A Whiteparish local history page from younsmere-frustfield.org.uk
This page collects together some notes on some of the people mentioned in the 1842 Tithe map - and may be extended to other periods...
See also Kelly's directory 1889 for Whiteparish.
Link through to these notes (to individuals) from elsewhere, especially the Tithe map key, for instance.
Link back from here eventually to the Tithe map holdings of individuals mentioned.
Link to families where there's another page - for instance for the St Barbe family.
The courtesy title "esquire" was historically a title of respect granted to men below the rank of knight and above that of gentleman. See this Wikepedia article.
Top 11 landowners in terms of landholding
The parish contained 6296.1 acres in 1842, so the largest land holding represented just over 20% of the parish, the first three people below held 53% of Whiteparish, while the eleven landowners listed held between them 5880 acres, or 93% of the total. Although Nelson's holding in the parish was relatively small by comparison with the top three, he would of course ultimately inherit his mother's much larger estate as well some 36 years later in 1878 at the age of about 55, leaving his land holding as 30% [check that this happened!].
Countess Nelson (Frances Elizabeth Eyre, then Bolton, then Nelson, as Thomas, 2nd Earl Nelson, changed his name from Bolton to Nelson)). As Thomas's wife, Frances Elizabeth Eyre remained the Countess Nelson until her death in 1878. She was the daughter (only child) of John Maurice Eyre and had been baptised at Brickworth, although he later styled himself "of Landford". The Eyre estate had passed to her on her father's death in 1815, her mother having died shortly after her birth in 1797. The Eyre estate in 1842 included Brickworth, and occupied a wide tranch of land from the northwest of the parish across to its southern boundary, but also included parts of Blaxwell Manor bought in ????, so came close to the centre of Whiteparish village - Little Suttons on its northern boundary is the field that was recently added to the Memorial Ground as an extension and in 1842 bordered the turnpike road, now the A27. The Eyre estate passed from Frances to her son in 1878, so was then added to the nation's contribution to the Nelson estates around Trafalgar House and holdings in the southwest of the parish (see Nelson below).
Lady Fremantle (Selina Mary Elwell -> Hervey -> Fremantle). Also see initial notes on the Cowesfield Louveras page. Born Selina Mary Elwell, the daughter of Sir John Elwell. Sir John bought Cowesfield Louveras from the St Barbe family [this may explain the curious juxtaposition of the Cowesfield Louveras common arable fields in 1842 - part owned by Robert Bristow (Alderstone) and part by Lady Fremantle, with Robert as tenant on some of her fields to add even more complexity]. [I suspect that Sir John already owned Cowesfield Esturmy so then held both Esturmy and Louveras, hence Lady Fremantle's ownership of both - or did Esturmy come from her other husband Hervey?] - continue to follow this up.] She died on the 22nd of November 1841 at Brighton [see here], but was listed as owner of Cowesfield Louveras on the Tithe Map, even though this is technically dated 1842. She is not listed in the 1841 census, but this simply lends support to the idea that she didn't live in Cowesfield, but elsewhere with her husband. Her youngest son Lionel survived her (and inherited?), but died himself in 1843, so neither of these deaths appears to have made it into Matcham (1844). Lady Fremantle owned Cowesfield Louveras and Cowesfield Esturmy (Cowesfield Green). Note Lord Fremantle's parliamentary and court record. [For Lionel Charles Hervey see here. Lionel's wife Frances Mary Hervey (nee Wells) had predeceased him in 1840 and together they had three daughters - for these see same geni website as their father or mother. Presumably these daughters, or those still alive, inherited from Lionel in 1843. Follow these people onwards.]
Robert Bristow Esquire. See initial notes on the family on the Alderstone St Barbe Manor House page. Matcham gives a pedigree of the family of Bristow, earlier Burstow (near Reigate in Surrey) prepared by Sir Edward Bysshe, a herald for much of the seventeenth century [Matcham pp28*-34* - as I have it filed, pages 28* to 34* come between pages 26 and 27 following the engraving of the Ste Barbe Manor House next to the church]. [Move notes from the above link to here?] Robert Bristow owned 911 acres: most of Alderstone and the Manor itself, with Robert Cooper owning Linchetts and The Seven Acres along Ashmore Lane that might logically form part of Alderstone. However, most of what is now Alderstone Farm was let to Arthur Nunn, including Down Piece along the ridge eastwards. Robert Bristow retained the farmstead of Alderstone itself at the heart of this land but was established at Broxmore House on the edge of his land in the eastern detached part of the parish, near Cowesfield Louveras. By this date the associated park extended across a large area of Lady Fremantle's land to the north of this. Some 12 of his cottages and other properties (e.g. blacksmith, the White Hart) were rented out to others, along with gardens, yards and other associated pieces of land.
Nelson Horatio Bolton (1823-1913), aged about 19 in 1842, and therefore still a minor. He was the son of the Countess Nelson, nee Frances Elizabeth Eyre and herself heiress of the extensive Eyre estate at Brickworth, the largest landholding in Whiteparish at the time (see above at the top of this list for her details). A month after Horatio Nelson's death at Trafalgar on 21st October 1805 his older brother the Rev William Nelson was granted the title Earl Nelson. William died on the 28th February 1835, and by special remainder the title passed to the son of his sister Susannah, Thomas Bolton. Thomas was not to hold the title for long, as he died later the same year on the 1st November, leaving the title to the 3rd Earl Nelson, his son Horatio Bolton, then aged 11. Horatio, 3rd Earl Nelson is the "Nelson" of the 1842 Tithe map, owning land in the southwest of the parish, this being the closest part of the parish to the rest of the Nelson estate at Trafalgar House. This is part of the "Nelson" estate, "paid for by a grateful nation", rather than the Eyre estate still in the hands of his mother, but which of course became part of the Nelson estate on her death.
Robert Cooper Esquire owned Whelpley Farm and Street Farm (part of the original Whelpley Manor), 501 acres, with the Whelpley Manor title being held by Countess Nelson at Brickworth. Whelpley Farm and Street Farm were bought by Robert Cooper's father Robert in 1813 and passed to him in 1844 on his father's death [presumably]. The Whelpley Farm land included Doves next to Doves Lane, Forks, Silens Close and Whelpley Mead/Meadow, all of these lying in an arc from behind Parsonage Meadow close to the village round almost to the A36.
George Yalden Fort Esquire owned 374 acres around the parish. His lands included most of Street Farm, many of the fields abutting the south side of Newton Lane (on the left when travelling from Welsteads to Newton), three fifths of Blaxwell Farm, including Legges/Chalkpit Farm and a few fields close to this on the west side of Common Road, and a few odd fields round the parish. [No pedigree in Matcham?]
Lord Alexander Ashburton (Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburtone) owned 294 acres originally the eastern 'half' of Cowesfield Spilman. This land includes the site of Cowesfield Spilman itself (according to Matcham ?and Taylor?), stretching from the east side of Cowesfield Green to the Alderstone land, Down Piece, on the top of Dean Hill. [No pedigree in Matcham?] George Lawrence (see his entry below) owned the adjacent western section of Cowesfield Spilman on which Cowesfield House and Park stood and with which the manorial title rested. Alexander Baring (27 October 1774 - 12 May 1848), became the 1st Baron Ashburton in 1835 and bought Melchet Park in the same year. The Cowesfield Spilman holding is not contiguous with the Melchet Park estate and in 1842 was occupied by Richard Webb Esq, although Richard didn't feature in the 1841 census. Alexander had land elsewhere in the country as well and didn't live here. He and his family don't feature in the 1841 census. [British History covers the Melchet part of the story]
The Ashburtons also owned Melchet Court. In 1873 as part of Melchet Court had suffered a fire, the vegetable, fruit and flower show and industrial exhibition open to the inhabitants of ... took place in the grounds of Cowesfield House at the invitation of Lt Cnl Venner, 23rd July 1873. Rev W.J. Swain, vicar of Whiteparish also present.
Melchet, British-History.ac.uk: James and his wife Sarah sold the park in 1791-2 to John Osborne, by whose heirs it was soon afterwards conveyed to Alexander Baring, created Lord Ashburton in 1835. (fn. 55) His son William succeeded in 1848, but died without issue male in 1864, (fn. 56) and his widow, Louisa Caroline, resided at Melchet Park till her death in 1903.
Alexander Baring was MP for Taunton between 1806 and 1826, for Callington between 1826 and 1831, for Thetford between 1831 and 1832 and North Essex between 1832 and 1835. [Did he own land in all these places? Research this.]
Lord Ashburton had been Master of the Mint in Robert Peel's government until Peel's retirement in 1835 and in 1842 was sent to America to conclude a treaty concerned with the suppression of the slave trade. In the 1830s he had received compensation of almost £10,000 for the freedom of over 3400 slaves [Wikipedia.
Edward Wynne [check spelling] owned 286 acres, consisting of the old Sansoms Down [link], now Dean Hill Farm [link] plus a pair of cottages that stood alongside the common land at Cowesfield Green immediately to the east of Miles Lane and facing across the Turnpike Road, now the A27, towards what is now Cowesfield Manor and John Snow's farm. These cottages were occupied by John Bennett and William Barnes at the time. All of the land on Sansoms Down was occupied by Joseph Witcher with the exception of two small pieces of wood, 457 The Beeches and 462 The Assock, which were occupied by Edward Wynn himself, just 2.4 acres between them. Edward Wynn did not occupy any other land in the parish. [Who was he and where did he live? West Dean might be a good bet?]
Robert Shafto owned two blocks of land, one that stretched from Whittern's Hill Farm to the west end of the detached portion of Whiteparish and the other a farm that lay between the A36 and Moor Lane close to the southern boundary of the main area of the parish, but away from both of these roads and abutting Holmere Common. This latter is an area now completely forested, although many of its fields can still be seen marked in the woodland on the modern 1:25000 scale Ordnance Survey map [link to this farm - but I don't have a name for it]. The bulk of this land was occupied by James Stride, Samuel Beauchamp and Robert Shafto himself, with just a small area of yard and buildings occupied by Ann Long. This was indeed a very small area of 4 perches, equivalent to 101 square metres or 121 square yards. [Find where this yard is on the map]
George Lawrence Esquire owned and occupied Cowesfield House and its park in Cowesfield Spilman, where he also rented land from Lady Fremantle and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In this way he extended the area of the park from the 159 acres he owned to 193 acres despite the fact that he rented over 38 acres of his own land to a variety of other people. Additional detail
In case he's relevant, William Lawrence (1844–1935), born in Liverpool, was MP for Liverpool Abercromby from 1885 to 1906, a JP for Wiltshire and died in Salisbury aged 90.
[[Ian Davies]] related a story that he used to walk to Dean station in West Dean to commute to London. Dean station opened on the 1st March 1847. [Research whether London could be reached from there on the rail network at that time.]
George Matcham Esquire [check honorific] (1789-1877) was well connected to the Nelson and Eyre families. His father was George Matcham and mother Catherine Nelson [what relation?], while his own wife was (Susanna) Harriet Eyre (bap.1755, d.1833 [what relation?]). He was himself one of Horatio Bolton/Nelson's guardians, the others being the Reverend Henry Girdlestone, Nelson Matcham Esq, and of course his mother, the Dowager Countess Nelson.
...More people to be added here...
The next landowner had 66.3 acres
Sir John Barker-Mill (The Reverend, styled "of Mottisfont") (4 December 1803 - 20 February 1860). An English cricketer born John Barker, he added the name Mill in accordance with his maternal uncle's will by Royal Licence on 8 May 1835. His landholding lay within Cowesfield Louveras and was all farmed by Ann Langridge (her whole tenantship), although it's not clear how it might have been accessed - possibly from the area of Alderstone called Down on the top of Dean Hill. The two easternmost parcels consisted of roughly 11 acres of arable, with the rest being listed as wood. Ann Langridge isn't shown as occupying or owning any house in the parish nor is she listed in the 1841 census for Whiteparish nor is there anyone else with this name. Possibly she lived over the hill?
Thomas Hobbs' land is currently described on the BKG page.