Published in Windlesora 28 (2012)
©2012, WLHG
Writing to her sister, Cassandra, from Hans Place, London, Jane Austen enlightened her as to a grand plan by their brother Henry to visit Windsor: ‘… calling on the Birches & the Crutchleys …‘. This letter was dated 23 and 24 August 1814, and it was followed by a further letter of 2 September 1814 to Martha Lloyd expanding the projected visit. Jane writes: ‘…we shall lengthen the Journey by going round by Sunning Hill; his favourite Mrs Crutchley lives there, & he wants to introduce me to her.‘ (A few years earlier Jane Austen had written to her sister saying that everyone was rich in Kent, adding: ‘I must do similar justice however to the Windsor neighbourhood.’)
The late, wealthy owner of Sunning Hill Park when the Austens wished to visit, was Jeremiah Crutchley who was born in 1745. He became the owner of Sunning Hill Park at the early age of 24, in June 1769. His father, also Jeremiah, had been an intimate of Ralph Thrale, the brewer. The Crutchley family were successful dyers and brewers in London. As young Jeremiah Crutchley was only six years old when his father died, the Thrales took him under their wing. (There was a scurrilous rumour prevalent that Henry Thrale was young Jeremiah’s father.)
The newly purchased Sunning Hill was pleasantly situated about six miles from Windsor; and when young Jeremiah took charge of the mansion one of his first actions was to commission the 12-year-old John Flaxman to execute six black chalk drawings of figures from classical literature, for his new home. The great architect James Wyatt also took a hand in alterations and improvements to the house. There was a tranquil lake before the property which gave the estate a most welcoming aspect. Jeremiah allowed a free road through his grounds to enable everyone to enjoy the views and have access to the nearby Windsor forest. As Jane Austen has told us, we must accept that a man of good fortune will seek a wife and the friends of Jeremiah Crutchley presented him with a few famous beauties from whom to select a bride.
In 1781 the delicious Sophia Streatfeild was brought before the young man, since it was thought she would entrance him. Both she and Hester Thrale had been tutored in Latin and Greek by the classicist, Dr Arthur Collier, but this lovely Greek-studying goddess did not acquiesce in the designs of Mrs Thrale. The carefully laid plans for Jeremiah backfired spectacularly when Hester Thrale realised that her own husband was hotly determined to bed the delectable Sophia Streatfeild himself.
Fanny Burney was then manoeuvred into position as a candidate for his hand. In 1778, Mrs. Thrale had unsuccessfully tried to interest her in Jeremiah. Fanny asked: ‘Who’s he?’ ‘A young man of a very large fortune, said she…‘. But Fanny was unimpressed by the young man. ‘I neither like nor dislike him…‘ By 1781, however, Crutchley confided to Fanny Burney that he had sat to Ozias Humphrey for a miniature that his sister had wanted, but modestly added: ‘…he could never flatter himself there was a Human Being in the World to whom it could be of any possible value…’ Fanny Burney did not, however, rise to this self-deprecating morsel of bait. In June 1781, Mr Crutchley decided to dramatically alter his hairstyle, and improve his looks, by combing his curls into his back hair. The result was obviously grotesque, as Mrs Thrale cried out: ‘Good God, why what in the World have you done to yourself… I never thought you so much of a coxcomb, but really to go thus is too bad.’
It was during this period of visits to Mrs Thrale that Jeremiah Crutchley artlessly revealed that his sister, Alice Duffield, was intimate with the notorious adulteress, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire: ‘She came to my sister’s…to see hare hunting. She is very amiable…‘ he confessed with admirable innocence. Dr Johnson was also a frequent visitor to Mrs Thrale’s, and when he learned that she was to marry an Italian he burst into tears, and begged Crutchley to stay by him. Ultimately all plans to marry off Jeremiah Crutchley came to nothing as Mrs Thrale herself admitted, in May 1781: ‘. he is both ugly and aukward [sic]…‘ with the obvious result that he never married anyone and died a bachelor.
The result of so many disappointed love affairs decided Jeremiah to invite his sister, Elizabeth, to come and live with him as his housekeeper. Thereafter, he settled into the life of a country squire, serving as an MP and hunting with King George III. The death of Jeremiah on 28 December 1805 aged 60, brought an interesting situation to the family. The will of Jeremiah Crutchley was long and comprehensive. As expected it was a tail male will and the nearest relative of the male sex to him was his sister Alice’s son, George Henry Duffield. The Duffields lived at Syston, in Lincolnshire. One of the beneficiaries of the will outside of the family was Richard Aldworth Neville, 2nd Baron Braybrooke.
As chief beneficiary to his uncle’s will it was incumbent upon George Henry Duffield to change his name to Crutchley, in order to inherit Sunning Hill Park. Again, we find that a wealthy young man decided to take to him-self a wife to share his life, but she differed from most such persons in that she brought a great degree of wealth with her to the union.
On 8 April 1806 George Henry Crutchley, as he now was after changing his name, married the pretty and biddable Juliana Burrell, daughter of Sir William and Lady Burrell. How did the young people meet? As both the Duffields and Burrells had known links with the racy Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, perhaps at romantic Chatsworth? The newly-wedded couple were certainly compatible, and great was their relief when the first child born was a sturdy son, Percy. He was named so in memory of Juliana’s darling Brother, Percy Burrell, who had been killed on active service in July 1807. He fell leading an attack on Buenos Aires in South America.
In November 1808, and again in February 1809, two very expensive hearings were called in London to be heard at the High Court of Chancery over the wretched tail male will of Jeremiah Crutchley. Husband and wife, George Henry Crutchley and the former Juliana Burrell, were the appellants and the fact that the wife had brought a fortune of her own to the marriage was the issue. Coupled with this was Juliana’s fears for the younger children of the marriage not being provided for. Counsel for the plaintiffs was the respected lawyer Sir Samuel Romilly, under the presiding authority of the Lord Chancellor Lord Eldon.
The long summing up of the Burrell-Crutchley hearing decided that Jeremiah: ‘… settles his real estate [i.e. land] through his nephews, as tenants or life, and through their issue male; giving a power of jointuring the wives of the tenants for life, and two-thirds parts of the portion [£15,000 Bank Annuities) should be settled upon the children: the husband taking the remaining third…‘ Then Juliana heard the news she waited for: ‘… and clearly providing, hat those two-thirds of the lady’s fortune should go to all of her own children. As to the sum of £5000 (which George had the power to charge for the benefit of all younger children) that is not confined to any particular children; but extends to his younger children by any marriage‘.
It was five years after this case that Jane and Henry Austen planned their visit to Sunning Hill, when the Crutchleys were settled with their own young children, Percy, Charles and little Elizabeth (just christened) playing around them. Henry would have undoubtedly wanted to renew his friendship with the former Juliana Burrell whose mother, Lady Burrell, was his first wife’s dearest friend and was kindness itself when Eliza de Feuillide returned from France with her mother, back in 1786. By 1799, when she was Mrs Henry Austen, Eliza was living at Dorking, Surrey, and Lady Burrell had been assiduous in inviting her to Deepdene, the beautiful estate of Sir William and Lady Burrell, However, the death of Sir William Burrell had altered the situation as his son Sir Charles Burrell, now owned the estate. Also, the widowed Lady Burrell had remarried; but still she felt able to cosset her dear Eliza, whilst Henry Austen was away soldiering in Ireland.
Jane Austen refers on 2 September 1814 to the Sunning Hill visit whilst writing to her friend Martha Lloyd: ‘…his favourite Mrs Crutchley lives there, & he wants to introduce me to her‘. Henry Austen was obviously anxious to see Juliana again as she had risen in the world to the role of chatelaine of a very wealthy estate. Did the Austens get a chance to visit Sunning Hill? There are no further mentions of the Crutchleys in Jane’s surviving letters, but coincidentally, Jane was writing Emma at this very time; did not Frank Weston change his name to Churchill in order to gain a fortune – just as George Henry Crutchley had done?
The Crutchleys continued providing male heirs for Sunning Hill until 1936, when it was sold to the merchant banker Philip Hill. King George VI purchased the property at the end of the war as a country retreat for Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, and work on refurbishment commenced in earnest when they married in 1947. However, a terrible fire destroyed the house that year, to Prince Philip’s relief, as the house was so isolated: ‘…that they would never have been able to keep a single maid there‘. Prince Andrew, the present Duke of York, and his wife, Sarah, had their dream home built on the site of the walled garden, at a cost of £3.5 million. Queen Elizabeth II, his mother, had purchased the parcel of land from the Crown Estate for the young couple. The ghost of Jeremiah Crutchley must have smiled broadly upon this new royal usage for his beloved Sunning Hill Park.
Windsor Local History Group 