This year I am adding St Mary’s Church Wimbledon to my list of places to visit. The churchyard is the burial place of William Mansell Philips of Coedgair (my third great-granduncle), his father-in-law Benjamin Bond Hopkins, and his benefactor John Hopkins, aka Vulture Hopkins.
Tomb of John Hopkins, aka Vulture Hopkins
Died 1732. Mentioned by Alexander Pope and Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend. His money was made speculating in the South Sea Bubble and left £300 000 when he died.
His heir was Benjamin Bond although he could not inherit for 40 years (as stipulated in the Will), he inherited in 1772. He added the name Hopkins, bought Painshill which we have previously visited, became an MP, and married 3 times.
Tomb of Benjamin Bond Hopkins (this does not survive)
According to the antiquarian Daniel Lyson’s “At the entrance if the church-yard, on the right hand, is a large columbarium made by Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. for the internment of his family. Within it are inscriptions upon tablets of white marble to the memory of Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. of Clapham, who died in 1783; his wife Elizabeth, who died in1787; and Eliza and Alicia, wives of Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. of Painshill, who died in 1771 and 1788.”
Tomb of Richard Mansell Philips of Coedgair – buried Caroline (his wife and only daughter of Benjamin Bond Hopkins). Tomb does survive and is a chest tomb with coat of arms.
Gentleman’s Magazine commented in 1794 “we doubt whether Mr Bond Hopkins’s oldest daughter was not by his first wife. Be that as it may he has left to his surviving and now only daughter £50,000 when she attains the age of 24 over and besides 800l per annum of her mother’s jointure.
They married in 1797 and had four children: Richard, Courtenay (army?), Frances and Edward. Richard too the additional name of Phillips on 24/01/1793. They lived at Wimbledon Common, probably Southside Common (along the southern side of the Common from No. 1 to No. 12 which form a narrow strip of development. The original mansions were described as an assemblage of gentleman’s houses, most delightfully situated with good gardens from whence is a pleasant prospect over the luxuriant vale beneath. Originally built by John Hopkins who purchased the land in the 1720s. The estate was inherited by Benjamin Bond and then to his daughter Caroline Philips, whose children and grandchildren gradually sold off the land to developers after she died in 1850. From the late 1850s they were knocked down and re-developed.
No. 2 and 3 Southside were built on the site of The Grange and was built in 1747 by Thomas Lewis and included a house, garden, pleasure grounds and a meadow which reached as far as the Ridgeway. The present house on the site dates from 1889.
The house was occupied by Mrs Caroline Philips (1835-1841) and later Sir Richard Mansel (1882-1885) amongst others. [info from Sub Area 7: Southside Common on merton.gov.uk website]
