Whittingstall

As you will know, “Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues” (Wikipedia).

Whittingstall family connections, Hugh is a descendant of the left-hand branch

John Bean Green is the grandfather of Sarah Jane Anthony née Coles.

Sedgwick’s Brewery probably began as a brew house owned by William Smith in the Watford High Street in 1655. In 1790 the Watford Brewery was sold to George Whittingstall, who expanded it. On his death it passed to Edmund Fearnley (provided he added Whittingstall to his name) and it was eventually leased in 1862 to William F. Sedgwick. The brewery continued to expand but in 1923 it was sold to Benskin’s and subsequently demolished.

Sedgwick’s Brewery advertisement 1915

Edmund Fearnley Whittingstall lived at Langleybury House in Abbots Langley from 1838-1856. The 1851 census shows the Whittingstall family (Edmund, wife Mary and daughter Augusta) with two lady’s maids, cook / housekeeper, kitchen maid, two housemaids, laundrymaid, butler, footman and groom.

Edmund had started a bank in partnership with William Smith which went into bankruptcy soon after Edmund’s death, forcing the sale of the Langleybury estate in 1856.