The Georgian House

Owners

Thomas Clark
Our earliest source is an Indenture dated 20th March 1767.   This show that the property had previously been part of the estate of Thomas Clark, a tallow chandler.  He left it to his son, also Thomas and also a tallow chandler.  Thomas Clark junior and his wife, Sarah had a daughter also called Sarah who was baptised 18th July 1733 in Thornbury. 

On March 20th 1767, the property passed from Thomas Clark junior to George Rolph, an Attorney at Law, who was to marry Thomas's daughter, Sarah, within a couple of months of the sale.  

George Rolph was born in 1727, the son of John Rolph of Almondsbury.  His first wife was Susannah Cox and they had seven children.  She died 25th September 1765 aged only 41, soon after their seventh child was born.  On 20th March 1767, shortly before he married Thomas Clark's, daughter, Sarah, George bought the property from him, including the must mill and toft, for the sum of five shillings and a peppercorn rent. 

George died in 1792 aged 65.  We have another document dated 12th February 1839 which shows that in 1789 George Rolph arranged for his estate to be administered by his two surviving sons, George (Junior), an attorney like his father, and Thomas, a surgeon. 

After the death of Thomas Rolph, the surgeon, George Rolph (senior)'s estate in turn came to Frances Rolph, Thomas's widow, and George Rolph, their second son.  We understand that this George moved to Canada around 1808 where he served in the local militia during the War of 1812 and became a lawyer and political figure in Ontario.

This 'Canadian' George Rolph sold the property to James Ford of Thornbury in 1824.  We have seen copies of the Manorial 'fines' which confirm the transfer between these two and refer to Canada.  These show that the property being sold was a 'ruinous toft and garden'. 

There was another document in the same Manorial Record dated 1823 which shows a fine paid on another transaction between these two people.  This earlier document refers to a house. This could obviously be the property now known as The Georgian House.  However both these men had a considerable number of properties and the transaction might relate to a house elsewhere in Thornbury.  We will continue the research!

The Rolphs were important people in Thornbury Society.  George Rolph senior had been Steward of the Manor of Thornbury.  His son, George (Junior) went on to establish a private bank in Thornbury in 1808, which went by the name of Rolph & Co.  This bank was to evolve quickly, and took many names.  In 1825 it was printing its own currency as Parslow, Rolph & Co,  went on to become Harwood & Co Bank, the Thornbury Bank and later the Thornbury Old Bank, situated on The Plain.  This George died in 1815 aged 58. 

The eldest son of Thomas and Frances Rolph, John Rolph (1793-1870), was a student at Inner Temple London from November 1809 but joined his family in Canada in 1812.  He returned to England to study at St John's College Cambridge and then Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals.  In 1821 he moved back to Canada where he had a very distinguished political and medical career.

James Ford
In January 1824 the property was sold by George Rolph to James Ford, an inn holder, who owned a large parcel of land which included all of Laburnum Terrace (the terrace of houses at the top of the Gloucester Road) and the surrounding property.  The agreement of February 12th 1839, makes it plain that there was a house on the property when James Ford owned it and that James Ford let the house to a Mrs Cooke.  This ties in with the information we have been given about a plaque on the wall (probably in the garden) which bore the date of 1835.

By 1841 James and his wife, Lydia had moved to Bredon in Worcestershire and then in 1851 they had moved to Castlemorton in the same area.  James was aged 67 by this time and described as a farmer of 32 acres.

William Knapp
On February 12th 1839 James Ford conveyed the property and house to William Knapp.  This is confirmed by the 1840 Tithe Map which shows that property number 243, a house garden and workshops, is owned and occupied by William Knapp.  Click here to see more about William Knapp.

The Merediths
When William Knapp died in 1862, ownership of the house and workshops passed to his only surviving child, Mary Ann and her husband, Mark Crossman Meredith.  Mark was a farmer at Latteridge Road, Iron Acton.  He obviously preferred life on the farm to the idea of living in central Thornbury, so he let the house to tenants.  Click here to see more about the tenants who occupied the house during the period of Meredith's ownership. 

Mark Meredith died in 1894 aged 77 years.  In 1898 Mark's daughter, Hannah Hardy Crossman Meredith relinquished her interest in the property to her brother, Thomas, another farmer, for £700.  In 1898, Thomas sold the property to Charles Symes.

Charles Symes
In 1898 Charles Symes bought the house for £690.  Click here to read more about Charles and his family.

Rose Symes  Click here for more information about Rose, one of the children of Charles and Jane Symes,

Albert & Marjorie Pridham - click here for more information about Albert and Marjorie

The shop has sold fruit and vegetables and then videos before becoming an electrical shop.  The Georgian House itself  became a residential home run by Tony Johnson and Bev Kelly, before being a chiropractor's. Click here for information about the owners of the House in more recent times

This page was last updated: 20/10/2008