Bayntun History :: Anne Bayntun 1689

Anne Bayntun was the first Bayntun family heiress – and the beginning of the Bayntun Rolt family

Anne's second marriage was to:
THE HONOURABLE JAMES SOMERVILLE
The eldest son of James Somerville, 12th Lord Somerville, of Drum, Glenmerton, Edinburgh. This marriage took place at Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset on the 18th September 1724.
Children:
ANN (30/8/1725 - 29/10/1778), JAMES (22/6/1727 - 16/4/1796), HUGH (1729 - 7/5/1795)

Anne Bayntun was born in 1689 at Spye Park House, in the county of Wiltshire. She was just 2 years old when his father, Henry Bayntun, died on 11th July 1691 at the age of 27. Henry Bayntun's sudden death meant that Anne and her brother John (aged 3) were placed under the guardianship of Mr. Walter Grubbe Esq. of Eastwell House, Potterne, M.P. for Devizes. Her father's will also specified that should his son die without a male heir then his remaining estate was to descend to his daughter Anne, on the condition that she married a Bayntun 'kindred of the fourth degree' or that her husband assume the Bayntun name.

Following the death of their mother in 1703, Mr. Grubbe, as guardian of these friendless children, took them under his charge and they were brought up at Eastwell, where the accounts for their clothing and education are still preserved. Under the guardianship of Walter Grubbe, both Anne and her brother John, had their own house specially built for the children (see far left). It was here they lived during their childhood years and studied history and French among other subjects. Some of Anne's text books are pictured here and the inscription (above right) reads: "Miss Bayntun began to learn French with Mr. Bernard on the 22nd August 1702".

On the 13th July 1708 Anne Bayntun married Edward Rolt of Sacombe Park, at Potterne, Wiltshire and moved into the family house at Sacombe Park, in Hertfordshire. She was just 19 years of age and Edward was 5 years older than her. The Rolt estate was worth a considerable amount of money, as Edward Rolt's father – Sir Thomas Rolt (1632-1710) – made his fortune with the East India Company, spending some 20 years as the Company's representative in Persia and eventually becoming President of the East India Company and Governor of Bombay – i.e: the Chief Representative of the company at Madras. With this wealth built up from his career, Sir Thomas purchased the medieval house and estate of Sacombe Park in Hertfordshire in 1688. Edward Rolt's grandmother was a cousin of Oliver Cromwell.

Edward Rolt, born in 1686, was educated at Merton, College Oxford and Lincoln's Inn and was subsequently successively Member of Parliament for St. Mawes (1713-1715), Grantham (1713-1722) and Chippenham.

By 1715, Ann, her brother John Bayntun and her husband Edward Rolt had drawn up an agreement which would ensure that the younger members of the Rolt family would be financially secure, once they reached their respective ages of 21. It was agreed that each son would receive £2,000 and £3,000 for every daughter, and in the event of their being only one daughter, she would receive £6,000. The money was to be raised either from a mortgage or sale of part of the Bayntun estates. Edward and Thomas Rolt were excluded from this Indenture as both would be sufficiently provided for, being named heirs to the Bayntun and Rolt estates respectively.

However in 1716 John Bayntun died at the age of 28 and Anne was named heiress to the Bayntun estate with her second son, Edward Rolt – as was customary in this situation – named Lord of the Manor of Bromham at just 6 years of age. She lived at Spye Park with her son, Edward, and carried out improvements to the landscape in the 1720's. Her first husband had inherited Sacombe Park, Herts, from his father. In 1720 Anne Bayntun and her husband Edward, sold the Manor of Erlestoke to Gilbert Heathcote. Earlstoke was one of the many manors duly inherited by her son, Edward, and was most likely sold on his behalf.

Edward Rolt was M.P. For Chippenham and started a series of schemes at Sacombe Park and commissioned the English architect Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace to design a new house with kitchen and gardens. The designs were completed and work commenced immediately. Edward intended to build a new house with beautiful raised walks and vistas through the woods, an amphitheatre and deer park. His designs were drawn up but the building of the proposed house was never started. The plans for the grounds incorporated a canal or basin of 10 or 12 acres to be filled either from a stream a mile off, or a spring which was above the level of the canal. The gardens however were completed by Vanbrugh's protege and associate Charles Bridgeman and led through blocks of woodland below the house to the long canal and ponds. It is said the finished landscape bore a strong resemblance to the gardens of Blenheim and Bridgeman received payments totalling £654 from Edward Rolt for this work.

It is thought Edward Rolt and Vanbrugh disagreed over some aspect of the house plans and Edward subsequently approached James Gibbs, the architect of St. Martin-in-the-Fields to submit plans for the completion of the project, however before more could be done Edward Rolt died of Smallpox on the 22nd December 1722 and his eldest son, Thomas, inherited his estate and the family home at Sacombe Park and was quite content to live in the old house. This house and walled garden were eventually demolished some time in 1780 and another house built nearby

James, the 13th Lord Somerville of Scotland first came to England in 1721 at the age of 23 for the purpose of prosecuting his claim to the Barony of Somerville which he established in 1723. His family had been settled in Scotland for six centuries and during his time in Wiltshire, he became acquainted with the widow, Anne Bayantun Rolt. He had inherited the Drum estate from his father when he died in 1709. He had built a country house and estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland. Located between the Gilmerton and Danderhall areas. The Drum was the seat of the Lords Somerville from the later Middle Ages, who previously built a 16th-century house on the estate.

In a letter from Bath, the English poet and dramatist, John Gay (1685 - 1732) mentions this wedding. He writes: "The talk of Bath is the marriage of Lord Somerville and Mrs Rolt. She left Bath yesterday. He continues here but is to go away today or tomorrow, but as opinions differ I cannot decide whether they are married or not". It is not known if all of her children accompanied her to Edinburgh. The eldest two, Thomas and Edward, both named successors to the Bayntun and Rolt estates, may have remained at Spye Park and Sacombe Park under guardianship, but the remaining five children - ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old - would most likely have gone with their mother.

After their marriage, Ann and Lord Somerville resided at Spye Park House with the six children from Anne's previous marriage. One daughter – Anna Marie – had died a year earlier. A daughter was born on the 1st September 1725, which they named Anne and in 1726 the couple left Bromham to live in Scotland, determined to proceed in his plan of restoring his long depressed family.

Pictured (left) Ann Somerville Wychnour, the daughter of Anne and James Somerville.

James, the 13th Lord Somerville was 24th in direct male line to Sir Gualter, the First Lord of Whichenour and was 26 years old at the time of the marriage. Ann Rolt was 35 years of age. Between 1726 and 1734, Lord Somerville built the elegant House of Drum - a fine Palladian mansion in the Glenmerton District, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. They had two more children, James and Hugh, both of whom were born in Scotland.

In 1731, Edward Bayntun Rolt, who was heir to his mother's estate at Spye Park, came of age, and as the fortune he then possessed was not adequate to his situation and expectancies, he entered into a Treaty with Lord Somerville for an increase of his income. They came at length to the following terms: Lord Somerville agreed to allow Edward £500 per annum, for as long as his mother should live, on condition that he should, after her death, pay to Lord Somerville and his heirs the annual sum of £300 during his own life. As his mother was in her early 40's, this appears to have been an equitable bargain.

Also in 1731 Anne and James returned to Bristol on account of Anne's health, but returned to Scotland again the following year. However Anne's health did not improve and two years later she died on the 24th October 1734 at Drum. She is said to have caught a cold, by sitting on wet grass, as she was giving directions for a new plantation and died in a few days of a infection in her bowels. Administration of her goods were granted on the 31st March 1736

On her death, the Spye Park estate went to her son, Sir Edward Bayntun Rolt. Lord Somerville brought Anne's body back to England and to surrender her estate to her him. Although there is no record of her burial, she was most likely laid to rest in the family crypt beneath the Bayntun chapel in the Church of St. Nicholas in Bromham. The younger of Anne's children, James, Elizabeth and Wilmot, not of age at the time, were looked after by their elder brother, Edward, and resided with him at Spye Park.

Between the years 1689 and 1734, deeds for the Enmore estate, or Manor of Enmore, saw many name changes to leases, as the various members of the Bayntun family inherited the property. In 1689 Henry Bayntun is mentioned in a lease involving a cottage held of the Manor of Enmore. In 1705, his son and heir, John Bayntun (then aged 17 years), is named alongside his guardian, Walter Grubbe of Potterne, Wiltshire. By 1714, John is listed as the owner of the Manor in another lease, but two years later he died and his sister, Anne and her husband Edward Rolt of Sacombe Park, Hertfordshire are listed in a reversionary lease dated 1716. It is clear from this deed that Anne inherited the Manor of Enmore after John's death and a further reversionary lease in 1730 lists she and her second husband as The Honourable Lord and Lady Somerville.

After his mother's death, her son, Edward Rolt would receive the remainder of the Bayntun estates, including the Manor of Enmore, as was laid down by his uncle John's will. Two years after Anne's death James Somerville married again in 1736 to Frances, the daughter of John Rotherham and they had one daughter, who died young. He died on the 14th December 1765, aged 67 years at his home in Drum. As a result of the above mentioned 1715 Indenture, or agreement, in 1739, John, Henry and Wilmot Rolt each received £2,000, plus the rate of 5 per cent per annum for every year since reaching their respective ages of 21. The same rate of interest applied to Elizabeth, who received £6,000 – as her only sister, Anna-Maria, died very young in 1923.

At this time however all three parties to the Indenture of 1715 were deceased and Edward Bayntun-Rolt, their successor, was named executor and he sold and leased part of the Bayntun estates to raise the necessary money to honour the deed heard in the High Court of Chancery. His elder brother, Thomas, was financially secure at this time and was still living at Sacombe Park, having enlarged the park and stocked it with deer. But by 1752 he had leased the manor and eventually drank himself to death in 1754.

Without a son and heir, the direct line of the Bayntun family ended with the death of John Bayntun, but his successor Edward Rolt inherited his uncle's title and changed his name to Edward Bayntun Rolt.