A View of the Squires

Image by Julian Dowse

Arriving at Peterborough bridge from the south in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century you would have been dazzled by the wealth of the Squires. They not only owned the countryside that you had just travelled through south of the Nene, but they owned the two buildings you were about to pass between like two enormous gatehouses into the city. As if that wasn’t enough, they also controlled the river that you were standing above and many of the buildings in the city too. You were in Squire country.

The building to the right of the bridge is, thankfully, still standing and is still as delightful as ever. It’s currently known as the Customs House or Old Customs House and is used by the local Sea Cadet unit. References in documents and books show it has had different names over the years including the Wharf and later Old Wharf. The construction date of the building is hugely debated, with 1790 being the most common belief, but early eighteenth century stated on the official listing (grade II). I have it on good authority that the original plans of the building exist with the correct date somewhere between the two and will report back when I have seen it!

The building to the left of the bridge, known as Bridge House, was sadly destroyed to make way for the Rivergate complex. For older Peterborough citizens, they would have walked or driven past Bridge House, or even been in it as a shop, and not realised that they were passing by a significant Georgian mansion as featured in the painting of the Squire children in Peterborough Museum (always worth a visit to see it in person).

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/wright-thomas-squire-d-1811-and-his-sister-charlotte-on-a-black-pony-50134

In its glory it would have looked incredible overlooking the Nene and the town bridge. South-facing, the honey-coloured ashlar sandstone façade would have appeared to glow in the summer sun and provided an excellent vista for a visitor arriving to the city, whether by land or water.

The family who lived there were hugely influential and, as you might imagine, had lots of business connections across the city and beyond. Wright Squire appears to have been the first of the Squire family to move to the city, although his father or another relative might have preceded him. He had been married to a woman called Ann, but tragically he lost Ann in 1751 and also his daughters Ann and Elizabeth. Wright married again and wed Mary Campin at St John's by licence in 1761. They had three sons; Wright Thomas Squire, (also known as both Wright and Thomas) who worked alongside his brother William as merchants, and their youngest brother John. I haven't been able to find a huge amount of information about John. In Wright's will of 1790 he left his property, lands and goods to Wright Thomas and William, but money to John and Mary. Another son Matthew died in 1779.

Wright Thomas and William continued the family mercantile business and were exceedingly fortunately placed when the decision was made to build the Norman Cross Prisoner of War Camp. It was the Squire family who met all of the camp's needs and Wright Thomas who mustered the officers who were staying in the city. And it was on their land – Squire Close – that the new arrivals for the camp disembarked and walked to their new prison. There are some great books on the camp, so I won't elaborate any further here.

Wright Thomas married Lucy Bigland in the city in 1778. The Biglands were a big deal in the city. Lucy's father loved to race his horses at the Peterborough Races and would compete against a William Squire and other landed gentry. Sadly Lucy’s father had died when she was only five years old. Lucy had only sisters, but their name and reputation would have had weight, as well as her 3,000 guinea dowry! If you’re doubting the importance of the Biglands because you’ve never heard of them, it might be worth knowing that they were descended from the Orme and Kennet families and you’ve possibly walked over them, because they have a ledger stones in the new building in the cathedral.

Wright and Lucy had five children; Lucy was born in 1780 followed by Mary Anna, Wright Thomas, William Walcot and Charlotte Sarah in 1791. Wright Thomas and Charlotte are the two children who feature in the portrait atop a horse in the museum. If you’ve heard of any of the Squires it is probably Charlotte, who was briefly married to Thomas Alderson Cooke, but she was the least significant of the Squire offspring. Wright Thomas – the heir to the Squire empire – sadly died in 1810, leaving wife Mary and two small children Fanny Eliza and William Thomas.

Wright Thomas senior had died in 1802, so William Walcot suddenly found himself as head of his family. He had thankfully been working with his father and uncle and appears to have been already involved in the running of their joint ventures. Wright Thomas junior had died without a will which ended up causing an argument in the family as William and William Walcot were taken to court by Lucy (sister-in-law and mother) on behalf of her grandchildren. They squabbled over land and money, Lucy being determined to ensure that her infant grandchildren weren’t left without, after a lengthy and expensive court case.

The Squires were involved in a variety of businesses and lots of different parts of city life. Not only did they run Squire and Co, which was split into ‘Wine and Ale’ (including a significant brewery and lots of pubs), and mercantile elements, but they ran the Peterborough Bank too. William, Wright and Wright Thomas (as it was written) were all on the board of Improvement Commissioners when it was first created, Wright Thomas being only 18 or 19 at the time and the role being one for life.

 

You’re probably wondering why you haven’t heard of the Squires and why their names have almost vanished from the city when others have remained. Something I am investigating is the level of animosity between the Cookes and the Squires after Thomas and Charlotte’s marriage was annulled. William Walcot had married Julia Cooke shortly before Thomas and Charlotte's wedding and later wills etc. showed a deep connection across the families and that they still relied and trusted each other, but I’m not convinced that William had any time for his father-in-law. Any event that William supported, Thomas stayed away from and vice versa. This could simply be a coincidence or that the men had differing interests, but when these are subscriptions for books and charities, it does seem a little strange.

The main reason they’ve vanished from the city consciousness is because William Walcot sold up in the late 1830s. All of his businesses and concerns were sold on or passed to business associates. All of the land he owned (everything he could have seen from his front door and more, which was a vast amount) was sold off in portions for properties and small pastures. He sold off the brewery, the river tolls (he was forced to in the 1820s following the case against his nephew and niece), his mercantile business, and his house and contents. He moved, with whatever he had remaining, and started a new life in Cheltenham, in a beautiful house that is now a B&B! It was a slow decline, but the death of his uncle John in 1834 does seem to spur him on to leave the city.

With Wright Thomas already dead and buried in St John’s, there was no one left with the Squire name. Lucy had married John Turner Hale and lived in Norfolk. Charlotte, being covered in the stench of a failed marriage and the fact she was unable to have children, never married again and was therefore living at the will of her brother. There are no clues as to where she goes between her annulment and the first census, but she does spend the last few decades of her life in Cheltenham, a short distance from William and Julia.

Mary Anna was, it could be argued, the most successfully married of all the Squires. She caught the eye of Charles Mansfield Clarke, a noted surgeon from a family of surgeons specialising in obstetrics. He was later awarded a baronetcy, after attending to Queen Adelaide, elevating Charles to Sir and Mary to Lady! Their children and grandchildren continued to marry well, with a nod to the family history popping up in the name of their great grandson Sir Orme Bigland Clarke, the 4^th Baronet. Orme married Elfrida Roosevelt, (yes, of THAT Roosevelt family) meaning that any descendants have the pedigree of centuries of British and American heritage in their blood.

As an additional fact it’s worth mentioning that Mary Anna left her own personal memory of her life in Peterborough. Before she married, she painted an image from the front of Bridge House. It captured the life that she could see from her window and details the bridge over the river, people possibly waiting for a boat to Wisbech and horses and wagons going about their business. As artwork goes it is certainly not the work of a great master, but it is honest and original and provides us with the view from Bridge House that I alluded to earlier. I won’t reproduce it here, but you can find it in the Pitkin book on Peterborough or on the back cover of Peterborough Through Time by June and Vernon Bull. The image has always been attributed to MA Squire but I am possibly the first person to publicly name Mary Ann as the correct artist. Hunt it out and enjoy it, and remember the family that’s all but vanished from the city.