The Mitford Family
Take from 'The Bowkers of
Tharfield' by Ivan & Raymond Mitford-Barberton:
The Mitfords of Mitford
trace their ancestry back to those remote times when the Anglian kingdom of
Northumbria was a power in the land; when Oswald, Edwin and Cuthbert were not
merely names, but living personages, asserting their power and influence in
Church and State and social life. Northumberland is still favoured with
not a few families which, like the Mitfords, lay claim to this honourable
distinction. The Ridleys, formerly of Willimoteswick, now of Blagdon, the
Middletons of Belsay, the Swinburnes of Capheaton, the Crasters of Craster, and
probably a few others still represented in the country, though not directly
connected with their ancestral properties, are distinguished for their descent
form the old Anglian Nobility, who, having "come in" hundreds of years before
"the Normans", brought with them, fostered and developed, the fundamental
principles of those free institutions which made and have maintained England's
greatness.
We can hardly say that the English Mitfords of Mitford were ousted
by the Norman family of Bertram. They seem to have lived side by side
contentedly enough, the Mitfords in their ancient manor-house, the Bertrams in
their new castle.
Colonel William Mitford, the Greek historian, wrote:
'The conjecture seems warranted by probability, that when Sigel, or Sybil,
daughter of John, Lord of Mitford, under Edward the Confessor, married Roger
Bertram, and the estate of Mitford was in his favour, after the Norman fashion,
erected into a barony, Matthew, younger brother of John, held these lands as a
freehold tenant under his nephew, and so transmitted to his posterity, by whom
they are yet held.'
..........Everything points to the conclusion that Robert
had prepared the Manor House, and garnished it well for the reception of his
bride, Philadelphia Wharton. He was buried at Mitford, June 28th, 1674.
He had a family of six sons and five daughters. From his eldest son,
Humphrey, is descended the present owner of Mitford Castle and estates ...From
his third son, John, sprang John Mitford first Lord Redesdale, and the Mitfords
of Exbury....
'One other point in this sketch requires explanation-the
occurrence of Osbaldeston in the name of the present (1884) owner. Robert
Mitford of Mitford Castle, Esq., who was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1723,
married Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Osbaldeston of Humanby, Yorkshire.
Through this marriage the Hunmanby estates came into possession of the late
Bertram Mitford, Esq., who by Royal Letters Patent, obtained permission to use
the name of Osbaldeston with and in addition to that of Mitford.'
A grandson
of Robert Mitford who married Mary Osbaldeston was John Mitford of Mitford
Castle and Hunmanby Hall, born in 1749. He had a family of six, three sons
and three daughters. From the eldest son, Robert, born in 1778, is
descended the present owner of Mitford Castle. From Admiral John, the
second son, born in 1783, is sprung the present Lord Amherst of Hackney.
Of the daughters
Anna Maria, the eldest, is the ancestress of
all the Bowkers of South Africa mention in this book. On the 8th March
1800, at Mitford Church, she married Miles Bowker of Deckhams Hall, Gateshead,
county Durham, and twenty years later she and her husband and their large family
emigrated to the Cape of Good Hope.
Ruins of Mitford Castle
The land around Mitford was originally owned prior to the Norman Conquest by Sir John of Mitford whose name was derived from the site’s location between two fords over the rivers Font and Wansbeck.
After 1066 Sir John’s daughter, Sybilla, was married to Richard Bertram, son of the Seigneur of Dignain in Normandy. King William endowed Bertram with considerable land holdings and as a result a number of churches, including Brinkburn Priory and Newminster Abbey, were built by the family together with Mitford Church, which dates from 1135.
Originally the home of the Barons of Mitford, built soon after their move to the Mitford are, and the only five sided keep in England. Mitford Castle itself was known to have existed by 1138 and this was constructed on the site of an Anglo Saxon fort. The Castle has the only 5 sided keep in England but was subsequently laid waste by King John’s Flemish troops in 1215 and by 1327 was in ruins.
The Bertram and Mitford families merged together but lived in times of continuing troubles pray not only to the marauding Scots but also the whims of the Kings of England the family’s landed estates were subject to attack and confiscation. It was not until after the restoration of Charles II that the majority of the lands, which previously had belonged to the family, were returned to Robert Mitford, an enthusiastic royalist. This completed the task of his ancestors over the preceding three centuries in consolidating the family’s properties.
Ruins of Mitford Manor House
A more settled period in the family history ensued and Bertram Mitford succeeded to the Hunmanby and Osbaldeston estates in Yorkshire in 1835. Subsequently taking the name of Osbaldeston in addition to and before the Mitford name, Bertram was responsible for pulling down the Manor House, leaving the Pele Tower intact and constructing the present Hall in 1828.
The family line at Mitford continued up until 1990’s although other members of the family established themselves elsewhere and these include the Exbury branch, headed by Lord Redesdale, from where the famous Mitford sisters hailed and Anna Maria Mitford who married Miles Bowker and immigrated to South Africa in 1820.
The Shepherd family purchased the Estate from the Mitford family in 1993 and a large scale programme of restoration and modernisation has been in progress throughout the Estate ever since.
In 2004 and 2005 the Shepherd family in
partnership with English Heritage have begun the restoration and preservation of
the Mitford Castle ruins.
