| Description | Miscellaneous Thornhill family deeds and papers, the majority of which relate to the Yorkshire estates of the Thornhill family. The collection was not in archival order when deposited, therefore similar deeds and papers have been boxed together, but the collection has yet to be listed in detail. Of interest are the papers and probate of Thomas Bryan Clarke Thornhill of Fixby Hall, Huddersfield and formerly of Rushton Manor, Northamptonshire. He was the son of William Capel Clarke Thornhill and his wife Clara, and was born in 1857. He entered the Diplomatic Service in 1881 and served in Asia and the Far East until his retirement in 1900. He had wide interests, and collected stamps, coins, jewellery, porcelain, carvings etc., which were sold by auction after his death in 1934. He also bequeathed to the trustees of the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum many of his coins, jewellery, china, brasses, curios etc.
Also of interest are the deeds and papers relating to the case of Thornhill v Thornhill, 1844, and the deeds and papers relating toWilliam Capel Thornhill and Clara Clarke Thornhill v Augustus Sussex Millbank, the Honorable Reginald Capel Clarke, John H Ramsbottam and Christopher White, 1852-1855. Clara Thornhill was the only child of Thomas Thornhill of Fixby Hall, Yorkshire and of Riddlesworth Hall, Norfolk, by his second wife Clara, who died in childbirth. Clara's father, who was the nephew of George Thornhill of Diddington, Huntingdonshire, married his third wife Honoria Forester in 1839, but he died in 1844. By his will, dated 13 November 1839, he left his wife Honoria a rent chargeof £2000 per annum for her life, and he appointed a Sarah Portman as guardian of his daughter Clara. By a codicil to his will, made on the 10 July 1843, he revoked Sarah Portman's appointment as guardian, and his wife Honoria was appointed in her stead. On the 3 July 1844 Clara's friend, Francis Forester, filed a bill in the High Court of Chancery against Honoria Thornhill, in order to secure for Clara the £2000 rent charge for her maintenance and education. The Court appointed John Hodgson Ramsbottam of Fixby Hall, as Receiver of Estates, to examine the case. His conclusion, of the 14 December 1844, found that Clara was tenant in tail general of her father's real estates sunject to the jointure or rent charge payable to Honoria Thornhill, that the estates devised in his will were valued at £12,137.1s.10d per annum, and that Honoria had been appointed guardian to Clara.
Clara marrried William Capel Clarke in 1855, and he assumed the additional name and arms of the Thornhill family upon marriage. She and her husband lived at Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire and she was a friend of Charles Dickens. The Hall was reputedly the inspiration for Haversham Hall in Great Expectations. |