DEVAS, Horace George
DEVAS, Horace George1852 – 1927Copper Merchant, Bank Director, Hayes Parish Councillor Horace Devas was the son of Charles Frederick Devas and was living at Pickhurst Manor, Hayes, when he married in 1886 Edith Caroline Campbell (1862 – 1924). They lived first at Pickhurst and then at Hartfield built for them on the edge of Hayes Common. It was designed by the architect Alex Stenning. Horace paid £1500 for the land and his father contributed £7000 for the house which was built in a Tudor style. Like his father he was a copper merchant and was wealthy enough to employ eight servants. He became a director of the Union Bank of London and continued in that position when the bank was merged into the National Provincial Bank. In 1892 Horace Devas bought more land from Sir John Farnaby Lennard for £339 to build a lodge, stables and coach house. The estate now amounted to just over 21 acres. His three children Geoffrey, Marjorie Edith and Nancy Marion were born and lived with their parents at Hartfield until they married. The eldest daughter Marjorie married Ralph Alexander Campbell, son of the 3rd Earl of Cawdor in 1914. Her brother Geoffrey married Joan Campbell Bannerman in 1916. He served with the Welsh Guards in the First World War and was awarded an MC in 1918. His sister Nancy served as a VAD Nurse at Oakley VAD Hospital, Bromley Common, from 1916 until her marriage to Captain Evelyn Hardy in June 1918. Horace and his wife took a keen interest and were very involved with events in Hayes. He was a Hayes Parish Councillor from 1898 to 1910, a school manager and treasurer of the school. Edith Devas was for many years President of the Hayes branch of the Mothers’ Union, took a special interest in the Parish library and in 1910 became President of the Hayes Branch of the Cottage Benefit Nursing Association. When they moved from Hartfield to Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, in 1920 there were many tributes to their outstanding work for the community of Hayes.
DEVAS, Charles Frederick
DEVAS, Charles Frederick5 April 1826 – 26 May 1896Coppersmith, Justice of the Peace Charles Frederick Devas took out the lease on Pickhurst Manor, Hayes, after Arthur Kinnaird left in 1871. He made some changes to the property before he moved to Pickhurst from Bromley Lodge with his six children, aged from 7 to 21 in about 1873. He was a coppersmith but was greatly involved with local matters. From 1858 he was very concerned about sanitary affairs in Bromley and was elected chairman of the Bromley Local Board set up in 1867. There were protests about his re-election in 1868 and he resigned the next year when the Home Secretary rejected the Board’s proposals for the compulsory purchase of land for a sewage farm. In July 1870 he paid £250 for the Board’s agreement to waive the rights of the parish to dig gravel on his Bromley Lodge property, a move that greatly enhanced the value of his land, many plots of which were then sold for development. This was the time when he moved to Hayes where he remained until his death in 1896 The south aisle was added to Hayes Church in 1878 and after the death of his mother, Louise Charlotte, in April 1879 he paid for a stained glass window showing the flight of Mary, Joseph and Jesus into Egypt to be installed in her memory. The 1880s saw the marriages of daughter Leonora to Charles Simpson in Hayes Church and of his son Horace to Edith Campbell who moved to Hartfield, West Wickham. In 1891 Charles & Leonora were living at Pickhurst Manor with their invalid daughter Hester and youngest daughter Laura. They employed thirteen resident servants including two footmen and a butler. Hester died in 1895 and their son Frederick in May 1896 in Western Australia. The following month Charles died and was buried in Hayes churchyard. His widow Leonora continued to live at Pickhurst Manor with her daughter Laura and nine servants until her death in May 1909. Her grandson, Walter Charles Simpson, remembered her sitting in the drawing room, where there was a writing desk, chintz-covered sofa and chairs and small tables on which were vases of flowers and photographs. She was ‘dressed in black, a white lace cap upon her head above the Victorian sweep of her parted hair, some white crochet work on her lap, and at her feet, his head resting on the folds of her dress, an old fox terrier with the undistinguished name of Jack.’ Charles, Leonora, Hester and Horace and his wife Edith were all buried in Hayes Churchyard.
KINNAIRD, Arthur Fitzgerald
Arthur Kinnaird, 10th Lord Kinnaird KINNAIRD, Hon Arthur Fitzgerald (10th Lord Kinnaird) 8 July 1814 – 26 April 1887 Liberal MP for Perth, Banker Arthur Kinnaird was an MP for Perth, a position that he held until he became Baron Kinnaird of Rossie in 1878. He was married to Mary Jane Hoare from a prestigious banking family. They moved to Pickhurst Manor in 1863 with their six children, including their son Arthur Fitzgerald who was born in 1846. Arthur Fitzgerald spent some of his teenage years in Hayes. He enjoyed all sports and occasionally played for Hayes Cricket Club. His passion was football and after he left Hayes he played for Scotland in the 1870s and was in the team that reached the semi-final of the first Football Association Challenge Cup. He appeared in nine of the first twelve Football Cup finals and became President of the Football Association for thirty years. In 1870 the family seem to have left Pickhurst Manor and Hayes and in 1871 the house was occupied by a few servants
CATOR, John Farnaby
CATOR, John Farnaby1816 – 1889Lieutenant Colonel, Landowner, Deputy Lieutenant, Justice of the Peace John Farnaby Cator took over the lease of Pickhurst Manor after the death of Lady Morland in 1851. His sister Margaretta had married William Morland in 1843. He was serving with the Royal Artillery overseas when his first wife died in 1850 leaving him with two young daughters, Penelope aged two and baby Laura. He reluctantly returned to his unit in Canada after the funeral leaving his children in the care of a sister. However, in 1852 he retired from the army on half-pay and raised the Kent Artillery Militia of which he became Lieutenant Colonel Commander. In the same year he married Julia Hallam and moved to Pickhurst Manor. The following year twin daughters, Julia and Eleanor, were born although Eleanor only lived a few months. Another daughter called Eleanor was born in 1857 and in 1860 a son Henry was born in Hayes. He was named after Julia’s father, the renowned historian Henry Hallam who had lived at Pickhurst for a while before his death in 1859. By 1861 the immediate family numbered six and there were also 12 resident servants including a butler, two footmen, a Lady’s maid and nurse maid. When his uncle Sir Charles Farnaby of Wickham Court died he left the property and estate to John Cator providing he took the surname Lennard which he agreed to do. The family therefore left Pickhurst Manor and moved to West Wickham.
MORLAND (née Courtenay), Caroline Eustatia
MORLAND (née Courtenay), Caroline Eustatia1775- 1851 Caroline Eustatia Morland was recently widowed when she left West Wickham and took over the lease of Pickhurst Manor in 1828 and moved to Hayes. She was the daughter of Viscount William Courtenay, 8th Earl of Devon and married Colonel Charles Morland in June 1812. At the time of their marriage he was Aide-de-Camp to King George IV and held a senior rank in the army. In 1841 her son William was living with her at the manor and they had eight resident servants. William married Margaretta Eliza Cator in 1843. Lady Caroline continued to live at Pickhurst Manor until her death in 1851.
HAWARDEN, Lady Viscount Anne Isabelle, (née Monck)
HAWARDEN, Lady Viscount Anne Isabelle, (née Monck)c.1759- 26 July 1851 Lady Viscount Isabella Hawarden was a widow when she took out a lease on Pickhurst Manor in 1813. At the age of eighteen in 1777 she had become the third wife of 48 year old Sir Cornwallis Maude MP, by whom she had eleven children. He was created Baron de Montalt of Hawarden, County Tipperary in 1785, Viscount Hawarden in 1791 and died in 1803 in Teignmouth. In 1821 ten people were recorded in Dowager Lady Hawarden’s household including her youngest daughter Emily. Five years later Emily who was 32 years old married Lord Henry Dunalley in Hayes Church. The family showed their support for the poor and made an annual contribution to the special fund to help those in need in Hayes. In 1814, during a very hard frost, Lady Hawarden gave an additional £2 and her daughter Miss Maude £1 towards the cost of supplying the poor with coals. Under her will made in 1840 she left the equivalent of a year’s wages to one of her servants Joseph Hunt and £50 to another servant Elizabeth Jeffries. She moved from Hayes in 1828
BOWDLER, John and family
John Bowdler Senior BOWDLER, John1746-1823Founder member of Church Building Society, author, campaigner for moral reform John Bowdler, the son of Thomas Bowdler and Elizabeth Cotton, married Henrietta Hanbury in 1778 and inherited a small fortune on the death of his father in 1785. He settled in Hayes at Pickhurst Manor in 1793 and for twenty years ‘fulfilled all the duties of that useful character in the community – a country gentleman’. Pickhurst Manor was recorded as having 48 window and in 1795 he paid tax on three male servants, a carriage and five horses. There were also three daughters still living at home and four maid servants. During the Napoleonic Wars John Bowdler was required to enlist special constables, aged 17 to 55, in case of a French invasion. He was one of the ten people chosen. He was well known for his benevolence. When the government started to gather information about the poor and the practices in various parishes John Bowdler prepared the details for Hayes in 1801. It is a fascinating document providing an insight into the life of the poor in Hayes including their diet, their wages and support from the parish when sick, giving birth, or going into service. He made regular contributions to the village school of which he was a trustee and left £15 to charity in his will. His wife also helped, for instance, by giving the Rector a large bundle of boys’ clothes to be distributed to the needy. John Bowdler’s family Revd John Till was the Rector of Hayes at that time and he spoke highly of the Bowdler family and their strong religious views. Revd Till prepared Jane Bowdler (1788 -1870) for confirmation in 1803 when she was fifteen. In the same year her elder brother Thomas (1782-1856) took a curacy in Essex and Revd Till wondered whether he would be able to withstand the fate of many clergymen of becoming ‘portly through eating and drinking too much; your turbots and your turtles are apt to betray their friends into a conspicuous rotundity of face.’ Thomas officiated at the marriage of his sister Jane to George Gipps of Lincoln’s Inn in Hayes Church in 1810. Their eldest sister Elizabeth (1779- 1810) suffered from ill health and unable to bear the winters in Hayes went each year to the Isle of Wight. She died in Hastings in 1810 a few months after the bells of Hayes Church had rung at her sister Jane’s marriage . John Bowdler Junior (1783 – 1815) Charles Bowdler (1785 – 1879) Her younger brothers, John and Charles Bowdler, spent considerable time in Hayes and Revd Till followed their pursuits with interest. Writing to Lord Lewisham, Revd Till said: ‘there is no young man, whatever his rank and abilities may be, who can fail of receiving both pleasure and advantage from an intimacy with John Bowdler.’ He was called to the bar in 1807 but followed his father’s literary interests. He became a religious writer and after his early death in 1815 his father collected and published his ‘Select Pieces in Prose and Verse.’ His brother Charles later published ‘The Religion of the Heart as Exemplified in the life and writings of John Bowdler’.
FRY, James Thomas
FRY, James Thomas1804 – 1872Registrar of the Court of Chancery On 30 May 1851, James Thomas Fry bought Baston, ‘an excellent and convenient family residence with capital stabling, coach house and offices and 117 acres of land’. It had sufficient bedrooms for his large family of eight children but more rooms were added as well as a schoolroom. In 1861 five of his children were still living at home and he employed a resident cook, parlourmaid, housemaid and kitchen maid. Ten years later he had retired and described himself as a gentleman farmer employing 4 labourers and a boy and farming 97 acres. He still employed four servants but only his sons James, a solicitor and Charles, a stockbroker, were still living at home. His eldest daughter Ann died in 1870 but his daughters Joanna, Henrietta and Mary had married merchants who were all born in Germany. Henrietta’s husband, Julius Caesar, was described in the census as a British subject born in Germany. The existence of the Common so close to his property was both an advantage and a disadvantage. In the 1850s James Fry was reminded not to extract gravel from the Common but was given permission to take the game and shoot in the area of his house. The danger of arson was always a threat and he helped to identify some boys who had set fire to the Common. He also complained about some villagers who were planning to cut down firs in front of his gate and felt the police should be taking a greater watch on what was happening. He kept some sheep and took advantage of the opportunity to turn some out onto the Common at the appropriate time of the year. On 9 November 1868, the Common Ranger Charles Spraggs recorded that Mr Fry had turned out 85 sheep and the following June 132 sheep for 28 days. James Fry died in 1872 and was buried in Hayes Churchyard. His widow Ann put the estate up for sale and the family moved away from Hayes.
RANDELL, James
RANDELL, James Lived in Hayes 1795 – 1823 Malt factor from Queenhithe In 1795 James Randell paid £2000 for part of the Baston estate sold by the executors of John Luxford. He purchased 53 acres and ‘a part brick and part plaister and tiled house’ (Baston House), coachhouse, stable, two barns, outhouses, gardens and orchards. He was a bachelor when he moved in employing four resident servants. In 1801 he also bought Mary Lander’s cottage on the Common and received agreement to an exchange of land in 1804 as he wished to erect a fence and straighten up the boundary of his garden. He married Anne Lucy and between 1806 and 1819 had seven children who were baptised in Hayes Church. He contributed to the support of the local school but his main efforts were directed to improving his property which saw major changes. In the course of these improvements in 1813 some very ancient wood panels, painted in oil and said to date from about 1460, were found lining a cupboard. These panels are now held by the Society of Antiquaries. His improvements were reflected in the rates he was expected to pay. The rateable value increased from £57 to £65 in 1809 and in 1813 he successfully appealed against an increase to £120. It was reduced to £85 for the remainder of his ownership. The family left Hayes when he sold Baston to Samuel Nevil Ward in 1823.
WARD, Samuel Nevil
WARD, Samuel Nevil 1773 – 1850 Merchant, Property Owner Samuel Nevil Ward moved with his wife Mary and family from Balham Hill to Hayes in 1816. He took the lease of Hayes Grove owned by Sir Vicary Gibbs and remained there until he purchased Baston Manor in 1823. Many of the major houses were owned or tenanted by women who, at the time, were not able to participate in local government and so he was delegated to represent their interests. He was asked by Miss Williamina Traill of Hayes Place, for example, to be her spokesperson during the discussions which took place over the assessment of tithes following the Tithe Commutation Act in 1836. He was churchwarden in 1825-26, contributed annually to the fund for poor relief set up by Revd John Till and became an Overseer of the Poor in 1833. The baptisms of four of his children Henry (1816), Elizabeth (1818), Charles(1821) and Emmeline (1830) and the marriages in 1835, 1845 and 1850 of his daughters Lydia, Elizabeth and Mary took place in Hayes Church. He purchased Baston Manor, four cottages, 150 acres of land, 50 acres of meadow, 50 acres of pasture, 50 acres of wood and common pasture from James Randell for £12,000. Desirous of improving the property he employed Decimus Burton, who had worked with Nash in designing Cornwall and Clarence Terraces in Regent’s Park where Samuel owned several leasehold properties. In his will he allocated 39 of these properties to his four sons and five daughters. At Baston he created a fashionable house with ten bedrooms, a large drawing room and a dining room. He was buried in Hayes churchyard on 2 November 1850. His widow Mary sold Baston Manor and died in 1855 at the age of 71. When alterations were made to Hayes Church his family paid in 1858 for three roundels in the south sanctuary window to be reset ‘in memory of their parents who lived in Baston Manor.