Clement-Jones family - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family - Person Sheet
NameSir Christopher SYKES 
, 8820
, 8820Birth1749
FatherMark SYKES 1st Bart , 8816
MotherDecima WOODHAM , 8819
Notes for Sir Christopher SYKES
MP for Beverley 1784-90
Christopher Sykes was born in 1749. He was MP for Beverley 1784-90 and though he supported Pitt during the regency crisis and voted for parliamentary reform he is not known to have spoken in the house. In 1770 he made a very fortuitous marriage with Elizabeth Egerton of Tatton whose inheritance of £17,000 from her father was hugely augmented by her inheriting her brother's Cheshire estates and another £60,000 from her aunt in 1780. Christopher Sykes sold off shipping interests and government stock and he and his wife built up the Sledmere estate. They frantically bought land and enclosed huge areas for cultivation with artificial fertilizers. In the 1780s Elizabeth's third inheritance was ploughed into building two new wings to the house and Christopher Sykes not only worked closely with the plasterer, Joseph Rose, on the interior decoration, but was largely responsible for the exterior design after seeking plans from both John Carr and Samuel Wyatt. The grounds were landscaped along the lines of plans by Capability Brown and 1000 acres of trees were planted. The entire village of Sledmere was relocated. Christopher Sykes clearly visualised himself as a man who had left commerce and joined the landed classes. A famous picture of him and his wife, painted by George Romney in the 1780s, depicts the couple surveying their parkland estates stretching away to the horizon; Christopher Sykes holds in his hands spectacles and an estate plan. He had an engraving done of the vast library he built and sent copies of it to friends (Foster, Pedigrees; Namier & Brooke, The house of commons, iii, p.514; Hobson, 'Sledmere and the Sykes family'; English, The great landowners, pp.28-9, 62-6; Cornforth, Sledmere House, p.4; Syme, 'Sledmere Hall', pp. 43-6; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, p.693; Popham, 'Sir Christopher Sykes at Sledmere' I & II).
Christopher Sykes was a gambler 'playing the futures market in land'. He indulged in 'breathless selling and buying', but he did so at a time when continental war was forcing up agricultural prices. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century rentals in Sledmere increased sevenfold and Christopher Sykes used this money, plus money from a bank started in the 1790s, to buy and sell and buy and sell even more. By the time he died he was indebted to the tune of nearly £90,000 but he left behind him a vast estate of nearly 30,000 acres and a large mansion set in its own 200 acre parkland (English, The great landowners, pp.62-6; Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, pp.13-15).
Christopher Sykes was born in 1749. He was MP for Beverley 1784-90 and though he supported Pitt during the regency crisis and voted for parliamentary reform he is not known to have spoken in the house. In 1770 he made a very fortuitous marriage with Elizabeth Egerton of Tatton whose inheritance of £17,000 from her father was hugely augmented by her inheriting her brother's Cheshire estates and another £60,000 from her aunt in 1780. Christopher Sykes sold off shipping interests and government stock and he and his wife built up the Sledmere estate. They frantically bought land and enclosed huge areas for cultivation with artificial fertilizers. In the 1780s Elizabeth's third inheritance was ploughed into building two new wings to the house and Christopher Sykes not only worked closely with the plasterer, Joseph Rose, on the interior decoration, but was largely responsible for the exterior design after seeking plans from both John Carr and Samuel Wyatt. The grounds were landscaped along the lines of plans by Capability Brown and 1000 acres of trees were planted. The entire village of Sledmere was relocated. Christopher Sykes clearly visualised himself as a man who had left commerce and joined the landed classes. A famous picture of him and his wife, painted by George Romney in the 1780s, depicts the couple surveying their parkland estates stretching away to the horizon; Christopher Sykes holds in his hands spectacles and an estate plan. He had an engraving done of the vast library he built and sent copies of it to friends (Foster, Pedigrees; Namier & Brooke, The house of commons, iii, p.514; Hobson, 'Sledmere and the Sykes family'; English, The great landowners, pp.28-9, 62-6; Cornforth, Sledmere House, p.4; Syme, 'Sledmere Hall', pp. 43-6; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, p.693; Popham, 'Sir Christopher Sykes at Sledmere' I & II).
Christopher Sykes was a gambler 'playing the futures market in land'. He indulged in 'breathless selling and buying', but he did so at a time when continental war was forcing up agricultural prices. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century rentals in Sledmere increased sevenfold and Christopher Sykes used this money, plus money from a bank started in the 1790s, to buy and sell and buy and sell even more. By the time he died he was indebted to the tune of nearly £90,000 but he left behind him a vast estate of nearly 30,000 acres and a large mansion set in its own 200 acre parkland (English, The great landowners, pp.62-6; Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates, pp.13-15).