Wychnor Hall

Wychnor Hall (or Wychnor Park) is an early 18th century country house near Burton on Trent, Staffordshire. Formerly owned by the Levett family, the hall has been converted to a Country Club offering seven timeshare apartments. It is a Grade II listed building.

King James I reportedly stayed at the hall in 1621 and 1624. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51403 "A Topographical History of England" (1848) Samuel Lewis p 564 from British History Online ] ] The present hall dates from the time of Queen Anne but was much altered and extended in the mid 19th century.

The house was for many years the home of the Levett family (relations of Levett of Milford Hall). [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=DEgJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA237&lpg=PA237&dq=%22john+levett%22+knt&source=web&ots=cA2bI2LzbK&sig=oZUkfYTWMUYtgNXR0fCWOCx7bdE&hl=en#PPA237,M1 History of Wychnor, A Survey of Staffordshire: Containing the Antiquities of that County] , Sampson Erdeswicke, 1820.] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=KrUHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=%22john+levett%22+knt&source=web&ots=YlUvgIZ5Xx&sig=Y29ARLlIO-AoSxsco-NLWOmLtKs&hl=en A survey of Staffordshire, Sampson Erdeswicke, 1820] ] Theophilus Levett was Steward (Town Clerk) of the City of Lichfield 1721-1746, and his grandson and namesake was Recorder of Lichfield and in 1809 High Sheriff of Staffordshire. The Levetts had homes in Lichfield as well ["St. John's House (later Yeomanry House) opposite St. John's hospital was built before 1732 for Theophilus Levett, town clerk 1721–46," according to the Victoria County History of Staffordshire, "It replaced a house known in 1577 as Culstubbe Hall, the home of the physician Sir John Floyer in the late 17th century. It was demolished in 1925."] , and several streets in the city are named for them today. (Theophilus Levett was named for Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, a family friend.) The Levetts also held land at Edial and Curborough (inherited from their Babington ancestors) and elsewhere in Staffordshire. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=DEgJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA229&lpg=PA229&dq=%22samuel+johnson%22+lichfield+levett&source=web&ots=cA46M2NyaP&sig=LIAL3-JDULU3WwYvmOPOdlsAemc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result A Survey of Staffordshire: Containing the Antiquities of That County, Sampson Erdeswicke, Thomas Harwood, J. B. Nichols and Son, Westminster, 1820] ] [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42357 Levett land at Edial, Manors and Other Estates, A History of the County of Stafford, Vol. 14, M.W. Greenslade (ed.), Victoria County History, 1990, British History Online, british-history.ac.uk] ]

Theophilus Levett's son John Levett, landowner, investor and sometime member of the Lunar Society, was Member of Parliament for Lichfield. John Levett was also a friend of long standing to Matthew Boulton, the early inventor, as well as an early investor in Boulton's Soho Manufactory. [ [http://www.search.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/child.asp?txtKeywords=&lstContext=&lstResourceType=&lstExhibitionType=&chkPurchaseVisible=&txtDateFrom=&txtDateTo=&x1=&y1=&x2=&y2=&scale=&theme=31&album=&viewpage=%2Fengine%2Fresource%2Fexhibition%2Fstandard%2Fchild.asp&originator=%2Fengine%2Fcustom%2Fpeople.asp&page=&records=&direction=&pointer=169&text=0&resource=765&exhibition=273&offset=0 Photo of Letter from Erasmus Darwin to Matthew Boulton, 1766, concerning Boulton's plans to dine with John Levett, revolutionaryplayers.org] ] Theophilus John Levett, grandson of the first Theophilus, was Member of Parliament for Lichfield from 1880 to 1885. The family originated in Sussex, arriving in Staffordshire in the early eighteenth century.

The family had a long association with Samuel Johnson, whom the first Theophilus Levett counted among his friends, and to whom he loaned money, including assuming the mortgage on Johnson's mother's Lichfield home on January 31, 1739, for £80. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=R8LFNVMFWH0C&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=%22samuel+johnson%22+%22theophilus+levett%22&source=web&ots=sdOV_CWuiF&sig=dwvy_dr9aiR-1j3uYsZz8BPEUpI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result Samuel Johnson, J.C.D. Clark, Cambridge University Press, 1994] ] Johnson frequently wrote to Levett, and later to Levett's son John, pleading for extensions for his late payments. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=qXHv5EClgZgC&pg=PA231&lpg=PA231&dq=wakefield+levett&source=web&ots=YKQXpaAqJ_&sig=2CpqSxhWdFLoMV4eMJ-iQy0XlH4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result The Samuel Johnson Encyclopedia, Pat Rogers, Greenwood Publishing Company, Westport, Conn., 1996] ] Levett later carried the mortgage as well as other loans to Johnson, who eventually paid them off in 1757. [Attorney Theophilus Levett took a genial, accommodating tone with Johnson in their correspondence, while Levett's son John seemed a bit more businesslike and brusque, perhaps because he had not grown up with Johnson.]

Theophilus Levett also had a long friendship with David Garrick, an English actor, playwright and friend of Samuel Johnson's, who was also raised in Lichfield.

Members of the Levett family of Wychnor have intermarried into other county families over the centuries, carrying the name into other family lines. The Levett-Prinseps, for instance, descendants of the Wychnor Levetts, formerly owned Croxall Hall in Derbyshire. They also descend from the Prinsep family, of whom the first notable representative was John Prinsep, who early made a fortune in India in indigo production and other businesses.

There are a number of curious customs associated with Wychnor, at least one of which was said to have begun with Sir Philip de Somerville, who owned the manor of Wychnor in 1338. A flitch of bacon was kept in the hall (later replaced by a wooden effigy of same). [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=PrQuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=%22r.+t.+k.+levett%22&source=web&ots=2p_z6Ns9nQ&sig=mnLtxNNg2Xyh3MUGFhPT75QGIXs&hl=en#PPA163,M1 Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire, John Murray, London, 1874] ] That flitch of bacon could be claimed by anyone who had been married for one year and did not repent of their choice. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=mw9Mgl6AHr8C&pg=PA329&lpg=PA329&dq=tamworth+levett&source=web&ots=B0KIAFABnA&sig=bgOOBsVb8oI8zxkdkvZsFdGTDvU&hl=en#PPA399,M1 History, Gazeteer, and Directory of Stafforshire and the City and County, William White, 1834] ]

References

External Links

* [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=273692&mode=quick Images of England:Wychnor Hall]
* "Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland" Pt 2 (1863) p 869.
* Levett Family Papers. Staffordshire Archive Service, Lichfield Record Office
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=nfUGAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA64-IA2&lpg=RA1-PA64-IA2&dq=%22jean+de+livet%22+packington&source=web&ots=haVhukD2JT&sig=peKu_IK8kUpg-NrPVaGo-VlbtX4#PRA1-PT23,M1 Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Alfred Williams, 1899 Wichnor Park]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=ELEEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA497&lpg=PA497&dq=sheriff+staffordshire+levett&source=web&ots=GvoSpUx9Op&sig=nmYRole08qtz1O92bB7fsyeS2zo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result John Levett, Wychnor Park, The Scots Peerage, James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905]

Further reading

*"The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World", Jenny Uglow, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 2002 (see John Levett, MP)