Sir Charles Hudson, 1st Baronet

Wanlip Hall

Hudson was born in Tunis in 1730 to Joseph Hudson, a Dutch consul, and Sarah (born Plowman). Charles was the second and last child and only son.[1]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757 as a ""curious enquirer into natural philosophy" [2]

Hudson married Catherine Susanna Palmer and he and his wife inherited Wanlip Hall in Leicestershire as his wife was a co-heiress (and eldest of four daughters). Their new home had been built in about 1750. Because of the hall, Hudson had to make payments to his wife's sisters to balance the inheritance from his father-in-law, Henry Palmer. Hudson extended and improved this imposing building that stood beside the River Soar.[3] Together they had eight children[1] before Catherine died and Hudson married again.

Hudson had interest in slave plantations in Surinam.[4] He was also a director of the South Sea Company. He became a High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1784[5] and a baronet in 1791.[6][7]

Hudson died in Wanlip in 1813.[7]

One of Hudson's daughters, Harriet, married Sir John Richardson[8] who was a lawyer in August 1804 at Wanlip. Richardson became a judge.[9] One of his granddaughters was Caroline Harriet Palmer. She feared that she would die a spinster after spending time nursing her mother. She went to New Zealand as the wife of Bishop Charles Abraham and she became a noted artist.[10]

After his death, his 1812 will was successfully challenged after it was considered by the Law Lords. The Master of the Rolls considered that his request that his executors pass on his wealth (2,500 pounds) to the children that were surviving 28 years after his death was too vague and remote.[11]

Wanlip Hall remained in the Palmer family and his baronetcy was passed down via the Palmer line. His son Charles Thomas took the name of Palmer.[12] The hall was demolished in the twentieth century.

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