On This Day in Wembury – 14 November 1827
Tragedy at Sea for Wembury House Family
On this day in 1827, Charles William Thornton, the second son of Sir Edward Thornton, G.C.B., of Wembury House, died at sea while serving as a Midshipman aboard HMS Tweed. He was only 14 years old. The Sun (London) of March 1828 later recorded his death, noting he had been in the 15th year of his age.
This poignant detail reminds us how closely the Thornton family’s story at Wembury was tied to Britain’s naval world. The house itself stood proudly above the Sound, its residents often directly involved in maritime and diplomatic service.
It’s striking how Wembury House’s history is written not just in stone and timber, but in the lives of those who lived there — and sometimes, as here, in their losses far from home. From the midshipman’s tragic death at sea to later sales and restorations of the estate, each fragment deepens the record of how Wembury families were bound to wider events.
Source: Sun (London), 1 March 1828 (reporting death of 14 Nov 1827).
