Exhibition: The History of Walton Hall

Owners of Walton Hall: The Pinfolds

Captain Charles Pinfold c.1777-1857

There is no online baptism record for Charles Pinfold, the only son of Joseph and Martha Pinfold, but he was born in about 1777. In 1788, when he was 11 or 12 years old, Charles inherited the Walton estate from his uncle Charles Pinfold who had died childless. However he wasn’t able to take control of the estate until he reached the age of 21 in around 1797.

 

Charles served in the Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars. Some sparse army records still exist and there are a handful of newspaper notices relating to his service. In March 1795, aged about 18 years old, Charles was promoted from Ensign to Lieutenant in the 24^th Regiment of Foot (also known as the Warwickshire Regiment). By 1797 he was serving as both Lieutenant and Captain and was listed as a POW of the Napoleonic Wars. The record reveals that, along with others, he was exchanged for French prisoners and 'permitted to come to England'. He retired from the army on 17 December 1802.

 

On 23 May 1799, Charles married Fanny Williams (c.1780-1800) at St Marylebone Church in London. Fanny had an interesting background. She was a foundling, left in the care of Baron and Lady Amherst of Montreal Park in Sevenoaks, Kent in c.1781. An image of Montreal Park House appears on this page. The Amhersts had no children of their own and had already taken in the Baron’s brother William Amherst’s three children, left orphaned following the death of their parents. Fanny was also brought up as their daughter and given the name Fanny Williams. It has therefore been suggested that Fanny was the illegitimate daughter of William Amherst. Fanny was described in 1791 by the novelist Frances Burney: “I was pleased in seeing Miss Fanny Williams, as she is called, the young person who was left an infant at the door of Lady Amherst, and who is reputed to be the daughter of every woman of rank whose character, at that date, was susceptible of suspicion. She looks a modest and pretty young creature, and Lady Amherst brings her up with great kindness and propriety.”

 

Following their marriage, Charles and Fanny had one son – Charles John Pinfold who was born in December 1800 in Colchester. Tragically Fanny died shortly after the birth aged only about 21. She was buried on 28 December 1800 at All Saints Church in Colchester. Her son Charles was baptised at St Marylebone Church, London on 17 January 1801.

 

Later that same year, on 8 August 1801 at St Marylebone, Charles Pinfold remarried. His bride was Lady Maria Alicia Charlotte Stuart (1769-1841) who was the daughter of the Marquess of Bute, John Stuart and his wife Charlotte Jane, née Hickman-Windsor. Maria’s grandfather John Stuart, the 3^rd Earl of Bute served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763.

 

As well as owning Walton Hall the Pinfolds also rented Chicheley Hall near Newport Pagnell for many years. An image of the Hall photographed in 2021 can be viewed on this page. Charles and Maria's landlord, Charles Chester (1771-1838), preferred to spend his time in the court of the Prince Regent in London. According to author Peter Collins, writing about Chicheley Hall in 2011 - Maria Pinfold wanted a residence grander than Walton House, as it was known at the time.

 

Charles and Maria did not have any children. Their marriage lasted forty years although it seems that it wasn’t always a happy one. According to one of the Walton estate tenants, Henry Mundy, - who in later life wrote a diary and included memories of Charles Pinfold - Maria eventually moved to London permanently: “Owing, ‘tis said, to his cranky ways, his wife left him and went to live in London. After a year or two his wife died. The Squire yoked up two horses into a four-wheeled farm wagon, went to London for her body, rattled her at full gallop down to Walton, and buried her in Walton churchyard.” (From Hughes, (L) 2003, A Young Australian Pioneer Henry Mundy, Next Century Books).

 

Maria Pinfold actually died abroad in Ostend on 17 December 1841 aged 72 years. Her body may then have been repatriated to London from where Charles allegedly collected her. There is a grave next to Charles Pinfold's (who died 16 years later) which may be Maria's, but the inscription can no longer be deciphered and there is no record of whose headstone it is. However it does seem likely that Charles and Maria would have been buried close to one another and both headstones stand surrounded by iron railings - so most likely a Pinfold plot. The black and white image of the two graves on this page was taken in 1986 as the area is now very overgrown.