The Duke of Newcastle to the Plumptres of Fredville revised 17.5.2013
The first John Plumptre of Fredville was the last member of the family to reside at Plumptre House in Nottingham and died in his 80th year at his London residence in Jermyn Street in Westminster in 1791. He was succeeded by his eldest son, John, who had married the daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Pemberton, of Cambridgeshire, and their eldest son was was born in 1791 and baptised John Pemberton Plumptre. After he inherited Fredville from his father, the second John Plumptre added to the Fredville estates. In 1792 when he bought the adjoining manor of Barson, (now Church Farm in Barfreston parish), from Richard Harvey, who was the father of Captain John Harvey who had commanded H.M.S. Brunswick at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, 1794. Captain Harvey died from wounds received there shortly afterwards and was subsequently buried in EastryChurch and had a memorial to his memory erected in Westminster Abbey. Soles Court, Holt Street and Woolege Farm were also added to the Fredville holdings at about the same time.
John Marsh at Nethersole in Womenswold was a near neighbour of the Plumptres and in the 1780’s described the family as ‘consisting of a fine venerable old gentlemen in a great wig, his son and daughter, now lady of Sir Richard Carr Glynn.’ Sir Richard, the first baronet, was a wealthy banker.
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges of nearby Denton Court wrote of the early Fredville Plumptres in his 1834 autobiography:
“Dr. Robert Plumptre, the president of our college of Queen’s (Cambridge), was a younger brother of our neighbour, John Plumptre, Esq., of Fredville, with whom my family was intimate. He was a dull man, of little erudition, who pronounced a Latin oration full of false quantities, which caused the following line, when speaking of Professor Roger Long, to be on every one’s lips;—
Rogbrus immemor Robertum denotat hebetem.
Another brother, Archdeacon Charles Plumptre, lived much with the Hardwicke family, and was a sort of petty literary amateur, who wrote petty attempts at jeux desprit on cards, in a formal hand, and wore a cauliflower wig curled in the sprucest manner: but he was«a good sort of harmless, round-faced, little man, courteous to all, and always ready to do good-natured acts. The family had been settled for centuries in the town of Nottingham, and had represented it at various epochs in Parliament, from the time of the Plantagenets. Their ancestor, Dr. Fitzwilliam Plumptre, a physician, who is mentioned in Gervase Holles’s “Memoirs,” published a rare little volume of Latin epigrams in the reign of Charles I.
John Plumptre, the elder brother, had an estate of about £1500 a year;—on which he contrived without debt to keep up three houses—at Nottingham, and Fredville, and in Jermyn Street (London); to represent his native town in several parliaments, till 1780; and to support a large establishment, never going out without six horses to his carriage, when in the country, with two or three outriders. He obtained Fredville by his first wife, a daughter of the first Sir Brook Bridges, of Goodnestone, by whom he had no issue; and married, secondly, Miss Glover, cousin of Leonidas Glover. His grandson now represents the eastern part of the county of Kent: a very good sort of man; but brought in by the Methodists and other Church Dissenters: he married a sister of Methuen, of Wiltshire. His father died in 1827, aged 60; and his aunt was wife of Alderman Sir Richard Glynn, the banker. The mother of the present M. P. is sister of the late Dr. Christopher Pemberton, the physician. The Reverend James Plumptre, the author, is a younger son of the president of Queen’s”.
In the early 1800′s Jane Austen was a frequent visitor to Fredville. She often stayed at Rowling House in Goodnestone parish which was the residence of her brother Edward and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Brooke Bridges, 4th Baronet, of Goodnestone Park. Edward moved to Godmersham Park in 1797 which he had inherited from some childless relatives who had adopted him as their heir, as part of the adoption Edward changed his surname from Austen to Knight.
After her brother moved to Godmersham Jane continued to visit Goodnestone and frequently wrote to Cassandra, her only sister, of visits and short stays at Fredville with Mr. John Plumptre and his wife and their children, John Pemberton Plumptre, born in 1791, whom Jane often referred to as J.P.P., and Emma.
Regular visits were also made to see William Hammond and his family at nearby St. Alban’s Court. She often commented on how keen both men were on shooting and hunting, and reported how she and members of the Plumptre, Bridges and Hammond families visited the races on Canterbury race course and then attended balls and soirees in Canterbury. The racecourse was on Ileden Downs just across on the other side of the Wingham Road from Nonington parish. In one letter written to Cassandra in September, 1813 Jane said of her her friend George Hatton, “He is so much out of spirits, however, that his friend John Plumptre is gone over to comfort him, at Mr. Hatton’s desire. He (J.P.P, authors note) called here this morning in his way. A handsome young man certainly, with quiet, gentlemanlike manners. I set him down as sensible rather than brilliant. There is nobody brilliant nowadays”.
There are indications that J.P.P. was a suitor of Jane’s niece Fanny Knight, the daughter of her brother Edward. Fanny makes reference to him in letters written to Jane from Goodnestone.
Jane Austen died after a long illness on 18th July, 1817, aged 42, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
