SIR JOHN CHESTER 4TH BART. CHAPTER XIX. Sir Joltn Chester, tlte 4tl, Baronet, 1666-1726. II. His second wife Dame Frances CIlester, 1672-1752. III. !lis eleven cltildrenby his first wife A nne Wollaston. Sm JOIrn CrrEsTER, the eldest surviving SOil of Sir Anthony Chester III. and Mary Cranmer his wife, was 31 years old and the fatl1er of eight chHdnm when he succeeded his father as the fourth Baronet on 15th Feb. 1BU7-8. The eighth child and second son of his parents, he was born at Chicheley Hall at six A.:lJ. on Sunday, 24th June 1666; and was baptized at Chicheley on 6th July following. (I) He figures as a blue-eyed, fair-haired boy of 12 or 13, with his brother Anthony, in a picture at Chicheley which has been already de­ scribed in my 16th chapter.- The only incident of his boyhood which I have discovered is, that he was staying at Bergham Hall in Cambridgeshire with his mother and his sisters Mary and Diana on 29th June 1681, when his uncle Millicent signed in their presence the Willt which so emphatically forbids his son to marry his cousin Alice Fisher. John was little more than 19 years old when he became the heir to the baronetcy by the death of his eldest brother Anthony, and he was still under age when he married at Shenton in Leicestershire, on 2d Nov. 1686, Anne Wollaston, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of William 'Vollaston Esq. of Shenton Hall. (2) She was five years older than her husband, for she was baptized at Shenton on 13th 1\1ay 1661 ; but she had a marriage portion of 10,000/., and was the heiress expectant of a moiety of her father's great es­ tates in Leicestershire, Staffordshire, and Suffolk. She was distantly related to the Chesters through her mother, who was the only child of Lady ViIliers of Brooksby t See pap 166. Digitized by Coogle 526 THE CHESTERS OF CHICHELEY. in Leicestershire, by her second husband, Captain Francis· Cave of Ingarsby, and was nearly related to many personagest of distinction. (3) From the time of his marriage J oh11 Chester lived at Shenton Hall with his wife's parents, and all his children were born there. He fully expected that his wife would inherit Shenton, for her father . had his estates at his absolute disposal, and after the death of his only son Francis Wollaston (who died on 20th Nov. 1684 at the age of 17) (4) his two daughters were his natural heirs. But the old Squire considered that his elder daughter was suf- aKS 01' CAVE. ficiently provided for by the 10,0001. which she had received on her marriage, and by the reversion of a small estate at Merevale on the borders of Warwickshire which he left to her after the death of her mother; and when he died on 19th August 1688 he devised the bulk of his estates to a younger son of a cousin, who was neither bis male heir nor his next of kin. The fortunate devisee, William W oUaston, was afterwards known in literature as the author of the Religion oj Nature Delineated, and was the lineal ancestor of the present owner of Shenton. The Manor of Shenton was devised to Mrs. W oUaston the widow for her life, and as she survived her husband nearly 30 years, the occupation of the Hall was not affected by the alienation of the estate, and the Chesters continued to reside there. Sir John came into possession of his family estates in Feb. 1697-8, but he was in no hurry to live in a house of his own, and 16 years elapsed before he removed from Shenton to Chicheley. This did not arise from any want of affec­ tion to his native place, for he devoted his whole energies and fortune for several years after his succession to the task of rebuilding Chicheley Hall. The old manor-house, built by Anthony Cave in 1550, had long ceased to satisfy the requirements and taste of his descendants, and had suffered so much damage in the Civil Wars that it stood in constant need of costly repairs. Sir John therefore pulled it down immediately after his father's death, and proceeded to build a new mansion on higher ground to the north of the old site. Chicheley Hall was rebuilt without regard to expense, and is a favourable specimen of the debased style of classical architecture which found favour in England at the beginning of the 17th century. It is a huge square mass of red brick with stone facings and a flat roof, and has nothi,lg imposing about it except its size. The effect of the mass is not frittered away by a balustrade and statues on • Bee page 82. and pedigree at p. 51. • t Three of Mrs. Wollaston's balf-sisters were peeresses: viz. Anne Visconntesl Beaumont, Mart Conntess of Feversham, and Catharine Connte•• of Pembroke. Digitized by Coogle SIR JOHN CHESTER 4TH BART. 527 the roof, which so often disfigure mansions of this period; but the merit of this simplicity is dne, not to the architect, but to his employer, for the original plans show these hideous accessories in tasteless profusion. The interior is sufficiently commonplace and comfortable. The principal features are a large and well-lighted hall, with a spacious staircase leading to a library· at the top of the house. This room has the walls lined with oak wainscot in large panels divided by fluted pilasters, which open with a curious chisel-shaped key, and disclose bookshelves concealed behind the panels, and two tiers of drawers beneath. The fashion of building a library so that nQ books are visible was a capriccio of Italian architects, who cared more for art than for literature. It is one of the 'splendid faults' of the Vatican Library that its noble hall is adorned with frescoes, marbles, pictnre~, and everything except books, which are all completely hidden out of sight in cabinets of painted wood between marble columns. The doors of the book-presses are exqui­ sitely painted with arabesques from the designs of Raphael, but no one admires them without an instinctive feeling that they are out of place, and that books are the natural ornament of a library. The materials of the old house were freely used in the construction of the new building, and some few fragments are still. easily recognised. The ancient oak wainscot in one of the upper rooms was evidently brought from a room of lower pitch, and when the accumulated coats of white paint were scraped off in 1872, a Latin inscription punning on the name of Cave was brought to light on a beam over the fireplace. (6) The letters were originally gilt: CAVE NE DEUH OFFEND.\S. CAVE NB PROXIHUH L.lEDAS. CAVIi NE :J:UA NEGLIGBN:J:IA I'AHILIAH DESERAS 1550. The massive wooden chimneypiece in the butler's pantry is of somewhat later date, for the shield in the centre has the Arms of Ohester and Cave qnarterly car,'ed out of the solid oak in bold relief, and the panel on each side has the figure of a soldier with his sword and halbert painted in oils. There is also an old oak staircase from the basement to the roof, which probably came from the old house. The upper flight is curiously divided in the middle, for the half-steps on each side of the division are unequal in height, showing that they originally led to rooms of' different level on the same story. (6) Sir John's alterations were not confined to the house, for the pleasure grounds and park were completely transformed by a landscape gardener. An ornamental lake (locally known as the canal) was dug in the park in 1699, and a boat-house with stone steps to the water's edge were added in the next year. A new garden was laid out and enclosed with walls. New approaches were made with avenues • The same arrangement is found at Stanford Court, the Beat of the Winningtons in Worcelterahire, where the old llbral'1 is a large room at the top of the house under the roof, panelled ~upeut with dark oak. (5) Digitiz~d by Coogle 528 THE CHESTERS OF CHICHELEY. of elm, and thousands of trees were planted at different points of view for shelter· and onlament. I have no means of tracing the progress of the works in detail, but I gather from the contemporary list of trees planted on the estate between 1698 and 1717, that the fabric was completed in 1701, and that the Dowager Lady Chester was living in the new house in 1703. (7) The cost of all these operations was enormous, and it has always been believed in the family that Sir John might have purchased fur less money the great house at Gayhurst with the Manors of Gayhurst and Stoke Goldington, which were then for sale, and were sold in 1704 for 27,0001. to the son of Sir Nathan 'Vrighte the Lord Keeper. (8) Gayhurst Hall was the seat of the Digby family, and is historically interesting as the place where the Gunpowder Plot was discussed, if not concocted. This fine old mansion with its picturesque gables anr,l mullioned windows is preferred by modern taste to Chicheley lIall; but the rooms are low-pitched, and ill the eyes of Sir J olm and his contemporaries Elizabethan gothic was barbarous and old-fashioned, which no man of refinement would put up with who could afford to indulge his taste.