Jackson's Oxford Journal/1881/Death of Lord Camoys

DEATH OF LORD CAMOYS.

We regret to have to announce the death of Lord Camoys, who expired at his country seat, Stonor Park near Henley-on-Thames, on Tuesday morning last, in the 84th year of his age. His Lordship, Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron, was the eldest son of Thomas Stonor, Esq., of Stonor, Oxon, by the daughter of Henry Blundell, Esq., of Ince Blundell, Lancashire, and was born in London on Oct. 22, 1797. He was appointed a Magistrate of this county for the Henley Division, of which he was Chairman, in 1830, and the only seniors to him on the Bench are the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, and Lord Churchill, of Cornbury Park. He was also a Deputy-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, and served the office of Sheriff in 1836. In 1832 he was returned to Parliament for the City of Oxford in the Liberal interest, when the numbers polled were—Langston (L.), 1260; Stonor (L.), 953; Hughes (L.), 919; Sir C. Wetherell (C.), 524. Mr. Stonor was, however, unseated, and in 1835 he again offered himself, but was unsuccessful, the numbers being: Hughes (who had changed his colours and stood as a Conservative), 1397; Maclean (C.), 1223; Stonor (L.), 1021. In 1837 he contested the County, though unsuccessfully, the following being the state of the poll:—Lord Norreys (now Earl of Abingdon, C.), 3002; G. G. Harcourt (L.). 2835; T. A. W. Parker (now Earl of Macclesfield, C.), 2767; T. Stonor (L.), 1458. In this election the fact of Mr. Stonor being a Roman Catholic was made an objection by many voters, and an intensity and bitterness were displayed such as would not be exhibited, it is to be hoped, at the present day. Mr. Wing, in work on Oxfordshire Elections, says that “Among those afraid of a 'Popish' as it was termed, M.P., was the Rev. John Henry Newman (now Cardinal Newman), of Oriel College, who voted, in respect of his Rectory of St. Mary-the-Virgin, for Norreys, Harcourt, and Parker.” The nomination of the candidates took place on Saturday, July 29, in Broad-street, Oxford, a semi-circle of wagons being arranged in front of Balliol and Trinity Colleges. The poll was taken on August 1 and 2, and was the first opportunity of tenant farmers, renting to the amount of 50/. yearly and upwards, copyholders and leaseholders, being placed on a level with freeholders, so that the totals are larger than in former instances. Mr, Stonor had no less than 874 plumpers, his competitors having, of single votes, Norreys 33, Harcourt 30, and Parker 20. The full number of electors polled was 4120. A petition against the return of the Sheriff (P. T. H. Wykeham, Esq.) was presented to Parliament but withdrawn.

In 1839 Mr. Stonor succeeded to the ancient Barony of Camoys, and was summoned to the House of Lords. The Peerage had been in abeyance from the reign of Henry VI., when the second Baron died a minor, and the late Lord Camoys claimed as great grandson maternally of the eldest of the co-heirs of the second Baron. His Lordship was a Lord-in-Waiting to Her Majesty in 1846-52, 1853-8, 1859-66, and 1868-74. He married, in 1821, Frances (who died some years back), daughter of Peregrine Edward Towneley, Esq., of Towneley Hall, Lancashire, by Charlotte Drummond, member of the noble house of Strathallan. The living issue consists of one son, Monsignor the Rev. and Hon. Edmund Stonor, in Holy Orders of the Church of Rome, and a Canon of St John Lateran, Rome, who was born in 1831, and seven daughters, including the Hon. Catherine Stonor, Hon. Lady Smythe, Hon. Mrs. Agar-Ellis, and Hon. Mrs. Pereira, the eldest son, the Hon. Francis Stonor, having, as we have already recorded, died so recently as on Sunday week last.

Lord Camoys was held in high estimation by the County generally and in the neighbourhood in which he lived especially. At Assenden, where almshouses for ten poor persons were founded by Sir Francis Stonor in 1620, the late Lord Camoys erected a school, and in many other ways did he manifest his interest in the welfare of those among whom he dwelt.

For some time past his Lordship had been in feeble health, arising from his advanced years, and was unable to attend his son's funeral on Saturday last.

By his Lordship’s death his grandson, Mr. Francis Stonor, eldest son of the late lamented Hon. Francis Stonor, who died on the 10th inst., born Dec. 9th, 1856, succeeds to the Barony.

We extract the following interesting account of the Stonor Family from Mr. J. M. Davenport's work on "The Lords Lieutenant and High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire":—

Few names adorn this County Roll which can boast their descent from more remote antiquity than that of Stonor, which so often occurs in the present list: and the continuous residence of the family for so many centuries in their ancient mansion at Stonor is without a parallel in the County. The family derive their territorial patronymic from the Manor of Stonor in Oxfordshire. The first of them who served the office of High Sheriff was Edmund Stonor in 1337, who was grandson of the celebrated Judge, Sir John Stonor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III., whose monument and effigy in Dorchester Church are still in good preservation. In the second and sixth years of Henry VI. Sir Thomas Stonor filled the office of High Sheriff, and represented the City of Oxford in Parliament in the seventh year of that reign; and, dying the following year, he was succeeded by his son, Thomas Stonor, who was also High Sheriff in the 32nd of Henry VI. and the sixth of Edward IV. His eldest son, Sir William Stonor, was High Steward of Oxford in 1492. Leland visited him at Stonor, and thus described it:—"Ther is a fayre parke, and a warren of conies, and fayre wood. The mansion place standyth on a hill, and hath two courtes buildyed with tymbre, brike, and flynte. Sir William Stonor, now possessor of it, hath augmented and strengthened the house. The Stonors hathe longe had it in possession." Upon Sir William's death he was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Walter Stonor, Sheriff in the 26th and 33rd years of Henry VIII. He was Lieutenant of the Tower, and on his death the estates devolved upon John Stoner, whose son married Cecily, daughter of Sir Leonard Chamberlain, of Shirburn Castle. Sir Francis Stonor, grandson of John Stonor, was High Sheriff in the 35th year of Queen Elizabeth, and in the 19th of James I. Sir Francis built and endowned an almshouse at Assendon for ten poor persons. From this period (James I.) the Stonor family, retaining the ancient Faith, do not appear again in the list of Sheriffs till be appointment of Thomas Stonor, Esq. in 1836. With regard to the ancient Barony of Camoys (now vested in the above Thomas Stonor, Esq.), it may be stated that Thomas, Lord Camoys, son of Ralph, Lord Camoys, was included in most of the military services of Edward III., but was not summoned to Parliament; and, dying without issue, his estates passed to Sir Thomas de Camoys, an eminent warrior in the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V., and commanded the left wing of the English army at Agincourt, and was then made a Knight of the Garter. He was summoned to Parliament from the seventh year of Richard II to the eighth of Henry V. He was succeeded by his grandson Hugh, second Baron Camoys, upon whose death in the fourth year of Henry VI. the Barony fell into abeyance, and so continued until 1839, when the present Thomas, Lord Camoys (upon the death of John Biddulph, Esq.), became the senior co-heir of Hugh, Baron Camoys, and was summoned by her Majesty to Parliament accordingly, taking his place in the House of Lords as a Baron of the reign of Richard II.

We can assure the family of the late Lord Camoys that they will not mourn alone, but that they have the sympathy and condolence of the County at large, for, entirely apart from politics, there was but one common feeling of respect for the late Lord as a man of most equitable and just mind and as a thorough English gentleman.

The late Hon. Francis Stonor.—The remains of the late Hon. Francis Stonor, eldest son of Lord Camoys, were, on Thursday the 13th inst., removed from his town house, South Audley-street, and conveyed by train to Henley-on-Thames en route for Stonor House, in the private chapel attached to which they were buried on Saturday. The body, enclosed in an oak coffin and inner shell, was met at the railway station at Henley by a hearse, several mourning coaches, and a number of the tenantry on horseback and tradesmen of the town, who accompanied the body to Stonor House, which is about six miles from Henley. On its arrival there it was deposited in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, being the private chapel attached to the mansion. The interment took place in this chapel on Saturday, in the presence of a large number of the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood and private friends of the deceased, the ceremony being in accordance with the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The deceased's only brother, the Hon. and Rev. Monsignor Edmund Stonor, Chamberlain to the late Pope Pius IX., had travelled night and day from Rome and reached Stonor on Friday evening in order to dischurge the last solemn rites over his brother's grave. The interment took place at one o'clock, the chief mourners being the Hon. Mrs. Stonor (wife of deceased) and her three sons, Francis Robert (the eldest), Henry Julian, and Edward Alexander, and her only daughter, Julia Caroline. There were also present the following near relatives and friends:—Mr. Charles Stonor, the Hon. Catherine Stonor, the Hon. Lady Smythe, the Hon. Mrs. Agar-Ellis, and Hon. Mrs. Pereira, with her three sons and daughter; Mr. H. C. Silvertop, of Minster Acres, Northumberland, and his son, Mr. H. Silvertop; Mr. and Mrs. Blunt, the Right Hon Sir Frederick Peel, Captain John Peel, Mr. Arthur W. Peel, M.P., Lord Coville of Culross, Chamberlain of the Princess of Wales’s Household, as representative of the Prince and Princess of Wales; the Earl of Jersey, the Countess Julia of Jersey and Mr. Brandling; Sir George Wombwell, Lord Henry Lennox, Mr. Scott-Murray, Mr. Anstruther, Colonel Ruck Keene, the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Ranson, Mr. Blackburn Maze, Mr. W. H. Haines (House of Lords), Mr. José, and Mrs. Moore, besides many of the local gentry. Lord Camoys, who is in his 87th year, was too ill to be present at the funeral. The Burial Service was read by the Hon. and Rev. Monsignor Stonor, assisted by the Rev. James Narry, Priest of St. Birinus, Dorchester, near Wallingford, and the Rev. W. M. Stone, Private Chaplain to Lord Camoys, who, after the service and prior to the body being consigned to the vault, delivered an eloquent and impressive address, wherein he dwelt on the deceased's rectitude of life and high moral character, and expatiated on the many good qualities he had inherited from his family. The coffin was deposited in the family vault, which is situated immediately under the altar. The coffin bore the following description:—"Francis Stonor, born Jan, 5th, 1829; died Jan. 10th, 1881. R.I.P." Many beautiful wreaths and other floral emblems of affection were placed upon it, among them being one from the Prince and Princess of Wales, and one from Sir Wm Rose and the officers of the House of Lords bearing the following inscription:—"This wreath is placed upon the tomb of Francis Stonor by William Rose and the officers of the House of Lords, in affectionate remembrance of many years’ companionship and friendship Jan. 15th, 1881." One was also sent by Baron Rothschild.