Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue

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Brandreth Archive
Admin/biog history
Henry Brandreth purchased the Manor of Sewell, once the property of Sir Lewis Dyve, from the Sequestration Commissioners before September 1652 [BW1172]. We cannot tell if he was descended from the Staffordshire family of this name, but he was apparently a wealthy London merchant or tradesman By 1669 he had bought the Manor of Houghton Regis itself from John, Earl of Bridgwater, and also the advowsan and other property [B1] and a few years later, in 1671, he bought a 41 fee farm rent reserved out of the Rectory [B2]. There had been property in Toddington, Tingrith and Harlington included in a purchase from the Earl of Cleveland, but this he sold again by 1669 [B3] and it seems that he wished to concentrate his Bedfordshire estate in Houghton Regis His family consisted of his wife, Alice, sons Solomon and Nehemiah and an only daughter Alice. The elder son Solomon was simple or at least unstable. His father left him an annuity in trust, making most detailed provisions for him, down to an honest and discreet servant to "look to him the said Solomon to keepe him out of ill company". Of Nehemiah we know little, but Alice the daughter is the child of most interest to us. Henry seems both to have had a great affection for her and also to have put considerable reliance on her judgement. He made her a trustee for her brother Solomon. Henry aimed at a good marriage for her, one financially advantageous, and yet he did not wish her to go far away from him. In fact, so reluctant was he at heart to part with her that in the end all his negotiations came to nothing. there are letters about possible matches from 1668 when she was about 19 to 1671. As one rather embittered father wrote "My son is free enough, but if you refuse a Northamptonshire gentleman of 1,100 per annum in possession because of the remotenesse, thoe the next county to yours, you give me smale hopes of acceptinge my poore son, thoe I could give him the Revenue in possession which you mention" [B655]. Henry Brandreth's tone in his replies suggests a somewhat puritanical spirit - to a widowed mother he writes of her son "Weare I not well perswaded that through the pious Care and education, the fear of God is fixed in his soule, I should not give my Consent if shee had notone penny, and I Can assure you, many agreete match as the world Calls greate, hath bene reiected by hir, because she Could not be satisfide of theire being truly vertuous". The first Henry Brandreth died in 1673, leaving behind him a widow and the three children. Of these Solomon died unmarried, and so the Houghton Regis property went to nehemiah, who thus acquired the manor of Houghton Regis, the land there and the advowsan [B1]. Alice, who had probably had settled on her an estate in Hertfordshire in her father's lifetime, was to get a marriage portion of 3,000 [B3] and later on the widow released to her daughter the reversion on the death of Solomon without issue of the fee farm rent of 41 charged on the Rectory. It is the property which Alice the daughter acquired now or later in Houghton Regis and left to her brother Nehemiah's younger son, a second Nehemiah, that this collection is concerned with. Little more is found here of the elder line, or of the manors and advowsan. The elder son and heir of Alice's brother Nehemiah, was a second Henry, who married Mary Chibbald and died in 1739 leaving an only son Henry and three daughters. This Henry died without issue in 1752, having already sold in 1750 the manors of Houghton regis and Sewell to the Duke of Bedford. Over a hundred years later, in 1881, Henry C.G.Brandreth, the representative of the junior line, bought back the manorial rights from the Bedford estate [B266] and also, apparently, the advowsan, but with little or no land. Alice, still single after the abortive marriage negotiations mentioned above, was living in Ware in hertfordshire after the father's death. In 1685 she made a settlement before her marriage to Thomas Smyth of Binderyon in Sussex. Besides the fee farm rent of 41, she then had property in or near Ware and also the Manor of Morteynes alias Reynes in Stanbridge, which she had bought in May 1685. As with her father, she preferred to dispose of her property in her lifetime by revocable deed of trust, rather than by will, and the Stanbridge property was eventually handed over to her niece Alice, the daughter of her brother Nehemiah in 1717 [B15-18]. She had no children by this first marriage, and it seems likely that on her first husband's death she gained financially. Thomas Smyth had died by 1692, and in the March of that year she purchased the Rectory and great tithes of Houghton Regis for 6,000. This was to be the nucleus of her and her heirs' estate there, bringing in an income of over 380 in 1660 [B22], over 236 in 1730 [B519] and 718 in 1796 [B557]. About the same time in May 1692 she bought from the heirs of John Pedder for 31,750 certain lands in Houghton Regis and a farmhouse which looked over the Green and had Cooks Lane running down the western boundary [B40]. On this site she built Houghton Hall [B63, B374] and the mansion house was finished by 1700 [B513] when she and her second husband were living there. This second marriage was in 1692 when she was still at Ware and was to William Milard of London, who was later knighted, making her Dame Alice Milard. Before her second marriage she carefully put in trust her 4 coach horses and her nag, her saddle and coach and charriot, her diamonds, pearls and locket her silver and furs and laces, books and looking glasses and the furniture in her house in Ware called New House so that no future husband could touch them [B58] It was this Houghton Regis property: the new mansion house with about 150 acres land; the fee farm rent of 41 and the rectory and tithes that, being herself childless, she settled on her brother Nehemiah's second son, nehemiah, and his heirs. A detailed deed of appointment made in 1713 disposed of her property after her death and she made many of her chattels and heirlooms to go with her mansion house [B63]. In front of the house was Houghton Green, much scarred with ponds and pits, and she came to an agreement with her brother Nehemiah, then Lord of the Manor, that he would stop any trees being planted on the common which would block her view from the house, and would also prevent pits being dug there which might impede access [B66]. She died in 1729. During the 18th century the property went first to her nephew Nehemiah, then to his son Thoswihan who died in 1752, then to the latter's son a second Thoswihan d.1788 and finally to his son henry who d.1846 but during these years comparatively little was added to the Houghton estate built up by Dame Alice. In 1762 there were still about 140 acres. Her descendants in fact seem to have lacked her ability in practical matters Her nephew and heir Nehemiah is a shadowy figure, but his two sons, her great nephews Thoswihan and Nehemiah, appear in depositions of a lawsuit later in the century. Thoswihan was a doctor, his brother Nehemiah an attorney in Dunstable. "Thoswihan Brandreth deced. proved a very Improvident man, and brought himself to the Necessity of borrowing Money continually" [B375] This first Thoswihan, the doctor, had married Mary Buckeridge, whose dowry seems to have been used to endow his brother and sister [B367-8] and after her husband's death Mary had great difficulty in getting her jointure, an annuity from her son, Thoswihan [B385]. Rebecca, one of Thoswihan II's daughters, was out as an apprentice at the time her father made his will [B388]. All of this suggests that for at least a couple of generations the family was mot prospering. All this was changed by the fortunate marriage in 1793 of Thoswihan II's son Henry to Dionisia Turner, the heiress of Richard Turner late of Tavistock, Devon. In some way Dionisia was Henry's cousin, for his grandmother's will mentions her an another grandchild [B380-3] but the exact descent is not clear. By now the incumbrances on the Brandreth estate amounted to 7,000 and the estate itself, all in Bedfordshire, was worth no more tha 800 per annum. Therefore the first thing was to sell enough of the Turner property in Devon and Cornwall to pay off the debts [B390] and then the family settled down to a period of comparative affluence. At the Enclosure of 1799 much of the income from tithes ceased. Instead Henry Brandreth got another 900 acres or so of land and this, with the happier financial position after his marriage, made him wish to increase his family's stake in the village and neighbourhood. His only som predeceased him while still unmarried and Henry, who died in 1846, made as his heir Humphrey Gibbs, the eldest surviving son of his sister Sarah Prosser Brandreth by Thomas Gibbs [educated at Aspley School], once of Ampthill. In his will Henry made detailed provisions for his heir to take the arms and name of Brandreth, and for trustees to dispose of the rest of the Cornish and Devonian estate in order to spend 20,000 on buying up property in or near Houghton Regis [B394] and this explains the numerous acquisitions after 1847. An interesting point is that Humphrey Brandreth arranged for Ampthill property left by his own father, Thomas Gibbs, to be sold to the trustees of his uncle's will for 2,300, as part of this trust estate [B338] Thus by the time of the Return of Woners of Land of 1873 the trustees of Humphrey Brandreth owned in Bedfordshire 1,500 acres and also still had 800 acres in Cornwall, a respectable estate. HOUGHTON HALL As we swa above, Alice Brandreth, daughter of Henry Brandreth, bought the site in 1692 while she was still the widow of Thomas Smyth and before her second marriage to Sir William Milard. It had been a farmhouse belonging to the Pedder family, described as near Cooke Lane on the west, with the common green north, and had been in the tenure of Henry Buckingham in 1668 [B35]. Alice Smyth bought it for 1,750 from John Pedder, the son and heir of John Pedder above, and his two sisters [B40-41]. John Pedder did not wish to have all the purchase money at once and asked Alice Smyth to let him leave some so that he could receive an annuity of 40 a year for at least 7 years. Therefore immediately after purchase Alice Smyth and her trustee assigned all the land back to him on a mortgage but specifically excluded from this assignment the house itself and 6 acres land near it [B46]. Presumably she had already intended this to be the site for her new house [B63, B374] We do not know who planned or built the new house, but it was finished by 1700 [B513]. In 1713 she appointed that her plate and other household goods were to go with her mansion house as heirlooms. In front of the house was the common, scarred with ponds. To improve her means of access, she made a causeway over part of Crabb Piece, and in 1717, in return for her great generosity to his children, her brother Nehemiah, then Lord of the Manor, covenanted that he and his descendants would not allow any trees to be planted on the common that could obstruct her view, nor any ponds or pits to be dug which might interfere with the drive in [B66] The house continued to appear in surveys, but it is next dealt with specifically in the will of Henry Brandreth who died in 1846 [B394]. Inventories made on his death give the contents of the house room by room [B396] and in his will he required his heir, besides taking the name and arms of Brandreth, to live in the house at least three months each year, and he made the contents of Houghton House heirlooms. The heir, Humphrey Gibbs, was very willing to take the arms and name of Brandreth, but most unwilling tolive in the house. In 1847 Henry's trustees bought of the Duke of Bedford Poynters farmstead and land, in order to extend the ground [B121] and in 1851 a caes was put to counsel "The Mansion House at Houghton Regis is about 150 years old and is a very incommodious and dilapidated building. Mr.Humphrey Brandreth the present tenant for life is desirous of pulling down the present old structure and of building a new mansion on a different site." Humphrey Brandreth wished to know if he could do this, under the terms of his uncle's will, and if so, if the 20,000 trust fund could be used for the new house. The answer to both questions was that he could not and so he had to be content with extensive alterations and repairs [B401]. He employed Henry Clutton as architect and Samuel Grimsdell as builder and the contract for work costing 4,508 was signed in 1851 [B404]. These alterations gave the outside of the house its present appearance NOTES BY J.A'C.BERGNE, 1975-6 ON THE BRANDRETH AND GIBBS FAMILIES "Robert Gibbs came down from Scotland after the '45 hailing from Dunfermline. He set up as a market gardener in Flitwick, I believe, not Ampthill, though he may have lived at the latter. His grandson Sir Ben was secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society for many years and married very late in life a young girl who I remember as the venerable Lady Gibbs thus spanning 100 years. The family were much mixed up with the founding and running of the Smithfield Society, also they were seedsman to Kew Gardens, originally I think a Royal Appointment. As to the Brandreths proper, their origin was in law in London during Restoration times, though territorially there is a village of Brandreth in Cumbria near Appleby. I had Rebecca Price's sampler now with my eldest daughter. I have no son. The Downes family [of Aspley Guise]: There were two older sons who both met tragic deaths as boys, so the loss of the last two (in the First World War) piled sorrow on sorrow. They were my father's first cousins. One sister is still alive. Francis Brandreth who was born in 1881 went to S.Africa, or rather was sent and his family did nothing for him. My father who took on the trusteeship about 1908 when Francis' father died, bought him a farm in S.Africa, but nothing much was done to the farm. After the 1914/18 war, Francis came home to England. We saw very little of him. But Hervey C.E.Brandreth his son was sent to Colet Court School in London and Cheltenham College through my father's persuasion, which last he must just have left when the 1939/45 war broke out. I spent most of that war abroad and saw nothing more of the family, but the boy was bright. My father gave up the trusteeship a yar or two before he died and our bank Drummond's of Charing Cross took it on."
Archival history
Catalogue note by G.Herbert Fowler on 7 Jun 1928 "The collection was entrusted to me by Harvey Bergne, acting for the Brandreth Trustees on 18 Oct 1913. Apart from deeds (conveyances, mortgages and the like) and the pre-Enclosure map of Houghton Regis with its book of reference, there was little of interest. the correspondence related almost entirely to business matters, and with the exception of a few 17th century letters was destroyed. The only compromising document related to the inquest on the last Henry Brandreth, and was destroyed in accordance with my promise to Mr.Bergne; it seemed clear that all family letters had been removed from the Muniment Room at Houghton Regis at an earlier date. Under the powers given to me by Mr.Bergne, the deeds were thus distributed: - All Bedfordshire deeds and papers to the County Muniment Room, Shire Hall, Bedford; 216 similar documents relating to the Devon and Cornwall estates to the City Library, Exeter, numbered 11357-11673 of their collections; 12 deeds relating to Binderton and Apuldram, Sussex, to the Sussex Archaeological Society, Lewes" Another 44 documents were deposited by Mr W D Baker of Flitwick in 1916 and 1921 they probably came from the sale of documents which Dr Fowler described "At the sale of the Brandreth effects in 1913, a box (or more) of documents appeared which was not in the Muniment Room at Houghton Hall, and was therefore not taken with DDB [i.e. the documents given to Dr Fowler by Harvey Bergne]. It is said that these documents were ultimately sold piecemeal from barrows at Luton." The material was originally catalogued in bundles but was recatalogued in 1962, presumably so as to group subjects together, however only a simple running number reference was used 1-748, subjects being grouped together under runs of numbers. A conversion table exists in the front of the printed catalogue.
Level of description
fonds