Sparrows+of+Worlingham+2

If you want to read more stuff about real estate training then visit [|real estate training].The manor of Worlingham was purchased by Robert Sparrow, the elder, on June 23rd, 1755. He arrived as a wealthy property owner from Kettleburgh where the family had resided as landowners since the 17th century. On his death in 1764, Robert was succeeded by his son who married Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Bernard, Bart, of Brampton Park Northamptonshire. The couple left an only surviving daughter, Mary. Through Mary the Worlingham estate passed to her husband Archibold Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford. She had a life interest in Worlingham, the remainder to her son

Robert Sparrow the elder became connected with Lowestoft through a commercial interest in 'fish houses' on the north beach and his 'summer property', called Cliff Cottage, sited just below the cliff at the northern edge of the town. Cliff Cottage was probably an artisan's house, which was gentrified by Robert II Sparrow at the turn of the 18th century. By the end of the 19th century the building, considerably modified and enlarged, became known locally as 'Sparrows Nest'.

Yeoman on Worlingham

The Sparrow library

Earls and Sparrows

Sparrows and lifeboats

Sparrows Nest

Sparrow Memorial

[|The Bence Jones connection]

Pedigree of the Suffolk Sparrows

The Sparrows of Worlingham are a good local example of the rise of a yeoman family of agricultural origins who accumulated considerably wealth after the Civil War from trading as merchants from the port of Ipswich, their wealth being augmented by land deals and substantial marriage dowries. They originated in the Suffolk village of Kettleburgh in the south of the county, where they are first recorded in the parish books at the end of the 17th century. A current description of 'Sparrow Cottage', a holiday home in Kettleburgh, hints at a long-standing association of the Sparrow family with this community. It is claimed that the building was originally a 13th century hall house. The thatched property is now divided into three cottages, hidden down a country lane just a few minutes walk from Kettleburgh church. The property retains many medieval features, including a gallery in the second bedroom, stone floors, old beams and inglenook fireplaces. The only visible records of the Sparrows in Kettleburgh today are memorials to Bence and John Sparrow who were rectors of the church.

In Hodskinson's map of Suffolk made in the second half of the 18th century, a house is marked in Kettleburgh as being the residence of R. Sparrow Gent. The position of this property is indicated with an arrow on the following section of Hodskinson's map. It is in the position of the modern 'Sparrow Cottage.



The house is present on the Tithe Map of 1841, when it was occupied by three tenants. The surrounding land was owned by the Earl of Gosford who succeeded to the Sparrow's Kettleburgh property as related above and below.

Ipswich is another place associated with the Suffolk Sparrow family. Indeed it is the town where the Sparrows first emerged as wealthy traders, and from which their local genealogy can be traced to Worlingham. In the Ipswich Buttermarket the "Ancient House" is a striking building, with its elaborately decorative plaster-work. The Ancient House is also known as Sparrows House, after the family which was responsible for its magnificent early C17 pargetting. It was built originally in tile C15 and re-adapted or rebuilt in 1567 by George Copping, who sold it a few years later to the Sparrow family, in whose possession it remained for over 200 years. It is a very fine building, well preserved, with much of its original detail intact. The Sparrow family burial vault in the neighbouring church of S. Lawrence bears the punning Latin motto: "Nidus passerum" ("A nest of Sparrows"). A Robert Sparrowe, then bailiff of Ipswich, was sworn Justice of the Peace for the town on 27th February, 1664. The Sparrows were merchants trading out of the port, and in the 18th century also had an interest in Woodbridge Quay.

The story of the Sparrows of Worlingham begins with the marriage of Robert I Sparrow of Kettleburgh to Ann Foster, daughter of Edward Foster of Marlesford. Their son Robert II, born 1705, married Anne Bence, daughter of Robert Bence of Henstead in 1740. Three children to this marriage were born in Woodbridge:

- Robert III 1741 - Bence 1747 - John 1749

The family subsequently bought the mansion and manor of Worlingham and consolidated the estate by exchange with their properties in Lowestoft.

After the death of his father, the Worlingham property passed to Robert III on his marriage to Mary Bernard, daughter of Sir John Barnard of London in 1771. A draft settlement on this marriage shows that his mother, Ann, together with her sister, made legal arrangements for half of the Worlingham property to be at the disposal of Mary Bernard if she survived her husband. The following summary of this settlement indicates the great wealth of the Sparrows of Worlingham

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//Draft marriage settlement, Robert Sparrow of Worlingham, esq. with Mary Bernard of Bentinck Street in St Marylebone (Mx), spinster (property: moiety of : £13,000, the manor of Redisham, 4 farms (no details) in Brampton, farm (no details) in Westhall, farm (no details) in Redisham, rectory and tithes of Redisham, farm (no details) in Sotterley, and farm called Wade Hall in North Cove; rectory of Wenhaston, chapel and chapel yard of Mellis hamlet in Westleton with glebe land, farm (no details) in Kettleburgh, mansion house called Worlingham Hall, 2 farms, 5 cottages and lands (no details) all in Worlingham) // //18 Jun 1771 //

Robert III and Mary Barnard had a son Robert IV Bernard Sparrow born in 1773 and a daughter Mary born in 1777. Robert III's wife Mary died in 1793 and he was married again to Mary Brockhaus, daughter of Rev. Brockhaus of Hardwick in 1797.

In the same year Robert IV Bernard Sparrow married Olivia eldest daughter of Arthur Acheson, 1st Earl of Gosford in the Irish Peerage. Robert IV Bernard and Olivia had a daughter Millicent born in 1798 and a son Robert V Acheson Bernard St John, born in 1799.

Robert III Bernard Sparrow died in 1805, in Barbados, a General, and his son Robert IV Acheson Bernard St. John Sparrow died in 1818, in France.

Robert III survived his son and grandson and died in 1822, and thus it was that his daughter Mary Sparrow, she who was born in 1777, became heiress to the Sparrow's Worlingham estate. She married Archibold Acheson (2nd. Earl of Gosford) and her Worlingham fortune was passed to the Earl. In recognition of this, Archibold was created Baron Worlingham of Beccles in 1835.

According to the Tithe Apportionment for Lowestoft, Cliff Cottage was the only remainder of the Sparrow property in Lowestoft still in possession of the Earl in 1841. In the Apportionment he was listed as co-owner with the wealthy Yarmouth merchant Dawson Turner.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Worlingham Manor was sold by the Acheson's in 1885

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The influence of the Sparrow family in Kettleburgh and its wider family and social network is indicated by the following records.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Rev. George Turner, B.A., rector of Kettleburgh and Monewden, died Nov. 9, 1839, in his 73rd year. Mr. Turner was a native of Pulham, in Norfolk, and received the early part of his education at the Free Grammar School at Bury St. Edmund's, under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Laurentz; after which he was admitted of Jesus College, Cambridge, and in 1788, proceeded to the degree of A.B. In 1790, he married, and soon after took upon the duties of this parish; settling himself in the parsonage house here, which he never quitted afterwards. In 1803, he was instituted to the rectory of Monewden, the presentation of the late Chaloner Arcedeckne, Esq.; and in 1807, to that of Kettleburgh, patron the late Robert Sparrow, Esq., of Worlingham Hall, in this county. //

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Robert II Sparrow's brother Bence, was of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; LL.B. 1771. He had been instituted [Lib.xxxi. 95] 5 Nov. 1774, as Bence Sparrow, to the Rectory of Beccles, on the resignation of Peter Routh, the father of the Rev. Martin Joseph Routh, D.D., the celebrated President, of Magdalen College, Oxford, on the presentation of Ann Sparrow of Beccles, widow, and Mary Bence of Henstead, spinster ; and 1 April, 1786 [Lib. xxxi. 197], to the Rectory of Kettleburgh, himself being Patron for this turn. He resigned both these Rectories, 1806, and on 23 Oct. 1806, he was instituted {having assumed the name of Bence in 1804) to the Rectories of Thorington and Kelsale-cum-Carlton, on his own presentation; on the next day, 24 Oct. 1806, he was reinstituted to Beccles, and 20 April, 1814 [Lib. xxxii. 184], he was licensed to the Perpetual Curacy of Redisham Magna, on the presentation of Robert Sparrow of Worlingham Hall, Esq. He resigned Kelsale-cum- Carlton 1810, and Thorington, 1821. Buried at Beccles, 17 Sept. 1824. M.I. Lib. xxxiii. 18. //

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Summary of marriage settlement // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">