page_title: Southover Grange
section_title: Owners after 1860
hierarchical_section_title: Southover Grange / Owners after 1860
caption_attribution_description: English: Sale notice for Southover Grange (then called Southover Priory) in 1864
context_page_description: Southover Grange in Lewes, Sussex is a house of historical significance and is Grade II* listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built in 1572 by William Newton and owned by this family for the next three hundred years. After this it was the residence of many notable people until it was bought by the local Council in about 1945. Today it is owned by the East Sussex County Council. It is Lewes Register Office which provides Marriage Ceremony Packages.
context_section_description: Captain Charles Wyndham (1827–1908) was born in London in 1827. His father was Colonel Charles Wyndham of Rogate Lodge. He entered the military forces and served in 9th Bengal Cavalry for some time. He married twice – his first wife died in 1858 and then in 1863 he married Charlotte Anketell Jones (1834–1923). Shortly after their marriage they moved to Southover Grange where their three children were born. He sold the house in 1871 to William Laird Macgregor.
  William Laird Macgregor (1816–1891) was born William Laird but he told an American woman Ellen McGowan Biddle that he added the name Macgregor when he inherited his mother’s estates. His father was a wealthy shipbuilder who was responsible for what later became the Cammell Laird and Co shipyard. William was a partner with his brothers Macgregor Laird (1808–1861) and Hamilton Laird in a firm called the African Steamship Company.
  In 1844 he married Louisa Helen Lister and the couple had four children and lived in Liverpool for many years. However at the age of 54 in the 1871 Census for Reigate he was shown to be living in a de facto relationship with 37 year old Martha Maria Hayter who was his wife’s niece. In the same year he bought Southover Grange and made significant alterations and additions. He rebuilt the southeast portion, installed the present main staircase, extended the east wing and added a new outer hall. It may have been for his new partner that he made these improvements. However the relationship appears not to have lasted as by 1874 he left the country and did not return. The house was advertised for sale in 1878. He acquired several villas in Arcachon in France and lived there until his death in 1891. Martha may have rejoined him later as her probate records show that she died in Arcachon in 1893. The records state that she was a spinster but she was known by the names of both Hayter and Macgregor. 
  The house was sold in 1878 to Joseph Thorne (1823–1885) a retired merchant who previously lived in Shanghai. He was born in 1823 in London. In 1856 he married Isabel Jane Pryer (1834–1910). He became a partner in the firm Thorne Bros and Co who were tea and silk merchants in Shanghai. He lived here for many years and then returned to England shortly before he bought Southover Grange. He was the Mayor of Lewes in 1884. His wife Isabel Jane Thorne was a notable advocate for the employment of women in medicine. She was one of the women called the “Edinburgh Seven” who tried unsuccessfully to gain medical qualifications at the University of Edinburgh. The campaign they fought gained national attention and won them many supporters, including Charles Darwin. She then helped to establish a School of Medicine for Women at London University which was a success. In her obituary in the Times in 1910 she was hailed for her efforts in promoting the causes of women even before the suffragette movement.
  Joseph Thorne died in 1885 and Isabel continued to live at Southover Grange until 1901 when she sold the house to John Gordon Gordon Woodhouse.
  John Gordon Gordon Woodhouse (1871–1951) was the husband of Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, the harpsichord player. John was born into a very wealthy family of wine merchants. His father was John Woodhouse who created the popular fortified wine marsala. John Gordon was educated at Cambridge and in 1895 married Violet. They had a house in London as well as owning Southover Grange where they often entertained large groups. They sold the house in 1907 and it was bought by Emily Stewart-Jones who was a wealthy widow. 
  Emily Elizabeth Paulina Stewart-Jones (1843–1934) was born in 1843 in Devon. Her father was the Reverend William Thorold. In 1871 she married Edward Stewart-Jones who was a property owner. The couple had two children – a son named Thorold and a daughter, Pauline. Edward died in 1900. When Emily bought Southover Grange in 1907 her son Thorold Arthur Stewart-Jones who was a barrister lived with her. He married Eva Joan Holland in 1908 and she also moved into the Grange. Over the next seven years the couple had five children. Unfo
caption: Sale notice for Southover Grange (sometimes called Southover Priory) in 1864
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2018:01:28 14:07:31", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15297", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "725"}