Jane Austen and King James II

At J in the A-Z of Ashdown House is the Austen family of Jane's fame. I've blogged about Jane's connection to the Cravens and to Ashdown House before and you can see the article here. Louisa, Countess of Craven, was a big fan of Jane's writing, declaring in 1816 that Pride and Prejudice was her favourite of Jane Austen's books, in preference to Emma which she still considered to be very fine. We are very pleased that we have a lovely exhibition board this season which gives some information on the links between the Craven and Austen families.

Meanwhile at J we also have King James II, a friend of the First Earl of

Craven who like his brother Charles and cousin Prince Rupert came to Ashdown for the sport and for other entertainment, no doubt. (Ashdown does has a very impressive wine cellar!) In my research I came across a curious story of how the house at Russley Park, which lies a mile or two away across the downs, was extended especially for a visit from James during the 1680s. Curious because with Ashdown only a few miles distant, why would William Craven entertain the King at Russley?

In a further fascinating twist, there is a legend that a secret tunnel cut through the chalk hillside connects Ashdown with Russley Park. If this is true then it's location is lost today but it does raise the question of what it's purpose could have been. Intriguing!

The richest of the rich

Where did it all go right for the Craven family? It began with the birth in approximately 1548 of a son William, to Beatrix and William Craven in Appletreewick in Yorkshire. William was born in one of two cottages that now form part of the church of St John the Baptist in Appletreewick. He attended a "Dames School" in nearby Burnsall, a place where basic education was provided to the children of poor working families before they themselves were old enough to go out to work. In 1560 William got his big chance when he was chosen to be the new apprentice to Robert Hulson, a Burnsall man who had become a merchant tailor in London.

Based on Craven's later career one can speculate about his rise to riches. He was a clever boy who worked hard and was utterly determined to succeed. After he became a member of the Merchant Tailors' Company in 1569, Craven went into businesss with Hulson and when Hulson died he left his former apprentice £5, “a mourninge gown and my shop at Breedstreete corner of Watling Street with the lytle shoppe and warehowse thereunto adjoining, for a terme of three years.” This bequest was made to William "for failthful and diligent service to me done." He had evidently been a loyal and industrious business partner.

After Hulson's death Craven expanded the business and became a Warden of the Merchant Tailors Company on 4th July 1594. He married late, in 1597, when he was already a man of substance and could look for a wife who was younger but was of equal wealth and stature. Elizabeth Whitmore was the daughter of William Whitmore, another merchant tailor, and her brother George went on to be Lord Mayor of London. Elizabeth and William Craven had six children.

William was by now well on the way to making a fortune and moving up in the fluid social world of the Elizabethan middle class. Opportunities provided by trade gave men such as Craven a route not merely to money but also to influential municipal connections. He was elected Alderman of the Bishopsgate Ward of London in 1600, became Sheriff of London in 1601, was knighted in 1603 and became Lord Mayor of London in 1610. He made his money in the wholesale of cloth for the domestic market, providing, for example, cloth worth almost £600 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth I. Later on in his career he became a moneylender to the aristocracy, and his debtors included Sir Robert Cecil, the 2nd Earl of Essex and the 9th Earl of Northumberland.

Craven was associated with a number of charitable projects in London and he also became a benefactor to Burnsall and Appletreewick. He paid for renovations to St Wilfrid's Church Burnsall in 1612, furnishing the main body of the church and the chancel with seats and "stalls of wainscot" and he walled the churchyard and had gates added. He paid for a bridge to be built over the River Wharf and had a causeway built from Appletreewick to the church. This was visible until the mid-20th century but is now buried. A rather charming verse was painted onto the church wall to record Craven's generosity:

This church of beauty most, repaired and bright,

Two hundred pouds or more, did cost Sir William Craven, knight,

Many other works of charity whereof no mention here;

True tokens of his bounty in this parish did appear.

His place of his nativity in Appletreewick is seen,

And late of London Lord City Mayor he hath been.

There is a second verse in a similar vein referring to "that bountiful knighte" and his genersoity once again! The total sum Craven spent restoring the church and its grounds was about £600, the equivalent of about £80,000 today.

Craven also built and endowed Burnsall Grammar School in 1605, giving £20 per annum to pay a schoolteacher and £10 for an usher (assistant schoolmaster). The scholars received free education in Latin and English but had to pay one shilling a week for tuition in Maths. The school statutes give a fascinating insight into both Sir William's benevolent paternalism and into the influence which the rest of his family were already exerting in local affairs. All documents relating to the governance of the school were to be kept in a chest in the schoolhouse. The chest had three locks and the three keys were held by the Rector of Burnsall, Sir William and his relatives Robert and Antony Craven. The keys were handed down through the family and the statutes decreed that they should be held by "two men of the name of Craven from the Parish of Burnsall" for as long as there were Craven descendents in the parish.

The school was built on land given by Sir Stephen Tempest, the local squire. The Tempest family had been well-established in the Appletreewick area for three hundred years; it would be interesting to know how they felt about the re-appearance of the newly rich and knighted Sir William Craven in a county where they had always been influential, especially as in 1601 Craven bought the manor house Elm Tree in Appletreeewick, which he re-named High Hall. It was situated opposite the cottage where he had been born. Again this seems a significant statement in Craven's rise to eminence.

When Sir William Craven died in 1618 he left a fortune of £125,000, the equivalent of £5.3 billion in today's values which enable his widow and sons to buy a considerable landed estate and his surviving daughters to marry into the aristocracy.

It was said of the later Cravens that Sir William made all the money and subsequent generations spent it. Whilst this is somewhat unfair, a look at the family tree serves to demonstrate the difference that one "boy-made-good" could make to the future of an entire family. Craven's eldest son William went on to become the first Earl of Craven, a notable soldier and the builder of Ashdown and other grand houses. His second son John became Baron Craven of Ryton. One of his cousins became Master of the Horse to Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia and another became her usher. Several other Craven nephews and cousins were knighted and married into the aristocracy. Perhaps the most interesting early descendent is Mary Craven who became Lady Andros. As a result of her connection to the first Earl of Craven she gained a place at the court of King Charles II and went on to marry Sir Edmund Andros, gentleman in waiting to Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia and later one of the early colonial governors of America. Mary died in Boston in 1688. It was a long way from Appletreewick and a graphic illustration of how high the Craven family had risen on the coattails of one man.

References: Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.richestoftherich.com/richlist.php?richindex=133 , A Short History of Burnsall School by Stockdale and Townend, Burnsall Church and its Story by M L Dawson.

Below Stairs - The Life of A Victorian Servant at Ashdown House

During the Victorian period the Craven family occupied Ashdown House on a permanent basis. This was the only time in the history of the house that it became a proper home and the nineteenth century census records give us fascinating details of both the family upstairs and the servants downstairs. This information is taken from a presentation I give about life at Ashdown in the Victorian period.

In fact the servants were not “downstairs” at Ashdown because the house was so small that there was no servant accommodation in the main building. During the Victorian period additional wings were added to the main house to convert it into the sort of dwelling suitable for a Victorian aristocrat and at the same time the servants’ accommodation was extended. The servants also lived in the two lodge houses and some had homes in Ashdown village. Others walked to work each day from Lambourn, Ashbury, Uffington, Idstone and the surrounding villages.

At Ashdown House the census returns for the nineteenth century illustrate beautifully how a Victorian servants hall would run. The upper servants were the steward or butler, the housekeeper, the cook, the senior lady’s maid and senior valet, the head gardener and the coachman. The steward’s room boy waited on them. They did not eat in the servants’ hall but separately in the butler’s pantry. There were two ladies maids, one for the Countess and one for her elder daughters. The ladies maids earned between £12 and £15 per annum. There were also two valets, one for the Earl of Craven and one for his brother. They earned more – naturally.

At Ashdown the butler’s pantry had cupboards for storage and a table for cleaning. The room was at the front of the house and it had a view of the approach to the house so that the butler could see visitors coming and open the door in advance. It was also his job to iron the newspapers in the morning! He was responsible for all indoor male servants except the valets. He was in charge of the silver plate (though it was the footmen who actually cleaned it), the drink and the table linen, and he was also in charge of the safe.

There were three footmen at Ashdown in 1871 plus one steward’s room man. The footmen waited at table at dinner. They also had duties outside including carrying in the coal, they trimmed the lamps and they stood around looking good! Servant tax was higher on taller servants and people often chose matching footmen because they looked elegant in their livery. They attended the family on outings in London such as to the theatre or opera, riding on the back of the carriage to stop children hitching a free ride. Footmen earned £15 - £25 and could also make a considerable sum in tips. At Ashdown we have a collection of footmen’s chairs from the eighteenth century which were designed so that the footman could sit down facing the back of the chair in order not to crush the tailcoat of his livery.

In the 1861 census the Ashdown House cook was male and French. This was extremely fashionable. He had three kitchen maids and one scullery maid to assist him and they worked in the South Lodge where the kitchen, bakery and brewery were situated. Having the kitchens away from the main house was ideal for the family because as well as reducing the fire risk it also kept kitchen smells away from the main house. Various cunning methods were employed to keep the food warm on its journey across the courtyard from kitchen to dining room. The kitchen and scullery maids at Ashdown were all in their teens or early twenties and they helped prepare the food and did the washing up. All the servants worked from 6am to 11pm. By the Victorian era the kitchen at Ashdown was quite advanced with complexes of roasting ranges, closed ranges, stewing stoves, boiling stoves, turnspits, hotplates and hot closets. Food was kept cold in boxes cooled with ice from the icehouse in the village behind the stables. Larders were kept cool by natural ventilation. There was also a specialised game larder at Ashdown because of the importance of shooting on the estate.

The housekeeper was in charge of the housemaids, of which there were three at Ashdown, and one stillroom maid. She was responsible for cleaning the house, looking after the linen, and providing, storing and preparing tea, coffee, sugar, groceries, preserves, cakes and biscuits. Afternoon tea (which was introduced in the 1840s) added to her responsibilities. She had a room of her own, was in charge of the stillroom, and also presided over a storeroom and closet. At Ashdown the housekeeper’s room contained the china cupboards and linen presses but was a parlour as well.

The housemaids were responsible for drawing the blinds and curtains – and closing the internal shutters at Ashdown - for bringing fresh water for washing before breakfast, at noon, before dinner and at bedtime, and for keeping the fires going. In 1850 the housemaids were paid between £11 and £14. They had a half-day off on Sundays, one evening a week free and one day off per month. Not exactly a generous allocation!

The census returns and estate records give a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Ashdown servants in the Victorian era. In future pieces I will write more about the outdoor servants and their roles, and also about “Upstairs” – the life led by the Victorian Earls of Craven and their families. If you are interested in the role of Victorian servants drop me a line and I will be very happy to email this complete article to you.