Category Archives: Parliament

Temperance Crew nee Bray (abt 1580 – 1619)

28 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Bray, Crew, grave, lawyer, Northamptonshire, Parliament, portrait

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My 11th great grandmother was Temperance Crew nee Bray (abt 1580 – 1619). She was the wife of Sir Thomas Crew (1564 – 1634), a lawyer and politician. His entry in the History of Parliament online mentions his marriage to her, noting that she was the daughter of Reynold Bray of Steane and a kinswoman of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, Gilbert Talbot (1552 – 1616). Temperance, her father who died in 1583, and her and Thomas’s son John, are also mentioned in her husband’s entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Temperance was the fourth of five daughters of Sir Reginald (or Reynold) Bray (c. 1550 – 1583) and his wife Anne Bray nee Vaux (c. 1550 – 1619). She was baptised on 6 November 1580 at Hinton in the Hedges, Northamptonshire.

Reginald Bray died in October 1583 and was buried at Hinton in the Hedges on 18 October 1583. Reginald was aged about 44.

An inquisition post mortem was held (Esc. 26 Eliz. n. 119.) This was a local enquiry into the lands of a deceased person, held to discover what income and rights were due to the crown. Information from this inquisition was used to produce a family tree by George Baker in his 1822 book History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton (page 685).

Bray Crewe tree from History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire

Reginald had one son, William, who died in his father’s lifetime aged about 7. Reginald had five daughters who were his coheirs:

  • Mary, aged 14 in 1583 thus born about 1569. On 16 August 1586 at Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire,  she married Sir William Sandys (c 1562 – 1641) of Fladbury, Worcestershire. She appears to have died by 1597 about which time  Sir William Sandys married secondly to Margaret Culpepper. She appears not to have had children.
  • Anne, aged 10 in 1583 thus born about 1573; she was later the wife of John Sotherton (1562 – 1631), a judge and later a Baron of the Exchequer. John Sotherton married two more times and had two sons and a number of daughters – it is not certain if Anne was the mother of these children. Anne had died by 1602.
  • Alice, aged 6 in 1583 thus born about 1577. In 1592 she married Nicholas Eveleigh, a lawyer. Nicholas Eveleigh died aged 56 in 1618 when the Chagford Stannary Courthouse collapsed killing him, two of his clerks and seven others, also leaving a further 17 injured. She secondly married Elize (Ellis) Hele, a lawyer and philanthropist who died in 1635. The trust from his will was used to found a number of schools including Pympton Grammar School. Alice died on 20 June 1635, it would seem she had no children. She and her second husband are buried at Exeter Cathedral but there is a monument to both of her husbands at Bovey Tracey Church.
  • Temperance, aged 3 in 1583 (see below)
  • Margery, age 2 in 1583 thus born about 1581. She married Francis Ingoldsby of Boughton and they had a son John.

BoveyTraceyChurch_Devon_Chancel

The chancel of Bovey Tracey Church, Devon looking eastward. On the left (north) side , the monument with effigy of Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1618); on the south side the monument with effigy of Elize Hele (d.1635), who married Eveleigh’s widow Alice Bray. Photograph by Wikimedia commons user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0], retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

NicholasEveleigh_Died1618_BoveyTraceyChurch_Devon

Effigy in Bovey Tracey Church, Devon, of Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1618) of Parke in the parish of Bovey Tracey. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons by user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0]

Monument_ElizeHele_BoveyTraceyChurch_Devon_Panorama

Monument to Elize Hele in Bovey Tracy Church, Devon. Below his effigy are the kneeling effigies of his two wives, facing each other in prayer, behind the left one kneels his young son. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons by user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0]

In 1596 Temperance married Thomas Crew (1665 – 1634). Temperance was a kinswoman of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (1552 – 1616). Thomas Crew was in the service of the Earl. Thomas had been educated at Shrewsbury School and the Inns of Court.

Thomas Crew was first elected to Parliament in 1604 representing Lichfield.

Temperance and Thomas had nine children:

Kedleston Curzon geograph-4665806-by-David-Dixon

Memorial to Sir John Curzon, All Saints’ Church, South Transept, Kedleston Photograph from Geograph.org.uk

  • Temperance Crew (abt 1609 – 1634)
    • Temperance married John Browne (c 1608 – 1691) and died without having children. She is memorialised at Steane. In June 1660 Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he went to visit Mrs Browne. The 2000 edition published by University of California Press has annotated  that Mrs Browne was Elizabeth, second wife of John Browne, Clerk of the Parliaments: his first wife (d. 1634) was Temperance Crew, aunt of Montagu’s wife.
  • Silence Crew (abt 1611 – 1651)
    • Silence married Sir Robert Parkhurst (1603 – 1651) of Pyrford, Surrey, Member of Parliament. They had one son.
  • Salathiel Crew (1612 – 1686)
    • Attended Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculated 25 November 1631. Was a soldier. In 1641 there was a Certificate of residence showing Salathiel Crew (or the variant surname: Crewe) to be liable for taxation in Northamptonshire, and not in the half-hundred of Newport, Buckinghamshire, the previous area of tax liability. Salathiell Crew was appointed sherif of Rutland in 1652. Salathiel Crew was buried at Hinton in the Hedges. His will mentions his brother Thomas and two granddaughters, Isabella and Elizabeth. I have found no record of Salathiel’s marriage, children or military career other than the mention of militis in Oxford University Alumni.
  • Prudence Crew (1615 – 1641)
    • Prudence Crewe died unmarried in 1641. She left a will probated 10 June 1641.

Temperance Crewe died in 1619.

Sir Thomas rebuilt the chapel of St Peter at Steane in memory of his wife who was buried there and an altar Tomb bears her figure and that of Sir Thomas dressed in his Sergeants robes.On a tablet is this inscription:

“Temperans Crewe, the wife of Thomas Crewe, esq. And one of the daughters and coheirs of Reginald Bray, esq. By his wife Anne, his wife, daughter of Thomas Lord Vaux, died in the year of our Lord 25 October, 1619, in the year 38 of her age, and now restith from her labours, and hir works follow hir:
A daughter of Abraham here doth lye
Returned to her dust
Whole life was hid in Christ with God
In whom was all her trust
Who wifely wrought while it was day
And in hir spirit did watch and pray
To heare God’s word attentive was her care
Hir humble hart was full of holy feare
Hir hande which had good blood in every vaine
Yet was not dayntye nor did disdayne
Salve to applye to Lazarus fore
And was inlarged to the poore
Lyke God’s Angells she honor’d those
That taught his word and did his will disclose
And persons vile her hart abhor’d
But reverenst such as fear’d the Lord
A true Temperans in deed and name
Now gone to heaven from whence she came
Who with her lott was well contented
Who lived desired and dyed lamented.
Premissa non amissa, discessa non mortua
Conjux casta, parens foelix, matrona pudica,
Sara vivo, mundo Martha, Maria deo.”
[Having never lost, went out without having died, = Not lost, but gone before
A chaste wife, a happy parent, a modest lady,
A living Sara, a worldly Martha, Maria of god.]

Photographs of the chapel and the monument can be seen by clicking the links below:

Thomas Crew served as speaker of the House of Commons from 1623 – 1625. Thomas Crew was knighted in 1623.

To the end of his life Sir Thomas Crew continued to practice law.

Crew Thomas

Portrait of Sir Thomas Crewe, Speaker 1623 – 1625. Given by his descendant Ralph Cartwright, Esq. 1805. In the collection of the UK Parliament (catalogue number WOA 2702) Crew displeased James 1 by upholding the liberties of Parliament as ‘matters of inheritance, not of grace’ but later said by the King to be the ‘ablest Speaker known for years’.

Crewe died on 1 Feb. 1634, aged 68, and was buried with his wife under the  marble effigy in the chapel he had built at Steane. His funeral sermon praised the quickness of his wit, the firmness of his memory, and the readiness of his expression. He was said to be one who ‘set the stamp of religion on all his courses, in his whole conversation’, ‘a man exceeding conscionable’, ‘a marvellous great encourager of honest, laborious, religious ministers’, ‘the poor man’s lawyer’, and ‘a great lover of his country’.

Sources

I is for Ipswich: Hintlesham Hall and the Crespigny family

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Champion de Crespigny, Fonnereau, Parliament, Suffolk

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From about 1783 to 1790 Philip Crespigny (1738-1803) , my fifth great grandfather lived at Hintlesham Hall near Ipswich, Suffolk.

 

Hintlesham Hall in 2007. Photograph by Bob Jones retrieved from geograph.org.uk

The Hall is now a hotel. The following is extracted from a brief history of the building given on the hotel’s website.

Hintlesham Hall started as a small moated manor house, it was rebuilt and extended. Major construction which gave the Hall the looks it has today were a rebuilding from 1724, by the then owner, Richard Powys (1707-1743), with money he had made from the South Sea Bubble.

He raised the ceiling in Salon and Parlour cutting off access between the North and South wings so built on the Orangery and Long Gallery. He covered the original Elizabethan red brick frontage with the Georgian façade but left the original walls clear at the rear of the Hall. He moved the 1686 oak staircase to the end of the orangery and put in vertical sash windows throughout. He built the Stable block (now [a] Courtyard accommodation wing) and constructed the arch with cobbled driveway for a carriage and four to enter. Richard Powys died in 1743 nearly £4k in debt.

In 1747 Powys’ widow sold to Richard Lloyd (1696-1761), a successful political lawyer who became Solicitor General. It was while the Lloyd family owned the Hall that Philip Crespigny leased it.

Three of Philip’s children were born at the Hall:

  • George in 1783
  • Eliza in 1784
  • Charles in 1785
In 1785, Philip’s daughter Jane died at the Hall aged 19.
Philip Crespigny’s parliamentary career was linked to the area around Ipswich.
from Google maps showing Hintlesham Hall, Ipswich, Sudbury and Aldeburgh (click to enlarge)

Philip’s mother, Ann, was the daughter of Claude Fonnereau, a wealthy merchant. In 1734 Claude Fonnereau had bought  Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich.

Ann’s brother, and thus Philip’s uncle, Thomas Fonnereau (1699 – 1779) was returned for Sudbury in 1741 and sat for that constituency until 1768. Several of those years were in conjunction with Thomas Walpole who was a business connection. Thomas later sat for Aldeburgh from 1773 until his death in 1779.

In 1774 Crespigny was returned on the Fonnereau interest at Sudbury after a contest, but lost his seat on petition.

In 1780 Philip was returned unopposed at Aldeburgh on the Fonnereau interest, and at Sudbury after a contest. He held both seats until 1781 when he lost Sudbury on petition. He continued to sit for Aldeburgh until 1790.

My parents visited Hintlesham Hall in 2004.

My mother at the front of Hintlesham Hall
rabbits on the lawn from my parents’ window in the east wing
Sources
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E is for Eden Park, home of Wentworth Cavenagh

05 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Adelaide, Cavenagh, Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Parliament, politics, South Australia

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My great great grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh (1822-1895) was a member of the South Australian Parliament, elected in 1862 to represent Yatala, part of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. He served as Commissioner for Crown Lands and Immigration from 1868 to 1870 and Commissioner of Public Works from 1872 to 1873.

 

Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, member for Yatala. This is one of 36 portraits of members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1872-1875, in a composite compiled in 1872 (Picture from State Library of South Australia reference B1288-38)
James Shaw, oil-on-canvas painting ‘South Australian Parliament; the House of Assembly‘, c. 1867. Painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. I am not certain which of the parliamentarians portrayed is Wentworth Cavenagh.

Wentworth Cavenagh had arrived in South Australia in January 1853 on the Queen of Sheba. On 16 February 1865 he married Ellen Jane Mainwaring (1845-1920) at St Paul’s Church, Adelaide. They had ten children.

The Cavenagh family lived at a house called Eden Park in Marryatville two  miles from the city centre. Their oldest daughter Eva was born there in 1867. Their first child, James Gordon Cavenagh, had been born at Norwood in December 1865.

St Matthews Church is close to Eden Park. The Cavenaghs were involved in fundraising for the church. My grandmother, Kate (1874-1951), was running the bran pie (lucky dip) when she was 12. This was the beginning of a long career in fundraising for good causes.

 

CHURCH NEWS. (1886, December 13). The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 – 1889), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37164097
St Matthew’s Church Marryatville

In 1892 Ellen Cavenagh inherited the Mainwaring estate at Whitmore in Staffordshire, and the family left South Australia for England. The house at Eden Park was sold. With it went the grounds covering 21 acres and a tennis court and stables.

Advertising (1892, March 9). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48219128

In 1900 the house was purchased by Thomas Roger Scarfe who pulled down most of the old home and rebuilt it. Today the house is the Year 11 and 12 centre for Marryatville High School.

Marryatville High School occupies the grounds of Eden Park
The stables are now the music centre
The house, which is not the one the Cavenagh family lived in as this was built in 1900 by the Scarfe family, is now the year 11 and 12 centre.

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A pirate in the family tree

20 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in author, crime, lawyer, Mainwaring, Oxford, Parliament, piracy

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Sir Henry Mainwaring (1587-1653) was an English seaman who spent some of his career as a pirate on the Barbary coast. He was afterwards pardoned and knighted by King James.

My son, who is studying history, came across the pirate Henry Mainwaring and asked if we were related to him.  I replied that I did not think so, but I decided to check for a relationship.  Henry Mainwaring, I discovered, is my third cousin eleven times removed, a relative indeed, though not a close one.

The common ancestor of me and the pirate is Sir John Mainwaring (1470-1515) my 13 times great grandfather.  Sir John had gone to the French wars in the train of the Earl of Shrewsbury. He was knighted at Tournai in 1513. ( Metcalfe, Walter Charles, ed., Book of Knights Banneret, Knights of the Bath et., IV Henry VI to 1660, London (1885) page 50 ) Sir John Mainwaring was Henry Mainwaring’s great great grandfather.

Henry Mainwaring was the second son of Sir George Mainwaring and Ann More.  Henry studied at Oxford University. In 1604, about seventeen years old, he was admitted to the Inner Temple as a lawyer.

It is not clear how Henry became a seaman, but in 1610, at the age of about twenty-three, he was commissioned by the Lord High Admiral, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, to capture the pirate Peter Easton, who had been raiding Newfoundland.  Mainwaring was unsuccessful.  He was then given a letter of marque, becoming a privateer against Spanish shipping in the West Indies.  En route there he decided instead to attack Spanish shipping from the coast of Morocco.

Mainwaring was based at La Marmora, present day Mehdya, on the Morocco coast near Rabat, for four years from 1612. He had a fleet of thirty captured Spanish ships.  He claimed that he never attacked English ships.  The French and Spanish governments complained about Mainwaring to the English government and King James I sent an envoy with an offer of a free pardon if he promised to give up piracy. He was pardoned in 1616 and all those who served under him were granted an amnesty.

Later, Mainwaring became a hunter of pirates. He wrote a book on piracy, Discourse of Pirates, which he dedicated to the King.  He was knighted on 20 March 1618 and became one of King James’s courtiers and a friend of the King.

In 1620 he was appointed Lieutenant of Dover Castle and Deputy Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Dover. Around this time Mainwaring wrote the Seaman’s Dictionary. It was not published until 1644 but manuscript copies were distributed before then. It is considered the first authoritative treatise in seamanship.

Mainwaring offended Lord Zouche, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and was dismissed from his post at Dover Castle. Mainwaring sought the patronage of the Duke of Buckingham. At that time Buckingham was Lord High Admiral and it has been asserted that Buckingham and his masters made a serious attempt to reform the naval administration, and that in this Mainwaring played a considerable part. However Buckingham was assassinated in 1628 and Mainwaring lost his patron.

Mainwaring was not wealthy, and after Buckingham’s death, he attempted to improve his fortunes by marrying a rich widow.  She rejected him and in 1630 he eloped with a twenty-three year old heiress.  His father-in-law refused to provide a dowry until Mainwaring had made a settlement. Mainwaring’s wife died in 1633 and their only daughter died about 1640. Mainwaring was outlawed for debt in 1641. In 1651 an assessment of his worth in considering his debt stated that his entire property consisted of ‘a horse and wearing apparel to the value of £8’.

Mainwaring had joined the navy as a captain in 1636.  He was a Vice-Admiral by 1639.

During the English Civil War (1642-1651), Mainwaring joined the King at Oxford. Later he served with Royalist fleet.  He was with the sixteen-year-old Prince Charles, later King Charles II, at Jersey in 1646.

Mainwaring died in 1653, leaving no will.  He was buried at St Giles, Camberwell.  No gravestone, if there was one, has survived.

References and further reading

E. Hunt, “MAINWARING, SIR HENRY,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 20, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mainwaring_henry_1E.html.

Mainwaring, G. E. (ed.). 1920. The Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring. London: The Council of the Navy Records Society. https://archive.org/details/henrymainwaring02manwuoft

Pringle, Patrick Jolly Roger : the story of the great age of piracy. Dover Publications, 2012. pages 43-45 retrieved from Google Books http://books.google.com.au/books?id=WqXDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT43

Thrush Andrew “MAINWARING, Sir Henry (1586/7-1653), of Dover Castle, Kent; later of Camberwell, Surr.” The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790, 1964. Member Biographies from The History of Parliament Online. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/mainwaring-sir-henry-15867-1653>

“SIR HENRY MAINWARING.*.” The Spectator Archive. The Spectator, 19 Feb. 1921. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-february-1921/19/sir-henry-mainwaring>.

(Library Assistant), Nabila. “The Seaman’s Dictionary: ‘This Book Shall Make a Man Understand'” Royal Museums Greenwich. National Maritime Museum, 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/collections/by-type/archive-and-library/item-of-the-month/previous/the-seaman%27s-dictionary>

PEN PICTURES OF THE PAST. IN PIRATE DAYS. (1914, July 9). Cobram Courier (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 6. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129536151

Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803)

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Bath, Champion de Crespigny, Fonnereau, freemason, lawyer, Parliament, sheriff, Wales

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Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) was my fifth great grandfather (5*great).

Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738–1803), MP by John Opie; Oil on canvas, 47 x 36 cm Collection: Kelmarsh Hall. Image retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/philip-champion-de-crespigny-17381803-mp-49154

Philip was the fifth of seven children of Philip (1704-1765) and his wife Anne née Fonnereau.  He was born on 1 April at his father’s house at Doctors Commons in London. He was christened on 11 April at St Benets, Pauls Wharf. Philip senior was Marshall of the Court of Admiralty and Secretary of the French Hospital.

Extract from 18th century plan of Plan of Baynards Castle Ward & Faringdon Ward Within retrieved from http://www.londonancestor.com/maps/baynards.htm

In 1741 the family moved to Denmark Hill, Camberwell where Philip senior had taken a lease of a house and sixteen acres.

Philip’s older brother Claude (1734 – 1818) was educated at Eton and it is likely that Philip was also. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/crespigny-philip-champion-1803 )

In 1759 at the age of twenty-one, Philip became an advocate at Doctors’ Commons and was King’s Proctor from 1768  to 1784.  (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/crespigny-philip-champion-1803 )  
A proctor was a legal practitioner in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. A King’s Proctor acted in all causes concerning the King. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proctor) Doctors’ Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. The proctors, who were also associated with Doctors’ Commons, were like present-day common law solicitors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_Commons)

Marriages and children

Philip married four times. On 24 November 1762 Philip married Sarah Cocksedge in Norfolk. They married by licence; this licence was issued on 11 November.  Sarah and Philip had four children:
  • Thomas (1763 1799)
  • Philip (1765 – 1851)
  • Jane (1766 – 1785)
  • Anne (1768 – 1844)
Sarah died in April 1768 and was buried at St Marylebone on 13 April 1768. (‘Marylebone’, The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 242-279. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45438 Date accessed: 27 January 2014.)
Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Henry and Lydia Cocksedge. In 1764 title of Tottington manor passed to Philip as husband of Sarah.(Deeds of messuage held by Norfolk Record Office http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=153-wls&cid=23-19#23-19) Philip probably sold his Norfolk holdings in 1772 as recorded in a private act of Parliament: Philip Champion Crespigny’s estate: sale of hereditaments in Weeting (Norfolk) and purchase and settling others. (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/cy/changes/chron-tables/private/17)


Philip’s second marriage was to Betsy Hodges in about 1771.  Betsy was the widow of George Borradale whom she had married in 1765 (Parish Records Collection – marriage 1765 Hodges Borradale) Philip and Betsy had one son, Charles (1772 – 1774) who was christened 1 June 1772 in St Giles, Camberwell, and buried 21 October 1774 in the Church of St Albans. Betsy died in 1772, probably not long after giving birth to her son.  She was buried at St Marylebone on 22 May 1772.

Betsy Hodges (d.1772), Second Wife of Philip Champion de Crespigny by George Romney(circle of) Oil on canvas, 75 x 62 cm Collection: Kelmarsh Hall retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/betsy-hodges-d-1772-second-wife-of-philip-champion-de-cres49163

Philip’s third marriage was to Clarissa, daughter of James Brook of Rathbone Place. They married on 1 July 1774 at St Marylebone by licence with the consent of her father. She was a minor, of the parish of St Marylebone. Philip was recorded as an Esquire of Walton upon Thames, County of Surry, widower. He signed his name PC Crespigny. The witnesses were James Brooke and Hester Brooke.

The Gentleman’s Magazine London, England July, 1774 retrieved from http://theoldentimes.com/crespignybrooke74uk.html

 Clarissa and Philip had four children:

Clarissa and her children were painted in 1780 by George Romney.  Romney’s diary notes that the painting was oval and he charged fifty pounds.  In 1780 Horace Walpole apparently noted George Romney’s “rise to fashion”. (http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2002/george-romney/biography.php)

Clarissa Champion de Crespigny and her children by George Romney. The painting was last sold in 1986 from a private seller to a private buyer through the London dealers Leger Galleries.  This image is from a reproduction of the painting and came from Alex Kidson, Research Fellow of the Romney Society.

Clarissa died in 1782 and was buried at St Marylebone on 22 May. She was about twenty-seven years old. A short biographical piece about her father refers to her as an amiable and accomplished lady who died in the prime of her life.

Smith, Thomas. (2013). A Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of St. Mary-Le-Bone, Comprising a Copious Description of Its Public Buildings, Antiquities, Schools, Charitable Endowments, Sources of Public Amusement, &c. London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1833)retrieved from
http://www.forgottenbooks.org/books/A_Topographical_and_Historical_Account_of_the_Parish_of_St_1000735867 The same obituary appeared elsewhere, for example in the Hampshire Chronicle of 2 November 1807.

Philip’s fourth marriage was in 1783 to Dorothy Scott (1765 – 1837), daughter of Richard Scott of Betton Strange Hall near Shrewsbury. (London Magazine vol 52 pg 103 1783)

Jonathan Scott (1754 – 1829), one of Dorothy’s brothers,  was an early translator of what was then called ‘The Arabian Nights Entertainment’, better known now as ‘The 1001 Nights’. (http://shrewsburylocalhistory.org.uk/scott.htm)

Dorothy and Philip had four children

  • George (1783 – 1813) killed in Spain
  • Eliza (1784 – 1831) who married the first Lord Vivian having eloped to Gretna Green (Ancestry.com. Gretna Green, Scotland, Marriage Registers, 1794-1895 [database on-line].)
  •  Charles Fox (1785 – 1875) my fourth great grandfather
  • Dorothea (1800 – 1800) born and died in Bath (I am not sure where I have the information for this child, I am unable to find any records associated with her and it seems surprising that she was born so many years after her siblings, though her mother did have a child after 1804 following her second marriage).

After Philip’s death Dorothy married again to Sir John Keane (1757 – 1829) and had a son, George Michael Keane.

Dorothy’s portrait was painted by George Romney in 1790 with Romney’s diary noting “1790 Wed 17 March Mrs Chrspaney at 1/2 pt 2”. He charge forty-two pounds for the oil on canvas. Dorothy’s great grandson George Harrison Champion de Crespigny (1863 – 1945) sold the painting through Christies on 27 April 1901 for ₤5,880-00. (“HIGH PRICES FOR PICTURES AND ENGRAVINGS.” Otago Witness 3 July 1901: 75. Papers Past — Otago Witness. National Library of New Zealand. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW19010703.2.234.1>) The painting is now in the John Howard McFadden Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/103821.html)

Portrait of Mrs. Champion de Crespigny [née Dorothy Scott] from http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/103821.html

 Parliamentary career

In 1774 Crespigny was returned on the Fonnereau interest at Sudbury after a contest, but lost his seat on petition. (Drummond, Mary M. “CRESPIGNY, Philip Champion (d.1803), of Burwood, Nr. Cobham, Surr.” The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790, 1964. Member Biographies from The History of Parliament Online. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/crespigny-philip-champion-1803>.)

Philip’s mother was  the daughter of Claude Fonnereau, a wealthy merchant. Her brother,and thus Philip’s uncle,  Thomas Fonnereau (1699 – 1779) was returned for Sudbury in 1741 and sat for that consituency until 1768. Several of those years were in conjunction with Thomas Walpole who was a business connection. Thomas later sat for Aldeburgh from 1773 until his death in 1779. (Namier, Sir Lewis. “FONNEREAU, Thomas (1699-1779), of Ipswich, Suff.” The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790, 1964. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/fonnereau-thomas-1699-1779>.) (Thomas Fonnereau. (2013, December 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:03, January 28, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Fonnereau&oldid=587412088)

In 1780 Philip was returned unopposed at Aldeburgh on the Fonnereau interest, and at Sudbury after a contest. He held both seats until 1781 when he lost Sudbury on petition, and continued to sit for Aldeburgh until 1790.

Only one speech is recorded from Philip when he spoke in 1781 against the bill for excluding contractors from the House of Commons.

Extract from the debate in the House of Commons (Debrett, ii. 296.) retrieved from Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons. Vol. 2. page 296.: J. Debrett, 1781. Google Books. 2007. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1-kMAAAAYAAJ>.

The exclusion of contractors from the House of Commons was first introduced in 1779 and was part of political reform receiving an impetus from the American Revolution. The bill finally passed at the end of 1782 and it placed on the exclusion list anybody who had a contract with the treasury, the navy, the victualling office, the master-general, or the board of ordinance, …  Before this reform, “the fact that a man had a contract with the Government laid him under the necessity of receiving orders from the Treasury as to his political conduct.”  George III was said to turn all government expenditures to political account and “maintained a corps of subservient members in the House of Commons”. Vast sums were disbursed to contractors for the navy and army between 1770 and 1782 which some asserted were an abuse of the contract process and designed to buy political support. (Porritt, Edward. The Unreformed House of Commons. : Cambridge UP, 1963. Google Books. CUP Archive. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <books.google.com.au/books?id=57c8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA219>. pages 219-220)

 Philip supported the administration of Lord North who was prime-minister from 1770-1782 and who later served in a coalition, the Fox-North coalition, with Charles James Fox in 1783. Philip named his youngest son, Charles James Fox Champion de crespigny,  after Charles James Fox.

Houses

Philip died in his house at 5 Portland Place, Bath.  The house is one of ten symmetrical terrace houses built in 1786 by John Eveleigh. Number 5 is the largest house in the terrace and was built for P. C. Crespigny. 

Portland Place, Bath image from Google street view http://goo.gl/maps/seYvj. Number 5 is the house centred on the triangular pediment.  It has five windows across and a central front door. Its neighbours’ front doors are aligned either to the left or the right. To the front of the house is a ramp which was provided for easier access by sedan chairs.

The house together with number 4 was converted into a school from 1875 until 1994. In 1994 both houses were converted to flats. The house, together with its neighbours, is Grade II heritage listed.  (“List Entry: 1-10, PORTLAND PLACE.” National Heritage Protection Plan. English Heritage, 15 Oct. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1394403>.)

Philip de Crespigny leased Hintleham Hall near Ipswich in Suffolk. His children George, Eliza, and Charles were born there between 1783 and 1785. In 1785 his daughter Jane died at Hintlesham Hall. At that time Hintlesham Hall was owned by Richard Lloyd, a political lawyer who became Solicitor-General.(http://www.hintleshamhall.co.uk/history.html)

In 1794 Philip de Crespigny bought Talyllyn  House and the Manor of Llangasty Talyllyn in Breconshire together with 2000 acres for £1600. In the advertisement for the sale the house was described as “a good old stone built and slated Mansion House… to which the present Proprietor meant to have added a regular Building” While owned by the de Crespignys, the house and outbuildings were extensively remodelled.  From 1810 the estate was leased as a farm. It was sold in 1838 by Philip’s son Charles Fox de Crespigny. Philip and his son Charles both served as High Sheriff of Brecknockshire or Breconshire, Philip in 1796 and Charles in 1812. The house was destroyed in the nineteenth century. (“History of the Farm.” Tŷ-Mawr. Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://www.lime.org.uk/history-of-the-farm/>.)

Tal-y-llyn: St. Mary’s church and the hamlet at the end of the lake, photograph about 1885. Image retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tal-y-llyn,_Gwynedd

Other land purchases by Philip include Creeting All Saints in Surrey bought from the Bridgeman family. (http://forebears.co.uk/england/suffolk/creeting-st-olave)

Freemason

Philip was a Freemason. In 1781 he was Grand Steward for Somerset House Lodge. (http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/prestonian_lectures_volume_3.htm)