Roger Aytoun | |
|---|---|
 Major-General Roger Aytoun and Duc d'Angoulême by John Kay (in 1797) [1] | |
| Died | 1 October 1810 |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |  British Army |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | Great Siege of Gibraltar |
Major General Roger Aytoun was a soldier at the Great Siege of Gibraltar who came to notice when he married an ageing widow and was given Hough Hall in Manchester. Aytoun was known as Spanking Roger because of his love of fighting.
Aytoun had the same name as his grandfather. His father was called John and his mother was Isobel and his maternal grandfather was Robert Rollo. [2] Aytoun took part in a race on Kersal Moor which traditionally was done with the competitors running without clothes. The race was run each Whitsun and the spectacle attracted large crowds and entertainers who transformed part of the moor into a giant fair. The sight of Aytoun's six-foot-four inch frame was said to have inspired a Manchester widow, Barbara Minshull, to propose marriage to him. [3] Minshull lived at Chorlton Hall and she also owned Hough Hall and Garret Hall. Her fortune was due to her late husband who had been a successful apothecary. Roger Aytoun was given Hough Hall when they married in 1769. [4]
Aytoun was known to be addicted to both drink and gambling and he married the 65-year-old widow even though he was so inebriated that he needed assistance to stand at the wedding. [5]
Aytoun moved into his new bride's home which was Hough Hall in Moston in Manchester. Having acquired the Chorlton Hall estate by his marriage Aytoun undertook its development in the 1770s when an area between Piccadilly, Portland Street, Princess Street and the River Medlock was laid out and sold. [6]
Aytoun's new bride lived for another fourteen years. He remarried after his first wife died to Jean Sinclair who was the daughter of John Sinclair of Balgregie. [2] He died at Inchdarney on 1 October 1810 [7] and he was succeeded by his son. [2]
Aytoun spent his fortune but his name is remembered in Aytoun Street in Manchester and there is a pub named the Spanking Roger. His image was captured by John Kay who drew Aytoun beside the future Charles X of France who was a foot shorter than he was. [1]
Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of Manchester, England, three miles (4.8 km) southwest of the city centre. Chorlton ward had a population of 14,138 at the 2011 census, and Chorlton Park 15,147.
William Edmondstoune "W. E." Aytoun FRSE was a Scottish poet, lawyer by training, and professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. He published poetry, translation, prose fiction, criticism and satire and was a lifelong contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwood's Magazine. He was also a collector of Scottish ballads.
Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.
Whalley Range is an area of Manchester, England; it is located about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 15,430. Historically in Lancashire, it was one of the earliest of the city's suburbs, built by local businessman Samuel Brooks.
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George St John Brodrick, 2nd Earl of Midleton MC was an English aristocrat, landowner and soldier.
Kersal Moor is a recreation area in Kersal, Greater Manchester, England which consists of eight hectares of moorland bounded by Moor Lane, Heathlands Road, St. Paul's Churchyard and Singleton Brook.
Clendenin James Ryan Jr. was an American businessman best known as the publisher and owner of The American Mercury magazine, published in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1950s.
Barlow Moor is an area of Manchester, England. It was originally an area of moorland between Didsbury and Chorlton-cum-Hardy and was named after the Barlow family of Barlow Hall. Barlow Moor Road runs through the area and connects to Wilmslow Road at the southern end and Manchester Road at the northern end. Southern Cemetery and Chorlton Park are landmarks on the route. Immediately adjacent to the northwest corner of the cemetery, also on Barlow Moor Road, is the Manchester Crematorium which opened in 1892, the second in the United Kingdom. The architects were Steinthal and Solomons who chose to revive the Lombard-Romanesque style. Another notable building is the Chorlton Park Apartments, 2002.
Lieutenant General Colin Campbell was Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar.
The Manor of Rivington at Rivington in Lancashire, England was the past feudal means of control over land with manorial rights above and below ground. The manor history commences 1212 when the Pilkington family owned six oxgangs of land. Records are within a book Leverhulme sponsored, authored by William Fergusson Irvine using the same sources as an earlier work by Harland, the antiquarian who had inspected the Rivington Deeds and Documents, at Rivingon Hall in 1864. The manor was divided in moieties and in the 16th century the Pilkingtons of Rivington Hall owned a 5/8 share, the Cromptons who later occupied the Hall are reputed to have sold their share to William Hesketh Lever in 1900. Lever in turn agreed compensation for the majority of his freehold at Rivington from the Liverpool water company through the Liverpool Corporation Act 1902, the act makes no mention of the manor and there is no record of any later sale of manorial rights by Leverhulme or his heirs. Other owners of shares included a quarter owned in the past by the Lathoms of Irlam and an eighth owned by the Shaw family. The manor was not voluntarily registered under the Land Registration Act 2002 and resultingly no reference is made to it in modern title deeds. There are no manorial records at the National Archive.
Minshull Street Crown Court is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in Manchester, England. The court was designated a Grade II* listed building on 2 October 1974. It is one of two Crown Courts in Manchester, the other being Manchester Crown Court.
Sir Nicholas Mosley was an English merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1599.
Robert Rollo, 4th Lord Rollo was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite.
The Whitfield family was a landowning Norman family in present-day United Kingdom; the family was seated at Whitfield Hall in Northumberland. The area was granted by William, King of Scotland in the twelfth century. The family derives its name from the old English hwit-feld, meaning open white lands.
Sir James Spittal was a Scottish silk merchant who was Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1833 to 1837. Spittal Street in the west of Edinburgh is named after him. He was a strong Whig politician who campaigned for election reforms to increase democracy.
William Archer, of Coopersale, in Theydon Garnon, Essex, and Welford Park, Berkshire, was an English lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1734 to 1739.
Andrew Aytoun, was a Scottish soldier and engineer, and captain of Stirling Castle.
Lt.-Col. Charles St Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair was a Scottish noble and representative peer.
Frederick Tavaré (1810-1868) was an English landscape painter who specialised in watercolours.
roger aytoun 1810.