Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    HG
  • Title
    Higgins/Longuet-Higgins archive
  • Admin/biog history
    In 1786 Charles Henry, 5th Earl of Peterborough, sold the manor of Turvey, including Turvey Abbey, to Charles Higgins of Weston Underwood. Charles Higgins died unmarried in 1792 leaving the manor to his nephew John Higgins, while a considerable portion of the estate passed to a cousin, another John Higgins, who built Turvey House (see HI). John Higgins of Turvey Abbey married Theresa Longuet and had for his son and heir Charles Longuet Higgins (see Beds Magazine V page 213). C L Higgins believed in learning - he studied both medicine and law and was an enthusiastic student of natural history. He built a reading room in the middle of the village and next to this a building first called the Museum Room and later the Manor Room. In 1853-4 he restored and enlarged the parish church at his own expense and beginning in 1849 he and T C Higgins of Turvey House set about rebuilding and re-siting the village. See also:- Article on Charles Longuet Higgins & cartoon; Bedford Bee 1879. P81/2/13 charming letter from Charles Longuet higgins re; church organ. Obituary Charles Longuet Higgins; Beds Mercury 24 Jan 1885, page 5. Account of funeral & further obituary; Beds Mercury 31 Jan 1885. When Charles Longuet Higgins died the estate passed to his brother the Rev. Henry Hugh Longuet Higgins. (see Beds Times 24 Apr 1886, Beds Magazine IV page 54). Although Charles's widow, Helen was to remain as a life tenant at Turvey Abbey. Henry Hugh Longuet Higgins was a clergyman in Liverpool, which explains the presence of the sermons preached at Liverpool in this collection. The Rev. Henry Hugh Longuet Higgins died in 1893 and the main part of the estate passed to his eldest son Henry Longuet Higgins, a solicitor. Two properties from the estate, Laws House and Holmwood, were left to the reverend's two other sons, Charles and Francis Horace on the death of their aunt Helen, (see HG9/7) After inheriting the estate Henry Longuet Higgins continued to live in Richmond, Surrey. The Higgins family did not live at Turvey Abbey after 1904. Henry and his wife moved to Vine Cottage, Turvey from about 1910. Henry Longuet Higgins adopted the name Longuet-Higgins by deed poll in 1905. Some outlining parts of the estate were sold in 1919. Henry Longuet Higgins married Gertrude Maude, eldest daughter of the Rev Henry Isaac Johnson and they had three sons and two daughters: Henry Hugh Longuet (1885-1966), John Esmond Longuet (1887-1968), Kathleen (1889-1953), Gertrude Maude (1891-1952) and Kenneth Aislabire Longuet (1896-1915). On the death of Henry Longuet-Higgins in 1927 the estate was held in trust for his widow, Gertrude Mary and his surviving children. Gertrude Mary died in 1939 and Vine Cottage was left to Kathleen and Maude if they cared to live there. Maude decided to and resided there until her death. Henry Hugh Longuet Longuet-Higgins went into the church and became rector of Brasted, Sevenoaks, Kent in 1936. He retired from the church to Oxfordshire. Turvey Mill and some of the fishing rights on the Great Ouse were sold off and then, in 1952, Turvey Abbey and Abbey Farm were sold to the sitting tenant, Rupert Allen. In 1955-56 more fishing rights, some cottages and the reading room and manor room were sold. This left the estate, which had by now devolved to Henry Hugh Longuet Longuet-Higgins, owning the manor, various cottages and Priory Farm. Henry Hugh Longuet Longuet-Higgins died in 1966. He had three children: a daughter, Patricia, the theoretical chemist Hugh Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1923-2004) and the mathematician Michael Selwyn Longuet-Higgins (1925-2016).
  • Deposited by the Rev H H L Longuet-Higgins OBE MC in May 1952, and by the solicitors of the late H H L Longuet-Higgins in Jan 1967, and Oct 1972.
  • Scope and Content
    A collection from the Higgins/Longuet-Higgins family of Turvey Abbey including documents relating to the property held by the family, deeds and leases as well as surveys, maps and plans, personal documents and photographs.
  • Archival history
    The first deposit of 1952 was catalogued that year. However, the second and third deposits remained uncatalogued until 2018 when it was decided to restructure the collection in order to amalgamate the first deposit with the subsequent deposits.
  • Reference
  • External document

    Longuet Higgins brief tree.pdf

  • Level of description
    fonds
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