Rendlesham Estate Sale - Outlying Portions

14 July 1914

Particulars, Plans and Conditions of Sale tap or click on the image to open the 10-page document (PDF format)	Plan no.1 of the Outlying Portions of the Rendlesham Estate tap or click on the image to open the plan (27MB .jpg)

Family History behind my Copies of these Documents

The above particulars and plan were kept by my Great-Grandfather, Isaac Larter, who was the tenant farmer of Oak Farm (lot 5) at the time. He did not buy Oak Farm at the auction, but bought it six years later in 1920. My grandfather Jack Clayton (JC) Larter was born at Oak Farm (8-Jan-1905). He set up his family at Sandpit Farm in Bruisyard, but moved back over to Home Farm in Parham in 1943, from where he also farmed Oak Farm (and Elm Farm, as well as Moat Farm, shown as 'Framlingham Farm' on the above map). Later in life (which is how I remember them), Isaac and his wife Amy lived at Hatherleigh Farm (Heatherley Farm on the map). They lived there until they died, aged 93, in 1969. My son Steve and his family now live at Oak Farm, from where he's looking after our diversification away from pure farming.

John Larter, who lives at Rookery Farm (lot 4) today, tells me that Isaac's parents, Arthur and his wife Sarah (née Clayton), my Great-Great-Grandparents, moved from Bedfield to Rookery Farm on 29th September 1897 as tenants of the Rendlesham Estate with their 11 children, Jane, John, Isaac, Edward, Maud, Annie, Ada, Edith, Clayton, Arthur and Fred. However, the announcement of Arthur's death [FWN19220520] puts it the other way round:

"Of the Mill House, Saxmundham Road. His death took place on Sunday [14-May-1922] following a paralytic seizure about a month ago in his 71st year. He spent his early years at Bedfield and then settled at Framlingham by taking over the Oak Farm, and subsequently the Rookery Farm, which he relinquished a few years ago on his retirement.
He leaves a widow and a large family of sons and daughters, most of whom are lucratively engaged in farming and kindred industries in the district."

Clayton (John's grandfather and Isaac's younger brother) bought Rookery Farm (Lot 4) in 1920, the same year Isaac bought Oak Farm, rather than at the Rendlesham Estate auction. Clayton passed it down through his youngest son Plant, and in turn through his youngest son John, who now farms it with his youngest Ben.

Historical background

At the time the Rendlesham Estate was sold, many of England's landed estates were getting into deep financial difficulties, as those who had gained from the industrial revolution took control of the economy and taxation - away from the landed gentry. But Rendlesham had its own particular problems that pushed it to sell its outlying estates early, as explained in the following quotation:

"The development of the Rendlesham estate was made problematic by the after-effects of a complicated will left by the first Lord Rendlesham in 1797.¹⁰⁸ This ensured that his descendants had little room to manoeuvre, and there does not appear to have been any significant attempt to increase the size of the property which was, in any case, considerable. Lord Rendlesham was the chief landowner in the parishes of Rendlesham, Butley, Capel St Andrew, Eyke and Wantisden, and also owned individual parcels of land in a number of other parishes." [Macd2017]

¹⁰⁸ Roberts, W. M., Lost Country Houses of Suffolk, p130.

The linen-backed map shown on the left below covers the same land as the present-day Oak Farm 120 years before the Rendlesham Estate sale. At that time the land was owned by Samuel Kilderbee and occupied by Samuel King. The map was updated in 1819 to add more land, presumably land that Kilderbee had bought in the intervening time, specifically the group of fields to the west numbered 17-19 (Long, Little and Great Wabbs) and the strip of fields in Great Glemham to the East of the parish boundary (numbered 20-24, Framlingham Field, Queen Mary's Wood, Horse Close and Further Pightle).

The first three Wabbs fields had become part of Rookery farm by the 1914 Rendlesham Estate sale, and today they are one field, still called Great Wabbs, and still part of Rookery Farm. The Glemham fields were not part of the Rendlesham Estate sale, so they were probably sold into neighbouring Pound Farm before Oak Farm was brought into the Rendlesham estate. You can see which fields were added by the slightly different black ink, with red tinges around it (and the schedule on the map lists the 1819 additions).

The name Samuel had been given to three generations of Kilberbee's. Grandfather Samuel ran a drapery business in Framlingham (made successful by the Great Granfather, Francis). Grandfather Samuel died in 1777 and was buried in Framlingham. Samuel the father (1725-1813) was a patron of the artist Thomas Gainsborough, and an Ipswich lawyer, who became town clerk of Ipswich [SKilderbee]. He held the Manor of Glemham and lived at North Glemham House (present-day Great Glemham House). Samuel the father left his wealth to his surviving son, the Reverend Samuel Kilderbee (1759-1847). Samuel the son was appointed rector of Campsea Ashe in 1784 [SKCampsea]. It is not known which Samuel the map refers to - probably the father for the 1794 map and the son for the 1819 updates, or maybe the son for both. The nearby wood on Rookery farm still bears the name Kilderbee's Grove.

I found this map in in the papers of my Grandad, Jack Larter. It was surveyed by the prolific Woodbridge cartographer, Isaac Johnson. By a stroke of luck, while browsing through maps in the Suffolk Records Office, I found the sketch map on the right, which Isaac Johnson had drawn up in 1802 [1802a]. It is probably Johnson's survey sketches for some of the 1819 additions.

1794 map surveyed by Isaac Johnson [1794a]. The map incorporates later adjustments down to the year 1819.	1802 survey sketches to prepare for the adjustments to the map on the left, by the surveyor Isaac Johnson. [1802a].

(Click images to view details)
On the back is written "Parham Chilcotts 1794 & 1819 copied"	On the back is written "New Aranged Farms in G Glemham &c.; viz^t The Hall, Kerseys, Browns & Chilcotts; Sam^l Chilcotts Farm, Parham; 1802

By 1840, the Parham Tithe survey [1840a] lists Spencer Horsa de Horsey as the owner of the fields on the 1819 map above. Horsa is presumably the tithe clerk's misspelling of Horsey, because Spencer Horsey de Horsey was the younger Kilderbee's son (he changed his name to his mother's maiden name by deedpoll [SHdeHorsey]). The oldest reference in our deeds for Oak Farm that I have found so far is a sale by Edward James Dawkins to Lord Rendlesham in 1859. So I assume at some point between 1840 and 1859 Horsey sold to Dawkins. Given Horsey was a Tory MP, Dawkins might have been the diplomat of the same name who hailed from that era (1792-1865) [EJDawkins].

The Rendlesham Estate was extensive - "5825 acres" of it went on sale in this round. There were parts of the estate lying in the Suffolk parishes of Pettistree, Hollesley, Alderton, Boyton, Ramsholt, Kesgrave, Rushmere St. Andrew, Clopton, Debach, Otley, Cretingham, Monewden, Framsden, Ashfield, Earl Soham, Ufford, Brandeston, Badingham, Cransford, Bruisyard, Rendham, Dallinghoo, Bredfield, Framlingham, Parham, Great Glemham and Wickham Market.

The above map is only the first of the nine plans illustrating the sale - I don't have the other eight (see further information for the others).

Further Information

The Suffolk Records Office (Suffolk Archives) holds a copy of the same catalogue but with the full set of 9 maps plus a key map, ref no: HD2833/2/SC335/1. The list of all the lots, and which of the 9 maps they are on, is in the above catalogue.

There was a further Rendlesham Estate sale on 27 May 1920. See SRO ref no. 1117/335/1. 123 lots were offered covering land in Campsey Ash, Chillesford, Eyke, Hacheston, Hollesley, Rendlesham, Tunstall, Wantisden, Wickham Market and Ufford.

[1794a] "Parham; Chilcott's," (covering Oak Fm), Isaac Johnson, surv'r, held by Bob Briscoe, (1794/1819)
[1802a] "Samuel Chilcott's Farm; Parham," (covering Oak Fm), viz't The Hall Kersey's Browns' and Chilcotts, SRO:HD11:475/2242 (1802 on sale to SKb, 1802?)
[1840a] Tithe Survey "Parish of Parham in the County of Suffolk," signed Henry B Gunning, First Tithe Commissioner, SRO:P461/192 (1840)
[SKilderbee] "Samuel Kilderbee (1725—1813)" in the "Kirby and his world" series of Blog posts kirbyandhisworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/samuel-kilderbee-1725-1813/ (9 Dec 2012) (last accessed 22 Apr 2022)
[SKCampsea] "Rev Samuel Kilderbee; 1759 – 1847; Rector of Campsea Ashe," Tim Holmes (2015) available via "Rectors of Campsea Ashe Church".
[SHdeHorsey] "Spencer Horsey de Horsey" Wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Horsey_de_Horsey (last accessed 21 Apr 2022)
[EJDawkins] "Edward James Dawkins" in database of "Lord Byron and his Times" www.lordbyron.org/persRec.php?choose=PersRefs&selectPerson=EdDawki1865 (last accessed 21 Apr 2022)
[Macd2017] Peppy Macdonald "Rural Settlement Change in East Suffolk, 1850-1939" doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia School of History (2017)
[FWN20220520] Framlingham Weekly News, 20-May-1922

Bob Briscoe

21 Apr 2022
updated 18 Mar 2023