Lowlynn House: The home of the Gregsons and Knight Gregsons

Lowlynn House   circa 1920s

Link to Lowlynn gallery:  Lowlynn Gallery

Lowlynn (Low Lynn, Lowlyn, Lowlin, or Low Lin) was the home of the Gregsons and the Knight Gregsons. “Low Lynn, c. 1.5 m. NW [Kyloe]. A ruined house, ... built for John Gregson, who died in 1774.  Mid-c 18, in fine beige ashlar, five bays wide, with architrave surrounds to all the windows.  The middle window on the first floor has an eared and shouldered architrave surround.  Extended to the l. in the early c19, using delicate pink ashlar.” [1].   It appears that the fate of Lowlynn was sealed during World War II.  In 1938, the estate was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force, Coastal Command, and was later used to house POW German officers. After the war Lowlynn was never again occupied and began to deteriorate.  The culmination was the collapse of the roof.  Today, the house is a shell with nature reclaiming the once splendid home in which generations of Gregsons lived for nearly three hundred years.

The pictures in this album were taken by Peter Taylor during a spring 2012 visit that he made to Northumberland with his wife Lorraine Lawrence, and cousins David Allen and Nikki Knewstub and her partner Peter Thompson.  The intent of the journey was to discover family roots which included the Knight Gregsons.





[1] Pevsner, Nikolaus, et. al., The Buildings of England: Northumberland, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957). p. 370.

The various owners of the house at certain times appear to have offered it as home to others. For example on the 1851 census the only people registered there were the three sisters of the Rev Thomas Knight namely Charlotte, Margaret and Sarah Hussey and two servants. (Henry K Gregson and his then family were staying at the Rectory at Ford with the Rev Thomas).

The Australian Dictionary of Biography and Wiki's account of Thomas George Gregson of Van Dieman's Land say that TG was born Lowlynn in 1798. In that year, Anthony junior, the only son of Anthony Gregson (1720-1808) was 18 and although his mother (Elizabeth Kerr) had died when he was born, his father Anthony senior was still alive and presumably still the owner of Lowlynn. Thomas George Gregson was the grandson of Anthony senior's brother Edward of Stonerigg, Scotland. Edward's son John fathered Thomas George. it is said on Thomas' birth certificate of 7 February '1796' (not 1798) registered in Kyloe - that John was of Buckton not Lowlynn. I ask myself did Thomas George come to live at Lowlynn with his father John, mother Elizabeth (nee Proctor) and his siblings? Why else would the biographer of T G Gregson say he was born in Lowlynn? This puzzles me. By the account "something about old colonists" by J E Calder (available on Trove Australian digital newspapers) Thomas was said to be very reticent talking about his early life. If he had mentioned that he had been raised at Lowlynn prior to going to school in Scotland, perhaps it was assumed he was born there.

In the early twentieth century, the house then owned by Clarence Knight Gregson who lived in London, was leased to a John V W Rutherford, Esq MB who lived there at least until 1910 (Kelly's Directory for Northumberland for those years). Clarence was living in Finchley Rd, London in 1919.

In 1932 during the court case brought against Harold Strangeways K G by Clarence Anthony Knight Gregson regarding the ownership of the House, Mrs Lilian Ellen Knight Gregson was a tenant. Who was Mrs Lilian Ellen?

Having spoken to Lilian Caley, seemingly Mrs Lillian Ellen mentioned in the court case was married to Clarence Anthony Knight Gregson.

Subsequent to the above comment, I made a search on Ancestry's England and Wales Marriage Index 1916-2005. I checked this and found that the marriage of Lillian Ellen formerly Bull was to Clarence Knight Gregson father to Clarence Anthony. The marriage was in 1926 and was his second having divorced his first wife.