Author: Norman Monahan

Of the 2nd baronet, who was born in 1616, we know very little, apart from the fact that, after the specific bequests made

John was born in 1645 and was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. Like his father, we have little knowledge of where he went,

Although, by 1701, the Harpurs of Calke had held the title of Baronet for 75 years, it was not until John – at

Sir Henry Harpur, 5th baronet was born in 1708 and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. He then went, as was the custom, –

Born on the 6th. July 1739 – had he been born 50 years later, I think that he would have figured in one

In his private diaries, the then Headmaster of Repton School, The Rev. William Bagshaw Stevens, called Sir Henry Harpur, the 7th. Baronet, the

The civil war was raging in France in the last decade of the 18th Century and the British Government feared invasion. In 1794,

Well, we’ve had John the builder, Henry the thinker. ‘Harry’ the racing enthusiast, Henry the ‘isolated’ and now we have George the ‘enigma’.

‘Farmer John’ was, I think, the affectionate epithet applied to Sir Jon Harpur Crewe, the 9th. Baronet of Calke Abbey. Nothing signified it

The fourth baronet left us the front elevation of the house, the fifth gave us the external stairs. The sixth, the Riding School