4BRINGINGHISTORYHOMEBelsito(or MilfordVilla), andWilliamSaville-KentOver the years many of the older properties inthe village have succumbed to demolition andtheir grounds used for multiple housing. Belsitois one ofthese, its site isnow South Court andMerlin behind thedental surgery.The first confirmed, although un-named, recordoccursinthe Churchwardens’ RatingListof1793when theratewas paid by George Heywood. Hedied in 1795 and his widow was recorded in thechurchwardens’ accounts as contributing, in1797, a guinea, and a further guinea atLymington, to a fund against the threatenedinvasion by the French; she was described as ‘ofThe Cottage, Milford’. She was the aunt of Col.Henry Tufnell Roberts and of Major CharlesMorrissy Roberts who later lived at MilfordLodge, next door, and Everton Houserespectively. She was also indirectly related tothe Reynolds ofMilford House, the Rivett familyand Mrs Whitby’s family. When she died in1824, she left the property toher son inlaw,Auguste des Champs delaTour, amember ofthe French emigrée forces stationed inLymington, who had married her daughter,Anna Maria, in 1816. In the 1851 Census thehouse was recorded asMilford Villa and the dela Tours livedthere until 1863 when Anna Mariadied. It was still Milford Villa onthe first edition(1870) Ordnance Survey, but, by the time of the1882 Newlands Estate Survey, it was in theWests’ ownership and renamed Belsito Villa,perhaps asareminder ofMrs West’s times inItaly. In 1898, William Saville Kent bought thehouse and added an upper story andgreenhouse.In earlier life William had been connected withthe murder of his 3 year old half-brother,Francis Saville Kent, atRoad near Trowbridgewhich scandalised Victorian society. Francis wasone ofthe children ofSamuel Saville Kent andhis second wife, Mary Drewe Kent. Samuel’sfirst wife Mary Ann had died at the age of 44 in1852 and had produced for him 10 children, themajority of whom had died in infancy. Samuelsoon remarried, marrying the children’sgoverness with whom, it was believed, he washaving anaffair whilst his first wife was alive.Thechildren from hissecondwife, especially theson, were preferred by their father to thosefrom his first wife, causing resentment in theother children from their father’s lack ofaffection. The story is the basis of the book TheSuspicionsofMrWhicher by Kate Summerscale.William spent little time at Belsito, spendingmuch of the last 24years of his life inAustralia,becoming Commissioner ofFisheries in WesternAustralia and arenowned marine biologist. Hewrote, among others, The Great Barrier Reef in1893, for decadesthe authoritativework onthe reef,and The Naturalistin Australia in1897. On one visitback to thiscountry he gaveWilliam Saville-KentMrs PatsyCornwallis-Westof Newlands apairof cultivatedpearls, havingperfected thetechnique forgrowing them.This led her son, George, to establish asyndicate to exploit Kent’s process of pearlculture, but Kent died in 1908 without revealinghis secret, just as we shall never know what, ifany, involvement hehad in the murder! He isburied in All Saints‘ churchyard, his graveoriginally adorned with corals from his time inAustralia. His widow, at her death in 1919, leftthehouse as aholiday home for clergyand theirfamilies, which it remained until it wasdemolished.Forfurtherinformation visitthe MOSHRS website whichisacorepartofits Bringing HistoryHomeproject supportedbytheHeritage LotteryFundand Milford-on-Sea Parish Council. website www.milfordhistory.org.ukTo advertise call 01590643969/07801 562358 or e-mailinfo@lymingtondirectory.co.uk
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