The Bagehot family were key players in the development of Langport as a prosperous trading hub. In these endeavours, they were allied with the important Stuckey family, both in business and by marriage.
The Bagehot family can be traced back to the sixteenth century, when, named Baghott, they were flourishing in Prestbury, Gloucestershire, and later in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, where they followed careers as solicitors and surgeons. Walter’s great-grandfather, Thomas (1719-1780), moved to Langport in 1747 and changed his name to Bagehot. He established himself as a maltster in premises in ‘Up Street’ (now The Hill), and went into partnership with George Stuckey (1697-1775), father of Samuel Stuckey, the founder of Stuckey’s Bank.
George Stuckey’s grandson, Vincent, became the first Chairman of Stuckey’s Banking Co, and was regarded as a prominent and successful businessman. Vincent’s sister, Edith, George’s youngest granddaughter, married Thomas Watson Bagehot (Walter’s father) in 1823, thereby joining the two great Langport families together. Walter, their only surviving child, was born in 1826.
Studio portraits of Thomas Watson (who was known as ‘Watson’) and Edith show them in typical Victorian poses:
Edith Bagehot (nee Stuckey) 1786-1870
Edith, who was born in about 1786, was ten years older than Thomas Watson, and had been married before. Her first husband, Joseph Prior Estlin of Bristol, whom she married in 1806, died after only five years of marriage, leaving her with three young sons. The eldest, Vincent (1807-1869), was simple-minded from birth, and the other two, George Stuckey (1809-1829) and Joseph Prior (1811-1821), died young. Edith and Thomas Watson’s first child, also called Watson, died in 1827 aged 3.
These tragedies affected Edith badly, and she suffered from periods of insanity for the rest of her life. Her ill-health was the major cause of Walter giving up his proposed law career in London and returning to Langport in 1852 to work at Stuckey’s bank. As Walter’s sister-in-law, and biographer, Emilie Barrington, commented: “This was the tragedy of his life, the iron that entered into the soul.” She died on 21 February 1870 (contrary to the inscription on the gravestone), and was buried in the family grave at All Saints’ Langport on 26 February, after a funeral procession from Herd’s Hill through Langport, where all the shops were closed, and the blinds drawn in the private houses.
Thomas Watson Bagehot 1795-1881
Thomas Watson (often called just Watson by his family) was born in 1795, the son of Robert (‘Codrington’) and Mary (née Watson) Bagehot. He inherited Herd’s Hill by his father’s will in 1836, and moved his family from Bank House, Cheapside. Thomas was a Unitarian (whereas Edith was Anglican), and he held Sunday services at home in the morning. Walter attended these, then went with his mother to Church later in the day. He married Edith Stuckey on 9 August 1823, took a great interest in developing the grounds of Herd’s Hill, was a keen amateur painter, and was active in civic affairs, being five times Portreeve in the town (1818, 1829, 1844, 1853, 1864). He held various senior positions in Stuckey’s Bank in Langport, both in relation to the local branch and in its HQ there for the ever-expanding banking group.
A local story has it that he was so punctual and regular in his daily journey from home to the Bank that people set their watches as he passed their windows. His career was recognised by the Bank, such that on his retirement, they established a welfare fund for their clerks in his name, the Bagehot Testimonial Trust. He died on 6 November 1881 (thereby outliving Walter by several years), and was buried in the family grave at All Saints’ Langport on 12 November. Langport Corporation attended Sunday services the next day in recognition of his civic activities.
Eliza Bagehot (nee Wilson) 1832-1921
Eliza (actually Elizabeth), Walter’s wife, was the daughter of James and Elizabeth (Preston) Wilson, born in Southwark on 16 December 1832, one of six sisters. James Wilson was a Liberal MP and Minister, who also founded The Economist in 1843. This latter attribute was the catalyst for Eliza and Walter meeting in January 1857 when the young banker visited Wilson at his home, Claverton Manor, near Bath, hoping to be commissioned to write for the publication. Eliza and Walter wrote love letters to each other, which were later published by her sister, Emilie Barrington; became engaged in November 1857, and married the following April at Claverton. You can read a detailed account of their courtship and wedding here. She kept a diary for 70 years from 1851 until her death, which, although not full of sparkling prose or great insight, shone an invaluable light not only on Walter’s life and career, but on many aspects of late Victorian and early 20th century middle-class life in London and Langport.
Following Walter’s early death in 1877, she devoted much of her time perpetuating his memory and legacy, such as commissioning the magnificent West Window in his honour at Langport Church in 1879. She maintained a close interest in the family’s financial and business affairs (including Stuckey’s Bank and The Economist), especially after 1877, in which, had she been a man, she would most likely been more professionally involved. Her sister, Emilie, lived with her in London and at Herd’s Hill, and encouraged her to improve her properties with William Morris furnishings and the like. Eliza died on 11 October 1921 at Herd’s Hill – the final entry in her diary was by her maid: “Dear Mrs Bagehot passed away at 5:45 in the morning” – and is buried in the Bagehot family grave in All Saints’ Langport churchyard.
Guy Barrington 1869-1960
Guy, the only child of Emilie and Russell Barrington, was born at The Poplars, Wimbledon on 12 April 1869, and baptised at Wimbledon Parish Church. Emilie was the sister of Eliza Bagehot, wife of Walter, so Guy was Walter’s nephew .
As the Bagehots had done, the Barringtons split their time between their London home in Melbury Road, Holland Park, London and Herd’s Hill, especially after Eliza was widowed following Walter’s death in 1877, and Emilie in particular had a strong influence on Eliza, and the Bagehot legacy. After Eliza’s death in 1921, Emilie (by then widowed) and Guy lived on at Herd’s Hill. In her will, Eliza had left the bulk of her estate to Emilie for her use during her lifetime, and thereafter to Guy. When Emilie died in 1933, Herd’s Hill was eventually sold the following year, , thereby ending the Bagehot link to it and to Langport. Guy, with his second wife, Janet, can thus be regarded as the last of the Langport Bagehots.
When in the late 1950s, Walter’s biographer, Norman St John-Stevas, met the very elderly Guy in Taunton as part of his researches, he was told that, when just a boy of about 7 or 8, Guy was having breakfast with his uncle at Herd’s Hill. The boy was having problems opening his egg, and Walter encouraged him to persevere, saying “Go on, Guy, hit it hard. It has no friends.”
As a child, Guy suffered from learning difficulties. On one occasion, he refused to return to school and stayed out all night, forcing his mother to call in the aid of the Hampstead police to find him. The family tried to protect him from getting into trouble, which put an especial strain on his mother. He spent long periods abroad with family or a tutor, from which he learned to speak French.
The mental problems persisted throughout his life. He could cause embarrassment at dinner parties, when he would, without warning, lapse into vulgar attempts at humour. He often appeared as arrogant and boorish, and was teased by children, and probably patronised by adults. It was said that he was at his happiest when hunting or riding, but as he grew older, the locals in Langport felt sorry for his horse, Seagull, as he rode for hours through the streets of the town. In April 1897, he appeared before the Somerset County Petty Sessions, charged with being drunk in charge of a horse and trap between Stapleton Cross and Long Load. A police constable on duty there heard a trap coming towards him, and, as it passed, he saw that a man in it was “in a very intoxicated condition,” As he could not catch him on the spot, he went to Langport the following day to confront him. Guy was fined £1 with costs.
Despite all this, he took an active part in civic affairs as one of the senior gentry, especially after Emilie’s death in 1933. He was for a long period President of the Langport Institute, and opined on matters of local import, such as in a local newspaper survey of civic worthies in October 1928 about the threatened closure of Langport Grammar School.
He also helped host events which were held at Herd’s Hill, and participated in local fetes. For example, he was mentioned in a July 1926 Langport Herald report of the 2nd annual carnival and fete in aid of the British Legion, as appearing in the carnival’s mounted section as a ‘country gentleman’.
He was married twice, his first wife being Ida Geraldine Henrietta Ford of Bridgwater. The wedding took place on 4 June 1907 at Curry Rivel Church, which his mother ensured was lavishly decorated with white flowers from Herd’s Hill’s gardens, and the reception was held at Herd’s Hill. On their return from their honeymoon in Paris on 28 June, they arrived at Langport East station to what the Langport Herald described as “a very enthusiastic welcome.” When they set off in their carriage for Herd’s Hill, their horses were removed, and “a rope being attached they were drawn, headed by the Langport Town Band, in triumph through the town.” It must have been quite a sight!
They were married for only 9 years, and it seems that Ida was a closer to Emilie than to Guy. She was diagnosed with a tumour in 1916 and died after being operated on at the London Homeopathic Hospital just before Christmas. It was Emilie, not her husband, Guy, who sat up with her overnight during her final hours. Ida was buried in Curry Rivel Churchyard.
He married a second time, on 4 April 1918 in Kensington to Janet Malcolm, known as ‘Ettie’, ‘Nettie’ or ‘Neta’ (sources vary greatly on her name(s)). She too was active in civic affairs in Langport, and outlived Guy by a year, dying in 1961. She was also buried at Curry Rivel.Guy died at the Beauchamp House Nursing Home, Hatch Beauchamp, near Taunton, on 16 June 1960, aged 91, and was buried 5 days later at Curry Rivel Church. His wife Janet was too ill to attend the funeral. His estate was valued at just under £5,200, and his address was given as The Lawns, Castle Street, Taunton. It seems that on leaving Herd’s Hill after Emilie’s death in 1933, Guy and Janet went to live in London for a time, but returned to Langport during the War. A 1953 newspaper report has them living at the Langport Arms, but by the time Norman St John Stevas met up with him in the late 1950s, he reported that Guy was living in Taunton,
It has been claimed that Janet was responsible for the destruction of many of the papers of Bagehots, Wilsons and Barringtons, following the deaths of Emilie in 1933 and Guy in 1960. If this is even partly true, much of the wider Bagehot family story is lost forever.