Waterhouse family

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Mary Bevan (1805-1880) married Alfred Waterhouse (1798-1873) in 1829 in Liverpool. Both came from long established Quaker families and remained lifelong members of the Society of Friends. Their children - Alfred (1830-1905), Ellen, later Crewdson (1832-1876), Maria (1834-1905), Katherine, later Redmayne (1836-1889), Theodore (1838-1891), William (1839-1869) and Edwin (1841-1917) - were all born at Aigburgh, Liverpool. Of the family Mary remained the most committed to the orthodox Quakerism in which she had been brought up and was recognised as a minister of the Society of Friends in 1842. Her husband had some disagreements with Friends and her five youngest children were baptised members of the Church of England in 1864.

Alfred Waterhouse senior retired from business in 1847 and took a house for the family in Reigate. In April 1849 they removed permanently from Liverpool to Redland Hall, a house near Bristol, and thence in April 1850 to Sneyd Hall in the same area where they remained for five years. In August 1855 the family left Bristol and moved first to Dover and then to Regents Park in London so that the boys could attend University College School and university. Finally in December 1858 Mary and Alfred Waterhouse moved to Reading where Alfred had purchased part of the Whiteknights estate. A new house called Whiteknights was built for them which they moved into in November 1859 and remained in for the rest of their lives.

Alfred Waterhouse the younger (1830-1905) was a noted architect. He studied architecture in Manchester, France and Italy and began his own practice in Manchester in 1853. Among the buildings for which he was responsible were Owens College, Manchester, Manchester Town Hall, the Natural History Museum, various offices of the Prudential Assurance Company, including the head office in Holborn, University College Hospital and extensions or renovations to Balliol&other Oxford colleges. In 1860 he married Elizabeth Hodgkin (1834-1918), whose father John was a family friend and whose brother Thomas (1831-1913), the banker and historian, had been Alfred's companion on a sketching tour of the continent. Elizabeth Waterhouse published several books including The Island of Anarchy, A Book of Simple Prayers, and A Little Book of Life and Death . Alfred designed several houses on the Whiteknights estate and lived in one of them, Foxhill, with his family from 1868 until the late 1870s when they moved to another larger house of Alfred's design, The Court, Yattendon. Alfred's son Paul, also a distinguished architect, lived there until his death in 1924 when it was sold and later demolished.

From the guide to the The Waterhouse Collection, 1825-1934, (Reading University: Special Collections Services)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf The Waterhouse Collection, 1825-1934 Reading University : Special Collections Services
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Fry Mariabella 1833-1930 person
associatedWith Hodgkin Thomas 1831-1913 person
associatedWith Holdsworth Lucy Violet 1869-1954 person
associatedWith Waterhouse Alfred 1830-1905 person
associatedWith Waterhouse Edwin 1841-1917 person
associatedWith Waterhouse Elizabeth 1834-1918 person
associatedWith Waterhouse family 1798-1924 Aigburgh and Reading family
associatedWith Waterhouse Mary 1805-1880 person
associatedWith Waterhouse Paul 1861-1924 person
associatedWith Waterhouse Theodore 1838-1891 person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Subject
Quakers
Occupation
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Family

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