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There are a number of towns that have long been the home of an Antrobus family, most of these being in Cheshire. Although the name derived from the township of Antrobus in Cheshire, in more recent centuries there have been long periods when there has not been a resident Antrobus family living within this township. Contemporary records such as wills and parish records show that other towns became more traditional places of residence such as the nearby Knutsford and Northwich. From around the middle of the sixteenth century one such location is Congleton and its surrounding area - that is in the ancient parish of Astbury. Contemporary records of a family connection to this area can be traced from then to the end of the twentieth century.
The earliest known surviving record that connects the Antrobus name to Congleton is a 'Final Concord,' a legal agreement in the form of a fine, for the transfer of land in Congleton and Hulme Walfield dated 1565. In this agreement it records that some lands in the Congleton area were purchased by a William Antrobus. At that time, when the purchase was made, there does not appear to be an Antrobus family resident in the Congleton area.
A section of the final concord for the sale of land in Congleton & Hulme Walfield to William Antrobus in 1565:
The Astbury parish records of births deaths and marriages do not record any members of the Antrobuses before 1600. Later this Antrobus family are described as being of a township called Od-Rode, a township neighbouring Congleton that was also in the ancient parish of Astbury. It is the family historian, Reginald Antrobus, who wrote the Antrobus Pedigrees, that makes the link to the Antrobus family living at Od-Rode and William Antrobus of Over Peover. William Antrobus was a yeoman farmer, this means he was a farmer who owned his own farm and hence owned some land. According to Reginald Antrobus he was most probably the son of Robert Antrobus of Chelford. It seems that William Antrobus was prospering enough to buy some land in Congleton.
The earliest record of an Antrobus family being resident in the Astbury parish is in the Astbury parish records. This lists the birth of Jane, the daughter of Edmund and Jane Antrobus of Rode around 1600. We call him Edmund but in this record his names is spelt as Edward, but in most later records that mention him he called Edmund. He was most probably the youngest son of William Antrobus of Over Peover and as mentioned in his father's will dated 1599, recently married. Edmund Antrobus, like his father, was described as a yeoman farmer, although it seems that for most of his life he leased the farm where he resided. He may originally have moved to the Congleton area to reside in one of the houses purchased by his father, his father's house in Over Peover having been bequeathed to his elder brother, Philip. However, by 1601 it seems that Edmund Antrobus was living in Od-Rode and at it was around this time he moved his family to Kent Green Farm in Od-Rode. There would be an Antrobus family continuously living at the Kent Green Farm for almost the next two hundred years. It would be sold off and repurchased several times until the first half of the Twentieth century when it would be sold again for the last time.
Edmund and Jane Antrobus seem to have settled at Kent Green farm fairly soon after their marriage. Edmund's wife was from the Cartwright family who seem to have been long established in Rode. Jane Cartwright was born in 1583 to John Cartwright of Rode according to the parish records. They had four children that survived into adulthood, the youngest being another Edmund Antrobus. Their second son was named William, possibly after Edmund's father. Not long before his death Edmund senior finally purchased the Kent Green Farm from Randall Rode. For many years before that he had leased the farm from him. That he leased his farm rather than owned it would suggest that for most of his life he would have been described as a husbandman rather than yeoman. However in his will he describes himself as yeoman, the purchase of his farm would have been a significant boost to his status. On Edmund Senior's death in 1648, the messuage in Kent Green, Od Rode was bequeathed to his wife. She in turn seems to have left her four children equal shares in the farm in her will. By the time of her death in 1653 the eldest, Thomas Antrobus, sold his share of the Od Rode property to Edmund the younger and his sister Mary. He Possibly used the proceeds of the sale toward a farm of his own in Buglawton
In the Marriage settlement of the younger Edmund Antrobus he is described as being resident at the messuage at Kent Green in Od Rode. It seems that Edmund, the youngest son, was the one who prospered most as he purchased a lot of land in Od Rode. He seems to have lived all his life at Kent Green. Both Edmund and his brother, William, raised their families in Od-Rode, and their sister, Mary Antrobus, who never married, also remained at Od-Rode. By the end of the seventeenth century three generations of the Antrobus family resided in Od-Rode. Edmunds younger son, Phillip, seems to have been apprenticed as a dyer, maybe it was thought that as a younger soon he would not be able to prosper by working the land now that there were already several branches of the Antrobus family in the area. There was a thriving cotton and cloth industry in Congleton, perhaps there was money to be made in the dyeing business.
Philip Antrobus, the elder son, described himself as Philip Antrobus of Congleton 'Gentlemen'. Although not greatly wealthy, he seems to have become a person of some means. About 1745 he purchased a Queen Anne style house on West Street where his family would live. It is written that shortly after moving into the house the town was invaded by a Scottish army and the family found they had a number of its officers billeted on them, for one night only. The main army remained on the edge of the town encamped at Somerford Booths where defensive trenches were dug out. The house became known as Antrobus House and would be known by this name into the twentieth century. It stood opposite where the turning onto Antrobus street would later be built. Philip Antrobus also became mayor of Congleton three time, it maybe around this time that he started to style himself Gentleman. He married Mary Rowley and they had seven children. Their four sons would go on to prosper even more, for they would all go to London, Dick Whittington style, to make their fortunes. Philip had the means to put them all into local grammar schools where they got a good education to start off, the type of education that the earlier generations never had. Philip was also able to use his connection with the Huguenot Sanxay family who had very strong connections in commerce in London by this time. Two of his sons would become bankers, another a stockbroker and the other would join the East India Company as a writer and worked as a secretary for Lord McCartney in Madras.
The map below which was drawn in 1828 for Edmund Antrobus, eldest son of Philip Antrobus, Gentlemen, is thought to have been copied from a map drawn up for his father, Philip Antrobus and then updated to show the names of owners, or tenants. It shows the buildings on West Street and Mill Street and includes on the back many details of the occupiers of these buildings. This is a very interesting map of who lived where in Congleton and tells us a little something of those living in Congleton at this time. There's Mrs Anne Storey of the Coach and Horses Inn, Edward Williams of the Spinner's Arms, the cottage with shop and slaughter house of Jonathan Buckley, the thatched cottage of Peter Forster, the cottage of Mary Eaton, the cottage of Charles Heaton - the very same who drew the map, The cottage of Ralph Johnson, the Cottage with shop and garden of James Bulshaw, the substantial built mansion of Thomas Chaddock Esq, the substantial messuages of Mrs Martin and Mrs Mary Whitfield adjoining the Coach House, the brick tenement of John Kennedy, of Thomas Potts and John Claws, an old barn of Charles Ford. The map shows that behind West Street and Mill Street (the upper part now called Swan Bank) were fields and meadows, and Gardens belonging to Joseph Swindell, Ann Law, Samuel Stubbs, Daniel Oakes, George Barker and many others. Some of the fields have names, such as the land in the meadow called "the Butts" belonging to Mr George Barlow. The details with the map list the names of many more people who resided on West Street and Mill Street. Many of them must have been known to the Antrobus family as neighbours.
A section of Charles Heaton's map of Congleton drawn in 1828 for Edmund Antrobus, eldest son of Philip Antrobus:
All four sons of Philip Antrobus moved away from Congleton, and none of his three daughters married, one, Frances, died very young. The other two, Mary and Jane continued to live in Antrobus House with their aunt, Anne, after the death of their parents. This house can be seen at the bottom of the map, referred to as 'the late Miss Antrobus House'. They were known for their good works and it is written that Mary Antrobus, the eldest sister, died aged 53 in 1802 while nursing the ill during an epidemic in Congleton, probably a cholera outbreak which occurred at regular intervals in those days. By 1828 the house had actually just been sold on the decease of Jane Antrobus at the age of about 65, the last of Philip's offspring, but it would continue to be referred as Antrobus House for years to come. It seems later on someone drew in the lines marking out the path of Antrobus Street, which would be constructed some twenty year after the drawing of the map. This planned layout can be seen on the map. Although the four sons of Philip Antrobus had gone to London, or abroad in the case of Thomas Antrobus, to go into business and make their fortunes, they still maintained contact with Congleton where there parents and sisters had resided. Some of the descendents of this generation would move back to the Parish of Astbury, moving either to Od-Rode or Eaton, situated about two miles north of Congleton. Philip's younger Grandson, Gibbs Crawfurd Antrobus, took up residence at Eaton in 1827 after diplomatic service in Vienna, the United States, Naples, Sardinia, Sicily and finally Turin. Gibbs Antrobus began his career serving as secretary to first Lord Castlereagh and then the Duke of Wellington at the Congress of Vienna between 1814 and 1815. This was a conference by the leading ambassadors of Europe to establish a long term peace after Napoleon's first defeat. This was to be done by realigning the borders of several countries to make wars less likely to occur. For example the Netherlands was extended to form the new kingdom of the Netherlands - this lead to the creation of Belgium (named after the ancient Celtic\Germanic tribes north of the Seine called the Belgea). During Gibbs Antrobus' appointment as Secretary to Wellington in Vienna Napoleon escaped from his exile to raise another French army. The Duke of Wellington had to leave the conference just before it was concluded to lead the Allied armies to stop Napoleon. Gibbs Antrobus remained at the conference and was appointed to Lord Clancarty, who remained to wind up the Mission.
When the Congress of Vienna was finished it was initially declared a failure and Lord Castlereagh received much criticism, but in fact it proved to be remarkably successful as there were no major Europe wide conflicts for almost a hundred years, the longest period of peace in centuries. Though there were some short localised conflicts, most notably the Prussian siege of Paris in 1871, only when the first world war broke out did that peace initiated by the Vienna Congress truly come to an end. When the Vienna Congress ended Gibbs Crawfurd Antrobus was one of those chosen to the tricky appointment in the United States. The war between Britain and the United States, the "War of 1812", actually ended late in 1815 and the British government were keen to re-establish peaceful trading links with the United States. Leading the Diplomatic expedition to establish a peaceful relationship was the honourable Charles Bagot. Gibbs Antrobus was one of his secretaries. Due to the natural hostility the Americans had towards the British this was thought to be a difficult mission. For all the difficulties that lay ahead no more open hostilities occurred, peaceful relations have lasted ever since.
The Antrobus family became more involved with the commerce of Congleton. With Congleton's silk industry expanding in the early nineteenth century, Edmund, the eldest son of Philip Antrobus purchased and expanded the Havannah Mills, just outside of Congleton. Having increased his wealth in Banking, Edmund seems to have considered investment in the silk industry a profitable venture. Shortly after purchasing the site he had built the Windsor Mill in 1826 and also had built a number of cottages for the workers. Within the town Edmund was able to contribute to the renewal and improvement, such as by the building of a new town hall. Meanwhile his nephew, Gibbs Crawfurd Antrobus, having settled in Eaton, was able to contribute to the local community by having a new school erected there for which the road School Lane is named after, as well as being the main contributor for the church that was built in the centre of the village in the 1850s. He also supplied the building materials for the houses to be built along Antrobus Street.
The Antrobus family of Congleton had moved along way from those yeoman farmers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were one of the middling families of that time that strived to improve their lives. The four sons of Philip Antrobus set out by leaving their home town to make good, as increasingly so many people at this time did. Through the eighteenth century as the industrial revolution across Britain increased opportunities for people of modest means, so more were able to make for themselves a more prosperous life.