John Henry Fludyer, 4th Baronet (1803–1896), generally known as Henry Fludyer, was a baronet and clergyman who restored St Nicholas' Church in Thistleton, Rutland, as a memorial to his three eldest children. He inherited the baronetcy at a late age after his cousin and two elder brothers died without issue. He inherited the family seat at Ayston, a village where he was already rector, and near which he seems to have spent most of his life. He died at age 92, having been connected to the parish of Ayston for nearly 70 years.
John Henry Fludyer was born the youngest of seven children of George Fludyer MP and Lady Mary Fane, daughter of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland. His two elder brothers had military careers, and while he was at school at Westminster, he wished to follow them. His father, however, had decided that the Church should be his career, and so he went up to St John's College, Cambridge, where he took his BA in 1826. He was appointed curate to the parish of Ayston in 1826.[1]
In 1832 Fludyer married Augusta, daughter of Sir Richard Borough, Bart, and granddaughter of Viscount Lake. In 1834 he was appointed Rector of Thistleton and of Ayston.[2] (The living was in the gift of his father George.) In 1842, his eldest three children of their seven children died of scarlet fever at the ages of 4, 6 and 8 years[3] while the family were living in Thistleton.[4] In 1863, on the death of his second brother William the remaining family moved to Ayston Hall,[5] whose grounds adjoin the church there, and in 1870 he resigned the living at Thistleton. In 1879-80 he and Augusta restored Thistleton church in the memory of their three eldest children. Their children were:
Augusta died in 1889. Henry was reputed to be a devoted husband, and it was said that never once did she leave the room without his standing to open the door for her, and that every year he cut the first rose of the season for her, and placed it on her boudoir table. At his death, at the age of 93, his personal probate was £9,810.[9] He was buried beside her in St Mary the Virgin's Church, Ayston.
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