 | | Skrine of Warleigh | | | CHAPTER 3-B | | The Skrines of Warleigh Manor | | he facts have recently been made plain by the kindness of the Rev. Henry G.Downing Liveing.
Richard Downing, second husband of Elizabeth Dickson, appears to have been theson of Captain Downing of the Guards, of whom mention is made in Pepys' Diaryunder the years 1666 and 1667.
Their son, Dickson Downing, b. 1701, and bur. 6 July 1745, m. Bridget Baldwin,and had, with other issue, a s. George Downing, bapt.1727. George Downing becamePrebendary of Ely, 1779; his wife was Catherine Chambers (d. 1802), daughterof Nathaniel Chambers of Grey's Inn, - barrister-at-law, belonging to a familyof Kendal. George Downing, barrister-at-law, s. of the Rev. George Downing wasb. 1762 and d. 1800. His wife was Mary Alston, b. 1761 and d. 1842. CatherineMary Downing, da. of the above, b. 1798 and d. 1872, married in 1821 Edward Liveing,surgeon, of Nayland, co. Suffolk, b. 1786 and d. 1843. They had a numerous familyof which the sons were Professor George Downing Liveing, President of St. John'sCollege, Cambridge, who died without issue; Edward Liveing, M.D., F,RX.P., Physicianto King's College Hospital and Registrar of the Royal College of Physicians,who had issue the Rev. Henry George Downing Liveing with two other sons and twodaughters; and Robert Liveing, Esqr.
RICHARD SKRINE, of Warley Manor, co. Somerset, gentleman, onlyson and heir, was matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, 29th October 1706,aged 15 years; and later he was a student of the Middle Temple. He proved hisfather's Will (under a power reserved) 9th April 1712, being then aged 21; andhis mother's Will 29th January 1714, being then aged 22. He was, therefore, bornbetween 30th January and 8th April 1691.
He was twice married; and died 29th December 1737 at the age of 46, leaving ason and heir, Richard Dickson Skrine, by his second wife. His Will is dated 7thAugust 1734, and was proved (P.C.C. 20 Brodrepp) 13th February 1737-8 by hiswidow Elizabeth. It is a very short and simple document leaving everything tohis wife, whom he appoints sole executrix. His son was still only 18 years oldat his death.
A letter from Charles Huntley Skrine (b. 24th October 1848, d. December 1924,son of the Rev. Clarmont Skrine) to his uncle H.D.S., written from 61, ChandosStreet, Strand, W.C., 7th November 1893, contains the following interesting observation: "Inan old-fashioned hostelry in Southampton Row called the Red Lion there is anold newspaper framed on the wall in which I read: "The London Evening Post,No. 1580. From Thursday December 29th to Saturday December 31st 1737. On Thursdaynight died at his Lodgings in the Old Baily, Richard Skrene Esqr. of Warley nearBath in Somersetshire; a Gentleman of known Honour and Integrity, and greatlylamented by all who had the Happiness of knowing him."'
Richard Skrine married firstly; Anne, daughter of Peter Delmas, Esqr., of Welwyn,and Catharine his wife, who died 18th June 1713 in her 25th year. There is aninscription to her memory in Digswell Church, near Welwyn, Herts. By her he hada daughter, Anne, about whom the following facts have been ascertained.
She was the only child of Richard Skrine's first marriage. She married John Barlow,and is mentioned, under Barlow of Slebetch, in an English Baronetage printedin 1741 (vol. iv, 617). John Barlow, who came of a family of active cavaliers, "wasadvanced to the dignity of a baronet, 29 Car. II ... His second wife was Catherine,daughter to Christopher Middleton, of Middleton-hall, in Carmarthenshire, Esq:by whom he had issue: (1) Sir George, his successor; (2) John, who marriedtwice, first, Anne, daughter to Simon, lord viscount Harcourt, lord-chancellorof Great Britain, by whom he had a son, George; secondly, Anne, daughter of RichardSkrine, of Warley, in Somersetshire, Esq: (by whom he left a daughter, Anne),and died Nov. 1739".
Richard married secondly; Elizabeth, widow of Gainsford Christmas, Esqr., onlydaughter and heir of the Rev. William Weston, rector of Cobham, co. Surrey, byElizabeth, née Lowfield, his second wife. Her settlement before marriageis dated 23rd July 1718 (see Chapter VI).
The name Gainsford Christmas recalls an interesting entry in the Verney Letters(1930), vol. i, p. 43, in a letter, 18th July 1699, from Nancy Nicholas to SirJ. V. as follows:
"Cousin Betty Gainsford that married herself to one Mr. Christmas, a Ministerat Aching Aby, near Sir Hugh Stukeley's, is now come to the paternal estate ofher father in Surrey, 'tis called Crohurst Place."
Mr. Gainsford Christmas was probably the son of this marriage.
The Westons of Surrey were an important family about whom information will befound in Chapter VI; but the following extracts may conveniently be introducedhere.
In the Victoria County History of Surrey may be found the following statementregarding the advowson and rectory of Cobham:
"In 1549 it (the advowson) was leased to William Fountayn and Richard Moyn;and in 1558 granted to William Hammond, who presented in April 1558. He conveyedit ultimately to James Sutton, who died 1594. His son James presented in 1615.According to Manning and Bray his son James settled the rectory on his marriagewith Catherine Inwood in 1622. Their only surviving
child Catherine married first her cousin, Sir William Inwood; and secondly theRev. William Weston on whom she settled the rectory, and died 1692. Her (sic)only child Elizabeth married Mr. (Richard) Skrine, and alienated part of therectory, but on her death left the rest with the advowson to her first cousinHenry Weston of West Horsley."
Note - Elizabeth Skrine was only child of the Rev. William Weston; but was thedaughter of his second wife Elizabeth, née Lowfield, and not of his firstwife as above stated. (See E. W. Brayley's Surrey, vol. ii, p. 81, and contemporarydocuments.)
Thomas Allen's History of Surrey says of the advowson that "it descendedto Mrs. Weston, widow of William Weston, and Mr. and Mrs. (Richard) Skrine, whoin 1720 conveyed that part of the rectory which is in Downside, with some exceptions,to Mr. John Hall."
In the MS. Catalogue of Deeds at the Library of the Surrey Archeological Societyat Guildford is a "Lease for a year, 11th May 1730, Elizabeth Weston ofCobham, widow, and Richard Skrine of Warley, co. Somerset, and the Hon. JamesFox of East Horseley".
In the Calendar of Surrey Deeds at the Minet Public Library, Camberwell, No.2608 (1759): Details of rents of properties in Chertsey and Church Cobham soldby Mrs. Skrine to Henry Weston. The date shows that she survived her husbandfor many years; but the precise date of her death has not yet been ascertained.
The last of the Cobham property, the house known as Pyports, was eventually soldby Mrs. Skrine's grandson, Henry Skrine, who had resided there for some time.
RICHARD DICKSON SKRINE, of Warley Manor, co, Somerset, of Belmont,Bath, and of Pyports, Cobham, co. Surrey, Esqr., J.P., only son and heir, wasborn 19th May 1719, and dying 9th February 1791, at the age of 71, was buriedat Bathford. According to the account left by his grandson, Henry Skrine, hewas educated in London. It appears that he had a house in Belmont, Bath, wherehe frequentlyresided.
He married by licence 7th April, 1752, in Bath Abbey Church, Elizabeth, onlysurviving child and heir of John Tryon of Collyweston, co. Northants., eldestson of Samuel Tryon of Collyweston. She survived her husband for several years,dying 25th May 1800, aged 74. She was buried at Lymington, co. Hants, where sheand her daughter Elizabeth had for some time resided.
On the wall of the north aisle of Lymington church is a mural tablet, erectedby her son Henry, and bearing the following inscription :
"To the memory of Elizabeth Skrine widow of Richard Dickson Skrine of Warleyin Somerset: daughter and heiress of John Tryon of Collyweston in Northamptonshire:died at this place May 25, 1800, aged 74."
"Elizabeth Skrine her daughter, full of grief for her loss, soon followedher mother to the grave - dying June 13, 1800, aged 33."
"They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were notdivided."
"This stone is erected to their memory by an afflicted son and brother."
There were three children of the marriage: | 1. Henry Skrine, son and heir.
2. Sarah, who was married at Bathford church, 13th September 1777, to Robert Still, Esqr., of Mere, co. Wilts, a descendant of Bishop Still, the witnesses in the register being her father and her brother. In the church at Mere there is a hatchment bearing the arms of Still impaling those of Skrine; and there are also Still monuments.
3. Elizabeth, spinster. | It is a point of interest that when the son Henry was matriculated at ChristChurch in 1774, his father, Richard Dickson was described as of Cobham, Surrey,and not as of Warley. It is probable, therefore, that Pyports House, which hadcome into the family by the Weston marriage a generation earlier, and may stillbe seen to be a place of some importance by the visitor to Cobham, was the principalplace of residence of the family at this period. This fact, together with thatof the house in Belmont, Bath, helps to explain how the old Manor House at Warleighcame to be allowed to fall into decay, especially as we shall see that in thenext generation Henry Skrine can hardly have lived there at all.
Richard Dickson Skrine's Will is dated 5th February 1780, and was proved 1stApril 1791 (P.C.C. 196 Bevor). It is a long and somewhat complicated documentwith much cancelling and interlineation, so that when it was proved, Henry Skrine,heir and executor, and Thomas Lockwood of the parish of St. Mary-le-Bow, Middlesex,Esqr., had to appear (2nd April 1791) to take oath and swear to the writing ofthe testator. Besides his wife and children, he mentions his son-in-law RobertStill, a grandson Nathaniel Tryon Still, his worthy relation St. George Molesworth,his worthy cousin William Lowfield, Esqr., his worthy friend and trustee JohnForbes of Aldermanbury, his godson Lawrence Porter, Esqr., his old friend AnnCottle, and his worthy friend Mary Barnard.
St. George Molesworth and John Forbes are made trustees for his daughter Elizabeth;and reference is made to the leasehold estate of Fishery House, Ferry Fishery,bought of Lord Webb Seymour for three lives. There are one or two referencesto losses owing to the bankruptcy of "poor Mr. Bate", on which, however,16s. in the pound has already been recovered. Under date 13th January 1790 hementions having purchased tontines of £100 each for his daughter Elizabeth,his grandson Nathaniel Tryon Still, and his grandson Henry Skrine. His directionsabout his burial are precise and detailed: he is to be buried in a little vaultto be built in Bathford churchyard in the east part, against Mr. Tyndale's wallof his field about midway between the corner and the hill going to Mr. Chapman'sfarm. Over the vault is to be erected a tomb of Portland stone, which is to besurrounded with the door and iron rails which are in the Parkhouse.
HENRY SKRINE of Warley Manor, co. Somerset; of Dany Park, Crickhowell,co. Brecon; and of Pyports, Cobham, co. Surrey, Esqr., L.L.B., educated at WinchesterCollege, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 24th January 1774, aged 18 years;B.C.L. 1781; barrister-at-law of Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, called to theBar 1782. He was High Sheriff for co. Brecon in 1795. He died 27th February 1803at the age of 47, and was buried at Walton-on-Thames, co. Surrey: M.I.
He married firstly, 14th March 1787, Marianne elder daughter of John Chalié,Esqr., of Mincing Lane, London, and Wimbledon, Surrey, by his wife Susanna daughterof Matthew Clarmont, Esqr. (twice Governor of the Bank of England). She was born26th July 1767; and died at Warley in April 1788, three months after the birthof her son Henry. She was buried at Bathford parish church - Mural Tablet (thereis a family tradition that Henry Skrine himself composed the following inscription,still to be seen in Bathford Church on this tablet erected by him in memory ofhis wife, Marianne: "Conjugi nunquam futis plorandae Hoe, inane licet, tamenultimum Amoris confecerat officium, Anno nuptiarum vix exacto Maritus heu! Superstes.MDCCLXXXVIII").
He married secondly, 26th April 1790, at St. George's, Hanover Square, LetitiaSarah Maria daughter and heir of John Harcourt, Esqr., of Dany Park, Llangattock,co. Brecon, by his wife Letitia Sarah Maria daughter of Charles Milborne, Esqr.,of Wonastow Court, co. Monmouth. She was born at Wonastow Court 20th September1762, and dying 24th January 1813, aged 50, was buried at Walton-on-Thames, havinghad issue two sons and five daughters (see Harcourt Skrines, below).
Henry Skrine is sometimes referred to as "the tourist" or "thetopographer", since one of his favourite occupations was in making and describinglong tours. In the Dictionary of National Biography (vol. 52, p. 359) he is describedas having chiefly spent his time in travelling through Great Britain, and inrecording his experiences. It is there stated that "the records of his expeditionto the north of Scotland in 1793 are of especial interest, for at that periodthe country was little known". His published works were: (1) Three Toursin the North of England and in Scotland; London 1795, 4to, (2) Two Tours throughWales; London 1798, 8vo, 2nd edition 1812, and (3) Rivers of Note in Great Britain;London 1801, 8vo (c.p. the Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, vol. i, p. 382).
The following extracts of earlier date from his private French Journals are ofinterest :
Journal, September 1788.
Versailles: I happened to be there on a Sunday, when the Royal family were visibleto the public, and the State Apartments being all thrown open, I had an opportunityof seeing the King and Queen pass through them to their separate Masses in theChapel.
His Majesty was attended by his two brothers, Monsieur and the Comte d'Artois,and did not exhibit any of those Royal traits with which fancy is apt to graceher Monarchs, his figure being mean and uninteresting, his manners awkward inthe extreme, and the marks of last night's ebriety being still visible in hiscountenance.
The Queen was accompanied by Mme. and Mme. Elizabeth, and amply made up for herconsort's want of dignity in the state and hauteur of her deportment. Her airand figure were majestic and commanding, and her countenance betrayed all thepride of the Austrian Family, with all the beauty which should adorn the daughterof Maria Theresa. Odious to the people by her interference in politicks, sherepays them scorn for scorn, and her public exhibition of contempt and hate towardsthe French nation displayed the finest pantomine I was ever witness to. All thiswas repeated in the course of their dinner, to which the public are admittedas spectators, and thus the folly of Louis XVI and the pride of his Queen areonce every week exposed to the eyes of their subjects.
The Trianons: They were both ill-kept, and seemed somewhat neglected. The newfront of the great palace appeared to much advantage as we returned to it bythe Grand Avenue, and I could not help wishing for the magic of a Brown to levelthose terraces and demolish those parterres which fettered the genius of theplace, and restrained the imagination of every Beholder.
Journal, September 1789.
In the midst of these calamitous scenes I arrived at Versailles, where throughthe obliging address of one of the Deputies, to whom I was recommended, in spiteof the late prohibitions against the admission of strangers, under the Presidencyof the Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre, I took my seat disguised as one of the Membersof the Assemblée Nationale, and perhaps was the only Englishman who gavetwo regular votes as a constituent of the Legislature of France.
The debate happened to be important, being no other than the memorable discussionof the King's refusal to sanction the Decrees of 4th August, which produced theperemptory address that He had not sufficient firmness to resist.
Mirabeau, Mounier, Lally Tallendal, and all the principal orators with whosestyle I was familiar by anticipation, seemed to exert their utmost powers, yetthe deficiency appeared greater than the Infancy of the Assembly, or the hastymanner in which it was constituted would warrant. The confusion was extreme,and in vain did the President apply to the bell with which he was armed, to produceorder; a thousand tongues were heard at once, and indecent torrents of applauseor censure drowned the voices of the speakers. But the most serious evil appearedto be a spirit of discord which prevailed in the Assembly, and seemed fomentedfrom without; various and clashing interests either provoking an open contest,or privately trying to undermine the fabric, while the public opinion, waveringand uncertain, seemed hardly satisfied with the exertion of its Agents.
The two visits to France during which these Journals were written took placeafter the death of Henry Skrine's first wife Marianne, whose son was born atWarleigh. But where he resided during his first marriage, and whether he everactually practised at the Bar has not as yet been ascertained. He appears tohave had a house in Green Street, Grosvenor Square, at one period, and therethe eldest son of his second family was born.
After his second marriage he resided a good deal at Dany Park, Brecon, whichhis wife inherited, and he was High Sheriff of Brecon in 1795. On his father'sdeath in 1791 Warley Manor became available; but we do not know the date at whichhis mother and sister retired to Lymington, and probably the old house was bythis time not an attractive place of residence.
Subsequently he made his country home at Pyports House, Cobham, Surrey, wherehe's still remembered as Mr. Skrine, "the tourist." This house he presentlysold, and moved to Walton-on-Thames where his two youngest daughters were bornin 1797 and 1799 respectively; and there he died in 1803.
In Thomas Allen's History of Surrey, under Cobham, it is stated that "Mr.Skrine, the tourist, had a house (Pyports) near the church which he sold to Mr.Freeland, to whose descendant it now (1830) belongs". Pyports House is justopposite "the shingled spire of Cobham" which Mr. Skrine referred toin his Rivers of Great Britain.
In the church at Walton-on-Thames, over the vestry door, is a curious and interestingmural monument to Henry Skrine, which is mentioned in Shoberl's "Descriptionof Surrey", circa 1812, and more, fully described in E. W. Brayley's "TopographicalHistory of Surrey" (vol. 2, p. 327), "A small pyramidal tablet of whitemarble, placed over the vestry door, records the memory of Henry Skrine, esq.,L.L.B., of Warley in Somersetshire, who died at Walton on the 27th of February,1803, aged forty-seven, and was buried near the south porch in the churchyard.Below the inscription is a bas-relief of a large oak overshadowing (or skrine-ing,i.e. screening; c.p. the family motto, Tutamen) some younger trees, two or threeof which are divested of foliage, which are said to refer to some deceased membersof his family. His widow, Letitia Sarah Maria, daughter of Mr. Chalié,an eminent wine-merchant of London (sic: but she was in fact Letitia Harcourthis second wife), died at the age of fifty, on the 24th of January 1813, andwas interred near the remains of her husband." The tablet is by J. Bacon,junr., of London.
In such scattered records as can be recovered Henry Skrine appears to us as aman of culture and of literary tastes; and one with wide and varied interestsin the world at large, who took delight in travelling and in describing whathe saw; one, too, who possessed that gift for friendship which goes so far tomake life easy and comfortable. His books are full of references to friends and "aimiable" persons,some of whom are readily to be identified. At one period he seems to have beenspecially intimate with his "aimiable relation" Mr. Lockwood of HallHouse, Hambledon, with whom the connection was through the family of his Westongrand-parents. In his Rivers of Great Britain, he writes: | "I must break the thread of my description here, to speak in grateful remembrance, with a merited degree of enthusiasm, of the friendly and hospitable reception I for many years found at the Hall-house of Hambledon (on Thames), then occupied by my aimiable relation Mr. Lockwood, when it was constantly the seat of cheerfulness and good-humour, dispensing to a numerous family and assemblage of friends all the choicest blessings of society."
Again: "the classic ground of Hall-Barn, the old seat of the Waller family" . . . "everything here perpetuates the memory of the poet (Waller)" . "The house also was the seat of hospitality in the life-time of its late worthy owner, Mr. Waller, where, during a long course of years, I experienced the same kindness and attention which I before commemorated at Hambledon, both these neighbouring families being nearly allied, and keeping up the pleasantest intercourse with each other."
The relationship of these families to one another and to Henry Skrine, as well as his, and their connections with a number of others whom he visited in the course of his various tours, can readily be followed in the short Weston pedigree and references inserted for this purpose under WESTON in Chapter VI.
Before leaving this subject, it is appropriate to quote also, from the "Rivers of Great Britain", Henry Skrine's own description of his home at Warleigh and its surroundings (p. 236):
"I must not here let a fear of the imputation of egotism or vanity restrain my noticing the enchanting position of that little territory which becamemine by descent, and was eminently improved by the taste and attention bestowedon it by my late most excellent father. Warley is situated on a gentle eminence above the Avon, beneath a rocky hill, thickly cloathed with wood towardsits base, and descending almost perpendicularly to the house, so that the public road is obliged to be carried on a shelf above it. The mansion, which isinconveniently irregular in old buildings, with a modem front, looks to the south, commanding a valley of about four miles in length, the boundary of which is an extensive chain of woods descending abruptly from the borders of Wiltshire, and enriched with much magnificent timber. A small, but beautiful lawn, expands towardsthe river, and fine clumps of oaks and elms mark the various undulations of ground in front of the woods, interspersed with cottages, while the Avon, precipitating itself from a broad basin down a wear in full front, rolls beneath the slope in which the gardens descend. The opposite hill rises still more abruptly,terminating to the north in some bold cliffs above Hampton, which front the ancient camp of Salesbury, impending over Batheaston, and the pleasantly-clumped groundsof Mr. Whittington on the more distant borders of Gloucestershire. About midway in this ascent, immediately overlooking Warley and the river, the pleasingvillage of Claverton seems to hang suspended, where its large Gothic mansion (renowned in the civil wars) and its little church, with the pyramidal tomb of thelate much esteemed Mr. Allen, are striking objects; neither is its parsonageless pleasing, the little grounds of which are laid out in a truly classic tasteby the Rev. Mr. Graves, the friend and literary rival of Shenstone, where thatworthy veteran closes the placid evening of his days in the retirement he has sohappily embellished, deservedly beloved and respected."
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