I first became interested in Littlecote in 2007 through a friend who was constructing a guided tour of the historic house. Whilst helping her, I found her passion for Littlecote infectious, and started to find out more about the people who had lived there.
One of my passions is genealogy and I soon found myself putting together a family tree for all those with Littlecote connections. That tree became the basis of my research and now has over eleven thousand people in it!
Ultimately I became a tour guide too, giving guided tours of the historic house to guests of Warner Leisure Hotels (http://www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk/Littlecote) who own the house and hotel. Through the tours and my research, I met many people who convinced me that I should commit my knowledge to paper, hence my book "Littlecote Lives and Legends".
One very rewarding thing I have been able to do is to help people who believe they have Littlecote connections to understand exactly how they are related to the families who lived there. I often get enquiries from people who have had handed down to them through generations the belief that they are related, for example, to Sir John Popham of Littlecote, Lord Chief Justice of England to Queen Elizabeth I. In July 2010 we had a marvellous reunion of some of his direct descendants at Littlecote, and repeated the experience in July 2013 with another group of descendants, most of whom were visiting the house for the first time.
Do you have Littlecote connections? Can I help you to discover how you are related to the Pophams, the Leyborne Pophams, the Darrells or the Dayrells? Or would you just like some help with your family tree? You can get in touch by using the form on the Contact page (see left). I look forward to hearing from you.
Other Stuff
In November 2014, at the request of the Chairman of Chilton Foliat Parochial Church Council, I wrote a series of short articles for "Whitton Ways", the magazine of the Whitton Benefice, which covers the churches of Chilton Foliat, Axford, Froxfield, Ramsbury and Baydon. Entitled "Chilton Connections", they are intended to illustrate the many and various links between Littlecote House and the nearby village. They were published on a monthly basis, but I reproduce all twelve here for anyone who might find them of interest.
CHILTON
CONNECTIONS
Quote from 2014: “Our lovely church is
badly in need of repairs to the roof” – referring to St Mary’s, of course. Historians will hear the sound of bells
ringing, and not just the church bells. In 1523, Queen Katherine of Aragon wrote
to Sir Edward Darrell of Littlecote instructing him to cut down three oak trees
for the repair of the church roof.
Edward, great-grandfather of “Wild” William Darrell, was
Vice-Chamberlain and Keeper of the Queen’s Royal Parks at Chilton Foliat. Katherine’s letter to him, which still exists
in the National Archives, said that the trees were for “the reparacon of the
Churche of Chilton Folyat whiche is in grete Ruyne and Decay”. Those oak timbers still form the roof,
although the beams are covered by later oak timbering. Katherine was very generous with her trees: in
1530 she gave Sir Edward Darrell another ten oaks, and it is believed that these
were employed in the construction of the famous Jerusalem staircase at
Littlecote. Running from the Cromwellian
guardroom to the attics, those stairs were the access for Colonel Alexander
Popham’s garrison, billeted in the attics during the Civil War. Despite nearly 500 years of heavy use, they show
little sign of wear and are still as solid today as they were when they were first
laid.
o-o-o-o-o-o
The Pophams of Littlecote will be
forever linked to Chilton Foliat. St
Mary’s was their Parish church; three served as Rector and many of them were
buried there. Memorials abound, but one
of the most poignant is the beautiful marble statue of a tiny baby to be found
on the window sill. He was Francis Hugh
Leyborne Popham, the first-born son and heir of Francis Leyborne Popham and his
wife Elizabeth. Baby Francis died of
pneumonia in 1861 aged five months. Amazingly, the statue was sculpted by his
mother. An article in the Bristol
Mercury in 1863 says "A beautiful white marble monument, consisting of the
figure of an infant reclining on a pillow, has lately been placed in the
private chapel at Littlecote …. It may be interesting to add that this monument
was executed by his mother, Mrs Francis Popham, from recollection, and those
who have seen it state that it is a work of unusual merit, and an excellent
likeness". The marble statue,
inscribed “E Popham fecit” was moved to St Mary’s at some point, but in the
chapel at Littlecote is a plaster version, presumably used as a template for
the real thing.
o-o-o-o-o-o
The story of Anne Boleyn and her
marriage to King Henry VIII is a familiar part of British history, as is her
subsequent trial and execution by a French swordsman on Tower Green. Perhaps less well-known is the story of Anne’s
older sister Mary, although her affair with King Henry, her life at court and
her subsequent fate have been told in books and films such as “The Other Boleyn
Girl”. Dubbed “the great and infamous
whore”, Mary preceded her sister in Henry’s bed, although at the time she was
newly married to William Carey, rising courtier and favourite of the King. William was the son of Thomas Carey of
Chilton Foliat; their manor house lay to the west of St Mary’s Church, and
Robert Carey had been Rector there in the time of Henry IV. Mary’s son Henry
Carey, born 1526, was widely thought to have been the illegitimate son of the King. He became a prominent MP, was knighted in
1558 and created 1st Baron Hunsdon by his cousin Queen Elizabeth I in
1559. Henry Carey is buried in
Westminster Abbey.
o-o-o-o-o-o
An amazing find in the organ loft of
St Mary's church has recently shed light on a Popham mystery. Sir John Popham's
male line failed in 1779 with the death, childless, of Francis Popham. When he died he left the Popham estates to
his wife Dorothy. She survived for another 18 years, but in her will she left
everything, as a tenant for life, to "Francis Popham, the reputed son of
my late husband". This illegitimate
son did not marry but produced three illegitimate childen of his own, two of
them sons. They in turn produced huge families of Pophams, all related by blood
to Sir John Popham but unable to inherit. One of those was James Pain Popham,
born in Great Coggeshall, Essex, to a lacemaker. James, who died in 1930, had asked to be
buried in Chilton Foliat along with many other Pophams, and his daughter
Evangeline wanted an inscription on his tombstone which read
"great-grandson of Francis Popham of Littlecote". In a brown envelope
in the organ loft was a sheaf of correspondence between her, the then Rector,
Rev W H Pelham, Hugh Leyborne Popham, the Archdeacon of Wiltshire and the
chaplain to the Bishop of Salisbury.
None of the clergy would allow the inscription unless she could prove
her connection - which was impossible given that the reputed son was born
secretly in France! They called her a "tiresome upstart" and
eventually her quest failed. The brown envelope is entitled, in the hand of Rev
Pelham, "Amusing Correspondence re Inscription on the Tombstone of James
Popham". I am sure Evangeline found it less than hilarious, and the grave
went unmarked.
o-o-o-o-o-o
One of the several Pophams to serve as
Rector of Chilton Foliat was Edward Popham DD, born at Littlecote in 1738 to
Edward Popham MP and Rebecca Huddon.
Edward was their third child: his elder brother Francis was heir to the
Popham estates. According to gossip at
the time, Edward and his father were estranged on account of the son marrying
whilst he was up at Oxford against his father’s wishes. So great was the rift that his father is
reported as actively preventing his son from taking up the family living at
Chilton, despite the fact that the incumbent holding the position pending
Edward’s coming of age very honourably offered to resign. His father declared
that if the incumbent resigned, the living would go to some other person – his
son should never have it. Edward was
also at odds with his brother Francis, who refused to allow him to see his
father on his death-bed for fear that it might upset the dying man. Francis continued to deny Edward the curacy
after the death of their father in 1772, despite many entreaties, and it was
not until Francis himself died in 1779 that his widow Dorothy agreed that
Edward, then Vicar of Lacock, should take up the post and move into the Chilton
Foliat rectory, where he lived with his wife Ann until his death in 1815.
o-o-o-o-o-o
You simply can't ignore it – the
Littlecote legend just won't go away.
The story of Mother Barnes the blindfolded midwife and the baby thrown
on to the fire has been talked about locally ever since the midwife made her
deposition to magistrate Anthony Bridges in 1578. Recently a visitor from
Canada who had been brought up in Chilton Foliat donated a very interesting
package to Littlecote. It included a very old hand-written copy (with
transcript) of "The Blindfolded Midwife, a Tale of Mystery and Horror; and
the Littlecote Ghost (a Poem)". By
an unknown author, probably Victorian, it is a description of the house and an
outline of the story, followed by a 67-stanza poem which includes the immortal
lines:
"And fame reports, the lady comes
With babe of fire at dead of night,
But harmless to the innocent
They come to see that all is
right".
Intriguingly, the fragile hand-written copy, dated 1912 and sent to a Mr New in
Chilton Foliat, was contained in an envelope bearing a penny red postage stamp
franked "Great Shefford" - the home of Mother Barnes!!
o-o-o-o-o-o
Residents of a certain age will
remember the role played by the Kennet Valley during the last war. Littlecote House in particular was used as
the regimental headquarters of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of
the US 101st Airborne Division, under the command of Colonel Robert F Sink. Company 'E' of this regiment became famous
following the publication of the book 'Band of Brothers' by Stephen Ambrose,
subsequently filmed as a BBC mini-series.
The Kennet Valley at War Trust, whose aim is to “educate and inform
people about the history of the Kennet Valley during the Second World War”,
maintain a small museum at Littlecote.
In 2013, a memorial stone to British and US soldiers stationed there was
erected on the south lawns, and more recently the Trust has received £30,000
from the Heritage Lottery Fund to digitise a collection of World War Two
artefacts as part of a community history project. But who was Stephen
Ambrose? A well- known and sometimes
controversial American historian and author, often accused of plagiarism. But visitors to Chilton Foliat may wonder why
he was buried in the churchyard there.
Check the dates – not him but his great-great-grandfather! Author Stephen Edward Ambrose (1936-2002),
born in Lovington, Illinois and died in St Louis, Mississippi, had a personal
link to Littlecote. His ancestor Stephen
Ambrose (1786-1849) was born in Chilton Foliat, and worked on the estate for
many years, latterly as Bailiff. His
impressive tombstone in the churchyard proves it.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
“Littlecote House is reputedly the
third most haunted house in Britain” – how many times have I intoned those
words? The first two, apparently, are
Chingle Hall near Preston, and Chillingham Castle near Alnwick in
Northumberland. How this highly
subjective index came to be measured has not been explained! But if I had a pound for every time someone
has told me of a ghostly sighting or sent me a ghostly picture, I’d be doing
very nicely, thank you. The latest
report comes from a gentleman who was born in the flat over the stables at
Littlecote in the 1950s and went to school in Chilton Foliat. His father was employed as a painter and
decorator by the Wills family, tobacco manufacturers well-known for their
Woodbine brand, who owned Littlecote from 1927 to 1985. In the chapel is a wonderful old organ, once water-powered but now converted to electricity, which the Wills family had brought
down from Taymouth Castle in Scotland.
One day, this gentleman’s father was busy painting the chapel walls when
he heard the organ being played. Knowing
Major George Wills to be a bit of a prankster, he went to investigate, but
found that he was completely alone. Is
it possible for an organ to play itself?
Or was there a ghostly hand on the stops and feet on the pedals? His son has never forgotten the story.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Family bibles are often great sources of
information for genealogists. They were used by many families to record births,
marriages and deaths and sometimes contain information not available
elsewhere. A Popham bible dated 1770
was recently presented to St Mary's church at Chilton Foliat. The bible was owned by "The
General" – Lieutenant-General Edward William Leyborne Popham, the first to
bear that surname, having added the name Popham to his own in order to inherit
the estates in 1804. He married Elizabeth
Andrew and they were responsible for the 1810 building and refurbishments at
Littlecote. They recorded the births of
their eight children in the bible - not just the date and place, but also the
time of day or night and in many cases details of the subsequent baptism. These are followed by the six children of the
General's second son Francis Leyborne Popham, his elder brother Edward William
never having married. These include the birth in London of baby Francis Hugh
who died aged 5 months and whose lovely statue, carved by his mother, stands on
the window sill in St Mary’s church, the rough first cast being in the chapel
at Littlecote. And finally, the children
of Francis's successor Hugh Francis Arthur, whose daughter Elizabeth (Lloyd),
known as Libbet lived in Ramsbury and is buried in the churchyard. Libbet passed the bible to her daughter Susan
and it was she who presented it to the church.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Having spent many long hours
poring over the Chilton Foliat Parish Registers, I feel I know them very
well. It was Thomas Cromwell who decreed
in 1538 that every parish church should henceforth record each baptism,
marriage and burial in a special register – failure to do so would result in a
fine. This book was to be kept in a
"sure coffer" with two locks (one key for the vicar, the other for
the wardens). The decree took some time to be fully accepted, but it is
Cromwell we genealogists have to thank, and I do. Registers are no longer kept in churches –
they suffered from damp, were sometimes stolen or mislaid, and eventually the
county records offices took responsibility for them. Chilton was fortunate to have its registers
painstakingly copied into modern books before they were removed to the
Wiltshire Records Office, and those copies now reside in the vestry. The original
registers have been transferred onto microfiche and can be viewed at the records
office in Chippenham, as well as the typed and indexed transcripts produced by
the Wiltshire Family History Society. But
it is to the originals you must turn to get the full story. You will find, for example, the burial on 12
Oct 1739 of brothers Alexander and Edward Popham who “died within 30 hours one
of ye other and were buryed both in the one grave". Edward is described as "of Bazedon"
which left me puzzled for a very long time.
Where was Bazedon? In fact, the
brothers, who died unmarried aged 56 and 50, rented Bassett Down House in the parish of Lydiard Tregoze and it was
there they died. Their brother George,
as rector of Chilton Foliat, buried them.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The longest-serving Rector of Chilton
Foliat was John Leyborne Popham. The
family bible shows that he was "born at Littlecott in the County of Wilts
Tuesday morning fifteen minutes before eight o'clock February the 19th 1811,
died Sept 24 1872". The third son
of Edward William Leyborne Popham and Elizabeth Andrew, he was educated at
Harrow and Oxford, and was Rector from 1835 until his death, a total of 37
years. He married first Frances Sanders
of Exeter by whom he had three daughters.
After her death, he married Anne Meyrick, daughter of Edward Graves
Meyrick, Vicar of Ramsbury, by whom he had three more daughters and two
sons. A great supporter of the church,
it is recorded that “since 1834 great alterations have been made in Chilton
Church by the present Rector, the Rev. John Leyborne Popham, and it may now be
considered one of the handsomest and most complete in the diocese of Salisbury.” In the Wiltshire History Centre are the
Parish notebooks kept by him from 1846 until his death. He religiously (!) records every service, the
names and numbers of worshippers, communions, some baptisms (with godparents),
marriages and burials. The Popham family were regular attenders. In 1849 he held a service of thanksgiving
for the "abatement of cholera". His father-in-law Rev Meyrick
sometimes read prayers. John and Anne,
who lived until 1910, are both buried in Chilton.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Alexander Popham, the son of
Colonel Edward Popham and great grandson of Sir John Popham, was born completely
deaf in 1648. Determined that her son
should lead as normal a life as possible, his mother Anne hired two eminent
scientists, Dr William Holder and Dr John Wallis, to teach him to speak. Both
claimed success in what became a celebrated scientific controversy. A yellowing, leather-bound notebook dated
1662, found in the silver safe at Littlecote in 2008, seems to have settled the
issue. William Holder first taught Alexander in 1659/60 and convinced a lot of
people that he had been successful, claiming that Alexander could pronounce
words “plainly and distinctly, with a good and graceful tone”. However, in 1662, John Wallis began teaching
Alexander, who at that point was unable to speak at all. Wallis was a renowned
mathematician and an expert linguist, but not a lot was known about his
approach to teaching Alexander until the discovery of the notebook, which has
been authenticated as being in Wallis’s handwriting. Thanks to him, Alexander became one of the
first deaf mutes to speak and he lived a normal life as master of an estate in Bourton
on the Hill, Gloucestershire. He married
Brilliana Harley with whom he had a family of five healthy children. When he died in 1708 his body was transported
by wagon to Chilton Foliat, taking five weeks to reach its destination through
harsh winter conditions. Sadly, the parish records at St Mary’s show that they
buried “Dumb Alexander Popham”.