Pixton Park - History

History

John Dyke Acland was a British officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He lived at Pixton Park with his wife Harriet, a remarkable woman in her own right, and died there in 1778 Their daughter Elizabeth Kitty married Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, and thus Pixton Park passed into the Herbert family, which was prominent in the political and intellectual life of Britain throughout the nineteenth century. Their son Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon (1800–1849) was a writer, traveller and politician. His son Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon (1831–1890), a leading member of the Conservative Party, a cabinet minister and eventuallyLord Lieutenant of Ireland, redesigned the estate. It was inherited by Col Molyneux Herbert who lies in the memorial chapel in Brushford Church.

The estate passed to Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert (1880–1923), diplomat, traveller and intelligence officer, associated with Albanian independence and twice offered the throne of that country. Aubrey Herbert was the second son of the 4th Earl and his second wife, Elizabeth Howard of Greystoke Castle, Cumberland, sister of Esme Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith. He was given Pixton Park by his mother, with 5,000 acres (20 km²). Aubrey and Mary Herbert had four children before he died at the age of 43. Pixton Park passed to his son Auberon (1922–1974), who died a bachelor. Aubrey Herbert's daughter Laura married the novelist Evelyn Waugh, and their son Auberon was born at Pixton Park in 1939. In World War II the estate was used for child evacuees.