Caynham Village History
The Curtis Family
Originally from Nottingham the Curtis family who owned Caynham Court from 1852 to
1945 moved to London in the 17th century where they set up a successful biscuit company
supplying the Royal Navy. On the death of his father in 1778 William Curtis, together
with his brothers, expanded the company and gained considerable influence in the
City of London. William Curtis (1752-1829) became Lord Mayor of London in 1795 and
was MP for the City of London almost continuously from 1790 to 1826. His interests
increased massively into shipping, the East India Company, banking, insurance, and
a number of other activities, to the extent that he never had a desire to climb the
political ladder but rather wield influence over a broad spectrum of business life.
Successively, he was Commanding Officer, Honorary Colonel, and President of The Honourable
Artillery Company (HAC), to which he presented two fine cannons, there to this day
at the main entrance. Also, he was a particular friend of the Prince Regent, later
George IV, and was invited to accompany the King on the first visit by a Hanovarian
Monarch to Scotland, in 1824, which he did by travelling from Ramsgate (Kent) to
Edinburgh in his magnificent yacht, Emma. He was created a Baronet in 1802, and belatedly
declined the honour of a Peerage, despite arrangements having been made to become
Lord Tenterden (in Kent). On his death at his home at Cullands Grove (north London)
it was reflected that he had lived a very full life in an exceptional period in English
history, was a friend or acquaintance of the high and mighty of the day, and had
earned a very considerable fortune through his business enterprise and acumen.
The eldest son, also William Curtis (1782-1847), inherited the title and continued
involvement with several of his father's interests, whilst his brothers also participated
in other ventures previously set up by their father. It was William Curtis (1804-1870),
3rd Baronet, who bought Caynham Court in 1852. At the time, his son, another William,
was being tutored on leaving Eton College for the Oxford University entrance examination
by James Wayland Joyce a noted academic and the rector of Burford, near Tenbury Wells.
He discovered that the Caynham Court estate was on the market and entreated his father,
who was living at Netheravon House in Wiltshire, to view it and thereafterwards buy
it. Sadly in 1860 this same son who had been the instigator of the acquisition died,
but fortuitously he had married the year before and a son, William, later the 4th
Baronet, was born subsequently that year (1859). In 1870 the 3rd Baronet died. Sir
William Michael Curtis, 4th Baronet, inherited the Caynham Court estate at the tender
age of ten before entering Eton College. He developed a great interest in hunting
and was master of the Eton Beagles which he brought home on several occasions to
specially built kennels on Catholic Hill, opposite the Court.
After leaving school he went up to Oxford University and was master of the Christ
Church Beagles 1880-82. This was followed by mastership of the Ludlow Hunt from 1886
to 1907; he built the present kennels at Caynham and was acknowledged to be an extraordinary
instinctive popular and daring Master during his tenure. Sir William, despite his
age volunteered for the 1914-18 war and served in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry,
succumbing to pneumonia in 1916 in France, and sadly though he returned home he was
unable to recover. He was succeeded by Sir Francis Egerton Curtis 5th Baronet, a
1st cousin, who never lived at Caynham and died in 1943.
In 1927 Edward Beaumont Cotton Curtis (EBCC), a second cousin of Sir William Curtis,
4th Baronet, bought Caynham Court and approximately 100 acres of land from Georgina
Lady Curtis, the widow and second wife of the 4th Baronet, in order to retain the
property in the family. His wife was Constance Mary (nee Grey) who was the youngest
sister of Viscount Grey of Falloden, the ex-Foreign Secretary and great naturalist,
who frequently stayed at the Court. In 1933 their son, Peter, who was a serving officer
in the 16th/5th The Queens Royal Lancers, the fashionable cavalry regiment, and a
keen participant with the Ludlow Hunt received a serious head injury whilst riding
in the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown. However on recovery he married in 1934,
and he and his wife moved into Caynham Court in 1936 with their baby son, William.
The parents rented nearby was owned by Mrs Constance Harrisson, the eldest daughter
of the 4th Baronet by his first wife who had very sadly died in childbirth. EBCC
died in 1939 and in 1940 Peter and Joan Curtis moved out of the Court to Caynham
Cottage and allowed Lancing College to use the house (Lancing College evacuated the
whole school from near Brighton to the Ludlow area during the 1939-45 war; several
large houses were taken over for boarding purposes whilst the centre of learning
was at Moor Park, Richards Castle). After a tragic fatal accident in 1943 to their
second son (Anthony), Peter Curtis, who had just succeeded to the Baronetcy as the
6th Baronet, and his family moved south, where both he and Joan had spent their early
life. Caynham Court was sold for £10,000 in 1945 to Miss Leisching who founded and
ran an exclusive domestic science school for a number of years to about 1960. Sir
Peter Curtis died in 1976 and his son, Sir William (Billy) Curtis, 7th Baronet, lives
at Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire. He occasionally visits Caynham and his cousin,
who lives in the Ludlow area.
(Grateful acknowledgements to Lady Mott-Radclyffe [daughter of Mrs Constance Harrisson
and granddaughter of Sir William Curtis, 4th Baronet], and to Major Edward Curtis,
cousin of Sir William Curtis, 7th Baronet.