Trevor, Robert (1729 to 1785)

LORD ROBERT TREVOR of CRAWLEY FARMS and FILLIOLS MANOR (From 1783 on his fathers death to 1785)

Robert Trevor was the illegitimate son of the 4^th Baron Robert Trevor of Bromham.

The Trevor family came to Bromham in 1708 when Sir Thomas Trevor bought Bromham hall and the manors of Bowels, Brays & Wakes in Bromham, he was created Baron Trevor of Bromham in 1712.

Subsequently his two sons from his first marriage, Thomas and then John succeeded their father and then the 4^th Baron Robert Trevor who was his eldest son of his second marriage succeeded the title.

4^th Baron Robert Trevor fathered an illegitimate son Robert in 1729, we do not know the mother.

4^th Baron Robert was sent to The Hague as secretary to the British Embassy under Horatio Walpole in 1734 and eventually took the post of Minister – Plenipotentiary in 1741 and he regularly corresponded with Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill House in London.

In 1743 he married Constantia de Huybert at The Hague and in the next few years “illegitimate Robert” was joined by various half-brothers and sisters born in The Netherlands.

In 1746 the 4^th Baron was appointed Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland, and Joint Postmaster General from 1759 to 1765.

In 1754 he took the additional name Hampden on succeeding to the Estates of his Great Grandfather John Hampden.

In 1776 he was created 1^st Viscount Hampden of Great and Little Hampden in Buckinghamshire for services to the State, although according to Horace Walpole the ennoblement was gained through the influence of his son in law the Duke of Suffolk who was leader of the Whig Party.

This explains the background of the life of the illegitimate Robert and by the age of 32 in 1761 he was appointed comptroller of the General Penny Post Office and later promoted to Receiver General of the Post Office Revenue.

In 1771 when he was 42 he married 37 year old Mary Cock at St Georges Church, Hanover Square, London.

They had a son in 1772 also named Robert like his father and grandfather before him.

In 1773 they had a daughter Elizabeth who was born in Oakley, Bedfordshire, probably at Oakley House.

Despite being illegitimate he was clearly a favourite of his fathers because he was named sole executor of his fathers Will when he died in 1783.

In 1731 the Astwood Manor & Estate had been bought by the executors of 1^st Lord Trevor of Bromham for £10,170 and entailed in trust, eventually ending up in illegitimate Roberts’ hands when the 4th Baron Robert died in 1783.

Illegitimate Robert died in 1785 and his son another Robert born in 1772 made a further settlement in 1793 and in 1807 sold the Estate to Thomas David Boswell.

Filliols Manor in North Crawley had originally been settled by old William Lowndes on his granddaughter Elizabeth, daughter of his eldest son Robert Lowndes of Winslow Hall. Elizabeth and her husband John Price sold the farm (now Manor Farm) to her uncle William Lowndes of Astwoodbury in 1729.

In 1732 William Lowndes sold the farm to Anne Dowager Lady Trevor who was the owner of Rokele Manor in Astwood.

It was inherited with the Astwood Estate by Robert Trevor {the grandson of the Robert Trevor mentioned in the Enclosure award of North Crawley) whose trustees sold it in 1807 to Thomas Boswell. By 1900 the moated manor house was in a ruinous state and in 1950 Ian Boswell pulled it down.

His father the 4th Baron Robert Trevor was awarded 71 acres in North Crawley Enclosure Award from Town Lands at Hurst End to the Crawley/Cranfield Road and as awards were near to original holdings it is strong evidence that he owned Crawley Lodge Farm as well as the present Manor Farm when he mentions in his Will of October 1785 “in all that messuage or Tenement and Farms at North Crawley, Bucks in the tenure or occupation of George Smith”.

Robert TrevorI8
b: 1729
d: 1785