Sir William Codrington, 1719-1792

Photo by Peter Foster.

OIL PAINTING INSCRIPTION
 
Sir William Codrington, Bart.
Elected for this Borough
in
1761 1774 1784
1768 1780 1790

Location: Tewkesbury Town Hall, Council Chamber.

Sir William Codrington, 1719-1792.

By Sarah Crowe

When examining the Codrington family, its wealth and social standing in the eighteenth century, an edition of the Gloucester Journal from 1743 describes William Codrington’s sister (and, by extension, her family) as “a young Lady of an ancient Family, good Accomplishments and a considerable Fortune.”1 This was an “ancient family” fortune built on the profits of the trade of enslaved people, with the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery writing that Sir William Codrington, 2nd Baronet of Dodington, was:

The son of Sir William Codrington 1st Bart. (d. 1738), who had inherited Dodington and Betty’s Hope in Antigua and the enslaved people on it from his cousin Christopher Codrington II (1668-1710), as well as slave-property in Barbados from his father John Codrington and Elizabeth Bethell. [He was the] Nephew of Slingsby Bethell [and] MP for Beverley 1747-1761 and for Tewkesbury 1761-1792. [He] disinherited his son Sir William Codrington 3rd Bart. in favour of his nephew, Christopher Bethell Codrington.2

UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Slavery.

Codrington married Anne Acton of Fulham in 1736.3 He was elected as MP for Beverley in 1747 and was re-elected in 1755.4 His sister Bridget was married to Sir William Dowdeswell, MP for Tewkesbury from 1747 (Dowdeswell will be discussed below).5 William’s father, the 1st Baronet (1680-1738), was the grandson of the founder of the Barbados Codrington dynasty (founded in 1628), and was the owner of Betty’s Hope estate on Antigua, later being elected MP for Minehead, settling at Dodington Park in Gloucestershire.6 His death, and his son William succeeding him as 2nd Baronet, was reported in the Derby Mercury on the 28th of December 1738.7

In 1740, the Kentish Weekly Post, writing of Codrington’s travels to Bern, Switzerland, said that he “had received so violent a Kick from his Horse that it broke both his jaw bones and drove out several of his Teeth; that the Anguish of the Wound had thrown him into a Fever, and that he lay at the last Extremity when the Express came away.”8 If he suffered any lasting effects the injury is not noticeable in his official portrait (which may have been a deliberate decision on the part of the artist and sitter).9 Another brush with death was reported in the press the following year. In December 1741 the Gloucester Journal reported that “Master Codrington, the only Son of Sir William Codrington, Bart. lies dangerously ill of a Fever at Pendley.”10 It is possible that the younger William’s serious health issues may have been what led the family to come to this part of Gloucestershire, as on the 16th of August 1743 the Gloucester Journal listed him among the swathes of British aristocracy to visit Cheltenham Spa that season.11 The Journal says of Cheltenham that it featured:

a most sovereign Chalybeat Spring of Water, not understood till about 14 years ago, nor in high Reputation above four Years, having given, during that Time, great Relief to the Disorders of several Thousands of the Quality, Gentry and Others of this Island. The Company is larger this Year than any of the preceding ones, having annually increased since the first Discovery of the Spring; and tis thought Cheltenham will in some Years, from the great Blessings attending the Effect of the Waters, become one of the First Wells in Reputation in Europe.12

Gloucester Journal.

The Journal then provided a list of the 600 “who have honour’d us with their Company,” which included “Sir William Codrington” and “Lady Codrington, and her three Daughters.”13 This would undoubtedly have been a fashionable thing to have been seen to be doing, but ultimately, this was only 3 years since his near-fatal, potentially disfiguring accident in Switzerland, and two years since the fever, so it is possible these reasons were just as important to the Codrington’s when they visited the relatively recently discovered health-giving spa waters at Cheltenham.

When considering the views of William Codrington, in 1754 the Oxford Journal reported that he was “indefatigable in opposing the Jew Bill, and all others he thought prejudicial to his King and Country” leading his opponents to brand him “a Jacobite.”14 This is assumed to be referring to the Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753. According to the Jewish Museum London:

The Act proposed to make the process of becoming a British subject fairer for Jewish immigrants by removing the requirement that they take the Christian sacrament before they can be naturalised. Instead, it allowed Jewish immigrants, after living in Britain for three years, to simply petition Parliament for naturalisation.  This would allow Jewish immigrants to become subjects and stay true to their Jewish faith.15

Jewish Museum London.

By 1755, William Codrington is listed as owning 36 slaves in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica, with the “total value of estate at probate: £2248.57 Jamaican currency of which £1485 currency was the value of enslaved people.”16 Furthermore, one of the family’s estates, still called “Codrington’s” (by this time owned by “Francis Ford”) is mentioned in an edition of the Barbados Mercury from 17 May 1788 as bordering some land, which was being put up for sale.17

William Codrington is widely reported to have made the unusual decision to disinherit his son. It is possible to see that his son, also called William (1737-1816) married twice, but it is not clear whether who he chose to marry was the reason for his disinheritance (this was sometimes the case).18 First, he married Mary Kirke (who died “without issue”) and then Eleanor Kirke.19 Their lineage is interestingly described, and they have the same maiden surname.20 His first wife Mary Kirke is described as being “daughter of unknown Kirke” and his second wife Eleanor Kirke who was the “daughter of Godfrey Kirke.”21 No date is listed for his marriage to his first wife Mary, but their daughter Mary Anne Eleanor Codrington lived until 1834.22 Mary Kirke is described in The Peerage, however, as having died “on 29 April 1789, without issue.”23 It would appear that upon her death, William then married Eleanor and they had a son, also called William (1806-1873), who would become the 4th Baronet.24 Although disinherited of his father’s estates, the baronetcy did pass on to William the younger, and he became 3rd Baronet, with his son becoming the 4th.25 The Peerage says the following regarding the disinheritance of William, 3rd Baronet:

He was disinherited by his father, who left his extensive estates to his great-nephew, Christopher William Codrington. He succeeded as the 3rd Baronet Codrington, of Dodington, co. Gloucester on 11 March 1792. Possibly because of the mis-conceived idea that the baronetcy went with the estates, the title created in was disputed for over 60 years and was assumed by Christopher William, father of the Gerald created a Baronet in 1876, though it was also assumed by Christopher William’s father, Christopher, who was not an heir to the estates.26

The Peerage.

The disinheritance was also touched upon in an edition of the Hampshire Chronicle in 1792, which wrote, that “whose son retains only and annuity of 1000l. [pounds] a year, settled upon him before the death of Sir William. – Some unhappy disagreement induced the father to omit the name of the son in his will.”27 Ultimately, it was William Dowdeswell who was, instead, named in Codrington’s will to inherit his estates, with the Chronicle writing “Mr. Dowdeswell, the new member for Tewkesbury, inherits the estates of his uncle, the late Sir William Codrington.”28 It is assumed that this referred to his Gloucestershire estates, as in 1829 the Morning Chronicle carried an article regarding “will of the late Sir William Codrington, by which he bequeathed the whole of his West India estates to his nephew Sir Christopher Bethell Codrington,” discussing the alleged mismanagement of said estates, which were clearly still owned by the Codrington family in 1829.29

William Codrington, 2nd Bart., also appears to have had another son, John, with whom he is reported as travelling from “Brighthelmstone (Brighton) for Dieppe in France” in the summer of 1768.30 No further mention of John could be found in the press, other than an article in the Gloucester Journal on the 28th of November 1791, which discusses the will of “John Codrington, late of Cromhall” (near Wotton-Under-Edge) and William Codrington “of Wroughton” (Swindon) is listed as one of the executors, suggesting that he pre-deceased his father by a year, possibly explaining why his nephew Christopher and William Dowdeswell were those to inherit his various estates, as mentioned above.31

Codrington was a supporter of the Three Choirs Festival, acting as a steward in 1760.32 In March 1770 he was one of several dignitaries invited to attend “Entertainments and a grand Ball” at the Lord Mayor of London’s “Mansion-House.”33 At the beginning of 1772 Codrington was one several dignitaries to welcome the controversial radical politician and journalist John Wilkes and his supporter and fellow politician Frederick (son of John) Bull, in their roles as “Sheriffs of London,” to Bristol.34

His death was announced in the Bath Chronicle on Thursday the 15th of March 1792 and it stated simply, “Sunday morning died Sir William Codrington, bart. M.P. for Tewkesbury; and one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for Gloucestershire.”35 After Codrington’s death in 1792, it was reported that William Dowdeswell who, as mentioned above, had inherited Codrington’s Gloucestershire estate, had been chosen as the new “Member for the borough of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire,” replacing “his late uncle, Sir William Codrington, Bart.”36

An article in the Gloucester Journal on the 14th May 1792 reported that “the King has been pleased to grant unto Jane Charlotte Miller, spinster, [the authority] to take the surname of Codrington only, and also to bear the arms of Codrington […] out of affection and grateful respect to the memory of Sir William Codrington, late of Dodington, in the county of Gloucester, Baronet, deceased.”37 William had died two months before, on the 11th of March, 1792.38 She is also mentioned in an article in the Hampshire Chronicle which wrote, “Miss Miller, the daughter of John Riggs Miller, has, by the will of Sir William Codrington, a legacy of 20,000l. [pounds] to be paid upon her marriage, with an annuity of 200l. a year till that event takes place.”39 She is named in Codrington’s will as his “reputed daughter,” despite being referred to as the daughter of John Riggs Miller in the article in the Chronicle above.40

All Souls College, Oxford has taken steps recently to address the problematic nature of a bequest from the Codrington estate. In 1710, alumni Christopher Codrington bequeathed £10,000 from the estate in his will to the university for the building of the Codrington Library.41 He also bequeathed substantial funds to the “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts” (SPG) for the establishment of Codrington College (a grammar school which was originally established for white boys), which still runs as a theological college today.42

  1. The Gloucester Journal, 21 June 1743, p. 2 <The_Gloucester_Journal_1743_06_21_2.pdf>
    [accessed 8/4/2025]. ↩︎
  2. Sir William Codrington 2nd Bart., UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Slavery,
    <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644485> [accessed 7/4/2025] and Sir William Codrington 3rd Baronet, Genealogy Directory, <https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-William-Codrington-3rd-Baronet/6000000022668960798> [accessed 7/4/2025]. ↩︎
  3. Person page 24339, The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#c243383.1.>
    [accessed 7/4/2025]. ↩︎
  4. Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 20 July 1747, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000196/17470720/005/0002> [accessed 7/4/2025].
     Codrington, Sir William, 2nd Bart., Institute of Historical Research,
    <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/codrington-sir-william-1719-92> [accessed 6/4/2025]. ↩︎
  5. The Gloucester Journal, 1 December 1747, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000532/17471201/002/0002> [accessed 8/4/2025]. ↩︎
  6. Sir William Codrington, 1st Bart., UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Slavery, 
    <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146656127> [accessed 7/4/2025]. “Dodington House,” Historic England, <https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000566?section=official-list-entry> [accessed 7/4/2025]. Anne Warren, The building of Dodington Park, Architectural History, v.34, (1991), pp. 171-195, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568598>, [accessed 6/4/2025]. ↩︎
  7. Derby Mercury, 28 December 1738, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000189/17381228/010/0002> [accessed 1/4/2025]. ↩︎
  8. Kentish Weekly Post, 19 April 1740, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003200/17400419/003/0003> [accessed 1/4/2025]. ↩︎
  9. Sir William Codrington, Art UK, <https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-william-codrington-17191792-mp-for-tewkesbury-1761-1768-1774-1780-1784-1790-63008> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  10. Gloucester Journal, 15 December 1741, p. 2,
    <https://www.newspapers.com/image/970969354/?match=1&clipping_id=169839629> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  11. Gloucester Journal, 16 August 1743, p. 1,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000532/17430816/002/0002> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  12. ibid. Chalybeat/chalybeate definition, Merriam Webster Dictionary: impregnated with salts of iron,
    <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chalybeate> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  13. Gloucester Journal, 16 August 1743, p. 1,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000532/17430816/002/0002> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  14. Oxford Journal, 30 March 1754, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000073/17540330/009/0002> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  15. The Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753, Jewish Museum London,
    <https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/schools/asset/interns-choice-the-jewish-naturalisation-act-1753/> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  16. William Codrington,  UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Slavery, 
    <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146656717> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  17. Barbados Mercury, 17 May 1788, p. 4,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004032/17880517/016/0004> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  18. It is unusual, but not unheard of, and fathers at this time had complete control over who inherited their estates: Henry Bley-Vroman, Inheritance Laws: England, 16th-18th Centuries, <http://www.sls.hawaii.edu/bley-vroman/henry/EntailmentLaws.html#:~:text=The%20entail%20by%20itself%20had,widow%20and%20younger%20unmarried%20children> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  19. Mary Kirke, The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm> accessed
    24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  20. ibid. ↩︎
  21. ibid., Godfrey Kirke, The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24333.htm#i243325> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Eleanor Kirke, The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24334.htm#i243338> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  22. Mary Anne Eleanor Codrington, The Peerage,
    <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#c243384.1> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  23. ibid. (see Mary Kirke entry). ↩︎
  24. Mary Anne Eleanor Codrington, The Peerage,
    <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#c243384.1> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Eleanor died on the 13th of February 1816, the same year as her husband (who died in September). Their son was 7 years old. Sir William Codrington, 3rd Bart., The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#i243383> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  25. Mary Kirke, The Peerage, <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#i243384> [accessed
    24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  26. Mary Anne Eleanor Codrington, The Peerage,
    <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#c243384.1> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Mary Anne Eleanor Codrington, The Peerage,
    <https://www.thepeerage.com/p24339.htm#c243384.1> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  27. Hampshire Chronicle, 2 April 1792, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000230/17920402/005/0003>  [accessed 24/4/2025]. The term “whole son” is explained here: Explaining intestacy and the rules in England and Wales, Hannah Solicitors, <https://www.hannahsolicitors.co.uk/blog/explaining-intestacy-and-the-rules-in-england-and-wales#:~:text=What%20is%20there%20is%20no,under%20the%20age%20of%2018?> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  28. Hampshire Chronicle, 2 April 1792, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000230/17920402/005/0003>  [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  29. Morning Chronicle, 15 July 1829, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000082/18290715/012/0003> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  30. Gloucester Journal, 4 July 1768, p. 1,
    <https://www.newspapers.com/image/971504002/?match=1&clipping_id=169841119> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  31. Gloucester Journal, 28 November 1791, p. 2,
    <https://www.newspapers.com/image/971264694/?match=1&clipping_id=169843799> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  32. Gloucester Journal, 2 September 1760, p. 2,
    <https://www.newspapers.com/image/971267368/?match=1&clipping_id=169838652> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  33. Derby Mercury, 30 March 1770, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000189/17700330/011/0002> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  34. Kentish Gazette, 7 January 1772, p. 2,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000235/17720107/026/0002>  [accessed 24/4/2025]. Information about John Wilkes: John Wilkes – Liberty and Parliament, UK Parliament, <https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseofcommons/reformacts/overview/wilkeslib1/> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Frederick Bull: Bull, Frederick, The History of Parliament, <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/bull-frederick-1714-84> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Cartoons of Wilkes and Bull can be found here: Mayors Bull and Wilkes, London Picture Archive, <https://m.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=16361&WINID=1743757278823> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  35. Bath Chronicle, 15 March 1772, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000221/17920315/013/0003> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  36. Hereford Journal, 28 March 1792, p. 2,
    <http://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000397/17920328/002/0002> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  37. Gloucester Journal, 14 May 1792, p. 1,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000532/17920514/001/0001> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  38. Codrington of Dodington, Gloucs,
    <https://web.archive.org/web/20191024070140/http://www.leighrayment.com/baronetage/baronetsC3.htm> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  39. Hampshire Chronicle, 2 April 1792, p. 3,
    <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000230/17920402/005/0003>  [accessed 24/4/2025]. Jane Charlotte Miller’s mother was a fascinating character and travel writer: Miller, Anna, Bath Abbey Memorials, <https://www.bathabbeymemorials.org.uk/person/miller> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  40. Sir William Codrington, MP, 2nd Baronet, <https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-William-Codrington-MP-2nd-Baronet/6000000022668899310> [accessed 24/4/2025]. John Riggs Miller: Miller, John, Cambridge Colleges, <https://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2018.pl?sur=&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=MLR761J&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=50> [accessed 24/4/2025]. She is described as Codrington, 3rd Bart.’s “half-sister” in this source: Sir William Codrington, 3rd baronet, <https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-William-Codrington-3rd-Baronet/6000000022668960798> [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  41. The Codrington Legacy, All Souls College, Oxford, <https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/codrington-legacy>
    [accessed 24/4/2025]. Christopher Codrington, Nevis, <https://ofwww.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/nevis/christophercodrington.htm&gt; [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎
  42. The Codrington Plantation, University of Leeds, <http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/uspg/collections/show/3#:~:text=When%20Codrington%20College%20eventually%20opened,the%20labour%20of%20enslaved%20Africans> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Uphill, UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of Slavery, 
    <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/8597> [accessed 24/4/2025]. Codrington College, <https://codringtoncollege.edu.bb/#:~:text=We%20continue%20to%20offer%20undergraduate,courses%20relevant%20to%20our%20time&gt; [accessed 24/4/2025]. ↩︎