Sir William Norris Young, 5th Baronet

Sir William Norris Young, Bart. of Marlow Park, Buckinghamshire, 23rd Fusiliers was killed in the Crimean War at the Battle of the Alma.

Just over six months after his marriage to Florence Clark, Sir William was killed on the 20th September 1854 at The Alma in the Crimea. He was 21 years of age.

Sir William Norris Young Bt. and Sir George John Young Bt.

Please may I add a footnote or two, some detail, and a couple of corrections, to the article about the young brothers, Baronets, who died in the Crimea in 1854.'

The Baronetcy was, and is, titled ‘Young of North Dean’. The family tradition is that the eldest son is always William – hence it necessary to refer to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Baronets etc. The fifth Sir William was killed in the battle of The Alma in 1854, Sir George succeeded him briefly, and their younger brother, Sir George was the 7th Baronet.

The mother of these three boys, Caroline, was the wife of the fourth Baronet and her father, John Norris owned Hughenden Manor. When he died the Norris family sold the Manor to Disraeli (1847). The Youngs never owned Hughenden Manor, though at John Norris’s death, his daughters, including Caroline, became very wealthy.

So too were the Young family. The first Baronet was Governor General of Dominica in the late 18th century. He and his heirs made a vast fortune from their sugar plantations there. The second Baronet was a great traveller, wrote extensively, was an MP from 1784, a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries.

During the Napoleonic Wars the Youngs spent large sums of their own money in private warlike skirmishes against the French settlers in the West Indies. It seems their assumption was that they would be repaid by a grateful nation or king – but they were disappointed.

We know that the 2nd Baronet rented Haverwell House in the early 1800s, but fell on hard times and all his property had to be auctioned – including his library. (The full detailed list of his books still exists and is of great interest to literary historians). From 1807 to his death in 1815 he was Governor General of Tobago.

Why was this Baronetcy ‘of North Dean’? Generally such titles refer to land in which the family had an interest when the title was created. I know little of who owned land locally in the mid 18th century but, by the 1840s, the Young family had an estate in Hughenden and owned North Dean House – the 4th Baronet lived there for some years – but they seem generally to have been absentee landlords. The Youngs sold this estate in 1874 – to the great regret of the (current) 10th Baronet (Sir William, naturally) whom I met when he came to open North Dean Fete a century later! (We lunched before the fete with Mr & Mrs Ryman in North Dean House).

NB - The 5th Baronet was, I imagine born in 1833 (not 1853), and if he was born at Hughenden Manor it was then of course his grandfather’s house.

By Nick Wheeler Robinson Ref: Hughenden Parish Magazine St Michael and All Angels

Marriage

17 MARCH 1854, Friday

At Egg Buckland, Devon, on Friday last, Sir William Norris YOUNG, Bart., of Marlow Park, Bucks, of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, to Florence, second daughter of Irving CLARKE, Esq., of Efford Manor, near Plymouth.

YOUNG 5th Bart (Gt Brit)

Creat 1769 Sir William Norris Young son of the 4th bart by the 5th dau of John Norris Esq of Hughenden House Bucks. Born 1833 succeeded his father in 1842 who had represented Buckinghamshire in parliament from 1837 till his death. The 1st bart was lieut governor of Dominica the 2nd was governor of Tobago and many years MP for St Mawes. He was descended in the female line from Henry Lawrence lord president of Cromwell's council in 1653

Seat Hughenden House Bucks

Heir pres his bro George John born 1835

Ref: the Peerage Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, including all the Titled classes by Charles R. Dodd (1846) republished by Google books.

References

• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire. London : Harrison 1869. page 1213