The Minor Family of Somerset

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Sir
M.P. for Haslemere
n July 1688, the Manors of Westbroke and Binscombe and the hous
e known as Westbrooke Place were purchased by SirTheophilus Ogl
ethorpe.
Theophilus the son of Sutton Oglethorpe, came of anold Yorkshir
e family from Bramham, who had loyally supported King Charle
s Iagainst the Cromwellian forces and in consequence suffered s
everely at the hands of the Puritans his home and lands being co
nfiscated. With the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Oglethorpes
, as good Royalists came back into favour,and young Theophilus
, soon a dashing major of Dragoons lodged Adjacent to WhiteHall
, fell in love with Eleanor Wll, 'sempstriss' to the King and lo
dgedat the Palaces they were married and continued in Royal fav
our, becoming particularly attached to the Duke of York, afterwa
rds James II. Theophilus played a prominent part in the defeat o
f James, Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor being hailed as somethin
g of a hero. His fortunes changed however with those of the King
, and when James II was forced to abdicate, Oglethorpe accompani
ed his King to France. His retirement from the Army, following t
he Glorious Revolutions? and from all other offices, officiall
y burying himself in his new home at Westbrook, served as a cloa
k for the continued plotting of himself and his wife Eleanor Wal
l Oglethorpe on behalf of the 'king over the water' with the res
ult that Theophilus was soon the subject of a warrant as a Jacob
ite conspirator.
Following various alarms and adventures he was finally capture
don 30th May 1691, but received light punishment being require
d to pay a fineof forty shillings far failing to take the Oath
s of Allegiance to William andMary. In and out of the country h
e continued hiding up at Westbrook from time to timers plottin
g and counterplotting until after the death of Queen MaryII. Th
roughout the whole of this Time, although loyally devoting himse
lf tothe Stuart causes Theophilus had remained a Protestant a
s his father had been, and when James II finally rid his court a
t Saint-Germain of all non-Catholics in responseto the pressur
e of his French hosts Theophilus after twenty years of service t
o the Stuarts, ruefully returned to Godalming and, in the late a
utumn of 1696, took the oath of loyalty to William III.
This year was also marked for Eleanor and Theophilus, by the bir
th of James Edward Oglethorpe,their ninth and last child, on De
cember 22nd 1696i He was born in London, and christened the foll
owing Day at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Church. Becauseof confu
sion concerning his date of birth and the length of his years, w
hich has arisen in various chronicles it might be as well to men
tion here that he was the second child of the marriage to be chr
istened James. A. A. Ettingerin his biography of the General ("
James Edward Oglethorpe Imperial Idealist"by Amos Aschbach Etti
nger, 1936) has examined all the evidence with great care and fi
nds that an elder brother born in 1689 was apparently christene
d James, and this brother is understood to have died in the foll
owing years 1690. The circumstances of this older James' birth a
nd disappearance is hound upwith a strong rumour that he was i
n fact substituted for a still-born child of the King James II
, and so became the 'Old Pretender'.
Theophilus died in1702; Lewes, who was a keen and devoted follo
wer of Marlborough, gave up politics for the Army but died o
f a wound in the Hague in 1704; Theophilus juniorbecame an eve
n more ardent Jacobite than his fathers and soon relinquished hi
s parliamentary duties his office of Squire of Westbrook, and in
deed his native lands and spent the rest of his life abroad invo
lved in all the intrigues and plans that continuously surrounde
d the Stuart case. Thus, the remaining Sons James, came into hi
s inheritance at Westbrook in 17l8 at the age of 22, and he beca
me in every sense of the word, Squ