CRANWORTH 499 CRANWORTH OF LETTON BARONY. I. Robert Thornhagh GuRDON, 1st s. and h. of Bramp- ton G., of Letton and Grundisburgh (i/. 1 8 8 i ), by Henrietta I. 1899. Susannah, 1st da. of Nicholas William (Ridley-Colborne), Baron Colborne of West Harling, was h. 1 8 June 1829. Ed. at Cambridge. Chairman of Quarter Sessions 1868-1901. M.P.(') for South Norfolk 1880-85, for Mid Norfolk 1885-92, and 1895. Chairman Norfolk C.C. 1 8 89-1 901. On 28 Jan. 1899, he was cr. BARON CRAN- WORTH OF LETTON AND CRANWORTH, co. Norfolk.C) He m., istly, 4 Sep. 1862, at Abbott's Leigh, Somerset, Harriet Ellen, 6th da. of Sir William Miles, ist Bart. [1859], of Leigh Court, by Catherine, da. of John Gordon. She J. 7 Apr. 1864. He ;«., 2ndly, 28 July 1874, at St. Geo., Han. Sq., Emily Frances, da. of the Rev. Robert Boothby Heathcote, of Friday Hill, Chingtord, Essex, by Jane Vere, only da. of the Rev. Sir Cavendish Foster, 3rd Bart. [1831]. He d. 13 Oct. 1902, at Letton Hall, Norfolk, and was bur. at Cranworth, aged 73. Will pr. over ;^8 7,000 gross and over ;^64,ooo net.(') His widow was living 1 9 13. [Bertram Francis Gurdon, 2nd, but ist surv. s. and h. ap., by 2nd wife, ^.13 June 1877, at 9 Oxford Sq., Hyde Park; ed. at Cambridge, B.A. He served in the war in South Africa 1901-02. C') He tn., 18 July 1903, at St. Peter's, Eaton Sq., Vera Emily, ist da. of Arthur William Ridley, of 92 Eaton Place, by Adriana Elizabeth, da. of F. Newton. She was b. 9 Jan. 1885, at 5 Eaton Terrace. Having sue. to the peerage after 22 Jan. 1901, he is, as such, outside the scope of this work.] biography). "The present Chancellor, Lord Cranworth, is charming, presiding with most unaffected grace and suavity of manner, courteous, smiling, gentle, with a con- stant attention to everything said by the counsel, and making all his interlocutory ob- servations in a most musical voice." (J. L. Motley: letter, 18 May 1854). V.G. (^) He was a Liberal, but remaining a Unionist, became separated from his party in 1886. V.G. C") This was a consolation peerage for his defeat as Unionist candidate for Mid Norfolk. He fought 9 elections in Norfolk between 1868 and 1899. For a list of consolation peerages see vol. v, Appendix B. V.G. ("=) In Burke is stated that this family " came into England with the Con- queror," though in the pedigree printed there the first ancestor named is said to have d. 1 50 years after the Conquest. Walter Rye, in his Norfolk Songs, Stories, and Sayings, 1897, writes, "The Gurdons, once said to come from Adam de Gurdon, were really descended from a London merchant, and were called Gurden a/ias Gordyng, temp. Eliz." V.G. {^) For a list of peers and heirs ap. of peers who fought in this war, see Appendix B to this volume.
