The Willoughbys were the family that owned Baldon House and its estate from about 1771 to 1921. The property was originally bought by Christopher Willoughby from the estate of Mrs Elizabeth Lane, the last member of the Pollard line. Willoughby, who had been a business associate of Mrs Lane’s husband, Dr John Lane, died in 1773 and the property passed to his son, also named Christopher.
This second Christopher Willoughby was an indefatigable agricultural improver, promoting new crop rotations, new methods of tillage and new techniques for growing corn. He was rewarded for his efforts in 1794 by a baronetcy, becoming 1st Baronet Willoughby. Willoughby’s first wife Juliana died in 1777 as a result of the birth of her daughter, also Juliana; he married again and had four sons and three more daughters. After his death in 1808 three of his sons became baronets in turn.
George Romney was commissioned by Christopher Willoughby to paint his daughter Juliana’s portrait in 1781.
The 2nd Baronet was Christopher William Willoughby, who sadly died at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in June 1813, aged only 20, from a blow sustained while playing cricket.
The 3rd Baronet, Henry Pollard Willoughby, succeeded to the title at the age of 17. He became a politician who represented the constituencies of Yarmouth, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Evesham. He leased Baldon House out in 1848 to Guy Thomson, an Oxford banker, whose family stayed until 1881. Sir Henry quarrelled with his younger brother Hugh, who was the village rector at the time, over who should receive the tithes. Sir Henry died in March 1865. He was buried in the family plot at Marsh Baldon church, of which parish, ironically, he was accused of ‘neglect and indifference’ in an 1854 church report.
Hugh had been ordained in 1826 and was appointed rector of Marsh Baldon in 1831. In 1854 Hugh tried to shoot a barrister, Hardinge Stanley Giffard, in court, who, he said, had accused him of an “abominable crime” in a Cardiff courtroom. Hugh was tried for attempted murder and confined in an asylum, where he remained until his death in 1858.
The 4th Baronet was Sir John Pollard Willoughby, who entered the Indian Civil Service and rose to become Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay. From 1846 to 1851 he was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council. He then returned to England, where he became MP for Leominster from 1857 to 1858, and then a member of the Council of India, advising the Secretary of State for India. He died in 1865 having only held the baronetcy for one year, and the title passed to his son John Christopher Willoughby.
Baldon House in 1880
The Thomson family, who rented Baldon House from 1848 to 1881
