52 Ancestors 52 Weeks: Week 11. Fortune. HENRY PYE 1797-1889

 

FORTUNE

I would love to have a ‘wise woman’ or a ‘7^th child of a 7^th child’ with some sensory leanings within my ancestry, but as far as I know I don’t.

As for Fortune favouring the brave, again I am unaware of such a person in the family. Therefore, I am having to fall back onto monetary ‘fortune.’

So, off the top of my I can recall at least 4 or 5 people, who’s fortune at the time of their death would equate to multiple millionaires today. One of whom is a woman and as such deserves her own post within my wider blog under the label ‘All the Single Ladies.’ I have found it a worthwhile pastime following these ladies and their stories, definitely not the archetypal Spinster women left at home to look after their elderly parents, although some of that may have been involved along the way.

But I am going to focus on one of 2 Henry Pyes within my Ancestry, Henry Pye of Boughton Malherbe, Kent and later Burgess Hill, Sussex, and Henry Pye of Hoo, uncle and nephew, both amassing separate ‘Fortunes’.

In this post I am going to write about the former Henry Pye, brother of my 3x Great Grandfather. 

Henry Pye 27^th Feb 1797-7^th Mar 1889

Henry was the 9^th child and 5^th son of Thomas and Jane Pye nee Hudson, born in Bredgar Kent.

The family were known as Yeoman and Gentleman Farmers, and Henry followed suit. At the time of the  1841 census he was residing at Boughton Place, Boughton Malherbe, originally the historic home of the Wotton family from the 1340's in various forms until bequeathed to the Stanhope family in the 1680’s. It was sold to Galfridus Mann in 1750 and remained in the possession of the Mann/Cornwallis family until being sold again in 1922. Therefore Henry must have been a tenant during his occupation of the house, where documents indicate that he resided t from at least the mid 1830’s. Tithe documents also indicate that he owned or rented land around several surrounding parishes and was included in the Knights of the Parish Poll book for Boughton Malherbe in 1847.

 Boughton Place

Henry remained the tenant of Boughton Place at the time of the 1851 census, this shows that he farmed over 1000 acres of land and employed 35 men. Throughout these years Henry remained a bachelor but in 1858, a man now in his 60’s married Mary Ann Mellor, 28 years his junior, daughter of a horse hair, mattress and bed manufacturer, although the business went into liquidation in 1856.

Perhaps in preparation for this marriage, Henry decided to retire from farming and the local Kent newpapers printed Auction details for the animal stock, farming implements and furniture at Boughton Place, planned for October 1858.

Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser 14^th December 1858

PYE – MELLER: On the 4^th inst.at St Nicholas, Brighton, Henry Pye Esq of Boughton Malherbe to Mary Ann Meller, 2^nd daughter of Jas Hill Meller Esq of Brighton and Cobham Surrey.

 Regencysociety.org

Morning Post 5^th Jan 1860

BIRTHS: HARRY PYE

PYE- On the 29^th ult, at Brighton, the wife of Henry Pye Esq, of a son

Maidstone Telegraph 20^th July 1861

BIRTHS: BEATRICE MARY PYE

On the 9^th inst, at Somerfield House Maidstone, the wife of Henry Pye Esq, of a daughter.

Somerfield House is a large detached Victorian villa, which is now the Head Office of a firm of Solicitors.

Chichester Express and West Sussex Journal 24^th March 1863

BIRTHS: GERTRUDE JESSIE PYE

On the 16^th inst, at Brighton, the wife of Henry Pye Esq of Somerfield House, Maidstone of a daughter.

At the time of the 1871 census Henry, Mary and children continue to live at Somerfield House. His occupation is described as Retired Farmer and Landowner. The census also indicates that a Governess was employed to school the children, whilst a cook and housemaid were also employed. A coachman is living at Somerfield Cottage, so may also have been in the service of Henry.

By the 1881 census the family have moved to a house in Keymer, Burgess Hill in Sussex. The house name appears to be ‘Valbestas’. Harry, the son, is now employed as a Commercial clerk. There are 3 house servants living at the address, a cook, a housemaid and a kitchen maid. Beatrice is missing from the home.

Mary Ann died at 22 German Place Brighton on 4^th August 1882, although Burgess Hill remained a home address. German Place was changed to Madeira Place during WW1.

Seven years later and at the age of 92, Henry Pye died at Hollingbourne Kent on the 7^th March 1889.

The Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser 16^th March 1889 reported on the funeral.

The first carriage would appear to have held Mr James Rippoth Bonny, either the husband of his niece Jane Pye or their son. His son Harry Pye and his son in law, John Howard married to his daughter Gertrude Jessie Pye.

2^nd carriage probably held his nephew Henry Pye of Hoo, George Pye, his Grand Nephew and and James Pye, another nephew.

 Hollingbourne Church from Culpepper Connections.

 from FindaGrave.com contributor Wertypop.

It is when you check the Probate record for Henry that you discover how wealthy this gentleman was, with an estate worth £43,721, the equivalent of approx. £5.6 million in 2020. The actual will makes for interesting reading.

He names his nephew Henry Pye of Hoo as executor alongside James Pye, both sons of Henry’s brother William.

His first bequest was an annual amount of £40 to his niece Frances Pye. It is within this bequest that he mentions his ownership of property at Key Street Borden

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Key Street like this:

KEY-STREET, a village in Bobbing and Borden parishes, Kent; on Watling-street, adjacent to the North Kent railway, 2 miles WNW of Sittingbourne. It has a post office under Sittingbourne.

The second bequest was an annuity of £160 a year, to his son Harry, the money to be attained via an initial investment in a government annuity to cover this amount rather than to be drawn from Henry's personal estate.

The third bequest was for £2000 for George Pye, the nephew of his nephew and executor James Pye at the time his executors felt appropriate.

The final bequest was solely to his daughter Beatrice Mary, leaving her his entire estate.

This last will and testament was made on day 2^nd March 1889, 5 days before his death. I have noticed that the Pye family in general were non discriminatory towards women in their bequests, ensuring that any bequests left to their daughters or wives were for them as an individual even in marriage.

This will is rather strange in that the major bequest goes to his daughter Frances in preference to his son. Is there a reason for this? Harry died at the relatively young age of 35, was he sickly at the time of this will, and Henry was being prudent with reducing the incidence of inheritance tax? Or was Harry untrustworthy with the large sums of money involved with the estate.

Another major discrepancy is the omission of any bequests to his youngest daughter Gertrude ‘Jessie’. She had married less than 2 years prior to the writing of the will. Had Henry already provided a dowry/endowment upon the marriage or had there been a disagreement between father and daughter? These questions are unlikely to be answered but I shall attempt to write further about  Henry Pye’s children in a further blog post.

However I have already written a blog post about Henry's Granddaughter, Jean Iris Howard, daughter of John and Gertrude 'Jessie' Howard.  

In search of the family (mypynthdev.blogspot.com)