Linden House, or the New Rectory, or maybe Eversholt House, or Mr. Sandys’s House!

Fisher (Thomas, 1782-1836). Mrs Sandy’s House, Eversholt, Bedfordshire, watercolour and traces of pencil, depicting a large and imposing red brick house with sash windows, a path between lawns leading to the panelled front door, and a door in the garden wall to the left leading into a small dwelling or bothy, image size 24 x 28.5cm (9.5 x 11.25ins), titled in ink by the artist to lower margin below image, mounted, framed and glazed

(Qty: 1)

Provenance: Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner (1785-1848), 4th Baronet of Battlesden, Bedfordshire; Christie’s, The Battlesden Sale, 1824, cat. no. 2503; Emily Page-Turner; purchased from her executors 1885; by descent from the purchaser; Sotheby’s Thomas Fisher’s Watercolours of Bedfordshire and British Architectural Drawings and Watercolours, 12th June 1980, lot 60.

The house depicted here is still extant, and now called Linden House, having been known as Linden Farm in the late 18th century, and subsequently as Eversholt House in the 19th century and Eversholt Rectory in the early 1900s. A number of Sandys family members are associated with, or lived in and around, Eversholt from the mid 18th century right up until the late 19th century.

I’m not aware of this house ever being called Linden Farm, I think they might have that wrong, especially in the late 18th century. The linden (lime) trees associated with Linden, the great house on the cricket pitch, were only planted around 1840, I think. Linden Farm was where what is now the End House stands. Let us know, please, if you have any evidence!

Here, below, is an image from a similar viewpoint made in 2012. The roofline was altered when the rectory was bought from the church and remade into a private house. The altered brickwork around the 1820 front door is still visible.

Eversholt house was where Samuel Sandys lived. He was a surgeon, well known and well connected. His address is usually given as “Eversholt House, Woburn” so I (EJW) thought it was in Woburn and thus beneath our notice. However, I discover from The Bedfordshire farm worker in the nineteenth century that it was actually near the church in Eversholt. This is only google books snippet view, so this text is incomplete. It’s also a retyping of a retyping of an edited version of what was probably a bad photocopy of an old fiche of… it would be good to get the original.

Bedfordshire Times 10 October 1874

Mr. Joseph Arch in Bedfordshire. Meeting at Eversholt. On Saturday Mr. Arch, President of the National Agricultural Labourers’ Union, arrived in this county, arrangements having been made for holding two demonstrations – at Eversholt on that day and at Marston on Monday. Mr. S. Sandys, of Eversholt House, near the church, entertained Mr….

…

preparations… At 4.45 the Eversholt Brass band, under the leadership of  Mr. Franklin, 

after playing on the lawn of Eversholt House, led the way to the field, with Mr. Arch, Mr. Wright, Mr. Sandys and party, Mr. W. Cockbill, Mr. G. Butcher (agents of the N.A.L.U.), and the committee, wearing Union ribbons… Nearly 500 persons had tea, and many afterwards indulged in dancing…At 7 o’clock the platform was occupied by Mr. Arch, who was again cheered to the echo, Mr. Wright, who was voted to the chair with much cordiality, Mr Cockbill, Rev. W. Hillier (Ridgmount), Mr., Mrs and Miss Sandys, Miss Saunders and others and there must have been nearly 1800 persons present…

…

Mr. Arch was introduced with three cheers and one cheer more, and proceeded to address the meeting at length with astonishing effect, the cheering and homely ejaculations of the labourers being frequent… An earnest appeal was made to those present to remain united, as then they wielded a trememdous power, and they were urged to make themselves intelligent instead of muddling their brains with drink. With bitter sarcasm…

 

There is an “Eversholt House” in Leighton Buzzard and in London, which confuses matters. Kelly’s 1885 says that Thomas Godfrey, a farmer, lived there. Sandys lived in Eversholt House from at least 1864 until he died in 1878. Geroge M Hipwell, farm Bailiff to the Duke, lived there according to Kelly’s 1890, which seems to be the last mention. 

So was what we now call Linden House in Church End, what was called the New Rectory around 1900, previously called Eversholt House in the 1860s? The house is certainly a prime candidate for a surgeon’s house near the church. If that’s the case, then this is the place for this other very sad snippet:

 

From Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 29 April 1871:

Marriages

April 20, at Eversholt, by the Rev. C. Brereton, M.A., assisted by the Rev. W. S. Baker, M.A., G Annesley D Mahon, Esq., M.R.C.S.E., &c., of High-street, Swindon, eldest son of the late Rev. G. W. Mahon, M.A., Chaplain H.E.I.C.S., Madrs, to Agnes Amelia, second daughter of Samuel Sandys, Esq., M.R.C.S.E., &c., of Eversholt House, near Woburn, Beds.

MRCSE could be Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

HEICS could be Honourable East India Company Service.

But, soon, tragedy. From The Daily News, 28 August 1875:

Deaths

Mahon

August 25, at Aspley Guise, Woburn, Beds, Agnes Amelia, wife of G. A. D. Mahon, Esq., and daughter of S. Sandys, Esq., of Eversholt, Beds, aged 31.

From The Morning Chronicle, 5 Sep 1855:

Died

On the 1st inst., at Hamilton-terrace, St John’s-wood, at the advanced age of 93, Ann, Relict of Thomas Sandys, Esq., late of Eversholt, Beds.

and then from The Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, 24 March 1900:

Deaths

Sandys

On the 18th inst., at Southsea, Sarah of Samuel Sandy, M.R.C.S., London, and formerly of Eversholt, Beds, aged 94.