In the following year Allin was at the head of the White Squadron when the fleet fell upon the Dutch van, routing it and killing the three Dutch admirals who commanded that division. In the same year Allin attacked the French fleet, boarding and capturing the Ruby of fifty-four guns. Three years later “he sailed with a strong squadron to chastise the Algerines,” which he accomplished, and returned home worn out in the heavy services of his country. In consideration of these many services Admiral Allin was created a baronet in 1673, and retired to Somerleyton, which, as has been stated, he had recently purchased. A portrait of the brave old admiral, who was called “the Scourge of Yarmouth,” is now at Somerleyton. That town took the side of the Parliament in the civil war, while Lowestoft was profoundly loyal. Sir Thomas married, first, Alice, daughter of Captain Whiting, of Lowestoft, by whom he had issue one son—Thomas Allin, his successor—and two daughters: Anne, who died unmarried, and Alice, married to Edmund Anguish, Esq., of Moulton, in the county of Norfolk, whose son inherited the estates and title; and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Anguish, Esq., and sister of his son-in-law, by whom he had no issue. Sir Thomas died in 1686 or 1688, and was buried at Somerleyton. He was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas Allin, who married Mary, daughter of John Caldwall, of London; but, dying without issue in 1696, the baronetcy became extinct, and the estates devolved upon his nephew, Richard Anguish, Esq., son of Alice Allin and her husband, Edmund Anguish, Esq. The arms of Allin were—gules, three swords barwise, points to the sinister side, argent, hilts and pomels, or, between four mullets of the third. Crest—a sword in pale, point upwards.
This Alice Allin had issue by her husband, Edmund Anguish, three sons—Richard, Edmund, and Allin—the eldest of whom, Richard, inherited Somerleyton, and having, in accordance with the will of his uncle, assumed the arms and surname of Allin, was created a baronet in 1699: the descendants of Edmund, the second son, afterwards inherited the estates. Sir Richard Allin (formerly Anguish) married Frances, only daughter of Sir Henry Ashurst, Bart., of Waterstock, by whom he had issue four sons—Thomas Allin, Henry Allin, Richard Allin, and the Rev. Ashurst Allin—and one daughter, Diana, married to Thomas Henry Ashurst, Esq., of Waterstock. Sir Richard died in 1725, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Allin, Bart., who, dying unmarried in 1764, was succeeded by his brother, the Rev. Sir Ashurst Allin, Bart., Rector of Blundeston-cum-Flixton, who married Thomasin Norris, and, dying in 1770, was succeeded by his only son, Sir Thomas Allin, Bart. This gentleman died unmarried in 1794, when the baronetcy again became extinct, the Somerleyton estates passing to his distant kinsman, Thomas Anguish, Esq., as will now be shown.
Edmund Anguish, second son of Alice Allin, and her husband, Edmund Anguish, married Mary Betts, by whom he had issue two sons—the Rev. Thomas and Edmund—and two daughters, Mary and Dorothy. The Rev. Thomas Anguish, who was of Halesworth, married Mary Eling, of Beccles, and, dying in 1763, was succeeded by his son, Thomas Anguish, Accountant-General to the Court of Chancery; who, marrying Sarah Henley, of Docking, had issue by her three sons—Thomas, the Rev. George, and Charles—and three daughters, Catherine, Anne, and Charlotte. The eldest of the sons, Thomas Anguish, it was who inherited the estates of Somerleyton on the death of his kinsman, Sir Thomas Allin, Bart., when the title became extinct. This Thomas Anguish died unmarried in 1810, and was succeeded by his brother, the Rev. George Anguish, from whom, in 1843 (when the line became extinct), the estates passed to the son of his sister, Catherine Anguish, who, in 1788, had married Francis Godolphin-Osborne, fifth Duke of Leeds, she being his second wife. By this union she had issue Lord Sidney Godolphin-Osborne and Lady Anne Sarah Godolphin, married to John Whyte-Melville, Esq. Their son, Captain Whyte-Melville, is the distinguished author of many works of fiction. The arms of Anguish were—gules, a cinquefoil, pierced, or; the crest—a snake coiled, encircled with grass; and the motto—“Latet anguis in herbâ.”
The West Front.
The Somerleyton estate, having come by descent to Lord Sidney Godolphin-Osborne, was sold by him, in 1844, to Samuel Morton Peto, Esq., the extensive “contractor,” who had become the purchaser of the Norwich and Lowestoft ship canal, and to whose enterprise Lowestoft owes its railway, its pier, its harbour, &c. By Samuel Morton Peto the old mansion was entirely rearranged, extended, and altered; and by him also was the church, in a measure, rebuilt, and the village entirely remodelled, at a large outlay.
We should neglect an essential part of our duty if we omitted to do tender homage to that most enterprising and liberal gentleman. He “created” Somerleyton, so to speak, made it the grand and beautiful edifice it now is, formed its grounds, constructed and ornamented its delicious winter garden, hung the rooms with pictures, and filled the library with useful and pleasant books. Unhappily, circumstances prevented his enjoying them. Fortune, ever capricious, consigned it to other hands; the rich contractor had to sustain a reverse, and the “earthly paradise” passed from his hands into those of another. Happily, however, that other was the well-known late Sir Francis Crossley, who became the owner of the property, by purchase, in 1862.
Sir Francis Crossley had no pedigree to trace; his father was a self-made man, and he a self-made millionaire. His father was a journeyman carpet-weaver; his mother, herself a farmer’s daughter, was a farm servant. The mother lived to a ripe old age; the father to start the now famous firm of Crossley and Sons, and see it in a fair way to success. The humble origin of Sir Francis Crossley was a matter which he loved unostentatiously to trace. “Many years after the marriage,” he related on one occasion, “my father and mother took Dean Clough Mills. As my mother went with her usual energy to that place, down the yard at four o’clock in the morning, she made a vow—‘If the Lord does bless us at this place, the poor shall taste of it.’ It is to this vow, given with so much faithfulness, and kept with so much fidelity, that I attribute the great success my father had in business.” Sir Francis Crossley’s benefactions were large. To the town of Halifax, in 1857, he gave the People’s Park, at a cost of about £40,000. About 1861 there was commenced the erection of the Crossley Orphan Home and School on Skircoat Moor, which was built and endowed by Messrs. John, Francis, and Joseph Crossley, at a cost of £65,000. The building has accommodation for four hundred children. It was provided by the Messrs. Crossley with an endowment of £3,000 a year, but this sum has been increased from other sources. In 1871 he gave £10,000 to the Corporation of Halifax as a loan fund for the benefit of deserving inhabitants. Out of this fund men may borrow to the extent of £300, and women to the extent of £100, at 2½ per cent., on certain conditions, one being that £10 of the principal shall be paid back annually. Then he gave £10,000 to the Congregational Pastors’ Retiring Fund; £10,000 to a fund for the relief of widows of Congregational pastors; and £20,000 to the London Missionary Society—making a total within a short time of £60,000. He was a member of the Independent body, but he was a liberal contributor to every good cause. Sir Francis was born in 1817, and from 1852 to 1859 sat as M.P. for Halifax; from 1859 to 1865 for the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1865 to 1868 for the North-west Riding; and from the latter year until 1872 for the north division of the West Riding of the same county; having thus sat in Parliament for an unbroken period of twenty years. He married, in 1845, Martha Eliza, daughter of the late Henry Brinton, Esq., of Kidderminster, by whom he left issue an only surviving child, the present Sir Savile Brinton Crossley. Sir Francis was created a baronet in 1863.
North-east View.