Sedgfield and Sands
Lionel who heads the Pedigree of the Fishburn and Sedgfield Ords may well be the Lionellus Orde who had property in Horncliffe in 1561.He was born abt 1510 and appears as Lyell Hord in the 1538 Unthank Muster Roll and as tenant farmer Lionellus in the 1561 survey of North Durham.
Lyonell Hurde was buried at St Andrews Aukland in 1579. His first child was born in Fishburn in 1571 so it seems that he moved from North Durham between 1561 and 1571.
Lionel Hurde was the main beneficiary of the 1586 will of Janet Hurde of Aukland and we take him to be the son of Lyonell. Lionel was born about 1548 and died in Fishburn in 1623.
In 1484 the Lord of the Manor of Fishburn,Robert Claxton,died and the manor was divided between three of his daughters, one of whom married William Elmdon great grandfather of Sir Bartram Bulmer. Sir Bartram is named as a friend in the 1623 will of John Orde of Fenwick and in July 1602 he had conveyed one third of the manor of Fishburn to John Orde ( IPM 25/6/1625)
John held these lands in Fishburn until 1649 but only lived there for a short time. His children were born in Fishburn in the period 1607-1610 but by the time of his will in 1623 he was once again ‘of Fenwick’.. His eldest son Bartram will have inherited the land; the History of Fishburn records a family 'Burtrumorde' as owners in Fishburn at this time.
Is it coincidence that Lionel settled his family in a place largely owned by John or is there some direct relationship between them.?
In 1608 Lionel Ourd and John Ourd both of Fishburn purchased land at Fishburn, a parcel formerly owned by the dissolved College of St Andrews Aukland, and in 1609 granted that same land to Mark Ourd son and heir of Lionel.
A complication arises in that Henry Orde of Norham Castle ( West Orde Pedigree) in his 1619 will refers to John as his cousin and appoints him as Supervisor of his will and guardian of his 2nd daughter.
Clearly relationships exist between these Ords who appear on three different Pedigrees:- Henry, West Orde; Lionel, Fishburn/Sedgfield; John, Fenwick / Holy Island. As yet I have not established the actual kinship.
Lionel’s sons Mark and Ralph were born in 1571 and 1573 at Fishburn. Mark is the head of the Fishburn/Gt Stainton Pedigree.
Ralph was the main beneficiary of Janet Hurde his (step)mother’s will. He married Elizabeth Harper in 1604 and it appears that he acquired Hall de Whinhouse previously owned by Elstob de Bradburye. ( see the photograph taken by Dr Alan Ord in 2000)
Ralph’s 2nd son, also Ralph, was born at Fishburn in 1621 at Hall de Whinhouse and married Ann Snaithe of Embleton. Ralph junior appears to have been his fathers heir in 1656 but it is not clear why as 2nd son he would achieve such priviledge. When he died in 1685 Ralph junior left three properties ;- ‘ the house where I now live’ ( presumably Winnhouse), to Ralph; ‘the Nue House’ and ‘Noble Rent close’ to his eldest son Mark, and ‘a house in the North End of Sedgfield ‘ to 3rd son Benjamin.
The ‘Nue House’ was clearly Eastwell House, Sedgfield, a copyhold. ( see maps and photographs). But there were other rented properties and farms and the value of Ralphs goods and chattels at his death was fixed at £777, incldg a milking herd, oxen, sheep and pigs.
Neither Mark nor Ralph married and following their deaths, by 1735 Benjamin the 3rd son inherited the whole estate. He had become a butcher and had already done so well that he had been able to buy for £1300 a moitey of the Manor of Bradbury which included four farms incldg Sands farm. Now he was a wealthy yeoman farmer and in 1738 he bought the Sands Hall estate. He died a yeoman but his sons and their successors were gentlemen and members of the Landed Gentry.
Benjamin and his wife Alice Leighton had a large family. The eldest son may have been handicapped in some way; on his fathers death he was left only annuities. The second son Benjamin born 1710 initially took an apprenticeship with his draper Leighton uncle and later in 1732 became a Mercer in Gateshead.
Benjamin inherited Eastwell House and other Sedgfield properties on his fathers death in 1740, but his younger brother Ralph took his fathers moitey of Bradbury incldg Sands farm and Sands Hall.
Benjamin himself died only two years later in 1742 at the age of 32.
In his will of 1742 he left his drapers shop and warehouse in Gateshead and all his Sedgfield properties on trust for his young son Benjamin aged 4 and his as yet unborn second child. ( Robert born 1742). His son Benjamin never lived at Eastwell House; he died aged only 30 in 1768. His own son Thomas Harvey also died young - aged 12 in 1778.
As a result of these young deaths the family of Robert the younger son of Benjamin, who died in 1740, inherited all the estates. Once again all the Ord assets had fallen into one pair of hands.
Robert had received his fathers moiety of Bradbury as part of a settlement on his marriage in 1737 to Mary Ranson. Following the death of his wife he remarried in 1750 Barbara Lambton, one of six co-heiresses of Hardwick. She and her sisters had sold the Hardwick estates for in 1748. With the combined weath at his disposal Robert carried out extensive improvements and alterations to Sands Hall but he died unexpectedly when he was struck by lightning whilst riding home from Durham; it was 1761 and he was 44.
Roberts first son Benjamin died before his father and the estate went to Ralph born 1741. Ralph principal occupation was as a London merchant. He was a Commissioner of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Durham. He lived at Sands Hall and continued to be a gentleman farmer.
In 1762 he sold the moiety of Bradbury together with four farms for £2000. Properties which he retained and rented out incld Eastwell House and fields (£67), Sands Farm (£190), Swancar Farm (£190), Isle Farm (£144) and other farms incldg Butterwick Bridge, Horseshoe House, Ridings and Cowburn.
Ralph married Elizabeth Cole in 1745 and with her had 5 sons and 9 daughters.
By his will of 1804 Ralph left his estate to his wife on trusts for the family. His first son Reverend Ralph of Christ Church, Oxford ( who sold his moiety of Bradbury and his Mordon lands to his brother Mark for £3000) died unmarried in 1814. His second son Mark was a barrister who practised in London and York who died aged only 33 in 1804, leaving three very young sons Mark b. 1800, Benjamin b. 1801 and Ralph b. 1803. (Their grandfather made a codicil to his will to provide for them - just in time, he died in 1806). The third son Benjamin was a ‘Gentleman of Threadneedle Street’ and he also died unmarried. The fourth son Richard was the godson and heir of Richard Wright a wealthy friend of his father. His considerable estates included the other moiety of Bradbury. He died childless . Richards inheritance was conditional on his change of name to Wright.
Richard added substantially to his property during his life but he never married and was unable to add to the Wright pedigree. He died in 1851 and the whole of his estates fell to the children of his elder brother Mark .
Mark born at York in 1800 married Elizabeth Dizon in 1847 and had three sons and four daughters. Their third son Ralph Arthur died aged only nine in 1860 ( see the stained glass window in St Edmunds Church, Sedgfield dedicated by his father to his memory). Their second son Mark ,educated at Sedgfield School and at Trinity College, Cambridge died aged 27 in 1876
Mark the father died in 1863 and left his estates mainly to his first son Richard.
Richard was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He was a Jockey Club handicapper and was Master of the South Durham Foxhounds 1882-5 and later honorary secretary.
Hunter racing had begun at Sands in the 1730s. In 1804 the Ralph Lambton Hunt established its headquarters in Sedgfield. Official racing records for the Sands track, which adjoins Sands Hall, date from 1846. There was no racing during WW1 and its resumption after the war was delayed by the death of Richard in 1920.
Richard had married May Hornsby of Laxton Park and had two daughters, but such had been the bad luck afflicting male Ords of this line that he had no male heir.
The Sands estates were broken up, Sands Hall was sold in 1930 and all the other properties went the same way. The present Sedgfield Racecourse Company was formed in 1927 to acquire and operate the track, and is still doing so today.