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.

    49/240 (page 37)
    DUKE OF BEAUFORT. daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford, who sold it in 1682, to the Marquis of Worcester, created Duke of Beaufort, and who died in 1699. The name of the house was now changed to Beaufort House. Mr. Evelyn, in his Diary, makes frequent mention of it;— “I went with my Lady Sunderland to Chelsey (1679), and dined with the Countess of Bristol (her mother) in the great house, formerly the Duke of Buckingham’s, a spacious and excellent place for the extent of ground and situation, in a good air. The house is large, but ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol expended much money upon it. There were divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of Bassans, very excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a Butcher in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss, and of Van Dyck, my Lord of Bristol’s picture, with the Earl of Bedford’s at length. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange trees, of which she was pleased to bestow some upon me.” Again, in 1683, Mr. Evelyn says, “I went to see what had been done by the Duke of Beaufort on his house at Chelsey ; he had made great alterations, but might have made a better house with the materials and the cost he had been at.” Henry, second Duke of Beaufort, by his will, dated in 1712, left all his estates, in trust, to be sold, and the produce appro- priated according to a settlement made at his marriage. The house, however, continued to be the residence of that noble family till about the year 1720. Mary, relict of the first duke, died here in 1714, at the good old age of 85 years. It may here be observed that Chelsea, not only in former- times, but at the present period, 1869, is admitted to be generally a very healthy parish. This assertion is proved by the weekly reports given to the Vestry by Dr. Barclay, the medical officer of health, and which is confirmed by other gentlemen of the medical profession. The reports read at the meetings of the Chelsea Board of Guardians, also, shew that a great many of the inmates of the workhouse live to a very advanced age; and from peculiar facilities I possessed, many years ago, I can positively assert that the number of aged persons, who had for a long period been residents, was greater than in most of the other suburban parishes. Sir Hans Sloane, after the mansion had stood empty for several years, purchased it in 1736, for the sum of ;^2,5oo at a