 However, at the time (1831), John Dunn Gardner was his legitimate grandson, as the son born to his daughter within wedlock (albeit not by her husband).William Dunn-Gardner apparently devised the estate by name to ensure that his grandson would not be disinherited by any future legal steps taken by the Townshend family, which in fact happened in 1842.Soham Mere was given to the second brother William Dunn-Gardner, of Fordham Abbey, and descended in the family until 1974 when it was sold to the present owner.