Henry Harpur, First Baronet of Calke Abbey

Henry Harpur was born in 1579, the third son of Sir John Harpur and his wife Isabella Pierpont, at Swarkestone Hall. Although Henry was not the first son, nor heir to any title or house, on the death of his father in 1622 Calke house was purchased for him, and the first Harpur took up residence in what was a very different house from the one we see today. No images survive so we can only imagine what Henry’s house looked like, having evolved from the original Augustinian priory with additions and alterations through the years.

Henry married a young widow, Barbara Beaumont, born Barbara Faunt, of Foston, Leicestershire. She had married Henry Beaumont, of the Grace Dieu estate, in 1604, but he died in 1605 before the birth of his daughter, another Barbara. This child went on to marry John Harpur, a nephew of Henry Harpur of Calke it is said at the age of 13 or 14, and this marriage and her inheritance were the subject of much legal wrangling, named Henry Harpur’s Case by the foremost legal mind of the time, Sir Edward Coke. He was involved in the most prominent trials of the time, such as that of Walter Raleigh and the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, before eventually falling from favour. Barbara Beaumont’s marriage was eventually declared legal, and according to Debrettes she was declared the sole heiress of the Beaumont Estate. Her second marriage was to Sir Wolston Dixie of Market Bosworth.

Before marriage Henry Harpur had been educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, before being entered at the Inner Temple, to follow in the family legal tradition.

By 1625 Henry held the office of Sherriff of Derbyshire. At this time he had no title and was merely Henry Harpur Esq, but in 1626 he purchased the title of Baronet from King Charles 1^st, which elevated him, not to the peerage, but to the highest level of commoner. The king was selling titles to fund his almost constant wars in Ireland, and “our” Henry became Sir Henry Harpur, and could use the emblem of the red hand of Ulster on his coats of arms. There are many fascinating legends attached to this image!                                             

Sir Henry and Lady Harpur produced three sons and six daughters, and when he died in 1639 the financial provisions for his widow and younger children left little to his son John when he inherited the title.

There’s more . . .

Before continuing on to the second baronet it is interesting to follow the fate of some of the first baronet’s siblings.

• His brother John, by marrying Dorothy Dethick, acquired the Breadsall estate. They had one son, who died before his father so that when John died in 1679 the Breadsall and Swarkestone estates passed to the 3^rd. Baronet of Calke Abbey.

• Dorothy was the daughter of Jasper Lowe, of Denby, whose brother, Patrick, married Sir Henry’s daughter, Jane. Apart from the fact that this made Jane her sister’s aunt, it seems to have worked out alright!

• From Patrick and Jane came two interesting lines. One, through marriage into the Drury family, made the ancestors of the Drury-Lowes of Locko Park, near Spondon.

• Their granddaughter Ann, with her husband, Colonel Henry Sewell, went to Maryland Colony, in America, and, on his death, married Charles Calvert, the 3^rd. Earl Baltimore (a small estate in County Longford, Ireland) who not only was governor of the Colony but, actually, owned it.

• Sir Henry’s sister Isabel, married Sir Philip Sherard of Stapleford. His brother, the Earl of Leitrim became the grand-father of Lucy Sherard, who married the 2nd. Duke of Rutland and was the mother of Lady Caroline Manners, who married Sir Henry Harpur, the 5th. Baronet. On his death, she married Sir Robert Burdett, who built Foremark Hall.

Read more . .  Sir John Harpur, Second Baronet of Calke Abbey