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HODGKINSON, Shantock Hall, Bovingdon, 1850s September, 2013 |
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Saul Phillips (Saulphillips1 @t hotmail.co.uk) wrote from Ludlow, Shropshire, saying: My grandfather, surname Hodgkinson, had a photo of Shantock Hall on his wall, he passed away about 10 years ago. My mum has evidence of Benjamin Outram Hodgkinson being at the hall in 1850 with a lease of 10 years, she is able to trace a line directly to him. Do you know any sources of information where I could begin finding out more about Shantock Hall? I am interested to know if the hall still exists and how they came to live there.
First here are three maps showing the Shantock Hall area, close to the Buckinghamshire border, west of Bovingdon Green.
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Chantock 1766 |
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Shantock Hall 1883 |
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Buildings on Shantock Lane Google Maps 2013 |
It is clear that there are still buildings on the site of Shantock Hall - but it is possible that the area has been completely redeveloped and there may be nothing left of the Hall. I did notice that a house was recently advertised in Shantock Hall Lane which was described as "A lovely barn conversion forming part of a small development of similar properties converted from former cow sheds" and it might involve part of what was the farm.
You ask about further sources of information about Shantock Hall. I have had a look at four web sites you might find useful There are Familysearch, FreeBMD, FindMyPast (includes access to British Newspaper Archive and some Hertfordshire parish records) and A2A (lists some manuscript documents which relate to Shantock - including 1951 sales particulars). Ancestry should have the same census records as FindMyPast and has some trade directory records - but is probably less use to you at the present time.
Let me summarise what I noted about the family - but you should easily be able to fill in more details, possibly buy relevant birth, marriage and death certificates, and download copies of some other documents (parish register entries, newspaper clippings) from FindMyPast.
A Joseph Steavenson (sometime wrongly spelt Stevenson in some records) and family lived at Shantock Hall in the early 1840s. It is possible that they owned it and let it after that date.
In 1850 Benjamin Outram Hodgkinson (1811-1884) married Helen Hodglinson (1831-1889) in Hertfordshire, and at the 1851 census a few months later he was a farmer at Shantock Hall, described as married, while she was living with her parents in Monmouthshire and was described as unmarried! You will probably need to buy the marriage certificate to find out what was going on. It seems very likely that Benjamin and Helen were cousins - he was born in Nottinghamshire, while her father was also born in Nottinghamshire. Benjamin was a lot older than she was, she was underage and needed her parents' consent to marry, and one might have expected her to be married from her parents' home in Monmouthshire.
Their first child, Helen Sophia, was born in in Monmouthshire in 1851. Four children's births were registered in the Hemel Hempstead registration district Gilbert (1852-1854), John (1854), Alice Mary (1855), and Sarah (1857). James Outram (1860) and later children were born in St Woollos, near Newport, Monmouthshire. where the family were on a small farm at St Woollos in the 1871, and 1881 censuses.
In 1861 Job Castle Righton was "Farmer of 223 acres employing five labourers & two boys" at Shantock Hall.
In looking up records you must be aware that there can be errors in the original record and in the indexing, and you may need to use your imagination in finding the information you are looking for. For instance in the 1861 census Helen and the children were with her mother in Monmouthshire and their surname was given as "Adkinson", "Helen" had become "Ellen" and Bovingdon was described as being in Herefordshire. Benjamin "Hodkinson" was living in Penarth, Glamorgan, his age is recorded wrongly and his occupation is described as "Retired" (which might be a polite way of saying "not working").
November 2013
Wilf Hodgkinson writes that he has been researching the Hodgkinson family for about 50 years and knows about the Bovingdon family. I have pass the relevant contact details on to Saul.