John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache

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Marble bust of John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache, St Mary's Church, Helmingham
Arms of Tollemache: Argent, a fret sable[1]
"Cheshire"
Lord Tollemache as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1881

John Jervis Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache (5 December 1805 – 9 December 1890) of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, was a British Conservative Member of Parliament and a major landowner and estate manager in Cheshire, who was raised to the peerage as Baron Tollemache "of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk".

Origins[]

Born on 5 December 1805 as "John Jervis Halliday", he was the son of Admiral John Richard Delap Halliday (who in 1821 assumed by royal licence the surname and arms of Tollemache in lieu of Halliday), the eldest son of Lady Jane Halliday, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (died 1770). His mother was Lady Elizabeth Stratford, a daughter of John Stratford, 3rd Earl of Aldborough.

Career[]

Little is known concerning his education but it appears that he received a private education which did not lead to university. He inherited considerable wealth, including Helmingham Hall in Suffolk and estates in Northamptonshire, Cheshire and Ireland.[2]

Tollemache served as High Sheriff of Cheshire for 1840 and was then elected to the House of Commons as MP for Cheshire South from 1841 to 1868, and Cheshire West from 1868 to 1872. In 1876 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Tollemache, of Helmingham Hall in the county of Suffolk.[3]

Marriage and issue[]

He married twice:

  • Firstly, in 1826, to Georgina Louisa Best (d.1846), a daughter of Thomas Best, by whom he had five children, including:
    • Wilbraham Frederic Tollemache, 2nd Baron Tollemache, eldest son and heir.
  • Secondly, in 1850, he married Eliza Georgiana Duff (d.1918), who was 24 years younger than her husband,[3] a daughter of Sir James Duff, by whom he had a further nine children, including:
    • Hon. John. R. D. Tollemache, eldest son by his second wife, who married Eleanor Starnes, a daughter of Hon. Henry Starnes by his wife Eleanor Stuart.[4]

Death and succession[]

Lord Tollemache died in December 1890, aged 85, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son from his first marriage, Wilbraham Frederic Tollemache, 2nd Baron Tollemache.

Landholdings[]

Tollemache was the largest landowner in Cheshire, owning 28,651 acres (115.95 km2). His estate exceeded those of the Duke of Westminster who owned 15,138 acres (61.26 km2), Lord Crewe with 10,148 acres (41.07 km2) and Lord Cholmondeley with 16,992 acres (68.76 km2). William Ewart Gladstone described him as "the greatest estate manager of his day"; he was generous to his tenants and advocated improvement of their social conditions. He believed in a self-reliant labouring class and popularised the idea of tenants having a cottage with sufficient land to keep livestock. His catch-phrase for this was "three acres and a cow", a policy he carried out in Framsden, a village on the Helmingham Hall estate. In addition to building many cottages he built over 50 farmhouses, on which project he spent £280,000.[2]

Tollemache's major building project was Peckforton Castle, a new family seat in the form of a Norman-style castle, built on a massive scale on the Peckforton Hills within his Cheshire estate. It cost around £60,000 (equivalent to £6,600,000 as of 2020),[5][6] and is deemed the last serious fortified home built in England.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Crest: A Horse's Head erased Argent between two Wings Or pellety; supporters: On either side a Stag guardant proper gorged with a Collar flory counterflory Or; motto: Confido Conquiesco (I trust and am content)
  2. ^ a b Durdey, Ronald (2008). "John Tollemache and his Castle". Cheshire History. 47: 75–87. ISSN 0141-8696.
  3. ^ a b Kidd, Charles (1990). David Williamson (ed.). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. New York: St Martin's Press.
  4. ^ Morgan, Henry James, ed. (1903). Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada. Toronto: Williams Briggs. pp. 154, 170.
  5. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  6. ^ Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 524, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
  7. ^ Historic England, "Peckforton Castle (1135729)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 18 August 2013

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George Wilbraham
Sir Philip Grey Egerton
 Member of Parliament for South Cheshire
1841–1868
With: Sir Philip Grey Egerton 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for West Cheshire
1868–1872
With: Sir Philip Grey Egerton 		Succeeded by
Wilbraham Tollemache
Sir Philip Grey Egerton
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Thomas Hibbert
 High Sheriff of Cheshire
1840 		Succeeded by
John Ryle
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Tollemache
1876–1890 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""