Wednesday 1 August 2012

The disinheritance at Grange Lodge

Suppose you were a vindictive bastard (mean enough to prosecute a maid for stealing spoons) and resented your son-in-law, how would you use your will?

You could draw inspiration from John Knaggs, apothecary & surgeon of Grange Lodge, Hornsey Road. 

Knaggs died in 1877 and  left his daughter Ann Cook £10  'notwithstanding that her husband owes me many hundreds of pounds'. I can't find out the story behind that, but there are reasons to doubt Knagg's judgement.

He left nearly all his estate to his only son, Walter, who had been kicked out of Jamaica for falsely accusing the colony's Receiver General of embezzlement, and who'd wind up peddling schemes for tea plantations in Penang.

Ann Cook and her husband George, meanwhile,  went  New Zealand where he became a judge. Their daughter (named Clara after another of Knagg's children) married Frederick Revans Chapman, New Zealand's first homegrown supreme court judge.

Here he is: 
Found here.

The will, as is the way of these things, survived all of them. 

Oh - anyone know where 'Grange Lodge' is/was exactly? 

2 comments:

  1. Could Grange Lodge be one of those huge houses behind the southbound 210/43 bus stop opposite Elthorne Park? I've often wondered about those. And if i didn't have all this paint to watch dry I'd head up there and jolly well find out.

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    1. Hmmm. That's certainly a possibility. I'm planning on going to the BL to check out a 'Positivist Address' that was given there. It's glamorous this Hornsey Road lark.

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