| Notes |
- Pedigree of the Family of Featherstone
Henry is listed as a child of Sir Heneage Fetherstone and Mary Bennet
St Clement Danes, Westminster, Middlesex baptism 8 September 1655 Henry son of Henry and Mary Fetherstone
St Mary Abchurch, City of London
Decemb 4 88
Henry Featherstone of Hasingbrooke in the County of Essex & Anne-Mary Williamson of St Laurence Pountneys London were marryed with Licence
London Lives website
Henry Fetherstone Middlesex Sessions : Sessions Papers - Justices' Working Documents SM | PS, 2nd December 1717 & referred to his Maties. Justices of the peace Sd. Henry Fetherstone Bart Martin Rider
England, Extracted Parish and Court Records about Fetherston, Henry (Sir), Bt. Text: Fetherston, Henry (Sir), Bt. 17 Oct 1746 , aet. 100. (G.M. 558; L.M. 534.)
Book: Obituary Prior to 1800 (as far as Relates to England, Scotland, and Ireland), Compiled by Sir William Musgrave, 6th Bart., of Hayton Castle, Co. Cumberland, and Entitled by Him "A General Nomenclator and Obituary, with Referrence to the Books Where the Persons are Mentioned, and Where Some Account of Their Character is to be Found." Collection: England, Scotland, Ireland: Musgrave's Obituaries Prior To 1800, Parts 1 & 2
The English Baronetage Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the English Baronets ... Illustrated with Their Coats of Arms, Volume 3 published 1741
Sir Henry Fetherston, his second, but eldest surviving son, is the present baronet, he married Anna-Maria, sole daughter and heir of James Williamson, of London, merchant, by whom he hath no issue; she lies buried at Stanford le Hope, with this inscription:
Here lies Anna-Maria Fetherston, the beloved Wife of Henry Fetherston, of Hassingbroke, in this Parish. Esq; and only Child of James and Anne Williamson, Of London, Merchant. She died 6 March, 1689.
Find A Grave memorial 193808106
Henry Fetherston born 1654 died 17 October 1746 buried St. Margaret's Churchyard, Stanford-le-Hope, Thurrock Unitary Authority, Essex 2nd Baronet of Hassenbrooke Manor
Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1746
Henry Fetherstone Dates: 1726-1750 Location: near Bloomsbury square Title: Sir, Baronet Birth/Death: 17 Oct 1746
personal notes: Worth above 400,000 pounds which he has bequeath'd to Mathew Fetherstonhaugh of Craven street, Esq; among other charitable legacies he left 500 pounds to St. George's hospital, and 600 pounds to the infirmary in James street, Westminster.
Sir Henry Fetherston 1711-1747. Said to be the richest man in the country. Outsurviving all his children at the age of 90 leaving his vast fortune to a relative from Northumberland. Matthew Featherstonhaugh.
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/138270 Oil painting on canvas, Sir Henry Fetherston, 2nd Bt. (1654-1746), attributed to Simon Dubois (Antwerp 1632 - London 1708). A painted oval head-and-shoulders portrait, to right, wearing a red cloak and cravat. The sitter was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Fetherston. Either he or his father bought the manor of Blakesware, Herts., which he sold in order to qualify for Sheriff of Essex, 1713/14. He married Anna Williamson (1689/90 - aet. 20), daughter and heiress of a London merchant with a reputed fortune of £400,000. He died without children and left the bulk of his fortune to his Northumbrian kinsman, Matthew Fetherstonhaugh on the condition that he should live in the South of England and buy himself a baronetcy. Thus began the connection of this Northumbrian family with Uppark. (the statement here about Blakesware contradicts what I have found elsewhere - see notes for father Heneage. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp380-397
Featherstone Society Facebook Group 18 September 2023
Anthea Leslie
I am trying to trace a link and was wondering if anyone can help?
Henry Featherstone married AnnaMaria Williamson on 4th December 1688 at St Mary Abchurch in London. Tragically AnnaMaria- who was just 20 died while expecting their first child.
Henry was a much older man and- with no heir. I have found that he searched for an heir and that he chose Thomas Fetherstone my great grandfather x7 - who was married to Sarah Cain and lived in Weardale Co Durham England. The report I found said Henry looked to Heathereye Cleugh- the area in Weardale- and chose his cousin Thomas to be his heir. Sadly I am unable to find the link. The parish records for Cowshill Church in the Heathereye Cleugh area are missing.
I wonder if anyone can help me establish the family relationship? Thank you
The Featherstones of England
Sir Henry, who inherited the already vast fortune left by Sir Heneage, searched for an heir he could train to take over the family business, but to no avail. He tried young Thomas Featherstone, from Weardale, but Thomas went home to wed his dale sweetheart. Sir Henry searched and searched, and finally settled on that still undefined relationship with Matthew, High-Sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (who also descended from Weardale stock), and bequeathed the estate to Matthew's son, another Matthew. Sir Henry died at the age of 92, and there starts the story of the Uppark Featherstones.
Sir Henry
Sir Heneage and his wife Mary had ten children, the oldest Of whom - Henry - was born in 1654, shortly before the plague and fire. But Henry grew up during those exciting days when his father was buying derelict properties and rebuilding them into the new London. His first schooling was amid the cinders and mud, his first triumphs were seeing his father's buildings taking shape and becoming occupied. His post-graduate studies were at his father's elbow, gauging the rent for
which a property should be let, determining to which potential tenant the property should be entrusted, mastering techniques by which maximum returns could be received on investment. And, as a logical consequence, Henry became quite
wealthy in his own right.
Sir Henry married Anna Maria Williamson, and we believe she died with her unborn child in 1690. It was the first of a sad series of deaths, for before Sir Henry passed middle age many of his brothers and sisters were dead as well. Within the close family there were no sons in whom Sir Henry could instill the mysteries of his vocation. What a hollow victory to have accomplished So much and have no one to whom the torch might be passed. Then began the strange and romantic tale of Thomas Featherstone of Weardale, and his love for Sarah Caine. Tradition tells us Sir Henry yearned for a son to whom he could pass on the Featherstone skills as Sir Heneage had passed them on to him. Childless, he reached out to the family's roots at Heatherye Cleugh from whence great grandfather Cuthbert had migrated 150 years earlier. There he found a true Featherstone descendant who willingly came to London to apprentice under the great man. But young Thomas, While a true Featherstone, was also a died-in-the-wool Weardale lad with that streak of independence to be found only in the hills and dales of North Durham. Worse, while the rest Of him was in London his heart remained in Weardale with a lass he had known all of his life. Thomas was a willing worker, and he learned quickly, and by all reports was well on his way to being the heir-apparent to Sir Henry's fortune, when love-sickness for his Sarah Caine overcame his loyalty to Sir Henry: he gave up city life to return home. They say that Sir Henry's sister, Rebecca, was very fond of the boy. A romanticist, she understood Thomas's feelings and softened his departure with quiet promises to remember him well in her own Will to make up for the great financial loss to the lad as he followed the dictates of his heart. But it appears she never did.
Thomas, we believe, married Sarah Caine in 1732 and they had eight daughters. The third child, Mary, died as an infant (a future new daughter was again named Mary as common in those days) and the seven remaining daughters became famous as "the seven sisters." Family tradition says Thomas planted a tree for each of them. And the trail grows confused at this point for there certainly is a Seven Sisters Road in London, along with Featherstone Avenue, Featherstone Court, Featherstone Terrace, and Featherstone Street.
The will
We have no account of Thomas's departure from the fold of Sir Henry Featherstone, but we can imagine the old man's grief. At 66 years of age, Sir Henry was still virile and active in his business affairs, still acquiring properties and amassing greater wealth, but now without an heir to whom this fortune might be passed. We can only guess at his ranging thoughts in this regard, and steps he may have considered - or taken.
He seems again to have Iooked to the roots of his ancestry, to Heatherye Cleugh and its various descendants. Once before he had searched and found a suitable candidate in Thomas Featherstone, perhaps he could find another with a
second try. And find one he did! Living at Featherstone Castle, the ancient family seat, was Matthew Featherstone, once High Sheriff of the North Country city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, later the City's Lord Mayor Wealthy in his own right,
Matthew had bought the castle from the Earl of Carlisle. Matthew was descended from the same Heatherye Cleugh branch of the family that had produced Cuthbert the Elder and, almost too good to be true, Matthew had a son (also named Matthew) of about the right age. Young Matthew Featherstone was born about 1711, and would have been in his early thirties at the time.
Sir Henry's will, dated Feb 22 1745, With two codicils attached, Was quite organized and, after disposing of some £20,000 in smaller legacies to relatives and various charities, left most of his accumulated wealth to his "...esteemed friend
Matthew Featherstone... of Crooked Lane, London.
There are varying accounts of the total value of Sir Henry's estate. Many stories list it as £400,000. Yet there are persistent stories about immense properties in Essex and London that paled the initial assessment. Among the most believed
is that the total estate came close to £16,000 000.
Young Matthew prudently decided to live in the south of England and to buy himself a title. Accordingly, on January 3 1747 he received a Deed of Baronetcy (the original Deed was much later discovered in an attic). That same year, the record shows, Matthew bought an estate named "Uppark" at the western edge of Sussex from a Lord Tankerville for the sum of £19,000.
As a ward and heir-apparent to Sir Henry, Matthew had been welcomed into most wealthy homes in London. But now, as actual possessor of that vast fortune, he bcame the target of every unmarried lady in England. Imagine for yourself what intricate plots must have been hatched by aspiring mothers to ensnare young Matthew, and imagine their disappointment when he and Sarah Letheuiller became engaged. The couple were married on Dec 24 1746, barely two months after Sir Henry's death.
The Featherstone Money was following a new path.
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1655 - 1746 (~ 91 years)
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