Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/564

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. DEC. 12, im.


Johnsonian enthusiast with another shrine to which he may make pleasant pilgrimage.

For the evidence on this point I am princi- pally indebted to my friend Mrs. Morris (formerly Anne Blanche Smythe), of The Leasowes, Church Stretton, who is herself interested in genealogy. Mrs. Morris is the youngest of the three daughters and coheirs of the late Col. Thomas Smythe (1808-79), of Hilton, near Bridgnorth (see Burke' s ' Landed Gentry,' under * Monckton of Hilton ' ), by Mary, daughter of Rear- Admiral Deans. Her grandfather, John Groome Smythe (1771-1835), D.L., of Hilton, who in 1805 married Anne Parke, sister of Lord Wensleydale, was son of Thomas Smythe, of Hilton, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Wannerton Groome, of Trysull, in 1770. Wannerton Groome, as I showed in mj book, was the sole executor of the will of Mrs. Harriotts at her death in 1728, and inherited her property at Trysull. Wannerton Groome, who married Mary Deacon (died 1778) in 1721, and died in 1748, being buried at Trysull, was son of Giles Groome by Sarah, daughter of Ralph Wannerton. This Ralph Wannerton had in 1653 married Elizabeth Barnesley, of Trysull, sister of William Barnesley, father of Mrs. Harriotts. Wannerton Groome' s mother, Sarah Wannerton, was thus first cousin to Mrs. Harriotts.

The Barnesleys are said to have lived at the Manor House, Trysull, for some genera- tions before the time of Johnson's great- uncle William Barnesley. At his death in 1685 the property must have gone to his son, William Barnesley the younger, who died in 1690, leaving his sister Elizabeth, wife of Robert Harriotts, heir to the estate. This worthy lady, as I have already stated, left her estates at Trysull and elsewhere to her " loving kinsman Wannerton Groome." When he died, in 1748, the Trysull estate went to his son John Groome, who married Anna Maria Stubbs, and died, without issue, in 1799, leaving it to his widow. She died in 1803, leaving the estate in trust, with the option to Henry Jesson of purchasing it at a valuation. Henry Jesson (1764-1841) was her husband's nephew, the only surviving son of the Rev. Cornelius Jesson* (1724-78)


This Rev. Corne ms Jesson was a son ot another Rev. Cornelius Jesson (1689-1756), Vicar of Worn- bourne and Trysull, who was second cousin to SVTV on ( as shown in th e tabular Pedigree T /V 1 ^" 17 book )< bei "g a grandson of George

Jesson (1620-78), of West Bromwich, who in 1643 married the Doctor's great-aunt Mary Ford (1620-63). These Jessons were Balliol men.


Vicar of Enmpre and Pawlett, Somerset, who had married Mary, elder daughter of Wannerton Groome, in 1758. Henry Jesson, who started life as a lawyer in Wolverhamp- ton, but became a surgeon, took advantage of the clause in Mrs. Groome' s will, as is evidenced by the following memorandum made by him :

"Particulars of my [Henry Jesson' s] purchase of the Trysull Estate. Mrs. Groome died 1803, leaving the estate in trust, to have it valued and offered to me. I paid the purchase money for it, 8,470. 3s., on July 17th, 1805, Mr. Groome inherited it from his father, who had it from Mrs. Harriotts, a distant relation, dau. of Mr. Barnesley."

Henry Jesson took up his residence at the Manor House at Michaelmas, 1811.* By his wife, Sarah Wilkes, whom he married in 1798, he had two sons, the Rev. Cornelius Jesson (1800-69), Rector of Enville, and Henry Jesson (1802-53), who both died un- married. The younger son seems to have inherited the property, for it was Henry Jesson who lived at the Manor House, added to it a drawing - room and a laundry, and finally willed it to his second cousin, Col. Thomas Smythe, father of Mrs. Morris. But perhaps the Rev. Cornelius Jesson had a life interest in the estate, for Mrs. Morris tells me that her father only came into possession of it in 1869. After letting it twice for short periods, Col. Smythe went to live at the Manor House with his family in 1873. On his death in 1879 it became the property of his three daughters, who in 1894 sold it to Mr. B. Howard Mander, who now occupies it. Mrs. Morris thinks that John Groome parted with a good proportion of the estate, which was further reduced by his nephew Henry Jesson.

ALEYN LYEUD READE.

Park (Jorner, Blundellsands, near Liverpool. (To be continued.)


ALDERMEN OF BISHOPSGATE. MB. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL'S remark (ante, p. 354) that " the only Aldermen's names one finds connected with the Bishopsgate Ward " are the seven whom he proceeds to mention is somewhat cryptic. The names of all the Aldermen of Bishopsgate from the Revolution (thirteen in all) can be found in the annual pocket-book issued by the Corporation ; and over 120 persons who have been elected to that Aldermanry are


  • From the ' Rugby School Register,' vol. i. p. 110

I learn that among the pupils entered at Midsummer, 1811, were Cornelius Jesson, son of Henry Jesson, Esq., Trysull, Wolverhampton, aged 10 in Oct., and Henry Jesson, son of the same, aged 9 in Jan.