Part 1 Spettisbury House 1735-1800

“I have had the satisfaction of obtaining an Act of Parliament to dissolve my marriage with my late Wife Catherine Seymour and to set aside the articles or settlement entered into on the said Marriage or agreed to made by me for the benefit of her or the Issue of the said Marriage I also think it incumbent on me to declare in this solemn manner that the child of which it is …ed in the said Act that she was delivered in the month of November one thousand seven hundred and eighty during her separation from me was and is a Bastard and that I never had any Son by the said Catherine nor have ever cohabited with her nor been in her sight or company since we parted at Paris in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven and I direct and desire my said devisees to withstand to the utmost all attempts which may be made to set up the said child or any child or children of the said Catherine as heir or heirs to me or my family”

During the fifteen years that John Newton was living in Spetisbury he made many additions and improvements to the house. According to Geoffrey Webb, “the later building seems to have been at the back of the house, where there is an indescribable confusion of work of different dates, traces of the original Tudor house cropping up in places”

It appears that John Newton first tried to sell his estate at Spetisbury in 1774 since there was an advertisement in the Salisbury Journal at that time stating “To be sold, a Capital Mansion House, with large Gardens, Stables, Coach-houses, & other Outhouses thereto adjoining, big enough for a Gentleman that has a large Family & keeps a number of Horses, together with a Farm thereunto belonging, consisting of a Farm-house, with proper Barns, Stables, Outhouses, & several Closes of Arable, Meadow, and Pasture Land thereunto belonging, of about the yearly Value of £200.” (Appendix 6)

In March 1777 he put up the estate for auction. In an advertisement in the Salisbury Journal in March 1777 the house was described as:

“an elegant Mansion House forming a Centre and two Wings, fit for a Nobleman’s Family, containing on the Ground Floor a large dining Parlour, elegantly furnished in Stucco; two other Parlours neatly fitted up; a Withdrawing Room superbly finished, and hung with crimson Damask; a spacious Hall, Housekeeper’s Room, Cellars & etc. On the next Story are four Dressing Rooms, & six Bed Chambers. On the attic Story are six Bedchambers together with proper Rooms for Servants; the whole commanding a most beautiful prospect of the Country. Adjoyning the House are a fine Range of Outbuildings such as spacious & convenient Kitchens, Larders, Bake-house, Brew-house, Wash-house, Laundry, Servants’ Hall, Dairy, Dove-house, Poultry-house, Grainery, and Stabling for near 30 Horses, with Servants’ Room over the same.The Garden around the above Premises is genteely laid out, and consists of about six acres, with Green-house, Hot-house, Summer-house, & every convenience therein. Contiguous thereto runs the River Stour, with an extensive right of Fishery; as also Hunting, Fowling, & etc over the Manor of Sturminster Marshall.”

John Newton was obviously determined to make a clean sweep of things as he also sold all his household effects.

“The Mansion House, Outbuildings, Gardens & Farm will be sold in one lot. Immediately after the Sale of which will follow the Household Furniture which consists of elegant standing Beds, with Damask, Chintz, Cotton, Morine, & other Furniture, & Window Curtains of the same; fine seasoned Goose Feather beds, Mattrasses, Blankets, Quilts, & Counterpanes, rich Pier & Dressing Glasses, Mahogany Furniture in Bureaus, Drawers, Book-cases, Dining, Card, Pillar, & Pembroke Tables, Side-board Ditto, Sophas & Chairs, rich Axminster, Turkey & Wilton Carpets; eight day Clocks in Mahogany & Jappanned Cases; together with good Kitchen Furniture, Brewing Utensils, some Wines, etc.” (Appendix 7)

This advertisement, in fact, led to further trouble for John Newton. For some time he had been having a dispute with John Trenchard, the Lord of the Manor of Sturminster Marshall, over the sporting rights of that place. Two days after the advertisement appeared John Trenchard was writing “I am surprised to see in the Advertisement of Mr. Newton’s House & Lands in Spetisbury, a Claim of Sporting Rights over the Manor of Sturminster Marshall, and the more so as Mr. Newton cannot forget the prosecution of his pretended Game-keeper Lovell for killing a Hare there under that supposed Right, which prosecution Mr. Newton stopped by paying the damages and costs incurred thereby.” There followed a protracted legal battle from which I imagine no one benefited except the lawyers.

The Williams Onslow Family 1777-1783

The house, together with the farm, was sold to John Williams Onslow Esq. of Cranley, Hampshire (1716-1779). John Williams Onslow was the second son of Sir John Williams of Tendring Hall, Stoke Nayland, Suffolk, some time Lord Mayor of London, and his wife Dame Mary Williams, a daughter of Lord Onslow. He assumed his mother's surname of Onslow. He married Charlotte Maria, the daughter of Sir Anthony Thomas Abdy of Felix Hall in Essex in 1744 and they had three sons, one of whom, Anthony Thomas Williams, died young.

The Williams Onslow marriage certainly seems to have been a much happier one than that of John Newton. In his will of 1779 (Appendix 8), John Williams Onslow of Spetisbury left “all and singular my Manors Messuages Farms Lands Tenements and Hereditaments whatsoever situate lying and being in the County of Sussex and in or near Spetisbury aforesaid in the said County of Dorset with their and every of their Rights Members and Appurtenances and all my Estate and Interest therein unto and to the use of my dear and affectionate Wife Charlotte Maria Williams Onslow and her Assigns for and during the term of her natural life”. He also gave “unto my said dear Wife all her Jewels Rings Watch and other Ornaments of the person…….all the Household Goods and Furniture Plate Pictures and Linen with all the provisions and Liquors of every kind Horses Cattle Coach and Carriages Implements of Husbandry and Gardening Hay Corn Straw and Outdoor Stock of every kind in about or belonging to my Dwelling House and grounds at the time of my decease to and for her own use and benefit absolutely”. It appears that the Williams Onslow family lived in some style at Spetisbury House.

John Williams Onslow also owned property in Surrey which he left to his elder son, also John Williams Onslow. The younger son, James, was to inherit £8000.

John Williams Onslow only lived in the house for two years before his death in 1779 and his wife Charlotte Maria died twenty three years later in 1801; both were buried in the churchyard at Spetisbury. John Williams Onslow, the younger died in 1790 without issue and was buried in Isleworth, Middlesex. The younger son, James Williams Onslow Esq., and his wife Charlotte (née Ryves of Ranston, Dorset) remained in Spetisbury for a while, their second child being baptised in Spetisbury Church in 1782. Charlotte died in 1785 aged about 25 and was buried at Shroton.

On 4^th November 1782 the Salisbury & Winchester Journal was advertising:

To be SOLD, a Capital Brick MANSION-HOUSE, with the Gardens and Offices of every kind, late the residence of John Williams Onslow, Esquire, deceased, and fit for the residence of a large family of distinction; together with the manor of Middle-street, with its appurtenances, and about 470 acres of land, chiefly inclosed. The whole situate in the parish of Spetisbury, within three miles of the town of Blandford, and upon the turnpike road from Blandford to Poole.

Joseph Jekyll 1783-1800

The heirs of John Williams Onslow senior sold the mansion house and estate to Joseph Jekyll Esq. Joseph was a great nephew of the well-known Sir Joseph Jekyll (1663-1738), Master of the Rolls, who had been notorious for increasing the duty on gin. He was also a cousin of another Joseph Jekyll M.P. (1754-1837), a barrister and wit who became Solicitor-General and who was the grandfather of the famous Gertrude Jekyll. Unlike his illustrious namesakes, Joseph Jekyll of Spetisbury seemed to have lived a quiet life as a country gentleman. Some of his income came from sugar plantations in Dominica.

Joseph was born in 1735 and baptised at St. Andrews, Holborn. He was appointed Factor for Bengal in London in Nov 1759 and Chief at Patna in Apr 1771. In 1773 he married 25 year-old Catherine Rokeby in Northamptonshire; she died two years later. In 1779 he then married at St. George’s, Hanover Square, Westminster, Elizabeth Jekyll, the widow of another of his cousins, the Rev. Dr. John Jekyll, who already had seven small children between three and seven years old.. Joseph and Elizabeth had one daughter, Helen, in 1780. The Jekyll family lived together in Spetisbury House for seventeen years.

Elizabeth’s daughter Ann died in 1785 aged twelve and Elizabeth herself died in 1797 aged 52 and was buried at Spetisbury (Dec 4 1797) where there is a eulogistic memorial (a white marble wall tablet) to her on the north wall of St. John’s Church.

Professor Geoffrey Webb, writing in 1925, described Spettisbury House as a fine country house built for John (not William) Hody in 1735 by the famous master-builder/architects, the brothers John and William Bastard of Blandford Forum. “The front (of the house) appears homogenous, and should the wings be later than the centre, as the relative heights of the storeys might suggest, the transition from the low centre feature to the greater height of the wings has been effected in such a masterly way as to convince one against any evidence that this is the original intention of the design. The centre itself is a fine composition; the effect of the important attic storey and the low broad pediment containing a Venetian window, an admirable device, is particularly good. The capitals of the pilasters, and indeed the whole order with its brick frieze, is a charming variant.” Professor Webb believed that Spettisbury House is “ perhaps the best example we have of these two architects” but that “the interior has been so much altered to suit the needs of the different religious bodies that have occupied it of recent years, that the original arrangements and decorations are quite irrecoverable”.

Spettisbury House

The attribution of Spettisbury House to the Bastard brothers has no documentary evidence but it does show typical characteristics of the Bastard’s architectural style. There is an idiosyncrasy about their work that is almost as good as a trademark. This is a peculiar form of capital, which can only be called the “Bastard” capital. Instead of the volutes curving outwards in the usual way, they curve inwards to give an entirely distinctive effect. At Spettisbury House the pediment is supported by pilasters which terminate in these baroque capitals with the in-turning volutes. These baroque capitals, which occur on other buildings in Dorset, are regarded as an architectural hallmark of the Bastards. And according to the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments, Spettisbury House “appears to show affinities with the facade of Coupar House in Blandford Forum” which is another example of the Bastard brothers’ work (now the Royal British Legion building).

Pilaster with the “Bastard” capital at Spettisbury House

William Hody lived in Spettisbury House for five years until 1740 when he died without issue. He was buried in a recessed tomb in the South East Chancel of Wimborne Minster along with two other members of the Hody family from Middle Street, Spettisbury (his father John Hody 1710 and his brother Arthur Hody 1717).

Tomb in Wimborne Minster

The property passed by William’s will (Appendix 1) to his younger brother Edward Hody. Edward Hody had studied at Cambridge, at Leyden and at Rheims. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733, was a Physician to St George’s Hospital and was for some time a churchwarden of St. George’s, Hanover Square in London. Edward’s wife Elizabeth died in Spetisbury in 1746 and in the parish register of St. John’s, Spetisbury is noted “Burial of Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Edward Hody 2 Apr1746”.

Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes 1750-1761

In 1750 Edward Hody sold Spettisbury House to Rear-Admiral Holmes. Charles Holmes (1711-1761) was born in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, the eleventh of the sixteen children of Henry Holmes, the Governor of the Isle of Wight. He had started his career at the age of sixteen as an “ordinary seaman” but by 1734 had been made a lieutenant and in 1741 received his first command, that of a fireship. While in the West Indies, during 1747, Holmes was made captain of the 70-gun Lennox, one of the largest war ships in the British Navy.

Between the wars, during the years 1748-1754, Charles Holmes served in “home waters” and it was obviously during this period that he purchased Spettisbury House, although it is not clear how much time he spent in the house, if indeed, he resided there at all.

Charles Holmes was a known patron of the famous brothel keeper Mother Jane Douglas in Covent Garden; there is reference to an illegitimate child (gender unknown) allegedly the result of a scandalous affair with her. The affair occurred sometime after 1746 when “Douglas herself became pregnant; the child was thought to be Lord Fitzwilliam's and was the subject of much debate, although Rear Admiral Charles Holmes, another of Douglas' lovers, later turned out to be the father."

In 1758 Holmes was also elected Member of Parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight, a seat he held until his death three years later.

In memory of

ELIZABETH JEKYLL

Wife of JOSEPH JEKYLL of Spetisbury Esq. who

died the 27 Nov 1797 in the 52 Year of her Age,

after having supported with the utmost fortitude

a very long and painful illness yet could not

that abate either her unremitted attention

to her domestick affairs or anxious solicitude

for the welfare and happiness of her Children

and Family, she was a most dutifully affectionate

Wife, a tender fond Parent, & of such benevolent

dispositions as directed all her Actions to

universal Charity and Beneficience

In the same Vault was interred

ANN JEKYLL second daughter of the above

ELIZ^TH JEKYLL by her first Marriage with

The Rev. D. JEKYLL, Dean of St.Davids &

who died Aug 17^th 1783 in ye 12 Year of her Age

(The burial register says Anne, daughter of Rev Dr. Jekyll was buried Aug 23 1785)

In 1800, three years after Elizabeth’s death, Joseph sold all his property in Spetisbury and moved to Bath where in 1802 he married for a third time to Lucy Sanford. Joseph died in Bath in 1814.

The name Jekyll, of course, has become famous through the novel of Robert Louis Stevenson. It may have been Joseph’s cousin, the barrister, who practised law on the Western Circuit, who was responsible for R.L.S.’s choice of this name.

During the summer of 1885, R.L.Stevenson spent a brief holiday in Dorchester and met with his friend and fellow literary giant, Hardy. As a leading member of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Hardy was fond of strolling around the County Museum and examining its new displays. It seems likely that Hardy would have taken his friend and fellow author, who was staying at the King's Arms Hotel, a few minutes' walk from the museum, to enjoy its displays of local history. That spring, the museum had acquired a new and important document, one likely to have been exhibited to the public. This was a seemingly innocuous book called The Civil Division of the County of Dorset, a 90-year-old local Who's Who containing maps, government directories and lists of magistrates. In the book we find the names of two long-dead Justices of the Peace listed side by side: Thomas Hyde (an entrepreneur) and Joseph Jekyll (a barrister), who that autumn became Jekyll and Hyde of literature and legend, symbols of the opposites of good and evil that reside within us all^.

Francis Fane 1800

In 1800 Joseph Jekyll sold Spettisbury House to Francis Fane Esq (1752 – 1813), Lord of the Manor of Spettisbury and M.P. for Dorchester, who lived at Spettisbury Manor, which was sited near the Church and was subsequently demolished to make way for the railway. Francis Fane was the second son of Henry Fane Esq. M.P. for Lyme, from whom he had inherited the Manor. He seemed to have been an ideal Lord of the Manor since, as well as adding to the Manor House and improving the grounds, he also repaired and whitewashed the cottages of the poor in Spetisbury giving the place an air of well-being. In the Dorset Poll Book for 1807 Francis Fane was one of only two men in Spettisbury who were entitled to vote.

Francis Fane did not hold on to Spetisbury House for long: he sold it again later that year to a Mrs.Tunstall for 3000 guineas. Nine years later in 1809 he sold the whole of his estate in Spetisbury, remarking at the time, in a letter to the Rev. Thomas Rackett (the Rector of Spetisbury Church) that “Never was a village more upside down than poor Spetisbury. Subordination appears dwindling away as nothing but Independence is now to be found amongst our labourers”

Mrs. Mary Tunstall 1800

Mrs. Tunstall, was the widow of Marmaduke Tunstall of Wycliffe Hall, Yorkshire, a renowned naturalist and fellow of the Royal Society. They had married in 1776 but had no children and after his death in 1790 Mrs Tunstall, who had ample means, lived in various religious houses.

In 1800 Mrs Tunstall was living with the Augustinian nuns and provided them with the 3000 guineas necessary for them to purchase the house at Spetisbury.

“The house, formerly called the Mansion House in 1800 passed from F.Fane to Mrs. Tunstall who bought it for £3,150 for the English Augustinian Canonesses, who a few years before had returned from Louvain.”

At this time religious in England were not allowed to acquire property, so Mrs. Tunstall, with the approval of the Bishop, Dr.Gregory Sharrock, Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, bought the house on behalf of the Augustinian Canonesses and it became known as St. Monica’s Priory. According to Sister Margaret Mary, the Archivist of the Augustinian Canonesses, “religious communities not then being sanctioned by Government we could not purchase it in our own names. She (Mrs. Tunstall) signed a declaration of trust acknowledging the property to belong to us”

The Sale Particulars (Appendix 9) described the estate as follows; “The Manor of Middle Street extends over upwards of 400 Acres of Land, in one of the finest Sporting Counties of England, and abounds with GAME; with free Fishery in the RIVER STOUR, which runs through a great Part of the Manor, and is well stocked with TROUT and other FISH” and the house which Mrs. Tunstall bought as a “Capital Mansion House, in perfect repair, and fitted up in a style of Peculiar Elegance and Conveniency, for the Residence of a Family of Distinction”. On the ground floor was a large entrance hall and principal staircase, a dining parlour and a drawing room, both 30ft. by 20ft., a smaller dining parlour 18 ft. square, a library, a dressingroom, a housekeeper’s room, servants’ hall, etc. On the first floor were six good bedchambers and four dressing rooms. In the attics were six more good bedchambers and servants’ rooms. There were coach houses and stabling for 20 horses. There was a laundry, brewhouse, dairy house, cow yard, poultry houses and a dove house well stocked with pigeons. The gardens consisted of 4 acres of Pleasure Ground and Shrubbery around the house “laid out with much taste” and bounded by the River Stour, which divided the Pleasure ground from some beautiful meadows also belonging to the estate. There was an excellent kitchen garden of about 2 acres, about 200 yards from the house “enclosed by a very good Wall”, covered with fruit trees and intersected by espaliers. There were two large hot houses, a green house and an ice house.

The estate also came with “a very eligible farm” of 430 acres of meadow, arable and pasture land with a value of £450 per annum, and a good brick built farm house with barns, stables and other buildings, situated about a mile from the Mansion House (now known as South Farm).

Mrs Tunstall was still living at Spetisbury in 1804 when she welcomed the Visitation nuns who were to settle at Acton House in London. For a while she also lived with these nuns at Acton. Mrs Tunstall herself entered the convent at Acton as a postulant, but quickly found out, to her great grief, that she was not fitted for life in a Community.

In 1810 she provided the £10000 necessary to purchase Sales House at Shepton Mallet for the Visitation nuns and in 1814 she went to live with these nuns at Sales House and remained there until her death on 28th Oct 1825 at the age of 74 years.

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Charles Holmes, Rear Admiral of the Blue 1758

In 1759 Holmes, by now a Rear-Admiral, was in North American waters where he was to participate in the successful siege of Quebec. Acting as third in command under Major-General James Wolfe, he played a critical role in drawing French troops off and away from Quebec, as he was able to get a squadron of ships past the French guns and up river. Holmes dictated a report of this engagement, “the most hazardous and difficult task I was ever engaged in” for his superiors at the Admiralty, a copy of which is in the British Library. (Appendix 2)

In 1760 Holmes was appointed Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica, where he died the following year aged 50; there is a memorial to him at Westminster Abbey. Beneath a large statue of the Admiral (the last one in the Abbey to depict a military hero wearing the dress of a Roman soldier) is inscribed:

To the memory of Charles Holmes Esq

Rear Admiral of the White. He died the XXIst

of November MDCCLXI Commander in Chief of his

Majesty’s Fleet Station’d at Jamaica, aged L

Erected by his Gratefull Neeces

Mary Stanwix & Lucretia Sowle

In 1754, when he wrote his will, (Appendix 3) Charles Holmes was living with a lady called Henrietta Maria Marshall and after bequests to various people including his mother, brothers and sisters, (and £6500 and his paintings to Henrietta), he left his estate to be divided between Henrietta and “any Child or Children born of the Body of the said Henrietta Maria Marshall within Eight Lunary Months from the Day of my Death”, and the children of his sister Lucretia, wife of Marmaduke Sowle of Blandford. This estate included “all that Capital Messuage called Middlestreet situate and being in the Parish of Spetisbury in the County of Dorset with the Gardens Stables Buildings lands and Appurtenances.” In 1760 he was still with Henrietta because after the death of his mother, he wrote to her from his ship then off the Isle of Wight, adding further bequests to her.

My dear Henny Marshall

This from the Back of the Isle of Wight with a fair Wind yesterday we was obliged to come to Durner? again at St Swithins it proving calm lett no opportunity slip in Writing to me don’t be uneasy if you have no letters these four months from me for in all probability there will be none unless the Vessel with the Chan… not yet arrived but I don’t apprehend I shall loose it Yours of the 7^th March 1760 I received after I was under Sail Condoling with me on the death of my Mother the picture of me that my Mother had I gave her only for her Life I give it to you after my decease as I do the four hundred pounds I left my Mother in my Will which Will is in your possession as she is dead before me I give you the above but only as a present for my absence and independent of what I leave you in my Will my picture I beg you would not move out of the Isle of Wight nor lett any one know its yours my Reasons I will give you if ever we have the pleasure to meet I am my dear Henny very sincerely and affectionately yours Charles Holmes Cambridge at the Back of the Isle of Wight 10^th March 1760

PS What I have left you in my will I mean and intend you should have and this is only so much more for you my dear Henny Marshall Yours Chas Holmes In the Channel 10^th March 1760

On 9^th November 1761 while in Jamaica, Charles, now Rear-Admiral of the White and Commander in Chief of all His Majesties Ships at and about Jamaica, added a further codicil to his will, “to prevent disputes after my decease do hereby think proper to confirm and declare valid to all intents and purposes my last Will and Testament made some years ago and left with Mrs Henrietta Maria Marshall generally called Mrs Holmes.” He died 12 days later.

John Newton 1761-1777

After Admiral Holmes’ death, his executors sold the farm (value £200 per annum) with the manor annexed. In an advertisement in a London newspaper in 1761 (Appendix 4) “the entire new Farm House with necessary Outhouses” was described as “let to Farmer Williams at £148 per annum”. The house itself was “a Mansion House elegantly fronted & proper Outhouses; with a large garden, both ornamental & useful, stored with the best of Fruits of all Sorts, & bounded by the River Stour. The Mansion House is within half a Mile of the Downs, and in as fine a sporting Country as any in England.” It was let with the furniture to Mr. Drax for £50 a year and also included “a small Meadow by the Smith Shop containing an Acre & an half and the Slope before the House.” The estate also included “a Plantation containing ten Acres or thereabouts of Five years growth” and came with “Privilege of Hunting and Hawking, and an extensive Fishery in the River Stour.”

It was sold to John Newton Esq., (1717-1783) a West India merchant of Kings Bromley, Staffordshire and Barbados. The Newton family had been substantial landowners in Barbados since 1654, working the Newton Plantations and participating in the slave trade. John Newton had married Elizabeth Alleyne in October 1740 at Christchurch, Barbados (which marriage also gave him possession of the Mount Alleyne Plantation in Barbados), and then, after the death of his first wife, he married Catherine Seymour, daughter of Lord Francis Seymour, Dean of Wells, in 1776; he was 59 and she was 19. Immediately after the marriage John and his new wife Catherine went to his house at Spetisbury for six months after which they spent the winter at his house in Bath and from there went to the family seat at Kings Bromley.

This marriage was obviously not happy from the start. In a letter from John Newton to Lord Thurlow, the Lord High Chancellor concerning Catherine’s behaviour while at Spetisbury, he wrote that his wife

“show’d by her Conduct and behaviour that she was a woman of loose & vicious Disposition & desirous of taking and allowing improper Libertys with other Men & she became improperly & intimately connected with some Gent in the Neighbourhood”.

The couple parted in 1777 and John sued his wife for divorce from "bed, board and mutual cohabitation." She was charged with "the crime of Adultery with Mr Isham Baggs, a young Oxonian, Mr Brett a Player at Bath, Thomas Cope, Mrs Newman's coachman, Isaac Hathaway, her footman, John Akland of Fairfield in the County of Somerset Esquire and divers other Persons."

In 1780 Catherine had a son, John Newton junior, who was disowned as a bastard by her husband. John Newton senior divorced his wife Catherine by an Act of Parliament in 1781 and died in 1783. The breakdown of his marriage may have been the reason why John Newton sold the house in 1777. In his will of 1782 (Appendix 5) where he leaves most of his property to Sir John Alleyne and to his two sisters Sarah Holte, widow of Sir Lister Holte and Elizabeth Newton, he writes: