| Description | The records in this collection are mainly title deeds for the Warfield and Winkfield estates of John Walsh, Sir John Benn Walsh, and Sir John Benn-Walsh, 2nd Baronet.
Summary
ESTATE RECORDS : enclosure of Heath Lane, 1766.
TITLE DEEDS : land and property in Warfield, c.13c-1876, and land and property in Winkfield, 1647-1866. |
| Admin History | Warfield Park was bought by John Walsh in 1765 on his return to England from India, and he rebuilt the house after it was destroyed by fire soon afterwards. Walsh was born in about 1725 and entered the service of the East India Company before becoming private secretary to Lord Clive in 1757. He was member of parliament for Worcester, 1761-1780, and died in London in 1795.
Warfield Park was left to John Walsh's niece Margaret Fowke, the wife of John Benn. John Benn was from Ormathwaite, Cumberland. Under the terms of John Walsh's will, John Benn assumed the name John Benn Walsh, by royal permission, in 1795. John Benn Walsh was created a Baronet in 1804 and was MP for Bletchingly, 1802-1806. He played an important role in the enclosure of land in Warfield in 1817. He died in 1825 and was succeeded by his son, also called John but know as John Benn-Walsh.
John Benn-Walsh was born in 1798 and educated at Eton and Christ Church College, Oxford. He was MP for Sudbury, 1830-1834, and Radnorshire, 1840-1868, and Lord-Lieutenant of the latter county, 1842-1875. He served as a JP in Berkshire and was High Sheriff of the county in 1823. As well as the family seats at Ormathwaite and Warfield Park he owned property in Radnorshire, including Pen-y-bont Hall in Llandrindod Wells, more recently the ancestral home of the Ormathwaites. Benn-Walsh was created Baron Ormathwaite in 1868 and died in 1881.
Please see paper catalogue in Berkshire Record Office searchroom for a pedigree of the Benn-Walsh family. |