Ferdinand Magellan Early life and travels When was he born? in around 1480,
Who was his family?
Who was Ferdinand Magellan's family?
Magellan was born in northern Portugal in around 1480, either at Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto, in Douro Litoral Province, or at Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro Province. He was the son of Rodrigo de Magalhaes, Alcaide-Mor of Aveiro (1433-1500, son of Pedro Afonso de Magalhaes and wife Quinta de Sousa) and wife Alda de Mesquita and brother of Leonor or Genebra de Magalhaes, wife with issue of Joao Fernandes Barbosa.  In March 1505 at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host D. Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa, Cochin and Quilon. He participated in several battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he was wounded. In 1509 he fought in the battle of Diu. He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca, with Francisco Serrao, his friend and possibly cousin. In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and saving Francisco Serrao, who had landed.  In 1511, under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque, Magellan and Serrao participated in the conquest of Malacca. After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich plunder and, in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized Enrique of Malacca, he returned to Portugal in 1512. Serrao departed in the first expedition sent to find the "Spice Islands" in the Moluccas, where he remained. He married a woman from Amboina and became a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate, Bayan Sirrullah. His letters to Magellan would prove decisive, giving information about the spice-producing territories.  After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Morocco, he was wounded, resulting in a permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The accusations were proved false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514. Later on in 1515, he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this. In 1517 after a quarrel with King Manuel I, who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to reach the spice islands from the east (i.e., while sailing westwards, seeking to avoid the need to sail around the tip of Africa), he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married the daughter of Diogo's second wife, Maria Caldera Beatriz Barbosa. They had two children: Rodrigo de Magalhaes and Carlos de Magalhaes, both of whom died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521.  Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent charts, investigating, in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro, a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. CANNOTANSWER
Province. He was the son of Rodrigo de Magalhaes, Alcaide-Mor of Aveiro (1433-1500, son of Pedro Afonso de Magalhaes
Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; , ; , ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer and a subject of the Hispanic Monarchy from 1518. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage bearing thereafter his name and achieved the first European navigation from the Atlantic to Asia. While on this voyage, Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 in the present-day Philippines, but some of the expedition's surviving members, in one of the two remaining ships, subsequently completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth when they returned to Spain in 1522.

Born 4 February 1480 into a family of minor Portuguese nobility, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer in service of the Portuguese Crown in Asia. King Manuel I of Portugal refused to support Magellan's plan to reach the Maluku Islands (the "Spice Islands") by sailing westwards around the American continent. Facing some criminal offences, Magellan left Portugal and proposed the same expedition to King Charles I of Spain, who accepted it. Consequently, many in Portugal considered him a traitor and he never returned.  In Seville, he married, fathered two children, and organised the expedition. For his allegiance to the Hispanic Monarchy, in 1518, Magellan was appointed admiral of the Spanish Fleet and given command of the expedition – the five-ship Armada of Molucca. He was also made Commander of the Order of Santiago, one of the highest military ranks of the Spanish Empire.

Granted special powers and privileges by the King, he led the Armada from Sanlucar de Barrameda, southwest across the Atlantic Ocean, to the eastern coast of South America, and down to Patagonia. Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition successfully passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Mar del Sur, which Magellan renamed the "Peaceful Sea" (the modern Pacific Ocean). The expedition reached Guam and, shortly after, the Philippine islands. There Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in April 1521. Under the command of captain Juan Sebastian Elcano, the expedition later reached the Spice Islands. To navigate back to Spain and avoid seizure by the Portuguese, the expedition's two remaining ships split, one attempting, unsuccessfully, to reach New Spain by sailing eastwards across the Pacific, while the other, commanded by Elcano, sailed westwards via the Indian Ocean and up the Atlantic coast of Africa, finally arriving at the expedition's port of departure and thereby completing the first complete circuit of the globe.

While in the Kingdom of Portugal's service, Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.

Early life and travels

Magellan was born in the Portuguese town of Sabrosa on 4 February 1480. His father, Pedro de Magalhães, was a minor member of Portuguese nobility and mayor of the town. His mother was Alda de Mezquita. Magellan's siblings included Diego de Sosa and Isabel Magellan. He was brought up as a page of Queen Eleanor, consort of King John II. In 1495 he entered the service of Manuel I, John's successor.

In March 1505, at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa, Cochin and Quilon. He participated in several battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he was wounded. In 1509 he also fought in what is considered one the 6th battles that changed the world, the battle of Diu.

He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca, with Francisco Serrão, his friend and possibly cousin. In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and risking his life to rescue Francisco Serrão and others who had landed.

In 1511, under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque, Magellan and Serrão participated in the conquest of Malacca. After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich plunder and, in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized, Enrique of Malacca, he returned to Portugal in 1512 or 1513. Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the "Spice Islands" in the Moluccas, where he remained. He married a woman from Amboina and became a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate, Bayan Sirrullah. His letters to Magellan would prove decisive, giving information about the spice-producing territories.

After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Morocco, he was wounded, resulting in a permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The accusations were proven false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514. Later on in 1515, he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this. In 1517 after a quarrel with King Manuel I, who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to reach the spice islands from the east (i.e., while sailing westwards, seeking to avoid the need to sail around the tip of Africa), he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married the daughter of Diogo's second wife, Maria Caldera Beatriz Barbosa. They had two children: Rodrigo de Magallanes and Carlos de Magallanes, both of whom died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521.

Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent charts, investigating, in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro, a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Voyage of circumnavigation

Background and preparations

After having his proposed expeditions to the Spice Islands repeatedly rejected by King Manuel of Portugal, Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and turned to Charles I, the young King of Spain (and future Holy Roman Emperor). Under the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal controlled the eastern routes to Asia that went around Africa. Magellan instead proposed reaching the Spice Islands by a western route, a feat which had never been accomplished. Hoping that this would yield a commercially useful trade route for Spain, Charles approved the expedition, and provided most of the funding.

King Manuel I of Portugal saw this as an act of insult, and he did everything in his power to disrupt Magellan’s arrangements for the voyage. The Portuguese king allegedly ordered that Magellan’s properties be vandalized as it was the Coat of arms of the Magellan displayed at the family house's façade in Sabrosa, his home town; and may have even requested the assassination of the navigator. When Magellan eventually sailed to the open seas in August 1519, a Portuguese fleet was sent after him though failed to capture him.

Magellan's fleet consisted of five ships, carrying supplies for two years of travel. The crew consisted of about 270 men of different origins, though the numbers may vary downwards among scholars based on contradicting data from the many documents available. About 60 per cent of the crew were Spaniards issued from virtually all regions of Castile. Portuguese and Italian followed with 28 and 27 seamen respectively, while mariners from France (15), Greece (8), Flanders (5), Germany (3), Ireland (2), England and Malaysia (one each) and other people of unidentified origin completed the crew.

Voyage

The fleet left Spain on 20 September 1519, sailing west across the Atlantic toward South America. In December, they made landfall at Rio de Janeiro. From there, they sailed south along the coast, searching for a way through or around the continent. After three months of searching (including a false start in the estuary of Río de la Plata), weather conditions forced the fleet to stop their search to wait out the winter. They found a sheltered natural harbor at the port of Saint Julian, and remained there for five months. Shortly after landing at St. Julian, there was a mutiny attempt led by the Spanish captains Juan de Cartagena, Gaspar de Quesada and Luis de Mendoza. Magellan barely managed to quell the mutiny, despite at one point losing control of three of his five ships to the mutineers. Mendoza was killed during the conflict, and Magellan sentenced Quesada and Cartagena to being beheaded and marooned, respectively. Lower-level conspirators were made to do hard labor in chains over the winter, but later freed.

During the winter, one of the fleet's ships, the Santiago, was lost in a storm while surveying nearby waters, though no men were killed. Following the winter, the fleet resumed their search for a passage to the Pacific in October 1520. Three days later, they found a bay which eventually led them to a strait, now known as the Strait of Magellan, which allowed them passage through to the Pacific. While exploring the strait, one of the remaining four ships, the San Antonio, deserted the fleet, returning east to Spain. The fleet reached the Pacific by the end of November 1520. Based on the incomplete understanding of world geography at the time, Magellan expected a short journey to Asia, perhaps taking as little as three or four days. In fact, the Pacific crossing took three months and twenty days. The long journey exhausted their supply of food and water, and around 30 men died, mostly of scurvy. Magellan himself remained healthy, perhaps because of his personal supply of preserved quince.

On 6 March 1521, the exhausted fleet made landfall at the island of Guam and were met by native Chamorro people who came aboard the ships and took items such as rigging, knives, and a ship's boat. The Chamorro people may have thought they were participating in a trade exchange (as they had already given the fleet some supplies), but the crew interpreted their actions as theft. Magellan sent a raiding party ashore to retaliate, killing several Chamorro men, burning their houses, and recovering the stolen goods.

On 16 March, the fleet sighted the island of Samar ("Zamal") in the eastern Philippine Islands. They weighed anchor in the small (then uninhabited) island of Homonhon ("Humunu"), where they would remain for a week while their sick crew members recuperated. Magellan befriended the tattooed locals of the neighboring island of Suluan ("Zuluan") and traded goods and supplies and learned of the names of neighboring islands and local customs.

After resting and resupplying, Magellan sailed on deeper into the Visayas Islands. On 28 March, they anchored off the island of Limasawa ("Mazaua") where they encountered a small outrigger boat ("boloto"). After talking with the crew of the boat via Enrique of Malacca (Magellan's slave-interpreter who was originally from Sumatra), they were met by the two large balangay warships ("balanghai") of Rajah Kulambo ("Colambu") of Butuan, and one of his sons. They went ashore to Limasawa where they met Kulambo's brother, another leader, Rajah Siawi ("Siaui") of Surigao ("Calagan"). The rulers were on a hunting expedition on Limasawa. They received Magellan as their guest and told him of their customs and of the regions they controlled in northeastern Mindanao. The tattooed rulers and the locals also wore and used a great amount of golden jewelry and golden artifacts, which piqued Magellan's interest. On 31 March, Magellan's crew held the first Mass in the Philippines, planting a cross on the island's highest hill. Before leaving, Magellan asked the rulers for the next nearest trading ports. They recommended he visit the Rajahnate of Cebu ("Zubu"), because it was the largest. They set off for Cebu, accompanied by the balangays of Rajah Kulambo and reached its port on 7 April.

Magellan set about converting the locals to Christianity. Most accepted the new religion readily, but the island of Mactan resisted. On 27 April, Magellan and members of his crew attempted to subdue the Mactan natives by force, but in the ensuing battle, the Europeans were overpowered and Magellan was killed.

Following his death, Magellan was initially succeeded by co-commanders Juan Serrano and Duarte Barbosa (with a series of other officers later leading). The fleet left the Philippines (following a bloody betrayal by former ally Rajah Humabon) and eventually made their way to the Moluccas in November 1521. Laden with spices, they attempted to set sail for Spain in December, but found that only one of their remaining two ships, the Victoria, was seaworthy. The Victoria, captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano, finally returned to Spain by 6 September 1522, completing the circumnavigation. Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned.

Death

After several weeks in the Philippines, Magellan had converted as many as 2,200 locals to Christianity, including Rajah Humabon of Cebu and most leaders of the islands around Cebu. However, Lapulapu, the leader of Mactan, resisted conversion. In order to gain the trust of Rajah Humabon, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small force on the morning of 27 April 1521. During the resulting battle against Lapulapu's troops, Magellan was struck by a bamboo spear, and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons.

Antonio Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's death:

Reputation following circumnavigation
In the immediate aftermath of the circumnavigation, few celebrated Magellan for his accomplishments, and he was widely discredited and reviled in Spain and his native Portugal. The Portuguese regarded Magellan as a traitor for having sailed for Spain. In Spain, Magellan's reputation suffered due to the largely unflattering accounts of his actions given by the survivors of the expedition.

The first news of the expedition came from the crew of the San Antonio, led by Estêvão Gomes, which deserted the fleet in the Strait of Magellan and returned to Seville 6 May 1521. The deserters were put on trial, but eventually exonerated after producing a distorted version of the mutiny at Saint Julian, and depicting Magellan as disloyal to the king. The expedition was assumed to have perished. The Casa de Contratación withheld Magellan's salary from his wife, Beatriz "considering the outcome of the voyage", and she was placed under house arrest with their young son on the orders of Archbishop Fonseca.

The 18 survivors who eventually returned aboard the Victoria in September 1522 were also largely unfavourable to Magellan. Many, including the captain, Juan Sebastián Elcano, had participated in the mutiny at Saint Julian. On the ship's return, Charles summoned Elcano to Valladolid, inviting him to bring two guests. He brought sailors Francisco Albo and Hernándo de Bustamante, pointedly not including Antonio Pigafetta, the expedition's chronicler. Under questioning by Valladolid's mayor, the men claimed that Magellan refused to follow the king's orders (and gave this as the cause for the mutiny at Saint Julian), and that he unfairly favoured his relatives among the crew, and disfavoured the Spanish captains.

One of the few survivors loyal to Magellan was Antonio Pigafetta. Though not invited to testify with Elcano, Pigafetta made his own way to Valladolid and presented Charles with a hand-written copy of his notes from the journey. He would later travel through Europe giving copies to other royals including John III of Portugal, Francis I of France, and Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. After returning to his home of Venice, Pigafetta published his diary (as Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo) around 1524. Scholars have come to view Pigafetta's diary as the most thorough and reliable account of the circumnavigation, and its publication helped to eventually counter the misinformation spread by Elcano and the other surviving mutineers. In an often-cited passage following his description of Magellan's death in the Battle of Mactan, Pigafetta eulogizes the captain-general:
Magellan's main virtues were courage and perseverance, in even the most difficult situations; for example he bore hunger and fatigue better than all the rest of us. He was a magnificent practical seaman, who understood navigation better than all his pilots. The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the world, none having preceded him.

Legacy

Magellan has come to be renowned for his navigational skill and tenacity. The first circumnavigation has been called "the greatest sea voyage in the Age of Discovery", and even "the most important maritime voyage ever undertaken". Appreciation of Magellan's accomplishments may have been enhanced over time by the failure of subsequent expeditions which attempted to retrace his route, beginning with the Loaísa expedition in 1525 (which featured Juan Sebastián Elcano as second-in-command). The next expedition to successfully complete a circumnavigation, led by Francis Drake, would not occur until 1580, 58 years after the return of the Victoria.

Magellan named the Pacific Ocean (which was also often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century), and lends his name to the Strait of Magellan. His name has also since been applied to a variety of other entities, including the Magellanic Clouds (two dwarf galaxies visible in the night sky of the southern hemisphere), Project Magellan (a Cold-War era US Navy project to circumnavigate the world by submarine), and NASA's Magellan spacecraft.

Quincentenary
Even though Magellan did not survive the trip, he has received more recognition for the expedition than Elcano has, since Magellan was the one who started it, Portugal wanted to recognize a Portuguese explorer, and Spain feared Basque nationalism. In 2019, the 500th anniversary of the voyage, Spain and Magellan’s native Portugal submitted a new joint application to UNESCO to honour the circumnavigation route.
Commemorations of the circumnavigation include:
An exhibition titled "The Longest Journey: the first circumnavigation" was opened at the General Archive of the Indies in Seville by the King and Queen of Spain. It was scheduled to be transferred to the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian in 2020.
An exhibition entitled Pigafetta: cronista de la primera vuelta al mundo Magallanes Elcano opened at the library of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation in Madrid. It gave prominence to Pigafetta, the chronicler of the expedition.

See also

 List of things named after Ferdinand Magellan
 Age of Discovery
 Chronology of European exploration of Asia
 History of the Philippines
 Military history of the Philippines
 Portuguese Empire
 Spanish Empire

References

Sources

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Online sources

Further reading
Primary sources

  (orig. Primer viaje en torno del globo Retrieved on 2009-04-08)
 Magellan (Francis Guillemard, Antonio Pigafetta, Francisco Albo, Gaspar Correa) [2008] Viartis 
 Maximilianus Transylvanus, De Moluccis insulis, 1523, 1542
 
 The First Voyage Round the World, by Magellan, full text, English translation by Lord Stanley of Alderley, London: Hakluyt, [1874] – six contemporary accounts of his voyage

Secondary sources

External links

 Ferdinand Magellan on history.com
PBS Secrets of the Dead: Magellan's Crossing
 Magellan's untimely demise on Cebu in the Philippines from History House
 Expedición Magallanes – Juan Sebastian Elcano
 Encyclopædia Britannica Ferdinand Magellan

1480 births
1521 deaths
15th-century Portuguese people
16th-century Portuguese people
15th-century Roman Catholics
16th-century Roman Catholics
16th-century explorers
16th century in the Spanish East Indies
Circumnavigators of the globe
Explorers of Chile
Magellan expedition
Maritime history of Portugal
People from Sabrosa
People of Spanish colonial Philippines
Portuguese explorers of the Pacific
Portuguese military personnel killed in action
Portuguese Roman Catholics
Kawaokaohele (Hawaiian for "our days of poverty") was a High Chief who ruled the island of Maui in ancient Hawaii.

Biography

Family 
Kawaokaohele was a son of King Kahekili I and Haukanuimakamaka, who was a High Chiefess and is also known as Hauanuihonialawahine. She was born on Kauai, but married Kahekili on Maui.

He had a brother, Peʻapeʻa Makawalu I and was a grandson of King Kakae and his wife Kapohauola.

Reign 
Kawaokaohele succeeded his father as king of Maui. His reign was prosperous.

No war occurred during Kawaokaohele was ruler of the island.

His sister, beautiful Princess Keleanohoanaapiapi, was abducted and married into the noble family of Oahu.

Marriage 
Kawaokaohele had married Kepalaoa, whose pedigree is not remembered, but who was probably a Maui chiefess or an Oahu princess. She bore a famous son, King Piʻilani, and Kawaokaohele was succeeded by him.

Legend 
In one ancient legend, Kawaokaohele is represented as the foster father of Piʻilani.

According to this old story, god Kū was the biological father of  Piʻilani.

Family tree

Notes 

Royalty of Maui Middleton Lodge is a Georgian Palladian mansion set within  of open countryside, on the outskirts of the village of Middleton Tyas, a mile or so off the A1 near Scotch Corner and a 15-minute drive from Darlington, County Durham.

Middleton Lodge was designed by the architect John Carr, and was built between 1777-1780 for George Hartley Esquire.

The Hartley family was one of the major land owning families in the area. George's father, Leonard Hartley, lived in East Hall, one of the larger houses in Middleton Tyas. The Hartleys continued to live in Middleton Lodge until the late 1870s.
In 1890 The Hon. Mrs Margaret Dundas, widow of the Hon. John Charles Dundas, MP (1808-1866), is recorded as living there. She died in 1907. It was later the family home of coal owner Sir Arthur Pease, 1st Baronet, who died there in 1927.

Middleton Lodge is still a family home to the Allison family who have lived there since 1980, however it is now also available for exclusive hire for private wedding receptions and functions. It was the filming location for the television film Perfect Day and the Hindu-language children's film Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors.

The Hartley family

George Hartley (1726-1780) built Middleton Lodge in about 1777. He was born in 1726 in Middleton Tyas. His father was Leonard Hartley (1689-1774) who was a wealthy landowner and copper mine magnate. His mother was Catherine Bowles who unfortunately died at a young age when George was only three years old. He was brought up by his father at East Hall which is nearby. He went to Cambridge University and became a barrister.

In 1774 at the age of 48 George married a widow Mrs Ann Bunting, daughter of the Reverend William Tomlinson who was 34 years old. She already had two daughters, Elizabeth and Dorothy Bunting by her first marriage. Their son Leonard William Hartley was born in 1775. George died in 1780 when his son was only five years old and his property was held in Trust until Leonard came of age.

Leonard went to Cambridge University in 1793. At this time the University commissioned the notable artist Sylvester Harding to paint some of the students and Leonard was one of those chosen. The watercolour is shown.

Leonard died in 1815 and Middleton Lodge was passed to his second cousin Francis Hartley (1778-1820) who died five years later. It was then inherited by George Hartley (1780-1841) Francis’s younger brother. George also went to Cambridge University and became a barrister. He joined the North York Corps of Yeomanry Cavalry and was promoted to Major. George did not marry and the 1841 Census shows him living alone with nine servants. When he died in 1841 his property was inherited by his nephew Leonard Lawrie Campbell who changed his name to Hartley in honour of his uncle.

Leonard Lawrie Hartley (1816-1883) was the son of Archibald Campbell of Bedale Yorkshire who was a medical doctor. Leonard inherited his uncle’s fortune at the age of only 25 and was able to become a wealthy landed proprietor at a very early age. He lived for some time at Middleton Lodge but from about 1852 he rented it to Edmund Backhouse and his family for many years. After he died in 1883 the property was inherited by Elizabeth Martha Eyre who was a distant relative. She lived in West Hall in Middleton Tyas and continued to rent out Middleton Hall.

The Eyre family

The Eyre family did not live at Middleton Lodge but they appear to have owned it from 1883 until about 1947. Elizabeth Martha Eyre who inherited the property in 1883 was born Elizabeth Martha Allgood (1821-1892). Her father was Robert Lancelot Allgood of Nunwick Hall. In 1840 she married Henry Eyre (1805-1889) who became a General in the British Army.

When her relative Leonard Lawrie Hartley died in 1883 Elizabeth inherited his Middleton Tyas Estate including Middleton Lodge. She died in 1892 and her son Colonel Henry Robert Eyre inherited the house. When he died in 1904 it was inherited by his eldest son Lieutenant Colin Douglas Eyre of the Kings Royal Rifles. He was tragically killed in 1910 at the age of 30 when he was riding in the Cavalry Brigade Point to Point races and his horse fell. He had been married only 6 months before this accident and had no children so his property went to his younger brother Ralph Vincent Eyre. When Ralph died in 1940 he was unmarried and his estate was left to his cousin Isabella Mary Baker who married Michael Adrian Speir. The Speirs lived in Middleton Tyas for many years but they appear to have sold Middleton Lodge and other properties in about 1946. It was bought by the Ropner family. John Raymond Ropner purchased the property in about 1946 and lived there with his family until 1980. It was then bought by the Allison family who still own it today.

The Tenants of Middleton Lodge

The Backhouse family rented the house from about 1852 until about 1883. Edmund Backhouse (1824-1906) was born in 1824 in Darlington in Durham. His father was Jonathan Backhouse, a leading banker in the family Banking firm of Backhouse and Co. which was later to become part of Barclays Bank. Edmund joined the family banking business and eventually became the Managing Director. He was also the Member of Parliament from 1868 until 1881.

In 1848 he married Juliet Mary Fox who was the daughter of Charles Fox who established the famous garden called Trebah at Falmouth, Cornwall. Charles Fox died in 1883 and Juliet inherited Trebah. The Backhouse family then moved to their Cornwall home and continued Charles’ work in planting the garden. They are both credited with extensive development of the grounds at Trebah, introducing rare trees and conifers, tree ferns, and hybrid rhododendrons over the next 29 years. 

After the Backhouses left the house was rented by the Hon. Margaret Matilda Dundas (1826-1907). She was the widow of Hon. John Charles Dundas (1808-1866) of Wood Hall who had been a Member of Parliament. She liked to entertain and held frequent house parties and tennis tournaments.

After Mrs Dundas died in 1907 Middleton Lodge was rented by the Pease family until about 1936. Sir Arthur Francis Pease (1866-1927) was born in 1866 in Darlington. His father was Arthur Pease of Cliff House, Marske who was a Member of Parliament and also an owner of a large colliery firm.

Arthur went to Cambridge University and gained a MA degree in 1893. He joined the family coal and ironstone business called Pease and Partners Ltd and eventually became the Chairman and Managing Director.

In 1889 he married Laura Matilda Ethelwyn Allix, daughter of Charles Peter Allix, of Swaffham Prior House. The couple had four children. During World War 1, Arthur was appointed as Second Civil Lord of the Admiralty and he received his baronetcy in 1920. He was an alderman of the Durham County Council and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County.

He died in 1927 and his wife Lady Laura Pease continued to live at Middleton Lodge until her death in 1936. The house was then tenanted by the Baird family.

Major Sir James Hozier Gardiner Baird (1883-1966) 9th Baronet of Saughton who rented the house from about 1927 until 1946 was born in 1883. He was the son of Sir William James Gardiner Baird. He became Major in the 4th Battalion of Bedfordshire Regiment. He married in 1921 but unfortunately his wife died in the following year. He remarried in 1923 Joan Violet Barker and several years later the couple came to live at Middleton Lodge. After he left in 1946 it was bought by the Ropner family (see above).

References

See also 
Middleton Lodge website

Country houses in North Yorkshire