From the point of view of the inhabitants of East Haddon, the Suffolk (Coney Weston) Sawbridges must have arrived as complete strangers. Edward Henry Sawbridge had certainly visited his cousin there on at least one occasion in his youth; but he was 35 years younger than Henry Barne Sawbridge, and there was little intercourse between them, though they appear to have been on kindly terms.
With Grace Sawbridge it was a somewhat difficult matter, at any rate during her widowhood. As you no doubt know, Henry Barne was already 58 when he married her. She was a widow, considerably younger than he, and had several children by her first marriage. She survived her second husband by over 20 years, and it was a source of annoyance to Edward Henry that throughout that time her children were enabled to enjoy the amenities of East Haddon at the expense of his own family, the heirs of the bloodline. The mattern was aggravated by an instruction in Grace’s will that the entire contents of the Hall were to be sold by auction on her death; I understand that she had previously offered Edward Henry the chance to buy them at a market valuation, but he had declined it, though whether because he could not afford it or he considered the contents his by right, I do not know.
Consequently he came to East Haddon as a virtual stranger when he at last entered into his inheritance. He was already a sick man, and it was believed in the family that the upheaval and excitement of this change in circumstances shortened his life; he was only 61 when he died. His obituary notice refers mainly to his time in Suffolk, but it goes on to say, “He succeeded to the family estate of East Haddon, Northamptonshire, in 1872, and, in spite of a most painful illness, he planned the construction of much-needed schools and other good works…..”. The only photograph I have of him from this period shows him in a wheelchair; but whether he was entirely confined to it I do not know.
After his death his widow Fanny Isabella (called by the latter name) remained at the Hall until the marriage of their son and heir, Captain Edward Henry Bridgman (sic) Sawbridge. Her widowed daughter Mary Wodehouse lived there with her. The arrangement, through no fault of their own, was a most unhappy one; for the mother was a fresh air fiend and stone deaf, whilst the daughter was delicate and bronchial. Neither could long endure the atmosphere of the other’s room, and whenever Mary braved the rigours of her mother’s sitting-room she started laryngitis almost immediately, and could scarcely make herself heard even through the latter’s large ear trumpet. It must have been a strange episode in the Hall’s history.