Sir William Heathcote’s Descendants

Sir William Heathcote, the builder of Hursley Park House, died in 1751 and his eldest son, the first Sir Thomas Heathcote, inherited the estate.

Thomas was born in 1721, and is chiefly remembered for his rebuilding of Hursley church in 1752-3 (and also for building the family mausoleum in Hursley churchyard). Only the tower remains from the previous church - parts of which have been judged to be Norman. The older church was very dark and low, with about six steps descending from the outside to the inner floor level. The rebuilt church - of brick quoined in stone (similar to Hursley Park House) - was welcomed as being ‘neat, light and airy’. This church lasted until 1848.

Sir Thomas married twice and had eight children. He died in 17 87, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Sir William Heathcote. Sir William was a much loved and respected man ‘being the county member in three parliaments’; he had seven children. His eldest son, the second Sir Thomas Heathcote (and fourth baronet of Hursley), inherited the estate in 1819 and was the MP for the county from 1808 until 1820 when he retired. This Sir Thomas added his wife’s name of Freeman to his own and was generally known as Sir Thomas Freeman Heathcote. Sir Thomas is reputed to have been a patron of the arts and a man of some taste; he extensively altered Hursley Park House and modernised it around 1821. However, the younger Sir Thomas was not remembered with much honour by his successors because he ‘persuaded his father to cut off the entail of a great deal of the family property, and left the Hampshire estates without an adequate income, and was eventually the cause of their total loss’ (to the family).