intact in 1746 and the Neptune fountain was still there in 1758, but they were apparently swept away after Lord Essex inherited the estate in the 1781. By the time Lord Torrington visited in 1784 the gardens had been cleared and timber trees in the park were being felled and sold: "every tree is mark'd; I feel for the dryads of the grove and lament that I cannot suspend the axe". To accompany the remodelling of the house in 1791-95, a new landscaped layout and two walled gardens were created. Humphry Repton supplied designs before 1795, but in a letter to Uvedale Price he regretted that they were likely to be spoilt in execution by Lord Essex's gardener. An account book of 1801 refers to improvements being carried out in the park and elsewhere, but it is not known if this represents the delayed execution of Repton's designs. In the early 19th century the house rose out of a 'spacious lawn of nearly 100 acres', and there was an ornamental conservatory attached to the west side of the house. Repton did not find Lord Essex an agreeable client: when he worked for him later at Cassiobury, Lord Essex upset his amour propre by treating him like a common tradesman and taking all the credit for the landscaping to himself.

The present modern formal gardens were designed by Simon Dorrell and David Wheeler with Chedburn Ltd. in 1996-98 within the framework of the old walled gardens. The South Garden has canals, with bridges to a pair of octagonal pavilions of brick with gabled timber roofs. To the east is a maze with a central Gothic tower, then an atmospheric sunken garden with a thatched hermitage. A new north gateway to the estate was built by Chedburn Ltd. in 1996-98, in keeping with the style of the house. The gardens were opened to the public in 2000, and the house has also been open since 2008.

Hampton Court: the new formal gardens of 1996-98.

Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence

Hampton Court: the sunken garden and waterfall of 1996-98.
Image: Trevor Rickard. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence.

Descent: granted or acquired through marriage by Sir Rowland Leinthall (1372-1450); to daughter, Elizabeth (c.1424-89), wife of Thomas Cornewall (1407-c.1472); to grandson, Sir Thomas Cornewall (d. 1537), who sold c.1510 to Sir Humphrey Coningsby (d. 1535); to grandson, Humphrey Coningsby (1516-58/59); to son, Sir Thomas Coningsby (1550-1625); to son, Fitzwilliam Coningsby (c.1596-1666); to son, Humphrey Coningsby (b. 1622); to son, Thomas Coningsby (1657-1729), 1st Earl Coningsby; to younger daughter, Frances (1709-81), wife of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams; to grandson, George Capell-Coningsby (1757-1839), Lord Maldon and later 5th Earl of Essex; sold 1810 to Richard Arkwright (1755-1843); to son, John Arkwright (1785-1858); to son, John Hungerford Arkwright (1833-1905); to son, Sir John Stanhope Arkwright, kt. (1872-1954), who sold 1912 to Mrs Nancy Burrell of Carlisle; sold 1924 to Ethel Mildred (d. 1945), wife of Robert Charles Devereux (1865-1952), 17th Viscount Hereford; to grandson, Robert Milo Leicester Devereux (1932-2004), 18th Viscount Hereford; sold 1972 to Trustees of Capt. the Hon. Philip Smith of Campden House (Glos); sold 1974 to Tournament Investments; sold 1975 to George Hughes; sold 1987 to James Folkes; sold 1994 to Sola Scriptorum, a trust founded by Robert van Kampen (d. 1999); sold 2007 to Hampton Court Property Holdings; offered for sale in 2014.

Kinsham Court, Herefordshire

Kinsham Court: the 18th century main block with its late 19th century cornice and roof.
Image: Philip Pankhurst. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence.

An early 18th century T-shaped red brick house, probably built for Thomas Harley of a cadet branch of the Harleys of Eywood, Earls of Oxford. The main block is of five bays and originally had a central entrance doorway on the west front, which was moved in the 19th century to the south side of the house. In the 1760s, alterations were made by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, probably for the Hon. & Rev. John Harley (1728-88), who died here six weeks after becoming Bishop of Hereford. He seems to have added an extra storey to the main front and built a large canted bay on the east side, overlooking the view. Inside, the main rooms are now of the Pritchard period: the drawing room has good plasterwork and a Georgian chimneypiece with a lion's head and foliage; the dining room, at the south-west angle of the house, has a simpler chimneypiece; and there is a third Pritchard chimneypiece in a first floor room which also has a complete set of contemporary panelling.

In 1858, when it was occupied by Lady Dunsany, the house was said to be 'in a most dilapidated condition', and it was still 'partly ruinous' in 1870. At some point thereafter (perhaps after Lady Dunsany died in 1874, although the house was then let until 1880 during the minority of her nephew and heir) the west front was given a hipped roof above a half-timbered coving and the main entrance was moved to the south side. The architect is unknown, although James Cranston of Birmingham, who designed estate buildings and cottages at Kinsham in 1858 and worked extensively in Herefordshire, is a possibility.

Kinsham Court from the south-east in c.1910-20.

The house stands on a naturally dramatic site overlooking a deep wooded valley in which the River Lugg winds over a cascade. The first improvements may date from the time of Bishop Harley, when the public road to Lingen was diverted to enlarge the grounds, but in 1795 Lady Oxford paid Thomas Corbut the balance of his account for forming the pleasure grounds and making a pond in the stable yard. In the early 19th century the Picturesqueness of the setting was widely appreciated, and Richard Payne Knight, who was an admirer of Lady Oxford, is said to have advised her on improvements. Lord Byron - who rented the house in 1812-13 and was another admirer of Lady Oxford - is said to have written the first two cantos of Childe Harold under a cedar in the garden, later claiming to have composed them in Italy and Greece; but if so they must have been written on a visit to Lady Oxford, for they were published six months before his tenancy began. The family of Florence Nightingale also rented the house in the 1820s. In the early 20th century the gardens were extensively planted by Sir John Arkwright with the daffodils of which he was a breeder, and there are still many rare varieties in the gardens.

Descent: Thomas Harley (d. 1685); to son, Thomas Harley (c.1667-1738); to Edward Harley (c.1699-1755), 3rd Earl of Oxford; to younger son, Rt. Rev. John Harley (1728-88), Bishop of Hereford; to nephew, Edward Harley (1773-1849), 5th Earl of Oxford; to creditors, who sold 1824 to Lyndon Evelyn (c.1753-1839); to his adopted son (Francis Evelyn (c.1829-69) and his daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1874), wife of Randall Edward Plunkett (1804-52), 14th/15th Baron of Dunsany; to Francis' son, Francis Lyndon Evelyn (1859-1910), whose executors sold 1911 to his brother-in-law, Sir John Stanhope Arkwright, kt. (1872-1954); to son, David Lyndon Arkwright (1911-83); to first cousin once removed, Mrs. Susan Wood (d. 2020) (a great-niece of Lady Arkwright); for sale 2022.

Arkwright family of Hampton Court and Kinsham Court

Arkwright, John (1785-1858) of Hampton Court. Fourth son of Richard Arkwright (1755-1843) of Willersley Castle (Derbys) [for whom see the forthcoming post on the Arkwrights of Willersley Castle] and his wife Mary, daughter of Adam Simpson of Bonsall (Derbys), born 27 August 1785. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1806; BA 1809; MA 1812). JP for Herefordshire; High Sheriff of Herefordshire, 1831. In an early example of historic building conservation, he was responsible for buying and re-erecting John Abel's Butter Cross in Leominster as a private house (Grange Court) in 1855. He married, 13 April 1830, Sarah (k/a Tally) (1808-69), eldest surviving daughter of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, 7th bt. of Harewood (Herefs) and had issue:
(1) Caroline Sarah Arkwright (k/a Carey) (1831-1929), baptised 11 April 1831; married, 27 January 1858 at Hope-under-Dinmore (Herefs), Ven. & Hon. Berkeley Lionel Scudamore-Stanhope (1824-1919), Archdeacon of Hereford and brother of 9th Earl of Chesterfield, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 18 December 1929 aged 98; will proved 26 February 1930 (estate £8,048);
(2) Mary Arkwright (1832-1914), baptised 3 June 1832; married, 7 August 1862, Samuel Courthope Bosanquet (1832-1925) of Dingestow Court (Monmouths) and Forest House (Essex) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 25 February 1914;
(3) John Hungerford Arkwright (1833-1905) (q.v.);
(4) Richard Arkwright (1835-1918) of Farnham (Surrey) and Herne House, Windsor (Berks), born 23 January 1835; educated at Harrow, Trinity College, Cambridge (admitted 1853; BA 1857; MA 1860) and Lincolns Inn (admitted 1853; called to bar 1859); barrister-at-law on Oxford circuit; revising barrister for Monmouthshire, Cheltenham and Gloucester, 1865; MP for Leominster, 1866-75; DL for Herefordshire; author of Queen Anne's Gate Mystery and Driven Home; married, 22 July 1862, Lady Mary Byng (d. 1933), daughter of 2nd Earl of Strafford, but had no issue; died 14 November 1918; will proved 4 February 1919 (estate £9,884);
(5) Rev. George Arkwright (1836-77), born 29 July 1836; educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1855; BA 1859; MA 1864); rector of Pencombe (Herefs), 1861-77; married, 10 January 1860 at Hanmer (Flints), Hon. Elizabeth (d. 1930), daughter of Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon and had issue six sons and two daughters; died 5 October 1877; will proved 25 January 1878 (effects under £25,000);
(6) Capt. Henry Arkwright (1837-66), born 16 December 1837; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1857; cricket blue 1858); served in 84th Regiment (ensign 1858; lieutenant 1860; captain 1865); aide-de-camp to Duke of Abercorn as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1866; killed by an avalanche while attempting the ascent of Mont Blanc on holiday, 13 October 1866; his body was recovered 22 August 1897;
(7) Rev. Edwyn Arkwright (1839-1922) of Upton Grove, Slough (Bucks), born 2 May 1839; educated at Harrow and Merton College, Oxford (matriculated 1858; BA 1864; MA 1865); Assistant Chaplain at Hampton Court Palace, 1865-67; curate of Holy Trinity, Twickenham (Middx), 1868; suffered a degree of permanent deafness, probably as a result of childhood illness; he had a broken engagement (to Lady Muriel Campbell, daughter of 2nd Earl Cawdor) and never married; lived mainly at Telemy, Mustapha Supérieur near Algiers from the early 1870s and died there, 3 September 1922; will proved 30 January 1923 (estate £4,406);
(8) Frances Catherine Arkwright (1841-1908), baptised 25 October 1841; married, 21 July 1881 at Hope-under-Dinmore, Lt-Col. William Hill James (1837-1918), late of 38th Regiment, but had no issue; spent some years in Australia in 1880s; died 28 August 1908; will proved 3 September 1909 (estate £23,587);
(9) Lt-Col. Arthur Chandos Arkwright (1843-1916) of Thoby Priory, Mountnessing (Essex) and later Hatfield Place, Witham (Essex), born 8 March 1843; Major in the Life Guards; Major and hon. Lt-Col. of Shropshire Yeomanry, 1889-90; JP for Essex and Shropshire; married, 28 April 1870, Agnes Mary (1844-1932), only daughter of William Michael Tufnell of Hatfield Place, Witham (Essex) and had issue four sons and one daughter; suffered from acute arthritis and depression, and killed himself, 4/5 May 1916; will proved 20 September 1916 (estate £25,843);
(10) Charles Leigh Arkwright (1846-1927), born 6 June 1846; educated at Harrow and Merton College, Oxford (matriculated 1865); died unmarried in Brighton, 21 December 1927; will proved 10 February 1927 (estate £50,138);
(11) Emily Sophia Arkwright (1845-1927), baptised 28 February 1845; certified insane in 1874 and placed in Ticehurst Asylum where she died unmarried, 17 February 1927; administration of goods granted 31 March 1927 (estate £45,409);
(12) Alice Eden Arkwright (1848-1918), baptised 27 August 1848; lived with her brother at Telemy, Algiers, and died there, unmarried, 27 July 1918.
The Hampton Court estate was bought by his father in 1808-10 and he went to live there in 1814. Between 1832 and 1843 spent about £46,000 on remodelling the house. His widow lived at Llanforda Hall (Shropshire), which she rented from the Williams-Wynn family, from 1867 until her death.
He died 27 February 1858 and was buried at Hope-under-Dinmore; his will was proved 1 April 1858 (effects under £300,000); his children paid for the addition of a transept to Hope-under-Dinmore church in his memory. His widow died 19 July 1869 and was buried with her husband; administration of her goods was granted 23 October 1869 (estate under £6,000).

John Hungerford Arkwright

Arkwright, John Hungerford (1833-1905) of Hampton Court. Eldest son of John Arkwright (1785-1858) of Hampton Court and his wife Sarah, daughter of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, 7th bt., of Harewood (Herefs), born 12 July 1833. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1856; MA 1867). JP and DL for Herefordshire; High Sheriff 1862; Member of Herefordshire County Council, 1889-1905 (Alderman, 1902-05); Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, 1902-04. Member of Council, 1862-66, 1877-98 and Vice-President, 1898-1905 of Royal Agricultural Society of England; Captain of Leominster Volunteers; Joint MFH of Herefordshire (later North Herefordshire) Hounds, 1858-74; Governor of Christ's Hospital and Foundlings, 1856; established the Herefordshire Philharmonic Society, 1863, and was President of the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford, 1903. As a result of his investment in estate improvements and the agricultural depression he got into serious debt, and was obliged to obtain an Act of Parliament for the rescheduling of his debts in 1887; he still left the estate seriously encumbered at his death. He married, 12 June 1866 at Yazor (Herefs), Charlotte Lucy (d. 1904), daughter of John Davenport of Foxley (Herefs) and Westwood Hall (Staffs) and had issue:
(1) Sir John Stanhope Arkwright (1872-1954), kt. (q.v.);
(2) Geraldine Mary Rose Arkwright (1875-1939) of Cirencester (Glos), born 23 November 1875; married, 13 August 1901 at Hope-under-Dinmore, Maj. Richard Chester-Master DSO (1870-1917), eldest son of Thomas William Chester-Master of The Abbey, Cirencester (Glos) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 29 October 1939; will proved 30 December 1929 (estate £4,552);
(3) Evelyn Lucy Alice Arkwright (1876-1953), born 16 November 1876; married, 25 April 1905 at Hope-under-Dinmore, Capt. Thomas Percy Prosser Powell MBE (1869-1940), eldest son of Rev. Thomas Powell of Dorstone (Herefs) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died at Barnwood House Hospital, Gloucester, 17 January 1953; will proved 26 March 1953 (estate £3,389);
(4) Olive Katharine Mary Arkwright (1882-1960) of Sheringham (Norfolk), born 25 November 1882; died unmarried, 27 June 1960; will proved 10 November 1960 (estate £32,758).
He inherited the Hampton Court estate from his father in 1858 and increased the size of the estate to some 10,500 acres.
He died 25 May 1905; his will was proved 19 July 1905 (estate £17,682). His wife died 19 February 1904.

Sir John Arkwright, kt.

Arkwright, Sir John Stanhope (1872-1954), kt. of Hampton Court and Kinsham Court. Only son of John Hungerford Arkwright (1833-1905) of Hampton Court, and his wife Charlotte Lucy, daughter of John Davenport of Foxley (Herefs), born 10 July 1872. Educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford (Newdigate Prize, 1895; MA 1926) and Inner Temple (called to bar 1898). Barrister-at-law; MP for Hereford, 1900-12; acted as unpaid private secretary to Gerald Balfour as President of the Board of Trade, 1902-05; Private Secretary to Alfred, Lord Milner during World War I; Chief Steward and Freeman of the City of Hereford; JP and DL for Herefordshire; knighted 1934; author of the poem, The supreme sacrifice which honoured the fallen of WW1 and which is more familiar as the Remembrance Day hymn O valiant hearts!. A keen gardener from childhood, he became a noted breeder of daffodils from about 1920 and was Chairman of the Midland Daffodil Society, 1937-39; Fellow of the Linnean Society, 1925. He married, 21 December 1905, Helen Muriel Stephanie (1884-1947), youngest daughter of Stephen Robinson of Lynhales, Lyonshall (Herefs) and had issue:
(1) John Richard Stephen Arkwright (1907-43), born 13 January 1907; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1930; BSc 1937); served in Herefordshire Regiment, 1939-40 but was dismissed after court martial, and then joined the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman in the submarine service; killed when HMS Untamed sank during a training exercise in the Clyde, May 1943; he was unmarried and without issue;
(2) David Lyndon Arkwright (1911-83) (q.v.).
He inherited the Hampton Court estate from his father in 1905, but let the house from 1908 (to Maj. & Mrs. Evelyn Atherley) and sold the whole estate in 1912. He bought Kinsham Court in 1911.
He died 19 September 1954; his will was proved 9 February 1955 (estate £247,513). His wife died 4 January 1947; her will was proved 20 May 1947 (estate £1,809).

Arkwright, David Lyndon (1911-83) of Kinsham Court. Younger but only surviving son of Sir John Stanhope Arkwright (1872-1954), kt., and his wife Helen Muriel Stephanie, daughter of Stephen Robinson of Lynhales (Herefs), born 15 September 1911. Educated at Bruton and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Publisher in London during his father's lifetime, and had a keen interest in poetry, the theatre and antiques; author of The church plate of the archdeaconry of Ludlow, 1961. He was shy and reclusive as a result of a disfiguring skin condition, and was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Kinsham Court from his father in 1954 but subsequently sold off several farms, reducing the estate. After his death the house passed to his mother's great niece.
He died 10 October 1983; his will was proved 15 November 1983 (estate £1,176,645).

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, p. 20-21; C.J. Robinson, A history of the mansions and manors of Herefordshire, [1872], reprinted 2009, pp. 162-69, 198-200; J. Harris, ‘Pritchard Redivivus’, Architectural History, 1968, pp. 17-24; J. Harris, William Talman: maverick architect, 1982, pp. 39, 43; D. Whitehead & R. Shoesmith, James Wathen's Herefordshire, 1770-1820, 1994, unpag.; J. Ionides, Thomas Farnolls Pritchard of Shrewsbury, 1999, pp. 110-12; D. Whitehead, A survey of historic parks and gardens in Herefordshire, 2001, pp. 188-90, 235-6; C. Beale, Champagne & Shambles: the Arkwrights and the country house in crisis, 2009; A. Brooks & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Herefordshire, 2012, pp. 258-61, 411; T. Mowl & J. Bradney, The historic gardens of Herefordshire, 2012, pp. 57-74, 236-38; J.M. Robinson, James Wyatt: architect to George III, 2012, p. 327.

Location of archives

Arkwright family of Hampton Court: deeds, estate papers, legal and household papers and family correspondence, 15th-20th cents. [Herefordshire Archives A63, B76];
Harley, Evelyn and Arkwright families of Kinsham Court: deeds, legal and estate papers, 17th-19th cents. [Herefordshire Archives]

Coat of arms

Argent, on a mount vert, a cotton tree, fructed proper, on a chief azure between two bezants, an escutcheon of the field, charge with a bee volant proper.

Can you help?

Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch.

Can anyone supply a better and more accurate representation of the Arkwright coat of arms?

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 20 June 2015, and updated 17 September 2022. I am most grateful to Catherine Beale for her assistance with this account.

Saturday, 13 June 2015

(171) Arden of Rickmansworth Park, Sunbury Park, Pontfaen House and East Burnham House

Arden of Sunbury Park and Pontfaen

This was a family which accumulated really substantial wealth in the 19th century and invested some of it in landed estates in the traditional way. But perhaps typically of their time they did not withdraw from business as a result, and their country houses remained residences supported by externally-generated wealth rather than self-supporting estates. Nor do they seem to have made any kind of dynastic commitment to their properties, which were all held for less than a century. No connection has been established between this family and the Ardens of Park Hall and Longcroft, or the Ardens of Arden Hall, although similarities in their coat of arms suggests there was at least the tradition of a link with the former family.

Joseph Arden (c.1763-1818) of Red Lion Square, London, warehouseman, amassed a considerable portfolio of urban property in the years around 1800, which enabled him to provide substantial inheritances for his widow and two sons and to ensure the latter were educated as gentlemen. In 1831 his widow, Temperance Arden (1763-1843) purchased Rickmansworth Park, which was then a relatively new house, and in due course this descended to her elder son, Joseph Arden (1799-1879), who was a successful barrister and a classical scholar. After his death, the Rickmansworth estate was purchased by the husband of his elder daughter, John William Birch (1825-97), a Spanish merchant who had just been appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and succeeeded as Governor in 1881. He left the property to his widow, Julia Birch (1828-1917), whose family home this had of course been. When she died at the age of 89, the estate passed to the widow of her eldest son, who had remarried and become the Viscountess Barrington. She sold the estate in 1926 to provide a site for the Royal Masonic School for Girls, and the house was demolished to make way for new school buildings shortly afterwards.

The younger son of Joseph and Temperance Arden was Richard Edward Arden (1804-94), who like his brother became a barrister and was in due course Principal of Clifford's Inn. He seems to have had wide ranging interests that extended from being a patron of Richmond Theatre to supporting exploration through the Royal Geographical Society and being a Governor of the Foundling Hospital. He married three times and produced three sons who lived to maturity, as well as five daughters. He seems to have lived at first in Bloomsbury, but in about 1851 he bought and rebuilt or remodelled Sunbury Park on the Thames west of London. Sunbury was a very large house but for reasons which are obscure, about twenty years later he bought the smaller East Burnham House in a fashionable area of Buckinghamshire and moved his family there. Sunbury was let, and although attempts were made to sell it in the 1870s and 1880s it remained in the family until well into the 20th century. In 1863 he also acquired the Pontfaen estate in Pembrokeshire, which may have been intended as a holiday home.

When R.E. Arden died in 1894, Sunbury and Pontfaen passed to his eldest son, Percy Arden (1840-1909), who qualified as a barrister but did not practice. He seems to have lived mainly at a rather grand house in Brighton, although he also had a flat in the Albany in London and was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1904. The house at Sunbury continued to be let. East Burnham was left to Richard's second son, Douglas Arden (1844-1930), and when Percy died in 1909 Douglas also inherited Sunbury Park. Pontfaen was left jointly to Douglas and two of his sisters, perhaps reflecting its use as a holiday home by various members of the family. When Douglas died in 1930, Sunbury passed to his surviving daughter, Dorothy Short (1874-1949), who sold it shortly afterwards. Dorothy may also have inherited East Burnham, the subsequent descent of which is unclear. Pontfaen passed to his nephew, Cuthbert Brook Camm, who sold it in 1941.

Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire

There was a 'capital mansion' at Rickmansworth by 1606, when it was held on lease from the Crown, but this was presumably the house known as The Bury near the church. In 1685 the lands north of that house had been recently enclosed to form a park, known as Bury Park. In about 1805, Henry Fotherley Whitfield (d. 1813) built the house which became Rickmansworth Park on a new site in the middle of this park.

Rickmansworth Park, from an old postcard

The new house was a rather imposing two-storey building with a five-bay front dominated by a giant Ionic portico standing in front of a broad central bay. The left hand return was of three bays, but the right-hand return was of five bays. The architect has not been identified.

Rickmansworth Park, perhaps c.1920. Image: Matthew Beckett

Rickmansworth Park, from the 6" Ordnance Survey map of 1864.

The house was apparently altered between 1864 and 1880 (when it was described as 'modernized'). A single-storey loggia was added on the side elevation and the parisiennes were inserted in the windows of the entrance front. The house was demolished to make way for purpose-built school buildings after the site was acquired by the Royal Masonic School for Girls in 1926.

Descent: Philip Howard, Earl of Pembroke sold 1632 to Thomas Fotherley; to son, John Fotherley (d. 1702/3); to widow, Dorothy Fotherley; to nephew, Temple Whitfield (d. 1730); to nephew, Henry Whitfield (d. 1747); to son, Henry Fotherley Whitfield (d. 1813); to widow, Mary, later the wife of Thomas Deacon; sold 1831 to Mrs. Temperance Arden (1763-1843); to son, Joseph Arden (1799-1879); sold after his death to his son-in-law, John William Birch (1825-97); to widow, Julia Birch (1828-1917); to daughter-in-law, Charlotte Mary Leycester Barrington (née Stopford, then Arden) (d. 1935), wife of Walter Bulkeley Barrington (1848-1933), 9th Viscount Barrington; sold 1926 to Royal Masonic School for Girls, which demolished the house and built a new school on the site in 1931-33.

Sunbury Park, Middlesex

The house later called Sunbury Park appears to have been the manor house of Sunbury, and a new house was probably built in Elizabethan times for the Crown's tenant, Nicasius Yetswiert or his son, who were both resident at Sunbury. Manorial buildings are mentioned in 1663, and Isaac St. Eloy is known to have lived at Sunbury around 1700, but he must have been the last occupant of the Elizabethan house. Colen Campbell in the second volume of Vitruvius Britannicus in 1717 published the design for a house built at Sunbury for Sir Roger Hudson in 1712 by Thomas Fort, the clerk of works at Hampton Court. Lysons, in his Environs of London, states that this design related to Sunbury House half a mile away, but the footprint of Sunbury Park on maps of Sunbury in 1722, 1754 and 1803 matches that of the house in Vitruvius Britannicus, whereas the footprint of Sunbury House shows a much more modest building. Hudson did not acquire Sunbury manor until 1718, but he must already have been leasing the site of the new house when it was built in 1712.

Sunbury Park: the new house designed by Thomas Fort in 1712 for Sir Roger Hudson, from Vitruvius Britannicus, 1717.

Hudson's new house of the early 18th century had a three storey seven bay main block connected by quadrant passages to pavilions on either side. The house is still shown in this form on a map of 1803, and a print of 1818 which shows a house with a front of six bays on the site is probably just carelessly drawn. It therefore probably survived until a new house was built for the Ardens on a site immediately behind the east pavilion of the 18th century house: the relative positions of the two buildings was established by excavation by Stanley Hicks in 1956. A date of 1851 is usually given for the Arden house, but as the previous owners were in residence at the time of the census in that year, the rebuilding must have taken place just a little later. It is possible that the Ardens lived in the 18th century house while its successor was built, and that demolition of the Fort house followed the completion of the new house, say in the mid 1850s.

Sunbury Park, shortly before demolition in 1954. Image: Stanley Hicks

Sunbury Park House from the Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1865.
The walled garden can be seen above and to the right of the house.

In 1876 and 1877, when it was advertised to be let or sold, the house was described as 'large and of modern erection in the Italian style' and it had a library, drawing room, morning rooms, billiard room, dining room and 22 bedrooms, but the property remained on the market for more than ten years until it was eventually let to a string of tenants. By 1939 the house was unoccupied and possibly in poor condition. At the beginning of the war it was requisitioned and used as a depot for the local fire brigade and as an exercise area for the Heavy Rescue squad. During the war the house became seriously dilapidated and an aerial photograph of 1945 may show that the roof had partially collapsed. By the early 1950s the structure was in a dangerous condition and it was demolished on 8th October 1954. The coach houses associated with the Victorian house survived in a derelict condition in 1975, but have since been demolished. All that survives today is an early 18th century walled garden, which was laid out as an ornamental public space in the 1980s, after being acquired by Surrey County Council in 1975 and subsequently leased to Spelthorne Borough Council.

Sunbury Park: one of the derelict coach houses in 1975. Image: Stanley Hicks

Descent: Bishop of London granted 1559 to Crown, which leased it to Nicasius Yetswiert and later his son Charles Yetswiert (d. 1595); to widow, Jane, later wife of Sir Philip Butler. In 1603 the Crown sold the freehold to Robert Stratford, who sold 1604 to Thomas Lake (d. 1680); to son, Thomas Lake (d. 1653); to brother, Lancelot Lake (fl. 1663), who sold 1663... Francis Phelips (d. 1674); to daughters Anne, Dorothy and Elizabeth, of whom the last-named married Sir John Tyrwhitt bt, who was sole owner by 1693; sold 1698 to Isaac Guiquet St Eloy, who sold 1718 to his tenant, Sir Roger Hudson (d. 1743); to widow (d. 1770); to daughter, Martha (d. c.1792), wife of Edward Boehm; to son, Roger Boehm (d. c.1803); to ?son, Edmund Boehm (fl. 1820)...Samuel Landon (d. 1844)...Richard Dresser (d. 1846)...Henry Trewhitt (d. 1850); to widow, Juliana Trewhitt, who sold 1851 to Richard Edward Arden (1804-94); to son, Percy Arden (1840-1909); to brother, Douglas Arden (1844-1930); to daughter, Dorothy Catherine Mary (1874-1949), wife of Edward Awdry Short, who sold shortly after his death; demolished 1954. The house was let from c.1872 onwards (tenants include Lord Annaly (d. 1873), George C. Raphael (fl. 1878), Capt. G.D. Sampson (fl. 1891); Arthur P. Blake (fl. 1898), G.T. Barham (fl. 1929) and the names recorded as occupiers in the 1840s may also have been tenants).

Pontfaen House, Pembrokeshire

A gentry house of the Vaughan and Laugharne families from the 15th century to 1823, which was assessed at five hearths in 1670. It was remodelled after 1845 for the Gowers of Castle Malgwyn. The house is comprised of an early 18th century hipped-roofed cross-wing at the south end, a main range running north, and a gabled cross-wing at the north end.

Pontfaen House in 2006. Image: Ceridwen. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence.

The external details - the stucco and timber mullion and transom windows - are all 19th or 20th century. The east front has the large gable of the northern cross-wing at the right hand end and three smaller gables, while the rear has both cross-wings projecting. The main entrance is at the rear, in the angle of the north wing. Inside, there are some chamfered beams and oak roof trusses in the south wing, but the interior of the north wing is all mid 19th century, including the main staircase. For a long time the house has been divided into two parts, with the southern end being used as a farmhouse and the northern part as a private residence, which is now holiday accommodation.

Descent: sold 1823 to Henry Rees; sold 1845 to [forename unknown] Gower of Castle Malgwyn... Robert Frederick and Erasmus Gower sold 1863 to Richard Edward Arden (1804-94); to son, Percy Arden (1840-1909); to nephew, Cuthbert Brook Camm of Ardwell House, Crawthorne (Bucks), who sold 1941 to Maj. John Francis; to son, Capt. J.L. Francis (fl. 1976); to daughter.

East Burnham House, Buckinghamshire

East Burnham House from the Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1875.

There was a house here by the 1770s, when it was the home of Charles Eyre, then the Lord of Burnham manor. The Georgian house was evidently wholly or partly taken down in 1836-37, when the contents were sold and "about 300,000... stock bricks, taken down and cleaned, a quantity of pebble paving, useful timbers in rafters... joists, flooring boards, skirting, marble chimney pieces and internal fittings of various descriptions" were advertised for sale on site. A new eleven bedroom house had been completed by 1853, and the first Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1875 appears to show an asymmetrical house of modest size in the small park. By 1870 there were sixteen bedrooms, a hall, drawing room, conservatory, library and dining rooom and smoking room. The house has evidently been substantially rebuilt again in the 20th century - perhaps in the 1930s - as a loosely classical two storey building with an irregular Y-shaped plan, although it may retain an earlier core. The main elevations have single-storey canted bays, that on the entrance front forming a porch.

Descent: Charles Eyre (d. 1786); to illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth Eyre, who leased to Thomas Parry (d. 1811); to sister, Arabella, wife of John Popple (c.1750-1831); to aunt Elizabeth (c.1741-1836), widow of Charles Coxe of Kemble... J. Ludlum (fl. 1862-70); sold 1870 to Richard Edward Arden (1804-94); to son, Douglas Arden (1844-1930)... Noel Jeffrey Wicks (b. 1941)

Arden family of Rickmansworth, Sunbury, Pontfaen and East Burnham

Arden, Joseph (c.1763-1818). Son of William Arden and his wife Frances Todd, baptised 26 June 1763. Warehouseman and urban landlord in London. He married, 12 August 1798 at St Andrew Holborn, London, Temperance (1763-1843), daughter of Joseph Lunt of Ealing (Middx), and had issue:
(1) Joseph Arden (1799-1879), of Rickmansworth Park (q.v.);
(2) Richard Edward Arden (1804-94) (q.v.).
He lived in Red Lion Square, London and at Islington (Middx). His widow bought Rickmansworth Park (Herts) in 1831.
He died 10 April and was buried at St Andrew Holborn, London, 20 April 1818; his will was proved 17 April 1818. His widow died 21 November and was buried at St Andrew Holborn, London, 27 November 1843; her will was proved 5 December 1843.

Arden, Joseph (1799-1879). Elder son of Joseph Arden (d. 1818) and his wife Temperance Lunt, born 10 May and baptised at St James, Pentonville (Middx), 25 August 1799. Apprenticed to Richard Hust, pewterer, of London, 1814, but released and articled clerk to Peregrine Palmer of Barnards Inn and later Dobson Willoughby of Cliffords Inn, attorneys of the Court of Kings Bench, 1816. Barrister-at-law, of Clifford's Inn. In 1846-7 he visited Egypt and purchased a papyrus which is the only source of the hitherto unknown Orations of Hyperides, which he published in 1853. He married, 3 December 1823, Mary Ann Mitchell Munro (c.1802-65), and had issue:
(1) Capt. Frederick Arden (1827-96); educated at St John's College and New Inn Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1845) and Inner Temple (admitted 1846); served in the 12th Lancers (Cornet, 1848; Lt., 1848; Capt.); married, 8/12 July 1848, Amelia Helen, only daughter of Hector Munro of Walsham-le-Willows (Suffolk) and had issue; died in Isle of Wight, Oct-Dec 1896;
(2) Julia Arden (1828-1917) (q.v.);
(3) Henry Arden (1829-1904), baptised 23 June 1829; married, 1 September 1857 at St James, Westminster, Louisa Sophia Adelina (b. c.1830), daughter of John Paul Frank, and had issue; died 1904;
(4) Geraldine Arden (1842-1917), born 16 January and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 16 March 1842; married, 29 January 1867, Canon William Henry Roberts Longhurst (1838-1943) and had issue one son and four daughters; died 28 June 1917; will proved 3 August 1917 (estate £802); her husband died eight days short of his 105th birthday.
He inherited Rickmansworth Park (Herts) on the death of his mother in 1843. After his death it was sold to his son-in-law, John William Birch.
He died 30 January 1879; his will was proved 14 March 1879 (effects under £140,000). His wife was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green (Middx), 26 July 1865.

Arden, Julia (1828-1917) of Rickmansworth Park. Elder daughter of Joseph Arden (1799-1879) and his wife Mary Ann Mitchell Munro, born 8 March and baptised 8 April 1828 at St Thomas, Clapham Common (Surrey). She married, 2 June 1852, John William Birch (1825-97), Spanish merchant and Director of the Bank of England (Deputy Governor, 1877-79; Governor, 1879-81), and had issue:
(1) John Arden Birch (1853-96), born 13/15 April and baptised at St Mary, Marylebone Road, London, 8 May 1853; married, 23 April 1881 in Chapel Royal, Hampton Court (Middx), Charlotte Mary Leycester, daughter of George Montagu Stopford (1855-1935) (who m2, 19 January 1905, Walter Bulkeley Barrington (1848-1933), 9th Viscount Barrington) and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 29 December 1896; will proved 23 January 1897 (effects £37,223);
(2) Henry William Birch (1854-1927) of The Grove, Old Windsor (Berks), born 16 September 1854; merchant banker (bankrupt, 1921); married, Apr-Jun 1897, Kate Hazeltine (d. 1932), daughter of R. Anson Yates of San Francisco, California (USA), but had no issue; died abroad, 15 December 1927;
(3) Lionel Ernest Birch (b. 1858), born 11 July 1858; married, 21 December 1885 in Manhattan, New York (USA), Madge Alice O'Brien (b. 1860);
(4) Maj. Francis Mildred Birch (1861-1936) of Crimplesham Hall (Norfolk), born 11 December 1861; educated at Charterhouse School and Inner Temple (called to bar 1893); barrister at law on south-eastern circuit; served in 3rd (Royal Berkshire) regiment, 1880-97, 1901-06 (Major, 1893); married, 11 April 1907 at St Mary, Bryanston Square, London, Constance Julia (1869-1952), daughter of Rev. Henry Mildred Birch; died 23 November 1936; will proved 1 March 1937 (estate £34,706);
(5) Capt. George Thackeray Birch (1865-1901), born 1 May 1865; educated at Charterhouse School; served in the 19th/7th Hussars, 1886-88 and Royal Scots 1888-94 (Capt.); married, 21 December 1894 in Fermoy (Cork), Elaine Margeurite Vivian (b. 1866), daughter of Lt-Col. F.W. Bell; died at Glencorse, 25 April 1901; will proved 11 September 1901 (effects £3,401).
Her husband purchased Rickmansworth Park from her father's executors c.1880, and she inherited it on his death. At her death it passed to the widow of her eldest son, who was by then Lady Barrington.
She died 8 November 1917; administration of goods granted 21 January 1918 (estate £12,514); her husband died 25 April 1897; his will was proved 1 June 1897 (effects £65,330).

Arden, Richard Edward (1804-94) of Sunbury Park, East Burnham House and Pontfaen. Second son of Joseph Arden (d. 1818) and his wife Temperance Lunt, born 4 October 1804. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1832; called to bar 1847); barrister at law; Principal of Clifford's Inn. JP and DL for Middlesex and JP for Pembrokeshire; High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire, 1872. A Land Tax Commissioner, 1836. Fellow of the Geological Society and Royal Geographical Society; Member of Royal Institution of Great Britain; Governor of the Foundling Hospital, 1834-94. He married 1st, 8 September 1832 at St George, Bloomsbury, Fanny (d. 1836), daughter of John Whitsed MD; 2nd, 29 August 1839, Mary (1814-80), daughter of John Douglas Finney; and 3rd, 10 January 1882 at Christ Church, Streatham Hill (Surrey), Frances (c.1824-99), daughter of Henry Green and widow of John Raven (1818-55), and had issue:
(1.1) Emily Laurie Arden Arden (1833-98), born 14 October and baptised at St George the Martyr, London, 27 September 1833; married, 18 October 1856 at Brighton (Sussex), William Henry Peacock JP (1823-77), son of Wilkinson Peacock of Greatford Hall (Lincs) and had issue; died 9 January 1898; will proved 21 May 1898 (effects £6,090);
(1.2) Clara Hust Arden (1834-35), born 26 October 1834 and baptised 16 January 1835; died in infancy;
(1.3) Alfred Mason Arden (b. & d. 1836), born 26 March and baptised 6 May 1836; died in infancy;
(2.1) Percy Arden (1840-1909) (q.v.);
(2.2) Caroline Arden Arden (1841-1903) of Burnham Grange, Bournemouth (Hants), born 26 November 1841 and baptised 15 February 1842; married, 2 February 1864 at Sunbury, Rev. John Brook Maher Camm (1840-1916), vicar of Monkton Wyld (Dorset), formerly of 11th Lancers, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 27 March 1903; will proved 4 June 1903 (estate £63,812);
(2.3) Douglas Arden (1844-1930) (q.v.);
(2.4) Blanche Arden Arden (1846-1938), born 17 March and baptised at St George, Bloomsbury, 24 April 1846; married, 26 August 1874 at Burnham (Bucks), Charles Lucena (b. c.1839) of Englefield Green and had issue one daughter; died 8 November 1938 aged 92; will proved 15 December 1938 (estate £32,889);
(2.5) Constance Arden Arden (1848-1919), born 3 January and baptised 29 February 1848; died unmarried, 22 April 1919; will proved 4 July 1919 (estate £80,482);
(2.6) Evelyn Helen Arden Arden (1849-94), born 19 September and baptised at Brighton, 24 November 1849; married, 21 September 1880, Lt-Col. Lawrence Clark Frederick Thompson (b. 1848) of 8th Kings Regiment but had no issue; died 28 April and was buried at Burnham (Bucks), 3 May 1894; will proved 5 July 1894 (effects £65,420);
(2.7) Frank Arden (1851-1902), born 8 December and baptised at Sunbury (Middx), 25 December 1851; described as 'paralysed' in 1901; died unmarried in Bruges (Belgium), 28 September 1902; will proved 3 December 1902 (effects £13,875).
He acquired Sunbury Park (Middx) c.1851, Pontfaen (Pembs) in 1863 and East Burnham House (Bucks) in 1870, as well as lands at Abergwili and Llanon (Carmarthens). In 1883 he owned 3,254 acres in Pembrokeshire and 1,887 acres in Carmarthenshire, as well as 58 acres in Middlesex, 49 acres in Buckinghamshire, 113 acres in Hertfordshire and 17 acres in Sussex.
He died 17 April 1894; his will was proved 8 June 1894 (effects £441,516). His first wife died 21 May 1836. His second wife died 18 April 1880. His widow died 8 April 1899; her will was proved 28 April 1899 (effects £9,672).

Arden, Percy (1840-1909) of Sunbury Park and Pontfaen. Eldest son of Richard Edward Arden (1804-94) and his second wife, Mary, daughter of John Douglas Finney, born 9 June 1840. Educated at Harrow, 1855-57, Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1858) and Inner Temple (admitted 1859; called to bar 1863); barrister-at-law, but did not practice. High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire, 1904. Governor of the Foundling Hospital, 1888. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited the Sunbury Park and Pontfaen estates from his father in 1894. He also had a house at 14 Sussex Square, Brighton and a flat in the Albany in London. In 1899 he was one of the residuary legatees of his uncle, Douglas Finney (c.1814-99). At his death Sunbury Park passed to his brother Douglas and Pontfaen was to be held jointly by his surviving siblings.
He died in Brighton, 12 October and was buried at Burnham (Bucks), 15 October 1909; his will was proved 28 December 1909 (estate £125,440).

Arden, Douglas (1844-1930) of East Burnham House (Bucks). Second son of Richard Edward Arden (1804-94) and his second wife, Mary, daughter of John Douglas Finney, born 8 August and baptised 24 November 1844. Educated at Harrow, 1859-61, Pembroke College, Oxford (matriculated 1862) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1864; called to bar 1867). Barrister-at-law on south-eastern circuit; JP for Buckinghamshire. He married, 23 April 1872 at Halton Holgate (Lincs), Emily Margaret (1846-1903), daughter of Rev. Robert Drummond Burrell Rawnsley of Halton Holgate and sister of Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust, and had issue:
(1) Ana Margaret Arden (b. & d. 1873), baptised at Burnham, 23 January 1873 and buried there, 25 January 1873;
(2) Dorothy Catherine Mary Arden (1874-1949), born 10 June and baptised at St Peter, Cranley Gardens, Kensington (Middx), 28 July 1874; married, Oct-Dec. 1918, Edward Awdry Short (1874-1946) but had no issue; died 4 September 1949; will proved 25 November 1949 (estate £177,399);
(3) Edward Franklin Douglas Arden (1876-1908), baptised at Burnham, 1 May 1876; married 1st, 1898, Virginia Constance (d. 1901), daughter of Hon. Sir James Martin of Sydney (Australia) and had issue two sons and one daughter; married 2nd, 1903, Joan Mary Ursula S. (b. c.1882), daughter of Lt-Col. George A. Cox of The Close, Salisbury; staying at a nursing home in Chelsea, 1901; sailed (alone) to Sydney, 1906 and died there, 11 June 1908; will proved 14 January 1909 (estate in England £112).
He inherited East Burnham House from his father in 1894. He inherited Pontfaen jointly with two of his sisters from his elder brother in 1909, and also Sunbury Park.
He died 18 January 1930; will proved 7 July 1931 (estate £112,795); his wife died 16 February 1903; administration of her goods was granted 16 March 1903 (estate £2,659).