The Woodhouses Letters

Description

The author of our well loved history book, E. Barbara Dean, offers a revealing insight into the dramatic story of a challenge to the rightful ownership of Bramall Hall in the early 19th Century.

When William Davenport of Bramall Hall died in 1829, his son-in-law Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, slipped quietly into the position which had been vacated. He was challenged by Edmund Davenport, an old soldier, who claimed to be the rightful heir. Edmund had no money, but he found a wealthy backer and put forward his claim, embarking on a road which could lead either to fortune or to a debtor’s prison.

One of Edmund’s principal opponents was John Kenyon Winterbottom, who was a former Mayor of Stockport and who was the Solicitor acting for Sir Salusbury. Some years later, Winterbottom faced charges of forgery, conviction of which would lead to transportation.

This book is the story of these two individuals and of the complicated legal procedures and harsh penal system with which they grappled. Much of the story emerges through letters which Edmund wrote to his friends and relatives and which were recently discovered in an old farmhouse at Woodhouses.

127 pages.

ISBN: 0863600255

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