Wilks Family Part II

The Wilks Family – Part II

Matthias Wilks (1759-1841)[1] married three times. His first wife was Jane Browne whom he married on 20 August 1776 at St Sepulchre, Holborn,[2] and by whom he had at least three children:

Joseph Browne Wilks (c1780-1850)[3]

Jane Wilks (1781-1845)[4]

Robert Wilks (1786-1829)[5]

His second wife was Mary Browne, a widow and therefore probably not a close relation of his first wife, despite the surname. They were married on 15 January 1807[6]. She died in April 1838 and was buried at St Peter’s, Tandridge, Surrey, on 30 April; the register states: “of Easton Neston Park, Northamptonshire, died in Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood, Middx”.[7] Hamilton Terrace was the home of Matthias’s niece, Maria Senior[8].

Matthias’s third wife, whom he married at All Souls, Langham Place, on 5 December 1838, was Jessie Pace, daughter of Reverend William Pace[9]. The Pace family had connections to the Wilks family: when, ten years earlier on 23 February 1828, Matthias’s grandson, Matthias Buckworth Wilks, was baptised at the church in Tandridge, the service was conducted by Reverend William Pace “rector of Rampisham & Wraxall, Dorset.”[10]

Jesse was baptised at Salcombe in Devon on 31 December 1798[11] and died on Christmas Eve 1879 in Hayes, Middlesex.[12]

Matthias is said to have built the Phoenix Mill at Dartford in 1796.[13] This mill was the furthest downstream on the Darent. About 1650 a “brassell” mill had been set up on the site for splitting iron into rods and nails. Sometime after 1779, the brassell mill gave way to a saw mill, then in 1790 a seven storey cotton mill was built. This burnt down in 1795 and a smaller building, Phoenix Mill, was erected.[14] A directory entry for 1826 for Dartford gives, under seed crusher and merchant, Matthias Wilks, Phoenix mills & 3 Allhallows lane, Upper Thames St, London.[15] Earlier directories (1808 and 1811) put Matthias’s London office as 3 Brabant Court, Philpot Lane[16]  and a later directory (1829) at 10 Queenhithe.[17] However, by 1840, Messrs Saunders and Harrison, mustard makers, were occupying Phoenix Mills.[18]

Matthias apears to have had interests in a number of different mills both in Kent and Surrey producing oil, mustard, corn and cement, although where is not known.

Matthias wrote his will[19] on 14 December 1838 – nine days after his marriage to Jesse – and of the ten pages that comprised the document, a considerable portion was concerned with how his fortune should be held in trust for any children whom Jesse might give him, not just any who might have been born before he died, but also any who may have been, as the will put it, en ventre sa mere – ie that Jesse might be carrying – and then “born in due time”.

When he wrote this will, he was 79 and Jessse 39. There were no children by this marriage.

The will mentions “my freehold estates at Dartford in the county of Kent and in the county of Surrey and also all my leasehold estates in London and Dartford aforesaid and also all my other freehold and leasehold estates and all my copyhold estates and all my oil mills corn mills mustard mills cement mills oil refining warehouses oil cisterns coppers oil millstones and corn mill stones and my steam engine belonging to the oil mill and the iron vessels iron shafts boilers and all implements thereunto belonging and my steam engine and boilers and all implements thereunto belonging in my late cement mills and all the iron shafts iron vessels machinery and fixtures belonging to me in and about the said Mills and premises”.

He featured in at least two court cases: one, in 1814, involved him after he had become a trustee of the dissolved partnership between his two sons and a third man, Richard Bush, and a shipper who was claiming for the cost of freight on a consignment of goods.[20]

The other case, a year earlier, concerned ownership of 20 tons of linseed oil which Matthias had contracted to sell but for which he had not received payment and therefore had refused to release.[21]

Besides his milling activities, Matthias invested in at least one railway company – Bath & Weymouth Railway[22] – and also bought and sold property. Both he and his son Joseph invested in property in Tandridge in Surrey[23] and in Kemp Town, Brighton.[24]

Matthias bought Rooksnest, Tandridge, in 1810 and sold it on in 1817. This house was described as “a fine house in classical style, with an Ionic portico, standing in a park of 140 acres”.[25] He leased another property in the parish at about the same time from William Claydon and built a new house called Tandridge Court.[26] It is possible that he lived at Rooksnest while the building work on this new house was being carried out.

Matthias’s son Robert died at Tandridge Court and was buried at St Peter’s, Tandridge, on 9 May 1829.[27]

William Claydon also leased a property to Matthias’s son Joseph called Tandridge Hall.[28]

When Thomas Kemp’s plans to build Kemp Town in Brighton hit financial problems in the 1820s, he had to sell “carcasses” (unfinished houses) as well as completed properties. In 1828, Matthias Wilks bought a house in Sussex Square on the south east corner. Later the same year, he and his son Joseph bought 15 carcasses.[29]

Matthias and his family also occupied Easton Neston Park, a large house in Northamptonshire, from at least 1818 to 1838, if not later. However, in 1841, Matthias was living in Sibton House in Lyminge, Kent,[30] where he died in June that year. His body was taken to Tandridge for burial.[31]

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[1] National Archives: General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857; Class: RG 4; Piece: 4414. Stepney, Bull Lane (Independent), 1644-1837 (Ancestry.com England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970 Piece 4414 image 49); London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Peter, Tandridge, Surrey, Transcript of Baptisms and Burials, 1841, DW/T Item, 8357; Call Number: DW/T/8357 (Ancestry.com. London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 Tandrdige 1841 image 1); FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1841 Elham Vol 5 p105

[2] Guildhall, St Sepulchre Holborn, Register of marriages, 1776 - 1786, P69/SEP/A/01/Ms 7222/3 (Ancestry.com London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 St Sepulchre 1776 image 15)

[3] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1850 Saffron Walden Vol 12 p173

[4] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q3 1845 Brighton Vol 7 p159

[5] London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Peter, Tandridge, Surrey, Transcript of Baptisms and Burials, 1829, DW/T Item, 8343; Call Number: DW/T/83437 (Ancestry.com. London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 Tandridge 1829 image 1)

[6] Guildhall, St Mary at Hill, Register of marriages, 1784 - 1813, P69/MRY4/A/01/Ms 4547/2 (Ancestry.com London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 St Mary at Hill 1807 image 1)

[7] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1838 Marylebone Vol 1 p219; Ancestry.com. Surrey, England, Burials, 1813-1987 Tandridge  P24/9/8 image 15

[8] National Archives: General Register Office; 1841 Census of England and Wales;  Class HO107 Piece 678 Book 10, St Marylebone, Middlesex; Enumeration district 11 Folio 8 page 8 Line 1 GSU Roll 438794 (Ancestery.com 1841 England Census St Marylebone, St John, District 11, image 5)

[9] London Metropolitan Archives, All Souls, Langham Place, Register of marriages, P89/ALS, Item 056 (Ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921  Langham, 1838 image 52)

[10] London Metropolitan Archives, Tandridge, Register of Baptism, DW/T, Item 8342. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Tandridge 1828 image 2)

[11] Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975  FHL Film Number 916930

[12] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q4 1879 Uxbridge Vol 3a p27; Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. (Ancestry.com: England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 1880 W Wi image 35)

[13] Brace, Harold W, “History of Seed Crushing in Great Britain,” Land Books, London 1960 p105

[14] Lewis, Samuel “A Topographical Survey of England”, S Lewis & Co, London, 1840 p10 (via books.google.co.uk/books?id=BQkVAAAAQAAJ)

[15] Ancestry.com: Pigot & Co’s Commercial Directory of Kent 1826/7 image 20

[16] Critchett’s Post Office Directory 1808 p311 (via http://www.historicaldirectories.org/ image 313); Holden's Annual London and Country Directory, of the United Kingdoms, and Wales, in Three Volumes, for the Year 1811. Vol. I-III. London, England: W. Holden, 1811 (Ancestry.com London and Country Directory, 1811 W image 30)

[17] Ancestry.com: The Post Office London Directory 1829 W image 21

[18] Ancestry.com: Pigot & Co’s Commercial Directory of Kent 1840 image 20

[19] National Archives: Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1603. Cresswell Quire No 157-208 (1818) (Ancestry.com England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 images 826-830)

[20] Taunton, William Pyle “Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Common Pleas and Other Courts from Michaelmas Term, 48 Geo. III. 1807 to Hilary Term, 59 Geo. III. 1819 Inclusive” Volume 5, J. Butterworth, London 1815 p176 (via books.google.com/books?id=inIDAAAAQAAJ)

[21] Taunton (1815) p612 (via books.google.com/books?id=inIDAAAAQAAJ)

[22] “Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command,” Volume 18, Part 2 Bath & Weymouth Railway Subscription List, HM Stationery Office, London, 1837 p188 et seq (via books.google.com/books?id=E3FbAAAAQAAJ)

[23] Surrey History Centre: The Clayton Family of Marden Park, Bletchingley, Godstone and Tandridge: Additional Family and Estate Papers Relating to Surrey, London, Kent and Lincolnshire: K61 series

[24] Berry, Sue “Thomas Read Kemp – a Regency ‘Credit Crunch’?” Regency Magazine 13 February 2009 http://www.regencymagazine.co.uk/

[25] Brayley, Edward Wedlake “A topographical history of Surrey Vol 4” G Willis, London 1850 p183 (via http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=23VKAAAAYAAJ)

[26] Brayley (1850) p181 (via http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=23VKAAAAYAAJ)

[27] London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Peter, Tandridge, Surrey, Transcript of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1829, DW/T/8343; Call Number: DW/T/8343. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 Tandridge 1829 image 1

[28] Brayley (1850) p182 (via http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=23VKAAAAYAAJ)

[29] Berry (2009) http://www.regencymagazine.co.uk/

[30] National Archives: General Register Office; 1841 Census of England and Wales: Class HO107 Piece 478 Book12 Lyminge, Kent Enumeration district 8 Folio 8 Page 9 Line 11 GSU roll 306873 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Lyminge District 8 image 6)

[31] London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Peter, Tandridge, Surrey, Transcript of Baptisms and Burials, 1841, DW/T Item, 8357; Call Number: DW/T/8357. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 Tandridge 1841 image 1)