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'The Marquess of Rockingham's House In Elspeth Veale, ‘The Marquess of Rockingham’s house in Wimbledon’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XIV, 2004, pp. 243–260 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2004 THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM’S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON ELSPETH VEALE he Wimbledon of the ’s was a small but known about it. For only a few years does the curtain Tgrowing village of some one thousand people, lift, the years between and when the its population assessed in at , , largely Marquess of Rockingham leased the house and left, concentrated in the centre of a big parish which among his many papers, detailed accounts relating to extended from the Beverley Brook on the west to the his years in Wimbledon. River Wandle on the east. It was overshadowed by its The house may have been built for Richard le more populous Thameside rivals, Putney ( , in Bas, a member of a Huguenot family from Caen who ) and Wandsworth ( , in ). The shops died in . It was bought at some date by Sir and homes of its chief villagers lay along Church Theodore Janssen, a fellow Huguenot and wealthy Road and the High Street from the Dog and Fox Inn London merchant, possibly with a view to living northwards. The larger properties of the gentry, over there himself. But at first he let it while he pursued of the households listed in , lay on the more ambitious plans which culminated in the south and west side of the Common, with smaller purchase of the manor of Wimbledon in . He recently-built cottages beyond (Fig. ). Further away followed this by planning and building a new house, lay a few scattered properties and a small settlement on fashionable Palladian lines, with a six-acre of about houses near the mills on the Wandle. garden, to replace the vast Elizabethan manor house. London merchants had long favoured This new house stood on the crest of the hill with a Wimbledon; it became more accessible in the view to the North Downs, facing what is now eighteenth century with the construction of Putney Highbury Road. Unfortunately his involvement in Bridge in –. The arrival of the Spencers as the South Sea Company crisis meant that he had to Lords of the Manor in , inheriting a mansion give up the lordship of the manor (bought then for newly built for the Duchess of Marlborough, made it the Duchess of Marlborough), but he was able to buy a socially acceptable centre, popular with merchants, back his new house, from c. to be known as politicians, lawyers and bankers. Belvedere. His daughter Henrietta, who held it until Nothing survives today as a reminder of what in her father’s death, first let it and then sold it in the mid eighteenth century was one of the more January , to the sitting tenant Mrs Martha Rush, important houses in Wimbledon. The mansion lay from a family of Suffolk gentry, whose son Samuel near the junction of the High Street and Church inherited it in . Road. With the outbuildings and grounds the Despite the detail with which Janssen listed his property occupied about acres (Fig. ). However, assets in he did not include the house on the house itself was demolished in the ’s and the Church Road. Not only did he retain it, but he grounds were incorporated with those of a neighbour, bought, from the Trustees responsible for the so it is scarcely surprising that very little has been settlement of the South Sea Company affairs, three THE GEORGIAN GROUP OURNAL VOLUME XIV THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM ’ S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON Fig. Wimbledon Parish based on the tithe map. Cyril Maidment. nearby fields of approximately six acres each and longer periods in his Wimbledon house, with his several small properties which lay along Church extensive library and beloved plantations, until his Road. Judging from furnishings such as crimson silk death at the age of in September . His sons curtains and matching upholstery chosen by him Abraham and William inherited in their turn but the and his wife for their other houses, noted in some house was probably then let. detail in –, large sums were spent on the interior The young and ambitious Sir Ellis Cunliffe, son decoration of the house and it may well have been and heir of a very wealthy Liverpool merchant and extended. We know that some of the additional land ship owner, found that the estate on Church Road, was used for outbuildings, stables and courtyard; the well placed in this attractive village, provided him garden and ‘plantations’ set out alongside the High with what he wanted. He had already secured the Street are clearly represented by John Rocque in his parliamentary seat for Liverpool which he held from Survey in . The house itself then lay at the heart to , was knighted in , received a of a -acre estate. While Janssen was able to buy baronetcy in , married well in and was, in back his London house in Hanover Square, he let it , in a position to bequeath £ , to his and maintained a smaller London house until at least daughter. To crown his progress as a country . As an elderly widower he may then have spent gentleman on April he bought the estate on THE GEORGIAN GROUP OURNAL VOLUME XIV THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM ’ S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON Fig. The twenty-acre Wimbledon estate rented by the Marquess of Rockingham - . Cyril Maidment . Church Road from William Janssen, having possibly with the mansion house and other buildings therein rented it first. Cunliffe proceeded immediately to ... and by additional buildings, furniture and improve the property in line with current fashion. otherwise have greatly improved the same.’ But sadly He asked Robert Adam to prepare designs for the he died, aged only , on October . Disputes drawing room ceiling, dated (Fig. ), and others, over the execution of his complicated will delayed dated , which became progressively simpler, for the sale of the estate until February . a wall mirror to be set above the chimney piece in The purchaser was Samuel Rush, already well that room (Fig. ). Adam also designed chimney settled at Belvedere , who seized the opportunity to pieces for the library. Cunliffe paid Lancelot extend his property from St Mary’s Road to the ‘Capability’ Brown, then busy on the landscaping of High Street, and from Church Road to what is now Earl Spencer’s park, £ for work on the grounds. Belvedere Drive. He was prepared to pay £, for Presumably Adam’s designs were implemented and the house, furnishings and grounds, in itself a others employed in and , and the house comment on Cunliffe’s improvements, when this lavishly equipped. When he added a codicil to his became possible in . He had presumably rented will on August he reported the purchase of it from the executors earlier, since by he had the Wimbledon estate ‘as well freehold as copy hold already built additional stables there, and had THE GEORGIAN GROUP OURNAL VOLUME XIV THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM ’ S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON Fig. Robert Adam, Ceiling for the Drawing Room at Sir Ellis Cunliffe’s House at Wimbledon, . Courtesy of the Trustees of Sir John Soane’s Museum. Fig. Robert Adam, Design of a glass frame for Sir Ellis Cunliffe, . Courtesy of the Trustees of Sir John Soane’s Museum. THE GEORGIAN GROUP OURNAL VOLUME XIV THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM ’ S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON Fig. Joseph Nollekens, nd Marquess of Rockingham , c. , Dalmeny Castle. By kind permission of the Earl of Rosebery. THE GEORGIAN GROUP OURNAL VOLUME XIV THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM ’ S HOUSE IN WIMBLEDON secured Earl Spencer’s assent as Lord of the Manor and elegant rooms still stands, although denuded of to his right to hold copyhold tenements on Church its treasures. Many of these the second Marquess Road, previously incorporated into the courtyard. himself had collected. His scientific interests led to He had also decided to let the estate; in June he membership of the Royal Society and to his had arranged to let the house furnished with the progressive management of the , -acre home grounds to Charles Watson-Wentworth, Second farm. Marquess of Rockingham, who held it as a country He also inherited the lease of No. Grosvenor retreat until he died there on July . It was Sir Square. This house proved an ideal base for William Beaumaris Rush, Samuel’s kinsman and heir meetings with his political friends, for attendance at who, inheriting the -acre estate in , preferred court and Parliament, and the social activities which to concentrate on improvements to Belvedere rather made up the season. But Rockingham and his wife, than to the house on Church Road, had the older like many others whose country estates were some house demolished and the grounds of the two estates distance from London, wanted also a more reorganised. A survey prepared for him after accessible country retreat. That Lord and Lady shows farm buildings where an important house had Rockingham with their wealth, many interests and once stood. The Belvedere estate was to survive fashionable tastes, chose a house in Wimbledon is a more or less intact until c. . comment both on the attractions of the village and its Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquess residents, and on the house itself. of Rockingham ( – ) (Fig. ) inherited his title On June Lord Rockingham wrote from and wealth from vast estates in Yorkshire, Coombe Neville, Kingston upon Thames, a Spencer Northamptonshire and Ireland at the age of , and property, where he and his wife had been staying for was soon to be supported by a competent wife, a few weeks, to his secretary Edmund Burke: herself a Yorkshire heiress.
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