Vol 3 - Lackham Countryside Centre

The Manor of Lackham Vol 3 : The Montagu family
Montagu and the Hedges is dated only a month after James IV was
assigned Lackham by his father 300
It has been said that Eleanor was the daughter 301 of Charles Hedges,
Secretary of State to Queen Anne but, as both the DNB and Burke
attest, she was actually his grand daughter 302 .
Charles Hedges was the son of Henry Hedges of Wanborough, Wiltshire,
and his wife Margaret, daughter of Richard Pleydell of Childrey,
Berkshire and lived at Compton Bassett, Wiltshire. He was judge of the
Admiralty Court under William III until his death. He was returned as
an MP in 1698 but was unseated that time. He was an MP for many years,
however, at times for Malmesbury and also Calne in Wiltshire. In 1700
he was sworn in as Secretary of State and a Privy Councilor. He
attended Queen Anne at Bath in August 1702 and for two months in
1704 was the sole Secretary, both Home and Foreign, until a successor
to the Earl of Nottingham was appointed.
His chief residence from 1696 was Richmond Green in Surrey but in
1700 he bought the estate of Compton Camberwell in Compton Bassett,
just outside Calne in Wiltshire. He owned many properties in Wiltshire
and was buried, as was his widow who survived him, at Wanborough. His
wife was Eleanor, the daughter of George Smith of London and they had
four children. A daughter and sons Henry, William and Charles 303 .
300 W&SHC 212a/7 p4 dated 19/20 July 1744
301 Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette 7 Sept 1786 vol XXIV no 1347 (sic) p3 col b
302 DNB (1954) p693 tells she was a granddaughter of Queen Anne’s secretary, Sir
Charles Hedges. Burke (1858) Peerage p54 has her name as “Elizabeth”
303 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hedges
1649/50 - 10 June 1714
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