Thomas Willan

Abt 1755 - 1828  (73 years)

• Name	Thomas Willan
  Birth	Abt 1755
  Gender	Male
  Death	19 Mar 1828
  Burial	29 Mar 1828	Church of West Twyford
  Person ID	I183456	First tree
  Last Modified	17 Nov 2020

  
  

  Father	James Willan,   b. Abt 1719   d. 26 Nov 1784, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, England (Age 65 years)
  Mother	Isabel Fox,   b. Abt 1719   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	4 Sep 1742	Kendal, Old Hutton or Grayrigg
  Family ID	F77911	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Christiana Barber,   b. Abt 1755   d. Bef 31 Jul 1837 (Age 82 years)
  Marriage	23 Jul 1778	St. Marylebone Parish Church, London
  Children	1. Isabella Maria Willan,   b. Abt 1789   d. 1862, Chichester, Sussex, England (Age 73 years)   2. Jane Willan,   b. 8 Jun 1790   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F42382	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2013

  
  

• Notes

  In 1806 the manor of Twyford was sold to Thomas Willan, a stagecoach proprietor of the Bull and Mouth Inn near Aldergate and owner of a large dairy farm in Marylebone Park (now Regent's Park) (It had between 800 and 1000 milk cows!). Twyford Abbey started life in the middle ages as the West Twyford manor house. It belonged to the lords of the manor of West Twyford who owned the surrounding land. By 1593 it was the only inhabited house in West Twyford, with a small private chapel.West Twyford manor house was partially demolished around 1715 and the chapel rebuilt around that time. Willan wanted to turn the house into a 'Gothic' mansion. He engaged architect William Atkinson, a pupil of James Wyatt who had designed the Duke of Kent's 'palace' on castle Hill to designed an extension around the original house in a Gothic style. As a consequence, the genuine medieval moat was filled in. Thomas acquired farms in Farmington, Gloucestershire, amounting to 1183 acres, in 1792. It is of note that this was one of the destinations for the Bull and Mouth stagecoach business. The Willan family bought Acton or SPRINGFIELD farm, with 145 a. north of Uxbridge Road, c. 1801. After Thomas Willan's death the house and most of the land were sold in 1828. Willan was succeeded in 1828 by his daughter Isabella Maria (d. 1862) and her husband John Kearsley Douglas, later DouglasWillan (d. 1833). In 1890 their son William Moffat Douglas-Willan sold the house, with 19 a. and the advowson, to William H. Allhusen, who in 1902 sold them to the Roman Catholic Alexian Brothers, the owners in 1981. Some other land was sold in 1897 to form part of the Willesden workhouse infirmary site and some in 1900 to the Royal Agricultural Society, becoming part of the Park Royal estate. Col. Douglas-Willan was still the chief landowner in 1908 but the remaining land was sold for building after the First World War, much of it in 1933 to Guinness Brewery. One report has him dying on 19th March 1828 His will, enormously long, was proved in PCC in 1828. (Research):Christiana Willan, widow of Thomas Willan of Twyford Abbey, Middlesex, esq. is mentioned in a lease dated 1829 and in an insurance document, also 1829