Charlecote House – St. Leonard’s Church (William Malins)

This grave is located outside St. Leonard’s Church at Charlecote as I’m rather engaged, or as much as anyone can be, with burials at what are effectively country house churches.

William Malins was born in 1781, the son of William Malins and Elizabeth Malins, and he married Catherine Smith in the church on 18 July 1820, although this would have been in the medieval building that was demolished and rebuilt after his death. He lived long enough to appear on the first census in 1841, which noted that he was 60, his wife was 55 and he had a son George Malins, aged 20, and a daughter Emma Malins, aged 17. The census also noted that he was a farmer and this would fit, as his family had owned a farm at Ettington, which is in the neighbouring village to Charlecote. William died on 29 August 1843 and was buried on 2 September 1843.

There’s an interesting question which underlies this which is whether William Malins would have had any social interactions with the owners of Charlecote Park, namely George Lucy and Mary Elizabeth Lucy at the time. It was likely that Malins was a tenant farmer, as that was the most common set-up in this period, paying rent to the Lucy family and perhaps (but not necessarily) having something of a long tenure. Although I like to imagine that William would have popped down to Charlecote House to have his lunch, it doesn’t seem entirely likely, although perhaps he was in the same fox hunting brigade. William is buried outside of the church, whereas the Lucy family had their own chapel inside, so I’m imagining that in life, as in death, they were kept close but still separate.