THE GOODWIN AND WHARTON CONNECTION WITH WOOBURN
In the previous section mention was made of the Goodwin family. Their rise to importance in the locality was not meteoric like some of gentry elsewhere who could rise from insignificance to fame within a single life span, but a steady advance over the centuries. Their wealth must have steadily accumulated, perhaps through sheep rearing, and by the early 16th Century the family acquired lordship of the Manor of Upper Winchendon in mid- Buckinghamshire.
For an interesting account of the history of Upper Winchendon see http://www.aylesburyvale.net/magazines/archive/november/pages/p2.htm
However, the Goodwins seem to have retained a keen interest in Wooburn, perhaps still farming there, for in 1562 they also obtained Lordship of Bishop’s Wooburn. A generation later, in 1597, they also acquired Wooburn Deyncourt, thereby reunifying the Parish. By this time the family were important players in Buckinghamshire political life and by the time of James I a Sir Francis Goodwin was representing the Shire in Parliament. As England progressed toward Civil War Buckinghamshire MPs were prominent in attempting to curb the power of Charles I . Arthur Goodwin, son of Sir Francis, and the inheritor of his estates after 1634, was a close friend of John Hampden and an enthusiast for the Parliamentary cause. When Hampden was mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field in 1643 it was Arthur Goodwin who assisted him back to his home, and Arthur Goodwin himself died later in the same year, being buried at Wooburn.
Some years earlier ( 1637 ) Arthur’s only daughter, Jane, married Philip Lord Wharton a wealthy landowner who had extensive estates in Cumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire, including substantial lead, copper and coal mining interests. The Wharton’s had experienced a rapid elevation in the social scale after providing useful military assistance to Henry VIII in conflict with the Scots. They built up very substantial land holdings by purchasing or being awarded properties which had been expropriated during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The wealthy Philip Wharton ( 1613 – 1696 ) became the 4th Baron Wharton in 1625. In 1632 he married for the first time, but his wife ( formerly Elizabeth Wandesford ) died young after bearing him two daughters, Elizabeth and Philadelphia. In 1637 he married Jane Goodwin and as part of the marriage settlement she brought the Manor of Wooburn to add to his already substantial estates. Once again the convenience of having a base in the South appealed to the Northern Lord , and it seems that the couple spent much of their married life at either Wooburn or Winchendon, which also passed to them, after the death of Jane’s father. Philip and Jane’s first-born son Arthur died an infant in 1642 and is commemorated in a brass in Wooburn Church.
Detail of a memorial brass to Arthur Wharton in St Paul’s Church, Wooburn. [ The original had a rectangular surround enscribed Here Lyeth Ye Body of Arthur Wharton only Sonne ( While He Lived ) of Philip Lord Wharton By Dame Jane His Wife Daughter And Heyre Of Arthur Goodwin Esq.]
Subsequently the couple had three sons – Tom, Goodwin and Henry, and three daughters – Anne, Margaret and Mary who all lived to maturity. Jane, after bringing up her large family, eventually died at Wooburn in 1658. Philip Lord Wharton then remarried for a third time.
It seems probable that the Manor House which was inherited at Wooburn was what remained of the Bishop of Lincoln’s Palace, but over several decades money was lavished on constructing a partially new house. I say partially as there is some evidence that in the rebuilding a chapel dating back to the medieval period was retained, however, as with the original Palace itself there are no known drawings of the reconstructed building. Although brought up a Puritan in religious outlook Philip Wharton never seemed reluctant to spend very large capital sums to indulge his life style. He was portrayed by Van Dyke in expensive clothes in 1632 and later the same artist was commissioned to produce several more paintings to add to his family portrait gallery in 1639 – 1640.
Fine Van Dyke portraits of the Wharton and Goodwin family members can be found at
High Wycombe Museum has a painting of Lord Wharton with his wife and son in dark Puritan garb, attributed to Sir Peter Lely. The somber character of this portrait is in marked contrast to the colour displayed in the Van Dyke portraits.
These paintings were once housed in a long gallery at the rebuilt Wooburn House. Despite this self-indulgent streak in his character Philip Lord Wharton was throughout his life a dedicated supporter of the Puritan religious ethic. At the outbreak of the Civil War ( 1642-1651 ) Lord Wharton commanded a Regiment of Foot in the Parliamentary Army under the Earl of Essex, but the Regiment was routed at their first engagement at the Battle of Edgehill . Thereafter Lord Wharton decided that his skills were of more use in the House of Lords! He took an active role in the political manoeuvring which accompanied the Civil War, but was not a supporter of the execution of Charles I. This and his rather circumspect attention to rebuilding his estate at Wooburn during the war years and the Protectorate probably saved his neck. After the Restoration of Charles II he kept a low-profile at Wooburn, but by the 1670s he found the general drift of Church affairs too much to tolerate and became loud in his opposition in the House of Lords. By this time the Anglican Church had effectively removed many Puritan clergymen who had risen to prominence in the period of the Civil War and Cromwell’s Commonwealth, Lord Wharton provided some with small pensions. In addition several ejected ministers were employed on his estates in an administrative capacity. For Puritans and other Dissenters Wooburn House became a sanctuary where preachers not approved of by the Establishment could discretely worship or conduct services.. In his later years Lord Wharton provided quite a lot of charitable bequests in his various manors to assist Dissenters and their children. By the time of his death in 1698 he had also left land to provide funds to have bibles distributed to poor children, chiefly of Dissenting families. This became a bone of contention in the 19th Century when it was found that the bequest had somehow been modified to provide only for Anglican children.
For a detailed account of the life of Philip Lord Wharton see
http://www.argonet.co.uk/gmb/lowrow/Wharton.pdf
Wharton’s disaffection with the Stuart administration led to his being confined to the Tower of London in 1676-77 but he was eventually released. His eldest son Thomas, also shared his dislike of the general drift of State affairs and the family became embroiled in political plotting which became particularly active when James II came to the throne. Eventually the Wharton’s and those of like mind were successful in bringing William of Orange to the throne in the so-called “Glorious Revolution” of 1688.
Despite Philip Lord Wharton’s credentials as a committed Puritan, his character also seemed to display a hedonistic streak, and this certainly manifested itself in his eldest surviving son Tom Wharton ( 1648 – 1715 ). The latter displayed a fascination for fast racehorses and fast women, and became a masterful and, perhaps by definition, a devious politician. These days his political achievements are largely forgotten, but two components of his life live on. He composed the words to Lilli Burlero and when these were set to music by Purcell their anti-Catholic content was said to have contributed to the downfall of James II. Tom later claimed that he had “ Sung a King out of three Kingdoms”.
For a reminder of the tune of Lilli Burlero visit the following site http://www.contemplator.com/folk2/lilli.html
He is also commemorated in his rather dishonourable contribution to one of Englands most enduring ghost stories http://www.hauntedhamilton.com/gotw_raynhamhall.html
Tom Wharton’s son, Philip, named after his grandfather, unfortunately inherited more of his father’s character than was good for him. Philip Wharton ( 1698 – 1731 ) later Duke of Wharton, had a short, but eventful, life. In his early years he seemed destined to perpetuate the Wharton’s influence in politics , but too much money, an excessive liking for the bottle and a weakness for gambling soon led to a rapid decline. He ultimately committed the most deadly of sins in an age when the Hanoverian King George I and his chief ministers were attempting to provide a stable Protestant succession in Britain. The foolish Philip publicly supported the Pretender and also converted to Catholicism; he was eventually declared a traitor and died penniless in Spain. So ended the Goodwin/Wharton saga in respect of Wooburn. The Manor House and the local estates were sold, and by the 1750’s Philip Lord Wharton's large mansion was demolished. The family who were Lords of the Manor at that time – the Berties – modified the old stable block from the original mansion to create a relatively more modest home. By the 1780s the Berties sold out to the Du Pre family of Wilton Park, Beaconsfield and from then on Wooburn had a non-resident Lord of the Manor. The Manor house was from that period just tenanted.
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