The Fasionable Villebois Family who deprived their poor of their rights.

The Parish of Marham was once famed for its cherry and walnut orchards. The orchards were felled for use by gun manufactures during the Napoleonic wars. It was around this time that Marham came under the lordship of the Villebois family.¹ The two Henry Villebois’, father and son, had their country seat at Marham House. Henry senior (1777-1847) built it with the fabulous wealth he obtained as a major shareholder in London’s Truman brewery. Henry senior was the great-grandson of William Villebois, a French dance teacher who married one of his pupils. That pupil was Francis Truman, the grand-daughter of Sir Benjamin Truman and the founder of Truman’s Brewery. When Sir Benjamin died, he left the bulk of his estates worth £330,000. This amount is the equivalent today of some £460million. He left it to John & William Truman Villebois who became majority shareholders in Truman’s Brewery. These shares remained in possession of the males of the family until the death of Henry Villebois junior in 1886.²

Each generation of the Villebois family showed little interest in their vast brewery empire. Their primary passion was hunting during the winter months. While they spent their summers in their mansion houses in Belgravia or Gloucestershire.

It was hunting for game which, in 1803, first brought Henry Villebois senior to our region. He began purchasing recently enclosed lands at Marham. There, he installed his fox and stag hounds. Each season his fox hounds met in various local villages; Stoke Ferry, Methwold, Barton Bendish, Fincham, Gooderstone, etc., as well as on the Marham estate. Early newspaper notices record: “FASHIONABLE DEPARTURES…Mr. and Mrs. Henry Villebois for Marham, near Stoke Ferry, in Norfolk…”; and “HUNTING APPOINTMENTS…Mr. H. Villebois’s harriers, on Monday, at Oxburgh [sic]; Wednesday, Stoke Ferry Field ; Saturday, at the Town Barn, Swaffham, at eleven.”

After a day’s hunting there were sumptuous feasts with fine wines. Lavish Hunt Dinners and stylish Balls were held at Marham, Swaffham, King’s Lynn, etc. One feast is recorded for 1829; “Mr. H. Villebois’s hunt dinner took place…at the Crown Inn, Stoke Ferry; a large party attended, and after a number of loyal toasts and hunting songs, the gentlemen returned home thoroughly gratified”. As well as fox and stag hunting, the Villebois’ also organised hare coursing and the mass shooting of game birds.

The hunt-obsessed philanderer, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), became close friends with Henry junior. This Henry went on to run the Sandringham Hunt.³ He spent summers sailing his luxury yacht (part of the Royal Yacht Squadron) on the Solent. After the death of his father in 1847, he sold all the livestock and farming equipment in the Marham area. He also leased off his farms. But his lack of interest in farming did not prohibit him from becoming President of the Norfolk Agricultural Association in 1880!

As well being local magistrates, the two Henry’s were, in turn, the High Sheriff, and the Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk. Henry junior was an active member of the Conservative Party’s ‘one nation’ Primrose League. He was also a Freemason.

In 1831 Henry Villebois married Maria Bagge. Maria was the daughter of Thomas Philip Bagge and Grace Salisbury. She was also the sister to William Bagge, who later became MP and first Baronet of Stradsett.

Memorials and contemporary newspapers and journals record the two Henry’s in glowing terms. Descriptions include “the perfect model of English gentlemen”. Other descriptions include “genial manners and kind-hearted”. They are also described as “endeared to all classes of society from the Royal to the humblest cottager”. But is that wholly true? What happened to those common folk? They suffered from the enclosure of their common lands and the imposition of the Game Laws.

In 1869, influential landowners in and around Marham took action. They moved to arbitrarily deprive the poor of their rights to “cut turves for fuel.” They also deprived them of the right of agisment on fens and marshes on Marham Fen. This Fen was typical of ‘marginal land.’ It had escaped enclosure and cultivation. It was used instead to provide meager resources for the poor. The landowners’ scheme was that the ‘owners’ of the newly enclosed Fen land were to pay an annual rent. This rent money was to be dispersed amongst the poor of Marham. The plan was supported by The Poor’s Allotment, a charity run by the local church wardens. It was also supported by Henry Villebois, Lord of the Manors of Oldhall, West Acre and Marham. Another supporter was Sir Thomas Hare, Lord of the Manors of Newhall & Shouldham. Practically every poor resident signed a petition against the plan. There was an attempt to mark out the Fen lands for enclosure. Two hundred women ‘armed’ with frying pans and tin-boilers confronted the local constabulary and several officials. These officials then had to stop their work. Twenty-eight of these women were then charged with affray and taken before the Magistrates at Downham. Eventually, the strength of local feeling forced Henry Villebois junior to attend a meeting. He heard the objections of the poor. They opposed the landowners’ effort to “make Marham one of the poorest Parishes in Norfolk”. As a result, an inquiry was established. Twenty acres of land was set aside for the taking of turves. Another 40-50 acres was set aside for garden allotments. The land in question is now owned by the Marham Poor’s Trust.

Here are names of just some local males punished for crimes on Villebois property and their hunting grounds:

• Robert Carter, Watt Mason, William Goddard, George Hobbs; charged with shooting at Villebois gamekeepers, sentenced to transportation for life.(Norfolk Chronicle, 5 April 1851)
• John  Boughen charged with stealing a Peck of potatoes value 8d, property of Henry Villebois, seven days imprisonment. (Norfolk News, 6 September 1852)
• Richard Hitchings, John Hitchings, Ruben Oats, and William Martis were four little boys. They were charged by a Villebois’s gamekeeper with poaching for rabbits. Each was fined 3s.6d.
• James Hardy, 19, stealing a bridle belonging to Henry Villebois, gaoled for one month. (Norfolk Chronicle, 12 July 1845)
• T. Holden, laborer of Marham, for day poaching on the Villebois estate. He was fined 40s and 13s costs. In default of payment, he was to be imprisoned for two months. (Norwich Mercury, 24 March 1860)
•  Edward Hudson, labourer, of Narborough, charged by a Villebois’ gamekeeper of using traps to take game, fined 6s. and 14s. costs. (Norfolk News, 6 October 1866)
• Two Villebois gamekeepers were involved in an armed struggle with George Ripper, William Newton and Robert Burton, all of Swaffham, who were night poaching at “The Contract”, near Narborough. The sentences for George and William are unknown, but Robert was sentenced to two moths imprisonment. (Norfolk News, 11 February 1871)
• Robert Brown of Narborough, charged by a Villebois gamekeeper of using a snare to take and kill game, fined 18s. and 12s. costs. (Norfolk Chronicle, 12 November 1881)
• Henry Mason, labourer, and Walter Blye, dealer, both of Fincham, charged by a Villebois gamekeeper of poaching near ‘Devils Ditch’, each fined £1 and 11s costs.(Thetford and Watton Times, 27 May 1882)
• John Watkins and Edward Shafto, charged by a Villebois gamekeeper with stealing six pheasants eggs, each fined 5s. for every egg and 10s. 6d. costs; making £2.0s.6d each. (Thetford and Watton Times, 27 May 1882)
• John Holden, labourer of Marham, using a lurcher dog for poaching a hare, fined 20s and costs of 14s 6d. (Lynn Advertiser, 23 December 1882)

Notes of interest: In the 1930s, most of Marham House was demolished. It was re-built using original materials in 1937. The house was fully refurbished around 2005. Today within Marham there are nods to the past with a Villebois Road, a Walnut Walk, and a Cherry Close.

1. For more on the Villebois family visit our post on Game Laws. ↩︎
2. When Henry Villebois junior died, Truman’s brewery, with operations in London, East England, and Burton-on-Trent, ceased to be family-owned. ↩︎
3. Originally there were no foxes at Sandringham, they had to be introduced and ‘preserved’ to allow fox hunting to take place. ↩︎