William and Caroline Stephens of Kensington Lodge

William Stephens was born in Ladock, Cornwall in 1830 and had become a copper miner by the time of the 1851 census. He is not listed in the next three censuses but records show that he married Caroline at Kingston in 1882. Further investigation revealed that in the intervening thirty years he had become a ship's engineer, gone to South America and made his home in Buenos Aires. He appears to have married Emily Benny (or Binny) in Southampton in 1858, having already fathered a daughter, Elizabeth Ann who was born in Limehouse in 1855. Emily and Elizabeth Ann arrived in Buenos Aires in December 1860. A second daughter, whom he refers to as Lucy (we know little else about her at the moment) died of typhoid fever in Buenos Aires on the 27th of February 1862.

Elizabeth Ann Stephens married Thomas Roberts Cornish in Buenos Aires on the 8th of April 1874 and, after returning to England (to "Lea Croft" on Oatlands Drive), gave birth to a son, William Henry Stephens Cornish in 1876. It's very unclear how Thomas Roberts Cornish came to be in Buenos Aires but, although his occupation was stated as "Insurance Agent" in the 1871 Census for Penzance. He seems to have been working for William Stephens in an engineering capacity and oversaw the construction of a ship in Scotland, which was then transported to Buenos Aires as a 'kit of parts' for assembly at the "Stephens & von Willer" company of which William was part-owner.

Thomas and Elizabeth were back in Buenos Aires when their third child, John Hewitt Martin Cornish, was born in March 1881, but their second, Alice Mary Louisa was born in Oatlands in 1878. Why they went back we can only speculate - William and Emily were still there in February of 1880, when Emily died. William’s time as a widower was relatively brief: by early 1882, he had returned to England and married Caroline. While William had prospered in Argentina, his new wife was considerably richer, as we shall see below. She was also seventeen years older, so no doubt there was plenty of gossip about the marriage!

Caroline was born Caroline Smith in Hambleton, Yorkshire, on the 10th of March 1814, the third daughter of Samuel and Margaret. Samuel was the local Justice of the Peace, a farmer and the owner of considerable amounts of land. The family had been wealthy for several generations, as evidenced by the location of their graves in Brayton Churchyard (Hambleton had no church at that time).

Caroline married Richard Mathews at the church in Brayton on the 1st of May 1834. Richard was a wealthy land and property owner and they lived initially in Lambeth and later in Clapham. Richard purchased "lot 27" at the public auction of the Oatlands Estate on the 19th of May 1846 and had a house named "The Castle" built there in the early 1850s. The house, which was situated at the Weybridge corner of the junction of Oatlands Chase (then known as Station Road) and Oatlands Drive, was often referred to as "Lobster Castle" by the locals as it had been built with an unusual pink-toned brick.

Richard and Caroline had three daughters between 1835 and 1844. During his time in Oatlands, Richard also acquired significant amounts of land and property in the village. On his death in 1865, Caroline inherited and became even more wealthy - she had already inherited considerable amounts of land and property in Yorkshire when her father had died in 1847. The three daughters also received significant inheritances, a fact that may not be totally unconnected with their all getting married in the latter half of 1866...

Caroline seems to have been a good-natured woman who did a lot to ease the problems of the poor of the district - though this wasn't usually in the form of 'hand-outs'. She was known for sharing what she had, making her land freely available for picnics and school events and turning a blind eye to those who used it to obtain the odd rabbit or hare to help feed their families.

It seems highly probable that William Stephens was in Oatlands in 1876 and, though married to Emily, took rather a shine to Caroline (or her wealth - he was nothing if not an opportunist, we have come to conclude) and Caroline's daughters may have seen their inheritance from their mother as far less than secure. At that time (before the Married Woman's Property Act of 1882) any property she had inherited prior to a marriage would automatically pass to her husband. The daughters, most notably the eldest, Caroline Eleanor who had married Charles Fraser and stood to inherit the lion’s share, began a civil action against their mother in 1876 (we haven't yet completely unravelled this) which wasn't sorted out until about 1901, after William Stephens had died.

Caroline died at Kensington Lodge on the 25th of March 1894 and the following year William erected a statue to her in the grounds of the house. This statue still remains in the grounds of Oatlands School but, following restoration by Surrey County Council, is now in a slightly different location and shows Caroline's year of death as 1884, though close inspection reveals the partial outline of the 9 carved into the stone of the base. One of William’s great-great-grandsons visited Oatlands for the first time some years ago. Walking along St Mary’s Road, looking the site of Kensington Lodge, he asked directions of an elderly man working in his front yard. “Oh, it’s where the school now is, just a couple of hundred yards further along. You’ll see a statue of Queen Victoria by the gate!”

William died on the 16th of August 1900 having broken his neck falling down the stairs - the coronor ruled it as "Accidental Death".

Neither William nor Caroline had a son from their first marriages (and no children from their own marriage - she was 67 at the time she married him) so, as a condition of William's will, his grandson, William Henry Stephens Cornish, changed his name to William Henry Stephens Cornish Stephens in order to gain the inheritance (let's call him WS-2 for the sake of clarity). He married Agnes Steven in West Kilbride, Scotland on the 3rd of June 1908 and they produced a son, William (WS-3) in 1910 and one more son and two daughters between 1911 and 1915. William (WS-2) died in 1947, followed by Agnes in 1952.

William (WS-3) had married Aileen Davis in 1941, had produced a son William (WS-4) in 1942 and were living at Kensington Lodge with his parents. He (WS-3) gained the major part of the inheritance upon his mother's death and, when Kensington Lodge was procured by Surrey County Council in 1958, everyone moved to Oxted. They took with them the cannon that had stood on the front lawn: William (WS-1) had brought it back from South America as a reminder of his involvement with the Paraguayan War in which he had managed to become involved.

However, that did not end the connection of the Stephens family with Oatlands. When William (WS-3) died in 1978, his son William (WS-4) inherited. He now lives overseas but still, as far as we can tell, owns the freeholds to several properties in Oatlands - their 'resident ownership' being in the form of a very, very long leasehold. He married Pauline Sheriden in Jamaica in 1995 but, as far as we are aware, has no children to inherit the 'empire' that was begun by his great-great-grandfather (or was it really Caroline???).

View Caroline's family tree (opens in new window - Adobe PDF Viewer required)

View William's family tree (opens in new window - Adobe PDF Viewer required)

William and Caroline are buried together in the churchyard of St Mary, Walton on Thames.- "A massive tomb of domus type. Built of grey brick and 3" thick slabs of white marble, stands behind a holly hedge alongside Church Walk". Sadly, this tomb has been 'vandalised' in recent years and is now reduced to the inner brick base-layer. Neither the church authorities nor Elmbridge Borough Council admit to any knowledge of this but, as that volume of marble would weigh several tons, it seems improbable, if not impossible, that they would be unaware of its removal - it is far beyond the capacity of any 'sneak-thief' in view of its weight and location.

A bronze memorial plaque to Caroline is situated in the north aisle of St Mary's Church, Oatlands.

Thomas Roberts Cornish and Elizabeth Ann Cornish (nee Stephens) are also buried in the churchyard at St Mary, Walton on Thames..