he man who succeeded Francis as squire of Renishaw was a younger brother of the other Francis Sitwell, the rich Sheffield attorney.he man who succeeded Francis as squire of Renishaw was a younger brother of the other Francis Sitwell, the rich Sheffield attorney.
Born in 1697, a younger son of a younger son, William Sitwell can never have expected – even into early middle age – that he would inherit Renishaw, although he had other, if somewhat distant, expectations of an inheritance from his mother, Mary Reresby, who belonged to an ancient, well-to-do family of Derbyshire landowners, the Reresbys of Thrybergh. Nor can William have supposed that his elder brother Francis would die young.1
William had gone to London where, in the Sitwell tradition of younger sons entering trade, he was apprenticed to an ironmonger – no doubt because of his father’s contacts with Sheffield manufacturers. Eventually, he became a general merchant in partnership with the fabulously wealthy William Parkin, the offices of Messrs, Parkin & Sitwell being at the White Lyon in Foster Lane. In consequence, William made a fortune, especially after Parkin’s death in 1746, ending as one of the richest men in the City.
Among other business enterprises, he underwrote shipping. In about 1960, two old tin boxes bearing his name were found in the vaults of the Goldsmiths’ Company in London. Among the papers they contained was a batch of documents concerning a legal action he had brought over a vessel that sank in harbour before even setting sail. He won the case with full compensation.
Plainly, he enjoyed the London of Hogarth and Canaletto – dirty, dangerous and beautiful – and liked to relax at Child’s Coffee House near St Paul’s Cathedral. In those days the City contained mansions besides offices and warehouses, and his residence, No. 6 Aldermanbury in Dyer’s Court, was probably inherited from a kinsman. Pulled down in the 1880s, this had been a large building with a courtyard entered through a large archway with high, wooden doors that were closed after nightfall.
A prominent philanthropist, William subscribed to many charities. In 1753 he became a governor of St Bartholomew’s Hospital and, two years later, of Christ’s, while in 1757 he was elected honorary auditor general of the royal hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, a post he retained until his death. He also contributed to a fund for educating clergymen’s orphans, and to another for helping crippled merchant seamen.
Already well into middle age, William Sitwell’s prospects were transformed by the death of his elder brother. As Francis had been a bachelor, William inherited his substantial fortune as well as becoming the heir to Renishaw. For the moment, it did not make much difference to William’s habits, although he regularly visited Derbyshire, and in June 1746 he organised Cousin Jane Sacheverell’s funeral, sending an account of the arrangement to Renishaw.
Despite his absorbing London life, when he became squire William made Renishaw his home, although he kept on his house in Dyer’s Court. He had known Renishaw since he was a boy, having been on friendly terms with Squire Francis, who while his brother was still alive had promised to leave him £30,000. He did not make many changes, but ensured the hall and estate were well run, appointing as his land agent a Mr Foxlowe – son of the Master of Chesterfield Grammar School. Yet, while a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant, he took no interest in county affairs, and paid £500 to avoid serving as High Sheriff – an honour avidly sought by his predecessors.
No sportsman, his relaxations were music and the theatre – especially music. He played the flute, hautboy (oboe) and violin. Fortunately he had an heir who shared these tastes: his nephew, Francis Hurt, his widowed sister Catherine’s son. On Francis reaching the age of twenty-one in 1749, William, who by then was well over fifty, formally adopted him as his son, with an allowance of £400 a year. When Francis’s mother died in 1754 and he was left without a home, his uncle invited him to live at Renishaw in summer and Dyer’s Court in winter.
As music lovers who played the same instruments and gave music parties, they got on well. At Renishaw they entertained the kindred named by William in a will he made in 1773 – such cousins as the Reresbys, Phippses, Allestrees, Shirecliffes, Shepherds and Stathams. The pair went regularly to the new assembly rooms and theatre at Sheffield, while from London they visited Bath or other fashionable watering places.
William’s health began to fail him in his seventies, and for the last two years of his life he stayed in London apart from rare visits to Bath for the waters. During this time Renishaw Hall was let to Mr and Mrs Clay of Bridgehouses. William died at Dyer’s Court in April 1776 in his eightieth year, with the York Chronicle for 3 May recording that he had been buried with great pomp in the family vault in Derbyshire. ‘Mr Sitwell is said to have died worth 400,000 l.’ says the article, adding, ‘He had 30,000 l. in an iron chest when he died.’ Other reports put his wealth as high as £500,000.
Sadly, few of William Sitwell’s letters survive, and no portrait, so that he is the most shadowy of all the squires of Renishaw. But he had taken excellent care of the house and the estate, besides enormously increasing the family fortunes, a legacy that would benefit succeeding generations and transform the house. A particularly attractive feature of his character was his happy relationship with his heir.
Although you can still feel fairly close to the eighteenth-century Sitwells, at both Renishaw Hall and Eckington church, you can only do so up to a point. Despite all their shrewdness, benevolence and cultivation, these last members of the direct Sitwell male line are no more than ghostly phantoms in a charming landscape.