THE TATTON FAMILY OF WYTHENSHAWE HALL

Grid Ref: SJ 815 898
September 2000

Wythenshawe Hall

Wythenshawe Hall lies in what was formerly Lancashire but because of the numerous connections with Cheshire families, the Tatton family are included in this discussion of Cheshire Gentry. The Tattons of Wythenshawe can be traced to Robert de Tatton, living about 1300.  His grandson, Robert de Tatton of Kenworthy had a grant of land in "Withinshawe" in 1370.  He married Alice the daughter and heiress of William de Mascy of Wythinshagh. The main line of descent married into many of the local Cheshire gentry families over the next centuries including

Wythenshawe Hall was besieged for three months during the Civil War in 1642-43 when Robert Tatton and about 50 servants held out against the parliamentarians.  The house was captured.

William Tatton employed Lewis Wyatt in the 1790s to extend the original Elizabethan Hall with the construction of a library on the ground floor, shown to the right of the half timbered frontage.  The hall is now owned by Manchester City Council and open to visitors.

The 18^th Century

The following family tree taken from East Cheshire Past and Present by J.P. Earwaker, London, 1870, shows how William Tatton married the Egerton heiress in 1747. His son, also William, changed his name to Egerton to succeed to the estate at Tatton Park. In the following generation the eldest surviving son retained the name Egerton and the estate at Tatton Park, whereas the second son changed his name back to Tatton and had the Wythenshawe estate.

• 1.   William Tatton of Wythenshawe, Esq. was born on 13 June and baptised on 25 June 1703.  He died at Heaton Norris on 28 April 1776.  (William had 7 sisters and one brother, Thomas, who married twice, died 1775 aged 63, but had no surviving issue.)
  + 2nd wife, Hester, eldest daughter of John Egerton of Tatton Park, the sister and sole heiress of Samuel Egerton of Tatton Park, Esq.  They married in May 1747 and she resumed the name of Egerton on 8 May 1780 just before her death on the 9 July 1780.  She had two children, William and Elizabeth.
  • 2.   William Tatton Egerton of Tatton Park and Wythenshawe, Esq. was born 9 May and baptised 14 May 1749.  He died 21 April 1806 and was buried at Northenden.  He was MP for Cheshire at the time of his death.  He assumed by Royal Licence the name and arms of Egerton of Tatton.  He married four times.
  • +1st wife, Frances Maria, eldest daughter of Rev. John Fountayne, Dean of York, 27 February 1773.  She died at York on 9 January 1777 aged 26, buried at Northenden.
    • 3.   William Tatton Egerton, born 6 Jun 1774, MP for Beverley in Yorkshire 1796, died at Wythenshawe, 9 February 1799 aged 25, no issue.
    • 3.   Thomas died at York on 22 March 1778, aged 3.
    • 3.   Frances Maria, buried at Northenden, 7 June 1781 aged 4.
  • + 2^nd wife Mary, 2^nd daughter of Richard Wilbraham Bootle of Rode, Esq.  She died 13 November 1784 aged 24, buried at Northenden
    • 3.  Wilbraham Egerton of Tatton Park, Esq. born 1 September 1781.  He married at Rostherne on 11 Jan 1806 to Elizabeth, 2^nd daughter of Sir Christopher Sykes, Bart.  They were the ancestors of the Egertons of Tatton.
    • 3.   Thomas William Tatton of Wythenshawe, Esq. born 29 Oct. 1783, High Sheriff of Cheshire, 1809, resumed by Royal Licence dated 9 Jan 1806 the name and arms of Tatton on succeeding to the Wythenshawe estates.  Died in London on 2 March 1827.
      + Emma, daughter of the Hon. John Grey, (He was 3^rd son of Harry 4^th Earl of Stamford and his wife Susannah, the daughter of Ralph Leycester of Toft) on 20 October 1807.  Emma died at Knutsford 28 April 1851, aged 69.  They had one son and eight daughters.  One of the daughters was Sophia Tatton who on 14 May 1840 married John Dixon of Astle.  The eldest sister, Emma Tatton, married on 24 Jan 1832 to Sir Harry Mainwaring of Peover. Bart.
      • 4. Thomas William Tatton of Wythenshawe, Esq. born 2 June 1816, High Sheriff of Cheshire 1848.  Died 1885.
        + Harriet Susan, (1819-1873) eldest daughter of Robert Townley Parker of Cuerden in Lancashire, on 25 Jan 1843.  She died in London.  The couple had three sons and a daughter. Through Harriet, Astley Hall in Chorley, Lancashire, passed into the Tatton family. The Townley Parkers had acquired it on the marriage of Harriet's grandfather, Thomas Townley Parker (1760-1794) to Susannah Brooke (1762-1852), the sole heiress of this branch of the Brooke family.
        • 5.   Thomas Egerton Tatton, Esq., eldest son, was born 31 May 1846.
    • 3.  John Egerton, born 6 November died 1784, died 4 July 1786.
    • 3.  Mary Egerton, born 18 October 1782, married twice, no issue.
  • + 3^rd wife of William was Anna Maria, eldest dau. of Sir George Armytage of Kirklees, Yorks., Bart. married in June 1786 at St. Mary-le-bone in London.  Died at Tatton Park, 4 November 1799, aged 37.  She had only one child, George, who died in infancy.
  • + 4^th wife of William was Charlotte Clara, daughter of Thomas Watkinson Payler of Ileden in Kent, Esq. on 1 November 1803, when he was aged 54 and she was about 28.  She died 11 Aug. 1804 aged 29.

St. Wilfred's at Northenden, 19 June 2002

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Introduction to Cheshire Gentry