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Thomas Partington was born in Chipping Ongar, Essex on 11th April 1760, the son of Thomas Walley Partington (1730-1791) and his second wife Sarah Trebeck. By the time the tithe map of Hamsey was drawn in 1838, the new road to Plumpton had been put in, and Partington owned nearly 270 acres in the parish. His father, Thomas Walley Partington was born in Chester in 1730, son of Edward Partington. His position as attorney for the wealthy Grosvenor family had taken him to London. Here he was admitted, as a student, to the Inner Temple in 1746. By 1750, he was working as a clerk to Elisha Biscoe, a solicitor whose clients included a number of builders on the Grosvenor estate. Three years later he was associated with Robert Andrews, agent to the Grosvenor's London estate, and in the following year married the latter's daughter, Elizabeth at St. George's Hanover Square. From 1757 the family occupied a house in Brook Street and shortly afterwards also took over an adjoining house. In 1765 he was a witness at the trial, before the House of Lords, of the 5th Baron Byron, ‘the Wicked Lord', who had killed his cousin in a duel. He was later appointed receiver general for land tax for the counties of Northampton and Rutland and deputy receiver general of Jamaica in 1776. Apart from the Grosvenors, his other wealthy clients included the 5th Earl of Berkeley and the Sackville Dukes of Dorset. It is very likely that the connections of the latter brought him to Sussex. Around 1780 he purchased the lordship of the manor of Hamsey from George Wenham Lewis, along with Offham House and 186 acres in Hamsey and Barcombe. The house became the family's country home for nearly eighty years. In 1786 he subscribed to The Fallen Cottage, a poem by Thomas Clio Rickman (relative of the Thomas Rickmans of Lewes & Barcombe Mills). When he died on 8th March 1791 he left a personal estate worth in excess of £20,000 and real estate of at least £10,000, including houses in Shepherd Street, near Hanover Square, as well as Offham House. He made considerable provision for his wife and daughters, and made reference to the crested china service at Offham. He was the first member of the family to be buried at the old St.Peter's church at Hamsey. The younger Thomas Partington followed his father at Westminster School from the age of seven, being made captain of the school in 1775. He went up to Christchurch, Oxford at the age of sixteen and graduated with an MA in 1783. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in the following year. On 5th June 1797, at the age of thirty-one, he married Penelope (1768-1851), eldest daughter of the Reverend Anthony Trollope, at her father's parish church at Cottered, Hertfordshire. Penelope's sister-in-law was the prolific novelist and writer ‘Fanny' Trollope, whose son was the equally famous author Anthony. Thomas and Penelope had at least nine children, three sons and six daughters, born at Offham and baptised at St. Peter's, Hamsey. In 1803, with the south coast fearing invasion by Napoleon's armies, Thomas became a major in the volunteer militia for Lewes Rape South. His legal knowledge was called upon at all levels. In 1805 he was joint trustee of the will of Thomas Pelham, 1st Earl of Chichester. Locally he was called upon to advise St. Anne's parish charities in Lewes in 1809, served as chairman of the Lewes Quarter Sessions 1806-34, acted as a commissioner for bankruptcy and at the enclosure of the Manor of Laughton 1818. In 1830, he was summoned to give evidence before a select committee at the House of Lords to consider the workings of the Poor Laws. His answers show an extensive knowledge of the circumstances of the labourers around his downland home at Hamsey and on the clay of Barcombe. He reported that they; “live principally upon Wheaten Flour in the Shape of Bread or Puddings, Bacon or pickled Pork constantly, and occasionally some other Meat. There are few of them who do not consume more or less Butter and Cheese; Milk when they can get it, but rarely; Tea very universally, and in considerable Quantities. They do not drink Beer in their own Houses.” Thomas died on 5th April 1841 and was buried at Hamsey. When the census was taken two months later, the newly widowed Penelope Partington was living at Offham House with three unmarried daughters and five servants. By 1851, she and her middle-aged daughters had been rejoined by her son Edward and his wife, along with Penelope's widowed sister Diana Trollope. She died later that year. Not long after his mother's death Edward Partington sold the house, although the family retained ownership of Hamsey manor until the end of the nineteenth century. His widowed aunt Diana Trollope was buried at Hamsey, so it is possible that she was allowed to stay on at the house. |
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Thomas Partington of Offham House, Hamsey, owner of Stepney Farm in 1840. |
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