By Don Maddox
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HENRY
BLISSET
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Henry
Blisset
Out of their twelve children only four, two sons and
two daughters, survived to ripe adulthood. Henry,
the eldest, inherited the estate. He was in Holy Orders,
Rector of Letton, County Magistrate etc. He and his
wife, Jamima, had two children. His son, the heir
to the estate, John Freeman Blisset, died, unmarried
in 1880, aged 34. This must have been a bitter blow
to Henry especially so since his own wife had died
three years earlier. Expert opinion suggests, that
in spite of their wealth the family was plagued by
T.B.
All Henry's hopes rested on his daughter,
Margaret Jane. These were dashed. She, in 1889, aged
43, the heiress to the Letton Court Estate, and large
tracts of Winforton and Kinnersley high-tailed it
to Micheldever, Hampshire to marry her father's farm
bailiff, Tom Dew. Naturally there was no parental
consent from Henry. He'd lost everything. Well, not
all. His Will reduced the estate to the bear minimum
by leaving a lot of it to the Hobhouses. He allowed
Margaret to have use of the furniture in the new Letton
Court he'd built (in preference to his grandfather's)
until her death. He died in 1893 a sad and lonely
man. He didn't want an elaborate funeral and didn't
get one (see Times Past). In his Will he wrote "I
direct my funeral be of the simplest kind and no mourning
to be given. The coffin to be of plain, un-varnished,
elm for which the boards have been already prepared
and belong to me".
His daughter and son in law didn't attend
the funeral, neither did many others. He is buried
in the top corner of the churchyard with Jamima and
his son. All his relatives, from John Freeman Junior
onwards, are buried in a vault in the church. There
are memorials to all of them inside the church but
there isn't one to Henry. He did leave two solid legacies,
the estate offices and a new Rectory up Kinnersley
Lane. This is supposed to be a smaller version of
the Letton Court that burned down in the 1920s (click
here for more on Letton Court Gutted).
Soon after her wedding Margaret Jane
made a short Will leaving everything to Tom Dew. In
1901 she died of a dissecting aneurism. Tom Dew married
again and managed to restore the Estate to most of
it's old boundaries. The disastrous fire that razed
Letton Court (and its archives) had a bad effect on
him and he died in 1931. His widow, Alice Mary, ran
the estate until her death in 1960. They had one child,
Margaret Alice, who died aged four days. Tom Dew is
buried with his first wife and very close to Henry
Blisset's grave. Alice Mary is close by.
Letton was for sale again. The new owners,
Duncan Cameron and Sons, still run it and have a genuine
interest in the Church and village.
)