The Manor
The Hicks - Tempest Period 1787 - 1956
This period ends with the last Lord of the Manor as the estate is given to the National Trust.
- 1787 Thomas Wentworth sold the Bradenham Estate to John Hicks of Plomer Hill, Bath.
- John Hicks was born in 1740 and served with the Royal Navy until he was 22. When Robert Clive returned to India to develop the East India Company, John Hicks went with him. He must have prospered for in 1787 he bought Bradenham. John Hicks married Elizabeth Wilkinson in 1783 and they had 6 children before she died in 1806. She was buried at Bradenham. John was married again in 1809 to Susannah Jemima Horlock at Box in Wiltshire. John Hicks died in 1825.
- The children of John Hicks were Sophia Elizabeth (1784-1811), Ann Maria (1786-1854), John Wilkinson (1788-1810), George Clement (1790 - ?), Barbara Amelia (1796 - 1801), and William Thomas Horatio Nile Nelson (1799-1822). The last 4 children were all baptised at St. Botolph's Bradenham and died before their father John.
- Sophia Elizabeth was born in 1784, married to Charles Gray Graves in 1806 at West Wycombe and died in 1811. They had two children, a daughter Ann who was born in 1808 and died in 1811; and a son John Graves born in 1811 (see below).
- Ann Maria was born in 1786, married to Francis Hearle of St Columb Cornwall in 1816 at West Wycombe and died in 1854. They had no children but Ann was Lord of the Manor 1825-6 and 1847-54. The estate was in Chancery from 1826 until 1847 when it was resolved in the House of Lords in 1847 in favour of Mrs Hearle. It was during the period of Chancery that the manor was leased to Issac D'Israeli (for details see separate section)
- 1854 John Graves son of Sophia Elizabeth and Charles Graves became Lord of the Manor. He was born in Putney in 1811 and married Lydia Hopkins at Canon Frome Herefordshire in 1840. They had 5 children 4 of whom were buried at Bradenham (for details see family tree below). He was shown on the 1851 census as the vicar of Stretton Grandisome, Herefordshire. The 1861-1901 census records him and his family living at the manor house Bradenham. On the death of Reverend Isaac King in 1865, John Graves also became rector of St Botolph's ( an example of the Victorian "Squarson" - The Squire and Parson of a parish). It was during his incumbency the church was restored with unfortunate Victorian thoroughness. He resigned as Rector, in his ninetieth year in 1900 and died in 1902.
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1902 John Hicks Graves son of John & Lydia Graves became Lord of the Manor.
He was born at Stretton Grandisome, Herefordshire in 1848 and married Henrietta Frances May Rickets,the only daughter of Sir Robert Tempest Bart, in 1886 at Birstall in Yorkshire.
When Sir Robert died in 1909 she succeeded to the Tempest estates in Yorkshire and Scotland. Her husband John Hicks Graves took on the Temnpest fanily name.
Her childhood home of Tong Hall near Bradford she inherited through her grandfather, Sir Cornwallis Ricketts. Her Highland home, Dalguise on
the west coast of Scotland was used as a hospital in World War 1 and she spent several years there as Commandant. Bradenham Manor was also used in WW1 see extract from local paper in 1918. - 1915 Mrs Tempest became Lord of the Manor on her husbands death and she lived on at Bradenham until her death on the 5th February 1948. She was carried to her grave beside the east wall of the church by men from the estate
- 1947 Mrs Tempest signed the estate over to the Ernest Cook Trust (Grandson of Thomas Cook of the famous travel firm)
- 1955 Ernest Cook dies and leaves the Bradenham Estate, as Mrs Tempest wished, to the National Trust.
- 1956 Bradenham Estate, Manor House, green, cottages and farm land given to the National Trust.
