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Brief on James Griffith Dearden 1839-1912
(original owner of the uniform now in DLOY Regimental Museum)
prepared by Diane & John Tustin November 2010
Born in 1839 only surviving child of James Dearden of The Manor House (or Orchard House), Rochdale he progressed to Eton. In June 1857 he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, where his father James was a barrister-at-law. In the same month, having secured his place at Lincoln’s Inn he went up to Trinity Hall Cambridge; the family at this time were at Upton House, Poole, Dorset.
He was called to the bar in 1862, assumed the additional surname, Griffith in 1865, became JP for Lancashire and died at Walcot Hall, in the county of Northampton on 12th October 1912.
It was in the November of his first year at Cambridge that he joined the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry; his commanding officer was Lieutenant Colonel George Granville Francis Egerton, 2nd Earl of Ellesmere. He served as Cornet until 1861 when he resigned his commission. There was a family tradition of service with his grandfather James serving in the Rochdale Volunteers. He is shown on the 1861 census as being at Canford, Poole.
Both as JP and owner of many mines in Lancashire he also visited for the shooting each season on Blackstone Edge.
Figure 1: Manor House (or Orchard House) c.1900, Rochdale had been in the family since 1745.
On 2 December 1913 the contents of the Manor House were sold following the death of James Griffith Dearden and the building gradually fell into disrepair. This was the site chosen for the Rochdale WWI monument, the house having been used as a recruiting station throughout the First World War years.
The Ferneley painting (below), purchased by the museum in 1987, whilst featuring the Lancashire Hussars, our brother cavalry regiment, gives an excellent impression of a mounted regiment on parade when James joined the DLOY.
Figure 2:
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Robert Tolver Gerard, Bt, and His Regiment, the Lancashire Hussars, on Parade
John E. Ferneley I (1782–1860)
Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry Museum
Figure 3a - d: The Dearden Uniform and attached newspaper cutting.
Funding of the Dearden Uniforms - Note from Martin Steiger (Trustee)
The uniform was sold at Tennants in Leyburn as lot 86 in their sale of 25 February 2010. We [Trustees] got support from the V&A Fund (Julia Brettell) but only as far as £5.2K which was their valuation. The lot actually went for £8K to an Andrew Bottomley although we had a bidder in the room. I asked Tennants to put us in touch with the purchaser with a copy of the Regimental history as a sweetener. Bottomley offered to sell to us for £11K which we eventually raised via the V&A grant, contributions from well wishers and a bridging loan from Squadron funds.
I see we actually had a party at Wigan to thank the contributors
Click on the image for a full view.
Figure 4: James Griffith Dearden, Lord of The Manor, Rochdale
John Charlton (1849–1917)
Notes by Diane Tustin 4th March 2012,
James Griffith Dearden
The result of my research is as follows:-
James Griffith Dearden was a bachelor. He owned land and property in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Lincolnshire Northamptonshire border area.
When he died in 1912 he left a large sum of money and lands in Lincolnshire to his secretary and librarian Samuel Coe, formerly his footman. The Rochdale Manor House was sold. His residence Walcot Hall, in Lincolnshire, was inherited by his son James William Dearden (formerly Parker – see below)
The site of the Rochdale manor house is now the Memorial Park in Rochdale.
The Rochdale common lands and title were inherited by the eldest child of his cousin Peregrine Royds Dearden, Peregrine Robert, who died in 1918. Peregrine Robert had 2 sons, James Ferrand and Peregrine Robert.
Following the death of James Ferrand in WW1 the second son, Peregrine Robert became ‘Lord of the Manor’. This branch of the family lived in New Zealand and the UK. The descendants still lived in New Zealand when Lt Cdr. Peregrine Robert Dearden RN died there in 1952. The title is currently (2012) held by his descendant Jeremy James Dearden who farms in the Hawkes Bay area.
James Griffith Dearden’s son was James William Parker, born 8th November 1872. James William was educated at Haileybury School and Trinity Cambridge. He changed his name to Dearden and graduated BA as such in 1896. He is shown as the son of James Griffith Dearden in the Trinity Cambridge Records. James William Dearden married Ellen Gertrude Evans on 2nd June 1913. They had one son Arthur John born in 1917. Walcot Hall was used by the USAAF in WW2, when James W and his wife, Ellen, lived in Grasmere. James W lost heart in the estate following the death of his son, Arthur John, in WW2. The house and contents were sold in 1963.
Arthur John was married to Angela Burges in 1940. They had one son Peter J Dearden born in 1941.
Arthur John was killed in December 1941. Peter appears to have been brought up by his grandparents. James William died in 1954 and Ellen Gertrude in 1958.
Peter Dearden was the seller of the James Griffith uniform. He is living and residing in Rutland.
There is a large portrait by John Charlton of James Griffith Dearden in the Touchstones Museum in Rochdale (Figure 4).
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