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The Halsey Family

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This section describes the lives of the Halsey family, focusing on the impact they had on Pirbright (as opposed to Normandy, Woking and Worplesdon).  If the reader is interested, he/she might like to delve into the admirable book:  Henley Park in Surrey: The History of a Royal Manor (2012) by John Squier.

 

We will start with Henry Halsey (“HH1”, c1745-1807).  We don’t know much about his origins, although he could have been born in Stepney in June 1745, the son of Edward Halsey, a husbandman (ie a tenant farmer), and Sarah.  But he soon decided to make a living out of Britain’s lucrative trade with India.

By 1772 HH1 was in Calcutta when his “natural daughter” (a euphemism for having a child with a female slave), Henrietta, was born.  More than 50% of baptisms in Bengal at this time were of “natural children”, so the practice was not unusual.  Henrietta was shipped to England and cared for there.  In 1803 she married the Rev James Beaver in Ash (see press cutting below).  The couple lived in Childrey, Berkshire and had 1 child, Catherine Sophia, in 1805.​

By 1781 HH1 appears to have been a substantial merchant, handling large amounts of money, living in a “Garden house” in a wealthy part of Calcutta.  We don’t know what particular products Henry dealt in.  It could have been textiles, tea and spices, or nastier stuff such as saltpetre (for manufacturing gunpowder) or opium.  In 1783 there is a record showing that a man called Halsey carried gold to England in one shipment.

 

Whatever he traded, it enabled him by 1784 (aged only 40 or so) to amass a large fortune and return to England.  He wasted no time in investing his wealth, buying properties in Farnham, Chichester, Yeovil, Bath, Woking and 5 houses and an Inn in London, as well as estates in Worplesdon, Ash and Pirbright. 

 

For us, HH1’s most significant purchase was of Henley Park (in Normandy) and its neighbouring estates in Ash, Worplesdon and Pirbright in 1784.  He bought all of these properties from Solomon Dayrolles. 

 

The Pirbright properties he purchased were (in addition to the Lordship of the Manor of Pirbright):

 

  • Manor Farm (including Hazelacre, which was still being farmed in strips)

  • Rails Farm

  • Cowshot Farm

 

In 1787 HH1 married Mary Glover (daughter of Richard Glover, a prominent London merchant and Member of Parliament).  Mary was a wealthy heiress, aged only 20 (ie 22 years younger than Henry).  Henry and Mary decided to live at Henley Park in Normandy (to the south-west of Pirbright).  They produced 5 daughters to start with, and then 2 sons (one of whom died within a year). 

 

Henry must have had plenty of spare cash left from his India days, as he soon started to buy more property locally.  In Pirbright these included:

 

  • 1798:  Fell Moor (40 acres)

  • 1798:  Jordans (17 acres)

  • 1793:  Hovers and Lushers (45 acres)

  • 1801:  Wickham Farm (23 acres)

  • 1801:  Burrow Hill Farm (45 acres)

  • 1801:  The Glebe lands (12 acres)

  • 1801:  Mount Byron (6 acres)

  • 1801:  The Duchies (11 acres)

  • 1801:  Castle House (6 acres)

  • 1803:  Whites Farm (40 acres)

  • 1805:  Terry’s House (8 acres)

 

By the time of his death in 1807, Henry owned nearly 1500 acres of Surrey land, of which 525 were in Pirbright.  In 1805 he had commissioned a comprehensive survey of Pirbright, accompanied by the superb map from William Newland, but alas, Henry did not live to see it.  The survey and map have been invaluable to the authors in producing this history of Pirbright as it gives a detailed snapshot of every field in Pirbright at the time, together with the name of the owner and the occupier.

 

Henry obviously liked being the Lord of the Manor of Pirbright.  So much so that he purchased the Lordships of 5 other Manors (1 in Woking, 1 in Farnham, 1 in Chichester and 2 in Somerset).  This was probably to enhance his status, rather than as an investment, as they brought in fairly meagre returns.

Henry was ambitious and not above a bit of sharp practice.  He encroached on lands belonging to the neighbouring Manor of Cleygate (ie Ash) and resisted Court Orders to reverse them.  He also flooded the old Guildford to Frimley road (track) by enlarging Henley Park Lake without permission.  He reluctantly agreed to build a new diversion, but this took 3 years to be done.  However, he was a strong supporter of Pirbright Church (St Michael’s).

 

HH1’s will was extraordinarily detailed and quite prescriptive as to what should happen to his assets.  To a 21st century reader it suggests the work of a single-minded, controlling type of person.  As an example of this, he directed that, if any of his 5 daughters should marry before the age of 26 without the consent of the trustees, she would lose all her right to her inheritance, and any other provision under the will would cease as if she “were actually dead”.  Strong stuff.  HH1’s wife Mary died at Brighton in 1819, aged only 52, and was buried in Pirbright churchyard in the family mausoleum.

 

Upon his death in 1807, eldest son Henry Halsey (Henry William Richard Westgarth Halsey 1801–1885 – “HH2”) inherited much of this wealth, including Pirbright Manor and Henley Park.  He was only 6 years old when his father died in 1807, and was cared for by his mother and the trustees named in Henry’s will.

 

While HH2 was under their guardianship, his trustees followed HH1’s wishes and purchased more property in Pirbright:

 

  • 1815:  West Hall Farm (73 acres)

  • 1820:  A house near Stanford Farm and 4 acres

  • 1821:  Henley Park Laundry and Smallbourne Cottage with 3 acres

 

And when HH2 reached the age of 21 in 1822, a grand party took place (see cutting below).  HH2 immediately married Mary Stirling (aged 24), the daughter of Andrew and Anna Stirling, the previous tenants of Henley Park.  We have discussed the Stirling family in more detail in the section dealing with Pirbright Lodge (to where they moved in 1822).  HH2 and Mary moved into Henley Park.

Mary Stirling produced 7 children, but died in 1834, aged only 36.  A year later HH2 remarried at Epsom (to Caroline Whitmore, aged 19).  Caroline was the daughter of a wealthy London banker (Edward Whitmore of Whitmore, Wells & Co) who lived in a grand house in Epsom (set in 14 acres).  The house survives today (see photo below with thanks to Brian Bouchard). 

Edward Whitmore was involved in the slave trade, we think by financing plantations.  On the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, his name appears in several claims, usually as a mortgagee.  Whitmore’s banking business was to fail in 1841 and Edward himself was declared bankrupt.  The grand house in Epsom had to be auctioned off.

 

Henry and Caroline Halsey had 4 children, the eldest of whom, Edward Joseph Halsey (1836-1905), was presumably named after Caroline’s father (before his bankruptcy).  Edward married Katherine Bircham in 1864. They moved from London to Pirbright c1872 and lived first at the Manor House, and then what is now Langley House by The Green. 

 

Edward supported Pirbright Church, was Chairman of the Guildford Board of Guardians, and became a County Magistrate.  Between 1893 and 1903 be served as Chairman of Surrey County Council.  He was very visible (and was well-regarded) in the village until 1885, when, following the death of his father, he and his family moved back to London.  A picture of Edward is shown right.

Halsey family - EJH photo.jpg

Edward died in 1905 and Katherine in 1920, both in Kensington.  They were buried in the family plot in Pirbright.  They had 3 sons as follows:

 

Francis Halsey (1866-1956) became a stockbroker and lived most of his life in London with his wife, Mabel (nee Keighley).  He later moved to a house called Meldrum in Worplesdon, probably to be near his younger brother Sir Laurence Halsey (see below).

 

Bernard Halsey (1869-1945)  (later Sir Bernard Halsey-Bircham) lived with his family at Admiral’s Walk in the early years of the 20th century and his story is told there.  He was later knighted for his services to King George V (Bernard was King George’s Private Secretary and his personal solicitor).

 

Laurence Halsey (1871-1945) (later Sir Laurence Halsey) was the Honorary Accountant of the Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund during WW1, and in 1919 was knighted for his “valuable services rendered in connection with the War”.  He later became High Sheriff of Surrey.  He lived at nearby Goose Rye Farm in Worplesdon, and purchased Worplesdon Place (now the Worplesdon Place Hotel), but never married.  On his death in 1945 he left £120,000 (worth over $4 million today).  A portrait of Sir Laurence is shown below (with thanks to Surrey County Hall).  A newspaper report of his funeral in September 1945 is also shown (the list of mourners and other tributes was twice as long as the report shown on the right– we have not reproduced it here.).

The reader will no doubt be thinking that Edward Halsey and his children were pretty public-spirited and achieved a lot during their lives.  As we will see a few paragraphs further on, were far more public-spirited than the children of HH2…

 

Now back to Henry Halsey (HH2).  Since moving into Henley Park in 1822, HH2 had been continuing his father’s wishes to add to his property portfolio, as follows:

 

  • 1826:  Rickford Malthouse (28 acres in Pirbright, Woking and Worplesdon)

  • 1828:  Part of Goldmoor Farm (10 acres)

  • 1833:  The remaining 12 acres of Goldmoor Farm

  • 1839:  Waldens Field (3 acres)

  • ??:  Rails Meadow (6 acres)

  • ??:  West Heath Cottage

  • ??: Little Cut (1 acre)

 

By 1841 the Halsey estates in Pirbright were a massive 793 acres in size (just over half of the cultivated land in Pirbright).  He also owned 555 acres in Normandy, 462 acres in Worplesdon, 160 acres in Woking and 53 acres in Bisley and Chobham.  The whole lot amounted to just over 2,000 acres in total.

 

It was around this time that the Halsey fortune was at its peak:  HH2 owned over 2,000 acres of Surrey land, and he lived with his family (which included 11 children) at Henley Park with a retinue of 12 servants.  What could go wrong?

 

The short answer is:  His eldest son, named simply Henry Halsey (“HH3”, 1825-1869).  The terms of HH1’s will dictated that his estates should be passed down the male line to the eldest son.  But HH3 seems to have been a pretty dissolute character.  Highlights (or rather, lowlights) of his life were:

 

  • Moving to London and then indulging in a Grand Tour of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France.

  • Living in expensive London hotels as well as addresses in Romsey and Dorking.

  • Being sued for insolvency when he was aged 25, and then in 1852 trying to sell his future inheritance (see press cutting right) in order to raise money.

  • In 1853, marrying a 16-year-old girl (Louisa Thomas) who was 8 months pregnant, and who died, aged 18.  They had 2 children, neither of whom survived a year.  For some reason, HH2 gave a false name on one of the death certificates.

  • Moving to New York within a few months of Louisa’s death.

  • In 1857, marrying a 15-year-old girl (Frances Deane).  Both parties to the marriage gave false details.  Henry called himself Harry Percy Howard Halsey and reduced his age by 6 years to 26.  Frances increased her age by 6 years and gave a false address.  They married again in a different church, with more accurate information about themselves.  Frances produced 2 children – a boy named Henry (“HH4”, who we talk about a little later) and a girl who died shortly after birth.  Frances’s body was found 2 years later, floating in the water off Brooklyn. 

Quite an impressive performance from HH3.  In particular, his attempt to sell off his future inheritance – the large estate compiled by HH1 and HH2 - in 1852 must have made his father’s blood boil.  But as HH3 died (in New York) in 1869, predeceasing his father (HH2), he never lived to inherit the Manor of Pirbright and the rest of the Halsey estate.  He is not mentioned on the family memorials in Pirbright Church. 

 

Trying to interpret all this, it looks as though HH3 led a hedonistic lifestyle.  His appearance in the Debtors’ Court suggests that he spent money freely (wine, women and gambling come to mind), but that his father had little tolerance for his lifestyle.  However someone must have funded his life in New York, and we assume that the money for this came out of the Halsey family coffers.

 

Back now to HH2 and his quieter life in Surrey.  He made further, smaller purchases of property after 1841:

 

  • ??:  Rapley’s Fields (8 acres)

  • ??:  Cove Cottage

  • ??:  Hodds Field (9 acres)

  • ??:  New Mead

  • ??:  Part of Till Moor (10 acres)

  • 1870:  4 strips in Pirbright common field (6 acres)

  • 1874:  Newmans (3 acres)

  • 1874:  Throat Moor Meadow (2 acres)

 

He also sold 2 or 3 of his properties in Worplesdon (including Rickford Malthouse).

 

HH2 continued his father’s principle of supporting Pirbright Church.  He donated land for a new churchyard and a new parsonage, and he also donated a new stone font.  But HH2 was going blind, and spent little time at Henley Park, preferring to live in one or other of his houses in London and Bath. 

One of his last land transactions was to sell 3,072 acres of Pirbright “waste” (ie unused heathland) to Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for War in 1877 for £48,000 (worth £4.6 million today).  He was entitled to do this as any waste land in Pirbright was owned by The Lord of The Manor of Pirbright (who at the time was HH2).  The background and rationale for this transaction is described in the section dealing with The Commons around Fox Corner.

 

By the time of HH2’s death in 1885, his various estates of cultivated land in Surrey were 1,770 acres in size, ie about 14% smaller than they had been in 1841. He had been Lord of the Manor of Pirbright for an astonishing 78 years, and had left behind a positive legacy:  Local people recalled about how he made sure the farms were well kept up, how he improved his properties and his generosity at Christmas.  He was referred to as “Th’ owd Squire” and was generally held in high esteem.  Caroline died the following year in 1886.  We have shown a photo of HH2 below, together with a newspaper report of his funeral.

On the death of HH2 in 1885, the Manor of Pirbright would normally have passed to his eldest son, HH3.  However as explained above, HH3 had died in New York in 1869.  So instead, the privilege went to HH3’s eldest son, HH4 (real name:  Henry Joseph Tenison Halsey 1858-1937).  His middle name of Tenison is a reference to William D Tenison, a friend whom HH3 subsequently asked to look after his children in New York after their mother’s death in 1859.

 

HH4 had returned to England in 1880, having reached the age of 21, and set about establishing his rights to his future inheritance.  Having done this, he took out a mortgage of £7,000 (£700,000 today – he must have had an extravagant lifestyle) and immediately returned to New York where he married Katherine Frances MacLean in 1881.  They had 1 child, Edwina, the following year, but 10 years later separated.  They never divorced, as Katherine was a Catholic.

 

HH4 returned again to England in 1886 after his father’s death.  He seems to have had a fairly definite agenda, as he proceeded to:

 

  • Dismantle some of the protective clauses HH1 had instigated (which were designed to keep the estate intact).

  • Raise additional mortgages on Henley Park, until by 1897 the sums borrowed amounted to £21,400 (£2.2 million today).

  • Boost his income by c£200 pa (today £20,000 pa) by felling trees on the estate and selling the timber.

  • Start selling his properties, first his Woking properties, and then his Pirbright properties.  The property sales were relatively light to start with – by 1910 he had only sold 100 acres (less than 10%) of his Surrey property. 

 

But it seems that HH4 continued to have an extravagant lifestyle.  Between 1886 and 1892 he chose to live in Edinburgh, followed by 2 years in Willesden Green.  In 1898 he put his goods in storage, presumably to move abroad.  Family members refer to him “living in Monte Carlo, being a playboy, having affairs and playing the casino”.  By 1911 he had returned to England, living in Leicester Square.  The mortgages went to fund this lifestyle.

 

In 1895, Henry de Worms MP and Privy Counsellor was elevated to the peerage and, having rented Henley Park since 1889, selected the title of Baron Pirbright (and was generally known as Lord Pirbright).   HH4 objected to this at the time, on the grounds that it would be confusing, but his objections were overruled.  HH4 disliked the new Lord Pirbright, but wasn’t too proud to take his money – he continued to rent Henley Park to him.  More is told about Lord Pirbright and his impact on Pirbright in the section dealing with Pirbright Cottages.  We have shown a photo of Henley Park from about this time below.

HH4 had met c1910 a lady named Agnes Ranger and he had 2 more children with her.  All 3 of his children were daughters.

 

By the time of WW1, HH4 accelerated the rate of property sales, presumably as he had reached the limit of his ability to borrow money through mortgages.  In 1919 he sold Pirbright Lodge and auctioned The Mill, Whites, West Hall, Wickham and Grove Farms.  In 1922 he decided to sell the whole of the remaining estate, including Henley Park.

 

The resulting auction was a major affair.  The estate then comprised 1,335 acres, divided into 21 lots.  The sale catalogue covered 39 pages.  The properties in Pirbright that were offered for sale were:

 

  • Rails Farm (80 acres)

  • 75 acres of woodlands

  • The former laundry (now Stream House) (4 acres)

  • Smallborne Cottage (0.5 acres)

  • The Duchies (2 cottages, 1 acre)

  • The Nursery (8.5 acres)

  • Fellmores (5 acres)

  • Stanford Farm (57 acres)

  • Stanford Cottage (0.5 acre)

  • Manor Farm (110 acres)

  • Parkland opposite Pirbright Lodge (7 acres)

  • Ground rents for Manor House and Cottage (4 acres)

 

We have shown a photo of the title page of the sale catalogue below.  Several images of individual pages are shown throughout the text on this site.

The only property owned by the Halseys which was not put up for sale was The Old School House.  Apparently the tenants (the Thompson family) had a legal agreement that they could not be evicted “while there was a Thompson descendant in the house”.  It was finally sold in 1960 – which marked the end of the Halsey family’s property ownership in Surrey, 176 years after HH1 made his first purchase.

 

Soon after the 1922 sale, HH4 retired to the south of France.  He died at Monte Carlo in 1937, aged 79.  He left his entire estate to his 2 younger daughters in equal shares, to be managed by a trustee.  His ashes were returned to Pirbright (see newspaper cutting below).  The mourners were few in number.  Only one of his daughters attended (with her family).  The Thompsons (tenants of The Old School House – see paragraph above) were there, along with the Birchams (the family solicitors discussed in the section on Admiral’s Walk), and the Lemprieres, who lived at Gorselands on the Aldershot Road (we don’t understand what their connection with HH4 had been).

If we had to sum up the Halsey period, it would be that HH1 and HH2 built the estate up, and then HH3 and HH4 spent it all - on themselves.  Perhaps a bit harsh, but basically true.  As a postscript to the Halsey dynasty, below is a photo of HH2’s grave in Pirbright Churchyard.

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