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Lowesby Hall is a large Grade II* Georgian mansion in the parish and former manor of Lowesby, eight miles east of Leicester in Leicestershire. It is a famous fox-hunting seat in the heart of the Quorn country. The poem "Lowesby Hall" by the Victorian English foxhunting MP William Bromley Davenport (1821–1884) was a parody of Alfred Tennyson's 1835 poem Locksley Hall. [1]
The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the manor of Glowesbi as one of those held by "Countess Judith", namely the Norman noblewoman Judith of Lens (c.1054/5-c.1090), a niece of King William the Conqueror, being a daughter of his sister Adelaide of Normandy, Countess of Aumale, by her husband Lambert II, Count of Lens. She married Earl Waltheof of Huntingdon and Northumbria (d.1076) the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William the Conqueror. Before the Norman Conquest of 1066 she held 14 manors, all within the hundred of Wraggoe, Lincolnshire, and in 1086 she held 191 manors as a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror. [3] Her tenant at Lowesby was Hugh Burdet, [4] who is listed in the Domesday Book as holding six manors in total, all in Leicestershire, namely: Braunstone, Gaulby, Lowesby, Rearsby, Sysonby and Welby. [5] Lowesby continued to be held by the Burdet family until the early 15th century. Sir William Burdet (died pre-1309) of Lowesby was a Member of Parliament for the county seat of Leicestershire in 1297. The Burdet family had been dedicated supporters of the Order of St Lazarus's English headquarters at Burton Lazars since its earliest days but relations soured in 1294 when the Order appropriated the tithes to Lowesby for themselves. [6] This was not popular with the villagers and sporadic riots broke out over the following few years. The vicar was excommunicated and in 1297 the churchyard was "polluted by bloodshed" by the actions of Sir William Burdet. [6] On the ending of the male line, the heiress, Joan Burdet, daughter and heiress of John Burdet of Lowesby married Thomas Ashby (d.1435), MP, [7] and thus Lowesby passed into the ownership of her Ashby descendants.
Thomas Ashby (d.1435) of Lowesby was the son and heir of Richard Ashby of Lubbesthorpe and Welby in Leicestershire, by his wife Agnes Breedon, a daughter of William Breedon, MP, and sister and heiress of Ralph Breedon of Breedon. Stained glass windows survive in All Saints Church, Lowesby, showing the coats of arms of Burdet, Ashby (Argent, a lion rampant sable a chief gules) Zouche of Lubbesthorpe and other related families. [8] Thomas Ashby served twice as a Member of Parliament for Leicestershire, in 1414 and 1419. [7] Although the manor is recorded in 1309 as containing 12 households, and in 1377 containing 25 tax payers (equivalent to about 10 families), by 1487 the village had been razed to the ground and the land converted to pasture. In 1563 the manor contained only the Ashby Family at Lowesby Hall and three labouring families. [9] The ancient parish church survives in its entirety, 200 metres to the south-east of Lowesby Hall, and 450 metres to the north and east of Lowesby Hall survive extensive village earthworks, showing the foundations of houses and lanes, a strip of well preserved ridge and furrow ploughland and three large dry fishponds, all classified in 1978 as a Scheduled Monument. [9]
In the mid-17th.century the manor of Lowesby was acquired by Richard Wollaston (1635–1691), son of Henry Wollaston, a citizen of London in 1669, himself the younger brother of Sir John Wollaston (died 1658), Lord Mayor of London in 1643, and second son of Edward Wollaston of Perton in Staffordshire by his wife and cousin Elizabeth Wollaston of Trescot Grange, Staffordshire. [11] He was thus descended from a junior branch of the Wollaston family anciently from Staffordshire and later settled at Shenton Hall, Leicestershire [12] and Finborough Hall in Suffolk. He appears to have been a gun-founder. A Richard Wollaston served in a man-of-war and in 1650 received a gunner's certificate. He was described in 1650 as a "Master Gunner" on drawing from stores five barrels of gunpowder for a display on the launch of two frigates at Deptford. He has been described as "Cromwell's gun founder", and certainly held a high position in the Ordnance Department and was responsible to the Ordnance Commission. [13] He had two sons Josiah and John (died 1692), who in 1669 purchased from Thomas Johnson a house at Wormley in Hertfordshire then occupied by their father Richard. Also in 1669 John purchased the Manor of Ponsbourne, formerly possessed by Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral of England. In 1673 Richard purchased a moiety of the manor of Wormley which was inherited by his son John (died 1692) thence to John's son Richard who in 1692 purchased the remaining moiety except the manor house of Wormley Bury. In 1685/8 Richard bequeathed a moiety of two farms in Essex to charity. In 1690 a year before his death he applied for the return of the sum of £10,000 he had loaned to the Prince of Orange, by then King William III. The Treasury Records contain the entry: "£140 paid to John Wollaston for the use of his father Richard on a/c of £10,000 part of £20,000 lent the King, and a further £50 on a/c of Poll Tax". Both these were Secret Service payments. On his death in 1691 he left land valued at £100 to the poor forever, £20 for clothing the poor in the parish of Woolmer, £30 to the parish of Whitchurch and £50 for 6 parishes in Leicester. [13] He had the following descendants:
The Fowke family of Lowesby was formerly seated at Gunstone in Staffordshire. Anne Wollaston's husband was Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Fowke, Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Cumberland, the son of Lieutenant-General Thomas Fowke, Governor of Gibraltar.
Anne Wollaston's son was Sir Frederick Gustavus Fowke, 1st Baronet (1782-1856), a prominent Freemason who served as Provincial Grand Master of Leicestershire from 1850 to 1856 and as Senior Grand Warden for the United Grand Lodge of England in 1821. [19] In his youth he had come into frequent contact with the Prince Regent and his royal brothers, the former giving him the soubriquet “Fred Fun”. [14] He was said to be the perfect country gentleman, in the mould of Addison's "Sir Roger de Coverley". [20] He was an "active and zealous" [20] Tory politician and a member of the Pitt Club, and served as President of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society. On 18 September 1818 he gave a "splendid fête" at Lowesby Hall ...
In 1814, aged 32, he married Mary Anne Henderson, the only daughter of Anthony Henderson, MP for Brackley in Northamptonshire in 1803, and was created a baronet in the same year. He died in 1856 and was survived by his wife, 4 sons and 2 daughters, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son Sir Frederick Thomas Fowke, 2nd Baronet.
Sir Frederick Thomas Fowke, 2nd Baronet (1816–1897) was in 1846 appointed as a captain in the Leicestershire Militia. In 1849 he married Sarah Mary Spencer, the youngest daughter of Henry Leigh Spencer (1771-1829) of Banstead Park in Surrey, by his wife Elizabeth Frances Newton, heiress of Frye's estate on Antigua. [22] A stained glass window survives in the east window of Lowesby Church in memory of him, showing images of twenty people and saints, all prominent figures who were important in the development of the English church, inscribed below: An honourable counsellor which also waited for the Kingdom of God. To the Glory of God and in memory of Sir Frederick Thomas Fowke died May 12 AD 1897 this window is dedicated by his widow Sarah Mary Fowke. [23]
The 2nd Baronet was a barrister of the Middle Temple, who was called to the bar in 1840, and practiced locally on the Midland Circuit. He "occupied several of the most important and honourable offices in connection with county administration", [24] serving from 1867 to 1883 as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions and thereafter as County Treasurer. On the formation of the Leicestershire County Council he served as an alderman. He was Lt-Col. of the Leicestershire Militia from 1869 to 1881 and was Constable of Leicester Castle, and a JP and DL for Leicestershire. In business he was a director of Pares's Leicestershire Banking Company [25] and politically he was a staunch Conservative, serving as Chairman of Melton Division Conservative Association. He was an ardent foxhunter and served as President of the Quorn Hunt Committee for 40 years. It was said that "few men rode straighter to hounds [26] than he". "A man of great stature and commanding aspect his remarkably abstemious habits through life ensured for him the enjoyment of robust health". He died at Lowesby Hall and was buried in his family vault within Lowesby Church. [24]
By his wife he had 3 sons and 5 daughters. His eldest son Major Frederick Gustavus Fowke died in 1891, predeceasing his father, but left a son Sir Frederick Ferrers Conant Fowke, 3rd Baronet, who succeeded his grandfather as 3rd Baronet.
In 1910 Sir Frederick Ferrers Conant Fowke, 3rd Baronet (1879–1948) married Edith Frances Daubenry Rawdon, a daughter of Rev Canon Rawdon of Stockton-on-Forest, Yorkshire, [27] and a granddaughter of Joshua Rawdon, a merchant from Liverpool, the younger brother of the merchant and philanthropist Christopher Rawdon. [28]
Lowesby Hall was eventually let by the Fowke family, which moved at some time to Upcott Farm in the parish of Bishops Tawton in Devon, [29] to many subsequent tenants as a residence during the hunting season.
The tenant in 1910 was Captain, later Lt-Col., Harold Brassey (c. 1880 – 1916), [16] a polo champion, killed in action during WWI, a younger son of Henry Brassey, JP, DL, MP for Hastings, and brother of Henry Brassey, 1st Baron Brassey of Apethorpe. His grandfather Thomas Brassey had made a huge fortune as a railway engineer. Brassey commissioned Edwin Lutyens (1866–1944) to alter and extend the Hall and gardens, Lutyens having six years before altered [30] his house at Copse Hill, Upper Slaughter, in Gloucestershire. [31]
Lowesby was the home of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough when still Marquess of Blandford, and heir apparent to his father the 9th Duke. In November 1927 his house-guest Lady Victoria Bullock, only daughter of Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby and wife of Capt. Malcolm Bullock, MP, was killed while hunting with the Quorn Hounds from Hungarton, having caught her head on a low archway, and her body was returned to Lowesby Hall. [32] On his father's death in 1934 he moved to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and sold Lowesby to Sir Edmund Keith Nuttall, 2nd Baronet. [33]
Sir (Edmund) Keith Nuttall, 2nd Baronet (1901-1941) was from Cheshire, where his grandfather had founded the civil engineering firm Edmund Nuttall Limited, at Trafford Park in Manchester. He and his wife had been keen riders and foxhunters in Cheshire and their new home was in the heart of England's premier fox-hunting country, in which pursuit they became fully engaged, a local newspaper reporting in February 1936: "Sir Keith and Lady Nuttall made their debut as host and hostess at a Leicestershire meet yesterday when the Quorn's biggest following for several seasons assembled at Lowesby Hall". [34] He was killed during the Second World War, whilst serving as Lieutenant Colonel with the Royal Engineers, having been wounded in the retreat to Dunkirk, [35] and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his only son Sir Nicholas Nuttall, 3rd Baronet (1933-2007), then eight years old.
Sir Nicholas Nuttall served in the Royal Horse Guards and was a notable amateur jockey under National Hunt rules, twice winning the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park on his own horse, Stalbridge Park, in 1958 and 1961. [36] He held a famous party at Lowesby Hall in 1959 to celebrate the restoration of a painted ceiling by Antonio Verrio (later destroyed by fire in 1980). [18] In 1968, then serving as a Major and in command of the Guards Independent Parachute Regiment, he quitted the Army to take control of the family firm, following the death of his mother. In 1976 he held a dance in tents at Lowesby, emulating a party held by the Shah of Iran in the desert in 1972. In 1978 he sold the family firm to the Dutch company Hollandsche Beton Group and sold Lowesby Hall and his other estate at The Elms, Thorpe Satchville [37] in Leicestershire, to become a tax exile in Gstaad, Switzerland, and in the Bahamas, [38] where he became an important campaigner for marine conservation, and founded the Bahamas Reef Environmental Educational Foundation (BREEF), which transformed local attitudes to maritime conservation. [39]
As of 2012 [update] the house remains in private ownership of the property developer and house builder David William Wilson (born 1941) formerly Chairman of Wilson Bowden Plc, [40] which operated chiefly in Leicestershire. In 2007 Wilson Bowden was sold to Barratt Developments for £2.2 billion, of which £700 million went to David William Wilson for his 33% stake, £300 million in cash and £400 in Barratt shares, which "went through the floor", being valued at £17 million in 2013, and leaving him with a fortune estimated at £375m in 2013. [41] He is a significant philanthropist and through his charity the David Wilson Foundation has been a leading donor to the University of Leicester's £12.6 million heart research centre at Glenfield Hospital. [41] He is married with 4 children.
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Trerice is an historic manor in the parish of Newlyn East, near Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The surviving Tudor manor house known as Trerice House is located at Kestle Mill, three miles east of Newquay. The house with its surrounding garden has been owned by the National Trust since 1953 and is open to the public. The house is a Grade I listed building. The two stone lions on the front lawn are separately listed, Grade II. The garden features an orchard with old varieties of fruit trees.
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The de Trafford Baronetcy, of Trafford Park in the County Palatine of Lancaster is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.
The Fowke Baronetcy, of Lowesby in the County of Leicester, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 7 February 1814 for Frederick Gustavus Fowke of Lowesby Hall, Lowesby, near Leicester. He was the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Fowke, Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Cumberland. His grandfather was Lieutenant-General Thomas Fowke, Governor of Gibraltar. The family surname is pronounced "Foke".
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Colonel George Anthony Legh Keck was a British military officer, Tory politician and landowner who sat in the House of Commons representing the parliamentary constituency of Leicestershire from 1797 to 1831.
Lowesby is a small parish and township situated in the district of Harborough in Leicestershire. It is 8 miles east of the county capital, Leicester, and 90 miles north of London.
The Lawrencebaronetcy, of Loseby in the County of Leicester, was a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 17 January 1748 for Edward Lawrence, Esq., with remainder to his great-nephew, Isaac Woollaston of Lowesby Hall, Leicestershire. Lawrence was MP for Stockbridge. He died in 1749 and was succeeded according to the special remainder by his great-nephew, Isaac Woollaston, the second baronet. He was the grandson of Josiah Woollaston (1652–1689) by his wife Elizabeth Lawrence, sister of the first baronet. The title became extinct on the death of the second baronet's son, the third baronet, who died as a child in 1756.
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The Hastings, later Abney-Hastings Baronetcy, of Willesley Hall in the County of Derby, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 28 February 1806 for the soldier Sir Charles Hastings. He was the illegitimate son of Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon. Hastings married Parnel Abney, daughter and heiress of Thomas Abney, of Willesley Hall, Willesley, Derbyshire, and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Abney, Justice of the Common Pleas. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles, the second Baronet, who assumed, by Royal Licence dated 1 December 1823, the additional surname of Abney, before that of Hastings, on succeeding to the Abney estates through his mother. Abney-Hastings represented Leicester in Parliament between 1826 and 1831. The title became extinct on his death in 1858. Abney-Hastings's Blackfordby and Packington estates passed to his kinsman Henry Rawdon-Hastings, 4th Marquess of Hastings, while Willesley Hall was left to Lady Edith Maud Rawdon-Hastings, later Countess of Loudoun, the Marquess's eldest sister and wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, who in 1859 assumed the surname Abney-Hastings.
Hall is a large estate within the parish and former manor of Bishop's Tawton, Devon. It was for several centuries the seat of a younger branch of the prominent and ancient North Devon family of Chichester of Raleigh, near Barnstaple. The mansion house is situated about 2 miles south-east of the village of Bishop's Tawton and 4 miles south-east of Barnstaple, and sits on a south facing slope of the valley of the River Taw, overlooking the river towards the village of Atherington. The house and about 2,500 acres of surrounding land continues today to be owned and occupied by descendants, via a female line, of the Chichester family. The present Grade II* listed neo-Jacobean house was built by Robert Chichester between 1844 and 1847 and replaced an earlier building. Near the house to the south at the crossroads of Herner the Chichester family erected in the 1880s a private chapel of ease which contains mediaeval woodwork saved from the demolished Old Guildhall in Barnstaple.
Sir Edward Hartopp (1572–1655) was an English Member of Parliament.
Sir William Burdet of Lowesby in Leicestershire, England, was a Member of Parliament for the county seat of Leicestershire.
Sir Robert Burdet was a Member of Parliament for Warwickshire and was Sheriff of Warwickshire.
Sir John Folville was an member of parliament (MP) for Rutland and Leicestershire and father of Eustace Folville, the leader of the Folville Gang. More recent research shows Farnham's Folville pedigree is flawed. The leader of the Folville gang was the issue of Sir Eustace by Dame Alice.