The Abdy Family of Albyns, Stapleford Abbotts

Anthony Abdy (1579-1640) was a citizen and East India merchant of London. On the death of his father in 1595 he inherited lands at Collier Row, Havering atte Bower. He was Sheriff of London in 1630-31. Director of the East India Company in 1617. He married Abigail, daughter of Sir Thomas Cambell, who was Lord Mayor of London. They had six sons and three daughters. Three of the sons became baronets.
Sir Thomas Abdy (1612-1686) of Felix Hall
Sir Robert Abdy (1617-1670) of Albyns; and
Sir John Abdy (1617-1662) of Moores.

Sir Robert Abdy, 1st Baronet (1617-1670). Second son of Anthony Abdy. He married Catherine, daughter of Sir John Gayer. He was knighted on the 6 June 1660 and was created a baronet a few days later on the 9 June. He died in 1670 and is buried at Stapleford Abbots. He was succeeded by his son, John

In 1654 Abdy bought Albyns for the sum of £5,360.

Sir John Abdy, 2nd Baronet (1643 - 1691). He married Jane Nicholas. They had a son Robert and daughter Jane.

Sir Robert Abdy, 3rd Baronet (1688 - 1748). He was an English Jacobite and antiquary. He succeeded to the baronetcy as a child in 1691. He was a zealous Tory and sat as Member of Parliament for Essex from 1727 until his death. He was succeeded by his only son, John.

Sir John Abdy, 4th Baronet (1714 - 1759). Succeeded to the baronetcy in 1748 and also sat in Parliament for Essex until his death. He remained unmarried and the baronetcy became extinct. In accordance with the terms of Sir John's will the estate then passed to his aunt Mrs. Jane Crank, afterwards to Sir Anthony Thomas Abdy, 5th Bt. of Felix Hall. (his third cousin)

Sir Anthony Thomas Abdy, (1720 - 1775). Abdy was educated at Felsted School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was the eldest son of Sir William Abdy, 4th Baronet and his wife Mary Stotherd, daughter of Philip Stotherd. In 1750, he succeeded his father as baronet.

Abdy was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1738 and was called to the Bar after six years. In 1765 he was appointed a King's Counsel. In 1763 he stood as Member of Parliament for Knaresborough, a seat he held until his death in 1775.

In 1747, he married Catherine Hamilton, youngest daughter of William Hamilton. Their marriage was childless and Abdy was succeeded in the baronetcy by his younger brother William.

The Albyns estate passed to his nephew, the Revd. Thomas Abdy Rutherforth (1755-98), who adopted the surname Abdy on succeeding to the estate which in about 1845 consisted of 585 acres.

His son and heir, John Rutherford Abdy, carried out a number of estate improvements and may have employed Humphry Repton to remodel the grounds of Albyns, as the house was depicted by Repton in Peacock’s Polite Repository in 1801. John died in 1840, leaving as his heir his nephew, Thomas Neville Abdy.

Abdy baronets, of Albyns

The Abdy Baronetcy, of Albyns, was created on 22 December 1849 for Thomas Neville Abdy.

Sir Thomas Neville Abdy, 1st Baronet (1810 – 1877) The only son of Captain Anthony Abdy, a maternal greatgrandson of Sir William Abdy, 4th Baronet, and his wife Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Rich, 5th Baronet. educated at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1833. He was then admitted to the Middle Temple.

In 1841, Abdy contested Maldon unsuccessfully. He was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Lyme Regis in 1847 and represented the constituency until 1852. On 22 December 1849, Abdy was created a baronet, of Albyns, in the County of Essex, and in 1875 was appointed High Sheriff of Essex. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of Peace.

Sir William Neville Abdy, 2nd Baronet (1844 – 1910) was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Abdy, 1st Baronet. He succeeded his father in 1877. Educated at Merton College, Oxford, he served as a Justice of the Peace for Essex, and was named High Sheriff of the county in 1884. He married three times, but had no children, and was succeeded by his brother Anthony.

Sir Anthony Charles Sykes Abdy, 3rd Baronet (1848 – 1921) was a British soldier, the second son of Sir Thomas Abdy, 1st Baronet. He served in the 2nd Life Guards, rising to the rank of captain, and fought in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Abdy was a military attaché in Vienna in 1885. He married Hon. Alexandrina Victoria Macdonald, daughter of Godfrey Macdonald, 4th Baron Macdonald, in 1886. They had three daughters: Grace Lillian (1887–1983), married Henry Butler, 8th Earl of Lanesborough in 1917, Violet (1892–1957), married Hugh Godsal in 1925, and Constance Mary (1895–1981), married Harold Frederic Andorsen in 1941.

On the death of Sir Anthony the Albyns estate was sold.

Albyns was purchased by an American and later by a Mr. Veryard, but by 1929 it was in the ownership of F. G. Mitchell who retained it until the Second World War. After the war it was purchased by Mr. W. H. Twyneham who is still the owner.
Described as a very fine manor house at Albyns, mostly dated from the early 17th century. It incorporated parts of a smaller house which was probably built by the Cely family in the middle of the 16th century. The building was fully surveyed in 1920 by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. A few years later the American owner removed most of the elaborate 17th-century fittings and transported them to the United States. The subsequent owner demolished the north side of the house and rebuilt the façade farther back. In 1945 the building was partly destroyed by a rocket bomb and in 1954 was demolished.

Sir Henry Beadon Abdy, 4th Baronet (1853 – 1921)
Sir Robert Henry Edward Abdy, 5th Baronet (1896 – 1976)
Sir Valentine Robert Duff Abdy, 6th Baronet (1937 – 2012)