Middleton Westenra Biddulph, born in 1849, was the eldest surviving son of Francis Biddulph and Lucy Bickerstaffe. Their first son, Francis, born in 1848, only lived for two weeks.
He lived in Rathrobin,King's County, which he
inherited from his father. He was D.L., JP, High Sheriff in 1901, and a
Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers.
On the 21st Oct 1891 he married Vera Josephine
Flower in the Church
of Saint Luke, Chelsea.
Vera was the daughter of Sir William Henry Flower, an eminent zoologist, and
Georgina Rosetta Smyth. She was fourteen years younger than Middleton, and the
transition from an intellectual milieu in London,
to the life of a landed family in King's County, must at times have been
difficult. The marriage was childless.
An article in the Irish Farmers Journal, Feb 19, 1994
describes Vera as “‘aesthetically beautiful’ with
a marvellous figure, who wore lovely clothes and never smiled in all her years
in Ireland.” Clearly this last comment was not true,
as can be seen in a family photograph of Vera, taken at Rathrobin. Vera is
holding the dog. With her are Bodie Anderson and Marion Biddulph [nee
Warburton].
The writer continued “During
her days at Rathrobin she endeavoured to create in the house and the garden,
and by her social conventions a bit of ‘old England.’”
Middleton loved the place, and rebuilt Rathrobin, employing
Sir Thomas Drew as architect.
[Middleton Westenra Biddulph] '...demolished the old
Rathrobin mansion house and built the house which today crumbles into ruin. The
Lieutenant Colonel employed the architect Sir Thomas Drew to design the new
Rathrobin House. Drew was the consulting architect on both St. Patrick's
Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin
and designed St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast. He was later President of the Royal Instiute
of the Architects of Ireland, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the
Royal Hibernian Academy, and also held the chair in architecture at the
National University of Ireland. The new house was experimentally constructed by
Drew in massed concrete, making it of both architectural and technical
interest. Rathrobin was designed in a Tudor Revival style, three storeys high,
with numerous gables and ball finials. Windows featured cut limestone surrounds
and limestone mullions and transforms. The entrance to the house was by a
pedimented single-storey porch. An outbuilding incorporated a rectangular hood
moulding dating from the original Molloy castle.' [1]
The 1901 Census reveals details of the house and its
occupants. Along with Middleton and his wife Vera, there was a large staff
employed to maintain the house, including a butler, a coachman, a cook, two
house maids, a laundry maid and a kitchen maid. The house had 21 rooms.
By 1923 Middleton had left Rathrobin due to ill health and
was living in London.
Rathrobin was burned on the 25th April 1923.
This architecturally innovative house is now in ruins. The
following inscription was still visible
in the 1970s.
Rathrobin House built
by Nicholas son of John 3rd son of Francis Biddulph of Biddulph Staff in the
year 1694 restored by his direct descendant Midleton W. Biddulph son of Francis
Y(?) Biddulph in the year 1898.
Middleton died in London
on the 19th May 1926. He was 77 years old.
BIDDULPH - May 19,
1926, at 7 Carlyle (Mansions?) Cheyne Walk, London, Lieutenant-Colonel Midleton Westenra
Biddulph,D.L. (Late Northumberland Fusiliers), of Rathrobin, Tullamore, King's
County. (The Irish Times, Thursday, May 13, 1926).
Middleton's grave can be found in the cemetery at Black Lion church,
Killoughey. He is not buried there.
'After Rathrobin was burned he refused to allow his ashes to be interred in the grave, and they were scattered in the Cotswolds.' [Rathrobin House: a portrait of Killoughey's past [a collection of Middleton's photographs] available from the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society - the Magan Collection].
'After Rathrobin was burned he refused to allow his ashes to be interred in the grave, and they were scattered in the Cotswolds.' [Rathrobin House: a portrait of Killoughey's past [a collection of Middleton's photographs] available from the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society - the Magan Collection].
Vera died in London,
in 1938.
Biddulph - January
28, 1938 (her birthday), at her
residence, 61 Hillway, Highgate, Vera Josephine, second daughter of the late
Sir William (...) K.C. B., and widow of Colonel Middleton Westenra Biddulph, D.
L., of Rathrobin, King's County, Ireland, after many years of suffering,
bravely borne. (Irish Times Monday February 7th, 1938).
[1] Abandoned
Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes, [by]
Tarquin Blake, Collins Press, 2012., p.223.
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