Five Yateley Mansions

The Yateley Society's annual exhibition in Yateley Library in November 2000

Acknowledgments

The Yateley Society is deeply indebted to Mrs D S Royds for the loan of her late husband's manuscript, and permission to reproduce the story on these boards. Lieutenant-Commander N D Royds was a direct descendant of John Finch Mason of Aldenham Lodge, the eldest brother of Henry Browne Mason and George Mason of Yateley Manor. Cdr Royds's unpublished biography, Henry Mason, Royal Navy, 1721-1870, His Life and Letters, runs to some 40 pages of typescript. His research is based on the letters Henry Mason wrote home to Bath to his Aunt Georgiana, his childhood guardian. The family papers inherited by Cdr Royds also included Henry's journals and the diary of Finch Mason. Amongst Georgiana Mason's carefully preserved papers are the letters she received from Mrs Harriet Yorke in answer to her own letters seeking preferment for Henry in his career. These original documents reveal a rare insight into the real lives of people who lived in Yateley nearly two centuries ago.

In the 1980s Cdr Royds consulted Michael Holroyd concerning the Society's archive relating to the Mason brothers' houses and activities in Yateley. It is through Michael's good offices that we have been able to view Cdr Royds' manuscript in its entirety.

Having himself reached the same rank in the Royal Navy as Henry Mason, Cdr Royds' manuscript makes fascinating, and exciting, reading. I only hope that the precis of Cdr Royds' manuscript, which I have provided on this board, does it justice.

The pictures of Henry Mason and his parents are from Cdr Royds' collection. The photographs of Hilfield, Henry's house in Yateley, are from the Society's Stilwell Collection. The watercolour of Yateley Manor is from the Society's Sydney Loader Collection. The photograph of Robins Grove has been kindly loaned by John Herman.

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