POSFORD, Benjamin Ashwell
Benjamin Ashwell Posford was born at Helmingham, Suffolk on 13 June 1848, second son of Joseph Posford (1810-8 March 1888), a farmer of 256 acres at Helmingham, and his wife Eliza née Ashwell (3 October 1808-22 April 1889), who married at Helmingham on 21 August 1845. A brother to Joseph Posford. In 1851, Benjamin was a 2-year-old, living at Bocking Hall, Helmingham with his parents, 40-year-old Joseph and 41-year-old Eliza, and his 4-year-old brother Joseph and they retained five indoor servants and thirteen farm workers. Benjamin was educated at Christ's College, Finchley. He worked firstly on his father's farm and in September 1874 took over the Falkenham Hall estate, between Ipswich and Felixstowe, from his uncle Benjamin Ashwell. He married at Trimley St Mary, Suffolk on 22 September 1875, Mary Ellen Ashwell (22 May 1854-2 November 1938), his first cousin and daughter of Benjamin Ashwell, and in 1881 living on the 848-acre Falkenham Hall Estate with his 26-year-old wife Mary and a 4-year-old son Benjamin Ashwell and they retained five indoor servants and fifty farm workers. By the time of his death in 1895 he was farming 2,000 acres in Falkenham, The Trimleys', Felixstowe, Bucklesham and Helmingham. A member of the Ipswich Art Club in 1891 from Falkenham Lodge, near Ipswich but does not seem to have exhibited. A prominent member of the Suffolk Horse Society and the Suffolk Agricultural Association. He bred some notable Suffolk Punches and other horse breeds and judged at agricultural shows. Benjamin Ashwell Posford died at Falkenham Hall on 6 October 1895, aged 47 and his widow later married Rowland John Dawson. His namesake son, an analyst, who married in 1905, Cecile Emma Georgette Marguerite Pigache and had four children, died at Boulogne on 25 February 1915, aged 38, whilst serving as a lieutenant in the Army Service Corps and their son was George Benjamin Ashwell Posford (1906-1976) the composer.