Algernon Tollemache
{{short description|British gentleman and politician}}
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{{Infobox person
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| name = Algernon Gray Tollemache
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1805|09|24}}
| birth_place = Petersham
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1892|01|16|1805|09|24}}
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| spouse = Frances Louisa Halliday
| parents = William Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower and Catherine Gray
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Algernon Gray Tollemache (24 September 1805 – 16 January 1892, London) was a British gentleman and politician. He was the sixth and youngest son of William Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower and Catherine Gray.
Career
He was Member of Parliament for Grantham from 1832 to 1837. During this time he became interested in the New Zealand Company and purchased several sections of land in Nelson and 34 in Wellington. In 1849, he travelled on one of the earliest ships to New Zealand and settled in Wellington. He also financed many small farmers.{{cite book |title=Dictionary of New Zealand Biography |volume=II, M-Addena |year=1940 |editor-first=Guy Hardy |editor-last=Scholefield |location=Wellington |publisher=Department of Internal Affairs}} Amongst those he financed were Henry Robert Russell and Donald McLean.{{DNZB|title=Henry Robert Russell|first= Mary|last= Boyd|id=2r32|accessdate=11 December 2012}}{{DNZB|title=Donald McLean|first=Alan|last=Ward|id=1m38|accessdate=11 December 2012}} Having amassed a significant fortune, he returned to England.
Family and legacy
File:Tollemache Almshouses.JPG erected in memory of Algernon Gray Tollemache in 1892 by his widow]]
When his elder brother, Lionel, inherited the Dysart title and the Tollemache family estates in 1840, Algernon and another brother, Frederick, were invited to manage the estates at Ham and Buckminster. Along with Charles Hanbury-Tracy, husband to Frederick's younger daughter, Ada, the three were nominated as the Dysart Trustees for the 21 years to 1899 following Lionel's death.{{cite book |first=Evelyn |last=Pritchard |title=Ham House and its owners through five centuries 1610–2006 |year=2007 |publisher=Richmond Local History Society |isbn=9781955071727}}
On 28 September 1857, Algernon married his first cousin Frances Louisa Halliday (1804–1893), daughter of Charles Tollemache and Gertrude Florinda Gardiner, and widow of George Richard Halliday who had died in 1855.{{Cite web |url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=qAR4DIacCPZ9rtBVt4jNbA&scan=1 |title=Index entry: Halliday, Frances Louisa, Brentford |access-date=20 August 2021 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}} By then in their mid fifties, the couple had no children.
In 1881, Algernon and Frances were living at Ham House but in the years prior to Algernon's death they lived at Wick House, on Richmond Hill.Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England. 12 February 1892United Kingdom Census 1881 Class: RG11; Piece: 845; Folio: 163; Page: 23; GSU roll: 1341200
Tollemache died on 16 January 1892 and was laid to rest in the family plot of Petersham Parish Church. He left his fortune to his niece Ada, Lady Sudeley. He also left £500 to the poor, a sum augmented by gifts of £100 each from his wife and his elder brother's grandson, the Earl of Dysart.
Tollemache's fortune and probate was the subject of much interest. A claim by the English courts for probate duty on his investments in New Zealand was contested by his executors on the grounds that it did not form part of his English estate and that duty had already been paid on it in New Zealand. The court initially found in the executors' favour.{{cite news |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=DTN18950925.1.3&e=-------10-DTN-1----0Tollemache-- |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=Napier, New Zealand |issue=7479 |date=25 September 1895 |page=3 |title=The Tollemache Estate }} The decision was subsequently overturned and further appeal to the House of Lords refused.{{cite news |title=Tollemache's estate. Appeal dismissed |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=DTN18961116.2.17&srpos=3&e=-------10-DTN-1----0Tollemache-- |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=Napier, New Zealand |issue=7914 |date=16 November 1896 |page=2|access-date = 12 February 2021}}
=Almshouses=
In 1892 his widow, Frances Louisa Tollemache, founded six almshouses in Ham, London in his memory, with an endowment of £16,000 to support three couples and three single residents.{{cite wikisource |wslink=Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/684 |title=The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3 |page=516}} She died shortly afterwards the following year.{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=qH%2FYvI9cRtfkIfGBIyHVzA&scan=1|title=Index entry: Tollemache, Frances L.|access-date=20 August 2021| work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Sources
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060427203603/http://www.worldroots.com/foundation/britain/robertdemannersdesc3%2B1355.htm Descendants of Sir Robert de Manners, of Etal]
- {{Rayment|date=February 2012}}
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{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Grantham
| with = Glynne Earle Welby | before=Glynne Earle Welby
James Hughes | after=Glynne Earle Welby
Frederick James Tollemache | years=1832–1837}}
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{{Almshouses in Richmond upon Thames}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tollemache, Algernon Gray}}
Category:Burials at St Peter's, Petersham
Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies