Wardown House and the Scargill’s

WARDOWN HOUSE AND THE SCARGILL’S

I am very grateful to Bernard Dillon and Culture Trust Luton for allowing me to publish this article.  Bernard compiled the article in 1996 and I have not touched it at all.  The article begins –

Foreword

Visitors frequently ask museum assistants questions about the history of Wardown and of its former owners. Being new to the position, and in order to answer these questions accurately, I felt that it was essential that I should acquaint myself with the facts. I very soon discovered from my colleagues that little information existed regarding the private life of the first resident, Mr Frank Chapman Scargill. This deficiency of knowledge was confirmed by the published leaflets issued by the museum. On learning of this, and because of my interest in genealogical research, I decided that I would attempt to investigate and carry out whatever research was necessary to obtain details of his parentage, his birth, his education, his marriage, his children, where he resided after he left Luton, where he dies, and finally where he was buried. His business as a Luton solicitor had been well documented, and it was for that reason that I decided to confine my enquiries to the previously unknown area of his life, namely that of his family and of his origins.

I was also informed that his physical features were a complete mystery due to the fact that no portrait or photograph of the gentleman was known to exist. As his departure from Luton had taken place over 100 years ago, I considered that the passage of time had made it virtually impossible that I would ever be able to obtain a pictorial reference of him. Therefore I was prepared to limit my ambition to being able to trace his final resting place and, if possible, acquire a photograph of his memorial stone. Even that limited objective appeared, at the start, to be a difficult one to achieve.

I embarked upon the project with considerable enthusiasm and my investigations began with a visit to Somerset House and St Catherine’s House in London. During the next few months, I made numerous enquiries. I contacted libraries, record offices, newspapers, museums, and private individuals, and I wrote in excess of fifty letters. The detailed results of these investigations are contained in the following report, and I submit the document at this stage in the full knowledge that a file such as this can never be closed as there will always be more to discover.

I have already stated that I would have been very satisfied indeed, had I achieved my objective of tracing Frank C Scargill’s movements after he left Luton, and to have discovered his final resting place. However, I am very pleased to say that the results of my investigations far exceeded anything I could possibly have hoped for. Not only was I so fortunate as to discover a living relative of Mr Scargill, but one of his youngest sons, Jasper Scargill. Mr Scargill junior is currently living in Dublin, Ireland, and through him, I was then able to achieve what I had previously thought to be totally impossible; I now have a much valued photograph of Frank Chapman Scargill, and I understand from Jasper Scargill it is the only surviving photograph of his father.

I consider the past few months’ research to have been well worthwhile, and I owe considerable thanks to the following people and offices that have assisted me in my investigations:

Ireland

Jasper Scargill, Dublin; Mr Cameron, Beaufort House, Killarney; The Kerryman Newspaper; M Courtney, Parish Secretary, Beaufort, Kerry; Mayo North Family History Research Centre; Mayo Library; Genealogical Office, Dublin; Registrar of Births and Deaths, Dublin; The Western People Newspaper, Ballina; Mrs K Naughton, Dublin

England

Luton Town Clerk; Luton Magistrates Court; Warwickshire County Records Office; Hove Reference Library; Land Registry Office; Institute of British Architects; The Library of British Architects; Bedfordshire County Records Office; The Luton News; The Cumbria County Records Office; The Lancashire County records Office; British Newspaper Library; Lambeth Palace Records Library; Ulverston Heritage Centre; Crockford’s Directory; G.L.C. Records Office; St Paul’s School, London; The Times Newspaper; Oxford County Records Office; Mrs Barden, Hincaster; Myles Kennedy, Ulverston; Peter Lowe, Manchester; Sedbergh School, Cumbria; Mrs J Bleaden, Sussex; Mrs Veronica Ruane, Luton; Dr Elizabeth Adey, Luton Museum.

At the end of this report, I enclose all correspondence that I have received throughout my research. I trust that the information contained in the following pages is not only of previously unknown facts, but that the report itself will be of considerable use to the museum and to any future researcher.

Bernard Dillon

April 1996

Frank Chapman Scargill

Frank Chapman Scargill was the eldest son born of the marriage of John Scargill and Mary Chapman. However, before I reveal the biographical details of Frank, I think that it is appropriate to give some information on his father and his elder half-brother.

According to the International Genealogical Index, his father, John Scargill, was baptised on the 18^th of March 1793 in the City of London. When, in 1804, he reached eleven years of age, he became a student at St Paul’s School, the buildings of which were just to the east of St Paul’s Cathedral. It can be seen from the published school registers 1748-1876 that his admission took place on August 11^th, and that his father, that is the grandfather of Frank, was also named John and was stated to have been a resident of St James’s, Westminster.

The education received by John Scargill jnr was of sufficient quality to permit him, on reaching adulthood, to enter the legal profession. He continued to reside in London, and set up home in the district that surrounds Euston Station. His first wife was named Mary Catherine (IGI), and on the 25^th of March 1828 their son, John James Scargill, was born. Twelve weeks later, on the 17^th of June (IGI), he was baptised in St Pancras New Church, Euston Road. Unfortunately, soon after his birth, Mary died. However, he was not without a mother for too long, for just after the young John celebrated his fifth birthday, his father remarried.

On that occasion, John travelled to Atherstone in Warwickshire where, in the Mancetter Parish, on 20 April 1833, he and Mary Chapman became husband and wife. They returned to John’s home in London with Mary taking on the role of stepmother to the young John James. Like his father, 33 years earlier, John also became a student at St Paul’s School. The event was recorded in the register of 1837 as having taken place on February 9th. He was eight years of age and he remained a student at St Paul’s until reaching his 18th year. He then started training as a solicitor, but decided that the legal profession was not for him, and on October 14th, 1851 he became a student at Clare College Cambridge and acquired his BA in 1856. He entered the Church, was ordained, became a priest at the Church of Heywood, Lancashire, 1858-1859 and had numerous parishes throughout his life, as listed in Venn’s Alumni Cantabrigienses. He did not die until February 14th, 1915 when he was aged 86 and residing at Bromley, Kent. 

But, to return to the year when the young John James was only eight years old, it was on October 16, 1836 that Mary gave birth to her first son. There exists certain evidence to indicate that the birth took place, not in London, but in her family home at Atherstone. However, a little over nine weeks later the child was taken to St Pancras New Church, in Euston Road where he was baptised Frank Chapman Scargill. This event was recorded in the register on the 21^st of December 1836 and the same document shows at that time the family was living in Burton Crescent and that her father was still practicing law. The name Burton Crescent no longer exists but it was located close to King’s Cross station and still within the Euston area of London. it is now called Cartwright Garden, its name having changed in 1908.

Frank’s second name, Chapman, was obviously given in honour and recognition of his mother’s family whereas the next child born to John and Mary Scargill indicates an earlier connection with a family named Kennedy.

It was less than 22 months after Frank’s birth that on 4^th August 1838 his younger brother Walter Kennedy Scargill was baptised, (IGI). The baptism took place in the same church as the baptism of his elder brother. I think that it might be appropriate at this point to state that there were in fact, two churches named St Pancras. The original, in Pancras Road ceased to be used after the new church in Euston Road was opened in 1822. Although it did reopen years later it was not used during the 1830s and therefore all the Scargill children were baptised in the new church. However, the IGI records imply that all baptisms in the new church were part of the records of the old church and can therefore be confusing. This information was obtained from the archivist of the GLC records office. 

Walter was born at his mother’s home town of Atherstone. This fact can be seen in the published admission registers of the boarding school that he later attended and I will return to the subject later. It would seem that his mother made it her practice to travel to her family home in Warwickshire but the confinement of her children and, following their safe birth, would return to her husband and residence in London for the baptism. It is known that one more child was born to John and Mary and that their third offspring was the daughter that they named, Jessie (Jessica?) Mitchell Scargill. As yet I have not acquired her date of birth.

The details of the early childhood of Frank Chapman Scargill are unknown but I think that it is reasonable to assume that his education would have started with a governess and, perhaps, continued with a preparatory school. I have consulted the records and can confirm that he did not however, attend St Paul’s like his father or elder brother.

Unfortunately, when Frank was 11 years old, his father, John Scargill, died. He did so on 27 June 1848, as reported in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” (August, page 218) and was stated to have been 55 years old. The sad event left the decision of Frank’s future education to his mother Mary.

My research has revealed that when he reached 14 years of age that both he and his younger brother, Walter, entered a boarding school located in Cumbria, many miles from their home. The school, Sedbergh, was founded in 1525 by Doctor Roger Lupton, Provost of Eton and it continues to be successful today. When Frank and Walter became students at the school in October 1851, the headmaster was John Harrison Evans, and there were approximately 90 students.

The school was divided into six classes and Frank, being several years older, was in a different class to that of his brother. In Walter’s class there was a boy named, Henry George Kennedy, cousin of Charles Burton Kennedy. This fact is quite relevant when we realise that later, the subject of this report, Frank Chapman Scargill, marries the widow of Charles Burton Kennedy.

The question must arise as to why, when there were so many other excellent boarding schools much closer to London, that Mary Scargill elected to send her sons hundreds of miles away to Sedbergh in what is now, Cumbria? To answer this question we must speculate. As I mentioned earlier, the naming of Frank’s brother Walter Kennedy Scargill, appears to indicate a connection with the Kennedy family. Although at the moment I am not certain where this connection is. The young Henry George Kennedy, at the school with the Scargill boys lived, like them, in the south of England. In fact he had been born in Brighton. On the other hand, his grandparents, Edward Kennedy and Susannah Storr as well as his uncle and aunt, Charles Storr Kennedy and Elizabeth Burton resided in the north of England and were reasonably close to the school. They lived in the area around Ulverston and were relatively wealthy. Is it pure coincidence and that these three boys from the south of England should attend a boarding school in the North or is that, as is more likely, due to grandparent or family influence?

Walter’s stay at Sedbergh was, however, shorter than that of Frank’s for it is recorded that in June 1853, just before his 15th birthday, he ceased to be a student. I have been able to discover that on leaving school he went into Dunbar’s East India Service; he joined Peel’s Naval Brigade and later became an officer in the Bengal Yeomanry. He was wounded several times in the mutiny and, unfortunately, died in 1870 when only 32 years old.

Frank, on the other hand, stayed on at the boarding school through the winter of 1853 and did not leave until the April of 1854. He was then 17 years and six months old. It has not yet been established whether he went on to become a university student but I can confirm that the records for both Oxford and Cambridge University have been consulted and that he did not attend either. At that age however, he may like his elder brother, have entered a solicitor’s office as an articled clerk. It is very possible that the office may have been that of an acquaintance or a former partner of his late father’s practice but we have no evidence to substantiate that particular piece of speculation. Apart from the fact that we know that he succeeded in becoming a solicitor during the 10 years between leaving Sedbergh and his arrival in Luton, we know very little.

I do possess evidence to indicate that Frank was already established as a Luton resident in January 1865 because it was on the 27th, of that month that he signed on and became a commissioned officer (an Ensign) in the 6th Luton Corps of the Rifle Volunteers. The fact that this event took place so soon after the New Year celebrations would seem to indicate that he had already been established in Luton during 1864. He may have been a resident longer but, as yet, we do not have any evidence. The question as to why he came to Luton from London is still open to conjecture but, I have found a possible link that might connect his family to the town. I have not yet proved it but the circumstances are such that it might be the clue that we seek.

We know that his mother’s home town was Atherstone, Warwickshire, and that her family and their businesses were connected to that town. We also know of the importance of the hat industry to Luton in the last century but, what is not so well known is that of all the towns and cities in England only three were named by James Dyer and John Dony in The Story of Luton (page 103) as having a connection with the felt hat industry. One of those three was Atherstone! Did Frank’s mother Mary, have relatives in the hat industry travelling between Atherstone and Luton or even residing in the town? If so, it might begin to answer why Frank, at 28 years old, or thereabouts, chose to come and sit in Luton.

Having settled here it is well documented that he became a very successful solicitor. His offices were established in King Street as indicated and Mercer and Crocker’s Directory of Bedfordshire 1871. In the 1890 directory he was shown to be in partnership, but still in King Street, “Scargill and Lathom, Solicitor, Commissioner for Oaths, and Joint Clerk to the Borough and County Magistrates”. However, for the time being, I will return to a period at least four years after his arrival in Luton. The year 1868 was to be one of considerable change for the 31-year-old Frank Chapman Scargill. It was the year that he purchased Bramingham Shott from Robert How and it was also the year that he was to marry.

Bramingham Shott was situated approximately 1 mile north of Luton town centre and was located between the Old and New Bedford Roads. The River Lea flowed through the estate on its way south to London. Over several years, further adjacent land was purchased by Frank from John Sambrook Crawley and the estate grew in size until it amounted to approximately 50 acres. The original purchase document between Robert How and Frank Scargill is dated 2 July 1868 (document number 1239), this date being a little over 16 weeks before he married the young widow, Mrs Elizabeth Kennedy. According to the census record of 1891 Elisabeth states very precisely that she was born at Hincaster House, Hincaster, Westmorland, although in early censuses she stated Ulverston. I have had checked the Parish registers of Heversham into which Hincaster fell and those adjacent Milnthorpe and Beetham.  Unfortunately she was baptised in none of them. However, we do know that she was the daughter of Thomas Park, gentleman, and that she was born in the same year as Frank, namely, 1836. This can be deduced from the information supplied to the census returning officer in 1871, 1881 and 1891. Hincaster House was built in the same year as Elizabeth’s birth and the current owner, Mrs Barden, has in her possession a parchment document which is the original deed of the house dated 1836 which records the name of the first owner as Thomas Park.

Elizabeth, on reaching her maturity, had inherited property and wealth from a lady named Ann Kilner, who appears to have been a gentlewoman who resided in Queen Street, Ulverston. I do not know whether she was a relative but the inheritance appears to have been received prior to the September of 1858. It was mentioned and Elisabeth’s will of 1894 when she referred to her first marriage settlement dated 27 September 1858 just prior to her marriage to Charles Burton Kennedy. In that agreement she conveyed unto Joseph and James Park, (probably her brothers) and Myles Kennedy, (brother-in-law) and their heirs every part of the Freehold, leasehold and personal estates bequeathed unto her or in trust to her, by the will of Ann Kilner. Also the sum of £996 7 shillings and sixpence plus the 3% bank annuities to pay the income from the above to herself for her separate use and after the death of either herself or her husband the income to be continued to be paid to the survivor, and after the death of the survivor, to the children of the marriage. She became Mrs Kennedy in the last few days of September 1858.

The Kennedys were a wealthy family. They had settled in Ulverston two generations earlier when Edward Kennedy, the grandfather of her new husband, had been appointed, supervisor of taxes for the county. He came north from Essex where he had been born in 1766. He had married Susanna Storr and by her had three sons. One died unmarried and without issue, the second, Henry, went south and became the father of the Henry that was at school with the Scargill boys. The eldest, Charles Storr Kennedy, remained in the Ulverston area and being interested in geology conceived the idea that there was iron ore to be found in the district. He continued prospecting for years in the area of Roanhead with little success. He had married Elizabeth Burton in 1820 and had two sons, Charles Burton Kennedy, the husband of Elizabeth Park and Myles Kennedy. He also had 8 daughters. Originally the eldest son, Elizabeth’s husband, had been destined for the legal profession and was articled to the magistrate’s clerk. His brother, on the other hand, was sent to the Royal School of Mines in London. In 1857, a year before Charles Burton Kennedy and Elizabeth Park married, Mr Kennedy senior died and both sons went on to succeed him as ironmasters. They then went on to create the well-known firm of Kennedy Brothers. It was not long before the prospecting paid off and ore was discovered at Roanhead. This mine turned into a very successful business and both brothers became rich. Unfortunately, seven years after Elizabeth married Charles Burton Kennedy, he died intestate, and in 1865 she was left a widow with three young children, Charles Storr Kennedy (1859), Myles Burton Kennedy (1861), and Mary Ann Kennedy (1863). Incidentally Mary Ann was always referred to as Marion. 

The Kennedy wealth had enabled them to establish themselves in an area known as Fairview Park, Ulverston and it was on this estate that they were able to build their houses. The original house was named, quite appropriately, Fairview, and had been brought in to the family by the Kennedy-Burton marriage of February 1820. Elizabeth Burton was the heiress of her father, Miles Theodore Burton of Fairview.

The next house was The Gardens, and it was erected as accommodation for their servants. Then followed Kirklands, which is where the newly married couple Elizabeth Park and Charles Burton Kennedy lived. Later, her brother-in-law, Myles, built the very impressive mansion known as Stone Cross. The building, Stone Cross, is now the home of a company called Marl, who manufactures electronic equipment.

My research into this particular family has culminated in me being able to correspond with Myles Kennedy, the great, great-grandson of Elizabeth’s brother-in-law and I have received considerable information from him, for which I am extremely grateful.

In Elisabeth’s will, 1894, she refers to the Kennedy coat of arms and I’m pleased to say that I have been able to track this down and I enclose a copy with this report.

Following the death of her husband and his burial in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church on the Fairview estate, Elizabeth was granted, letters of administration on the 26 January 1866 and the records at Somerset house confirmed the value of his estate as being, not greater than £25,000, a large sum for the middle of the 19th century.

The question of how Elizabeth Park (or rather the widow Mrs Kennedy) living at Ulverston, close to the Lake District and the North of England was able to become acquainted with, and eventually marry, a solicitor that resided in Luton is intriguing and, again, requires speculation. 

It must not be forgotten that by giving children a second surname, as did Frank’s mother and father when they named his younger brother, Walter Kennedy Scargill, it was normally done in honour of a previous generation of the family. This action appears to indicate an earlier connection between the two families. Alternatively, it is an unusual coincidence! Also, it must be remembered that there were numerous schools much closer to London to which the Scargill boys could have been sent but, Sedbergh was elected. Incidentally, Sedbergh was located only about 11 miles or so from Hincaster, Elisabeth’s birthplace. As I have already mentioned, a further confidence exists in as much as Henry Kennedy, up from the south of England, was in the school at the same time as the Scargill boys and no doubt would have visited his grandparents and other relative in the Ulverston area. He would possibly, and most probably, have taken his friends, Frank and Walter Scargill, especially if they too were relatives as I believe them to have been. I believe that Frank Scargill got to know Elizabeth Park either when he was a student at Sedbergh or, alternatively, he became acquainted with her through her connection with Charles Burton Kennedy, who I believe to have been a relative, possibly a second cousin of Frank. I accept that I am speculating but, regardless of how they met, it is obvious that they did and it led to Elizabeth moving down south to Luton.

It was on Tuesday, 27 October 1868 she and Frank were married. They did so by license issued from the faculty office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The record of this particular marriage allegation is currently held in the Lambeth Palace library and contains the following information:

“Frank Chapman Scargill of Christ Church, Luton, Beds, bachelor, 21 and upwards, and Elizabeth Kennedy of the same parish, widow, to be married at Christ Church Luton.”

In fact, we know Frank’s age precisely, for only 11 days earlier he had celebrated his 32nd birthday. 

According to the newspaper report of the time it was, indeed, a ceremony of some considerable note and attracted a crowd of onlookers exceeding 4000 in number. So many people crowded into the church that they were alleged to have stood on the pews at the rear of the building causing several to break.

The bridal party arrived at the south door at 11 o’clock and was met by the five officiating clergy. There was the Rev Carver, Vicar of Hyson Green Nottingham, who was obviously a friend of Frank’s brother the Rev John James Scargill from the same parish, the Vicar of Christ Church, the Rev T Lee, the Rev E Green and the Rev E Adams also attended the couple.

As the bride’s father, Thomas Park was deceased, she was given away by a Luton doctor, Alfred Heal of Market Hill, no doubt a friend and acquaintance of Frank.

Elizabeth was wearing a blue silk dress and a white tulle bonnet and veil while her bridesmaids, Miss Scargill and Miss Hansbrow wore white silk dresses and tulle veils and carried scarlet wreaths. The church had been newly decorated with evergreens and the party slowly proceeded up the centre aisle behind the choristers who sang the marriage hymn. Because of the death of Frank’s father some years earlier his brother Walter was there to accompany their mother, Mrs Mary Scargill.

After the ceremony, the guests return to the home, in Market Hill, of Doctor Alfred Heale to partake in the wedding breakfast. According to the report the bride and groom left at 3:30 PM in a carriage drawn by three greys. Of course, as one would expect, the celebrations continued into the evening with the family and close friends invited to the newlyweds home, Bramingham Villa, as Frank called it.

In the town centre, the men of the sixth Battalion Bedfordshire volunteers, of which group Frank Chapman Scargill held the Ensign’s commission, celebrated the wedding of one of the members. They did so at the Midland Hotel on the corner of Williamson Street near to the town hall. The host, Mr Pugh, supplied a good substantial dinner on the directions of the bridegroom.

Speeches followed the excellent meal and although Frank could not attend in person the Rev John Scargill took his place and was pleased to hear flattering statements made about his young brother. I have submitted a copy of the newspaper article that appeared in the Luton Times and Dunstable Herald on the Saturday following the wedding and it is worth reading in order to obtain further details of the event.

Just prior to the wedding, Elizabeth had made what she referred to in her will as the second settlement. Her future husband, Frank Scargill, was named as of the first part, Elizabeth was of the second part, and the surgeon Alfred Heale, Frank’s brother the Revd. John Scargill and the Revd. John Power were named as the trustees and the third part.

She assigned over to the trustees, their executors, assigns and administrators all the share and interest to which she was then, or might become, entitled to as the widow of her late husband, Charles Burton Kennedy. They were to partake in the administration of the properties and business interests etc., in an appropriate manner, and to pay the income derived thereof unto Frank Chapman Scargill during his life, and then unto herself. Following the death of herself and her new husband, the income and benefits were to be paid unto the children of both marriages.

If Frank was not already wealthy in his own right as a solicitor, and as the son of a solicitor, he certainly became so following his marriage to Elizabeth. As has already been pointed out, she had inherited her late husband’s share of the successful mining business in Ulverston.

The change, overnight, from being a bachelor to that of being a married man with three step-children must have surely had an effect on Frank. The eldest of his “children” was Charles Storr Kennedy, who had been named after his grandfather, and at the time of his mother’s marriage to Frank, he had just celebrated his ninth birthday. The second child was Myles Burton Kennedy, who had been given his grandmother’s maiden name (Burton) in her honour. He was only seven years old whereas the youngest, Mary Ann was a little over five. The evidence indicates that the boys did not remain at Bramingham for very long, but instead were sent to boarding school. Thirty months later, as the 1871 census shows, neither boy was at home. I know from the 1881 census that Charles had by then become an undergraduate at Oxford, and from another source I have evidence that shows Myles went first to Winchester and then on to Jesus College, Cambridge.

The year of 1870 was one of both joy and sadness for Frank, for it was in the spring of that year that Elizabeth was able to tell him that she was pregnant and carrying his first child. Unfortunately, the happiness felt by the announcement was dispelled by the sad news that arrived to tell him that his brother Walter, an officer in the Bengal Yeomanry, had been wounded several times during the mutiny and had died. Whether it was a decision that Frank took on his own due to this information, or whether family pressure requested him to take it, I do not know, but it was in 25^th May that year that he resigned his commission in the Yeomanry. Of course, it is entirely possible that his resignation was not as a result of his brother’s death at all, but was for some other reason. Maybe it was his wife’s pregnancy that motivated his desire to withdraw from the service. We shall never know for certain, but as always, life continues, and in due course Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, a daughter who was named Lilian Frances, and baptised at Christ Church in Luton on 26^th January 1871 by the Revd. Lee.

In April 1871, the census return shows that Frank Chapman Scargill was calling his property Bramingham Villa, not Bramingham Shott, and that in addition to referring to himself as a solicitor, he added the word landowner. It was also on this record that he stated that he had been born in St Pancras. Later however, he was to retract this and claim that his birth took place in Atherstone, Warwickshire.

Although his stepsons were not listed, his stepdaughter, Mary Ann, was and it can be seen that she had an Irish governess, Ms Bingham, residing with the family. There were also five other servants. There was the housemaid, the under housemaid, a nurse and housekeeper combined (for the baby Lilian), a cook, and a young manservant, aged 18.

By the time the census was taken, only three months or so after the birth of Lilian, Elizabeth was pregnant again. Later that year, on 12^th December 1871, Frank and Elizabeth baptised their new son. They did so, as with their daughter Lilian, at Christ Church, and in honour and memory of Frank’s recently deceased brother, the child was named Lionel Walter Kennedy Scargill. Once again, within three months, nature did its work and Elizabeth found that she was pregnant for the third time since her marriage to Frank. On 5^th December 1872, the family made their way to Christ Church, where Theodore Frank Chapman Scargill was baptised into the Church of England.

Although I have not concentrated on investigating the lives of Frank and Elizabeth’s children, I do know that from the 1891 census that Lionel was studying chemistry and his younger brother Theodore was in the straw hat industry.

Debrett’s Peerage, 1928 edition, shows on a collateral branch of the Earl of Haddington’s genealogy that Lionel Walter Kennedy Scargill, MA, MD, BC, Lieut. RAMC 1915-1916, married Ether Gordon Baillie Hamilton. This fact was confirmed by Mr Jasper Scargill, the son of Frank, who when writing to me stated that his half-brother Lionel had studied at Balliol College, Oxford and had become a medical doctor. It would appear that after the First World War, Lionel, his wife, and children moved to Ireland and joined his elderly father who was by then a resident. It was in the same town that his father died that Lionel practised medicine. Following the Home Rule bill, civil war broke out in Ireland and during this period, Lionel returned to the safety of England, with his family. He settled in Guildford, where he is believed to have died in 1943.

Prior to the First World War however, Lionel had been living in Langlands, Cleobury Mortimer, just to the west of Kidderminster. This fact is shown in his uncle’s will, dated 1^st October 1914, his uncle being, of course, the Revd. John James Scargill.

Lilian Frances, the first child born at Bramingham Villa, grew up to marry Mr Strongitharm, and in the same document just referred to, was seen to be living at The Fanners, Wickham Bishops, Essex, with her husband George.

The second son of Frank and Elizabeth, namely Theodore Frank Chapman Scargill, was not mentioned in his uncle’s will of 1914, nor was he referred to in the will of Myles Burton Kennedy, his half-brother, whereas both Lionel and Lilian were. His mother’s will dated 1894 (proved 1900) clearly shows in paragraph six, page three, that Theodore was referred to merely as Frank Chapman Scargill, omitting the name Theodore. This was confirmed on page four, paragraph ten. The reading of that passage indicates that Frank jnr was alive at that time. Yet, on page five, Elizabeth bequeaths various items of jewellery and other mementoes to all her children from both marriages other than to her son Theodore Frank Chapman Scargill. This I find very strange, because if he had done something that upset the family which precluded him from benefitting from his mother’s will, why did she on page four, section ten, say that she felt confident that her eldest daughter Mary Ann would do justice to her three younger children?

In fact, Elizabeth and Frank actually had four children. The fourth was born on 23^rd October 1875, and like his brothers and sister before him, was baptised at Christ Church. The baptism took place on 16^th December, and he was named Alfred Harold. Unfortunately, he died within days and was buried at St Mary’s in Luton on Christmas Eve, 24^th December 1875.

The year 1875 was also the year that the grounds surrounding their home at Bramingham Shott must have resembled a building site. Some time earlier, Frank had appointed the architect Thomas Charles Sorby of 27a Brunswick Square, London, to demolish the original white stucco building that had been purchased from Robert How in 1868 and to build a new house on the same site. Although as yet I have been unable to trace all the original drawings, Mr Sorby did submit a ground floor plan of the new house that was being erected to the magazine “The British Architect”. On June 25^th 1875, the plan, along with a freehand sketch of the house and a short article was published. I enclose all three items and, as can be seen, the contract price at that time was quoted as £10,000. The moulded red brick surrounding the carriage portico, cornices, and chimney caps were sent from Mr Gunton’s works at Cossey, near Norwich, and the brindled tiles on the roof came from Coalbrookvale, while the ridges and knobs were sent from Maidenhead.

Thomas Charles Sorby was born in 1836 at Chevet, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, and was the same age as Frank Scargill. He travelled through France, as was quite common for young gentlemen of that period, before going to work in the London office of Charles Reeves, County Court Surveyor and Architect, and succeeded him as County Court Surveyor in 1867. He thus became responsible for a large number of County Court buildings, including those in Leeds (1869), Halifax (1870), and Barnsley (1871). He was also responsible for the building of the Bromley Town Hall (1864) and designed St Michael and All Angels, Neepsend, Sheffield (1866-67).

It was fashionable in the Victorian period for architectural competitions to be organised so as to assist those responsible for “commissioning” architects. Even when an architect won a particular competition, it did not mean that his design would necessarily be the one that was finally built. Other factors, such as cost, which was not always known when the winner was announced, influenced the final decision. Thomas Charles Sorby entered these competitions and was selected winner with the Harrogate Cemetery (1862). He was first in the competition for Bromley Town Hall (as already mentioned), first in the Ringwood Congregational Church (1864), first in the Ripon Borrup Estate (1863), first in the Peterborough semi-detached villas (1864), fourth in the St Pancras Hotel (1865), and first in the Metropolitan Railway surplus land at Clerkenwell and at Praed Street, London (1871). These details were obtained from the book “Victorian Architectural Competitions” by Roger H Harper, published by Mansell Publishing, 1983.

Given his background, I have wondered if Mr Sorby and Frank first became acquainted due to their mutual connection with the County Courts.

Anyway, within eight years of completing the mansion at Bramingham Shott, Thomas Charles Sorby emigrated to Canada. He went on to design for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was responsible for a large number of buildings in British Columbia, including the Bank of British Columbia, Vancouver (1899), The Court House, Vancouver (1899), and The Weiler Block, Victoria (1890). He lived until he was eighty eight years old, and died in Victoria in November 1924.

The house at Bramingham Shott was not completed until 1877, as revealed by the carving of the date on the archway to the stables. Another interesting and personal feature of the house is the monogram of Frank’s initials, F.C.S., on the brass front door handle. I have reproduced a copy of the design on the front cover of this report.

It was whilst all the building work was going on that the family pet dog died. “Sandy” is buried in the front garden beneath an inscribed memorial stone. In fact, there are actually two small monuments, side by side, and it would appear that in 1886, their dog “Toss” passed on. On the rear of one of the stones is carved yet another name, that of “Sambo”, but it is now impossible to read the date of his death.

Although the house was now complete, Frank was not yet satisfied with his estate. He felt that it was spoiled by a public footpath that ran diagonally from High Town, across his grounds, towards Limbury. He approached the Luton Corporation to have it removed, and on 16^th September 1878, an agreement was reached between himself and the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Luton to re-direct the footpath to the far end of the grounds where it bordered the Lye Estate. The footpath still exists, but unlike the original, it now travels diagonally in the opposite direction.

The 1881 census shows that Frank Scargill was staying away from home on that particular night. In his place was his eldest step-son, Charles S Kennedy, along with several visitors from Lancashire, one of whom, Agnes Park, may well have been a sister or sister-in-law of Elizabeth. The number of servants had increased during the ten years since the previous census and had risen from six in 1871 to nine in 1881. Two of the original six were still with the family, namely Mary Atkinson, the former nurse from Lancashire, and John Nicholson, who had been elevated to the position of butler. Incidentally, he also was from Lancashire. In fact, the servants appear to have been selected from many parts of the country, including Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, and Northumberland. Even the head gardener, William Valentine, who lived in the Bramingham Lodge, had emanated from Cambridgeshire.

The year 1882 was another one that brought sadness to the Scargills. First they received news that on 15^th June that their close friend Dr Alfred Heale had died in Warwick. This was the gentleman that had walked up the aisle with Elizabeth to give her away, and had opened up his home for the wedding breakfast that followed. It is interesting to note that although his death occurred in Warwick, his body was brought back to Luton where it was buried in St Mary’s.

Several months later, on 9^th October, Mary Scargill, Frank’s mother, died in her home at 51 Gower Street, London. Since her marriage to John Scargill, forty-nine years earlier, she had lived in Bloomsbury within close proximity to Euston Station, Gower Street being only a few streets away from Burton Crescent, their first home. Her will had been made out only twenty months before her death and had been signed on Valentine’s Day 1881. In the will, a copy of which is attached, she appointed her step-son the Revd. John Scargill, and her nephew, John Mitchel Chapman, the son of her brother, as her executors. 

Apart from bequeathing her punch bowl and ladle to her son, Frank Scargill, and her silver tea caddy and card box to her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, Frank received nothing more. His mother stated that the only reason she did not leave anything else to her son was because he was otherwise amply provided for. It was stipulated however that the money he owed his mother should be paid instead to his sister, Jessey within one year of his mother’s death. She left her step-son, the Revd. John Scargill fifty pounds, and to her son-in-law, Samuel Robert Bird, the sum of one hundred pounds. Everything else that she owned was bequeathed to her daughter Jessey Mitchel Bird, the wife of Samuel. The value of the estate was recorded as £8808-16-5, but in 1891 it was re-valued at £9382-18-9. Once again, a sum of money such as that indicates a reasonable level of wealth for the nineteenth century, but it was miniscule in comparison to the amount that was left five months later by Elizabeth’s former brother-in-law. On March 13^th 1883, Myles Kennedy, the younger brother of her first husband, uncle to her first three children, and her business partner died at the relatively young age of forty six.

In his will, a copy of which is attached, it states on page two that he bequeaths to his nephew, Charles Storr Kennedy, the son of Elizabeth and step-son of Frank Scargill, the mansion house called Fairview, situated in Ulverston, along with the stable coach house and grounds adjoining, as once belonged to his grandfather, Myles Theodore Burton. It was in this house, years later, that Elizabeth Scargill died, but I will reveal those details more precisely in due course.

The mansion house known as Stone Cross, which had been built by Myles Kennedy, along with the mines and all other business interests amounted to the massive sum of £276,904-9-4d. Three years later, in 1886, his executors had managed to reduce the value of the estate to £271,520-0-6d. As I stated earlier, it makes Mrs Mary Scargill’s estate seem very small. Although, of course, it was not!

Frank Scargill, as would be expected, participated in numerous business deals, and a list of such deeds and indentures that apply to Wardown, with their dates, have been attached. However, one particular letter, dated 12^th November 1890, is of special interest. It indicates that Frank, or his mortgagees, were attempting to re-mortgage or pass on the existing mortgage to new mortgagees. The document currently held in the archives at the museum was from the surveyors, Bean, Burnett & Eldridge, of 14 Nicholas Lane, Cannon Street, London E.C. and was addressed to the solicitors Peak, Bird, Collins & Peak of 6 Bedford Row. In the letter, it states “We value the aforesaid freehold estate (referring to Bramingham Shott) at the sum of fifteen thousand pounds and are of the opinion that it affords a safe security for an advance by way of mortgage of the sum of £10,000…” It would seem that seven months later, on 11^th June 1891, that a transfer of mortgage took place between “Frank Scargill and his mortgagees and H.E. Tatham and others”. Exactly why this transaction took place is not, as yet, known. Whether it was to raise money to settle up earlier investments or whether it was for the purpose of future options, perhaps the purchase of property in Ireland, can only be speculation.

However, two months earlier, the ten yearly census was taken, and it can be seen that none of his step-children were in the house. They were, by that time, all adults, but the three younger children, Lilian, Lionel, and Theodore were all in their teens and still at home. There were seven servants residing in the house and three others, with their families, living in the lodges of the estate. At Champion Lodge was Arthur Tomlin, the groom. At the New Bedford Road Lodge was Edward Rowley, the coachman, and in the Old Bedford Road Lodge was Henry Ward, gardener.

Two years later, on 2^nd January 1893, an indenture between Frank Scargill and his two step-sons, Charles and Myles Kennedy, was drawn up. At the time of writing, the precise details of this indenture are not known to me. It must have been about that time, or later that, year that the idea of “retiring” and moving away from Luton and Bramingham Villa would have been considered. In fact, the evidence contained in Elizabeth’s will, a copy of which is attached, shows, or at least indicates that they were still in Luton the following summer. Elizabeth signed and dated the document on 11^th June 1894 and it was witnessed by a Luton solicitor, J. Geo. Roberts, and also by Millie Swain who was a maid at Bramingham Shott. It could not have been long after that date that they finally moved away from the property that they had acquired twenty six years earlier.

I managed to trace the couple’s destination to the south where they had moved into a house situated in Hove on the borders of Brighton. The address was 16 Salisbury Road. This is confirmed by the 1895 publication of the local street directory. It indicates that his registration at Salisbury Road must have taken place sufficiently early to have allowed him to be included in that edition.

The house at Salisbury Road was fairly new, having been built only thirteen years or so earlier. It is interesting to note that the previous occupant, at least from 1892, was Surgeon Major John Burton, MD. Note the surname, Burton. Is it pure coincidence that Elizabeth’s first mother-in-law, and grandmother to her first three children was Elizabeth Burton and that cousins of her first husband were Burtons? We also know that Elizabeth Burton’s brother-in-law, Henry Kennedy had moved to Brighton and had set up a school at Rottingdean. The connection between the Kennedy family of Ulverston and the Kennedy family of Brighton has, without doubt, been established. It remains to be seen whether Surgeon Major Burton was also a relative.

Frank and Elizabeth did not, however, remain at Salisbury Road for long. It is in the 1896 street directory that they can be seen to be living at Brunswick Place, number 14, and still in Hove. Brunswick Place was an older property than Salisbury Road, and had been built in about 1850-52. It was, and is, located on the north side of Western Road, immediately to the north of Brunswick Square. The resident of the house prior to Frank and Elizabeth’s occupation was Lewis Campbell (1894) and before that, R.S. Gladstone (1893).

14 Brunswick Place was to remain the Scargills’ home for a further six years. In 1897, three years after they had moved away from Bramingham Shott, a lease was granted to Benjamin John Harfield Forder to rent the mansion at Luton. In the year previous, 1896, whilst Frank and Elizabeth were residing in Hove, the mortgage on Bramingham Shott was transferred from H.C. Tatham and others, (who had acquired in in 1891) to Sir H. Reader Lack. He, in turn, transferred it to W.A. Atkinson and W.N. Darnell in July 1897, three months before Mr Forder signed his lease on 8^th October 1897. Incidentally, it was Mr Forder that changed the name of Bramingham Shott to Wardown, as this was the name of his former home in Buriton, Hampshire.

A little over two years later, in December 1899, Frank and Elizabeth were staying at Fairview, the house in Ulverston that Elizabeth’s eldest son had inherited from his uncle. Unfortunately, only nine days before Christmas, on 16^th December, and having suffered with interstitial hepatitis, she died of exhaustion with her husband in attendance. She was sixty three years old and is buried in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church, Ulverston, with many other members of the Kennedy family. I owe considerable gratitude to Mr Fairweather of the Ulverston Heritage Centre, who with a colleague, Mr Peter Lowe, cut their way through brambles and undergrowth in the now unused church to locate and photograph Elizabeth’s memorial stone, which is found in the south east corner of the churchyard. The inscription on the monument is documented in the book “Monumental Inscriptions at Ulverston 1973” by R and F Dickinson, and it reads as follows;

Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Scargill,                                                              the beloved wife of Frank Scargill Esq.,                                                                 widow of Charles B Kennedy Esq., of Kirklands, Ulverston.                                   Who departed this life 16^th December 1899

The death of his mother obviously had a considerable effect on Charles, who was by then just turned forty years of age. I suspect that it may have been on the day of his mother’s funeral, when all the family were gathered at Ulverston, that he took the necessary steps to make out his own will. As can be seen from the copy I enclose, it was written, signed, and witnessed on 20^th December, just four days after his mother’s death. Both witnesses were solicitors of Ulverston. In fact, he may have had good reason, even then, to suspect that his own life would not last much longer, for it was only fifteen months later that he too died. Three days before his death, he added a codicil to his will, but he was too weak to sign it, and could only make a cross. Apart from a few gifts to other people, he bequeathed unto his brother his entire estate. Apparently his brother Myles was affectionately called Bertie, no doubt due to his second name being Burton. Charles also requested that he be buried in the grounds of the Holy Trinity, Ulverston, where his father and grandfather had been interred, and wanted a tombstone similar to theirs. The codicil was dated 6^th May 1901, and he died three days later, on the 9^th.

Once again, the value of the estate, as recorded at Somerset House, indicates the wealth of Frank Scargill’s stepsons. Probate was granted at Lancaster in June 1901, and Charles’s estate can be seen to be worth £155,056-1-0d. According to conversion tables issued by the Bank of England, the above sum in 1993 values would be equal to £5,516,892.40. This also shows that Charles had a property in the heart of London’s West End, namely 118 Piccadilly, which, incidentally, his brother then inherited.

To return, for a moment, to Bramingham Shott. It was four months after the death of Elizabeth, that Frank Scargill entered into an agreement with Mr Hally Stewart to lease Bramingham from him. The document was signed on 10^th April 1900. Later that year, and only five months before his stepson’s death, there was another indenture drawn up between himself and his two stepsons, Charles and Myles. It was dated 3^rd December 1900, but I have not yet seen the original document, and cannot therefore report the reason for the agreement.

Frank Scargill continued to live at 14 Brunswick Place and I have evidence that he was still a resident on 16^th May 1901. This is almost one and a half years after his wife Elizabeth had died. This fact can be confirmed by an agreement he made with Charles Long, in order that Mr Long could lease an osier bed at Wardown.

In January of 1902, Frank made one further agreement with his remaining stepson, Myles Kennedy, and again I am not in a position to reveal the precise details of this indenture. However, I can reveal that later that month, on 27^th January, he had effectively sold Wardown House and its entire estate. He sold it to three Luton businessmen, James Swain Ellis, a coal merchant, Richard Burley, hat manufacturer, and Alfred Rance, a builder. The deal was not completed, nor was the property conveyed, until later that year, namely 22^nd December, by which time Alfred Rance had decided that he did not wish to proceed, and had entered into an agreement with the jeweller Frank Charles White on 25^th November to assign all his interest in the purchase to Mr White. It was from this particular November transaction that we are able to see that Frank Scargill was already residing in Clongee House, about two miles south of Foxford, Co. Mayo, Ireland. In his absence, he had appointed the solicitor, Edwin Singleton of 2 Stuart Street, Luton, as his agent, and it was his agent that received from the three businessmen the sum of £15,500 to close the deal on 22^nd December 1902. Thus ended Frank Scargill’s connection with Wardown House and its estate. The sum of £15,500 converted to 1993 value, as listed by the R.P.I. amounts to £542,810.

The three businessmen almost immediately put the property back on the market at an asking price of £17,000, hoping to make £500 each (1993 value £17,375). An offer was made for the house and eleven acres of the grounds from a religious order that had recently been excluded from France. It seemed that it might be accepted but instead, two Luton councillors, Asher John Hucklesby and Edwin Oakley, stepped in as private individuals and negotiated a price for the house and the whole estate of £16,250. Although this reduced the expected profit of the three speculators to only £8,687.50 each (in 1993 values), nevertheless it was accepted and the deal was completed on 29^th September 1903. On 7^th June 1904, it was sold to the Luton Corporation for the same price as was paid a year earlier, by the two councillors.As a point of interest, the rates, or land tax, in the June of 1903 was £10-4-8d for the whole estate.

Whilst all this buying and selling was going on here in Luton, Frank Chapman Scargill was living the life of a retired gentleman in Ireland. He loved salmon fishing, and Clongee House was ideally situated, virtually on the banks of the River Moy, and located in the parish of Templemore/Straide. He soon became an eminent and well respected member of the local community, and within less than eighteen months of moving into the area, he was engaged to be married. He had earlier made the acquaintance of Constance Mary Landey, who was the eldest daughter of Theophilus Patrick Landey, MA, Dean of Killala, Co. Mayo. Constance had been born on 15^th December 1878 and was twenty three years old, when on 5^th August 1903, she and Frank Scargill were married in the Church of Ireland, Foxford. The two witnesses to the wedding were Charles Herbert and Harrietta Emily Landey. Also at the wedding was her five year old sister, Dorothy Eileen Landey. By the time that this wedding took place, Frank was a few months short of his sixty seventh birthday, even though the marriage certificate states incorrectly that he was sixty four. This fact must have made him very much aware of his own mortality for on the very same day that he married Constance, he actually made out his will, leaving everything that he possessed to her and to her alone.

Both witnesses to his will were associated with the church and present at the wedding ceremony. There was the Revd. Punchard, D.D. (Oxon), Vicar of St Mary’s and Honorary Canon of Ely, Cambridgeshire, and Richard Wolfeland, clerk and incumbent of Knocknarea in the Dios’ Elphin. The fact that Frank made it clear that he was intending to leave everything to Constance even to the exclusion of his children, Lilian, Lionel and Theodore, initially gave the impression that perhaps a rift had developed between them. However this idea was soon dispelled when it was discovered later that his son Lionel took his family to Ireland and actually chose to live in the same town as his father.

His second marriage appears, from the information supplied by his son Jasper, to have been as important in the area around Foxford as his first marriage in Luton was reported to have been. Jasper recalls his mother, Constance, telling him that as she and Frank left for their honeymoon on the train, fog signals were placed upon the line so as to explode and celebrate the event.

The following year, 1904, whilst still at Clongee, Constance gave birth to her first child, a girl that they named Warrenne. Exactly when the family moved in not known, but by 1906 they were living in Barrowmount House, Co. Kilkenny. Barrowmount is just south of the village of Goresbridge, and the house was located on the edge of the River barrow, noted for its salmon fishing. I have discovered that in the journal published by The Kilkenny Archaeological Society, called Old Kilkenny Review 1964 no.16, there is an article by Bettina Grattan-Bellew describing the village of Goresbridge and Barrowmount House. I have enclosed a copy of this item along with the other evidence that I have submitted with this report. 1906 was also the year that their second child was born. On that occasion it was a boy that they named Frank. Did the naming of that child indicate that his second son, born in Luton, was no longer alive? You will recall that his full name was Theodore Frank Chapman Scargill, but that according to his mother’s will, he was always referred to as Frank. Is it likely that he would have had two sons known as Frank, or is it more likely that the eldest one had died?

Constance and Frank, along with their two children, made one further move. Yet again, it was to a house that was situated very close to a river. Their destination was to Beaufort House, Beaufort, near Killarney in Co. Kerry. The house was very close to the River Laune, which provided, not surprisingly, one and one half miles of good salmon fishing. It was in that house that Frank was to settle for the rest of his life. It was also there, in 1907, that their second daughter was born who they named Marjorie.

Details and a brief history of Beaufort House appear in the book “Historical, Genealogical and Architectural Notes on Some Houses of Kerry”, by Valerie Bary, published by Ballinakella Press, Whitegate, Co. Clare, Ireland 1994. It describes the avenue gates as opening at the village end of Beaufort Bridge, where it crosses the Laune River from the Killorglin-Killarney Road. It goes on to state that it is a plain, solidly built, Regency house of two storeys, and erected over a partial basement that is said to have been the foundations of Short Castle.

The front of the main block consists of two large bays of three windows each, covering both storeys and projecting forward of the front door. Limestone steps lead to a portico with four columns upholding the flat corniced roof. The windows are sashed with Georgian panes; either side of the front door are two rectangular lights. The roof is deep and slated, with wide eaves. A long wing continuing in line with the main block contains the old kitchen with flagged floors and appears to be the oldest part of the house. There are two solid chimney stacks placed centrally on this part of the house; the chimneys on the main block are slender and set variously. The rooms are large and high and there is a large entrance hall with stair hall beyond. A carriage yard forming a square with the house lies to the rear. The gardens, which slope down to the River Laune, have always attracted attention and admiration. Originally there was a lodge at the main gate, no sign of which now remains. Ownership of the house changed several times throughout its history but it would seem that twenty years prior to Frank Scargill’s arrival, a Colonel Spaight lived in the house, followed later by Colonel Simpson.

In 1908, Theo (Theophilus) was born, and named after his maternal grandfather. In 1910, Christopher was born, in 1911, Walter and in 1912, Rosalind.

The year 1914 saw the outbreak of the First World War, and on 12^th June of that year, Frank’s second stepson, Myles Burton Kennedy, died. His home, being 118 Piccadilly, was previously owned by his elder brother. Myles was only about fifty three years old at the time of his death but according to his will he had been a very keen yachtsman in his day and had accumulated numerous cups, both gold and silver. In addition to the many friends and relatives that Myles bequeathed money and property to, he did not forget his half-brother, Dr Lionel Walter Kennedy Scargill, or his half-sister Lilian Frances (Mrs Strongitharm), the children of Frank Chapman Scargill. He left £5000 to each. It is notable once again that the other half-brother, Theobald Frank Chapman Scargill was not mentioned.

Today, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a collection of decorative art known as the Battersea Enamels, bequeathed by Myles, and it is thanks to him that we, the public, are able to see and appreciate these artefacts.

Another recipient named in the will, section three, page two, was his cousin Lulu Padley. It is this Lulu Padley that Jasper Scargill has since told me became his godmother.

Myles, the boy who was just seven years old when he came to Wardown to live, grew up to become a very rich man. The Somerset House records confirm that his estate in September 1914 was valued at £285,563-0-1d. Converted into 1993 values, this sum of money represents £8,946,688.70.

The following year, 1915, was also a year of bad news. Frank received information that his brother, the Revd. John James Scargill, had died at Streamlet House, Bromley in Kent. He had reached the age of eighty seven. There was no comparison between his estate and that of his step-nephew, Myles, but nevertheless, he did not forget his niece Lilian, or his nephew Lionel. In total, his estate amounted to £1375-12-8d only (1993 value £38,005).

However, 1915 was not all gloom for Frank Scargill for it was the year he would celebrate his seventy ninth birthday, and it was also the year that he and Constance had another son. On that occasion, they named the child Jasper Chapman Scargill. It was this son that, eighty one years later, I was able to trace to an address in Sandy Cove, Dublin, and begin what, for me, has been a very rewarding period of correspondence.

After Jasper, one more son was born at Beaufort House and it was the thirteenth and last child that Frank Chapman Scargill fathered. In total, he had produced four daughters and nine sons, although sadly, Alfred had died when only two months old. The last son was named John, but unfortunately, because of his father’s age, John did not have sufficient time to get to know him. He was only two years old when, on or about 27^th September 1919, Frank Chapman Scargill died. The reason why it is necessary to say on or about 27^th is because his death was never registered with the civil authority, The Registrar General, either in Ireland or in England. His death is confirmed on the papers of administration issued to Constance on 23^rd March 1920.

He had lived a long and fulfilled life on both sides of the Irish Sea, and had achieved a status in society that many would have envied. He is buried in the cemetery at Aghadoe, just east of Beaufort and on the road to Killarney.

You will recall that sixteen years earlier, on the day that he married Constance, he made out his will, leaving everything to her, and at the time of his death his estate was valued at £5985-6-6d (1993 value £83,794.55).

Unfortunately, the income that Frank had been receiving from the settlement that his first wife, Elizabeth, had made prior to their marriage fifty one years earlier, ceased to be paid upon his death. His second wife had become a thirty nine year old widow. She was faced with the daunting prospect of bringing up nine children without either a husband or the income that he had previously provided. According to Jasper, in one of his letters to me (5^th April 1996) he states, and I quote, “I know that my father’s income died with him, and my mother was left in very difficult circumstances with nine children to bring up”. He went on, in a later letter (16^th May 1996) to explain that the family continued to live at Beaufort House until 1929, by which time all his brothers and sisters, with the exception of himself and his younger brother, had been educated and had left. Their education was obviously of considerable importance to their mother, and she had employed governesses to educate the children up to the age of ten. They then went to various schools for their higher education. The only child that continued throughout the whole of her education to have a governess was the elder sister, Warrenne. It would seem that his sister Marjorie went to Clifton High School in Bristol, whilst his brothers went to various secondary schools in Ireland, including Mountjoy School, Dublin; Morgan’s School, Castle Knock, Co. Dublin; and Wilson’s Hospital, Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath. Jasper and John were boarded at the Galway Grammar School.

As stated earlier, it was 1929 that Constance and her remaining children moved away from Beaufort and purchased a three storey Victorian house in Kenilworth Square, Rathgar; an area of Dublin south of the River Liffey. Her father, the Revd. Theo Landey had retired from the ministry by that time, and was living with his wife, reasonably close by at Marlborough Road, Donnybrook. Constance was approximately fifty years of age when she moved into the new home, and she remained at Kenilworth Square for fourteen years. In 1943, both her parents were dead, her youngest son was an adult of twenty six years of age, and she had developed heart trouble. This time, she moved to a bungalow in Glenageary, not far from the Dún Laoghaire Harbour, and only ten minutes’ walk from where Jasper, her son, is now living. Constance remained there until the end of her life in 1963 and had lived a further forty four years since the death of her husband. She was eighty four and was buried in the Deansgrange Cemetery, Blackrock, Dublin.

Jasper Scargill has told me that of his brothers and sisters, he can only confirm that his sister Warrenne is still alive (1996). His brother John was last known to be in England, but unfortunately they have since lost touch.

The fact that Frank Chapman Scargill produced thirteen children indicates to me that he must have numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren alive today. I have to ask myself how many of them know about him or about the splendid house which, for almost a century, has benefited the people of Luton so much?  It pleases me to know that at least his son Jasper and the children of Jasper are now aware of the contribution that their grandfather and father has made.

I submit this report based upon the information that is currently available to me. Unfortunately it is not as comprehensive as I would like, but only time and further in-depth research will alter that. I am very aware that with genealogical research, there will always be more to discover. Therefore, I hope that the contents of these pages will be of use to the museum, and will assist other researchers to make further progress.

All evidence to substantiate facts that I have revealed within this report, and all letters received by me during my investigations have been submitted with this document. They are stored in the museum files and are, and will continue to be, available for future study.

Bernard F. Dillon

June 1996

Frank Chapman Scargill

Chronological Order of Events