Susanna Stackhouse (née Acton)
1754 - 1834
Susanna Acton was an heiress of Sollers Hope, and How Caple,
Herefordshire and part of the manor of Icomb in Gloucestershire. She inherited
the Pendarves Estate in Cornwall in 1764 and erected Acton
Castle near St.Michael's Mount, Cornwall. John Stackhouse sold the Manor
of Icomb in1807.
Also from Ian Caldwell:
Susannah Acton (1754-1834), daughter of Anne Gregory and Edward Acton,
married John Stackhouse (1742-1819). Susannah was an only child and heiress
of the Sollershope and How Caple estates in Herefordshire and part of the
manor of Icomb in Gloucestershire.
Their first son, John, died young. The second, Edward William,
assumed the surname Wynne-Pendarves in 1815. He inherited the Sollershope and
How Caple estates on the death of his brother Thomas in 1835. He was MP for
Cornwall from 1826 until his death on 23rd July 1853, when the manors and estates
passed to the children of his sister, Anne. Their third son, Thomas Stackhouse
Pendarves, succeeded to the Acton Scott Estate , near where his sister Anne,
married the rector. Thomas graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge in 1807.
He married Frances Knight, eldest daughter of Thomas Andrew Knight of Downton
Castle, in 1812 and made many improvements to the Hall and estate. He also inherited
How Caple. He assumed the additional surname, Acton, in 1834 but died in 1835
without an heir. His widow ran the estate until her death in 1881.
In Feb 2007, Ian Baker wrote
to advise:
You may be interested to learn that Susanna Acton also had
a daughter Catherine Stackhouse (abt 1790 - 19 Dec 1873) who married Rev.
William Fowler Holt (1797-1853) , the brother of my g-g-g grandfather Robert
Fowler Holt. She was the second wife of W.F. Holt, who was a widower. They
married at St. Swithin, Walcot, 4th April 1831. Edward Pendarves was one of
the witnesses.
They had no children, and she brought up her husbands son
from his first marriage , William Frederick Holt, as her own. I believe they
travelled in Italy in the 1840s, but returned to England around 1849, when
her husband was made rector of How Caple and Sollers Hope, as the patron was
Mrs. S Stackhouse (Source : Crockfords 1851). In 1851 he left How Caple and
they returned to Bath. She was widowed when her husband
William Fowler Holt died of heart trouble in 1853.
In the 1861 census, she was living at 4 St James Sqare, Bath.
age 70, listed as Fundholder. She had a visitor Ann G Coleman, widow, aged
77, born in Camborne , Cornwall. In the 1871 census, she is living at 2 Princes
Terrace, Paddington, Marylebone. Her occupation was "Landowner".
She had 2 servants and a visitor John Wood, a magistrate aged 669.
She died 19 Dec 1873 at 38 Onslow Square, Kensington. Her
will was proved at the principal registry by Augustus Wood of How Caple Grange
in the county of Hereford, Esq., the Great Nephew and the sole executrix.
Catherine had previously lived at 56 Prices Square, Bayswater. Augustus Wood
was the grandson of Catherine's sister Anne, by her daughter Mary Anne and
John Wood. Her effects were valued under £16,000."
In Oct 2008, Ian Caldwell sent the following
information:
Edward William
Stackhouse was born on 7th April 1775. In 1814 he assumed the surname
Wynne-Pendarves Stackhouse by the testimony request of his second cousin,
Lutrill Wynne, D.C.L., Fellow of All Souls College, who died unmarried and
without issue so left his property in Cornwall to Edward. He also left his
Somerset estates to Anne Gregory and Catherine Stackhouse. (This explains
why Anne later moved to Somerset where her children grew up and were married
at Martock).
Edward William Wynne-Pendarves Stackhouse inherited the Pendarves
estate. He was MP for for Lostwithiel Cornwall from 1826 until his death on
26th June 1853 during which time he was a keen advocate of political reform.
His brother, Thomas, assumed the additional surname, Acton, in 1834 but died
the following year, on 23rd July 1835, without an heir. His widow, Frances,
ran the Acton Scott estate until her death in 1881.
Edward inherited the Sollershope and How Caple estates on
the death of his brother Thomas Stackhouse, in 1835 but after Edward’s
death without an heir, on 26th June 1853, the manors and estates passed to
the grandchildren of his sister, Anne.
Edward’s lengthy obituary was published in a Cornish
newspaper on 1st July 1853 and shows he was popular with the people of Cornwall.
Thomas Pendarves
Stackhouse was born on 9th August 1778. He lived at Acton Scott from
1807 and had been the resident squire since then, but did not inherited the
estate until his mother’s death in 1834, when he changed his name to
Acton.
On 28th January 1812 Thomas, then 33 years old, married 18
year old Frances Knight, the daughter of Thomas Andrew Knight of Downton Castle,
but they had no surviving children when he died in 1835.
Thomas Andrew Knight was the second president of the London
Horticultural Society, which became the Royal Horticultural Society. There
is an autobiographical account of the life of Frances Knight (Mrs. Frances
Stackhouse Acton) (1794-1881) which was compiled at the request of her nieces
in 1873, and is held in the Bedfordshire County Records Office. In it she
describes her early schooling, descriptions of local cottages and the clothes
of the people who lived in them. It also describes visits to her family home
by Humphrey Davy, Madame le Brun, Joseph Banks and Sidney Smith and their
is an account of the birth of her daughter.
I think that Anne would probably have liked Thomas’s
wife, who was an educated woman and was a writer on archaeology and local
history. After Thomas’s death his widow, Frances, continued to live
at Acton Scott. though the estate passed to his brother, Edward. He was married
to Tryphena Browse Trist but they also had no children, so on his death Pendarves
passed to his sister Anne’s grandson, William Cole Wood, while Acton
Scott passed to William’s brother Augustus Wood.
Page Updated - 11 Jun 2009 - Information added
about Edward William Stackhouse and Thomas Pendarvis Stackhouse, from Ian Caldwell.
Page Updated - 3 Feb 2007 - Information added about Catherine Stackhouse,
from Ian Baker
