Hanson family

John Hanson and family owned Great Bromley Hall, or Church Hall, from the late 18th Century. There is a Hanson family vault in the churchyard, and two plaques in the church for two sons, William and Oliver - see below.

This brief history of John Hanson's time at the Hall is reproduced from Colin File's excellent history of Seven Rivers Cheshire Home, derived largely from John Hanson's autobiographical diary. 

In 1793 the Hall was sold to John Hanson who, fortunately for us, kept a diary of his life and times.

Writing in late 1792, just as he was completing the purchase of The Hall he wrote: 
“...on the same day purchased Great Bromley Hall and Manor, little anticipating that it was soon to become the centre post of a large Garrison and indeed the Headquarters of a great army to defend it against the threatened invasion of a ferocious enemy.” (the French Revolutionary Army, from which Napoleon Bonaparte was later to emerge).

Other entries include:

1795    I served the office of High Sheriff for the County.  Dr. Kelly of Ardleigh was my Chaplain and at the Summer Assize at Chelmsford Miss Broderick was tried for shooting a Captain G. Errington and found guilty but was spared from execution on the grounds of insanity and was after two years liberated. This year I was appointed one of His Majesty’s Justices and Deputy Lieutenants for the County of Essex.

1796  February 29th  My son James Edward was born and died February 16th  (aged just 17 days) and was taken to Great Bromley and was buried in the Family vault which I had built there and is, to the present year, 1829, the only Body deposited in it.

1796    The neighbourhood of Great Bromley was no longer a peaceful abode but everything around gave note of the preparation of War, the Garrison at Colchester completely filled with Troops ready for defence against the expected invasion by the French.

We experienced a dreadful Thunder Storm in which two trees immediately close to the House was shattered and a certain fox killed by the Lightning whose kennel under one of them was torn to pieces and many parts of it scattered to a distance of thirty Yards around. 

1798    This year I raised and commanded the Troop of Tendring Volunteer Cavalry; Thomas Nunn,, Esquire, of Little Bromley Hall being my Lieutenant and Fred Nassau, Esquire, of Saint Osyth Priory, my Cornet.

1799    The first Presentation of the Standard to Tendring Troupe by Mrs. Hanson and the whole neighbourhood under great numbers of the Military were assembled and a large Party entertained at Bromley Hall. 

1805    At Christmas this year my 14 children were all assembled in perfect health .  Of the amusements of Bromley in addition to the usual enjoyment of Society in a respectable neighbourhood though not thickly planted, we had regular good Assemblies at Colchester and Dedham, for six weeks in the Autumn, the Theatre at Colchester was well supported by the Norwich Company, Amateur Concerts, Military entertainments including Garrison Balls at Weeley by the Scotch Brigade under General Hope,
Grand Reviews, Sham Fights etc.  And above all frequent Picnic Parties to the shores of Walton and Little Holland at the former of which was discovered ....Antideluvian Remains of animals of immense size and the tusks and teeth of Elephant and Rhinoceros.  Our Water Parties ..were particularly pleasant,
embarked at Mystley and sailed down to Harwich  ..sailing up the River Orwell to within a mile of Ipswich where our carriages met us.

We also had the usual pleasures of the Country Gentleman, the Fox Hounds in the next Parish, also good Shooting, Coursing and Fishing.  When bad weather prevented the enjoyment of outdoor amusements, the Friends in my House had always the resources of a well-furnished library, or an excellent Billiard Table. 

My very spacious but well fitted Mansion with ever open Doors required a large domestic establishment within, with its Gardens, Domain, extensive woods and Manor, with the necessary protection and preservation of the Game called for an equally extensive establishment without, to be maintained at very heavy expenditure... the considerable calls on my Purse from my Troupe of Tendring Cavalry and the gratuitous discharge of other public Services which the times and my duty required me to fulfil as a Friend to my King and Country . 

1806    We finally left Bromley for Russell Square, upon coming to town I took a house at Kensington for my younger children and their Nurses . 

1808    My great Bromley estate from the addition of numerous farms and woods had become one of very large extent and value. My first tenant who occupied the Hall was Mr. William Leeson who however proved necessitous in his circumstances and plundered my Property not satisfied with the plentiful supply of Game and Fish and Rabbits which the Estate afforded him, even shot the greater part of the fine stock of pigeons from my Dove Cote towards the maintenance of his family. I was fortunate of getting rid of him at the end of three years at the sacrifice of a consider able amount of arrears in Rent and other amounts due to me. 

He was succeeded by Lieutenant General Saint Leger who from absence in India or elsewhere was totally unacquainted with either domestic or English Country concerns.  His Servants were chiefly Irish and equally undisciplined except to personal attendance on himself in the care or preservation of anything around them but they were only Foragers from a Bivouac in a strange Country seizing on whatever they could make use of, they had dragged my Fish Ponds, destroyed my Game for sale and everything about the place was exposed to injury and dilapidation, even the wires of a Harpsichord not in use and placed in a spare room at Bromley Hall were taken out to be converted into springs and snares for catching of Birds and snaring hares and other animals. 

The General, though himself an honourable Man, was unconsciously, from imbecility and neglect, a miserably bad Tenant and I could not but rejoice at my exchange to another General in the person of Sir John Byng who was an exact man and perhaps even too minute in his petty concerns. He had the command of the Eastern District and made his headquarters Great Bromley Hall which he continued to occupy as my Tenant for about four years till in the autumn of 1816 he gave it up on being appointed from the Eastern to the Command of the Northern District and moved into Yorkshire.

1813    My son William... fell at the Head of his Squadron in leading the charge against a very superior force of French Cavalry at Villa Franca , September 13, aged 25.  A Monument was erected from respect to his Memory by his Brother officers in the Church of that Town and one is also put up in the Parish Church of Great Bromley in Essex. 

1818    The Rev. J.G. Taylor, who had laboured under a nervous complaint and depression of spirits for some time, and whom with his attendant I had accommodated for a change of scene within apartments in the house at Great Bromley unfortunately eluding the vigilance of the Person appointed to take care of him, terminated his existence by drowning himself in a large Pond . 

1821    In May and June have had three journeys to Bromley with Mary to settle the

various concerns on its sale.  After having in preceding years satisfactorily sold off at different times a large portion of my Bromley Hall Estate consisting of farms, water and timber, I succeeded now in the sale of the remaining reserved estate of Bromley Hall itself and Manor, the total sum, for which the whole sold after deduction of all charges, expenses and losses in default of payment by my last purchaser, it was clear £84,000 , an exchange more advantageous to my family than retaining the property in land returning so small an interest in proportion to its amount and it inapplicable to the calls for division among my children on their approaching various settlements in life. 

Considering the depreciation that has since taken place in landed property this resolution prove to have been well timed. 

Mary and Maria went with me to Bromley where I took leave of the Hall and all my property there except my singly occupied vaults and monuments to my dear three sons in the Parish Church." 

These three sons were William (of the Light Dragoons, above), who was his eldest son; Henry, his third son and “a youth of most endearing manners” who was serving as a Midshipman on the East India ship ‘Glatton’ when he was accidentally drowned near the town on Chumpee in China, where he is buried; and Oliver, his ninth son who “fell victim to a fever” in the East Indies, died and was buried there in 1823, aged 21. All were born at Bromley Hall though they now lie in foreign fields.

John Hanson himself died at the age of 80, at his house in Russell Square in November 1839 after suffering many years of infirmity and illness. He left ten surviving children and 40 grandchildren.

There is a portrait thought to be of our John Hanson in the National Portrait Gallery. 

William Hanson

The Hanson Memorial is in the south aisle and commemorates Captain William Hanson who lived at Great Bromley Hall and was in the 20th Light Dragoons. He fought against the French Cavalry on 13 September 1813 and died at Villa Franca in Catalonia, Spain where he was buried. 
He was 25. His fellow officers funded this magnificent monument that is still admired to this day.

Sacred
to the memory of Captain William Hanson, of the 20th Light Dragoons, 
Eldest son of John and Mary-Isabella Hanson of Great Bromley Hall,
Who valiantly fighting for his King and Country
was killed in a severe action with the French Cavalry, on the 13th September 1813.
Near Villa Franca in Catalonia, where his remains are interred.
and a monument erected by the officers of his own regiment in token of their heart-felt regret.
"He fell at the Head of his Troop at a moment of brilliant Success,
which his gallant Example had much contributed to obtain."
Admired even by the enemy and designated by name in the public despatch of Marshal Suchet.
The Captain of Dragoons, Hanson, a man of the greatest distinction for valour."
And in the words of his own commander
"An Officer of the first promise, possessing every virtue that could adorn the man or grace the soldier."
He was born September the 7th 1788 
and gloriously to himself, but prematurely for his country and friends,
closed his honourable career at the early age of 25.

Oliver Hanson

Sacred to the memory of 
Oliver Hanson, 
of the East-India-Company's Civil Services, 
ninth son of John and Mary Isabella Hanson 
who, after a short illness of three days,
to the great grief of his afflicted parents and family,
fell a victim to a fever, at Broach, in the East-Indies.
From his amiable manners and valuable endowments, 
he was beloved and respected in life,
and in death was universally lamented,
as combining all the mild and social qualities of the heart,
with the sound principles of a sincere Christian.

He was born April 13th 1802 and Died September 7th 1823, aged 21. 

"When Sorrow weeps o'er Virtue's sacred dust,
Our tears become us, and our grief is just;
Mourn, but not a murmur, sigh, but not despair,
Feel as a Friend, and as a Christian bear."