Horace Wilkinson
(1821-1908)
25 April 1861
Volume 3, page 150, sitting number 3291.
Born in Hackney on 12 March 1821, Conrad Wilkinson was the eldest son of the railway magnate and stockbroker William Arthur Wilkinson by his first wife, Esther née Ricardo.
On 31 July 1858 he married Annie Dickinson, only daughter of William Dickinson, a 'Merchant & Agent [in the] East Indies & China' (1851 census).
The couple appear on the 1861 census, living at Spring Park House at Addington in Surrey. for profession Horace gave ‘Stock Exchange.’ Also present on the night of the census were their infant daughters Mary and Esther, and seven servants, including a footman and a groom.
By the time of the 1891 census, Horace and Annie Wilkinson were living at ‘Parkfield’ at Seal Court near Sevenoaks in Kent. Also present on the night of the census were a son, Horace, four grown-up daughters – Mabel, Ruth, Theresa and Kathleen – and Horace’s brother Conrad, also a ‘Stocks and Shares Agent.’
Horace Wilkinson was for many years the owner of Oliver Cromwell's embalmed head, which he inherited. The head was bought for £100 by Josiah Henry Wilkinson in 1822 and passed down through the family; its last private owner was Canon Horace Wilkinson, who in 1960 gave the head to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where it was buried in a secret location near the antechapel.
Mr and Mrs Wilkinson were neighbours and great friends of Major-General Charles Luard, whose wife Caroline was murdered in 1908.
Horace Wilkinson died at Frankfield House near Sevenoaks on 17 December 1908. The following short report appeared in the Belfast News-Letter (18 December 1908): 'The death took place yesterday of Mr Horace Wilkinson, J.P., aged 87, of Frankfield, Sevenoaks. The Bungalow, under the verandah of which Mrs Luard was so mysteriously murdered last August, is situated upon deceased's estate, having been built and used by him and his family for many years. Mr Wilkinson was the possessor of Oliver Cromwell's skull, which came into the Wilkinson family several generations ago.'