Abbey History 1780 - 1825 The Vansittarts and Indian Money

In the Shadow of the Abbey

Daring merchant adventurers seize the day. East India Company fortunes save Berkshire as the Nabobs arrive. Georgian lavish lifestyle contrasts with fighting in France threatening the succession
The time of the Hoby family at Bisham Abbey ended in 1780 with the death of Sir John Hoby Mill the 5th Hoby baronet of Bisham. The succession had faltered and finally failed. Sir John’s widow, Lady Elizabeth Hoby Mill sold the estate to George Vansittart. The VanSittarts were originally of Dutch extraction, Peter, had migrated from Danzig to London in 1670 to found the English branch of the family. He was a remarkable linguist, a merchant adventurer and was said to be a man of ‘daring and enterprise in the East Indies, the South Seas, Russia and the Baltic’ . Arthur Vansittart was a successful merchant and director of the Russia Company until he retired in 1722 and married Martha Stonhouse, daughter of the comptroller to the household of Queen Ann and together they had 9 children. It was Arthur’s sixth and youngest son, who acquired the Bisham estate.
George married his cousin Sara Stonhouse in Bengal in October 1767 and by 1772 he was Chief of Revenue in Patna and a member of the Board of Trade. His brother Henry had returned again to England in 1765, bought the Foxley estate at Bray and Reading Abbey and had been elected MP for Reading. However his lavish lifestyle drained all his money within two years so he was keen to return to India.
George gave Bisham a lavish makeover including chimneys, ceilings and armorials in the great hall. Including the purchase of a beautiful John Lee wall clock to hang over the fireplace in the Great Hall. It seems to have been a happy settled life at Bisham. George and Sara had eight children; their 5 sons all had distinguished careers. He declared himself happy as a country gentleman but in 1784 he successfully contested the Berkshire seat in parliament.
George Henry Vansittart (1768 -1824) his eldest son married late in life and on 29th October 1818, age 50, he married Ann Mary Copson age 22, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Copson of Sheppey Hall. Three years later, in July 1821, in peacetime, he gained the top rank of General (RBWM exhib) in the Berkshire Militia. George Henry was expected to inherit the Bisham estate, however he died in 1824, a year before his father, leaving Ann aged only 26 with their infant son George Henry Vansittart the Younger (1823–1885), and pregnant with their second son.
Was the curse of Abbott Cordery now playing out for the Vansittarts? The Bisham Estate passed to the infant George Henry Vansittart (the younger) (1823–1885) on the death of his grandfather 1825.
Episode researched, written and narrated by Sheila Featherstone-Clark
Sounds effects from Freesound.org.
Image is The East India Company’s Coat of Arms