Wychnor Hall - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Wychnor Hall is an early 18th century country house near Burton on Trent, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

. Formerly owned by the Levett

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

family, descendants of Theophilus Levett

Theophilus Levett

Theophilus Levett was an attorney and early town clerk of Lichfield, Staffordshire, a prominent early Staffordshire politician and landowner, and a member of a thriving Lichfield social and intellectual circle which included his friends Samuel Johnson, the physician Erasmus Darwin, the writer Anna...

, Steward of the city of Lichfield

Lichfield

Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...

in the early eighteenth century, the hall has been converted to a Country Club

Country club

A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...

. It is a Grade II listed building. Wychnor takes its name from the Old English meaning 'village on a bank.'

King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

reportedly stayed at the hall in 1621 and 1624. The present hall dates from the time of Queen Anne

Anne of Great Britain

Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...

but was much altered and extended in the mid 19th century.

The house was for many years the home of the Levett family (relations of Levett of Milford Hall

Milford Hall

Milford Hall is a privately owned 18th-century country mansion house at Milford, near Stafford. It is the home of the Levett Haszard family and is a Grade II listed building....

). Theophilus Levett

Theophilus Levett

was Steward (Town Clerk) of the City of Lichfield 1721–46, and his grandson and namesake was Recorder of Lichfield and in 1809 High Sheriff of Staffordshire

High Sheriff of Staffordshire

This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Staffordshire.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred...

. Theophilus Levett, High Sheriff of Staffordshire, died in 1839. His friend General William Dyott, Aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

to King George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

, attended Levett's simple funeral at Wychnor and noted that Levett "has left great riches to his younger children with the exception of his son Arthur, to whom he has bequeathed £4,000." The family's wealth largely derived from ownership of coal mines in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, as well as large landholdings and investments in the early Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

enterprises associated with inventor Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton, FRS was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the...

. The Levetts had homes in Lichfield as well, and several streets in the city are named for them today. (Theophilus Levett was named for Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon PC was an English politician. He was the son of Ferdinando Hastings, 6th Earl of Huntingdon, born in the 27th year of his parents' marriage, and became Earl of Huntingdon on 13 February 1656 on his father's death...

, whose wife the Countess of Huntingdon was Levett's godmother.) The Levetts also held land at Edial and Curborough (inherited from their Babington ancestors) and elsewhere in Staffordshire.
Theophilus Levett's son John Levett

John Levett

John Levett of Wychnor Park, Staffordshire, was an English landowner and investor, and a Tory politician.-Biography:John Levett was the son of Theophilus Levett , Lichfield attorney and town clerk, and his wife Mary Babington, daughter of Zachary Babington. The Levett family had common roots in...

, landowner, investor and sometime member of the Lunar Society

Lunar Society

The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...

, was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Lichfield

Lichfield (UK Parliament constituency)

Lichfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

. John Levett was also a friend of long standing to Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton

, the early inventor, as well as an early investor in Boulton's Soho Manufactory

Soho Manufactory

The Soho Manufactory was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Smethwick, England, during the Industrial Revolution.-Beginnings:...

. Another John Levett was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1846. Theophilus John Levett

Theophilus John Levett

Colonel Theophilus John Levett was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, who served as Member of Parliament for Lichfield from 1880 to 1885....

, grandson of the first Theophilus, was M.P. for Lichfield from 1880 to 1885. The family came from Sussex, arriving in Staffordshire from Cheshire in the early eighteenth century.

The family had a long association with Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

, whom the first Theophilus Levett counted among his friends, and to whom he loaned money, including assuming the mortgage on Johnson's mother's Lichfield home on 31 January 1739, for £80. Johnson frequently wrote to Levett, and later to Levett's son John, pleading for extensions for his late payments. Levett later carried the mortgage as well as other loans to Johnson, who eventually paid them off in 1757.

Theophilus Levett had a long friendship with David Garrick

David Garrick

David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...

, an English actor, playwright and friend of Samuel Johnson's, who was also raised in Lichfield.

Many members of the Levett family of Wychnor Hall and Packington Hall

Packington Hall (Staffordshire)

Packington Hall in Staffordshire, England was a country mansion designed by architect James Wyatt in the 18th century that was the home of the Levett family for many generations...

were Oxford graduates. Members of the Levett family of Wychnor have intermarried into other county families over the centuries, carrying the name into other family lines. The Levett-Prinseps, for instance, descendants of the Wychnor Levetts, formerly owned Croxall Hall

Croxall Hall

Croxall Hall is a restored and extended 16th century manor house situated at Croxall, Staffordshire . It is a Grade II* listed building....

in Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

. The Latin motto on the coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

of the Levett-Prinsep family was Non Prodigus Neque Avarus: Neither prodigal nor mean. They descend from the Prinsep

Prinsep

Prinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family.The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire...

family, of whom the first notable representative was M.P John Prinsep

John Prinsep

John Prinsep was born the son of a vicar in rural Oxfordshire, England, with limited horizons for advancement. He joined the East India Company as a cadet, travelling to Bombay, and was soon engaged in mercantile pursuits, eventually becoming the earliest British merchant to plant indigo, and...

, who early made a fortune in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

in indigo

Indigo

Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...

production and other businesses.

The Levetts of Wychnor and later Packington Hall were descendants of the Aston family, High Sheriffs of Staffordshire, who built Tixall Hall

Tixall Gatehouse

Tixall Gatehouse is a 16th-century gatehouse situated at Tixall, near Stafford, Staffordshire and is all that remains of Tixall Hall. It is a Grade I listed building....

at Tixall

Tixall

Tixall is a small village and former civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

, near Stafford

Stafford

Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...

. Theophilus Levett of Lichfield, whose descendants lived at Wychnor, had a portrait in his Lichfield home of his ancestor Sir Edward Aston, High Sheriff of Staffordshire. The Wychnor Levetts are descended from the Tixall Astons through the Elton family of The Hazle, Ledbury

Ledbury

Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...

, Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

. Tixall Hall ultimately passed to the Clifford family.

There are a number of curious customs associated with Wychnor, at least one of which was said to have begun with Sir Philip de Somerville, who owned the manor of Wychnor in 1338. A flitch of bacon was kept in the hall (later replaced by a wooden effigy of same). That flitch of bacon could be claimed by anyone who had been married for one year and did not repent of their choice.

External links

Images of England: Wychnor Hall
Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2 (1863) p. 869.
Levett Family Papers. Staffordshire Archive Service, Lichfield Record Office
Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Alfred Williams, 1899 Wichnor Park
John Levett, Wychnor Park, The Scots Peerage, James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905

External links

Further reading