Hawnes Park and its links to Longleat

Hawnes manor itself was acquired in 1667 by the vice-admiral from Jersey when he purchased it that year as a home for his eldest son. With the untimely death of Philip, Sir George and his wife then moved to Hawnes to care for their orphaned grandchildren (their daughter-in-law having died earlier). The present mansion house of Hawnes or Haynes Park was then built c.1725 by his great grandson John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, and it passed down through the family for several more generations. In the Victorian era, at the time of the tithe survey, the pin on the map identifies the landowner and occupier as the Right Honourable Lord Carteret. The date of the survey was 9 May 1840 so it is possible to deduce that this record would be for John Thynne, 3rd Baron Carteret PC (1772–1849). He would also die at this house in March 1849, aged 76, and on his death the first barony became extinct. The estate, however, passed to his nephew the Rev Lord John Thynne, third son of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath and sub-Dean of Westminster.

Bath and sub-Dean of Westminster. The path that the inheritance of this property took from its first Carteret owner to Lord John Thynne was not a direct one down the male line, though it had remained in the family all this time. This I confirmed when I was consulting the 1885 Kelly’s Directory of Bedfordshire looking for information about the area. In order to understand more about a village or town it is often beneficial to read the brief description of the place before the listing of residents or tradespeople in these books. The 1885 Kelly’s directory lists the landowner as Francis John Thynne Esq DL JP, who was living at Hawnes Park, and the precis helpfully points out that the estate had descended in the female line to the present owner. Scanning the 1898 edition of Kelly’s revealed that Haynes Park was then the seat of William Bunce Greenfield Esq. While the family no longer lived at the mansion, Francis Thynne remained a principal land owner. I wanted to find out how the Carterets and the Thynnes were related and then how the land had passed down through the branches of the family.

Turning first to the Peerage, Gentry and Royalty records on TheGenealogist, I consulted the Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland, Second Edition (1841). This revealed that George, the grandson of Vice-Admiral Sir George Cartaret, had been married at the age of eight years old. His bride was Lady Grace Granville, youngest daughter of John, Earl of Bath. Later in life she would become the co-heiress of her nephew William, who would be last Earl of Bath to come from the Granville family. Lady Grace lost her husband, George 1st Baron Carteret, when he was just 26 in 1695. She was created, in her own right, Viscountess Carteret and Countess Granville in 1714 and now outranked her son in precedence of the peerage.

Before his early death, the first Baron Carteret and Lady Grace had produced three children together including John, the 2nd Baron Carteret. John inherited Hawnes Park from his father and was at one time a diplomat serving as the British Ambassador to Sweden and then as the Lord President of the Council, one of the great offices of the British State. Lord Carteret would eventually also inherit from his mother her Earldom when, on 18 October 1744, he become the 2nd Earl Granville on the Countess’s death.

Marriage at Longleat

On 17 October 1710 John, then 2nd Baron Carteret, married Lady Frances Worsley at Longleat House. Lady Frances, on her mother’s side, was the granddaughter of Thomas Thynne, first Viscount Weymouth. The marriage between Frances and John produced six children, with their first born, named George, predeceasing his father. On the eventual death of John, 2nd Baron Carteret and 2nd Earl Granville in 1763, his titles and land devolved to his second son, Robert Carteret, who now became the 3rd Earl Granville; but he died childless. Another marriage had united the two families when Louisa, the 3rd Earl’s sister, wed Thomas Thynne the 2nd Viscount Weymouth. One of their sons would become Marquis of Bath while another, Thomas, would inherit the Carteret estate.

Further research in Peerage, Gentry and Royalty records on TheGenealogist showed that John, 2nd Earl Granville passed his titles and land down to his son Robert; however, the titles became extinct on the death of Robert, the 3rd Earl, in 1776. The lands including Hawnes were a different matter as the late Earl Granville had bequeathed these to his nephew the Honourable Henry Thynne, who was the second son of his sister, Lady Louisa Carteret and Viscount Weymouth. The will of the earl required that the Honourable Henry Thynne assume the surname and arms of Carteret in lieu of Thynne and so as a Carteret in 1784 he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as Baron Carteret, of Hawnes in the County of Bedford, with remainder to the younger sons of his brother, the Marquess of Bath. This was the second time the barony had been created and so Henry, as the 1st Baron Carteret under the new creation, was succeeded by his nephew George Thynne, as 2nd Baron. This is where the surname of the Baron Carterets changed to Thynne as George had retained this family name – he is one of two brothers in the Cambridge University Registers found in TheGenealogist’s educational records. Also dying childless, George Thynne, 2nd Baron Carteret, was succeeded by his younger brother Lord John Thynne, who then became the 3rd Baron Cartaret under the title’s second creation. The 3rd Baron, of course, is the landowner identified in the tithe records and he had held political office as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household between 1804 and 1812. In a familiar theme for this family, he also had no children and so the title became extinct for a second time on his death in 1849.

As we have seen from the later Kelly’s directories, though, William Greenfield Esq was living at the house; some of the land still remained in the Thynne family until at least 1903, when Francis John Thynne of 67 Eaton Place, London was one of two principal landowners. Tracing back seven generations, this gentleman was the direct descendant of the Royalist privateering vice-admiral who had first purchased the house and land at Hawes.

Searching the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (PCC) on TheGenealogist provides us with a number of the Carteret wills with images. One of these is for the celebrated Sir George Cartaret, knight and baronet, Vice Chamberlain of His Majesty’s Household and one of His Majesty’s Honourable Privy Councillors. It was drawn up in 1678 and proved in February 1680, the year of the death at Hawnes of the Jerseyman who originally purchased this estate for his family.

TheGenealogist has allowed us to trace the family that owned Hawnes Park for more than 230 years. From tithe records to trade directories, as well as gentry records, educational ones and the PCC wills, these resources have led us on a trail through time.