Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe
Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe FSA, FRS (10 August 1812 – 3 January 1894) was an English landowner and peer. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1840 and of the Royal Society in 1841.[1][2]
Education and family
[edit]The son of John Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe, an army general, and Henrietta Maria Anna Walker-Hungerford,[3][4] Crewe was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.[1] He had two sisters: Henrietta Hungerford Offley Crewe (1808–1879) and Annabella Hungerford Crewe (1814–1874). He also had an illegitimate sister by an unknown woman and an illegitimate brother, Rev John Griffiths (1813 – ?), the latter being well known and acknowledged by both family and local villagers alike. The correspondence of his sisters, which include many references to Hungerford Crewe, as well as a small number of letters by Hungerford himself, are deposited at the Borthwick Institute for Archives in York.
Landlord and charitable works
[edit]On his father's death in 1835, he became the third Baron Crewe and inherited the Jacobean mansion of Crewe Hall in Cheshire, together with a large estate in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire.[3] In 1871, he was the fifth greatest landowner in Cheshire, with a total of 10,148 acres (4,107 ha).[5] At his death in 1894, the total rents were estimated at £37,000 per year.[3] He appears to have been a relatively benevolent landlord, rebuilding farms, providing cottages and endowing schools.[3] In 1866, he paid more compensation to tenant farmers whose herds were affected by the cattle plague outbreak than was required by law.[6] He also made many charitable gifts, for example in Sandbach where he donated his income as lord of the manor to the local board, gave land for a town and market hall, and erected a drinking fountain.[3]
It was a period of rapid change: when he inherited the estate, the area to the west of Crewe Hall park was countryside with scattered farms; by his death it was occupied by the major railway centre of Crewe. He unsuccessfully opposed the construction of a Silverdale and Madeley Railway Company line from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Wrexham, which passed through the Crewe estate.[7]
Alterations to Crewe Hall
[edit]
Lord Crewe commissioned Edward Blore to make alterations to Crewe Hall in 1837–42. These included major changes to the plan of the building, redecoration of the interior in a Jacobethan style more sympathetic to the original Jacobean house, and modernisations including the installation of a warm-air heating system. Blore also added a centrepiece and clock-tower to the stables quadrangle and built a gate lodge. The total cost of the works was £30,000.[8][9][10][11]
A fire gutted the main hall in January 1866.[12] Extensive restoration work was carried out for Lord Crewe by E. M. Barry, son of Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster (1866–70).[8][9][10] Barry added a tower to the west wing; required for water storage, the tower was intended to unite the east and west wings of the hall. He also reorganised the plan of the ground floor.[8] The gardens were redesigned after the fire by W. A. Nesfield, and his son William Eden Nesfield also designed various estate buildings.[10]
Death
[edit]Lord Crewe died of influenza at Crewe Hall in 1894. He never married and the barony became extinct on his death.[3] His estates were inherited by his nephew, Robert Milnes, Baron Houghton, later Earl and Marquess of Crewe, son of his sister Annabella Hungerford Milnes, née Crewe, Lady Houghton.[13]
Arms
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References
[edit]- ^ a b thePeerage.com: Person Page - 23241, Darryl Lundy, retrieved 25 January 2009
- ^ Library and Archive catalogue: Crewe; Hungerford (1812–1894); 3rd Baron Crewe, Royal Society, retrieved 25 January 2009
- ^ a b c d e f Anon. (5 January 1894), "Obituary: Lord Crewe", The Times, p. 8
- ^ Hinchliffe, Edward (1856), Barthomley: In Letters from a Former Rector to his Eldest Son, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, p. 323
- ^ Crosby, Alan. A History of Cheshire, p. 87 (Phillimore; 1996) (ISBN 0 85033 932 4)
- ^ Scard, Geoffrey. Squire and Tenant: Life in Rural Cheshire, 1760–1900 (A History of Cheshire, Vol. 10; series editor: J.J. Bagley), p. 91 (Cheshire Community Council; 1981) (ISBN 0 903119 12 9)
- ^ Scard, p. 36
- ^ a b c de Figueiredo, Peter & Treuherz, Julian. Cheshire Country Houses, pp. 66–71 (Phillimore; 1988) (ISBN 0 85033 655 4)
- ^ a b Pevsner, Nikolaus & Hubbard, Edward. The Buildings of England: Cheshire, pp. 191–195 (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0 14 071042 6)
- ^ a b c Robinson, John Martin. A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West, pp. 24–26 (Constable; 1991) (ISBN 0 09 469920 8)
- ^ Scard, p. 23
- ^ Anon. (4 January 1866), "Destruction of Crewe-hall by fire", The Times, p. 6
- ^ "Davis, John. Milnes, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-, marquess of Crewe (1858–1945), in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (September 2004; January 2008)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32628. Retrieved 23 January 2009. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1862.
- 1812 births
- 1894 deaths
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
- Deaths from influenza in the United Kingdom
- People educated at Eton College
- Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- English landowners
- British landlords
- 19th-century English businesspeople