Wilks Family Part IV

The Wilks Family – Part IV

 

Matthias Wilks and Jane Browne, his first wife, had three children (see part II). These were:

Joseph Browne Wilks (c1780-1850)[1]

Jane Wilks (1781-1845)[2]

Robert Wilks (1786-1829)[3]

Born in the 1780s, Joseph Browne Wilks was described as “of Dartford” when he married a widow, Mary Magdalen Ann Croft, on 18 July 1811.[4] She was the daughter of Thomas Buckworth and his wife, Mary Magdalen Russell and had been born on 11 December 1785.[5] The Buckworths lived in the City of London and Mary was one of at least six children they had, although two are known not to have survived infancy and a third is not mentioned in their father’s will of 1803.[6]

Mary had previously been married to Captain John Croft RN whom she wed on 5 May 1807.[7]

Joseph and Mary had one child still born in 1819[8] and there may have been more before their one surviving child was born: Matthias Buckworth Wilks (1827-1882)[9].

Two days before the wedding, a marriage settlement was made with four men – John Clement Ruding, of Francis Street, Bedford Square, who was a witness at both Mary’s marriages; Richard Nixon of Highgate; Matthias Wilks and Robert Wilks – as trustees.[10] When Joseph and Mary leased Tandridge Hill Farm from Sir William Clayton and William Robert Clayton in May 1815, these four trustees formed one party to the lease agreement.[11] Again, on several occasions over the next 20 years, the trustees – or at least the surviving trustees – had to be party to various other leases that Joseph and Mary had from the Claytons on properties in Tandridge and Oxted.[12]

Joseph was a partner with his brother Robert and Richard Bush – Wilks, Bush & Wilks – as merchants with offices at All Hallows Lane, Thames Street, in the City of London.[13] This partnership was dissolved on 1 July 1813.[14]

It is not known what Joseph did after that – possibly live off his wife’s money, her father had been a wealthy man – but he did get involved in property with his father, buying houses in Sussex Square, Kemp Town, to the east of Brighton.[15] He also invested in at least one railway company[16] and was a director of the Norfolk Estuary Company, formed in 1845, which planned to drain land near King’s Lynn and bring some 32,000 acres into agricultural production.[17]

His interest in the estuary of the Great Ouse had begun a few years before. Like his father, he became a seed crusher and oil miller and, on 30 June 1840, he took a lease on North Lynn Oil Mill,[18] built about 1820 by Lord William Cavendish Bentinck.[19] A directory for 1845 lists Joseph as a seed crusher at North Lynn, with a note “also of Saffron Walden, Essex”, and George Featherstonhaugh as agent at the mill.[20]

The terms of the lease on the mill was that Joseph spent £3,000 on renovating it. By 1842, he had already spent £2,000.[21]

In the late 1830s, he had taken a farm at Little Chesterfield Park, near Saffron Walden, which he let out in 1844, selling off the stock and equipment.[22] However, he and Mary were staying with his father at Sibton House, Lyminge, Kent in 1841 – just before Matthias died.[23]

When Joseph himself died in 1850,[24] he was living at Chesterfield Park again and he appears not to have left a will. Mary died the following year[25] and did leave a will.[26]

Their son, Matthias Buckworth Wilks, was born on 26 September 1827 and baptised at St Peter’s, Tandridge, on 23 February 1828.[27] He married Maria Jane Bryant in 1849[28] but the couple appear not to have had any children.

They were living at Hollywell House, Droxford in Hampshire in 1861,[29] and were still there when, in 1866, they leased Brooklands, a house in Lyndhurst, Hampshire,[30] where they stayed until not long before Matthias’s death in 1882, at which time, his address was 29 Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square, in London’s West End.[31]

 

On 9 July 1818, Jane Wilks married Hugh Lewis Albert,[32] the recently retired paymaster of the 58th Regiment.[33] Hugh was some seven years older than Jane: he had been born on 25 September 1773 and baptised at St Anne, Kew, on 20 November that year.[34] The couple appeared not to have had any children.

In 1841 they were living at 75 Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, Marylebone,[35] but when Hugh made his will in the same year, he gave his address as “of Cheltenham”.[36]

However, when the couple died – Hugh early in 1845[37] and Jane a few months later[38] – their deaths were registered in Brighton.

 

Little is known about Matthias and Jane’s youngest child, Robert Wilks. He was born about 1791, was a co-partner in Wilks, Bush & Wilks until its dissolution in 1813[39] and died in 1829 at Tandridge Court.[40]

 

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

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

[3] 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)

[4] London Metropolitan Archives, Saint George, Bloomsbury, Register of marriages, P82/GEO1, Item 020. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 Bloomsbury St George 1811 image 11)

[5] London Metropolitan Archives, St Olave Jewry, Register of baptisms and burials, 1686 - 1812, P69/OLA2/A/003/MS04401, Item 001. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 St Olave Old Jewry 1686-1812 image 23)

[6] All but one of the other children appear in London Metropolitan Archives, St Olave Jewry, Register of baptisms and burials, 1686 - 1812, P69/OLA2/A/003/MS04401, Item 001. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 St Olave Old Jewry 1686-1812). They were

Thomas Russell Buckworth  (1781-1784) [baptism image 21, burial image 48]; Everard Buckworth (1781-?) [baptism image 21]; Theophilus Buckworth (1784) [baptism image 22, burial image 48]; Eliza Buckworth (1792-1865) [baptism image 25]. Theophilus Russell Buckworth (1794-1857) was baptised elsewhere: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Luke, Old Street, Composite register: baptisms Oct 1789 - Jun 1800, burials Sep 1789 - 1800, P76/LUK, Item 006. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812  St Luke Finsbury 1789-1800 image 107); National Archives; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1392. (Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 1802-1804 Piece 1392 Marriott Quire Numbers 401-454 (1803) images 28-38)

[7] London Metropolitan Archives, All Hallows, Tottenham, Composite register: marriages 1801 - 1812, banns 1801 - 1817, DRO/015/A/01, Item 011. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 Tottenham All Hallows 1807 image 5)

[8] The Examiner 30 May 1819, p352

[9] London Metropolitan Archives, Tandridge, Register of Baptism, DW/T, Item 8342. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Tandridge 1828 image 2); FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1882 St George Hanover Square Vol  1a p240)

[10] National Archives; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 2144. (Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 1850-1852 Piece 2144 Vol 20 Quire Numbers 951-975 (1851) images 185-7)

[11] 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: K61/9/27 19 May 1815

[12] 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: K61/9/28 11 Sept 1827; K61/11/86 and K61/11/87 12 & 13 June 1834; K61/10/112 24 & 25 July 1838 inter alia

[13] 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)

[14] London Gazette 3 July 1813 Issue number 16749 Page 1317

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

[16]  “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)

[17] eg The Leeds Examiner 8 March 1845 p1; London Gazette 17 November 1845 Issue number 20535 Page 4954

[18] University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections Online Catalogue: Pl F8/3/2/1 Lease of oil mill at North Lynn St Edmunds, Norfolk; 14 June 1840

[19] Ancestry.com: White’s History Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk 1845 image 570

[20] ibid

[21] University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections Online Catalogue: Pl F8/3/2/7 Deed of covenant relating to the oil mill at North Lynn St Edmunds, Norfolk; 1842

[22] The Hertford Mercury & Reformer 26 October 1844 p1

[23] National Archives: General Register Office; 1841 Census of England and Wales: Class HO107 Piece 478 Book 12 Lyminge, Kent Enumeration district 8 Folio 8 Page 9 Line 11 GSU roll 306873 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Lyminge District 8 image 6)

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

[25] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q4 1851 Saffron Walden Vol 12 p162

[26] National Archives; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 2144. (Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 1850-1852 Piece 2144 Vol 20 Quire Numbers 951-975 (1851) images 185-7)

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

[28] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Q3 1849 Shoreditch Vol 2 p464

[29] National Archives: General Register Office; 1861 Census of England and Wales: Class: RG 9; Piece: 698; Folio: 67; Page: 16; GSU roll: 542686. (Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census Droxford District 5 image 17)

[30] London Gazette 13 July 1866 Issue number: 23137 Page: 4001

[31] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1882 St George Hanover Square Vol 1a p240); 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 1882 W Wi image 36)

[32] London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Marylebone, Register of marriages, P89/MRY1, Item 188. (Ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 St Marylebone 1818 image 75)

[33] London Gazette 13 February 1798 Issue number 14091 Page 139; London Gazette 1 November 1817 Issue number 17299 Page 2210

[34] Surrey History Centre Anglican Parish Registers. Woking. 6060/1/1 (Ancestry.com. Surrey, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 Kew St Anne 1714-1791 image 35)

[35] National Archives: General Register Office; 1841 Census of England and Wales: Class: HO107; Piece: 676; Book: 2; Civil Parish: St Marylebone, Middlesex; Enumeration District: 3; Folio: 17; Page: 26; Line: 4; GSU roll: 438792. (Ancestry.com. 1841 England Census Marylebone, Cavendish Square, District 3 image 14)

[36] National Archives; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 2011. (Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 1845-47 Piece 2011 Vol 2 Quire numbers 51-100 (1845) images 336-337)

[37] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q1 1845 Brighton Vol 7 p226

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

[39] London Gazette 3 July 1813 Issue number 16749 Page 1317

[40] 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)