Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle
Family History
The Jenkinsons, and the Hadens of Holywell House | The Highfields and their relations | George Littleworth Haden and the Rev. John Thorp
Andrea Paula Dale and her family Clergy in the Family
The marriage certificate of Charles Leonard Highfield and Phyllis Jenkinson, Christ Church, Summerfield, Birmingham, 4 June 1938.
Charles Leonard Highfield, a Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, known to friends and family as Leon (pronounced Len), married Phyllis Jenkinson, at Christ Church in Summerfield, Birmingham, on 4th June 1938. Both Phyllis and Leon had lost their fathers by this date. They were respectively 24 and 25 years of age. Leon's father is identified as Joseph Henry Highfield, a School Master, and Phyllis Jenkinson's late father was Percival Haden Jenkinson, a Farmer.
​
Not only was Charles Leonard Highfield's late father a School Master, but Leon's birth certificate reveals that he was even born within the School House at Bayton, in Cleobury Mortimer, Salop, the county of the time, where his father was the Headmaster.
Leon's parents, Joseph Henry Highfield and Ada Goodfellow, were wed on the 4th June 1900, the same date on which Leon and his wife Phyllis were to marry some 38 years later. Both Joseph Henry and Ada were School Teachers at the time of their marriage, at 21 and 22 years of age respectively. Like Leon, his father had married a lady one year his senior.
This marriage certificate reveals that the young couple were resident in Chesterton, a district of Wolstanton, in the area by Stoke-on-Trent known as the Potteries. We see that Joseph Henry Highfield's father, also a Joseph, who was deceased by the time of their marriage, had worked as a Potter, and that Ada's father, William Goodfellow, had been a Brick Fireman. Clearly the young couple had both worked hard to qualify as educators; a field that many of their descendants would also choose to follow. The two times great grandfather of Joseph Henry Highfield was Thomas Highfield, a shoemaker, who married Ann Stirrap at Mucklestone, Staffordshire in 1765. In honour of this ancestral occupation, his descendant Mark Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle became a member of Aberdeen Shoemakers' Incorporation. Shoemaking is known as 'the gentle craft', which is fitting, as Thomas' eldest son, John, who at the time of his mother's death was a farmer, ended his life as a Gentleman. Joseph descends through Thomas' son William, who was a tailor.
​
Joseph and Ada had seven children: Irene Lavinia, Winifred May, Joseph William, Lilian Vera, Frank Graham, Charles Leonard, and Dorothy Mary.
​
-----
​
Their eldest child and daughter, Irene Lavinia, known as Rene, born at Chesterton, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, on 4th May 1902, married Horace Laister at Bayton Parish Church in 1924, when they were both School Teachers. Horace Laister's father was a pawnbroker and jeweller.
Rene and Horace had twin boys, Michael and Peter Laister. By the time of their births, the couple were living at the School House in Chelmarsh, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where Horace was the Headmaster. This is later confirmed in the birth certificate of their third child, Bryan Highfield Laister. Bryan was born in a School House, like Charles Leonard Highfield.
Michael Laister graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1950 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He married (first) Dorothy Mary James at King's Norton, Birmingham, on 5th April 1952 (divorced 1978), and (second) Valerie Ann Connett at Kidderminster on 7th September 1981. He resided at Bury Hall in Wolverley.
​
Peter Laister obtained the degree of BSc Tech from UMIST (then Manchester University College of Technology) in 1949 before going on to qualify as a Chemical Engineer. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, and was a Chartered Engineer from his election in October 1983 until his resignation in April 2001. According to his entry in Who Was Who, 1920-2008 online edition, he held a number of significant directorships, including having been Chairman of Thorn EMI from 1984-85, after 5 years as the Group Managing Director. He was a Governor of BUPA from 1982-93, and a Member of Council of University College London from 1978-88. He married (first) Barbara Cookes at Hall Green, Birmingham on 12th May 1951 (divorced 1967), and (second) Eileen Alice Goodchild (née Town) at Eton in Berkshire on 5th June 1967, then living at The Thatches, Staines Road, Wraysbury.
​
Bryan Highfield Laister studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, receiving his BA in 1953 and his MA in 1964. He was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn on 2nd May 1961. While Bryan qualified as a Barrister-at-Law, he went into education. He taught his cousin, Gregory Paul Highfield, while a Teacher at Chigwell House Preparatory School, Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and later served as Director of Education for the London Borough of Havering from 1976-92. He married Ruth Bradbury at Newport in Devon on 1st August 1970, with his uncle, Charles Hand, Rector of Upton-on-Severn, officiating. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
​
​
Sadly, Horace Laister died in 1931 leaving Rene a widow at 28 years of age. Rene later married James Bates on 4th June 1934, a popular date for marrying in the family. They went on to have three children: Charles Graham (born 1935), James Roger (born 1939), and Frank Edward (born 1945).
​
James Roger Bates married Sylvia Rosina Willis at Yardley, Birmingham, on 27th August 1960. On 8th June 1962, Sylvia gave birth to Nicholas James Bates, who was later to become known as Nick Rhodes, a founding member of the band Duran Duran. Nicholas James Bates married Julie Anne Friedman, sometime heiress of the American Younkers Department Store dynasty, at Westminster, London, on 18th August 1984 (divorced 2003), whilst living at the Savoy.
Nicholas James Bates and his then wife Julie Ann had a daughter, Tatjana Lee Orchid Bates, born in 1986. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts of the University of Bedfordshire in 2011.
​
---
​
The second child of Joseph Henry Highfield and his wife Ada was daughter Winifred May Highfield, born in Chesterton, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, on 21st October 1903. On 3rd December 1927, she married Wilfred Edgar Aston, of Hall Farm, Mamble. In the marriage register, she is recorded as a Teacher. Her husband is a Farmer.
Winifred, commonly called Winnie, and Wilfred went on to have two children: Anthony Wilfred (born 1932), and Eileen Phyllis (born 1939). Anthony Wilfred married Hillary Jean Price on 2nd July 1955, while he was working as the Farm Manager on his father's farm. Eileen Phyllis married a young police constable from Kent called Brian George Prickett at Mamble on 4th July 1964. Brian Prickett went on to become Detective Chief Superintendent of Bedfordshire CID, and was the Trust Administrator of the Bedfordshire Police Partnership Trust.
​
---
Joseph William Highfield (Bill) was Joseph Henry and Ada's third child and eldest son. He was born at the School House in Lingen on 7th November 1905. He married (first) Kathleen Maud Fell at Christ Church, Summerfield, Birmingham, on 5th September 1932, and they had one son, Barrie Lawson Highfield, born 24th April 1936. Kathleen died on 16th August 1953, and Joseph William then married (secondly) Gladys Lilian Mackley on 15th December 1954 (died 1977), and (thirdly) Beatrice May Frances Eaton at Stokenham in Devon on 23rd August 1977. Barrie Lawson Highfield married Jill Wakelin at Streetly in Staffordshire on 28th March 1962, daughter of Charles Wakelin, Company Director. Both Barrie and his father were Electrical Engineers.
​
---
​
Lilian Vera Highfield (Vera) was Joseph Henry and Ada's fourth child and third daughter, who was born at the School House in Lingen on 1st February 1903. She was educated at the University of Birmingham, and married Charles Hand (later The Reverend Canon Charles Hand) at Christ Church, Summerfield, Birmingham, on 27th December 1932. This is the same Charles Hand who later officiated at Bryan Highfield Laister's wedding.
Vera and Charles' marriage certificate reveals that both were Teachers at the time of their wedding. They went on to have three children: Patricia Margaret (born 1933), Charles Trevor (born 1936), and Jeremy Nigel (born 1944). We see from Charles Trevor Hand's birth certificate that he was born in the School House in Clapham, Bedfordshire, and at the time his father was the Head Teacher.
Charles Trevor Hand sadly died at 25 years of age from uraemia. We see from his elder sister's marriage certificate that by the time of Patricia Margaret Hand's marriage to Ian Trevor Parry in Wribbenhall, Worcestershire, on 3rd August 1957, the young couple are living at The Vicarage in Wribbenhall and Patricia Margaret's father Charles Hand is now denoted as a Clerk in Holy Orders.
Patricia Margaret, now Parry, later divorced (1991) and then married her cousin, Samuel Keith Hand, at 62 years of age in 1996, then living in Bagshot, Surrey.
​
Charles and Vera's surviving son, Jeremy, married Susan Sarojini Walker, daughter of Roy Oliver Walker, Journalist, at Boxford in Suffolk on 22nd July 1967. The marriage certificate reveals that both were Teachers.
Jeremy later divorced (1972) and in Birmingham on 6th August 1989 married Jean Elsie Vaudeau, later to be Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Birmingham City University. Both are recorded as Lecturers at the time of their marriage, and we see that by this date Jeremy's father is documented as The Reverend Canon Charles Hand.
Patricia and Jeremy's Father, Charles Hand, studied English at the University of Birmingham, graduating with a gentleman's degree in 1929. He finished ministerial studies at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, in 1942. According to Crockford's, Charles Hand was ordained a Deacon in 1943 and a Priest in 1944. He was Rector of Upton-on-Severn from 1964-73, and was made an Honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral as of 1973, and later a Canon Emeritus.
​
---
​
Frank Graham Highfield, born in the School House, Bayton, on 24th March 1910 was the second son and the fifth child of Joseph Henry Highfield and his wife Ada. He married Beatrice Ethel Moy in Bayton on 3rd June 1935. Unfortunately, he died at 33 years of age without issue owing to cancer of the pelvic colon.
​
---
​
Charles Leonard Highfield (Leon), the third son and sixth child of Joseph Henry and Ada Highfield, is the paternal grandfather of Mark Paul Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle, and the husband of Phyllis Jenkinson. Charles Leonard Highfield was a Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society from 29th July 1935 to 26th January 1998. He owned and then later sold a chain of Chemists shops in the Birmingham area, then becoming financially independent. After their marriage of 1938, Phyllis and Leon had four children.
​
Their first child was their daughter, Penelope Jane Highfield, known as Penny, born in 1942, and educated at Edgbaston Church of England College for Girls. Penny married (first) David Christopher Owen, a medical student, who later qualified as a Doctor of Medicine, while she was a Radiographer. Her uncle, Charles Hand, then Vicar of St. Barnabas, Worcester, officiated at the wedding. Penny is a composer. They had two children together, Louise Elizabeth (born 1966) and Charlotte Kathryn (born 1968). Louise has a BA Hons in English Literature and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Surrey. Louise has taught on a number of modules at both Trinity Saint David and the University of Surrey, as well as having supported a number of students with disabilities and additional support needs. Charlotte graduated with a BA Hons degree in German from the University of Hull. She has a daughter, Jessica, and is an artist based in Germany. After the death of David Owen, Penny married (second) The Reverend David George Mitchell Squire, MA (Oxon), at Cam in Gloucestershire on 6th May 1972. David Squire read Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, receiving his BA in 1954 and MA in 1958. He completed his Diploma in Theology at Queen's College, Birmingham, in 1966, being ordained a Deacon in 1967 and a Priest in 1968. He was Curate in Dursley from 1967-70, and Vicar of Cam from 1971-77. In 1974, Penny and David Squire had a daughter, Victoria Jane Squire (Vicki). Vicki is Professor of International Politics at the University of Warwick, and holds a BA Hons in Politics and Sociology from the University of Birmingham, and an MA and a PhD in Identity and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex. Vicki is married to Jan, and has three children, Jamila, Jake, and Silvie. The Reverend David Squire, MA (Oxon), sadly passed away in 2001. Some years later, Penny Squire married (third) Professor Ronald (Ron) Johnson, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey.
​
The second child of Charles Leonard Highfield and his wife Phyllis is their eldest son Geoffrey Martin Highfield (Martin), born in 1944. Martin was educated at Chigwell House Preparatory School in Edgbaston, King Edward VI Five Ways School, and the University of Sunderland. He qualified as a Pharmacist, and was a Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society from 17th July 1969. In September that same year, he married fellow Pharmacist Marjorie Hugill. In 1972, their son Derek Roger Highfield was born, who graduated from the University of Reading with a BSc in Landscape Management in 1996. Martin and Marjorie also have an adopted son, Ricky.
​
The third child of Charles Leonard Highfield and his wife Phyllis is their second son Gregory Paul Highfield, who married Andrea Paula Dale in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, on 6th September 1970. Andrea Paula Dale is the daughter of George Edward Dale, an Insurance Clerk, and his wife, Iris May Jones. At the time of their marriage, Andrea was living at Quaint Ways, Broad Lane, Wood End, Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire.
In 1975, Andrea and Greg's first son, Mark Paul, was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham. In 1999, he had a son, Alexander Gary Charles Smith, leading him to adopt temporarily the surname of Highfield-Smith, under which he matriculated as a student at the University of Oxford. In 2018, Mark Paul Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle married Bethan Frances Core (née Musselwhite) in the City of Aberdeen, Scotland, the daughter of John Worthy Musselwhite, Esquire (sometime Captain, Monmouthshire Regiment), who was the seven times direct paternal great grandson of Henry Musselwhite of Sutton Veny, yeoman, whose descendants intermarried into a number of local yeomanry and gentry families, including the Long family of Wiltshire and the Applefords of Axford in Ramsbury, and whose grandson was Henry Musselwhite of Frome, Somerset, Gentleman. She is the eight times great granddaughter of John Hinton of Sutton Veny, Gentleman, whose relations went on to have Greenhill House built, later known as Sutton Veny House. William Frances Long of Sutton Veny, Gentleman, is her first cousin eight times removed, whose son, Francis Stephen Long, Esquire, of Amesbury is recorded in Pigot's Directory of 1842, and whose son of the same name in turn held 1,636 acres of land in Wiltshire in 1871. Through Bethan he has a step-daughter, Jessica Frances Highfield, who is herself an armiger in her own right. Mark holds the degrees of BA, BSc, LLB, MA, MAEd, MEd, MRes, and MPhil, and a PGDE, having studied at the Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and the Open University. He was awarded the Lumsden and Sachs Prize and Fellowship by Christ's College, University of Aberdeen, given to the most outstanding student of the graduating year in Divinity and Religious Studies and was awarded an ESRC competitive studentship for postgraduate research. He is a Lecturer in Teacher Education, and a fellow of a number of learned societies, including the Royal Society of Arts, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the Higher Education Academy, and the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, being a Freeman of the City of London, and a Chartered Educational Assessor. He is also a Burgess of the Burgh of Aberdeen and of the City of Glasgow, and is a Companion of the Order of Malta. He became the proprietor of Ballumbie Castle in Angus in 2008 and received a grant of Arms from the then Lord Lyon in 2010, Recognising him in the territorial designation of Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle. Andrea and Greg had a second son, Peter James Highfield, born in Walsall in 1978. He married Rebecca Richards, a law graduate later a lawyer, in Kenilworth, Warwickshire in 2009, and has a step-son Charlie by her, and they have a daughter Sophie Imogen, having assumed the surname Richards-Highfield. Peter is an Insurance Claims Manager. Gregory Paul Highfield, their father, was educated at Chigwell House Preparatory School in Edgbaston, and King Edward VI Five Ways School, and was a packaging goods merchant, having his own business in partnership with his wife for a number of years, although is now retired. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and a Member of Spalding Gentlemen's Society.
​
Grant of Arms to Mark Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle
​
​
​
​
​
​
The fourth child and youngest son of Charles Leonard Highfield and his wife Phyllis is Alan David Highfield, born in Birmingham in 1950, and educated at Solihull School. Alan was a Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and had his own private practice. In Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1986, he married Anna Teresa Cibura, daughter of the retired Industrial Chemist Franciszek Cibura. They have three children: Michael James (born 1984), Joanna Elizabeth (born 1991), and Simon Alexander (born 1995). Michael James Highfield was educated at Manchester Metropolitan University (BSc Hons 2011), and the University of Manchester (MA 2012). He married Jenny Niebel in 2016 and has issue. Joanna Elizabeth Highfield was educated at the University of Brighton (BA Hons 2011). Simon Alexander Highfield was educated at the University of Surrey (BSc Hons in Music and Sound Recording), and works for the BBC.
​
Leon Highfield's wife, Phyllis, sadly died from Senile Dementia in 1993. Later that year, Charles Leonard Highfield met by chance a childhood sweetheart, Daisy Annie Leeke, who he then married. The Highfields have been longstanding supporters of the football team Aston Villa.
​
---
​
The fourth daughter and seventh and final child of Joseph Henry Highfield and his wife Ada was Dorothy Mary Highfield, born in Bayton School House on 2nd April 1920. She married Geoffrey Fry Green at Christ Church, Somerfield, Birmingham, on 7th July 1949. Her brother-in-law The Reverend Charles Hand, then Curate of Belbroughton, was the celebrant. They had no issue.
​
-----
​
Joseph Henry Highfield's wife, Ada Goodfellow, was the daughter of William Goodfellow and the granddaughter of Athaliah Holland. Athaliah Holland was the great granddaughter of Richard Holland, baptised in Biddulph, Staffordshire, in 1706. Another great grandchild of the said Richard Holland was James Holland, Esq., the artist and member of the Old Watercolour Society. As his Probate record reveals, he was one of those few artists who managed to reap the rewards of their endeavours within their own lifetime.
Another great grandfather of Athaliah Holland was Thomas Loton, baptised in Dilhorne, Staffordshire, in 1725. This same Thomas Loton is the great great grandfather of Sir William Thorley Loton, who was born in Dilhorne, Staffordshire, however made his way in the world in Western Australia. The following biography is taken from Johns's Notable Australians from 1906, prior to his knighthood.
Sir William Thorley Loton is related to the peerage through marriage. Edward, 6th Earl Winterton’s great uncle, Lord Alexander Russell (son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford), had a niece through his wife’s sister Elizabeth Holmes à Court, Lady Heytesbury, wife of William Henry Ashe, 2nd Baron Heytesbury. This niece, the Hon. Gertrude Anne Holmes à Court, married Hugh Hammersley, JP, DL, of Pyrton Manor. Hugh Hammersley's brother, Edward Hammersley, Member of the Legislative Council, had a son, Charlie Hammersley, whose daughter Frances married Alfred Loton, son of Sir William Thorley Loton, Kt, MLC, the third cousin four times removed of Mark Paul Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle. Mark Paul Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle is the custodian of the patent creating the peerage of Baron Turnour, of Shillinglee in the County of Sussex, in favour of Edward, 6th Earl Winterton, and the related writ of summons.
Charles Leonard Highfield, Mark Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle's paternal grandfather, descends from the minor gentry on his maternal line. His mother, Ada Goodfellow, is a descendant of the Goodfellow minor gentry family of Wallhill, Rushton Spencer, near Leeke. This family married the Clowes family of Rudyard and Heywell Grange, who are the progenitors of the Clowes family of Broughton (Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937).
The Goodfellow family were local landholders. Family member Thomas Goodfellow of Rushton Spencer, Gentleman, was identified for a fine for knighthood in the time of James I.
The Goodfellows held a property called Wallhill House and its related estate.
​
​
---
​
Back to the Highfield line and more contemporary history, sadly Ada Goofellow's husband, Joseph Henry Highfield, suffered from shell shock as a consequence of the First World War, which eventually led to him being hospitalised. He died in 1928 in care. School diary records note that the Headmaster left to go to War on 4th May 1917, and returned on 3rd February 1919.
​
----
​
​
The first Highfields from Staffordshire to move to Scotland were the family of William Highfield of Maer, Staffordshire, whose son William was born in Wolstanton. They moved to Glenshinnoch in Erskine, Renfrewshire, to run a Tile Manufactory, where they lived with four servants, according to the 1851 Census. This census record is shown here for educational purposes, and remains the Copyright of the Crown.
Mark Lindley-Highfield of Balllumbie Castle's paternal grandmother's ancestry can be read about here.
​​
​
Some of the information on this page comes from genealogical research carried out as work towards the Certificate in History of Family and Genealogical Methods at the University of Limerick.