Ties of Blood & Friendship (2024)

Patrick’s research into the history of a Dulwich mansion, Hall Place, uncovered an unusually well-documented period in the 17th/18th centuries when that house was successively occupied by four interconnected families, the Thurmans, the Thompsons, the Hunters, and the Lynns. One figure emerged at the centre of it all: Francis Lynn (1671–1731). The discovery of his surviving “diary” in the National Library of Scotland made it possible to reconstruct, in remarkable detail, his life and the web of relations, friendships, and rivalries surrounding him.

This Second Edition of the 2017 original draws on the Dulwich College Archives, The National Archives at Kew, and the National Library of Scotland.

The main characters (amongst many others) featured in this book:

• Francis Lynn (1671–1731) — educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge; Secretary to several Navy Boards 1695–1714; Chief Secretary of the Royal African Company 1720–1731. In 1697 he married Mary Thompson.
• Mary Thompson (c.1678–1756) — daughter of Elizabeth Thompson née Newby and Lt. Robert Thompson; wife of Francis Lynn from 1697.
• Lt. Robert Thompson (c.1649–1678) — deputy Governor of the Sheerness garrison; former Assistant Groom of the Privy Chamber. Married Elizabeth Newby in 1675.
• Elizabeth Thompson née Newby (1649–1727) — wife of Lt. Robert Thompson from 1675; mother of Mary Thompson.
• Robert Thompson (c.1619–1697) — Groom of the Privy Chamber to King Charles II and his successors, 1660–1694; father of Lt. Robert Thompson. In 1671/72 he married, as his second wife, Elizabeth Thurman née Vickers.
• Elizabeth Thurman née Vickers (c.1625–1699) — second wife of Robert Thompson from 1671/72. Her first husband was Nicholas Thurman.
• Nicholas Thurman (c.1620–1671) — merchant; first husband of Elizabeth Vickers; father of Mary Thurman.
• Mary Thurman (1659–1712) — daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Thurman. In 1676 she married Samuel Hunter.
• Samuel Hunter (1651–1725) — Clerk of the Cheque at Sheerness dockyard in 1678; subsequently a Commissioner of the Navy; lessee of Hall Place, Dulwich (in succession to the Thurmans and Thompsons), which he left in his will to Francis Lynn.
• Captain William Morgan (c.1678–1744) — Francis Lynn’s “best Friend”; Regimental Agent until 1714, thereafter Jacobite adventurer; in business with Lt.-Gen. Robert Echlin, with Francis Lynn, and with Samuel Lynn.
• Lt.-Gen. Robert Echlin (c.1657–1723) — in business with Captain William Morgan, Francis Lynn, and Samuel Lynn.
• Samuel Lynn (1675–1737) — younger brother of Francis Lynn; Muster-Master of the Marines until 1714 (and unofficially to 1719); owner of the manor and lands of Tidmarsh, Berkshire, from 1715 to 1737.