Buxton Family

The earliest records of the family begin with John Buxton junior (d. 1522) in 1464. Through careful land management and fortuitous marriages the family grew to be one of the major landowning families in East Anglia. Robert Buxton (d. 1528) acquired the manor of Channons, near Tibenham, Norfolk, by marriage to Christiana Glemham. His son John (1488-1572) built Channons Hall during the 1560s, which became the home of the Buxton family for the next 200 years. It was under Robert Buxton (c. 1533-1607) that the family rose to prominence. Robert entered the service of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, as surveyor and solicitor in 1559, serving him until the duke's death in 1572, before looking after the interests of his son Philip, Earl of Arundel. Following the fall of the Howards, Robert was appointed one of the government's surveyor generals of the Howard lands in Norfolk and Suffolk, and received a licence to purchase their escheated property, Rushford College, in 1599.

Robert Buxton's estate passed to his grandson Robert (1588-1611). Robert's son, John Buxton (1608-1660), followed the family tradition by entering the legal profession, and by 1635 was a justice of the peace. As a lieutenant-colonel in the Norfolk militia, he was obliged to take part in the military exercises of the neighbourhood and to muster troops, although there is no evidence that he was involved in any military campaigns during the Civil War. On the death of Sir Francis Astley in May 1638 he became high sheriff of Norfolk. In 1656 John Buxton was elected M.P. for Norfolk, but, like other royalists, he was barred from taking up his seat in the Commons.

The following two generations of the family were short-lived. Robert Buxton (1633-1662) survived his father John by only two years. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Topcroft Hall, the family estate of Robert's widow, Hannah Wilton. Their eldest son John (1658-1682) died at Orlans, so his brother Robert (1659-1691) continued the family line, having married into the Gooch family of Earsham. It was under his son, John Buxton (1685-1731), that this family began to adopt Shadwell as their principal home. In his lifetime John established a reputation as an amateur architect of some talent. Between 1727 and 1729 he built a new house at Shadwell on his Rushford estate. Initially Shadwell Lodge was intended as a secondary residence, but eventually the move to Shadwell became permanent. John Buxton held few public offices, and does not appear to have had a great deal of interest in the political affairs of his county.

John Buxton was succeeded first by his eldest son Robert (1710-1751), who died unmarried, and then by Robert's brother John (1717-1782). John put much energy into creating a park at Shadwell, planting a huge number of trees and creating an artificial lake in 1754, thus changing completely the landscape surrounding Shadwell Lodge. Politically John took a more active interest in county affairs. In the county elections of 1754 he and his friend William Fellowes contested unsuccessfully the nominations of George Townshend and Sir Armine Wodehouse, and in the 1768 election he campaigned on behalf of Sir Edward Astley and Wenman Coke in opposition to the government.

Having served as deputy lieutenant in 1740 and 1761, and as justice of the peace in 1767, John Buxton was succeeded in 1782 by his son Robert John (1753-1839). In May 1777 Robert John married, without his father's consent, Juliana Mary Beevor. For this and other reasons, which are not entirely clear, John seems to have temporarily disinherited his son, or at least severely cut his income; he certainly expelled him from Shadwell. Although they were reconciled by 1779, Robert John remained with his wife on an estate of his mother's family near Chippenham in Wiltshire until his father's death in 1782. Robert John was a loyal supporter of William Pitt, whose government he represented in several elections and through active attendance in parliament. He sat as M.P. for Thetford, 1790-1796, and Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, 1797-1806, and received a baronetcy in November 1800.

The last two generations of the Buxtons were much less ambitious politically. They also served as M.P.s, but were content to lead the lives of well-to-do Victorian country gentlemen. Sir John Jacob Buxton (1788-1842) was M.P. for Great Bedwyn, 1818-1832, and became deputy lieutenant and high sheriff for Norfolk in 1841. His main contribution to the history of his family was perhaps the enlargement of Shadwell Lodge. John Jacob's widow Elizabeth (ne Cholmeley) managed Shadwell and its estates during the minority of her son Sir Robert Jacob Buxton (1829-1888), who became captain in the Norfolk Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1860, high sheriff of Norfolk in 1870, and served as M.P. for South Norfolk, 1871-1885. The architect Samuel Sanders Teulon made sensational additions to Shadwell House between 1856 and 1860, turning the Buxtons' home into a monument of Victorian neo-Gothicism. The family history, as far as the Buxton Papers are concerned, ended with Sir Robert Jacob's heir, Maud Isabel Buxton (1866-1949), who sold the estate in 1898.

From the guide to the Buxton Family: Papers, c. 1160-1926, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)