The Zimapanners - The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Solicitor

Jacob's father
Jacob Howell Pattisson was born on 9 March 1803 in Witham House, Witham, Essex, and was the younger of two sons of William Henry Ebenezer Pattisson 1st of Witham House^FT, Witham, Essex (1775-1848) and Hannah Thornthwaite (1780-1828).

The Pattisson family were entrenched dissenters, as they did not align themselves with the Church of England, at least not until much later that century. Jacob's father, a successful barrister, was one of the three intellectual reformers who corresponded with one another about their radical political and religious opinions during the late 1790s; the other two members of this letter-writing circle were Thomas Amyot and the diarist Henry Crabb Robinson. Known as the Triumvirate, all three correspondents were born in 1775 and all were articled clerks (trainee lawyers). William Pattisson had met Henry Crabb Robinson at a wedding linking their two families, became good friends and both wrote articles in The Cabinet, a radical political journal.¹

The two brothers
Jacob Pattisson and his elder brother William Henry Ebenezer Pattisson 2nd followed in their father's footsteps by studying law at Cambridge. Although both did well academically - William with flying colours - William's conscience, or perhaps an imbued sense of nonconformity, prevented him from signing up to the 39 Articles of Faith of the Established Church (C of E), which the University had made a condition of being awarded a university degree. This meant that despite his meriting one, William was never awarded a degree, whereas when Jacob's turn came, he took a more pragmatic approach and signed up to the 39 Articles without compunction. As a result, Jacob was awarded a Bachelor of Laws with Honours (LLB).²

Gentleman solicitor devoted to family
In those days, attorneys advised parties in lawsuits, while solicitors dealt with landed estates. Jacob did both in Witham. The upwardly mobile Jacob Pattisson became a 'gentleman' after marrying into the Luard family of Witham Lodge in 1836. His wife, Charlotte Garnham Luard, was 14 years his junior and the sister of Bixby Garnham Luard, one of the 'Zimapanners' who loaned barrister and old-Tonbridgian Charles A.V. Conybeare money in 1891.

Substantial owner of property
Jacob's elder brother, William Henry Ebenezer Pattisson 2nd, died in a tragic drowning accident with his new bride, Sarah Frances Thomas⁴, in a mountain lake (Lac du Gauve) in the French Pyrenees in 1832, making Jacob principal heir to their father's estate in 1848. Jacob inherited a large sum of money from his father which positioned him firmly among the ranks of the prosperous middle classes. His extensive property portfolio ranged from various freehold houses, land, pastureland, fields and forecrops, mainly in Essex and Suffolk, and included:

Although most of these properties were owned by Jacob Pattisson, some were either mortgaged or held by him as trustee under a will. Another of those properties, Felsham Hall & estate, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, he acquired from his father-in-law William Wright Luard^FT in 1848.⁶

In 1851, Witham was a small town in Essex situated 14 miles south west of Colchester and 37 miles from London, on the old coach road from Colchester to London. Witham had a population then of 3,128, of whom 660 (21%) of were children attending various schools.

Gas-lit streets

Witham's gas-lit streets illuminated at least seven public houses, a library, a police station, two churches, a mineral spring known as Witham Spa, a local newspaper The Globe, two banks, a gas works, a Union Workhouse (b. 1838) and a lunatic asylum (b. 1819).

Tradesmen

Witham was home to almost every kind of tradesmen a small town would have needed, including a tailor, a cooper, a beer retailer, a haberdasher, a saddler, a butcher, builders and bricklayers, a veterinary surgeon, a stonemason, a draper-tailor-grocer-undertaker (William Butler), a corn merchant/dealer (Henry Lawshall White), a corn miller (Robert Walker Dixon, a grandfather of a Zimapanner) and, surprisingly, various solicitors among whom Jacob Pattisson. Surprisingly, because solicitors and attorneys were really professional people as distinguished from tradesmen or artisans.

Landed gentry listed under traders

Jacob Pattisson was also listed under the heading Gentry with the suffix Esq. after his name. Although Jacob and his cousin Joseph Howell Blood Esq. (registrar, magistrate's clerk and Jacob's cousin) were both officially members of the landed gentry, they clearly wished to show that they worked for a living, and so their Esq. suffixes were dropped from their names in their listing under Traders.⁷

Witham House in 1851
Witham House was - and still is - a grand, substantial eighteenth century town house built by Jacob's great-grandfather Robert Pattisson (1694-1738). It is situated at 57 Newland Street, Witham. The house still exists today and is largely unaltered. It is now the premises of the HSBC Bank. On Census Day in 1851 (30 March), Jacob and Charlotte were living in Witham House with several of their children. The household was being run by nine servants, among whom were a cook, laundry-, kitchen- and housemaids, a footman and a governess-cum-teacher.

Witham House, Witham, Essex

Jacob's eldest son, William Henry Luard Pattisson, was 13 years old and attending school but at home with four of his brothers and five sisters. Harriett Board, a 22-year-old unmarried governess from Devon, was charged with educating the four eldest girls and five-year-old John Robert Ebenezer Pattisson.⁸ Besides his work as a solicitor, Jacob was also the Commissioner of Assessed Taxes for Witham and Chipping Hill at that time.⁹

A local Witham doctor, Henry Dixon, knew that Jacob Pattisson had run into financial difficulties and was in debt with his various estates. He also knew that he owed a sizeable mortgage debt and that a large sum of money entrusted to him by Widows & Orphans was probably irrecoverable. A letter written by Joseph Howell Blood (a cousin) to Crabb Robinson in July 1859, confirmed that Jacob's debts amounted to £60,000¹⁰, equivalent to £2,589,600 in today's money.¹¹

Apparently, by 1848, the year his father died, Jacob already had debts amounting to £25,000 [± £1,463,250]. Jacob's eldest son and 'Zimapanner', William Henry Luard Pattisson, was badly affected by bouts of "nervous anxiety" brought on by his father's financial difficulties. This in turn adversely affected William's academic performance at St John's College, Cambridge. Consequently, he failed to sit his examinations in December 1858 and June 1859, and was withdrawn from the University in April of that fateful year.¹²

Charlotte moves family to Tonbridge
Charlotte Pattisson, believing herself to be widowed, took matters into her own hands. In Jacob's absence, and with an independent income of £300-400 per annum, she moved her remaining children to a large Georgian town house called Graylings (she regarded it as 'small') at 214 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent.¹³ There, her school-age sons attended Tonbridge School - a famous public school right next door to Graylings - as day boys ('foundationers').

Charlotte had the presence of mind to remove a number of prize family possessions before leaving Witham - as well as the Pattisson family letters - before the trustees could sequester them. Among those possessions were:

Jacob Pattisson reappears two months later
Jacob eventually reappeared in London two months following his disappearance, unaware that Charlotte and family had moved to Tonbridge. Charlotte had been devastated by Jacob's disappearance and the ensuing scandal, and later by the scale of her husband's financial problems (about which he had never talked), when Jacob eventually plucked up the courage to tell her. Jacob did not let on where he had been during those two months, but appreciated coming home to a supportive family after an absence that he said was "no longer endurable".¹⁴

Compositions in C19th
In the nineteenth century, to avoid a formal declaration of bankruptcy, protracted and costly bankruptcy proceedings and the social stigma surrounding bankruptcy, it was common practice for those who owed money to enter into a private agreement with their creditors. Such agreements, known as 'compositions', had to be agreed to by all the creditors and required full disclosure of liabilities. There were 10,000-12,000 compositions in Britain each year at that time.¹⁵

Two trustees appointed to settle debts
A composition was arranged for Jacob through an advert in the London Gazette in September 1859, and as a result, Jacob managed to avoid becoming technically bankrupt by placing all his property with trustees who were then responsible for paying off all his debts. Two of Jacob Pattisson's biggest creditors were William Butler, a grocer and draper, and Henry Lawshall White, a corn merchant, both trading in Witham, Essex.

Butler and White were appointed as trustees to collect and repay Jacob's debts on his behalf, each creditor being repaid monies owing in some proportion to the amount owed. Jacob and Charlotte were compelled to sell off much of the 'family silver', usually by court order, so his debts could be settled, or, as happened later, simply to generate liquidity. As a result, many of Jacob's properties were auctioned off in 1859, including the Newlands Estate (£14,000), Dewlands Farm & estate (£1,650) and Witham House with 35 acres (£4,750).¹⁶

Family litigation¹⁷
A number of lawsuits were taken out against Jacob, many of which involved one or more members of the Pattisson family. There were five principal lawsuits that involved Jacob and his creditors, three of which are outlined below. The first of the lawsuits (Brightwell) was one of two that helped trigger Jacob Pattisson's financial crisis; the other two cases were heard following his financial crisis and disappearance.

1. The case of Charity Osborne's estate
Brightwell et al v. Pattisson et al (1859)
The case concerned Jacob Pattisson's stewardship of the estate of the late Charity Osborne, for which Jacob had been appointed executor and trustee. Jacob was responsible for administering the entire Osborne estate which included the payment of Charity Osborne's legacies, debts and funeral costs. Delays in the payment of the legacies prompted the legatees, Ann and Charles Brightwell, to have the matter resolved by a Chancery court.

Jacob lost the case and his reputation was damaged by suggestions of maladministration and abuse of trust. As a result, the contents of Witham House had to be auctioned off, including two pianofortes, several horses and carriages, Turkey & Brussels carpets, a small cellar of wine, silver plate (1,000 ounces), 2,000 books from Jacob's library, and various farming implements. (auction value not known).

2. The case of Elizabeth Bixby's legatees
Bixby Garnham Luard v. Pattisson et al (1860-61)
This case concerned the payment of 10 legatees under the will of the late Elizabeth Bixby^FT who died in 1834. She had bequeathed her personal estate to be divided equally between the 10 children of her older half-sister, Charlotte Luard (née Garnham; 1789-1875), Jacob's mother-in-law.

Bixby Garnham Luard was one of Elizabeth Bixby's 10 half-nephews & nieces (and one of the legatees). On her death, Elizabeth Bixby's real estate passed to her brother-in-law William Wright Luard, who asked that the property, principally Felsham Hall & estate, be sold off and the proceeds divided equally between the 10 legatees. As it turned out, Felsham Hall was eventually bought by Jacob Pattisson in 1848, but he had omitted to pay the purchase price. Since Jacob refused to hand over the property deeds, the Reverend Bixby Garnham Luard was left with no option but to take out a Chancery suit against four members of his own family, namely:

- Jacob Howell Pattisson (B's brother-in-law; main target of litigation)
- Charlotte Luard (née Garnham; B's mother; 1789-1875)
- William Garnham Luard (B's elder brother)
- Thomas Garnham Luard (B's elder brother)

The court ruled that Felsham Hall should be sold and that the proceeds of the sale (£5,020) of the property plus the interest (± £8) less legal costs (£491), be divided into 10 equal parts and paid to the legatees, thereby giving them each around £453. According to Penelope Corfield, the judge in the case "did not directly blame Pattisson, but removed the disputed property from his control".

3. The case of Charlotte Garnham's marriage settlement
Charlotte Garnham Luard et al v. Pattisson et al (1861-62)
The case concerned the marriage settlement made prior to Charlotte Garnham Luard's marriage (10 Oct 1815) to William Wright Luard (1786-1857).

"A sum of £22,000¹⁷ was settled upon Charlotte and her offspring". Jacob Howell Pattisson, Charlotte's son-in-law, became the new executive trustee of Charlotte's settlement fund, which included some later bequests in 1852. Charlotte Garnham (1789-1875), William Wright Luard's widow, together with her daughters Jane, Mary and Helen Pattisson, took out a suit against 21 defendants, the principal one being Jacob Howell Pattisson, after he refused to step down from his trusteeship of the settlement.

Among the defendants were William Henry Luard Pattisson (Jacob's eldest son) who, it was proposed, should take over the trusteeship from his father, and Jacob Howell Blood, Jacob's cousin.

Jacob's defence
In court, Jacob was once again accused of malpractice, of abusing his position of trust and of appropriating a large sum of money from the marriage settlement for his own purposes. In his defence, Jacob claimed that the marriage settlement had been "well managed" and that his assets were "sufficient not only to pay all his creditors but to leave him a considerable surplus".

However, the carpet was effectively pulled from under Jacob's defence as the relevant documentation had gone missing during his disappearance (purportedly removed by the Luards), thereby preventing him from substantiating his claim. Penelope Corfield concluded that "this case also showed that Jacob Pattisson had not only lost his fortune and professional status in 1859, but also his personal status within the Luard family of Witham Lodge".

Return to respectable prosperity
According to Penelope Corfield, the move to Tonbridge turned out "eminently successful" for the Pattisson family. A number of paintings from Jacob's collection which Charlotte had taken with her from Witham to Tonbridge in 1859 were sold in 1860, including a view of Venice which went for £252 (240 guineas) and a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence of Jacob and William Pattisson when they were boys (aka Rural Amusement) which was snapped up for a mere £210 (200 guineas).¹⁹ This enabled the Pattissons to become "stabilised into respectable prosperity" once again.

On 5 August 1860, one year after Jacob had returned from his walkabout, Charlotte, aged 43, gave birth to her 16th child and 10th son, whom they named Richard Murrills Pattisson, after Charlotte's great-great grandfather.

Professional status
Having fallen from the "apex of Witham society", and realising that none of his political friends would employ him as a lawyer because he had been "too independent", Jacob withdrew from public life and became a "family hermit". Jacob shares his sense of indecision about his public life in letters to his friend Crabb Robinson, about whether or not he should terminate his membership of the Athenaeum Club in London. Crabb Robinson advises him to do the decent thing, writing "I should have reminded you of the propriety of announcing your intention to quit".²⁰

Just two years after moving to Tonbridge following his near-miss with bankruptcy, Jacob still officially regarded himself as a practising solicitor because on 7 April 1861, Jacob is described as a "solicitor at Cambridge" when he and his 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, were visiting his 71-year-old solicitor-friend Thomas Brookbank at 11 Bentick Terrace, London W1.²¹ As he was living with Charlotte in Tonbridge, Kent at that time, it seems highly improbable and impractical that he would have practised law 83 miles away in Cambridge.

Ten years later, in 1871, Jacob's occupation was "Master of Law, Cantab, attorney",²² which is puzzling as Jacob had only been awarded a Bachelor's degree (LLB) at Cambridge, whereas now he was claiming he had an LLM.

In 1874, Kelly's Directory listed Jacob as a "solicitor and perpetual commissioner" [ed. of taxes].

Jacob Pattisson's household in 1871²³
On 2 April 1871, eight of Jacob and Charlotte's children were living at Graylings:

Two domestic servants helped run the household.To help pay the bills, Jacob and Charlotte had two Tonbridge School boarders from Lancashire paying for their board and lodging at Graylings, namely:

Jacob died three years later in High Street (ed. Graylings), Tonbridge, Kent, on 19 August 1874, aged 71. Jacob, whose profession is recorded as 'solicitor', died of cystitis in the presence of Henry Bishop whose residence is given as the same as Jacob's.²⁴

Sons at Tonbridge
In Kent, the lives of the sons of the Pattisson, Luard and Conybeare families all intersected at Tonbridge School, forging new relationships and auguring future commercial ones. And Richard M. Pattisson eventually became Head Boy at the School. Of Jacob's 10 sons, five joined the professions,²⁵ two became colonial farmers, one became an administrator,²⁶ one joined the Essex Constabulary but later became a director of a brewery,²⁷ and another joined the Colonial police.²⁸

Daughters
By 1871, Jacob's eldest daughter, Charlotte Hannah Pattisson, had married the Reverend Newell Vicary Fowler, Vicar of Ulting and were living in The Vicarage in Ulting, Essex, with their two children, Robert C. Fowler (3) and Violet Fowler (1).²⁹ In 1901, Jacob's four other daughters -Elizabeth, Sarah, Rachel and Mary Turton - were still living at home with their widowed mother at Graylings. None of the four were married.³⁰ One of the boys, James Jollie, died at Graylings on 14 May 1903.

Charlotte Garnham Luard
Charlotte Garnham Luard died on 23 November 1904, surviving Jacob by a full 30 years.³¹

Footnotes
1. Youth and Revolution in the 1790s, Pattisson family letters edited by Penelope Corfield and Chris Evans, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, 1996.
2. John Harmer Pattisson, the great-grandson of Jacob Howell Pattisson, 2010.
3. See f/n 1.
4. Sarah Thomas was the daughter of the Reverend Goring Thomas, vicar of Tooting, south London where he was Lord of the Manor. She was therefore a considerable heiress in her own right. See f/n 2.
5. The house dates back to 1567 and was the former home of botanist John Ray.
6. Reputation & Loss in a Victorian Family: The Pattissons of Witham in 1859. A special report commissioned by the Pattisson Family, authored by Professor Penelope Corfield, with research contributions from Mary Clayton and Janet Gyford, 15 April 1997.
7. The Post Office Directory for 1851.
8. The England Census of 1851.
9. See f/n 7.
10. See f/n 6.
11. The National Archive's currency converter.
12. WHLP's exam results, Paul Everest, Biographical Office of St John's College's Library, Cambridge, 2009.
13. Address of Graylings, Tonbridge Historical Society. The house later became part of Tonbridge School (post-1935).
14. See f/n 6.
15. See f/n 6.
16. See f/n 6.
17. See f/n 6.
18. Equivalent to ± £835,000 in today's money; The National Archive's currency converter.
19. See f/n 6. This source refers to the selling price as 2,400 guineas, but this was in fact a typo. The actual selling price was confirmed as 240 guineas by J.H. Pattisson in 2010. In fact, the title "Rural Amusement" only refers to a popular engraving made by J.Bromley in 1834 based on Lawrence's painting; referred to in White's Directory of 1848 as "Rural Amusements" (plural).
20. See f/n 6.
21. The England Census of 1861.
22. The England Census of 1871.
23. The England Census of 1871.
24. (i) The Pattisson Pedigree - original bound album recorded in manuscript, showing much of the BMD data of Jacob Howell Pattisson's and Charlotte Garnham Luard's antecedents and descendents. Loaned to the author by J.H. Pattisson, 2010. (ii) Death certificate, 22-8-1874.
25. James Jollie Pattisson, teacher, (Zimapanner).
26. Jacob Luard Pattisson (Zimapanner).
27. William Henry Luard Pattisson (Zimapanner).
28. Arthur Joseph Todd Pattisson was a colonial commissariat in South Africa, in charge of an army department responsible for providing food and other supplies to the troops.
29. The England Census of 1871.
30. The England Census of 1901.
31. See f/n 24.
32. Photograph of JHP's five daughters, courtesy of F.D (David) Pattisson, great-grandson of JHP, who recalls meeting his "formidable aunts" at Graylings as a small boy.