Sir Fortescue was a proper squire

Sir Fortescue Flannery
PUTTING our time travelling ‘helicopter’ down in the grounds of the manor once more – in 1904 – we find a new squire in residence. Sir Fortescue Flannery was a captain of industry and a politician and he filled the role of 'Lord of the Manor' very adequately.
Born in Liverpool in 1851 he studied at the Liverpool School of Science and later founded the Messrs Flannery, Baggallay and Johnson, Ltd, probably the largest consulting engineering firm of its time.
He was knighted in 1899 and created a baronet in 1904. In the General Election of 1895 he became Conservative and Unionist MP for the Shipley Division of Yorkshire. He probably saw Wethersfield Manor as a suitable base from which to contest the Maldon Division, which he won in 1910. Speak to villagers today and he comes over as an autocrat and not too free with his money when it came to maintaining the many tenanted properties on the Manor estate. But he did fight for old age pensions, safety of industrial workers and welfare of the police force during his time in Parliament so perhaps his heart was in the right place.

and she was a real lady

Lady Flannery was a true Lady Bountiful and was loved by all who met her. Sir Fortescue acknowledged a huge debt to her. “Any success I have had in life, whether in business or politics, I attribute mainly to my wife’s support,” he said when receiving a Monteith bowl and silver tray to mark his 25 years’ work for his party in the Maldon division. They were married for 53 years.
In reporting Lady Flannery’s death in 1936 the Essex Weekly News referred to “her sweet sympathy, charitable acts and unfailing courtesy which won her the affectionate regard of everyone. To the poor people of Wethersfield she was ‘ Our gracious lady’. They will miss her visits to their humble dwellings and her Ladyship’s generosity more than can be expressed, but kindness and helping those around her were her nature.” Lady Flannery was passionately fond of flowers and gave quantities away to the sick and people she visited. She supported many women’s organisations and the church and chapel indiscriminately.