The Hon Robert Rodney
Hon. Robert Rodney and his wife Henrietta became the next tenants of Thornbury Park or ‘The Parks’ as it also seems to have been known. We are not sure when the family moved into the property but their daughter Hester Pearl was baptised at St Mary’s on 24th October in 1888 and her father’s abode was given as Thornbury Park in Thornbury.
Robert Rodney was born on August 11th 1858 at Berrington Hall. He was the son of Robert Rodney 6th Baron Rodney and his wife Sarah.
In Gloucestershire Archives (D3799/4) there is a draft of a marriage settlement dated 1882 of The Hon. Robert William Henry Rodney “of Thornbury Park” and Miss Henrietta Katherine Letitia Williams-Wynn of Howbery Park, Wallingford, Berks 1882. We do not know why it says ‘of Thornbury Park’. It is possible that Rodney may have taken up the lease after Emily Churchill’s death but that Anna Maria Churchill stayed in residence. We know that Anna Maria Churchill remained in residence at Thornbury Park until her death.
The Cheshire Observer announced the marriage of the Honourable Robert Rodney to Henrietta Katherine Laetitia the daughter of Henry Bertie Watkins Williams Wynn of Nant-y-Meiched Montgomeryshire on 14th of September 1882 at Crowmarsh Church in Oxfordshire. The couple’s residence was not given in the newspaper article describing the event. However the baptism of their first child, Patience Bertha Sarah Rodney took place at Ewelme in Oxfordshire in September 1883.
After their marriage and the birth of their first child the Rodney family moved to New Zealand. Their second daughter, Gladys Frances Rodney, was born in Auckland New Zealand in 1884. Sadly this child died in 1885. The ‘Find a Grave’ website shows that Gladys the infant daughter of R & H Rodney died 1st March 1885 ‘aged five months and 16 days.’ On 16th January 1886 Dennett Bertie Rodney was also born in New Zealand.
We don’t know why Robert Rodney chose to travel to New Zealand but he appears to have been enjoying himself. A New Zealand paper ‘The Star’ of 27th May 1885 gave a report of the New Zealand Grand National Steeplechase when the horse of Hon R Rodney came third. The horse was called Berrington after Robert Rodney’s birthplace Berrington Hall.
The Auckland Times reported the arrival of the Rotorna (576 tons) on April 7th 1887 at Neville from Lyttelton of the ‘Hon Mr & Mrs Rodney and child’.
By 1887 the family appears to have returned to England as the birth of their daughter Grace Marion Rodney was registered at Wallingford Berkshire. Sadly in the same year on the 4th September 1887 the couple’s New Zealand born son, Dennett Bertie Rodney, aged only one year and eight months, aged died at Crowmarsh Gifford.
In the same month Robert was promoted to be a second lieutenant (supernumerary) in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars.
In August 1890 their son Mervyn Harley Rodney was born in Thornbury.
The Rate Books from 1890 to 1900 confirm that Robert Rodney was the tenant of “Mrs Newman”.
The 1891 Census shows the family in residence at The Parks as it was then known. The census tells us that Robert Rodney was born in Leominster Berrington and aged 32. He was living on his own means. His wife Henrietta aged 30 was born in Oswestry. At this point they had four children; Patience aged seven, Grace aged three, Hester Pearl aged two and Mervyn aged seven months. The family had seven live-in servants, including a wet nurse and a nurse for the children and a butler.
They had three more children; Robert Henry Basil Rodney born in June 1893, Efah Katherine Rodney in August 1894 and Ivor Morgan Rodney in June 1896.
The 1897 Kelly’s Directory of Gloucestershire says “Thornbury Parks is the seat of the Hon. Robert William Henry Rodney J.P. and the property of Mrs. F. M. Newman, of Cheltenham.
Robert W H Rodney was a man of independent means. However he was also an inventor and took out various patents for his inventions which included improvements to pneumatic tyres, cycle stands and fog signals. He also invented some new fastenings for sash windows, a new type of reversible latch bolt and a design for a domestic fireplace that included “a toasting frame”. A patent of 1st December 1903 shows improvements in locks and latches by Robert William Henry Rodney of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, gentleman. In 1906 the Automotor Journal reported that he had a new patent for “oil engines”.
The Western Daily Press on 4th October 1904 ran an advert for the sale by auction of the Thornbury Park Estate. It reported on 7th October that the estate was sold by auction at the auction rooms of Messrs Geo Nichols, Howes, Young, Alder and Co, Broad Street, Bristol on the previous day. The mansion and about 20 acres of land “now let to the Hon R Rodney” was purchased by the Hon. R. Rodney for the sum of £3,700.
The mansion house was known by various names: Thornbury Park, Thornbury Parks and The Parks (confusingly sometimes also the name of Park or Parks Farm).
The Rate Books show that Robert Rodney was still the owner and in residence in 1905. Sadly in July 1906 the Cheltenham Chronicle reported the death of Robert’s eldest daughter, Patience, aged only 22 years.
In 1907 the Rate Book has an intriguing entry to show that the mansion and garden known as Thornbury Park, owned by the Hon. R. Rodney was occupied by “Stayt”.
By 1910 Rodney was leasing the mansion to R A Bennett, and the 1911 Census has the Bennetts in residence.
In 1911 the Rodneys were living at The Hill, Almondsbury. Robert Rodney aged 52 gave his occupation as ‘Brass founder, manufacturer.’ Henrietta Rodney aged 51 had been his wife for 28.5 years and they had had nine children, three of whom had died.
The probate record for the Honourable Robert William Henry Rodney of Park Lodge Hopton Castle Ashton on Clun in Shropshire shows that he died there on 29th January 1933. Probate was granted to his widow Henrietta and to Sir Walter Johnston Halsey baronet. His estate was £578.
The 1939 Special Register shows the Widowed Henrietta Rodney living with her widowed daughter Grace at Park Cottage Hopton Castle Craven Arms. Both were said to be living on private means,
Of their children
Patience Sarah Bertha Rodney was born in 1883 in Oxfordshire. In 1891 she was living with her family at what was then called The Parks. She was living at Pensile House in Nailsworth when she died on 21st July 1906. Probate shows that her estate amounted to £10.
Gladys Francis Rodney was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1884 and died in 1885.
Dennett Bertie Rodney was born in New Zealand about 1886 and died in 1887 in Crowmarsh Gifford.
Grace Marion Rodney was born on 18th July 1887 in Berkshire. In September 1918 she married Maurice Bazley White. Maurice had been badly wounded in the Boer War and invalided out of the army in 1902. He served in the First World War in a wheelchair at the Rifles Depot in Winchester. He died in 1925. By 1939 the widowed Grace Rodney was living at Park Cottage at Hopton Castle in Shropshire. She died in 1960 in France.
Hester Pearl Rodney was born in 1888. In 1911 she was living with her family in Almondsbury. She died in London in 1918.
Mervyn Harley Rodney was born in Thornbury in 1890. In 1901 he was at school in Eastbourne. He married Dorothy
Ivor Rodney
Norton Thompson in 1915. In 1939 he was a linoleum salesman living in Chiswick. He died in St George’s Hospital on 5th October 1964.
Efah Katherine Rodney was born in July 1894 and baptised on 24th August. She died in 1931 in Shropshire.
Ivor Morgan Rodney In the First World War he joined the Dorset Regiment but in 1916 he became an airman and had a distinguished career in the air force. Click here to read more
Robert Henry Basil Rodney was born on 9th June 1893. In 1901 he was aged seven and living with his family in Thornbury. By 1914 he was a farmer at Rongomai near Wellington in New Zealand. Rodney enlisted in the New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force for World War I and sailed to Suez in 1915.
His record says he was detached from his unit to England in 1917 to the Royal Marine Artillery. He married Ellen Brimicombe in 1928. He died in New Zealand in 1966.
From 1910 Robert Rodney leased the property to Richard Bennett who bought it in 1914. Click here to read more about Richard and Albinia Bennett
Click here to read about the early history of Thornbury Park