Pierrepont first caught my attention when I was researching for my post on Frensham’s First Parish Register and I decided to delve a little deeper into the place. I had no idea that I would be writing about Lords of the Manor, Maltsters, Regency Courtesans, West Indian enslaved-labour plantations, Members of Parliament, Private Banks, Brewers, and so much more! Today, The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) owns Pierrepont Farm ~ the forerunner of today’s Pierrepont House ~ and its website hints at the history of this corner of Frensham:
“Stand at the front gate of Pierrepont farmhouse on a quiet summer evening, listen intently and you may just catch the very faintest of echoes of Gavotte and Minuet and the rustle of silks and satins. Fifty yards away on that grassy knoll ahead of you, where the Jerseys now graze, was once a fine mansion called Clinton Lodge, after the then owner, the Earl of Lincoln, which the Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull later bought, renaming it Pierrepont Lodge after his family name and adding a splendid ballroom and a new kitchen.“
Some Background Information
Pierrepont’s history begins with Tanker’s Ford in Frensham which was one of the few crossing places for the River Wey before Millbridge was built about half a mile upstream. Adjacent to the ford was a farm of the same name which today is known as Pierrepont Farm. “Several houses have frequented the estate of Pierrepont and the gardens have been dated to the 1540’s” (Exploring Surrey’s Past ~ ESP). The estate has been farmed since people first settled in England as Stone Age tools have been found at Pierrepont. I am starting the story at 1601 in the last years of the reign of Elizabeth I.
Understanding the Manorial System: Tankersford Farm had originally been part of Farnham Manor but, by 1690, it had been acquired by Frensham Beale Manor named after the Beale Family. The majority of England was divided into manors, some owned by the Crown, and others by colleges, church dioceses, aristocratic families or wealthy merchants. Farnham Manor was owned by the Diocese of Winchester but Frensham Beale always remained in private hands, too numerous to list. The farms and estates in manors are referred to as ‘being sold’ to a certain person but, in reality, it was the lease that was sold.
Who Has Lived at Pierrepont?
1. JOHN INWOOD
In 1601, John Inwood paid the Lord of Farnham Manor 2/6d annual rent for “6 acres at Tankards Forde with a cottage and barn new built”. The Inwood family were clearly long-time Frensham residents over many generations as the 1523 tax list below shows.
But … John Inwood of 1601 is more difficult to pin down as between 1593 and 1617, there are 5 marriage records for a John Inwood at Farnham and Frensham records before 1649 have not survived.
2. UNKNOWN OCCUPANT
A letter sent from Peter Hampden (Keeper of the Frensham Pond Swans) to Sir George More (Deputy-Sheriff of Surrey) in 1605 about fishing on the River Wey refers to Tankers Ford.
3. OWNER: SIR WILLIAM MORLEY – UNKNOWN OCCUPANT
By 1690, Tankersford Farm had been sold by the Winchester Diocese to the Frensham Beale Manor and that manor records show that the farmer occupant paid an annual rent of 8 shillings to the Lord of the Manor. This was Sir William Morley, a Sussex M.P. ~ just one of an ever-changing list of Frensham Beale Manor owners.
4. GEORGE MABANK
George Mabank, a wealthy maltster of Guildford, had purchased Tankersford Farm by 1725 and placed a tenant, Thomas Farnham, to run the place. The Mabank family were part of a network of maltsters and watermill owners along the River Wey.
And yes, there were families called ‘Farnham’ in Farnham! Here is a burial record for John Farnham in the Farnham Parish Register:
George Mabank died in 1735 and he described Tankersford as ‘a farm of 60 acres with a messuage (dwelling house – pronounced “mess-witch”) and barn’. He left the property to his son, John Mabank of Holy Trinity Parish in Guildford.
John Maybank sold off Tankersford Farm to John Mordaunt in 1748. A Maltster needed barley in large quantities but Frensham had a “history of a long struggle to win small pockets of farmland from the waste (heath), poor sandy soil only good for heather, fuzz (gorse) and rabbits” (CRT). Growing barley on sandy soils causes uneven plant growth and development apparently, so this farm was of little value to a maltster.
Tankersford was now to become “a rich man’s plaything”. (CRT)
5. The Honourable John Mordaunt
Born in 1709, John Mordaunt was the second son of Viscount Mordaunt and was M.P. for Nottinghamshire until the government wanted the seat for someone else; he was compensated with Winchelsea, Sussex ~ a so-called ‘rotten borough’ with an electorate of 11 men electing 2 M.P.’s!
In 1741, John was able to secure an appointment as Ranger of Alice Holt and Walmer Forest (an ancient meaningless sinecure) and this probably established his connection with the Frensham area. It is doubtful that he ever did much ‘ranging’ for his salary, although he did post a reward of £50 to the person who revealed the identity of whomever vandalised a fish pond in Woolmer Forest.
After buying Tankersford Farm in 1748, John Mordaunt had the house refurbished and the renovation must have been fairly extensive as the old farmhouse needed to be converted into a gentleman’s dwelling. The photos below shows what the house may have looked like after he beautified it based on what the present-day farmhouse looks like ~ remember the original farmhouse still stands. Mordaunt’s stay in Frensham was for just a few years as by 1752, John sold Tankersford to Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln.
13 October 1752: Articles of agreement between (1) Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln and (2) John Mordaunt for the purchase and sale of an estate known as Tankreds Ford, Frensham, Surrey. Ageement that (1) will give (2) the sum of £2,000 for a copyhold estate known as Tankreds Ford, Surrey which is valued at £60 per annum.
6. Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln
Henry was not interested in Mordaunt’s modified farmhouse (which is Pierrepont Farm today) and built a mansion house on a grassy rise west of the farm and called it Clinton Lodge after his family. This house, gardens, and farm must have provided much-needed employment for many Frensham residents.
By 1761, however, Henry sold Clinton Lodge to a relative Evelyn Pierrepont (a duke no less). The Earl of Lincoln retreated to his primary estate, Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, and concentrated his efforts on developing the Clumber Spaniel!
7. Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull
Officially, he was known as Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, KG, (1711 – 1773). Unofficially, Horace Walpole was to say that “Evelyn Pierrepont was a very weak man, of the greatest beauty and finest person in England”.
To Frensham, came Evelyn Pierrepont with his vast fortune and his mistress Elizabeth Chudleigh, no better than she ought, by all accounts, and they disported and gambolled for ten years, by which time he had married the lady (bigamously as it turned out) but his health was failing and Pierrepont Lodge was sold. (CRT)
In 1761, Evelyn Pierrepont purchased Clinton Lodge from Henry Pelham-Clinton and renamed it Pierrepont Lodge after his family name. (This should not be confused with the gatehouse lodge to the present-day house). As befitting a duke, he added a “splendid ballroom and a new kitchen” (CRT). Plenty of stories are to be found on the internet about him and his mistress/wife, Elizabeth Chudleigh who accompanied him to Pierrepont Lodge. We have to wonder what the people of Frensham made of these occupants of Pierrepont Lodge!
8. Ascanius William Senior Esquire
During the 1770’s, Pierrepont Lodge changed ownership twice and the first owner was Ascanius William Senior who was a ‘nabob’ ~ a person who made a fortune in India and then returned to England to spend it. He purchased estates in the West Indies thus making him the owner of enslaved people with a listing in the Legacies of British Slavery Database maintained by University College London.
Ascanius Senior and his wife, Charlotte (née Walter) had a daughter baptized at Frensham Church: Charlotte Maria Senior in 1773. Charlotte grew up to become the wife of Francis Fuller (later Major-General Fuller), in 1790, have three children, but died at age 24. The Senior family left Pierrepont Lodge in 1777 for Pylewell Park in Lymington, Hampshire.
9. Thomas James Storer Esquire
Ascanius Senior sold Pierrepont Lodge to Thomas James Storer, who made his money as an owner of plantations in Jamaica. Thomas Storer was listed in the Jamaican Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 4 plantations totaling 2051 acres in Jamaica, all using enslaved people. Like Ascanius Senior, Thomas Storer is also listed as a slave owner in the Legacies of British Slavery Database.
Thomas Storer and his wife, Elizabeth (née Proby) had a daughter, Julia Elizabeth Storer, baptized at Frensham Church in 1777. Baby Julia Storer grew up to live a most unusual life as a famous Regency courtesan using the assumed name ‘Julia Johnstone’. So well-known was Julia, that an anonymous author published The Confessions of Julia purportedly written by Julia in 1824, after Julia’s death! If you would like to know more about her life, then click the link below. Thomas Storer left Pierrepont Lodge in 1782, and Sir William Meredith was the next owner.
10. SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH
Sir William Meredith (1725 – 1790), was a M.P. for Wigan, and then Liverpool. Meredith was an extravagant man, and in 1779 was obliged to sell the family estate at Henbury, Cheshire and he moved into Pierrepont Lodge. He lived there for just 5 years; he died unmarried in Lyons, France. Meredith is known in Parliamentary history for his unique speech in 1777 against capital punishment for minor offences which fell on death ears. The town of Meredith, New Hampshire in the U.S. is named after him.
We have to keep in mind that the Pierrepont estate was still owned as a copyhold lease from the Lord of the Manor and the manorial rolls of Frensham Beale continued to keep records and Meredith is listed as having surrendered his lease in 1785 to the Lord of Frensham Beale Manor, who in a quaint medieval ceremony, admitted Ralph Winstanley Wood to the property.
11. RALPH WINSTANLEY WOOD
Originally an army man in India, Wood went on to make his fortune in India when he purchased salt-making facilities. Upon returning to England as a genuine ‘nabob’ he purchased the Pierrepont estate in 1785 and built his own mansion on the elevated western edge of the estate where the present house sits and he called it Highfield Place. As the record from The National Archives below shows, Wood retained the original Pierrepont Lodge for a while but sometime after 1790, he had it demolished.
Ralph Wood had invested heavily in the trading firm of Boehm and Tayler after his daughter, Elizabeth married John Tayler but the firm folded leaving its creditors empty-handed. Wood was ruined and Highfield Lodge would need to be sold, but in stepped the very wealthy Crawford Davison, a London commercial man, who just happened to be the husband of another of Wood’s daughters, Mary ~ Crawford and Mary Wood had married in Frensham Church in 1796. Davison purchased the estate allowing Ralph and his wife Mary to remain at Highfield, along with their now financially-constrained daughter Elizabeth Tayler and her children after the bankruptcy and death of John Tayler.
6 June 1820: Sale particulars of Highfield Place with farm house and 270 acres, sundry cottages and The Mariners’ Public House in Frensham. Articles of agreement between R.H. Wood and Crawford Davison Esq. (ESP)
Mary Wood died in 1808 and was buried in Frensham Churchyard.
Ralph Wood lived on for many years and did not die until 1831. His grandson, Reverend Charles Benjamin Tayler came from Long Ditton to conduct the funeral. Notice that the name ‘Highfield’ has slipped back to ‘Pierrepont’ (misspelt in record below) since its purchase by Crawford Davison.
Incidentally, Reverend Tayler wrote many books and one of his novels called ‘May You Like It’ (1823) included a family who “resided in the most retired part of Surrey, on the borders of Hampshire” at an estate called Tancred’s Ford. He dedicated the book to his grandfather, Ralph Winstanley Wood.
12. CRAWFORD DAVISON
When Davison married the 18 year old Bengal-born Mary Wood in Frensham Church in 1796 he probably never imagined that he would find himself saving the Wood family from financial ruin. Crawford Davison was a merchant who made a lot of money as an importer of commodities such as rice from Georgia in the U.S., and sugar from his slave-labour plantations in Trinidad, Tobago and Antigua. Crawford and Mary had at least 9 children with 5 of them surviving to adulthood. The family lived in Finsbury and later at Pierrepont where both Crawford and Mary died; they were buried in Frensham Churchyard.
Crawford Davison paid for the north aisle to be added to Frensham Church in 1827 and organized deliveries of rice to both Farnham and Frensham for people to buy during a year of poor wheat harvest. On the flip side of that coin, Crawford Davison received £18,067 (around £2.8 million today) of tax payers’ money to compensate him following the passing of The Slavery Abolition Act 1833; the 731 former enslaved people on his 8 plantations received no compensation under the Act.
13. CRAWFORD DAVISON JUNIOR, MARY DAVISON, ELIZABETH WHITMORE, JANE MOULTRIE, and ELEANOR COBB
Crawford Davison’s Will was unusual for the time as he divided his estate into 5 equal shares for his children, so after 1836, Pierrepont was jointly owned by the 5 Davison off-spring. They decided to rent out the house and the Davison family’s occupation came to an end. Brother and sister Crawford and Mary Davison lived in Frensham at ‘The Priory’; neither of them married.
14. NESTON JOSEPH FULLER
Mr. Fuller (of the Fuller Brewery family) rented Pierrepont for a few years and the census of 1841 shows him in residence with his wife and 7 live-in servants. By 1851, he was renting a property called Frensham Hill Estate which he then purchased for £30,630 in 1864.
15. WILLIAM OLIVER
William Oliver retired from a career with the East India Company and when he died in 1846, his will identified him as William Oliver Esquire of Pierrepont near Farnham, Surrey. He requested that his funeral “be conducted with as little expense as possible”; he was buried in Frensham Churchyard.
16. GEORGINA CURRIE
A list of ‘Private Residents’ of Frensham in 1850 shows that Miss Georgina Currie was living at Highfield (the name continuing to swing between Pierrepont and Highfield). She was the granddaughter of William Currie who made a lot of money distilling malt for the brewing trade (recurrent themes run through this story) and founded a private bank that existed from 1773 and eventually was subsumed into The Royal Bank of Scotland. In the 1841 Census, Georgina was living with her father in London with 13 domestic servants. After renting Pierrepont for a while, she moved to ‘Fir Grove’, Bourne Road, Farnham where she died, unmarried in 1885.
17. RICHARD HENRY COMBE
In 1862, the Davisons sold the Pierrepont Estate to Richard Combe of the brewery firm which later became Watney, Combe and Reid. He decided that he wanted to re-build the house and he employed the well-known Arts and Crafts style architect, Richard Norman Shaw R.A, to design a splendid new house, which was completed in 1876. The new house did preserve some of Ralph Winstanley Wood’s ‘Highfield Place’. The 1881 Census lists 18 domestic servants plus a German governess living at Pierrepont House along with the 5 members of the Combe family.
So finally in 1876, we arrive at the Pierrepont House that stands in Frensham today. Additionally, we have a new Lord of the Manor as Richard Combe not only built the present house but also purchased Frensham Beale Manor.
Pierrepont from 1900 to the Present Day
Richard died on a visit to Cairo, Egypt in1900, aged 71, and was buried at a very well-attended funeral at Frensham on 4 May 1900 as befitting ‘Squire Davison’ as he was known. The Pierrepont Estate passed to his son Richard Henry Combe Junior who lived at Pierrepont until his death in 1939. His only son, George Henry Richard Combe was killed in the First World War; a memorial window to Lt. Combe can be seen in Frensham Church.
On 30 May 1940, the auction of Pierrepont Estate was held and the estate (enlarged by the Combe family to 2655 acres) was broken into 76 lots including: House and pleasure gardens (45 acres), Pierrepont Home Farm (104 acres), The Priory House, Frensham Pond Hotel, and the Lordship of the Manor of Frensham Beale – still going strong after hundreds of years.
Pierrepont House has had three owners since 1947: Pierrepont House School, Ellel Ministries, and, most recently, The Redeemed Christian Church of God.
In total, we can account for at least twenty owners or occupiers of Pierrepont and its predecessor dwellings in the years 1601 to 2024!
Final Note on Lord of the Manor: The title still exists as a legally recognised form of property; it may belong entirely to one person or be shared with other people. Ownership of a manorial lordship can be noted in British passports by an official observation worded, ‘The Holder is the Lord of the Manor of ‘
Select Sources
- A Topographical History of Surrey by E. W. Brayley (1841)
- Exploring Surrey’s Past
- The History of Parliament On-line
- Country Regeneration Trust
- Numerous images, articles and books accessed through Google
- Parish Registers at ancestry.com
- Wills and land transactions at The National Archives