Chapter 22 Milton Park and the Fitzwilliam Family
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Chapter 22 Milton Park and the Fitzwilliam Family Fig 22a. Milton Hall North Front. Early Family History In the 17th year of the reign of Henry VII in the year 1502, William Fitzwilliam of Gaynes Park Essex, purchased from Robert Whyttilbury for the sum of 1200 marks (£800) ‘The manors of Milton Marham with their appurtenances in Milton, Marham, Caster, Etton, Maxsey, Norborough and Depyngate….and the wharfage and the profits of the wharf and water of Gunwade’ (now known as Milton Ferry). The indenture or ‘deeds’ of the estate were handed over in the font of St Paul’s Cathedral London as a sign of honesty and good faith in the transaction. The Fitzwilliam family had long been established at Sprotborough in South Yorkshire until William Fitzwilliam (later the 1st Baronet) entered the City of London and made his fortune as a merchant and wool stapler. However he was also a courtier and became Treasurer and later High Chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey who subsequently made him a member of Henry VIII’s council (‘for his wisdom gravity, port and eloquence and being a gentleman of comely stature’…) At the end of his life in 1531, Wolsey spent Easter at Peterborough Abbey on his way to York. Notwithstanding his fall from favour with Henry VIII, Fitzwilliam invited his old friend and patron to stay at Milton along with his entourage who camped in the park near the main house. The story goes that when the king heard that Fitzwilliam had invited the disgraced Wolsey to stay, he was so angry that he ordered all the tops of the oak trees in the park to be cut off as a warning to the owner! Fig 22b. Sir William Fitzwilliam, 3rd Baronet. 227 Fig 22c. Milton Hall South Front. There is no doubt that a house existed at Milton before 1500 but the North front as we see it today is mainly late 16th century and the work of the third baronet. Sir William 3rd, a remarkable Elizabethan, was three times Lord Deputy of Ireland for Elizabeth I between 1560 and 1594 at which time ‘being in a very advanced age and worn out by the fatigues of the war and the state there, he by Her Majesty’s permission, returned to this kingdom and retired to his native place Milton where he died in 1599’. He is buried alongside his wife on the South side of the chancel in Marholm church opposite his grandfather who occupies the canopied tomb on the North side. In retirement Sir William 3rd was governor of Fotheringhay Castle and held this office at the time Mary Queen of Scots was incarcerated there. On the night before her execution, Mary gave the governor her seal and a portrait of her son James – later James I of England which still are at Milton to this day. At the beginning of the 17th century, Sir William 5th was created 1st Baron Fitzwilliam in the Irish peerage and in turn his grandson was made 1st Earl Fitzwilliam again in the Irish peerage in 1716. It was this member of the family who employed William Talman to design the stable block and clock tower situated at the East end of Milton. As an architect, Talman had been responsible for works at Drayton, Burghley and Chatsworth. He had been Comptroller of the Kings Works since 1689 but he also worked closely with Christopher Wren who had married Lord Fitzwilliam’s sister. It is thought that the reason Wren himself did not supervise the project at Milton is that he was too busy in London following the great fire of 1666. Bearing in mind that Wren was responsible for the design of nearly fifty City churches, not least of them a new St. Paul’s Cathedral, the construction of which began in 1675, this may well be true. The Eighteenth Century The exterior of Milton Hall comprises three distinct styles of architecture. The Tudor and the Wren styles have already been noted but in the mid-18th century the main house was ‘Georgianised’ both inside and out. This work was carried out largely by Henry Flitcroft. The 18th century alterations came about following the marriage of the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam to 2nd Marquess of Rockingham’s elder sister and heiress Lady Anne Watson-Wentworth. The union of the Rockingham and Fitzwilliam families was one of the most important milestones in the history of Milton. Thomas Watson-Wentworth, created 1st Marquess of Rockingham in 1746, inherited the Wentworth estate on the death of his father in 1723. When he died four years later in 1750 he was succeeded by his fifth and only surviving son Charles, 2nd Marquess, who was twice Prime Minister between 1765 and 1782. His political influence and wealth was enormous but alas, the Prime Minster had no children of his own so his heiress was his elder sister Anne who had married the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam of Milton. Anne, mother of William 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, died in 1769 and when Lord Rockingham died thirteen years later in 1782, William inherited estates in North and South Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and County Wicklow in Ireland. The additional net estate income is recorded as being over £30,000 per annum at the time of his inheritance. 228 Rockingham had engaged Henry Flitcroft to design the Palladian mansion of Wentworth Woodhouse so it is likely that this was the reason his brother in law (3rd Earl Fitzwilliam) chose the same architect for Milton even though differing schemes for Milton had been presented by James Gibbs (architect of the Radcliffe Library, Oxford and the Senate House, Cambridge) and M Brettingham (pupil of William Kent). Much to the displeasure of Flitcroft, Lord Fitzwilliam refused to allow the demolition of the existing Tudor North front, so the new Georgian work had to be joined to the older part of the house which explains the unusual mansard roof stitching the old to the new. The 3rd Earl died in 1756 at the early age of 38 and his son William became 4th Earl at the tender age of eight. Although most of the interior had been completed by the time of his father’s death, it fell to the 4th Earl to complete the design of the Long Gallery and the adjacent Peterborough Rooms some fifteen years later following his return to England from the Grand Tour of Europe with his tutor Dr. Thomas Crofts. He employed Sir William Chambers to carry out this work in 1770 and 1771 and Chambers completed his commission at Milton Fig 22d. William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl. by designing a temple which was given to the 4th Earl as a wedding present from his father-in-law Lord Bessborough. The temple stood on Temple Hill (close to the present Ferry Lodge site) until it became unsafe at the end of the 19th century and was taken down. A simplified version using the original pillars, bases and pediments saved carefully by the 10th Earl was rebuilt in 1986 in the woods at the West End of Milton Hall to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of Milton (Peterborough) Estates Company. The final phase of building work took place around 1800 when the 4th Earl instructed John Carr of York to convert a courtyard on the South side of the house into two libraries. As before with Henry Flitcroft, Carr had carried out major work at Wentworth, which is probably why he was chosen for the Milton scheme. During the 19th century the Earls Fitzwilliam centered their lives at Wentworth and on the death of Charles 5th Earl in 1857 the lands were split. As a result of this division, the Yorkshire estates passed to the eldest son William (6th Earl) while Milton was inherited by his younger brother The Hon George Fitzwilliam who, followed by his son, George Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam, continued to live in a more modest style. It is for this reason in all likelihood that Milton was never the subject of Victorian alterations and extensions. The park at Milton was laid out in the early 1790s following a scheme designed by Humphrey Repton who had already landscaped the park at Wentworth. At both places he wrote and illustrated his suggestions in a leather bound ‘Red Book’ with colour washed overlays to explain his ideas and proposals. The Milton book is dated 1791. In order to improve the appearance of the park he even moved the line of the main road – a task from which lesser men today might shrink. Fig 22e. Mr George Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. 229 The Twentieth Century The turn of the 20th century saw the end of Queen Victoria’s long reign in 1901. Generally for English country estates this was a fairly settled time for those who had survived the agricultural recession of the late nineteenth century. The upheaval, turmoil and tragedy of the Great War was still some years away after which English estate life would never be quite the same again. For places such as Milton, the Edwardian era leading up to 1914 has been romantically described as ‘a long summer day’. At Milton, George Fitzwilliam had taken up residence with his wife Evelyn and their children. George took a close personal interest in the running of the estate - the stables and kennels in particular. He supervised the ordering of fodder for the horses and the management in these areas. His knowledge of estate affairs Fig 22f. The Long Gallery in World War I. was such that later in his life in the early 1930s when his Agent, Mr H Wilmot, was taken ill and unable to continue in office, George was able to run the estate himself for the best part of the year until a replacement agent in the form of Mr E W Mackie could be found.