Sutton Place, Surrey
Encyclopedia
Sutton Place, 3 miles NE of Guildford in Surrey
is a Grade I listed Tudor
manor house
built c.1525 by Sir Richard Weston(d.1541), courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. In modern times the estate has had a series of super-rich owners, a trend started by J. Paul Getty
, then the world's richest private citizen, who chose to spend the last 17 years of his life there. Its current owner is the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov
. A definitive history of the house and manor, first published in 1893, was written by Frederic Harrison
(d.1923), the jurist & historian, whose father had acquired the lease in 1874.
forms overlaid with Italian ornament, bears little resemblance to any other courtier's house of the 1520s, and it ranks with the vanished Nonsuch Palace
as a landmark in the introduction of renaissance
ideas" Harrison (1899) stated it to be "a landmark in the history of art" (preface vii), and "a cinquecento
conception in an English gothic
frame".(p. 2). He identified it as "one of the first houses built as a peaceful residence, with no thought for defence...one of the first country houses in the modern sense, instead of an imitation castle...Weston perceived that the Wars of the Barons were over, that a gentleman might live at his ease under protection of law and the king's peace"(p. 5). Weston was certainly daring in his choice of eye-catching decoration above his front-door, for which he surely risked being ridiculed by his manly friends, including the king himself: innocent loving children at play: the amorini. Was this a signal by an avant-gard Sir Richard to his visitors, many of whom must have been valiant and experienced soldiers, that his house was to be a haven where love and play were de rigueur, not the old-fashioned militaristic conversations and behaviours? What a different message this was to that placed above the gates of Dante
's Inferno
: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". At Sutton the defensive towers and turrets of the old castles and fortified manors have been reduced to mere pilasters, covered with decorative terracotta, cariacatures of their former selves, perhaps as symbols of a deliberate rejection of defensive elements by Weston. The symbolism of the short stretch of crenellated parapet on the roofline above the front-door, one of the most potent aspects of the old defensive fortress, has been disarmed and cancelled-out by the almost jarring sight of a covering of yet more playful amorini. A more deliberately dissonant juxtaposition would be hard to imagine, yet that is what Sir Richard ordered to be erected. Sutton is clearly a house with a message to proclaim, which would not have been, could not have been, missed by its visitors.
exactly 81 ft. 3 ins. square. The northern block or wing was demolished in 1782, giving the house its present open appearance of a U-shape, the two surviving flanking wings forming a courtyard looking to the east. An unusual feature is that due to the extreme flatness of the site the entire ground floor of the whole house stands on the exact level of the soil, so that no step exists for entering the house on any side. It is set within parkland at the end of a long driveway.
italianate. They consist of designs made from 40-50 different moulds, most strikingly comprising a panel of two rows of amorini immediately above the entrance door. Such Italianate influence had never before been seen in English architecture, and is thought to have resulted from designs seen by Weston during his travels on embassies to France, where he might have seen some of the newly built chateaux on the Loire. With very minor exceptions no stone was used in the building and decoration of Sutton Place, only brick and terracotta. Thus the bases, doorways, windows, string-course
s, labels and other dripstones, parapet
, angles, cornice
s and finial
s are all of moulded clay. Such usage is only found in two other contemporary English buildings, East Barsham Manor
in Norfolk and Layer Marney Tower
in Essex. Its use was however rapidly abandoned in England, to appear again only in the Victorian era. The terracotta proved very hard-wearing and was described by Harrison in 1899 as "sharp and perfect" in condition. The terracotta has however undergone in the 1980s a £12 million refurbishment involving much replacement, by the specialist firm Hathernware Ceramics Ltd, which used 18 different colour blends of clay to match the original variety of shades. Prior to that it seems the only new elements were from 1875 when 10 new terracotta mullion
s and window-frames made by Messrs. Blashfield of Stamford from moulds of existing windows, replaced sash-windows inserted in the 18th.c. Two completely new small windows were at the same time created from terracotta in the gable
s of the quadrangle.
Other terracotta decorative elements include framed mongrams of "R W", the builder, and reliefs of his rebus
of the concave-ended barrel, probably signifying a "waisted-tun". The "tun" was a play on the last syllable of Weston. The concave-ended barrel is sometimes shown between two goose heads, the significance of which is unclear, unless it be the French word Oie plus -"tun". Willam Bolton(d.1532), prior of St Bartholomew's
in Smithfield is also known to have used the rebus
of a "tun", as can be seen in his surviving oriel window
within the church in the form of a barrel with a bolt of a crossbow passing through vertically. Another recurring terracotta element is a double bunch of grapes, thought by some to represent hops. Harrison believes the story of Weston having been "the King's brewer" unfounded and "a vulgar story". Similar hop-like bunches of grapes also feature at Layer Marney, and there is no evidence of Lord Marney, captain of the royal bodyguard, having been similarly a brewer.
by providing the use of money, ships or even a contingent of soldiers.
of 1086 as Sudtone. It was held by Robert Malet
. Its Domesday assets were: 3 hides
; 1 mill
worth 5s, 3 plough
s, 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of meadow
, woodland
worth 25 hogs. It rendered £5. The previous manor house stood about a quarter of a mile from the present house, on the hill now occupied by St Edward's Chapel and Vine Cottage.
Within Sutton Place was once the blood stained ruff
of St Thomas More and a crystal pomegranate
that once belonged to Queen Catherine of Aragon
. The pomegranate emblem of the Queen features as a decoration in several places within the house, which suggested to Harrison that Weston certainly built the house before she was divorced by Henry VIII in 1533, and possibly before 1527 when it would have been known by his courtiers such as Weston that the King had turned his affections away from Catherine towards Anne Boleyn
.
John Webbe erected a tablet very similar to this one in Sarnesfield
Church in 1795 to the memory of his other spinster distant cousin Ann Monington, a nun who had left her Hereford estates, including Sarnesfield, to him in 1780. Ann Monington's father Edward's second wife was Bridget Webbe and he died without male heir. John Webbe, to whom Ann Monington left the Sarnesfield Estate was the son of Bridget Webbe's uncle Thomas Webbe of Hammersmith.
It appears both bequests came to him due to his having adhered to the Roman Catholic religion, which other cousins in contention for the bequests had deserted, to the displeasure of the legators. John Webbe-Weston was the son of Thomas Webbe, a linen draper, of York Street, St Paul's, Covent Garden (in 1740s) and of Brook Green, Hammersmith (in 1770s) by Ann Tancred, daughter of Thomas Tancred, a woollen draper, of St Paul's, Covent Garden (in 1768) by Frances Gazaigne. Thomas Tancred was the grandson of Sir William Tancred, 2nd Baronet(d.1703) of Aldeborough
, Boroughbridge
, Yorkshire, by Elizabeth Waldegrave, da. of Charles Waldegrave of Stanninghall, Norfolk, 2nd son of Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet
. Thomas Webbe's mother was the sister of William Wolffe of St Giles-in-the-Field and Great Haseley, Oxon, who married Frances Weston, aunt of Melior Mary Weston. William Wolffe's mother was Anne Pincheon of Writtle, Essex, daughter of John Pincheon who was the son of Sir Edward Pincheon of Writtle by Dorothy Weston, sister of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland
, who shared a common descent with Richard Weston the founder of Sutton Place from a certain Humphrey Weston.
niece of Captain Francis H. Salvin. Witham had never held vacant possession of Sutton Place and sold it on the expiry of the Northcliffe tenancy in 1918. His wife Louise lived on until 1945. In July 1945 the voluminous Weston family estate papers were presented to Surrey Archives by Mrs D Wolseley of Guildford.
London road between London and Guildford.
pre Norman times, a supposition for which little historical evidence exists as naturally all ancient manors have been the scenes of many misfortunes, indeed Sutton Place has suffered fewer than many.
The front cover depicts the north wing gate-house as it might have appeared in Tudor times. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000P55CW6
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
is a Grade I listed Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
built c.1525 by Sir Richard Weston(d.1541), courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. In modern times the estate has had a series of super-rich owners, a trend started by J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty
Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was...
, then the world's richest private citizen, who chose to spend the last 17 years of his life there. Its current owner is the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov
Alisher Usmanov
Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov is an Uzbek-born Russian businessman.According to the 2011 edition of Forbes magazine, the oligarch is one of Russia's richest men, with a fortune estimated at US$17.7 billion, and the world's 35th richest person.Usmanov is married and is a graduate of Moscow State...
. A definitive history of the house and manor, first published in 1893, was written by Frederic Harrison
Frederic Harrison
Frederic Harrison was a British jurist and historian.Born at 17 Euston Square, London, he was the son of Frederick Harrison, a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a Belfast granite merchant. He was baptised at St...
(d.1923), the jurist & historian, whose father had acquired the lease in 1874.
Historical assessment
Bindoff(1982) stated: "The building, with its perpendicularEnglish Gothic architecture
English Gothic is the name of the architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520.-Introduction:As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its pointed arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows, and spires...
forms overlaid with Italian ornament, bears little resemblance to any other courtier's house of the 1520s, and it ranks with the vanished Nonsuch Palace
Nonsuch Palace
Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey, England; it stood from 1538 to 1682–3. Its ruins are in Nonsuch Park.- Background :Nonsuch Palace in Surrey was perhaps the grandest of Henry VIII's building projects...
as a landmark in the introduction of renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
ideas" Harrison (1899) stated it to be "a landmark in the history of art" (preface vii), and "a cinquecento
Cinquecento
Cinquecento is a term used to describe the Italian Renaissance of the 16th century, including the current styles of art, music, literature, and architecture.-Art:...
conception in an English gothic
English Gothic architecture
English Gothic is the name of the architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520.-Introduction:As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its pointed arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows, and spires...
frame".(p. 2). He identified it as "one of the first houses built as a peaceful residence, with no thought for defence...one of the first country houses in the modern sense, instead of an imitation castle...Weston perceived that the Wars of the Barons were over, that a gentleman might live at his ease under protection of law and the king's peace"(p. 5). Weston was certainly daring in his choice of eye-catching decoration above his front-door, for which he surely risked being ridiculed by his manly friends, including the king himself: innocent loving children at play: the amorini. Was this a signal by an avant-gard Sir Richard to his visitors, many of whom must have been valiant and experienced soldiers, that his house was to be a haven where love and play were de rigueur, not the old-fashioned militaristic conversations and behaviours? What a different message this was to that placed above the gates of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". At Sutton the defensive towers and turrets of the old castles and fortified manors have been reduced to mere pilasters, covered with decorative terracotta, cariacatures of their former selves, perhaps as symbols of a deliberate rejection of defensive elements by Weston. The symbolism of the short stretch of crenellated parapet on the roofline above the front-door, one of the most potent aspects of the old defensive fortress, has been disarmed and cancelled-out by the almost jarring sight of a covering of yet more playful amorini. A more deliberately dissonant juxtaposition would be hard to imagine, yet that is what Sir Richard ordered to be erected. Sutton is clearly a house with a message to proclaim, which would not have been, could not have been, missed by its visitors.
Description
The house is built of red brick and was originally of four blocks enclosing a quadrangleQuadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
exactly 81 ft. 3 ins. square. The northern block or wing was demolished in 1782, giving the house its present open appearance of a U-shape, the two surviving flanking wings forming a courtyard looking to the east. An unusual feature is that due to the extreme flatness of the site the entire ground floor of the whole house stands on the exact level of the soil, so that no step exists for entering the house on any side. It is set within parkland at the end of a long driveway.
Terracotta elements
The decorative elements made from moulded terracotta on the facade are renaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
italianate. They consist of designs made from 40-50 different moulds, most strikingly comprising a panel of two rows of amorini immediately above the entrance door. Such Italianate influence had never before been seen in English architecture, and is thought to have resulted from designs seen by Weston during his travels on embassies to France, where he might have seen some of the newly built chateaux on the Loire. With very minor exceptions no stone was used in the building and decoration of Sutton Place, only brick and terracotta. Thus the bases, doorways, windows, string-course
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
s, labels and other dripstones, parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
, angles, cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
s and finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
s are all of moulded clay. Such usage is only found in two other contemporary English buildings, East Barsham Manor
East Barsham Manor
East Barsham Manor is an important work of Tudor architecture, originally built in or around 1520. It is located in the village of East Barsham, about north of the town of Fakenham in the English county of Norfolk. It is protected as a Grade I listed building. The two-storey house was built for...
in Norfolk and Layer Marney Tower
Layer Marney Tower
Layer Marney Tower is a Tudor palace, composed of buildings, gardens and parkland, dating from 1520 situated in Layer Marney near Colchester, Essex, England.-History:...
in Essex. Its use was however rapidly abandoned in England, to appear again only in the Victorian era. The terracotta proved very hard-wearing and was described by Harrison in 1899 as "sharp and perfect" in condition. The terracotta has however undergone in the 1980s a £12 million refurbishment involving much replacement, by the specialist firm Hathernware Ceramics Ltd, which used 18 different colour blends of clay to match the original variety of shades. Prior to that it seems the only new elements were from 1875 when 10 new terracotta mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
s and window-frames made by Messrs. Blashfield of Stamford from moulds of existing windows, replaced sash-windows inserted in the 18th.c. Two completely new small windows were at the same time created from terracotta in the gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s of the quadrangle.
Other terracotta decorative elements include framed mongrams of "R W", the builder, and reliefs of his rebus
Rebus
A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
of the concave-ended barrel, probably signifying a "waisted-tun". The "tun" was a play on the last syllable of Weston. The concave-ended barrel is sometimes shown between two goose heads, the significance of which is unclear, unless it be the French word Oie plus -"tun". Willam Bolton(d.1532), prior of St Bartholomew's
St Bartholomew-the-Great
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great is an Anglican church located at West Smithfield in the City of London, founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123 -History:...
in Smithfield is also known to have used the rebus
Rebus
A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
of a "tun", as can be seen in his surviving oriel window
Oriel window
Oriel windows are a form of bay window commonly found in Gothic architecture, which project from the main wall of the building but do not reach to the ground. Corbels or brackets are often used to support this kind of window. They are seen in combination with the Tudor arch. This type of window was...
within the church in the form of a barrel with a bolt of a crossbow passing through vertically. Another recurring terracotta element is a double bunch of grapes, thought by some to represent hops. Harrison believes the story of Weston having been "the King's brewer" unfounded and "a vulgar story". Similar hop-like bunches of grapes also feature at Layer Marney, and there is no evidence of Lord Marney, captain of the royal bodyguard, having been similarly a brewer.
Painted Glass
The hall windows contain fine painted glass, much installed contemporaneously with the building of the house. These consist of shields of arms and other rebuses. There are in total 14 windows containing 92 separate lights, each containing a shield or quarry of painted glass. They are of different dates and quality, belonging to three separate epochs, but mostly relating to the builder's family. Some glass predates the house and is believed to have come from the earlier manor house of Sutton. Harrison states certain to be "of extraordinary beauty and rarity"..."of the finest painted glass of the time of Henry VIII". Apart from family arms, there are shown the arms of King Richard III and emblems of the Roses, Red and White, all relating to the Battle of Bosworth at which Edmund Weston, Governor of Guernsey, father of Sir Richard, is thought to have assisted Henry TudorHenry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
by providing the use of money, ships or even a contingent of soldiers.
History of Sutton Manor
Sutton Manor, within which the Tudor mansion is situated, appears in Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 as Sudtone. It was held by Robert Malet
Robert Malet
Robert Malet was an English/ Norman baron and a close advisor of Henry I.-Biography:Malet was the son of William Malet, and inherited his father's great honour of Eye in 1071. This made him one of the dozen or so greatest landholders in England...
. Its Domesday assets were: 3 hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
; 1 mill
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
worth 5s, 3 plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
s, 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
worth 25 hogs. It rendered £5. The previous manor house stood about a quarter of a mile from the present house, on the hill now occupied by St Edward's Chapel and Vine Cottage.
Within Sutton Place was once the blood stained ruff
Ruff (clothing)
A ruff is an item of clothing worn in Western Europe from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century.The ruff, which was worn by men, women and children, evolved from the small fabric ruffle at the drawstring neck of the shirt or chemise...
of St Thomas More and a crystal pomegranate
Pomegranate
The pomegranate , Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall.Native to the area of modern day Iran, the pomegranate has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. From there it spread to Asian areas such as the Caucasus as...
that once belonged to Queen Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
. The pomegranate emblem of the Queen features as a decoration in several places within the house, which suggested to Harrison that Weston certainly built the house before she was divorced by Henry VIII in 1533, and possibly before 1527 when it would have been known by his courtiers such as Weston that the King had turned his affections away from Catherine towards Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
.
Descent of the manor
Sutton Place remained in the Weston family and families related to it by marriage until 1919, although let out for part of the time. The family retained its Catholic religion from Tudor times, which precluded it from taking an active part in public life. Successive occupants thus lived as retiring country gentlemen of reduced means, which meant that the house escaped remodelling through the ages. A collection of portraits of the Weston, Webbe and Webbe-Weston family was sold at auction on 13 July 2005 by Sotheby's Olympia, London.1521-1782: Weston
- Sir Richard I Weston(d.1541). Granted manor by Henry VIII on 17 May 1521.
- Sir Henry Weston(d.1592), grandson of Richard I. From about 1569 the fortunes of the Westons fade, they start to live more at Clandon.
- Sir Richard II Weston(1564–1613), son of Henry. Led an uneventful life, knighted 1603.
- Sir Richard III Weston(1591–1652), canal builder & pioneering agriculturalist. Son of Richard II. Last prominent member of Weston family in English public life. In 1641 he sold Clandon ParkClandon ParkClandon Park is an 18th century Palladian mansion in West Clandon just outside Guildford, Surrey, in the United Kingdom. It has been a National Trust property since 1956....
and Temple Court Farm at Merrow to Sir Richard Onslow, MP for Surrey in the Long ParliamentLong ParliamentThe Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
and ancestor of the Earl Onslow. - John I Weston(d.1690), 2nd. & eldest surviving son of Richard III, his eldest brother Richard IV having died young. Married in 1637 Mary Copley da. & heiress of William Copley of GattonGatton ParkGatton Park is a country estate set in parkland near Gatton in Surrey, England.Now owned by The Royal Alexandra and Albert school, Gatton Park constitutes of manor and parkland. The property is Grade II listed and is in part administered by the National Trust...
, Reigate, Surrey. He sold Gatton in 1654 and Sutton Place once again became the Weston's principal residence. He constructed a new quadrangle on the side of the east wing of Sutton Place, as service quarters, and generally refitted-out the house. - Richard V Weston(d.1701). Married Melior Nevill, da. of William Nevill of Holt, Leicestershire.
- John II Weston(d.1730), only son of Richard V, and last heir male of the blood of the founder. He married Elizabeth Gage(d.1724), sister of Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount GageThomas Gage, 1st Viscount GageThomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage Bt was the son of Joseph Gage of Sherborne Castle and Elizabeth Penruddock.He married Benedicta Maria Theresa Hall in 1717. Gage's first son was born in 1718...
(d.1754). He refitted the upper part of the east wing which had been dilapidated since a fire in 1561, creating a long galleryLong galleryLong gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In British architecture, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were often located on the upper floor of the great houses of the time, and stretched across the entire...
. His wife Elizabeth was, in Harrison's estimation, the subject of Alexander PopeAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate LadyElegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady"Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" is a poem in heroic couplets by Alexander Pope, first published in his Works of 1717. Though only 82 lines long, it has become one of Pope's most celebrated pieces....
", published in 1717. Harrison derives his opinion from a note of Pope's appended to his letter to Mrs Weston, and states the story of the poem, involving a suicide, to be pure imagination.
- Melior Mary Weston(1703–1782), spinster, last of the Weston name. A portrait exists of her in 1723 aged 20. She bequeathed all her estates to John Webbe, a very distant cousin, on condition that he adopted the name and arms of Weston. John Webbe-Weston erected a marble tablet to her memory in Holy Trinity Church, GuildfordHoly Trinity Church, GuildfordHoly Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the centre of Guildford, England. A large, red brick building, it was built on the site of a mediaeval church which collapsed in the mid-18th century...
where she was buried in the Weston Chapel built by Sir Richard Weston the founder, inscribed as follows:
"To the Memory of Melior Mary Weston of Sutton Place in the county of Surrey, Spinster. This Marble was erected as a tribute of sincere respect and gratitude by John Webbe Weston of Sarnesfield Court in the county of Hereford, Esq. who in pursuance of her last will and bequest succeeded to her name and estates. She was the last immediate descendant of an illustrious Family which flourished in this county for many successive generations, and with the ample possessions of their ancestors inherited their superior understanding and distinguished virtues
obiit, 10 Junii, MDCCLXXXII, aet. 79. R.I.P."
John Webbe erected a tablet very similar to this one in Sarnesfield
Sarnesfield
Sarnesfield is a civil parish and village in Herefordshire, 11 miles north-west of Hereford.-De Sarnesfield:Philip de Sarnesfield held one and a half hides from Hugh de Lacy in 1109....
Church in 1795 to the memory of his other spinster distant cousin Ann Monington, a nun who had left her Hereford estates, including Sarnesfield, to him in 1780. Ann Monington's father Edward's second wife was Bridget Webbe and he died without male heir. John Webbe, to whom Ann Monington left the Sarnesfield Estate was the son of Bridget Webbe's uncle Thomas Webbe of Hammersmith.
It appears both bequests came to him due to his having adhered to the Roman Catholic religion, which other cousins in contention for the bequests had deserted, to the displeasure of the legators. John Webbe-Weston was the son of Thomas Webbe, a linen draper, of York Street, St Paul's, Covent Garden (in 1740s) and of Brook Green, Hammersmith (in 1770s) by Ann Tancred, daughter of Thomas Tancred, a woollen draper, of St Paul's, Covent Garden (in 1768) by Frances Gazaigne. Thomas Tancred was the grandson of Sir William Tancred, 2nd Baronet(d.1703) of Aldeborough
Aldborough, North Yorkshire
Aldborough is a village in the civil parish of Boroughbridge, part of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England.Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, what is now known as Aldborough was built on the site of a major Romano-British town, Isurium Brigantum...
, Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of York. Until its bypass was built, it was on the main A1 road from London to Edinburgh...
, Yorkshire, by Elizabeth Waldegrave, da. of Charles Waldegrave of Stanninghall, Norfolk, 2nd son of Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet
Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet
Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet was an English soldier and Cavalier during the English Civil War and a grandson of Sir Edward Waldegrave....
. Thomas Webbe's mother was the sister of William Wolffe of St Giles-in-the-Field and Great Haseley, Oxon, who married Frances Weston, aunt of Melior Mary Weston. William Wolffe's mother was Anne Pincheon of Writtle, Essex, daughter of John Pincheon who was the son of Sir Edward Pincheon of Writtle by Dorothy Weston, sister of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland
Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland
Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, KG , was Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Lord Treasurer of England under James I and Charles I, being one of the most influential figures in the early years of Charles I's Personal Rule and the architect of many of the policies that enabled him to rule...
, who shared a common descent with Richard Weston the founder of Sutton Place from a certain Humphrey Weston.
1782-1857: Webbe-Weston
- John Webbe-Weston(d.1823), assumed by licence in 1782 the surname Webbe-Weston, but did not adopt old Weston arms. He was descended from the sister of William Wolffe, the husband of Frances, Melior's paternal aunt. The Wolffe's of Great HaseleyGreat HaseleyGreat Haseley is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. The village is southwest of Thame. The parish includes the hamlets of Latchford, Little Haseley and North Weston and the house, chapel and park of Rycote...
, Oxon., were descended from the Westons of Preston Hall, Essex. In 1782, the year he inherited Sutton Place, he demolished the dilapidated gatehouse wing He completed renovations in 1784, having rejected proposals of the architect BonomiBonomiBonomi is the name of several notable persons:*Andrea Bonomi, footballer*Beniamino Bonomi*Carlo Bonomi , Italian voice actor*Ignatius Bonomi , architect*Ivanoe Bonomi , Italian prime minister...
to remodel the house in an Italianate or neo-classical style. In 1794 he inherited Sarnesfield CourtSarnesfieldSarnesfield is a civil parish and village in Herefordshire, 11 miles north-west of Hereford.-De Sarnesfield:Philip de Sarnesfield held one and a half hides from Hugh de Lacy in 1109....
, Hereford, (demolished in 1955) from his cousin Anne Monington. He married firstly Elizabeth Lawson (d.1791, aged 34) da. of Sir John Lawson of Brough Hall, Yorks.
- John Joseph I Webbe-Weston(d.1840), son of John Webbe-Weston by Elizabeth Lawson. He married in 1811 Caroline Graham.
- Capt. John Joseph II Webbe-Weston(d.1849), only son of John Joseph I. He died in action on the Danube. In 1847 he married Lady Horatia Waldegrave, da. of John Waldegrave, 6th Earl WaldegraveJohn Waldegrave, 6th Earl WaldegraveLieutenant-Colonel John James Waldegrave, 6th Earl Waldegrave was a British peer and soldier.Waldegrave was the second son of the 4th Earl Waldegrave and was educated at Eton...
. On her 2nd marriage to John Wardlaw the Weston estates passed as a life interest to Thomas Monington Webbe-Weston(d.1857) her 1st husband's uncle. - Thomas Monington Webbe-Weston(d.1857), 2nd son of John Webbe-Weston, last of that name. He married Mary Wright and died without issue.
1857-1904: Salvin
- Francis Henry Salvin(d.1904), of Croxdale HallCroxdale HallCroxdale Hall is a privately owned country mansion situated at Croxdale near Sunderland Bridge, County Durham. It is a Grade I listed building....
, Co. Durham. He was the residuary legatee of the will of Capt. John Joseph II Webbe-Weston. He was a grandson of John Webbe-Weston, his mother having been Anna Maria Webbe-Weston, who in 1800 married William Thomas Salvin of Croxdale. He lived at the relatively modest Whitmoor House in nearby Woking. He was an authority on Falconry, having written together with William Brodrick "Falconry in the British Isles" (1855). He kept pet otters and a pet pig named "Lady Susan" at his home in Woking and was something of a practical joker using his pig as an accomplice. He inherited Sutton Place in 1857, but not with free-possession as in 1855 it was tenanted by Charles LeFevre, who was followed by a tenancy to Caledon Alexander. In 1874 Salvin leased Sutton Place to the stockbroker Frederick I Harrison(d.1881), from whom it passed to his son Sidney Harrison. One of his younger sons was Frederic HarrisonFrederic HarrisonFrederic Harrison was a British jurist and historian.Born at 17 Euston Square, London, he was the son of Frederick Harrison, a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a Belfast granite merchant. He was baptised at St...
, the historian, who wrote the definitive history of Sutton Place. The Harrison family spent much care and money on preserving the house. From 1900 the tenant was Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount NorthcliffeAlfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount NorthcliffeAlfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe rose from childhood poverty to become a powerful British newspaper and publishing magnate, famed for buying stolid, unprofitable newspapers and transforming them to make them lively and entertaining for the mass market.His company...
(d.1922)
1904-1918: Witham
On the death of Francis Salvin in 1904 the estate passed to his niece's son Philip Witham, a solicitor, who died in 1921. Witham was born in 1842, 4th son of Sir Charles Witham Knt., a Captain in the Royal Navy, by Jane, daughter of John Hoy, of Stoke Priory. He was the grandson of William Witham and Dorothy Langdale. He was educated at Mount St Mary's and abroad and admitted a Solicitor in 1866. He became head of the firm of Messrs Witham, Roskell, Munster and Weld. He served as a member of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial Committee in 1904. He married in 1878 Louisa Salvin, da. of Marmaduke Salvin of Burn Hall, Durham, andniece of Captain Francis H. Salvin. Witham had never held vacant possession of Sutton Place and sold it on the expiry of the Northcliffe tenancy in 1918. His wife Louise lived on until 1945. In July 1945 the voluminous Weston family estate papers were presented to Surrey Archives by Mrs D Wolseley of Guildford.
1918-present
- George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of SutherlandGeorge Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of SutherlandGeorge Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland PC, KT , styled Earl Gower until 1892 and Marquess of Stafford between 1892 and 1913, was a British courtier, patron of the film industry and Conservative politician...
(d.1963). He was the first person unrelated to the Weston family to own Sutton Place since its building c.1525, having purchased it in 1918 from Philip Witham. He modernised the interior. - J. Paul GettyJ. Paul GettyJean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was...
, who purchased the estate in 1959. Possibly today the house's most well-known historical owner. He was then or shortly thereafter the world's richest private citizen, whose selection of Sutton Place for his principal residence gave the property much renown. - Stanley J. Seeger. Sutton Place was sold in 1980, after Getty's death in 1976, by his Getty Oil Corporation, for £ 8 million, to a company owned by Stanley J. Seeger who established the Sutton Place Heritage Trust to maintain the property. He was an American heir to a family fortune from lumber, petroleum and other sources, who had begun collecting art whilst a student at Princeton University. He was noted as a patron of arts and educational charities and endowed a chair of Hellenic studies at Princeton. He is never known to have given an interview. He redecorated it and hung some of his finest modern paintings there including a Bacon triptych. Although Mr Seeger is said to have spent almost £1m a year on maintaining the house he rarely lived there.
- Frederick R. KochFrederick R. KochFrederick Robinson Koch is an American collector and philanthropist, the eldest of the four sons born to American industrialist Fred C. Koch, founder of what is now Koch Industries, and Mary Robinson Koch...
. After 10 years Seeger sold it to another American, Frederick R. Koch, who set up the Sutton Place Foundation, and in his turn redecorated the house and used it to display his own art collection to the public. According to the Guardian newspaper he is said never to have spent a night under its roof and to have sold it for £32m in 1999. In January 2003 it was offered for sale at £ 25 million. The estate at this time comprised 21 properties including the 18 bedroom Ladygrove Farmhouse. - Alisher UsmanovAlisher UsmanovAlisher Burkhanovich Usmanov is an Uzbek-born Russian businessman.According to the 2011 edition of Forbes magazine, the oligarch is one of Russia's richest men, with a fortune estimated at US$17.7 billion, and the world's 35th richest person.Usmanov is married and is a graduate of Moscow State...
, the Russian businessman, is the present owner in 2011. Some of the properties together with part of the estate land have now been sold. Ladygrove Farmhouse has been redeveloped into luxury housing. The property underwent extensive renovation work for its new owner in 2009.
Entrance gates
There are two 16th.c. gatekeeper's lodges which flank the main entrance gates located on the north side of the A3A3 road
The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road for much of its length, is a dual carriageway, or expressway, which follows the historic route between London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified as a trunk road...
London road between London and Guildford.
Novel by Dinah Lampitt
A historical romance by Dinah Lampitt titled "Sutton Place" was published in 1983, the first volume of a trilogy. It supposes that a curse has been placed on all occupants of the manor sincepre Norman times, a supposition for which little historical evidence exists as naturally all ancient manors have been the scenes of many misfortunes, indeed Sutton Place has suffered fewer than many.
The front cover depicts the north wing gate-house as it might have appeared in Tudor times. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000P55CW6
Sources
- Harrison, FredericFrederic HarrisonFrederic Harrison was a British jurist and historian.Born at 17 Euston Square, London, he was the son of Frederick Harrison, a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a Belfast granite merchant. He was baptised at St...
. Annals of an Old Manor House: Sutton Place, Guildford. London, 1899 (The author's family held the lease of Sutton Place and resided there from 1874 to post 1899)archive.org on-line text - Victoria County History, Surrey, vol.3, 1911, Woking parish, Sutton Manor, pp.381-390
- Sutton Place, notes by Philip Arnold
- The Weston Chapel, www.holytrinityguildford.org.uk
- Sutton Place & St Edward's Church, notes by Jim Miller, 2002
Further reading
- Willis, Dr. David & Albion, Rev. Gordon. St. Edward's, Sutton Park, Guildford: A Guide to the Church & its Treasures, c.1972.
- Taylor, Brian. The Catholics of Sutton Park.
- Aubrey, JohnJohn AubreyJohn Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...
, Natural History & Antiquities of the County of Surrey, 5 vols., 1673, 1718, 1768 etc., vol. 3, p. 228. - Manning, OwenOwen ManningOwen Manning was an English clergyman and antiquarian, known as a historian of Surrey.-Life:Son of Owen Manning of Orlingbury, Northamptonshire, he was born there on 11 August 1721, and received his education at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1740, M.A. in 1744, and B.D. in...
, History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, with a facsimile Copy of Domesday, Engraved on Thirteen Plates, 3 vols., London, 1804,9,14, vol.1, p. 136 et.seq.
External links
- Hathernware Ceramics Ltd, 1980s terracotta restorer
- youtube: Getty at Sutton Place Getty at Sutton Place endorses financial institution E.F. Hutton.
- Weston estate papers, 1382-1852, part 1 of 2, Surrey Archives, G65
- Weston estate papers, 1382-1852, part 2 of 2, Surrey Archives, G65
- English Heritage Grade I listing text, Sutton Place
- English Heritage Grade I listing text, Sutton Place, Entrance Lodges