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The Grantham family of Barcombe Place and Balneath Manor. |
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Although later generations of the Granthams firmly believed that the family originated in Lincolnshire, the George Grantham who came to Lewes in 1702 had previously lived in Horsham where his two sons were baptised. George Grantham, the younger of those two sons, became a prosperous tradesman in Lewes; his great-grandson George Grantham (1782-1849), a coal-merchant, purchased a country house at Barcombe in 1839 and built up an extensive landed estate; and his son, Sir William Grantham (1835-1911), became a High Court judge. His son, William Wilson Grantham actively promoted both the revival of stoolball (a traditional Sussex game akin to rounders) and the use of the traditional Sussex smock. George Grantham (1688-1765) was in trade as a basket-maker in 1734, he served as headborough of Lewes in 1741 and constable in 1748. He married Mary Hards, and was probably the first of the family to be established at 59 High Street, Lewes. His son George Grantham (1726-1776) married Ann Douglas at Brighton on 24 August 1745. Their son George Grantham (1749-1836) also traded as a basket-maker, although he diversified the business and traded as a wood-turner at both Lewes and Brighton. He born on 7 December 1749 and married Ann Tutt, the daughter of Stephen Tutt, on 25 August 1782. He died in April 1836 and was buried at St Michael Lewes on 24 April. |
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Barcombe Place c1855-1860. |
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George Grantham (1782-1849), the son of George Grantham of Lewes and his wife Ann was born on 20 September 1782. It was this George Grantham who transformed his family from urban tradesmen into country gentlemen. In 1829 he purchased Hammonds and Godwins Farm in Lindfield, and continued to acquire property in that parish and in Chailey throughout the 1830s. In 1839 he purchased Barcombe Place from John Holroyd, a London plumber holding a royal warrant, whose debts and those of his son had forced the sale of the property. He died on 23 October 1849 and was buried at Barcombe on 29 October. Of his siblings, Edward (1798-1881) traded as an ironmonger, and Stephen (1783-1857), a noted breeder of Southdown sheep at Lower Stoneham in South Malling, also acted as land-steward to the Earl of Liverpool between 1816 and 1846. George Grantham (1830-1880), the son of George Grantham of Barcombe Place and his wife Sarah Verrall the daughter of William Verrall of Southover, brewer, was born on 11 April 1830. He left Barcombe Place on the death of his father in 1849 and went to Brighton to continue his education and that of his younger brother William. He returned to take possession of the family home in 1864 but sustained concussion of brain when thrown from horse. He initially recovered, but ten years later became subject to epileptic fits. George Grantham greatly extended the estate in Barcombe, and drove the family further in the direction of gentility by the acquisition of the lordships of the manor of Camois Court in 1866. But the more established gentry of Barcombe found him tiresome. On 28 February 1878, during the protracted negotiations over the siting of a new church at Spithurst, James Slater of Newick Park wrote to Sir John Dodson of Conyboro: 'when I saw Grantham drive up yesterday I hoped to interpose a wide spreading thorn bush to escape his notice, but he found me out and descending, Ulster, beard, black bag and slouched hat complete, he fairly caught me. … I suggested a conference in the hot house, but adroitly turning into a cool vinery he gave me more than an hour of unfinished sentences and shaky statements from amongst the flower pots.' His brother Sir William Grantham was born on 23 October 1835 and baptised at St Michael Lewes on 22 November 1835. He was educated at King's College School, London, entered the Inner Temple on 30 April 1860 and was called to the Bar on 26 January 1863. |
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Left: Mr Grantham, barrister c1863. Right: The Hon. Mr Justice Grantham. |
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William served on the South Eastern Circuit and was appointed Queen's Counsel on 13 February 1877 and as a bencher of his inn on 30 April 1878. His pleasant manner, combined with pertinacity and great industry, soon secured him a steady practice. He obtained the reputation of being 'a very useful junior in an action on a builder's account, in a running-down case, in a compensation case, and especially in disputes in which a combined knowledge of law and horseflesh was desirable'. He was appointed as a judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court in January 1886 (which post he held until 1911) and was knighted; he served as a JP for Sussex and as chairman of the East Sussex bench. His elder son William Wilson Grantham (1866-1942) of Balneath Manor, 17 Cadogan Place and 6 Crown Office Row was born on 7 January 1866 at South Norwood, Surrey. He was educated at Harrow and on 23 May 1884 he was admitted as a pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a BA in 1889 and an MA in 1895. William was admitted to the Inner Temple on 21 November 1884 and was called to the Bar on 27 January 1890; he served on the South Eastern Circuit and sat as Recorder of Deal, 1905-1942, as a JP for Sussex from 1919, and was appointed King's Counsel in 1923. He was the military representative on the Appeal Tribunal for East Sussex, 1914-1918. He served as master of the Grocers' Company 1906-07, represented the City on the London County Council, 1913-1942 and was its deputy chairman in 1935. Grantham served as an honorary captain in the army in 1900, and an honorary major in the 14th Middlesex (Inns of Court) Volunteers. He served in the First World War as Major of 6th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Sussex Regiment, and in 1935 remembered his intense disappointment when the War Office cancelled orders for the Unit's active service. On 17 July 1897 at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea he married Sybil de la Rue (born 21 Dec 1877), the daughter of Thomas Andros de la Rue of 8 Upper Wimpole Street, Cadogan Square, Chelsea, bt. They lived at Balneath Manor where he entertained a good deal and visitors from the East were his guests. ‘It has always been his desire to bring about the friendly understanding between East and West’. He was immensely interested in the game of stoolball, had a collection of stoolball bats and was the author of Stool-ball Illustrated and How to Play it (London, 1931); he also attempted to re-introduce the wearing of 'traditional' Sussex smocks, and wore one himself on all but formal occasions. His role in the Sussex of the inter-war years, participation in the Society of Sussex Downsmen and general eccentricies are discusssed by John Lowerson, 'Stoolball', in SAC 133 (1995) 263-74. |
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William Grantham – in Sussex smock, and Mrs Lloyd George, playing stoolball at Chailey Heritage Craft School. Feb 14 1921. |
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William Ivor Grantham his son, was born on 14 May 1898. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge where he gained an MA and LLB. He served in the Royal Sussex Regiment (Territorials) 1915-19 and was wounded in action. Called to the bar from the Inner Temple in 1922, he practised on South Eastern Circuit, and was commissioned in the Legal Branch of the RAF in 1931, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader. He was appointed deputy judge advocate general for the Middle East, Iraq and Aden (Army and RAF) from 1934, with headquarters in Cairo. On 27 May 1933 he married Helen Murray Walker. After her death in 1873 he married Anne Ridgeway. He sold Barcombe Place and 811 acres of its estate to Ernest William Smith Bartlett in February 1944, and lived at Massetts, Scaynes Hill. In 1961 he moved from there to a new house at Camoys, Rotten Row, Lewes, and died in November 1986. Abbreviated from the detailed introduction to the Grantham family archive held at ESRO (available to search online - A2A, East Sussex Record Office, search - Grantham). |
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| Biography of John Holroyd | |
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