Acton Place and the Jennens (or Jennings) Family

The Jennens family is of very ancient origin and seems to have been settled in England before the Norman Conquest. They were of Danish extraction and the first who settled in this kingdom seems to have been a Viking captain brought into England by Canute, King of Denmark. King Canute gave him certain land on the coast near Harwich as a reward for former services done for Canutels father, Sweyn (Forkbeard) of Denmark. 

Little more is known of the family until the reign of Henry VIII when a Robert Jennens (great, great, great, grandfather of the miser of Acton Place) was employed in the Royal Household. He became a favourite of Henry VIII, who in 1545 made him Chief Warden, Deer Stalker and Ranger at Shottle, Duffield, Derbyshire. 

His grandson John Jennens became a great ironmaster in Birmingham.  The family became very rich. It is highly likely they were involved in the political life of the country and in 1642, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Robert Jennens' great grandson John (No. 2) is known to have left London suddenly. In the following years the War was raging and he appears to have been forced to move from place to place to avoid the consequence of war. 

It has been suggested that the family was divided amongst itself on the issue of the Civil War and that consequently family records may not have been accurately kept. This may account for some of the confusion which arose upon the death of William Jennens, the miser of Acton Place, in 1798. 

On 28th December 1708, Acton Place was purchased from the Daniels family in trust for Robert Jennens, the father of William Jennens, the Acton miser. 

Robert Jennens began to build a noble mansion at Acton Place, which he was on the point of completing when he died suddenly in 1725.  It is said to have been a magnificent country seat, which for the grandeur of its hall, and massive elegance of its marble chimney pieces, as well as the beauty and extent of its stables and other offices was "totally unrivalled in that part of the country".  It was superbly furnished, the walls were hung  with tapestries, the ceilings  were decorated. The whole of one room was hung  with needlework in blue and white with bedcovers and chairs to match. The adjoining room known as  the "Silk Room" was furnished with elegantly painted silk. The staircase and one entire wing of the house, which was to have been a superb ballroom, were left totally incomplete at Robert Jennens' death in 1725. 

His son William never added another stroke to the unfinished structure. 

After William Jennens' death the house was almost totally demolished and the furnishings and building materials were sold in 1825. All that remained of the great house was the brewhouse and bakehouse which formed one of the wings. These remained until fairly recently. 

All that remains now of Acton Place is a coach house, part of a cellar, a broken gravestone of Robert Jennens' dog, and four plaster busts which for many years were in Sycamore House (now demolished) opposite the Old School in High Street, and which are now in the Church. 

It is known that amongst the furnishings of the house there were portraits of  William Jennens parents and grandparents. In "A history of the Jennens family" compiled on behalf of the family by Messrs. Harrison & Willis of Sheffield in 1879.