tap or click on the image to open the 10-page document (PDF format)
tap or click on the image to open the plan (27MB .jpg)
| 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) |
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Arthur and Isaac jointly signed the tenancy of Oak Farm on 22-May-1900 [OakTenancy1900], and the tenancy was to start from 11 Oct 1900. Arthur being on the tenancy agreement jointly is unlikely to imply that Arthur lived at Oak Farm with Isaac. Isaac married Amy in 1900 (both aged 23), so it is highly likely that Arthur's name was on the tenancy more as a guarantor backing Isaac as he set up his first family home. Oak Farm was not already occupied by Arthur, because I have a valuation from 12 Sep 1900 of the fixtures left at Oak Farm by the previous tenant, William Burrows [OakValuation1900]. So it seems likely that John Larter is correct and the newspaper is not."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."
"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]According to the introduction to the estate records held by the Suffolk Records Office [Thellussons], Peter Thellusson, the first Lord Rendlesham (1737–1797):
108 Roberts, W. M., Lost Country Houses of Suffolk, p130.
"...made his fortune as a merchant, trading mainly with the West Indies. In his will (signed 1796) he bequeathed £100,000 to his wife and children, but left land worth £4,500 a year, and personal property worth £600,000, to accumulate during [all the lives of those of his male line] as should be born at the time of his death 'or in due time afterwards'. The estate would then be divided between the eldest male descendants of his three sons.According to the Wikipedia entry about the 'Thellusson Act' [ThellussonAct1800]:
The family tried to get the will set aside, but it was upheld by the Lord Chancellor in 1799 and by the House of Lords in 1805. An Act [known as the Thellusson Act] was passed in 1800 prohibiting such accumulating trusts, as it was feared that they could be a threat to the state.
... the trust expired with the death in 1856 of ... Charles [the last surviving of the nine of the first Lord Rendlesham's male line who had been born before or 'in due time after' his death]. Following further litigation, the estate was shared between Frederick William Brook Thellusson, fifth Baron Rendlesham, and Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson. Because of legal costs and mismanagement of the estate, they shared only about £600,000, rather than the tens of millions which some had predicted.
The trustees built up extensive estates in Suffolk, County Durham, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire and elsewhere in England, as well as in Grenada."
"It is believed that the Thellusson Will case provided the basis for the fictional case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House. Thelluson may also be the inspiration for the Tellsons Bank mentioned in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. "
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. It was drawn in 1794 when
Samuel Kilderbee had just bought the estate, and it was then 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
with Parham (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 Kilberbees.
Grandfather Samuel ran a drapery business in Framlingham (made
successful by the Great Grandfather, 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.
The nearby wood on Rookery farm still bears the name Kilderbee's Grove. I found the map on the left in the papers of my Grandfather, 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.
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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, a Tory MP, was the younger Kilderbee's son (he changed his
name to his mother's maiden name by deedpoll [SHdeHorsey]).
Samuel Kilderbee (probably the father) had bought this land in 1794,
some of it freehold and some copyhold of the Manor of Parham Hall. The trustees of the Thellusson Will started to buy into this Parham land in 1850, according to the deeds we hold [ThellussonTrust1850]. For those parts of the land that were not available freehold, the trustees
took on the copyhold tenancy from Horsey as tenants of the Manor of
Parham Hall. They were probably aware that the Copyhold Act of 1852 was
on the horizon, which would give tenants of manorial land the right to
buy it freehold (termed 'enfranchisement'), often considerably below
market value. They finally managed to enfranchise these lands in Parham
in 1856, after some litigation through the Court of Chancery. By the
time the Trust finally wound up, only one Trustee was left in 1859 to vest the land in the fifth Baron Rendlesham: Edward James Dawkins. Incidentally, he
might have been the diplomat of the same name who hailed from that era
(1792-1865) [EJDawkins]. |
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