Reference
ST1-485
Title
Campion Family Estates
Date free text
1631-1918
Production date
From: 1631 To: 1918
Admin/biog history
This family seems to have come from Northamptonshire, where the earliest mention (ST1) is in the marriage settlement of 1758 of John Campion of Oundle, surgeon. For at least two generations they were surgeons in Bedford, gradually acquiring property in St John’s and St Mary’s, south of the river. Later in the 19th century they purchased land in St Paul’s, once the Prebenda Major estate.
In 1840 the Reverend John William Coventry Campion bought the Manor of Westoning and other property in that area which had until recently belonged to the Everitt family of Hitchin, whose fortunes had been founded on the “Haberdashing of Hats”. A curiosity here is that for two generations the male Everitts had avoided the legal entanglements of marriage, and provided for their dependants by wills and settlements.
The Campions continued to buy up small cottage properties in Westoning in the 19th century, and also developed their land in Bedford St Paul’s, which became part of the Queen’s Park estate.
Major Coventry Campion died in 1903. His widow married Henry Blyth King, and the houses and land in Westoning were sold in 1904, but the manorial rights and advowson retained.
The earliest title deeds for Westoning and Bedford are of some interest. In Westoning there is mention of the windmill (ST184 et seq.), the Chantry House (ST187 et seq.) , several inns and the Methodist Chapel (ST247-ST248). Of note are the number of houses converted into several small tenements, and the cottages newly built on small plots of land in the early 19th century (ST297, ST318 etc.). The population of Westoning increased from 410 in 1801 to 634 in 1821 – by more than a half in 20 years – and yet many people are mentioned who had moved away from the village or emigrated.
In Bedford several inns are referred to, the White Swan (ST5), the Castle (ST11 et seq.), the Golden Lion (ST229), and the King’s Ditch occurs as a boundary several times.
St Mary’s Buildings (on east of High Street, St Mary) was rebuilt by Campion in 1866-7 (valuation and rate books)
W T Baker, in 1971 booksellers and stationers at 12 St Mary’s, says his father bought premises from Campion after having been tenant, and previously having been at 21 across the road.
W T Baker was at 21 St Mary’s (later Darrington’s) from February 1873, and moved as tenant to 12 St Mary’s in July 1880. The shop had formerly been occupied by William Norris]
Level of description
sub-fonds