MRP: Sir Edmund (Edmond) Hoskins
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Sir Edmund (Edmond) Hoskins
Sir Edmund (Edmond) Hoskins (b. ca. 1606 – 1664), Inner Temple, serjeant at law, was a good friend of both Elizabeth Dalyson and Sir George Oxenden, as was his wife, Elizabeth, a merchant’s daughter. Hoskins provided legal counsel to Elizabeth on one of Oxenden’s suits (in 1662 and 1663), and consistently refused to accept any fees for his services. Elizabeth told Sir George “hee hath all á long gon w:th us in our busyeness & is very Cordiall & zealous for you.”
Sir Edmund’s eldest son, Thomas Hoskins, was with Sir George Oxenden in the East Indies, and appears in company records in Broach, from whence he wrote a letter detailing accounting problems at the Broach factory.
Writing to Sir George Oxenden from her home in Carshalton after the death of his sister, Lady Hoskins described her as “my best friend Mrs Dallison.” “She was a pson y:t had obliged me as much as anybody y:n in y:e world, & next to yo:rselfe & neare relatives, I had a sheare [?] in her unexpected Death.” Writing again later that year Lady Hoskins shows considerable warmth towards him, styling herself “your most affectionate friend and servant”, and thanking Sir George for all the care and direction he had supplied her son. Francis Coventry, who went on to marry the widowed lady Hoskins, called Elizabeth “yo:e Excellent sister to whome I had y:e Hono:e to be knowne.”
Hoskins was the second son of Sir Thomas Hoskins (b. ca.1570 – d.1605), of Oxted, Surrey, and of Dorothy Aldersley, who was of a Cheshire family. In his will he bequeathed “to the poore of the Parish of Oxted where I received my first breath fifty shillings to be distributed by my cozen William Hoskins.” His eldest sibling was his sister, Dorothy Hoskins (??ca. 1600 - ??1694). His elder brother, Charles Hoskins, XXXX. His younger brother, John Hoskins, is reported to have died in 1645 at the battle of Naseby. The Hoskins family one generation back was from Monmouthshire, with Charles Hoskins, the father of Sir Thomas Hoskins, was “of Trefynwy, Monmouthshire”, and married to Anne Engler, of “Reigate, Surrey.” He does not appear to be related, or at least closely related, to an earlier serjeant-at-law, John Hoskins (1566-1638), born in Herefordshire and appointed serjeant-at-law in 1623, or to John Hoskin’s grandson, Sir John Hoskins, who was a master in Chancery
The manor of Oxted appears to have been purchased in 1597 by a Charles Hoskins, merchant taylor of London, who was most probably the younger brother of Sir Thomas Hoskins, and thus Sir Edmund Hoskins’ uncle. Just possibly this Charles Hoskins was Sir Edmond Hoskins’ older brother. Charles, Sir Edmund’s elder brother, is reported to have married Anne Hales of King’s Walden, Hertfordshire, and to have had nine children.
Sir Edmund Hoskins married Elizabeth Harby (ca.1620 – XXXX), daughter of Sir Job Harby, in 1637. They had four known children – Thomas, Job, Nathaniel, and William. Elizabeth outlived him, and subsequently married Francis Coventry. Following Elizabeth Dalyson’s death Sir Henry Oxenden had much contact with with Lady Hoskins and Francis Coventry and wrote to Sir George in ?November 1667: “M:r Frances Coventry w:th his lady, y:e lady Hoskins, have often been w:th xxxx [mee?] earnestly intreat yo:w to be kinde & helpful to their son Thomas, & have prayed me to be solliciter to yo:w one yt behalfe, she is now I think content he should stay in India till yo:w come home”
In 1655 Edmund Hoskins purchased a mansion house in Carshalton, Surrey, called Mascalls. The mansion had predates 1543. It was later renamed Carshalton Park House. There is no surviving image of Mascalls from the sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. A watercolour of "Carshalton Park, seat of George Taylor, Esq." by John Hassell dated 1822 is in the Surrey History Centre archives, but it is unclear whether this is a heavily modified Mascalls, or a new building, possibly on a slightly different site. The ambitious building plans of Sir William Scawen, who had purchased Mascalls from Sir Edmund Hoskins’ son John Hoskins, did not come to fruition. Scawen himself had multiple buildings in Carshalton, and used Stone Court as his main residence, rather than the manor house.
An extensive review of textual, map and visual evidence of habitation on the mansion house site was published in the London Archaeologist in Spring 2004. The review locates the mansion house near the intersection of the modern North Street, running north-south, and the modern Mill Lane, running west-east. The review notes that the main manor of Carshalton is generally accepted to have been owned by the Carew family in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The manor was divided into two moieties in 1580, with one sold to the Burton family and the other to Walter Cole. Walter Cole's holdings included the manor house, together with ten and a half acres of non-contiguous fields. The Cole holdings were sold to the Trustees of the Countess of Arundel, ca. (18 James I), and were sold on by the Arundel trustees in 1655 to Edmond Hoskins. The review authors note that Edmond Hoskins paid hearth taxes for eighteen hearths and had a further eight untaxed hearths in two additional houses in the Carshalton area. The authors suggest that Sir William Scawen and subsequent owners in the eighteenth century continued to amass land, with the building eventually being named Samuel Long's house. Interestingly, they assert that the building was demolished in 1822. They supply an engraving of 'the seat of Samuel Long Esq.' from the topographer James Edward (1790), stating that the building, together with a further building of a Mr. Andrews, had formerly belonged to Sir William Scawen. This engraving does not ressemble John Hassell's watercolour of 'Carshalton Park, seat of George Taylor, Esq.', which is dated 1822 in pencil.
The mansion house is identified as such on an estate map of 1790. To the north and east of the house were a series of fields - Hither Home Close, Further Home Close, Old Barn Field, Dog Kennel Field, Stack Field, Barr Field, New Field, Dewberry Field, Cornered Fields, Curds Close, and part of Sheppards Close.
By 1907 the estate associated with Mascalls was in the order of 150 acres according to the Home Counties magazine, writing of the house and land as it was in 1907.
Aubrey described the house as it was in 1718:
“Near the church stands a handsome old house belonging to Sir William Scawen, and behind it a fine garden, adorned with fish-ponds and reservoirs of water, also a long and pleasant walk of orange and lime trees, and a wilderness.”
Carshalton met the approval of John Evelyn, who recorded in his diary entry for September 27, 1658 his visit to Carshalton
“excellently watered, and capable of being made a most delivious seate, being on the sweet downes, and a ‘champion’ about it, full planted with walnut and cherry trees, which afford a considerable rent.”
Daniel Defoe visited Carshalton some sixty five years after Evelyn and found a prosperous county village with some distinctly upmarket homes
"...a county village situate amongst innumerable springs of water which all together form a river in the very street of the towm...crowded by the houses of the citizens of London, some of which are built with such a profession of expense, that they look rather like seats of the nobility, than the county houses of citizens and merchants, particularly those of Sir William Scawen, lately deceased..."
An engraving by William Ellis, dated 1806, reproduced below, shows Carshalton ponds.
Elizabeth Dalyson wrote in a letter to her brother Sir George Oxenden that she had been invited by Elizabeth and Sir Edmund to spend a month at their Carshalton house with them.
Supposedly Edmund Hoskins lived in East Grinstead prior to his purchase of a house at Carshalton park in 1655, but there is no clear primary documentation of this. Edmund Hoskins also had a house in Chancery Lane.
He died at the age of 58 in 1664. In the parish church of Carshalton, according to Malden, “On the south wall of the south aisle is a black and white marble monument to Edmund Hoskins, second son of Sir Thomas Hoskins of Oxted.”
In a twist of family fate Hoskins and Master family records were united by the marriage in the late eighteenth century of Legh Master, a grandson of Streynsham Master, who had been a favourite nephew of Sir George Oxenden, and Katherine Hoskins, heiress of Barrow Green house in Oxted, Surrey, and relative of Sir Edmund Hoskins, serjeant-at-law. A substantial holding of the combined family records have been preserved at the Surrey History Centre.
Primary Sources
Letter from Elizabeth Dalyson to Sir GO, April 1st 1663, ff.74-82
Letter from Thomas Hoskins to Sir GO, August 14th 1665, ff.36-38
Letter from Elizabeth Hoskins to Sir GO, ?April 1667, ff. 91-92
Letter from Francis Coventry to Sir GO, April 10th 1667, ff. 95-96
Letter from Elizabeth Hoskins to Sir GO, October 13th1667, ff. 52-53
Letter from Sir George Smith to Sir GO, ?November 1667, ff. 47-51
Will of Sir Edmund Hoskins, Serjeant at Law 07 February 1665 PROB 11/316 Hyde 1 - 56
Will of Charles Hoskins of Oxted, Surrey 06 November 1657 PROB 11/269 Ruthen 411 – 461
Will of Anne Hoskins, Widow of Oxted, Surrey 02 December 1601 PROB 11/98 Woodhall 39 – 89
Will of Charles Hoskins, Gentleman of Oxted, Surrey 27 January 1598 PROB 11/91 Lewyn 1 – 57
Secondary sources
Defoe, Daniel, A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (I.letter 2, SOL108)
Foster, William (ed.), English Factories in India, p. 27
Hawkins, Duncan, Andrew Skelton, with contributions from mark Bagwell and John Lowe, 'Samuel Long's House, a lost Carshalton mansion' in London Archaeologist, Spring 2004, pp. 204-213
‘Notes on Carshalton, Surrey’ in The Home counties magazine, vol. 9 (London, 1907), p. 165
Malden, H.E., History of the County of Surrey, vol. 4 (London, 1912)
Master, George Streynsham, Some notices of the family of Master, of ... Kent ... Lancashire and ... Surrey (London, 1874)
Victoria County History, Surrey, iv. 183, 185
Walford, Edward, Greater London. A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places, vol. 2, p. 200, 203
- ‘John Hoskins’, in Humphrey William Woolrych, Lives of eminent serjeants-at-law of theEnglish bar (London, 1869), pp.242-248
Edwards, James, 'the seat of Samuel Long Esq.' (?London, ?1790),
Hassell, John, 'Carshalton Park the seat of George Taylor Esqr, J Hassell 1822' in pencil at foot of page, watercolour, held at Surrey History Centre archives
Potential primary sources
C 5/81/81 Coventry v. Hoskins: Surrey 1689
C 9/18/87 Hoskins v. Harby 1655
C 9/31/70 Harby, v. Hoskins, knt. 1664
C 9/31/72 Harby, knt. v. Hoskins, knt. 1664
C 9/36/16 Harby, bart. v. Harby and Hoskins, knt. 1664
C 9/235/102 Harby, bart. v. Throgmorton 1664
C 9/422/162 Hoskins v. Wiseman, knt. 1669
?? C 10/89/82 Hoskins v. Hoskins, Wiseman, Whitaker: Surrey 1669
? C 10/151/69 Marshall v Coventry, Hoskins and Watere 1684
C 10/465/162 Jesson v. Harby, Erasmus, Hoskins, Throgmorton, Job, Royden and Barrett: Herts 1657
??? C 22/980/12 Hoskins v. Hoskins Between 1558 and 1714
C 142/255/132 Hoskins, Charles: Surrey 40 Elizabeth
C 142/352/128 Hoskins, Thomas, knight: Surrey 13 James I.
PROB 20/1332 Hoskins, Edmund: Oxted, Suss., gent. 1673 (PROB 20 = Supplementary Wills Series I)
???PROB 18/8/72 Probate lawsuit Hoskins v Hoskyns, concerning the deceased Edmund Hoskins, [gent of Godstone, Surrey]. Allegation 1676
??? WARD 2/59A/228/49 Acquittance of Charles Hoskyns of London, merchant tailor, to Robert Gavell of Cobham, Surrey, gentleman, of the 65 deeds and evidences relating to the property sold to him by an indenture dated 25 May 1586. Witnessed, sealed and delivered in the presence of John Browne, Robert Banckworth senior and Charles Hoskins, son of Charles Hoskyns. 1586 June 18
WARD 7/54/130 Hoskins, Thomas, knight: Surrey 13 Jas I.
Sutton Local Studies Centre: London Borough of Sutton and Predecessors: Received from Carshalton Urban District Council LG5 [n.d.]: MISCELLANEOUS LG5/17 [n.d.], Etching of Samuel Long's house at Carshalton, by O'Neal LG5/17/11 1787
