WILLINGTON HALL

Grid Ref: SJ 532 660
Date 5 Jun 2023

Willington Hall hotel on a June evening

Willington Hall Hotel on a June evening

Conference Suite with main hotel visible beyond

The Tomkinson family moved to Cheshire in the 16th century and a grandson who was solicitor to the Wilbraham family bought their Dorfold Hall Estate in 1753.

Willington Hall was built in 1829 for Major William Tomkinson on land purchased in 1827 from William Arden, 2nd Lord Alvanley (1789-1849). It was designed by Nantwich architect George Latham, and in 1878 a new east front was added for William's son James Tomkinson. At the same time a new wing and stable blocks were added, and in the 1920s a laundry block was built. George Latham went on to build Arley Hall for Rowland Egerton Warburton. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The house was reduced iin size during the 1950s removing the 1878 east front and some of the outbuildings.Willington Hall is now a country house hotel and there have been substantial changes to accommodate weddings and conferences on an adjacent site in a style of brick matching the hotel as shown in the picture above.

The complicated interconnections across Cheshire of these families is shown in the tree below.

TOMKINSON OF DORFOLD AND WILLINGTON HALLS

The Tomkinson family came to prominence in Cheshire during the 18th century with both clerics and lawyers, some of whom acted as agents for other Cheshire landowners.   The following tree traces the family up to the middle of the 19th century.

• 1. Thomas Tomkinson of Knightley, Staffs, born about 1620.  In addition to the three sons mentioned below he had two daughters.
• + Margaret Bayley of Norbury.
  • 2. James Tomkinson, vicar of Sandon born about 1650 died without issue in 1709.
  • 2. Henry Tomkinson,  vicar of Ashley, died without issue in 1731.
  • 2. William Tomkinson of Bostock, (2nd son according to Ormerod but 4th son according to Burke) born about 1652, died April 1718 and buried Davenham.
  • + 1st wife, unknown name
    • 3. Thomas Tomkinson of Bostock
    • + Elizabeth dau and heiress of ? Hockenhull of Kinderton
      • 4. Thomas Tomkinson, born 1720 and died unmarried.
      • 4. William Tomkinson, born 1 May 1723, died 7 March 1770 without issue and left his estate at Bostock to his cousin Edward Tomkinson.
    • 3. William Tomkinson of Bostock, born 1703, who had a son William of Bostock born in 1725 and died without issue in 1770
    + 2nd wife, Mary Bayley of Drayton in Shropshire. In addition to their son James, this couple had daughters Mary and Margaret.
    • 3. James Tomkinson born Bostock 1711, settled at Nantwich and afterwards at Dorfold, which he purchased from Roger Wilbraham in 1754 (see Footnote 1) married 1738, died at Dunstable 7 March 1794 and buried at Acton
    • + Katherine 2 nd dau of Thomas Wettenhall of Nantwich and his wife Mary the daughter and heiress of the Revd: Wright, prebendary of Chester, rector of Malpas and of St. Mary's Chester. Katherine was born Sept 1706, married 30 November 1738 and died 12 March 1788 aged 81, buried at Acton. In addition to the sons shown below this couple had a daughter Catherine Maria born 1746 and married to the Revd: George Cotton, LLD, fourth son of Sir L. S. Cotton, Dean of Chester, and twin daughters who died young. I treat the second son Henry last below to simplify the format of the tree.
      • 4. James Tomkinson, clerk, born 26 Dec 1739, rector of Davenham
      • + Mary daughter of John Wood of Bath, died 1792, buried Acton
        • 5. James Tomkinson, born Acton parish about 1785, officer in the 17 th Light Dragoons and died without issue in 1860.
      • 4. Edward Tomkinson 3rd son, of Bostock (from his cousin William above) and afterwards of Hankelow by devise of Nathaniel Wettenhall, born at Nantwich 21 Sept 1743 and assumed the name of Wettenhall in 1798.  Not covered further in this tree.
      • + Sarah daughter and heiress of James Marsden, born aug 1753 and died 16 Feb 1776, buried at Davenham.
      • 4. Henry Tomkinson of Dorfold, Esq, 2nd son, born Nantwich August 1741, married 1770, and died at Nantwich 1822.
      • + Anne daughter and heiress of John Darlington of Aston
        • 5. Edward Tomkinson, born Jan 1773, died unmarried.
        • 5. James Tomkinson, clerk in holy orders, of Dorfold, buried Acton
        • + Julia, daughter of John Nesham, Esq., of Houghton-le-Spring, Durham, buried Acton.
          • 6. Henry James Tomkinson, Royal Horse Guards (Blues), born 1813, died unmarried 1839.
          • 6. Anne, daughter and heiress to Dorfold Hall, married 25 June 1844 to Wilbraham Spencer Tollemache, Esq., DL and JP, brother to 1st Baron Tollemache and had issue Henry James Tollemache, Algernon Tollemache, Julia and Alice. Wilbraham Tollemache died 15 Feb 1890. (See Footnote 1)
          • 6. Julia married Sir Henry Rich of Sonning in Berkshire in 1852 and died without issue in 1874.
        • 5. Henry Tomkinson, of Reaseheath Hall a student of the Middle Temple in 1809 but later in holy orders and vicar of Acton, married 1824, buried Acton 1838 aged 53. His three sons died unmarried.
        • + Harriet Sophia, daughter of Shakespeare Phillips, Esq.
          • 6. Edward Tomkinson, a colonel in the army in the 8 th Hussars at Balaclava and through the Crimean War, A.D.C. to the Queen Victoria, died unmarried in 1870 and buried at Acton.
          • 6. Francis William Tomkinson died unmarried 1864.
          • 6. Henry Richard Tomkinson of Reaseheath, barrister at law, born 28 Aug 1831, educated at Trinity College Cambridge (MA) and died unmarried on 9 Dec 1906.
          • 6. Sophia Anne Tomkinson, married 26 June 1846 to George Edward Lynch Cotton, DD, bishop of Calcutta. She died 24 Feb 1907, leaving issue.
          • 6. Charlotte Tomkinson married in 1864 to Captain William de Wilton Roche Thackwell and died 1910 leaving issue.
        • 5. William Tomkinson, Esq., of Willington Hall near Tarporley, DL, JP, born 18 January 1790, lieutenant colonel in the army, officer in the 16 th Light Dragoons 1809-14, served with distinction during the Peninsula War, two medals and four clasps, severely wounded at passage of the Douro 1809, present at Waterloo, purchased the estate of Willington Hall from Lord Alvanley in 1828, born 18 Jan 1790, married 9 Feb 1836 and died 1872.
        • + Susan, dau of Thomas Tarleton Esq., formerly of Bolesworth Castle by Frances, dau of John Egerton of Oulton. She died in 1879.
          • 6. William Tomkinson, married 26 April 1866 to Sarah, 2 nd surviving dau of Dudley North, 3 rd son of Francis Frederick North of Rougham, but died without issue on 1 March 1870
          • 6. The Rt. Hon. James Tomkinson, PC, of Willington Hall, DL and JP, son and heir by survivorship, High Sheriff in 1887, formerly Major and hon. Lt.-Col., in Earl of Chester's Yeomanry Cavalry, (retired 1906) MP for Crewe 1900-1910,
          • born 8 July 1840, married 12 Dec 1871, and died 10 April 1910.
          • + Emily Frances only dau of Sir George Joseph Palmer, 3rd Baronet, of Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire, married 1871. This couple had three sons, Charles William Tomkinson of Willington and Nuneaton who had issue; James Edward Tomkinson of Wanlip Hall in Leicester, who changed his surname to Palmer Tomkinson in 1933 having been succeeded his uncle, Sir Archdale Robert Palmer, and had issue; Henry Achdale Tomkinson who died unmarried and Margaret Frances Tomkinson.
          • 6. Henry Tomkinson, Colonel 1 st Dragoons, born 23 Dec 1842 and married 17 May 1877 to Lucinda Elizabeth Harriet, only daughter of Ralph Gore, Esq., and died 17 April 1915.
          • 6. Robert Edward Tomkinson, of Dorney, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, born 1847, married 1 st in 1874 to Lucile Diana Mauritia, only daughter of Major-General Thos: Brooke, 2 nd son of the late Sir Richard Brooke, 6 th baronet, of Norton Priory. He married 2 nd on 9 Jan 1908 to Beatrice Lucy, youngest daughter of Philip William Richardson Peck of Bathampton and died in 1928 leaving issue.
          • 6. Edward Philip Tomkinson, born 1850, married at Los Angeles in 1876 to Frances Ethel, dau of Hugh Morgan, Esq.
          • 6. Susan Tomkinson, married in 1861 to Richard Hoare, Esq., of Cromer and died 1885.
          • 6. Sibella Eliza Tomkinson, married in 1881 Rev. Canon John Lonsdale Bryans, MA, RD, Rector of New Radnor, Canon of Brecon 1923-34, Vicar of Builth.
        • 5. Arabella Tomkinson, married General Sir Richard Egerton of Eaton Banks and died without issue.
        • 5. Anna Maria and Frances Beatrix Tomkinson died unmarried.

Footnote 1.

Ormerod Volume 3 page 345 relates:

The Wilbraham family continued in possession of Dorfold Hall and the manor of Acton until April 1745 when the estates were sold together with the manors of Hurleston and Croxton and a moiety of the manor of Wettenhall by Roger Wilbraham to James Tomkinson, father of Henry Tomkinson, Esq., who died in 1822 when the estates descended according to a pedigree given in the account of Hanklowe to a daugher and coheiress who married Wilbraham Spencer Tollemache Esq.

This statement is not correct as Dorfold went not to Henry's daughter but his grand-daughter who married Wilbrham Tollemache.  The year of the sale was 1754.  As Dorfold was purchased, its eventual inheritance would not be tied up in the provisions of old wills. As a result James Tomkinson does not appear to have been obliged to leave the hall to a younger brother or nephew and left it to his daughter. Examination of the family tree shows that James' next brother, Henry, had three sons who died unmarried. The next brother was William, who acquired Willington Hall. He had sons and some of them had issue.

The will of Henry Tomkinson of Dorfold, 1741-1822 (generation 4 above), shows that in addition to Reaseheath Hall in Worleston and Dorfold, he had land in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Flintshire and Denbighshire and leasehold properties in Cheshire and Staffordshire.  He had land at Davenham, the manor or Acton-juxta-Mondrum and owned the advowson of Davenham. In addition he had land in Aston purchased from the trustees of Sir Oswald Mosley.

Sources:

The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities, by George Ormeod, 2nd Ed., revised and enlarged by Thomas Helsby, Esq., published by George Routledge and sons, Ludgate Hill, London, 1882. This is now available from the Family History Society of Cheshire on CD ROM.   See Volume 3 pages 480 and 481 from a pedigree of the Wettenhalls.
Burke's Landed Gentry

Cheshire Antiquities
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