Reginald Cholmondeley

Reginald Cholmondeley (20 April 1826 – 10 February 1896) of Condover Hall, Shropshire, was an English landowner, artist and collector. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire and held the rank of Major, 1st battalion 28th Shropshire Rifle Volunteers. The Condover estate passed to him on the death of his brother, Thomas, in 1864.

Early life and education Cholmondeley was born on 20 April 1826 at Hodnet, the third son of Charles Cowper Cholmondeley (1795–1831) of Chester, rector of Hodnet, Shropshire and Mary Heber (d. 1846). His eldest brother, Thomas, was a Major of the first Administrative Battalion of the Shropshire Rifle Volunteers; another brother, Charles, was a Catholic priest; his youngest brother was the Reverend Richard Hugh, the rector at Hodnet, whose daughter was the novelist Mary Cholmondeley.

He attended Trinity College, Cambridge where he matriculated in 1845, obtaining a B.A. in 1849, M.A. in 1856 and was admitted at the Inner Temple on 18 January 1850, but not called. He trained as a painter and sculptor in the 1850s.

Condover

In March 1863, following the death of his cousin, Edward William Smythe Owen (1793–1863), Thomas Cholmondeley (1823–1864) inherited Condover Hall and the large estate adjacent, and took the name of Owen as a condition of the inheritance. A year later he married Victoria Alexandrina Cotes, daughter of John Cotes and Lady Louisa Jenkinson, daughter of Charles Jenkinson, later 3rd Earl of Liverpool and a godchild of Queen Victoria. He travelled to Italy for his wedding tour and in Florence he was "seized with a malignant fever" on 10 April and died there on 20 April 1864. His brother, Reginald, who had met him in Florence, carried back his remains to England, and he is buried in Condover churchyard.

In the parish church at Condover there is a marble monument to Thomas Cholmondeley by George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), featuring a kneeling bearded figure of the deceased, wearing boots, a cloak and a soldier's tunic, with his hands clasping a sword, looking out across the choir stalls in front of him, into the chancel.

The Condover estate devised to Reginald on the death of his brother, Thomas, in March 1864.

On 2 July 1881 (the day that President Garfield was shot) Olivia Clemens received from their friend Reginald Cholmondeley a letter of condolence on the death of her husband in Australia; startling enough, though in reality rather comforting than otherwise, for the reason that the "Mark Twain" who had died in Australia was a very persistent impostor.

When he wrote to Twain to apologise for the mistake the humourist graciously replied:

Cholmondeley took part in a natural history expedition to the West Indies in 1876 with botanist Henry Higgins to collect specimens for the Liverpool Museum, sailing in a yacht, The Argo, which he had fitted out. A mollusc discovered on the expedition was named conus cholmondeleyi after him. On return he compiled a manuscript (unpublished) book of the expedition.

Cholmondeley owned a number of rare books as well as valuable paintings, among them Elizabethan, Old Masters and many more; armour and Birds of Paradise that he purchased from the ornithologist, John Gould. Nicholas Cox, The Gentleman's Recreation, 1674 Robert William Eyton, The Antiquities of Shropshire, 1854–1860 Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766 Jean de La Fontaine, Contes et Nouvelles, 1762 Longus, Les Amours Pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe, 1745 George Stanhope, Parson's Christian Directory, 1716 Dean Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726 Voltaire, Œvres, 1735 Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, 1791 Las Quarto Libros de Amadis de Gaula, 1533 Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1589 Carl Schütz; Johann Ziegler, Vues de la Ville de Vienne et de Vues en Tyrol, Styrie, 1785 An imperfect copy of the first folio Shakespeare, 1623 David Wilkins, Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ et Hiberniæ, 1737

Manuscripts Documents letters and papers written by the lawyer and antiquary, John Smith of North Nibley, Gloucestershire, steward of Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley (1534–1613) and MP for Midhurst, Sussex in 1621. There is a well-filled volume of notes made by Smith when he sat in Parliament but they do no contribute anything beyond what is already known. A fine early copy (on a roll of parchment) of the poem called The Stacions of Rome, giving an account of the various churches and shrines at Rome, of the relics there, and the indulgences consequent on visits to them. Collections of the 18th century, by the physician and antiquary, William Cowper (1701–1767), of Overleigh Hall, Chester, for the history and antiquities of Chester and the Isle of Man. Cowper's niece, Dorothy Cowper, married Thomas Cholmondeley (1726–1779) of Vale Royal, bringing with her the Overleigh estate. She was Reginald Cholmondeley's great-grandmother. Sanctus Tewdricus sive Pastor Bonus. A Latin drama, with illuminated title page by Henry Matthew Chamberling

Paintings 16th-century and 17th-century portraits of English kings, queens and courtiers, including: Henry VIII Mary I Elizabeth I Charles I Henrietta Maria Jane Seymour Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley: Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour, 16th century, by unknown artist ?Elizabeth Seymour: Unknown woman, formerly known as Catherine Howard, late 17th-century, after Hans Holbein the Younger William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu Henry Sidney: Sir Henry Sidney, 1573, by unknown artist Francis Walsingham

By the 1890s Cholmondeley found himself in debt as a result of his extravagance. Over the years he had spent on Condover Hall, its contents and gardens, what was needed for the estate, which became "so neglected and encumbered" that he was planning to sell it when he died in 1896, having for some time rented it to a nephew.

Death He died on 10 February 1896 at Hodnet and was buried on 13 February at the parish church at Condover. The Condover estate passed to his younger brother, the Reverend Richard Hugh Cholmondeley (1828–1910). The Condover estate and the collections of books, paintings, furniture and armour were sold in 1897. The Condover estate was purchased in 1897 by Edward Fielden, who later sold it in 1926.