13/02/2026
Born in 1758 in Anderson, Dorset, Tregonwell lived at Cranborne Lodge where he was the squire. His second wife was Henrietta Portman. When Henrietta’s second child, Grosvenor Tregonwell, died, having been accidentally given a double dose of medicine, Henrietta sank into a melancholia, which resulted in the Tregonwells holidaying at Mudeford, near Christchurch, Hampshire, to recuperate. During their holiday they visited ‘Bourne’ which they found so delightful that they bought land there in 1810. They subsequently built a house on the site, precipitating the growth of what became Bournemouth.
More than 200 years earlier, Tregonwell’s direct ancestor, Henry Hastings, the eccentric Dorset sportsman (son of George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon), had briefly controlled the land that his great-great-great grandson bought, when he was lord of the manor of Christchurch from 1597 until 1601. Hastings’ youngest daughter Dorothy married Thomas Tregonwell.
