The Duke of Newcastle to the Plumptres of Fredville revised 17.5.2013
In his 1818 travelogue John Evans eloquently recorded that: “Fredville is neat and spacious—it has, together with the house, within these few years been not only enlarged, but improved with taste and judgment. The mansion, standing on rising ground, has a handsome brick front, supported by six columns of the Corinthian order—the drawing-room is truly elegant, and the library contains several thousand volumes, selected from the most approved ancient and modern authors. From the front of the house to the south, Barston mills wave their swifts above the plantations, and on the northwest (sic: should read north-east) Nunnington mills form a correspondent prospect. The swing suspended from the high branch of a towering oak—the rabbits skipping from hole to hole, formed among the fibres of the trees, and a rising family of hearty children seen amidst their innocent gambols, constitute at once a piece of rural and delightful scenery. At the south-west end of the mansion the green-house has a pretty effect, displaying the skill of the botanist, whilst the industrious bees are observed conveying their plundered stores into glasses fixed within the windows of their abode, which in its turn is plundered to enrich the owner’s table! The gardens behind the house are encircled with a shrubbery, along which a green walk, defended by a light post and rail, presents us with a view of the surrounding country. The woods on the south (Broom Hill and Oxney Woods, the first is under the colliery tip, the view of the second is now obscured by the same tip), the distant telegraph on the west (the Admiralty telegraph near Womenswold), and the Isle of Thanet, with Ramsgate harbour, &c. on the northeast, tend to enrich and diversify the prospect. The bowling green also hid among the trees— the laurelled-covered ice-house, the sweet briar hedge and the weeping ash trees, enhance the sensations of delight arising from the contemplation of this spot. In a word, should any thing be thought wanting, a stream of water would complete the situation”.
John Evan’s also wrote of John Pemberton Plumptre’s father, who Jane would have obviously known well: “John Plumptree, Esq. the present proprietor, was an only son—having one sister, now the lady of Sir Richard Carr Glynn. The principal family estate lies in Nottinghamshire. Mr. Plumptree’s father and grandfather represented the town of Nottingham in parliament for upwards of 50 years; and amidst the various changes of Administration during that period they maintained those glorious principles of civil and religious liberty which placed the present illustrious House of Brunswick on the throne of these realms. Mr. Plumptree is a domestic gentleman, and his partiality for Fredville has led him to pass the greatest part of the year at this delighful retreat. His attention is occupied in the improvement of his estate: and he is never happier than when he is surrounded by his family, whilst the poor of the surrounding neighbourhood partake of his hospitality”.
When John Plumptre, senior, died in 1827 the following obituary was published in ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’.
“John Plumptre, Esq.
Nov. 7- At his seat at Fredville, co. Kent, after a long and distressing illness, aged 61, John Plumptre, esq.
This gentleman was descended from a very ancient and respectable family in Nottinghamshire, and was son of John Plumptre, esq. who was M.P. for the town of Nottingham from 1762 to 1774; but, having married for his first wife a Kentish heiress (by whom he had no living issue) he became through this connection, the proprietor of Fredville, which in the latter period of his life he made his residence, relinquishing his former habitation in the town of Nottingham, where he had a spacious mansion house. For his second wife he married Miss Glover, by whom be had one son, the subject of this memoir, and one daughter, the wife of Sir Richard Carr Glyn, bart. of Gaunts House, Dorsetshire. The deceased was educated at Eton school, and removed from thence to Queen’s College, Cambridge, to finish his education under his uncle Dr. Plumptre, who was the master.
Unambitious, and unostentatious, and with a rare singleness of heart, Mr. Plumptre led a retired life in the bosom of his family, and amongst his friends tenderly beloved and highly respected. He was an instance of the few remaining characters of the old English country gentleman, exercising hospitality from his heart, and not for worldly purposes. It may be truly said of him, he never gained an enemy, nor lost a friend.
He married Charlotte, youngest dau. of the Reverend Doctor Pemberton, of Trumpingtun, near Cambridge, and by her, who survives him, has left a numerous family”.