Lockwood family, of Bishops Hall, Lambourne, Essex

Family

Lockwood family, of Bishops Hall, Lambourne, Essex

The Wood family of Perth in Scotland was a branch of the ancient Wood family of Largo. In the late 18 and early 19 centuries several members of the Wood family of Perth rose to high rank in the military and moved to the south of England, including Mark Wood (1750-1829). He was a colonel in the British and the East India Company's service, chief engineer of Bengal, and MP for Gatton in Surrey (one of the rotten boroughs), Milbourne Port in Somerset, and Newark in Nottinghamshire. He attempted to become MP for Monmouthshire, buying the Piercefield estate, which became his seat from 1794 to 1800, and buying further properties in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan in the period 1803-1807. He was described as of Llandaf Court, Glamorgan, in 1806, and of Gatton Park, Surrey, in 1807.

Mark Wood became the male representative of the Wood family of Largo in 1777 on the death without male issue of his cousin John Wood (1722-1777), governor of the Isle of Man. He was created a baronet, Sir Mark Wood of Gatton Park, in 1808, and was granted his cousin's arms in 1809.

Sir Mark Wood's second, but only surviving son, Sir Mark Wood (1794-1837) of Pall Mall, Middlesex, and of Hare Park, Cambridgeshire, 2nd baronet, died without issue, when the baronetcy became extinct. He was succeeded by his two sisters, one of whom, Rachel, married William Joseph Lockwood of Dews Hall Park, Essex. Their eldest son, William Mark Lockwood (d. 1883) took the name and arms of Wood by royal licence in 1838, pursuant to his uncle's will. He bought further properties in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, 1839-1849, and also inherited the Lambourne estate in Essex from his uncle, Edward Lockwood Percival (d. 1842).

William was succeeded by his son Amelius Richard Mark Wood (1847-1928) of Bishops Hall, Lambourne, Essex, who had reassumed the surname Lockwood on his marriage in 1876. He was Conservative MP for Epping 1892-1917, and was created Baron Lambourne in 1917. He died without issue in 1928, when the barony became extinct. His Essex estate was sold in 1929.

There are no clues among the estate papers as to the fate of the Welsh estate, but notices of land required by railway companies and public bodies, 1893-1904, testify that the Lockwood family then had interests in the parishes of Cantref, Defynnog, Llanfrynach and Llansbyddyd in Breconshire, in Cardiff, Merthyr Tudful and Roath in Glamorgan, and in Christchurch, Langstone, Nash, Peterstone Wentlloog and Rumney in Monmouthshire. These notices (D 1/266-300) contain the only references to Breconshire holdings in the archive.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Cutts Lockwood (1890-1983) was resident at Bishops Hall from 1930, and in 1940 he deposited the records of the Wood and Lockwood families' Welsh estates at NLW. His father was a Colonel John Lockwood, but it is not known whether he was related to Amelius Richard Mark Lockwood other than by surname. John Cutts Lockwood appears to have bought the Bishops Hall and Lambourne parts of the Lockwood estate in 1929, and perhaps the records came with that purchase, going to the purchaser of the most considerable part of the estate. Apparently he had no estate before 1929, as he appears in Kelly's Handbook for the first time in 1930. He was sometime chairman of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Conservative MP for Hackney Central, 1931-1935, and Romford, 1950-1955.