Chapter 10

The Savill Onley Family

I have just a couple of CDVs named Savill Onley written on the backs of them, although I have more people with the surname on the family tree. They are an interesting family.

The first is this chap below, who was born Onley Harvey, and became Onley Savill Onley 1795-1890.

The family name of Savill Onley began with the ownership of Stisted Hall, Stisted in Essex.

I learnt much more about Stisted Hall and the name changes that had gone on in the family at Stisted from the Gardens Trusts Essex Gardens website for Essex, the History of Parliament History of Parliament (Stisted) online, and the Stisted Parish Council website. A book called The Picturesque Beauties of Great Britain by Thomas Wright also records the history of ownership. I was also thrilled to be able to look up the family history in my own beautiful Burke’s Landed Gentry book, which is just over 5 inches thick!

The history of the ownership of the Hall is fascinating and resulted in the surname change, I’ll just give you a brief history.

The manor of Stisted and other possessions, belonging to Earl Godwin, and Wisgith, the widow of a noble Saxon named Elfwine, had been given to the Monks of Christ Church Cathedral Priory in Canterbury, some time previous to the Norman Conquest, soon after this, they were deprived of those possessions, by the greed of Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and earl of Kent. (Odo of Bayeux (d.1097 CE) was the bishop of Bayeux in Normandy and half-brother of William the Conqueror (r.1066-1087 CE)

They were restored about 1076 at the great trial of Penenden Heath, and remained in possession of the prior and monks, till the dissolution of the house in 1539, when King Henry VIII made this manor part of the ownership of the Dean and chapter of Canterbury. It later passed back to the crown and was granted to Sir Richard Rich, who in turn passed it to Henry Pigott of Abington in Cambridgeshire. Then next it was bought by Thomas Wiseman and the family of Northend, Great Waltham till 1685. The widow of Thomas Wiseman, Lady Mary passed it to her three successive husbands.

Stisted was next bought by the Lingwood family of Hereford and Gloucester, actually William Lingwood, he was of Gray’s Inn, bred to the law, and many years in the commission of the peace for the county of Essex. William first married Bridget Wynne, then Cicely Buckingham and his third wife was Elizabeth Jones who on William’s death in 1700, without having any children, inherited Stisted Estate. Elizabeth died in 1719 leaving Stisted Hall to John Saville, a counsellor-at-law, who died a bachelor in 1735, so the estate descended to his brother, Samuel Saville of Colchester. Samuel died on the 4 April 1763, and he was buried on the 7 April 1763, he had two daughters by his wife Sarah Husbands, they were co-heiresses, one daughter Sarah Savill inherited the manor of Great Fordham and his other daughter Anne Savill inherited Sisted Hall and other estates in the parish.

I was astonished to see that Ann Savill married the Reverend Charles Onley on 19 April 1763, just two weeks after her father’s death, was the marriage already planned for that date and did her father want it to still happen after his death? or did he disapprove and so after his death she was able to marry? She brought a fortune of around £33,000 (about seven and a half million pounds in today’s money) with Stisted Hall and ‘in appreciation of the fortune his wife had brought with her‘ Charles adopted his wife’s family name, Savill, making him Reverend Charles Savill-Onley. 

Apart from the reason of money, double-barrelled surnames were often adopted to preserve a family name that would otherwise have died out due to a lack of male heirs, in this case, it made a new surname.

In 1822, on the death of his maternal uncle, the Rev Charles Onley. The next owner of Stisted would have been his nephew Robert Harvey 1753-1820, but as he died before the Rev Charles Savill Onley it was left to his nephew Charles Harvey 1756-1843, who was also his godson, he took the name Savill Onley by royal licence 14 December 1822.

So he became Charles Savill Onley. I did wonder why he skipped leaving Stisted to the second-born nephew Lieut Col John Harvey, he’s the one who married Frances Kerrison, but it does seem that he was wealthy in his own right and maybe they didn’t get on so well?

Charles began building a new house the following year after inheriting Stisted, according to Rush in ‘Seats of Essex'(1897) a framed notice in the building records that Onley Savill Onley son of Charles laid the foundation stone on 27 September 1823.

This inheritance was after Charles‘s second marriage in 1817 to Charlotte Haynes, a spinster sister of his first wife Sarah. Charles was 60 by then and Charlotte was 52.

Unlike other members of the family Charles Savill Onley never held the position of Sheriff or Mayor however, he was Steward, then Recorder in 1801 and MP for the city of Norwich from 1812-1818. Although no monument remains in St Clements to Charles there is a monument erected by Charles in memory of his “beloved spouse” Sarah Haynes who died in 1805. The couple had eight children:

There is still an Onley Street in Norwich, Norfolk named after him, it’s just off Unthank Road, the surname of Clement William Joseph Unthank who married into the family in 1873.

By Charles’s will, dated 11 July 1838 (he died in 1843), he left his daughters’ large annuities and his wife Charlotte his leasehold London house in Great George Street, Westminster. The remainder of his estate passed to his only son Onley Savill Onley (1795-1890).

The property remained in the hands of the Savill Onleys until 1893 when it was auctioned. It wasn’t sold at auction but bought soon after by James Paxman, noted industrialist and ‘Engineer of Colchester’.

Caroline SAVILL ONLEY was born on 21 May 1820 in Norfolk, her father was Onley Harvey and her mother was Caroline Mary Harvey, they were cousins. Caroline married Henry Philip MARSHAM on 19 September 1843 in Braintree, Essex. They had seven children, Stratton Henry Marsham 1844-1846, Agnes Louise Marsham 1846-1930, Henry Savill Marsham 1847-1937, Pauline Caroline Marsham 1848-1859, Charles Alfred Marsham, later Savill Onley 1849-1909, Caroline Georgina Sophia Marsham 1851-1867 and Frederick Savill Marsham, later Savill Onley 1853-1930. Frederick took on the Savill Onley surname after his brother died in 1909. Frederick in turn passed the surname on to his son Fredrick Somerville Wroth Savill–Onley, who was born in 1894. You can see them both on the 1911 census below.

I noticed that Frederick Jnr, the son had a Military record and after seeing a record that I could download from the National Archives for free, I took the opportunity and it was an interesting read, even though it was just 2 pages!

Of course, by adding Frederick Jnr to the family tree I also added his wife whom he married in late 1919, her name was Amy Clara Broadhead/Jefferson, and she was a Divorcee, her first husband was Lionel Harry Jefferson (1893-1941) and I couldn’t help but have a look at the Divorce papers….it’s so easy to get distracted sometimes, you can’t help yourself! Well it turned out that Lionel decided he didn’t love Amy anymore, here’s just three pages for you below, the result was that Lionel was ordered to pay her costs and also £9,000 in maintenance costs. I wonder if he paid up?

Amy as I said married Frederick Jnr the following year and that didn’t end well as Frederick Jnr died on 9 Jul 1920 at the General Hospital, Khal, Delhi, India. Amy married for the third time to Major Robert Sydney Kerr early in 1922, and they had one daughter Ann in 1923. All three were together on the 1939 register, Robert died in July the following year, 1940.

In case you’re wondering, Lionel married again in 1923 and died in 1941 in Cairo, Egypt.

So now let’s get back on track after that little diversion with Caroline SAVILL ONLEY. Here she is below as a little girl with her parents, in that amazing portrait of the family I shared with you in the last Chapter of the Holworth Collection.

This CDV below is part of the Holworth Collection that I have and is of Caroline as an older lady.

Caroline died on 26 August 1893 in Aylsham, Norfolk, at the age of 73.

Our last old photo for this chapter is of Agnes Louise Marsham, daughter of the lady Caroline in the previous photo. Agnes was born in 1846 in Marsham, Norfolk. She married James Lee WARNER on 7 May 1874 in Norfolk. James was a Clergyman and was Rector of Tarrant Gunville from 1872-1888, then Rector in Beckley, Sussex, he retired to Thorpland Hall, Fakenham, Norfolk. He had inherited the Hall and estate in 1886 when his father Rev Canon Henry James Lee Warner died Henry James had bought the hall in 1842. When James Lee Warner died in 1918 the estate became the property of Geoffrey Lee Warner, who lived in Australia. As yet I haven’t got Geoffrey on the family tree so I don’t know anything about him, he definitely wasn’t one of his sons. Geoffrey apparently returned to England in 1930 and put the estate on the market, several parts being sold before 1932.

Agnes died on 25 June 1930 in Norfolk at the age of 84.

Agnes and James had four children, the eldest was George LEE–WARNER who was born in February 1875 in Aylsham, Norfolk. George emigrated to Canada about 1903/4, he met and married Margaret C Ogilvie, who had been born in Scotland, in 1905 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. On the Canadian 1921 census, he is a Farmer with his own farm employing people in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada. The couple had three children. George made trips back to England in 1919, 1932, 1947 and 1949. George died on 10 September 1953 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 78.

Second born Alfred LEE-WARNER was born on 6 October 1877 in Tarrant Gunville, Dorset. He married Dorothy Cresswell Ayres 1897-1928, and they had one son together. Alfred was a Clergyman, like his father. In 1929 after his wife died he went on a trip to Canada to visit his elder brother George. He later married Beryl Marion Douglas Hume in October 1938 in Freebridge Lynn, Norfolk. He died on 18 February 1973 in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, at the age of 95.

The third born was Caroline LEE WARNER born on 4 February 1880 in Tarrant Gunville, Dorset. She never married. But she travelled over to Canada to visit her brother George in 1911 and her description was given as this:

Complexion Pale
Eye Color Grey
Hair Color Brown
Height 5 Feet. 4 Inches.
Ship Winifredian
Father James Lee Warner

Caroline died on 9 January 1971 in North Walsham, Norfolk, at the age of 90, and was buried in Marsham, Norfolk.

The youngest child was James LEE WARNER he was born on 29 April 1889 in Rye, Sussex. He married Margaret Elizabeth Hewlett in 1922. They had two children during their marriage, I have a feeling that they could have had more though as I found that the couple went out to Australia in 1954 and 1957. There’s more to this I feel but would need more research, maybe the couple lived there for a while in their younger days and had other children, namely Geoffrey who inherited Thorpland Hall? All speculation of course, but I might get a chance to come back to this at a later date and find out more. James died in July 1963 in East Dereham, Norfolk, at the age of 74.

Till next time then…….