The Beaumonts' House at Darton

The internet and libraries are awash with references to "Beaumont of the Oaks." That is muddle. This article - which replaces two earlier ones - suggests how it may have arisen.

Two old houses in Darton that were still standing into the twentieth century were Darton Hall, and the house at Oaks.

Evidence suggests
- that the Beaumonts had a house in Darton from 1617 and lived in it for over 100 years, and
- that that house was the one that became called Darton Hall, but

- that Oaks was not the home of the Beaumonts before the 1770s, and if it was their home then, it was only so for a few years.

Firstly, Darton Hall:-

George Beaumont purchased "Hill House" at Darton in 1617.

He and his descendants lived in that house until the death of his great grandson George Beaumont in early 1736. The name Hill house is given in 1617 and in a few other documents but most documents referring to the family usually simply say "of Darton," and do not give the name of the house. Sometimes the house is referred to as for example "the house wherein Mr Beaumont dwells." The names of parcels associated with the house are sometimes repeated, demonstrating it through to 1736 to be the same property as in 1617.

The eldest son of George Beaumont (d.1736) was Thomas Beaumont Esq, who in 1751 married Anna. They lived for about twenty years at Chapelthorpe, in a house belonging to his clergyman uncle, of Nottingham.

During the 1770s they moved to Darton, but I do not know which house they lived in.

Here is Darton Hall, shown from a post card:

I have not seen the name Darton Hall much before the nineteenth century.

A survey of the lands of Colonel T R Beaumont c.1806-1808 mentions a tenant with about 70 acres. The house in this tenancy is not given a name in this survey but the survey map shows it to be Darton Hall. When he married, which was in 1786, the report in the local paper had called him Thomas Richard Beaumont, of Darton-House, Esq (Leeds Intelligencer).

An article in 1850 refers to Darton-Hall as “formerly the residence of a branch of the Beaumont family.....” The article adds “The structure, which is an ancient pile of architecture, still remains, and is occupied as a farm house” (Huddersfield Chronicle 3 Aug. 1850).

Here is the site of Darton Hall:

Here is a map of a larger area before all the modern developments:-

There is also a description of Darton Hall from about 1868. The text, from William Stott Banks, Walks About Wakefield, 1871 pp. 412-414, leads on from a description of the obelisk that was then standing.

"At the bottom of the field where it [the obelisk] now stands is a low Elizabethan house with outbuildings and good walled garden and summer house, called Darton hall, now used as a farmstead. Over the front door has been a date, but it would impossible without local knowledge to say what it was. The letters A.D. and the figures 15- are barely legible. The last two figures of the year are gone. The present [footnote indicates the year 1868] tenant, who was born in the house and has known it thirty years, is certain about the 15-. This was the home of that branch of the Beaumont family of which Wentworth Blackett Beaumont Esq of Bretton hall is the present head.”

(Added 15 April 2019: for the later story of Darton Hall please see a piece I am writing today).

Secondly, Oaks:-
My late uncle thought Oaks was the old Beaumont home and took the trouble to go there with his camera in about 1953. His photograph shows the initials and date IHA 1679 over the door.

The H refers to Hutchinson. Jane wife of "Richard Hutchinson of Oakes" died in 1744 and was buried in Darton church. Both the Parish Register and a stone slab record where she lived. Richard Hutchinson was one of several people who owed money to George Beaumont (d.1736).

Shortly after this, in 1745, Thomas Beaumont purchased Oaks from the Hutchinson family (Yorks Arch Soc DD70/97). I have only seen this from the catalogue, which refers to there being earlier deeds and an abstract of title - these would confirm the earlier ownership.

Thomas Beaumont did not go to live at Oaks then. In fact he didn't live in Darton at all to start with. He went to live at Chapelthorpe in his uncle's house until the 1770s, when he and his wife did return to Darton. I simply don't know which of their Darton properties they lived in then.

There is conflicting information - (a) an indication that he and his son sold "Oakes" in 1780 (Bretton archives BEA/C3/B14/3 - this was perhaps actually a mortgage); however (b) the survey of c.1806-1808 mentioned above confirms that his son still owned Oaks then, and that it was then occupied by a tenant with about 58 acres.

My late father took this photograph in 1960 of the bungalow that had by then replaced the old house at Oaks. At that stage he still thought that Oaks had been the old family home, so he did not photograph Darton Hall, though I think it was still standing then.

Since 1960 much of the field in the foreground has been covered with houses.

Did any Beaumonts ever live at Oaks?

Firstly I think the evidence points to none of the Beaumonts living permanently at Darton much after 1736, except for the period circa 1775-1785. So that decade seems to be the only period when any Beaumonts may have lived at Oaks.

Mr Banks was unhappy about the whole Oaks thing! His text continues:

"They were called Beaumonts of the Oaks in Darton. The house now called the Oaks, a farm house a quarter of a mile eastward of the hall, occupies a more commanding position, being in this respect much to be preferred. According to the inscription over the door, the present Oaks farm house was not built by a Beaumont.  [Banks then notes the inscription, exactly as my uncle's photograph, and concludes that the house was built by John Hutchinson (in 1679)]

[Banks' main text continues]:- "Supposing the hall figures to be rightly given, that dwelling is, as it looks, a century older than this; so that the Beaumonts if ever resident at this particular spot [meaning Oaks] must have had a house here which is not now in existence. Or was the whole of this end of Darton, including the ground where the hall stands called the Oaks? 

The last bit has gone off into speculative muddle. Banks presumably didn't know that George Beaumont bought Hill House in 1617.

Conclusions

Thomas Beaumont Esq and his wife Anna moved from Chapelthorpe to Darton in the 1770s. Thomas was still at Chapelthorpe in 1771 when his clergyman uncle who was the life tenant of the estate there died. Thomas was his uncle's executor and was left certain property by him but the life interest of Chapelthorpe now passed to Thomas' younger brother George, another clergyman. I have the impression that relations between the brothers were only luke-warm. George died in 1773 and by 1776 Chapelthorpe Hall Farm was being let. Therefore it would seem that Thomas and Anna moved to Darton between 1771 and 1776.

Anna died in 1778 (reputedly the obelisk marked the spot where she was killed by a bull) and he in 1785.

Thomas was a principal landowner in Darton and presumably lived either at Oaks or Darton Hall. Whilst this is guesswork I rather doubt if there was any other suitable house in Darton.

As Banks says, the position of Oaks was better (amazing view), and the house a hundred years younger. Thomas had spent much of his childhood at Hill House / Darton Hall, but who knows, perhaps he didn't like it, or his wife didn't. If Oaks was where they went to live, perhaps the whole muddle flows from someone who knew that, and assumed Oaks to be his family's house before, which it wasn't.

Banks begged the question who called them Beaumonts of the Oaks. Who was responsible for this? I suspect the historian Joseph Hunter (1783-1861). I'd be interested to know if the phrase "of the Oaks" appears in this context anywhere earlier than his "South Yorkshire." I think this was published between 1829-1831 but must have been based on information Hunter had collected earlier. In context of Darton church, he says: 

Of the Beaumonts, of the Oaks, in Darton, now of Bretton-Hall there are 

several monumental memorials.....
(South Yorkshire, ii. p.372)

Hunter certainly knew about Thomas Beaumont and Anna, and apparently visited Darton, where he noted the memorials in the church and the latin text on the obelisk, of which he was very critical:-

For the honour of the nation, it is to be wished that when country gentlemen erect public

monuments, they would call in the aid of a scholar to supply the inscriptions.” 

(South Yorkshire, ii. p.373)

Cataloguing errors

Lastly, I fear that some archive summaries read "of the Oaks" where the original document merely states "of Darton." I hope that correct summaries will be made at West Yorkshire Archives, where many of the papers have recently been sent.

Sources: As always, documents in this archive and from the DD70 papers that were at the Yorks. Arch. Soc. The story about Anna Beaumont being killed by a bull was told to my father by a cousin. The parish register however records that she died of "Cholick."

(May 2017)
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Added 6 September 2019 a couple more references to Oaks during the seventeenth centurey, when the Beaumonts lived at Darton:-

(1) 1637. The Will of Richard Hutchenson [of] “Okes, par. Darton” was dated 29 August 1637 and was proved in January 1637/8 (YAS Record Series vol.4 p.22)… Richard Huchenson was actually buried at Darton in Sept. 1637 (Parish Register).

(2) 16 November 1648. Grant by Peter Bradbery and Ann, his wife, to Thomas Haighe of Maplewell and Richard Tottington of the Oakes in Darton, of a messuage in Blomehouse Green and closes belonging called Broad Royds. (Was DD70/31; will be WYW1849/7/31/5) [A Richard Tottington had married a Mary Hutchinson at Darton in 1642 (Parish Register)].
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E.T. Beaumont and his book "The Beaumonts in History"

The full title is "The Beaumonts in History AD 850-1850."
The author was Edward Thomas Beaumont.

His father owned a Draper's business in Oxford.

ETB was the author also of a book on ancient memorial brasses. He published the Beaumont book privately in about 1929, and died a couple of years later, aged about 80. Here he is from his photograph in the book:-

I still have the copy of the book that my grandfather presumably subscribed for at first publication. It is in excellent condition and still has its advertisement "flyer."

The text of this book is easily readable on the internet and it is unfortunate that in so many places, it seems to be referred to as if it were an authoritative work. It isn't.

It is a remarkable work in many ways but contains numerous errors. It is also quite saturated with snobbery: everyone a high achiever; every wife an heiress; no black sheep allowed!

Use with caution and always check sources.

(A note on ETB himself:- Though I can't be sure without trawling through the book, I don't think he says anything in it about his own background. It seems to me that his father was another Edward Beaumont 1818-1861, the owner of a draper's business at Oxford, and the maiden name of his mother Elizabeth was Thomas. His grandfather was Thomas Beaumont c.1781-1848, who came from Herefordshire but ended his days in Cheltenham. ETB married Emily Maria Crow and they had four children of whom the youngest, George E Beaumont, was an eminent doctor).

(May 2017)