The
Buxtons |
1561 –
1924 |
The
Buxton family is linked with Coggeshall and the Paycockes by marriage, the
wool trade and above all, by the ownership of Paycocke House. Emma Paycocke,
a niece of Thomas who was the first owner of the house, married Robert
Buxton. It is not known where Robert came from, but in the “History of
the Buxtons of Coggeshall and Essex”, written in the 19th
century by a family member, it is believed that the family may have come
from Sudbury, just over the border in Suffolk. |
The
family history also says that, although parish records show that Buxtons
were living in Coggeshall from 1561, it is likely that they did not engage
in the wool trade until the last decade or so of the 16th
century, and certainly by 1625 the Buxtons are recorded as clothiers. |
The
family bought Paycocke House shortly after the death in 1584 of John
Paycocke, the last male of the Paycocke line, and members of the Buxton
family were destined to live at the house and to pursue their occupation as
clothiers for the next two hundred years. It is interesting that each
generation until that of Isaac Buxton, who was born in 1672 and the fourth
generation to live in Paycocke House, had only one male member who survived
to adulthood to carry on the family business. |
Thomas
(born 1643) lived through the Commonwealth and the turbulent times that
followed, and embraced the Non-Conformist movement that was sweeping through
the religious life of the country coming very near to being imprisoned
for his views. Despite this the family continued to prosper, and three
generations, Thomas and his wife, son Isaac, his wife, six sons and three
daughters all lived together in the house in West Street. |
Isaac
and his wife were strong supporters of the Congregational Church and Isaac
was one of the leaders in acquiring the site in Stoneham Street for the new
church and financed the building of it along with several other influential
and wealthy Coggeshall inhabitants of the same religious persuasion. |
Five of
Isaac’s sons survived to adulthood and Thomas and John entered the family
wool business, while Isaac junior became a grocer and the fourth son, son,
Charles, became an oil merchant in London. Isaac died in 1732 and left
Paycocke House to the fifth son, Samuel, who was to die at the early age of
25. |
Soon
after the death of their father, Thomas and John left the wool trade, Isaac
ceased to be a grocer and all three continued to live in Coggeshall on the
fortunes that they had inherited. Gradually the children and grandchildren
moved away from the town, and by 1777 no one of the name of Buxton was left
in Coggeshall, although Anna Unwin, neé Buxton, the daughter of Thomas,
lived in the town until her death in 1798. |
Charles
moved to London where he became a wealthy merchant. Samuel, who was
unmarried and had inherited Paycocke House, died of smallpox in 1737 and
bequeathed his fine house on West Street to his brother Charles. |
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Charles Buxton, from a family portrait
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In 1746
Charles Buxton sold the house to Robert Ludgater and thus ended the Buxton
family connection with Paycocke House for the next 160 years. |
About
1905 Lord Noel-Buxton, a lineal descendant, bought Paycocke House and
provided the money for its restoration, but he did not live in the house but
looked on it merely as a convenient stopping place on the journey to London. |
In 1924
Paycocke House was given by the Buxtons to the National Trust, thus
preserving it for future generations and ending, save for the Buxton
coat-of-arms set into the window, the connection with Paycockes. |
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