Author: Champneys, Thomas Swymmer
Biography:
CHAMPNEYS, Thomas Swymmer (1769-1839: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the only son of Sir Thomas Champneys of Orchardleigh, Somerset, and his first wife Charlotte Anne Cox. His parents had married in 1768 and he was born on 31 May 1769 at Orchardleigh. He was baptised on 23 June 1769 at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London. The Champneys were an ancient family with connections to the French royal family. They had occupied Orchardleigh for centuries and Sir Thomas had also inherited the Nutt’s River estate in Jamaica from an uncle. However, the family was plagued by debts which it seemed unable to escape and, while Sir Thomas was visiting Jamaica in 1776, his father-in-law, Richard Cox, was forced to mortgage both Orchardleigh and the Jamaican estate to deal with a steadily deteriorating financial situation. This had long term consequences for the family. On 21 Apr. 1792 Champneys married an heiress, Charlotte Margaret Mostyn, at St. George’s; they had no children. On 2 July 1821 he succeeded to the baronetcy and in 1831 he took the additional name of Mostyn (becoming Mostyn Champneys) when he inherited estates from his wife’s brother. These events did not improve his finances and over the years Champneys was imprisoned for debt. He served as magistrate and sheriff for Somerset and in 1803 was appointed commander of the North Somerset yeomanry. The Hieromania: A Poem (1830) was Champneys’s satirical response to a challenge from the Rev. William Ireland, vicar of Frome (1793-1813), who disputed Champneys’s exercise of a hereditary right to appoint a sexton for the church. Champneys had appointed Richard Champneys Soane in 1806; the case hinged on whether or not Orchardleigh still met the legal definition of a manor. The case, Soane v Ireland, was heard at Wells in 1808 and decided in Champneys’s favour. Champneys also published a prose account of the trial in 1809. Champneys died at Orchardleigh on 21 Nov. 1839 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin church on the Orchardleigh estate. His widow died at Gloddaeth near Conwy (Conway), Wales, on 14 Dec. 1845. (ancestry.co.uk 7 Nov. 2023; LBS 7 Nov. 2023; Sir E. Hyde East, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of King’s Bench, 10 [1809], 259-60; London Evening Standard 19 Dec. 1845) SR