Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan.

  • Bryan, George.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/240 (page 34)
    SIR ARTHUR GORGES, &C. Lady Dacre survived her husband but a few months, and bequeathed her house at Chelsea, with all its appurtenances, to the great Lord Burleigh, with remainder to his son Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, and Lord High Treasurer. “ I have seen,” says Lysons, among the records at the Rolls Chapel, a pardon of alienation to Sir Robert Cecil, dated June 21, 39th Elizabeth, for acquiring these premises of Thomas Lord Buckhurst. This distinguished nobleman, afterwards Earl of Dorset, was brother to Lady Dacre, and resided frequently with his sister at Chelsea, but it is not known whether he had any interest in the estate. The Earl of Salisbury is supposed to have rebuilt Sir Thomas More’s house, as the initials of his name were to be seen on the pipes and in several of the rooms. Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, bought the house of the Earl of Salisbury, and probably came immediately to reside in it, as there are some entries respecting his family in the Parish Register in the beginning of the year 1609. By his first wife, Lady C. Hastings, daughter of Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, he had two sons, Thomas, his successor in the title, and Edward ; and by his second wife, widow of W. Norris, Esq., he had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir .\rthur Gorges, and also two sons, Henry and Robert. The latter died in 1609, and was buried at Chelsea. Sir Arthur Gorges, on the death of Henry, Earl of Lincoln, became the possessor of the house, and he and Lady Elizabeth, his wife, in consideration of ;^43oo, sold it to Sir Lionel Cranfield, aftenvards created Earl of Middlese.x. It was de- scribed as the “ greatest house at Chelsea, with two fore great courts adjoining, environed with brick walls, also a wharf (landing-place for a pleasure boat, &c.) lying in front, having a high brick tower on the east and west ends, and a high water tower, standing upon the west corner of the wharf, and the watercourse belonging thereto. An orchard, a garden, having a peryment standing up in the middle, and a terrace on the north end thereof, with a banquetting liouse at the east end of the terrace, having a marble table in it. A great garden, dovecote close, containing five acres, the kitchen garden, brick- barne close, containing ten acres.” Lord Middlese.x held the mansion till 1625, when he sold it to Charles I., who, in 1627, granted the said house, &c., to the Duke of Buckingham.