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11th Stop
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
May 19, 2019
The last ancestral stop on our weekend journey to our family's past was to drive a few miles further north from Dinton to a National Trust Hotel, that English organization that for several generations has been saving and preserving valuable historical properties. One of their properties was a home of the Lee family thanks be to Thomas Lee, d 1626, a first cousin of my generation's 8th great grandfather, Thomas Hollyman of Sherington and Bedfordshire (abt 1581-abt 1650).
We arrived in time for afternoon tea with our own private room. Pricey but this was the last stop as an extended family, so a celebration was had - an English High Tea! This did hold us for the ride back to Moreton-in-Marsh.
This Thomas Lee was the brother of my generation's 9th great grandmother Margaret Lee Holliman, wife of Christopher Hollyman, d 1589 in Sherington. Margaret's brother married well, one Eleanor Hampden, a sister of wealthy Sir Alexander Hampden.
When Alexander died, his home, the Hartwell estate, passed through Eleanor into the Lee family.
And there it stayed for generations while future Lees served in the British government.
Below, Marcia Holliman presents 'the Hollyman Ancestry Quest' coach to Glenn N. Holliman, a much appreciated remembrance gift of our weekend ancestral journey.
Oh, what could have been, but then we might not be on this earth, certainly in our present DNA format.
The Hartwell House, What Could Have Been
The last ancestral stop on our weekend journey to our family's past was to drive a few miles further north from Dinton to a National Trust Hotel, that English organization that for several generations has been saving and preserving valuable historical properties. One of their properties was a home of the Lee family thanks be to Thomas Lee, d 1626, a first cousin of my generation's 8th great grandfather, Thomas Hollyman of Sherington and Bedfordshire (abt 1581-abt 1650).
We arrived in time for afternoon tea with our own private room. Pricey but this was the last stop as an extended family, so a celebration was had - an English High Tea! This did hold us for the ride back to Moreton-in-Marsh.
This Thomas Lee was the brother of my generation's 9th great grandmother Margaret Lee Holliman, wife of Christopher Hollyman, d 1589 in Sherington. Margaret's brother married well, one Eleanor Hampden, a sister of wealthy Sir Alexander Hampden.
When Alexander died, his home, the Hartwell estate, passed through Eleanor into the Lee family.
And there it stayed for generations while future Lees served in the British government.
Below the 'modest' back lawn of the Hartwell House.
The marriage of Eleanor Hampden Lee to Thomas must have been a happy one. Eleanor, one of our great aunts by marriage, bore 24, that's right, no typo, 24 children. No doubt the family eventually welcomed a house the size of Hartwell!
The House is not anything if not ornate! Below Mary Holliman Fenske poses on the stairs. A U.S. president and French kings have climbed these steps during the life time of the home. It was delight to explore this stately manor 'hotel'.
The House is not anything if not ornate! Below Mary Holliman Fenske poses on the stairs. A U.S. president and French kings have climbed these steps during the life time of the home. It was delight to explore this stately manor 'hotel'.
Below, Marcia Holliman presents 'the Hollyman Ancestry Quest' coach to Glenn N. Holliman, a much appreciated remembrance gift of our weekend ancestral journey.
One has to ask what the fate of Lee/Holliman descendants visiting Hartwell House in May 2019 might have been if Christopher Hollyman had married a Hampden rather than a Lee?
Oh, what could have been, but then we might not be on this earth, certainly in our present DNA format.
And so after this historic site, we mounted our coach and headed back to our Cotswold Hotel
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