Juvenile Home owner

[Roy G]

Hi
The 1861 Wiltshire census has a seven year child as the HEAD of the house.
I can confirm from quite detailed research that I have been doing that she was only 7
With her are her governess and 2 servants.

I am trying to find exactly where the house was and who was the actual owner for I cannot imagine a 7 year old being in charge of the house and paying the staff's wages.
Below are the details.   Can anyone help?

Roy G

Name    Jeanne Martyn
County    Wiltshire Census 1861 for Downton, Wiltshire, England
Ecclesiastical Parish    St Marys, Registration District    Alderbury Residence Note    Hamptworth
Female   Age    7  no Occupation    Relationship to Head of Household    Head
Birth Year 1854   Birthplace     France
Page Number    16
Registration Number    RG09  Piece/Folio    1314 / 11

Household
Jeanne Martyn    Head            F    7    France
Sarah Blitz    Governess    F    19    London, Middlesex
William Tomlinson    Servant    M    27    ..., Nottinghamshire
Jane Roberts    Servant            F    20    ..., ...

[josey]

One suggestion...her parents or guardians may have been away on the census night so she was lieft in the care of the governess, who may have filled out the census form & felt Jeanne, as part of the employing family, ought to be titled 'head'?

ADDED: Actual address is Hamspptworth Lodge Mansion & Farm, and Jeanne's entry says 'daughter of Col Martyn absent'.

[ShaunJ]

Have you looked at the census page? It says she is the "daughter of Col. Martyn, absent"

[josey]

Sorry Shaun, just typing my 'ADDED' as you posted.

[ShaunJ]

The address in the census is "Hamptworth Lodge mansion & farm"

This is the house https://landfordjohnmartin.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/a-history-of-landford-part-11-hamptworth-lodge.pdf

[Roy G]

Thanks for the immediate responses from everybody

I only have the familysearch reference to the information not the census itself, so many of the details you all write about are missing from my copy.
. 
The child's father is known to me, but until now I did not know the actual location of the abode.  Knowing that and gaining a more precise impression of the nature of the house would help me decide which of the child's father's many mistresses was the child's mother.
 (No birth recorded on FreeBMD because she was born in France)

I suspect the mother was the colonel's niece, but need far more evidence to prove it.
Perhaps you could tell who was residing in the same home in 1851 and 1871?

Regards Roy

[ShaunJ]

She's in the 1871 census in Brighton: Jeannie Charlotte Martyn, 17, daughter of Colonel Martyn, born Paris. Lodging (with a lady's companion) at 16 Grand Parade.

[Roy G]

Yes i have that and her marriage, but it is who was in "Hamptworth Lodge mansion & farm" in 1851 and 1871 that now interests me.    I am hoping fo find a tie that leads to the mistress.  And as I have stated the colonel had children by many of them.

Roy

[ShaunJ]

Colonel Martyn (is that Mountjoy Martyn?) isn't on the list of owners in that history that I linked to, so presumably he was a tenant or a guest. The house appears to have belonged to the Shafto family throughout that period. There are just household servants there in 1871.