Clophill House

Henry Gaskin's son, John, sold the property to Thomas White after Henry's death in 1717 thus beginning the greatest phase of development for the house. Thomas White, the son of Willian White of Silsoe and born in 1700, was young and ambitious. He was also married to Mary Layton, whose mother was born Mary Compton - the daughter of Thomas Compton and Joan Wheeler. Mary White would have grown up around the Compton Millcroft estate and may have viewed it as her family inheritance. Certainly Thomas White set about rebuilding the entire estate, field by field, including the Nathaniel Samm property, back to its original size. Thomas and Mary's daughter, Mary, was baptised in Clophill in 1720, followed by her sister Elizabeth in 1722 who died as an infant in 1724. They had no other children. In 1733 Thomas took over the tenancy of Clophill Mill, which he renewed with a new lease in 1744. He appears to have inherited some wealth from his brother, John White of Tottenham High Cross, also listed as John White of Middlesex. The will is dated 1747 and names Thomas White as beneficiary and, "in default of male issue", his daughter Mary White after him, leaving them a farm in Cardington plus houses and lands in Ampthill and Steppingley.

A probate note dated 1755 on land from another will which John and Thamas White had jointly held in trust mentions that both White brothers were then deceased. A mortgage of 1721 shows John White buying a 20 acre farm near Cardington for £1,221, with Thomas White and William Layton listed among the witnesses. John Wiite is described as of St. Sepulcres, Middlesex, and an innholder.

In 1715 a John White witnesses a document in Flitton. This is more likely to be the father of Thomas and John. The Whites had lived in Flitton for some time, as evidenced by a probate dated 1506 and enacted in 1519 on the death of another Thomas White of Silsoe leaving a house and land in Silsoe to his son John. Other documents mention various John White's and Thoma White's of Silsoe from 1411 onwards. The White family ware clearly both entrepreneirial and extensive: another will, also dated 1747, leaves a house and land in Silsoe to John white from his bother Edward White, described as an Innkeeper, lately occupied by their father William. Several of these documents mention Sarah Bishop as sister of the Whites, and also Thomas Beaumont whose wife Judith is also mentioned as another sister.

White re-fronted the shop part of Clophill House with a fine five-bay Georgian frontage. This involved re-building the upper stories with much higher ceilings and adding a third floor with the front attic rooms. In 1738 he insured this proprty with Sun Insurance, of which we have a copy and the remains of the metal plaque can still be seen on the front of the house. In 1740 Thomas began buying back the fields from John Carter. He also re-roofed the old farm house part of Clophill House, making it into a servants' wing and adding the walled vegetable garden to the side of the house.

Later, some time between 1750 and 1755 he added the larger rooms to the back of the house, with the stair well and mansard roof. Possibly this was to prepare the attic room as a nursery for grand-children as, unusually, the fine bannisters of the stair case go all the way up and the upper part of the stair well is lit by a double-height window with a rather clever false sash. From 1746 to 1751 Thomas held the office of High Constable of the Flitt Hundred, a key office in countryside administration covering many parishes and a mark of hoe respectable he had become. He secured for his daughter, Mary, a socially advantageous marriage in 1751 to Decimus Reynolds, the tenth son of Richard Reynolds (1674-1744), the Bishop of Lincoln (from 1723) whose diocese then included Clophill (his eigth son was called Octavian) and Vicar of Aylesbury in 1735 and Rector of Chalfont St Giles from 1736.

Decimus was born at Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, in 1710 to Richard and his wife Sarah Cumberland, daughter of Richard Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough. This was in the age when the Church of England was controlled by wealthy gentry and comfortable livings were passed through families almost as inheritances. Certainly Decimus had the advantages of an education at Westminster School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1731 and MA in 1735. Like most of his brothers he followeed in his fathers footsteps and was ordained Deacon by his father at Lincoln in 1732 and Priest in 1734. He may not have had much say in the matter and showed no sign of any calling but great interest in worldly matters. He was immediately granted an income as Prebendary of Langford Manor (1734) and made Vicar of Winwick in Northhamptonshire (1734-6) before moving to Aylesbury where in 1735 by special dispensation he was made Rector of the wealthy parish of Chalfont St Giles, which office he held till his death in 1790.

While Mary was old at 31 for getting married, Decimus was ten years older, aged 41, and had already been married to Frances Mary Armstrong of Ampthill from whom he had inherited a considerable amount of property with farms in Haynes and Houghton Conquest on her death in 1748. Mary White was also an heiress having inherited property in Steppingley and Flitwick frm her uncle John White. However when Thomas White and his wife Mary both suddenly died in April 1755 they left no wills so were intestate and Clophill House passed to Decimus Reynolds as their son-in-law. Mary made a memorial for them both at Flitton church where they are buried.

Decimus and Mary lived at Chalfont St Giles so it was arranged for the mill, which was leased from Jemima, Marchioness de Grey, of Wrest Park, to be transferred to Mary's uncle Richard Layton in 1755 though a further addendum in 1757 absolves Decimus Reynolds of all responsibility for the remaining lease which was due to expire in 1765. Layton died in 1763 and his will mentions that he had an illegitimate child with his sevand Elizabeth Abbott. Thomas Dunton then took over the mill with a new lease in 1763 and it would have been him that built the elegent Mill House, now demolished but which stood on the other side of the Flit river and was reached by the wooden bridge the still remains as part of the garden now that the mill itself has become a residence.