Thursday, March 31, 2011

Kirby Misperton

For some time I’d felt I’d been born with all the snobbery of the rich, but none of their money. My mother would give me hints of wealthy ancestors and unspeakable scandals, of squandered fortunes and unscrupulous relations come to pick over the remains, but I could only wonder at how they’d spent it all so quickly and before I’d even had a chance to touch it. Near as I can tell, one day they all simply stopped doing the thing that had made them rich and settled into just being rich, until soon they weren’t rich any more.

My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, Richard Harris Tindall, for instance, was the last manager of the Scarborough shipyard before the harbour silted up and they closed the place down. He had a house in town—a sizeable pile named Paradise House just down the hill from the Castle—where he could oversee the whole operation. Four generations of Tindalls had called it home, but by 1918, long before I could have any say in the matter, it was simply another asset to be liquidated. Now, it’s just flats, where for a mere £139,500 I could, if I wanted, reclaim two-bedrooms’ worth of my legacy.
My irresponsible ancestors also owned a sprawling estate consisting of eleven farms on 1,791 acres, including the manse—Kirby Misperton Hall—located among 50 acres of pleasure grounds, gardens, and lakes. This had once been the seat of the Rev. F. N. Blomberg, Chaplain to King George IV, prebendary at St. Paul’s, and rumoured son of George III; but by 1863, the Tindalls had moved in. My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother’s brother, Robert, was Lord of the Manor, as were his sons to follow, until 1903, when they basically had to sell the whole spread. Today it’s a theme park called Flamingo Land.

Photo by Discover Yorkshire Coast on Flickr. Scarborough Castle is on the top of the hill. Paradise House is the first white mansion on the left.

26 comments:

  1. ouch! if that is a true story, it is heartwrenching! What a lost legacy, so sad!!! :(
    A nice read, thought it the first chapter of a book that you should write :)
    enjoy gooseberry day!
    my entry: http://lynnaima.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/of-me/

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  2. Interesting. I found some facts about my heritage from ancestor.com, but yours takes the cake.

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  3. Great story, very well told! Nice job!
    http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/mostly-about-the-past/

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  4. thank you for sharing this warm story

    http://zongrik.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/shipwreck/

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  5. great one.

    great great great great grandfather, wow.
    admirable linking.

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  6. Thank you for sharing this nice story.

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  7. Good one! How irresponsible of them not to leave you a fortune!

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  8. I know a bit of how you feel - born to be a princess, but all the positions had been taken. Actually, I am the great grandaughter of a Scottish Lord...albeit from the wrong side of the blanket. lol

    Leslie
    abcw team

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  9. My wife's family are distantly related to the Diana Spencers. Common ancestor, actually, prior to 1676.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  10. Fascinating - it is donkey years since we went KM and Flamingo Land had only just started then.

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  11. Genealogy is fascinating...until you find out things like this and begin to think of how things could have been different. But, fascinating all the same!

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  12. oh heck..not fun when only the snobbery is left... wealth can run through the fingers so quickly... sad.. it would've been cool to visit your uncle in paradise house i bet

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  13. Fascinating the ups and downs of family.. but sometimes the shrivel of aristocracy remains..

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  14. when we forget what go us where we are,
    we are soon to be doomed, that is for sure....

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  15. Oh, I think there are many families with tales of the rich ancestors... not mine though!

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  16. Just our luck to be born AFTER those times, hey? This is very entertaining...........in our family, we like to mourn all the places we let go that "could be worth a million" now.......sigh.

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  17. Very interesting read of the fortunes and misfortunes of your family ~ Too bad (or not) that you didn't have a slice of it before it went empty ~

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  18. Interesting story of your family!

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  19. fun to read...love biographical writing and you have a unique family indeed...

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  20. Great story, wonderful family details. I love the underlying writerly good humor.

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  21. what a story!...a great read....

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  22. Wow! One generation can impact the subsequent ones for sure!

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