Sir Andrew Bayntun Rolt fathered 21 children in all – but failed to produce a legitimate male heir and the Baronetcy of one of Wiltshire's families became extinct

Married: LADY MARIA ALICIA COVENTRY The daughter of The Right Honorable George William, the 6th Earl of Coventry of Croome Court and his wife Maria Gunning, the daughter of John Gunning of Castle Coote, County Roscommon, Ireland. The marriage took place at her father's city residence, Coventry House, in Piccadilly, London, on the 28th June,1777. Children from first marriage: MARIA BARBARA BAYNTUN ROLT (Second daughter and heiress 1780 - 1870) MARY (First child – died in infancy 1778) Lady Maria Alicia Coventry (pictured right)

Sir Andrew's second wife was:
ANNA MARIA MAUDE
They were married in London on the 18th May 1787 at St. Botolph, Aldergate. The ceremony was conducted by Andrew's uncle, the Reverend John Bayntun, the Rector of Charlinch.

Andrew entered parliament as a Tory in 1780 and was High Sheriff of Wiltshire like his father in 1802/3.

Andrew and Maria Bayntun's first-born daughter, Mary, died a few days after her birth, but in 1780 they had another daughter, Maria Barbara, and the couple made their home at Battle House (the Dower House), situated next to the church in Bromham village.

However Maria had an affair with Andrew's nephew, John Allen Cooper in 1781, a 21 year old officer in the 20th Regiment of foot who had served with his regiment in America during the War of Independence. He was the son of his older sister, Mary (1740 - 1784), who lived at Comberwell, two miles north of Bradford on Avon. Maria had been seeing him regularly, in secret, for 10 months or more as he was very friendly with the couple and resided with them for some time at Battle House.

He was a gentleman of great personal charm and attractions, and the wife and mother forgot her two-fold duties with many stolen meetings with her new lover. Andrew and John enjoyed riding with the hounds and often hunted with a pack belonging to the Bayntuns. He was a Member of Parliament for Weobly, Hertfordshire and therefore spent quite some time in London.

The affair was first noted at the beginning of September 1781 by Andrew's brother, the Rev. Henry Bayntun, when he visited the house on three separate occasions and saw the couple romping together and kissing each other. Mary Nash, who was Lady Maria's personal maid and some of the other servants of the house were also aware of the affair and had seen them together on many occasions. Sir Andrew, at this time, was in London attending Parliament.

On the 9th December, Edward Baldwyn, one of the servants at Battle House, rode to Spye Park, the residence of Andrew's father – Sir Edward Bayntun Rolt and acquainted him of what he and the other servants had seen. Sir Edward asked Baldwyn to tell the same to the Rev. Henry Bayntun. Andrew arrived home from London on Monday 10th December, and complying with Sir Edward's instructions, the Rev. Henry Bayntun, his brother, duly informed him of the affair.

The following day, Maria sent her maid to personally deliver a letter to Andrew. In it, she begged his forgiveness and stated that although she had now become bitter enemies of both his mother and father, and in their eyes a wicked woman, she pleaded with him to believe that she would not be wicked enough to ever deceive him again and stated that she still held a glimmer of hope that he would be hers again.

But without a reply, she and Cooper, set off from the Greyhound Inn to his mother's house in Cumberwell where they lived together for a short while. Nothing further is known of the baby she was carrying when she left. Divorce was rare at this time but on the 15th February 1783 it was granted to Andrew Bayntun Rolt by an Act of Parliament. Andrew was, at first, inconsolable and despite her shameless actions, he long lamented the mother of his only child.

However Cooper treated Maria with cruelty and brutality. The heartless destroyer of her life and fame, finished the dismal tragedy, shutting up her corpse in the house alone, until the rats had actually eaten part of her body. Yet this man was afterwards admitted to the best society and admired by all the ladies. Death at least put an end to her sufferings and the young, elegant and accomplished Lady Maria, nurtured upon the bosom of indulgence, died in a low house, without a single friend or attendant to minister her last wants or a charitable hand to close her dying eyes. She died on the 18th January 1784 at the age of 29.

In 1787 Andrew married Anna Maria Maude, but this marriage failed to produce any children and he entered into a series of relationships that would eventually see him father many more children. Anna Maria outlived Andrew and died in 1827. Her will was proved at London on the 25th October 1827 and she had been living at Walcot in the County of Somerset prior to her death.

In 1788 Andrew's father, Sir Edward Bayntun Rolt, was forced to declare his granddaughter, Maria Barbara, first in the entail of the Bayntun estate when she was just 8 years old, which meant she would inherit her father's estate upon his death. The divorce meant that she would be Andrew's only legal and legitimate heiress.

Sir Andrew, in his early life, possessed very high moral qualities, but the misconduct of his first wife, to whom he was fondly attracted, altered his nature and he became a more carefree and reckless character.

He had two girlfriends – Harriet Maria Poynter who bore him 13 children and Ann Power who gave him another six – but many of these children died young. Andrew is said to have lavished a lot of money on his illegitimate children.

In July 1797, Andrew's eldest daughter, Maria Barbara, eloped with the Reverend John Starky, the Rector of Charlinch, Somerset much to the surprise of the family.

A Roman building was first discovered by Sir Andrew Bayntun, about the end of the 18th century, and was subsequently investigated by Sir. R. Colt Hoare in 1810. The "dig" took place on the site, situated in a field called West or Wyatt's Park on the old Bromham Park estate.

Then in 1800, Andrew Bayntun Rolt inherited the Bayntun estate and the Lordship of the Manor of Bromham, after the death of his father, Sir Edward, and afterwards moved into Spye Park House.

He was made High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1802 and in 1803 he sold the Manor of Clench to Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Ailesbury. Clench had been Bayntun property since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.

By 1806, Andrew was no longer living at Spye Park, but at Percy House, Lower East Hayes, Bath, Somerset and was listed in a record of the appointment of his son-in-law, the Rev. John Starky, as Rector of Charlinch, on the 15th April 1808, as late of Spye Park, Wiltshire but now of Bathampton, Somerset. He chose to rent the mansion at Spye Park for a number of years.

In 1808, Spye Park House was leased to Colonel Thomas Thornton, of Lincoln's Inn, Middlesex – a gentleman much noted in the annals of sporting and racing. The lease was for 21 years, if Sir Andrew should live so long, and included the mansion, with a mill, a herd of deer and lands, at an annual rent of £750. His arrival at Spye Park certainly impressed everyone with the magnificence of the Thornton establishment and a procession of wagons filled with riches such as the rural Wiltshire folk never saw before or since. Wagons loaded with animals, luggage, guns, fishing rods, sporting gear, skins, followed by a string of thoroughbred horses each let by a groom. The new tenant wanted to replace the Bayntun portraits in the house with those of his own. He had an immense number of valuable paintings and works of art, together with a collection of rare and exotic plants and the lands were stocked with three wagon loads of bald-faced and other red deer, roebucks, Asiatic deer and partly-coloured fallow deer. Andrew agreed and arranged for Henry Bayntun, probably his nephew, the Rector of Bromham rather than his brother Harry, the Rector of Rowde and Wolverton, to take charge of the Bayntun portraits.

On the 13th of September 1813, Andrew Bayntun Rolt made his last Will and Testament, which mentioned seven of his 13 children by Harriet Maria Poynter. The will lists the six children as Andrew, Thomas, John, Lucy, Harriet, Maria Constance and Mary, who were all christened with the surname Bayntun, despite the fact that Andrew was never married to Harriet Maria. Clearly Andrew wanted these children to have his name and he also refers to their mother in his will as Harriet Maria Bayntun, otherwise Poynter, spinster. The other six children had died before this time – many of them at a very young age.

A previous Deed of Settlement dated 13th December 1809 listed another of his reputed seven acknowledged children by the said Harriet Maria, called Maria Constantia. The will also lists his six children by Ann Power – Ann, Charles, Martha, Francis, George and Wilmot Robert – all with the surname Bayntun Power and he makes provision for them financially once they reach their respective age of 21, or sooner should either Ann or Martha marry before that time.

When Andrew died on 12th August 1816, the same Henry Bayntun and Sir Andrew's daughter's husband, John Starky, argued over the paintings and these particular portraits were never returned to Spye Park. They are today in the possession of the Starky family in New Zealand who purchased them at that time from Henry.

Sometime in 1817, Colonel Thornton was forced to move out of Spye Park House when the lease was broken following the death of Sir Andrew Bayntun Rolt. Some time later Maria Barbara, Sir Andrew's daughter and her husband Rev. John Starky moved back into Spye Park House and resided there until the Rev. Starky died in 1834. John Edward Andrew Bayntun Starky, her son and his new wife Charlotte, moved into the Spye Park House following his father's death and Maria Barbara moved to Battle House – the Dower House.

Six years after Andrew's death Anne Power married Robert Gomery at Walcot, Bath, on the 17th October 1822. Gomery was an actor and singer in London at the Old Drury Lane Theatre. One of the witnesses at this wedding was Ann Bayntun. Andrew had bequeathed her a house at 7 Lambridge, Bath, and a good income and she and her new husband lived there until her death in 1844. All of her six children to Andrew Bayntun Rolt were mentioned in her will, including Charles Bayntun Power, whom it lists as being deceased at the time.

Anna Maria Maud died in 1827.

Andrew Bayntun Rolt was buried in the family crypt in the Church of St. Nicholas, Bromham. His second wife, Anna Maria survived him and was buried at Swainswick near Bath.

A tablet draped on a black slab in the Beauchamp Chapel in the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Bromham reads: Here rest the remains of Sir Andrew Bayntun Rolt of Spye Park, Bart, only son of the late Sir Edward Bayntun Rolt, Bart. He married first Maria, daughter of George William Seventh Earl of Coventry and secondly Anna Maria Maude. He died 12th August 1816, aged 61, leaving one daughter by his first wife.

Although his will acknowledged and made provision for his surviving illegitimate children, he had no surviving legitimate male issue and so his title became extinct. SPYE PARK and the remainder of his personal estate went to his only surviving legitimate child, Maria Barbara. Maria Barbara Bayntun Rolt