The Dunnington-Jefferson Family of Thicket Priory and Thorganby Page
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Hull History Centre: The Dunnington-Jefferson Family of Thicket Priory and Thorganby U DDJ Papers of the Dunnington-Jefferson 1568 - 1879 Family of Thicket Priory and Thorganby Historical Background: The Dunnington family were landowners in the East Riding from at least the seventeenth century - in 1685 Thomas Dunnington (d.1710) bought low-lying land at Thorganby and West Cottingwith, about eight miles south east of York close to the banks of the River Derwent. Much of this land had been in the Saltmarshe family for generations, before changing ownership several times. Through the early eighteenth century the Dunnington family expanded their holdings, eventually becoming the major landholders in Thorganby and West Cottingwith until the twentieth century. Thomas Dunnington's son, also Thomas Dunnington (alive in the 1730s), bought land also at Bubwith (Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, p.43; Allison, History of Yorkshire East Riding, iii, pp.112, 114; Saltmarshe, 'Notes on Thorganby', pp.31-4; DDJ/3/5). Thomas Dunnington had at least three children - John Dunnington, who married Dorothy Tomlinson in 1759; William Dunnington; and Ellen or Eleanor Dunnington, who married Emanuel Jefferson from a landowning family of Hook and Howden. In 1760 Emanuel Jefferson bought the manor of West Cottingwith, so extending his landholding in the area of his wife's family. After Emanuel Jefferson's death in 1770, his son, Robert Jefferson, expanded the West Cottingwith estate slightly and involved himself more than his father had in the district, establishing charities to educate the children of his tenants and distributing coal amongst the poor in the winter. His cousin, Thomas Dunnington, was the schoolmaster and curate and by the late eighteenth century Thomas's older brother, John Dunnington junior (b.1759), had rebuilt the schoolhouse and more than half the children of the district were educated without expense to their parents. When Robert Jefferson died in 1811 the manor of West Cottingwith along with Jefferson family land in Hook and Howden passed to John Dunnington junior who added the surname Jefferson to Dunnington from that time (Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, p.43; Allison, History of Yorkshire East Riding, iii, pp.115, 120). John Dunnington junior thus became a considerable landowner; tithes he held in 1801 were worth over £100 per annum and after his inheritance, he bought more land and in 1822 built Thorganby Hall. He also benefitted from several allotments at enclosure. He died in 1840. His land and assets were inherited by his nephew, Joseph Dunnington (b.1807) son of Joseph Dunnington (1769-1835) and his wife Mary Toutill. Joseph Dunnington junior also adopted the double surname of Dunnington-Jefferson, from 1841 (Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, p.43; Allison, History of Yorkshire East Riding, iii, pp.115, 120). Joseph Dunnington-Jefferson went to St John's in Cambridge in 1825 and became vicar of Thorganby in 1832. He was a wealthy man. The living he succeeded to was worth about £50 per annum but in two increases in the 1860s this went up by 200%. He became prebend of York in 1852 and employed an assistant curate for Thorganby where the Church of England communion was unusually active. Soon after his uncle's death the Reverend Dunnington- Jefferson moved from the vicarage, which was sold as a private house, and he built, between 1844-7, Thicket Priory, a large pseudo-Elizabethan red brick mansion. In 1862 he built another pseudo-Elizabethan house, at Sober Hill, Newbald, after buying 710 acres of land there in 1759. By 1873, from Thicket Priory and its 150 acre park, he controlled 7278 acres with a combined rental of nearly £11,000 and in addition he held over 500 acres in the West Riding which drew in over £1000. In 1839 he had married Anna Mervynia Vavasour, daughter of the 2nd baronet. During his life he published a volume of his sermons. He died in 1880 page 1 of 137 Hull History Centre: The Dunnington-Jefferson Family of Thicket Priory and Thorganby (Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, p.43; Allison, History of Yorkshire East Riding, iii, pp.115-120, iv, p.135; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, pp.86, 722). Joseph and Anna Mervynia Dunnington-Jefferson had three sons. The eldest, Joseph John Dunnington-Jefferson (1845-1928), was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a barrister and justice of the peace and major of the Yorkshire Hussars. His younger brother was Captain Mervyn Dunnington Jefferson of Middlethorpe Hall. His youngest brother was Thomas Trafford Dunnington-Jefferson (b.1852), who was also a barrister of the Inner Temple, but he died prematurely in 1881. Joseph John Dunnington- Jefferson died without issue and he was succeeded to his estates by his nephew, John Alexander Dunnington Jefferson (b.1884), son of Mervyn Dunnington Jefferson. John Alexander Dunnington-Jefferson was educated at Eton and Sandhurst before joining the Royal Fusiliers in 1904. He served in the army during the First World War and then retired in 1919 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1921 he became a Justice of the Peace for the East Riding and in 1936 served as Deputy Lieutenant. In 1938 he married Isobel Cape and they had one son, Mervyn Stewart Dunnington Jefferson, who was born in 1943. John Alexander Dunnington-Jefferson was knighted in 1944 and was created baronet in 1958. In 1955 he sold Thicket Priory to Carmelite nuns, so returning the land to its original use as the site of a women's religious order. He moved to Thorganby Hall but then sold all land holdings in Thorganby and West Cottingwith in 1964 (Allison, History of Yorkshire East Riding, iii, pp.114-15; Alumni Cantabrigienses, ii, p.557; Who was who, vii, p.234). Custodial history: Deposited by Lt. Col. Sir John Dunnington-Jefferson, Thorganby Hall, in 1974 Description: This is a collection entirely composed of estate papers, especially for Hook, Howden, Thorganby and West Cottingwith, all in the East Riding, though there is also a small amount of related estate correspondence 1855-1869. Estate papers are as follows: Asselby (1613, 1718-1723); Aughton (1626-1659); Barlby (1728, 1866-1867); Bubwith (1587-1841) including the marriage settlements of Richard Aske and Susanna Blanshard (1661), Charles Bosvile and Anne Southaby (1697) and Thomas Swan and Margaret Horsley (1714), the will of Thomas Swan (1753) and the enclosure act of 1832; Cliffe (1701-1763); Eastrington (1765-1844) including an original bundle of plans and agreements made for and with the Hull and Selby Railway Company and the 1844 prospectus for Eastrington School; Ellerton (1846-1850) including papers about the rebuilding of the church; Elvington (1597); Gilberdyke (1707, 1867-1880) including two 19th century school appointments; Goole (1748-1770); Hambleton (1700-1819); Harlthorpe (1699-1876) including the wills of Thomas Eland (1816), George Eland (1845) and Peter Wilson (1763); Hillam and Monk Fryston (1679-1759); Hook (1568-1839) including the 1771 account for the repair of Hook Mill, a pedigree of the Lightfoot family 1759-1813 and a copy of the will of John Leach (1824); Howden (1582-1866) including the 1582 letters patent granting tithes and prebends, the marriage settlement of John Lewton and Sarah Marsh (1710), 17th century leases of the bishop's manor house and a 19th century copy of a 1561 survey of the bishop's manor house; North Duffield (1744-1841) including the marriage settlements of William Middleton and Frances Errington (1759), William Fermor and Frances Middleton (1760) and William Middleton and Clara Louise Grace (1782) and the will of Charles Allanson (1766); Kellington (1597-1647); Leeds (1754); Lumby (1747) including the marriage settlement of George Spinke and Dorothy Waude (1747); Naburn (1766) being the enclosure act; North page 2 of 137 Hull History Centre: The Dunnington-Jefferson Family of Thicket Priory and Thorganby Newbald (1713-1859) including some papers of the Clough family, copies of the wills of Robert Hornsey (1819), Richard Mountain (1787), Frances Hopper (1822), William Ombler (1830) and Thomas Bainton (1839) and the 1858 sale plans and particulars of the Newbald Hall estate; Reedness (1673); Selby (1707-1710); Skipwith (1626-1743) including the will of John Herbert (1722); Swinefleet (1634); Thorpe Willoughby (1673-1828) including the marriage settlement of John Fawcett and Sarah Hodgson (1676), the will of William Nutt (1691) and pedigrees of the Barber family of Sherburn 1737-1804 and Thompson family 1769-1821; Whitgift (1693); York (1738-1854) including 16 election squibs 1780-1790, a mortgage for a house in the Shambles, a paper about the government of Sunday Schools and the 91st annual report of York County Hospital of 1832. Papers for Thorganby and West Cottingwith (1612-1867) are extensive and include the marriage settlements of William Grave and Isabella Machell (1612), Thomas Grave and Elizabeth Hesselwood (1625), William Swailes and Dorothy Raynes (1655), Thomas Hasselwood and Mary Cooper (1686), Edward Swailes and Mary Overend (1691), John Yeoman and Anne Walker (1704), George Blanshard and Margaret Wilkinson (1706), Alice Hardy and William Noble (1716), William Swailes and Jane Williamson (1717), and Sarah Robinson and Henry Waite (1752), the wills of William Graves (1688), Thames Cooper (1694), John Cooper (1695), Robert Hardy (1700), Hugh Blyth (1717), William Noble (1722), Ann Hardy (1723), Joshua Cooper (1732), Sarah Tyler (1734), William Cooper (1743), Thomas Cooper (1748), Bernard Ackroyd