Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    LK
  • Title
    Larken & co of Newark (Eaton Socon estate)
  • Admin/biog history
    Nearly all of the documents relate to the Whetham family. It appears that John Whetham started to buy property in St Botolph Bishopsgate, London, in 1704 but in 1717 he purchased the manor of Wyboston and Soakes als. Lawrence Place from the Honourable William Stafford. John Whetham continued to add to his estates in Eaton Socon, buying up property from yeomen like the Topham family, who appear to have fallen into financial difficulties in the 1720s. These estates in London and Bedfordshire were inherited in 1737 by John's son, Thomas. He added to the Bedfordshire estate in a small way by purchasing a house and the adjoining four acres in 1784, but the largest increase he appears to have made to the estate came when he married Anne Barnardiston, one of the daughters of Arthur Barnardiston, esq., of Brightwell Hall, Suffolk, in 1752. She brought estates in Devonshire to the Whetham family as well as a large personal fortune. The Whetham family may also have had some connection with an estate in Breconshire. The younger son of Thomas and Ann, a lieutenant in the 12th Foot, died at Gibralter in 1783. The elder brother, Arthur, inherited the Bedfordshire and Devonshire estates, but died in about 1813 without issue, leaving the Bedfordshire estate to his sister, Ann, who had married Thomas Greenwood Fothergill. The Devonshire estate passed to his cousin, Major General John Whetham of Kirklington. The family name became Boddam-Whetham when a daughter of this cousin, Maria Agatha, married Alexander Boddam in 1841 Some of the later history of Mrs Fothergill's estate in Eaton Socon can be seen in H/WS 911-926 and the extent of the Eaton Socon property can be seen in the Eaton Socon Enclosure map of 1799.
  • Deposited by Messrs. Larken and Co, solicitors, of 10, Lombard Street, Newark, per Nottinghamshire County Record Office
  • Level of description
    fonds
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