Orchard Wyndham

Coordinates: 51°09′04.7″N 3°19′40.7″W / 51.151306°N 3.327972°W / 51.151306; -3.327972

Orchard Wyndham, west front
Orchard Wyndham, south front
Painting of Orchard Wyndham, 18th century English School, National Trust, collection of Petworth House. Northward beyond the house is the town of Watchet and its harbour (with pier built by Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (1687-1740)), historically part of the estate, on the Bristol Channel

Orchard Wyndham is a historic manor near Williton in Somerset, centred on the synonymous grade I listed[1] manor house of Orchard Wyndham situated historically[2] in the parish of Watchet and about two miles south of the parish church of St Decuman's, Watchet.[3] Parts of the manor house are medieval. It has been owned for more than 700 years by the prominent Wyndham family, who continue there in 2015.

Descent

Saxons

There is evidence of occupation of the site from Roman and Saxon times.[4] The estate was originally called "Orchard", possibly a corruption of the Saxon family name "De Horcherd". The de Orchard family held another nearby manor in Somerset, now called Orchard Portman which was inherited by the Portman family. The arms of de Orchard were: Azure, a chevron argent between three pears pendant or.[5]

Sydenham

Arms of Sydenham of Orchard Sydenham: Argent, a chevron between three rams passant guardant sable. These are the arms of Sydenham of Sydenham differenced by a chevron sable

In 1448 it passed into the hands of the Sydenham family of nearby Combe Sydenham, and was thenceforth known as Orchard Sydenham. The Sydenham family originated at the manor of Sydenham near Bridgwater, Somerset. Elizabeth Sydenham (d.1571) inherited the house and in 1528 married Sir John Wyndham (d.1573), from Norfolk.[4]

Wyndham

Arms of Wyndham: Azure, a chevron between three lion's heads erased or

The descent of Orchard Wyndham in the Wyndham family is as follows:[6]

Sir John I Wyndham (died 1573)

Sir John Wyndham (died 1573), second son of Sir Thomas Wyndham (d.1521) of Felbrigg in Norfolk (son of Sir John Wyndham of Felbrigg by his first wife Margaret Howard, a daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c.1425 – 22 August 1485), KG, a descendant of King Edward I), by his first wife Eleanor Scrope, daughter and heiress of Richard Scrope of Upsall Castle, Yorkshire, inherited Orchard from his wife Elizabeth Sydenham (d.1/1/1571), daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Sydenham of Orchard Sydenham, Somerset.[7] He had met his future wife whilst visiting Dunster Castle in Somerset, the home of his sister Margaret Wyndham, wife of Sir Andrew Luttrell (1484–1538), feudal baron of Dunster.[8] He purchased from his brother-in-law Sir Andrew Luttrell the manor of Kentsford in the parish of Watchet, as a residence for his son and heir apparent.[9] He also purchased a one-half moiety in the manor of Williton ("Williton-Fulford") from the Fulford family of Great Fulford in Devon. (The other moiety was later purchased from Alexander Luttrell (1705–1737) of Dunster by Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (c.1688-1740)).[10]

Sir John II Wyndham (1558–1645)

Sir John Wyndham (1558–1645), grandson. He was the only child of Sir John Wyndham (1516-1572) of Kentsford House, Watchet, who predeceased his own father, by his wife Florence Wadham (d.1596), heiress in her issue of her brother Nicholas Wadham (d.1609), who together with his wife Dorothy Petre, founded Wadham College, Oxford. Sir John Wyndham (d.1645) is the ancestor of every living member of the widespread Wyndham family (except perhaps for one branch in the United States)[11] and therefore had he not been born the dynasty would have failed. However, he was born following a near miraculous rising from the dead by his mother. The famous story is that one year after her marriage and already pregnant, Florence Wyndham became ill, was thought to have died and was left that evening in a coffin in the Wyndham Chapel in St Decuman's Church, about half a mile east of her husband's home at Kentsford Manor House, and two miles north of her father-in-law's home at Orchard Wyndham, awaiting a funeral the following day.[12] That night a "covetous sexton" crept into the church and in attempting to remove a valuable ring, cut the lady's finger, thereby awakening her from a cataleptic trance. "The sexton fled, leaving his lantern behind him, and with its aid she made her way home to her astounded family"[13] at Kentsford. The story was composed in verse as "Lady Wyndham's Return", by Rev. Lewis H. Court, Vicar of St Decuman's. (See full text on wikisource s:Lady Wyndham's Return). Soon after she gave birth to Sir John, who would be her only child. Sir John Wyndham was a co-heir to the substantial Wadham estates of his uncle Nicholas Wadham, including his principal seats of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, Somerset (see below) and Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon. Also part of the Wadham inheritance were the manors of Trent, then in Somerset now in Dorset, and the manor of Silverton in Devon, where his descendant George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1786-1845) built a large neo-Classical mansion Silverton Park (alias Egremont House), demolished in 1901. He also inherited the manor of Felbrigg in Norfolk from his childless cousin Thomas Wyndham, which was the seat of their shared ancestor. This he rebuilt in about 1620 and gave to his younger son Thomas Wyndham, who founded his own branch of the family there. Sir John oversaw the founding and building of Wadham College, which task had been entrusted to him by his uncle Nicholas Wadham on his deathbed.[14] He married Joan Portman, daughter of Sir Henry Portman (d.1590), of Orchard Portman, Somerset, son of Sir William Portman (d.1557), Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

John III Wyndham (d.1649)

John Wyndham (d.1649), second and eldest surviving son, who married Catherine Hopton daughter of Robert Hopton of Witham, Somerset, and sister of Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton (d.1652).

Sir William Wyndham, 1st Baronet (c.1632-1683)

Sir William Wyndham, 1st Baronet (c.1632-1683), eldest son, of Orchard. Member of Parliament for Somerset 1656-1658 and for Taunton 1660-1679, was made a Baronet in 1661, "of Orchard, Somerset". It was during the tenure of the 1st Baronet that Orchard became known as Orchard Wyndham.

Sir Edward Wyndham, 2nd Baronet (c.1667-1695)

Sir Edward Wyndham, 2nd Baronet (c. 1667–1695)

Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (1687-1740)

Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (1687–1740). He built the pier at Watchet harbour, two miles north of Orchard Wyndham,[15] and purchased the remaining moiety of the manor of Williton (the first moiety having been acquitted by Sir John Wyndham (died 1573)) from Alexander Luttrell (1705–1737) of Dunster Castle.[16] He was a Tory statesman, who served as Secretary at War in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne (1702-1714). He was a Jacobite leader firmly opposed to the Hanoverian succession and was leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons during the reign of King George I (1714-1727) and during the early years of King George II (1727-1760). In 1715 an officer was sent to Orchard Wyndham to arrest him for suspected high treason but he escaped from his bedroom and rode away on a waiting horse. A royal proclamation was subsequently issued for his arrest, with a £1,000 reward offered. He later handed himself in to the authorities and spent time in the Tower of London. His first wife was Lady Catherine Seymour, the younger of the two daughters of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, KG (1662-1748), and sister of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (1684-1750). On her brother's death in 1750 she became (with the 7th Duke's only daughter Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1716-1776) and her husband Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet (c.1715-1786)) one of two co-heirs to the vast estates formerly belonging to the ancient Percy family, former Earls of Northumberland.

Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763)

Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710–1763). He succeeded to the Orchard Wyndham estates and as 4th baronet on his father's death in 1740 and in 1750 succeeded by special remainder as 2nd Earl of Egremont, on the death of his maternal uncle Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Egremont, and received as his share of the Seymour inheritance the former Percy estates including Egremont Castle in Cumbria, Leconfield Castle in Yorkshire and the palatial Petworth House in Sussex (rebuilt by the 6th Duke[17]). These were formerly owned by the Percy family, and had been inherited by the 7th Duke of Somerset from his mother Lady Elizabeth Percy (d.1722),[18] daughter and heiress of Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland. His younger brother was Percy Wyndham-O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond, created Earl of Thomond, having become the chosen heir of his mother's sister's childless husband Henry O'Brien, 8th Earl of Thomond (1688-1741). He abandoned Orchard Wyndham as his principal seat in favour of Petworth House.

George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837)

George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751–1837), eldest son, who resided principally at Petworth, where he built a great collection of art and was patron to the painter Turner. It was said of him by Charles Greville that he was "immensely rich and his munificence was equal to his wealth" and that "in his time Petworth was like a great inn." Although he had more than 40 children, the only legitimate one died in infancy. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1786-1845), but bequeathed his unentailed estates, namely the former Percy estates including Petworth House in Sussex, Leconfield Castle in Yorkshire and Egremont Castle in Cumbria, to his eldest illegitimate son Col. George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield (5 June 1787 – 18 March 1869). Orchard Wyndham and the entailed Wyndham estates descended by law to the 4th Earl.

George Francis Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1785-1845)

George Francis Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1785–1845), nephew. By law he inherited from his uncle the earldom but had been deprived by him of the Seymour and Percy inheritance which he considered rightfully his. The loss of Petworth and the other estates was a great blow to him. He was left holding the (not inconsiderable) estates of the Wyndhams of Orchard Wyndham and having considered Orchard Wyndham House insufficiently grand for his status, and in order to attempt to compensate himself for the loss of Petworth, between 1839–45 he built a huge neo-classical mansion on the Wyndham manor of Silverton in Devon, called Egremont House (or Silverton Park), demolished in 1901. He died without male progeny.

William III Wyndham (1834-1914)

William III Wyndham (1834-1914), of Dinton House (of which estate he was William VI Wyndham), Wiltshire, JP, DL, cousin. He was heir male to his grandfather William IV Wyndham (1769-1841), of Dinton, under the will of his distant cousin (who shared common descent from Sir John Wyndham (1558-1645) of Orchard Wyndham) George Francis Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1786-1845), following the death of the 4th Earl's widow in 1876 who had retained a life interest in his estate.[19] He thus inherited the ancient family manor of Orchard Wyndham and also the palatial Silverton Park in Devon, built by the 4th Earl in 1839, which he demolished in 1901. He married in 1867 Frances Ann Stafford (d.1934), 2nd daughter of Rev. Charles James Stafford, vicar of Dinton.

William IV Wyndham (1868-1951)

William IV Wyndham (1868-1951), portrait by British School, collection of the Museum of South Somerset, donated by the sitter and founder

William IV Wyndham (1868-1951), eldest son, JP, of Orchard Wyndham. He sold Dinton in 1916 and made Orchard Wyndham his main seat, where he lived with his five unmarried sisters. He founded the Somerset County Record Office and Museum, and greatly encouraged historical and antiquarian research in the county.[20] He built the "Wyndham Hall" in Taunton to be used for public lectures by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society.[21] In 1926 he founded the "Wyndham Museum of South Somerset"[22] in Hendford, Yeovil, the first museum in that town, later called the "Museum of South Somerset" and closed in 2011. The Wyndham family's townhouse in Yeovil was "Wyndham House", 33-41 Princes Street, built circa 1820, now occupied by shops, on which is affixed a blue plaque of Yeovil Town Council.[23] In 1951 he died unmarried and without progeny. His next younger brother Alward Wyndham (1877-1937), was already dead, having disappeared without trace to South America, and in 1909-10 was committed to Napa State Hospital, California, U.S.A. for temporary treatment for insanity.[24] The 1930 USA census records Alward aged 52 living unmarried at Santa Cruz, California,[25] and his gravestone inscribed "Alward Wyndham 1877-1937" survives in the "Santa Cruz Memorial Park".[26] Thus Orchard Wyndham was inherited by his next younger brother Capt. John Wyndham (1879-1966).

John IV Wyndham (1879-1966)

Capt. John Wyndham (1879-1966), Welsh Regiment, JP, younger brother, formerly of Court Place, Bathealton, Somerset. In 1915 he married Maud Colville, a daughter of Archibald Colville (1853-1916)[27] of Motherwell, Scotland, a director of David Colville & Sons, one of the largest steelworks in Scotland, founded by his father.

George III Wyndham (1916-1982)

George Colville Wyndham (1916-1982), son, an officer of the Indian Civil Service before 1947, who in 1939 married Anne Dorothy Hodder Hodder-Williams, daughter of Ralph Hodder-Williams by his wife Marjorie Glazebrook of Toronto,[28] daughter of the prominent Toronto banker and exchange broker Arthur James Glazebrook (1861-1940), a member of Milner's Group and founder of the Canadian branch of the Round Table movement.[29][30] Ralph Hodder-Williams was an English-born Canadian history professor[31] who wrote the history of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry[32] and won the Military Cross fighting with that regiment at the Battle of the Somme in World War I.[33] His grandfather Matthew Hodder had co-founded the Hodder & Stoughton publishing company in 1868,[34] of which Ralph was later chairman,[35] and during the war, Ralph Hodder Williams set up the Brockhampton Book Co (he was born at Brockhampton, Bromley Common, Kent)[36] and later signed up the author Enid Blyton. He lived at Duddings, Dunster.[37]

In 1952 George was a JP for Somerset and in 1968 was Vice-Chairman of Somerset County Council, a member of the Regional Economic Council for the South-West and a Vice-Chairman of the Country Landowners' Association.[38]

William V Wyndham (born 1940)

William Wadham Wyndham (born 1940), eldest son and heir, the owner of Orchard Wyndham today. Educated at Eton and Wadham College, Oxford, the founding and building of which in 1609 had been supervised by his ancestor Sir John Wyndham (1558-1645) on behalf of his deceased uncle Nicholas Wadham (d.1609). He does not however reside at Orchard Wyndham, which is the home of his sister Sylvana Margery Glazebrook Chandler (born 1944, née Wyndham), High Sheriff of Somerset in 2012, and her husband Richard T. Chandler, son of Lt-Col. Roger T. Chandler. The estate had formerly been managed by his younger sister Dr Katherine Stafford Heathcote Wyndham (1947-2004),[39] an art historian and director of the Somerset Building Preservation Trust, who was responsible for the refurbishment and renovation of the house in 1996-2000.[40]

Description

The house has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, [41] while the Bailiff's House,[42] Lodge,[43] remains of the walled garden[44] and gate[45] are also listed.

The Giant's Cave which is also known as the Blue Grotto, within the grounds, is a landscape feature in the form of a ruin, dating from the mid 18th century. It consists of large undressed blocks of red sandstone, irregularly placed in sections of wall about 2.5 metres high.[46]

Estate

Today the estate retains substantial local landholdings and also land at Ilton, Somerset, where the "Wyndham Estate" is the largest employer in the village[47] and where the public house is called the "Wyndham Arms". This land was formerly part of the Merryfield estate which the family inherited from Nicholas Wadham (d.1609) of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton.[48]

Return of Owners of Land 1873

The Return of Owners of Land, 1873 (as corrected in 1883) revealed the holdings of Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham and Dinton in total as 23,708 acres worth £37,420 per annum as follows:[49]

Principal historic estates

The principal historic estates of the family were as follows:[50]

See also

Further reading

Sources

External links

References

  1. ↑ Listed building text
  2. ↑ The town of Williton has since developed and established its own parish church
  3. ↑ St Decuman's, Watchet contains important monuments to the Wyndham family and plays a central role in the famous story of the quasi-resurrection of Florence Wyndham in the 16th century
  4. 1 2 "Williton". Quantock Online. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  5. ↑ Collinson, History & Antiquities of Somerset, p.274, footnote
  6. ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.2511, pedigree of Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham
  7. ↑ Blomefield (Blomefield, Francis, An essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. 8, North Erpingham Hundred: Felbrigg, pp.107-119) is in error as he does not derive the Orchard family from Eleanor Scrope, which ancestry is clearly shown in the heraldry in Watchet Church. He erroneously states John Windham (the husband of Elizabeth Sydenham) to be the younger brother of Sir Thomas Windham (d.1521), therefore the brother-in-law, not son, of Eleanor Scrope
  8. ↑ Ketton-Cremer, p.25
  9. ↑ Delderfield, p.87
  10. ↑ Collinson, History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Volume 3, p.488[
  11. ↑ Ketton-Cremer, Robert Wyndham, Felbrigg, the Story of a House, London, 1962, p.31
  12. ↑ Emeny, Richard, A Description of Orchard Wyndham, 2000, p.2 (guide-booklet available at Orchard Wyndham)
  13. ↑ Ketton-Cremer, p.30
  14. ↑ Thomas Graham Jackson, Wadham College, Oxford, its Foundation, Architecture and History, with an Account of the Family of Wadham and their Seats in Somerset and Devon, Oxford, 1893, pp.12-13
  15. ↑ Emeny, Richard, A Description of Orchard Wyndham, 2000, p.3 (guide-booklet available at Orchard Wyndham)
  16. ↑ Collinson, History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Volume 3, p.488[
  17. ↑ "In 1682 Petworth passed by marriage from the Percies to the 6th Duke of Somerset and it is to him the Proud Duke that we owe by far the larger part of the existing house" (Nicholson, Nigel, Great Houses of Britain, London, 1978, p.165)
  18. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.411
  19. ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.2511, pedigree of Wyndham
  20. ↑ Emeny, p.4
  21. ↑ http://www.sanhs.org/Documents/WyndhamHall%20Final%20report.pdf
  22. ↑ Directory of Museums, Galleries and Buildings of Historic Interest in the UK, edited by Keith W. Reynard
  23. ↑ The A-to-Z of Yeovil's History, by Bob Osborn
  24. ↑ http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/7a623275-db7f-4308-b473-42083c3d1c96
  25. ↑ http://www.mocavo.com/Alward-Wyndham-B1878-Santa-Cruz-Santa-Santa-Cruz-California-1930-United-States-Census/09319784557710209077
  26. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial# 71271773, image
  27. ↑ http://www.thepeerage.com/p24250.htm#i242496
  28. ↑ Wedding announcement Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume XLI, Number 8, 5 October 1917 (Columbia University, USA)
  29. ↑ Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment, p.119
  30. ↑ Obituary: Obituary: Arthur James Glazebrook: The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique et de Science politique, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Feb., 1941), pp. 92-94
  31. ↑ Drafted into the Canadian army "McGill University Company, 2nd Reinforcement Draft"
  32. ↑ Ralph Hodder-Williams, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 1914-1919, London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1923
  33. ↑ http://www.birthofaregiment.com/birth-of-a-regiment/background/background/the-earliest-accounts-the-heroic-period/
  34. ↑ http://ssns.frontiersd.mb.ca/SeniorYrs/Curricula9-12/Grade11/CanadianHistory/RemembranceDay/Soldiers/UnivCo/HodderWilliams.html
  35. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-christopher-hodder-williams-1620609.html
  36. ↑ http://canadiangreatwarproject.com/searches/soldierDetail.asp?ID=88274
  37. ↑ http://www.thepeerage.com/p24257.htm#i242569
  38. ↑ Delderfield, p.109
  39. ↑ Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 13 October, 2004
  40. ↑ Emeny, p.4
  41. ↑ "Orchard Wyndham". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  42. ↑ "Bailiff's House". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  43. ↑ "Lodge to Orchard Wyndham". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  44. ↑ "Walls abutting Garden House returned to West and East about 100 metres". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  45. ↑ "Gate piers and gate at West entrance to Orchard Wyndham". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  46. ↑ "Giant's Cave". Images of England. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  47. ↑ "Ilton Talking - St Peters Church". btck.co.uk.
  48. ↑ "Family history talks in Ilton today". Chard & Ilminster News.
  49. ↑ National Archives, Family and Estate Details, Wyndham family of Orchard Wyndham, GB/NNAF/F89128
  50. ↑ National Archives, Family and Estate Details, Wyndham family of Orchard Wyndham, GB/NNAF/F89128
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