account of the estate history
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After the victory at Hastings in 1066 William Fitz-Ansculf was
given use of the estate by King William I. In the Domesday
Book of 1086 he is listed as holding the Manor (one of
his many estates) as tenant “in capita” (direct from the
Crown). Prior to this it was owned by Siret, the vassal
(servant) of the Saxon King Harold.
Ansculf ’s descendents called themselves de Stoke and
later they purchased the estate from the Crown. In c1120
Hugh de Stoke is registered as owner of the estate and
following Richard de Stokes death in 1262 Humbert de
Poges (Pugeys) became guardian of his daughter, Amicia.
Humbert’s son, Sir Robert, a knight of the county for
Edward I, married Amicia in 1291. Their marriage also gave
the village its current name, Stoke Poges. The Manor had
been called “Stoke Ditton” until 1322 and appears as such in
the Domesday Book.
It was their granddaughter, Gille (the last de Poges) who
married the Treasurer to King Edward III, Sir John de Molines,
in 1331.
Robert, Lord Hungerford (commonly called Lord Moleyns)
inherited Stoke Park by reason of marriage to the fifteen
year old Alianore, daughter of William, Lord Moleyns.
Like his father in law he was a man of action and fought for
the last Lancastrian King, Henry VI during the final
campaigns of the Hundred Years War. In 1453 he was
captured by the French at Castillon but was released seven
years later after £3,000 was paid in ransom. On his return
to England he fought in the Wars of the Roses with the
Lancastrians who were defeated at Towton Fields in 1461.
He was beheaded in 1464 when the Yorkists, led by Edward
IV, defeated Henry VI at Hexham. Robert’s body is buried in
the north aisle of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury.
Robert’s son, Thomas, was also beheaded in the Tower of
London in 1469, on the orders of Edward IV. His daughter
Mary married Sir Edward Hastings.
Edward IV took his retribution and the Stoke Park Estate which
had continued by descent since 1086 was fortified to the Crown
to become parcel of the honour of Windsor.
The Hungerford FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1441 to 1485
The Stoke & Poges FamiliesOwners of Stoke Park from 1066 to 1331
Henry, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon K.G.
The Hastings FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1485 to 1581
The Hastings, like the Hungerfords, supported the House of Lancaster and they shared the same
fate when Sir Edward Hastings’ father was murdered in 1484 by the command of the Yorkist King
Richard III; all his lands were forfeit to the Crown. However, King Henry VII, after overthrowing
Richard at Bosworth in 1485, restored to Edward all his family’s lands and also the lands of Sir Thomas
Hungerford, Knt., his wife Mary’s father. Those lands included Stoke Park.
Sir Edward and Mary had one son, George, who inherited Stoke Park in 1506, and one daughter, Anne.
George was a faithful servant of Henry VIII. He took part in the expedition to France made by the King
in 1513 at which time Terouenne and Tournai were restored to the English Crown. George advanced
to the Title of 1st Earl of Huntingdon in 1529 and was one of the Peers who subscribed the letter to
Pope Clement VII, intimating to him, that if he did not comply with King Henry in the business of the
divorce between the King and Catherine of Spain, he must expect that they would shake off his
supremacy. George was also one of the 26 peers whose judgement condemned Anne Boleyn to the
block in 1536. George married Anne, daughter of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, and they had five
children, Francis (who succeeded him to his honours), Edward, Thomas, Henry and William. On his
death in 1543 he was buried in the chancel of St. Giles Church.
Francis Hastings 2nd Earl of Huntingdon became General and Commander in Chief of the King’s Army
in 1549. After retiring from the Army he spent a considerable time improving the Stoke Park estate. He
rebuilt the Stoke Park Manor House in l555. He also built a chapel adjoining St. Giles Church, where
his mother and father lay buried with images of them in stone. He placed a vault in the Chapel for his
brother, William, and when he died in 1560 he was buried there with a plate of copper representing his
image, in harness, with the garter and a memorial in writing to him in his arms. Francis left the estate
to his son Henry.
Henry Hastings, the 3rd Earl, fell upon hard times and had to sell the property in l58l to the Crown. He
was the last person to inherit Stoke Park in a line of descent that had continued for 515 years when his
ancestors had forced the Saxon Prince Siret from his land in 1066.
The de Molines FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1331 to 1441
In 1331 Stoke Park was inherited by the wealthy nobleman Sir John de Molines through his wife Gille
de Molines. In the same year he obtained a royal licence to fortify the Manor House, and enclose
three woods. He also rebuilt St. Giles church creating a boundary around the estate.
Sir John combined the imposing duties of Marshal of the King’s Falcons, Supervisor of the Queens
Castles and Treasurer to the eighteen year old King Edward III (1312 - 1377) who had ascended the
throne in 1327. As treasurer Sir John had financed the King’s attempt to claim the French throne which
resulted in the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1338. This claim was not formally withdrawn
until 1802.
Stunning victories at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) led by the King’s eldest son, Edward (1330 -
1376), known to history as the “Black Prince”, gave way to uneasy peace in 1360. The peace had been
partly forced by the outbreak of the plague in 1348 which lasted for two years and killed half of the
population of England.
After failing to raise the required money (£100,000) from Antwerp moneylenders for the King’s seige of
Tournai in 1340, Sir John was charged with failing the King in his extremity and was thrown into the
Tower of London. His lands and goods were seized until his release in 1345. He was arrested again in
1355 and imprisoned at Nottingham Castle where he later died. In 1359 John’s son, William, obtained
his father’s lands under a settlement upon him for life, from the King.
Sir John’s great grandson, William, was raised to the peerage. Lord William’s son, also called William,
was killed in 1429 fighting for Edward III’s Lancastrian great-grandson Henry V in the Hundred Years
War (which was partly instigated by his ancestor Sir John) defending a bridge during the siege of
Orleans. He was the last of the male de Molines and so the estate passed to William’s son-in-law Robert,
Lord Hungerford.
Both Sir John and Lord William’s tombs are at St. Giles Church, Stoke Poges.
Stoke ParkThe estate’s owners from c1040 to 1581
The Manor House at Stoke Park, built by the 2nd Earl of Huntingdon in 1555. St. Giles’ Church is also shown.
One third of the Manor can still be seen today. The Church also survives but without its spire which was destroyed in the 1920’s.
John Penn (1760 - 1834), a poet, a scholar and prolific patron of
architecture was responsible for most of what can be seen at Stoke Park
today including the Mansion, the monuments to Sir Edward Coke
(1800), Thomas Gray (1799) and the Repton bridge (1798).
Thomas Penn, the son of the founder of Pennsylvania (William Penn), had
purchased the estate in 1760 and virtually governed his lands in America
from Stoke Park for the next 15 years. John inherited the estate in l775.
Having spent a considerable time away from Stoke in Geneva and America,
John returned to Stoke Park in l789 with £130,000 from the new
Commonwealth in compensation for the family’s twenty-one million acres
in Pennsylvania (less than 10% of what he claimed it was worth). A pension
of £4,000 a year was also granted by the British Parliament to compensate
for the inadequacy of the initial payment.
John decided that the old Manor House, built in 1555, was too dilapidated
for repairs to be made and decided instead to build a new house in a
prime spot on rising ground in the centre of the parkland, with good views
of the surrounding countryside including Windsor Castle. He loved Stoke
Park for its strong historical and literary associations, consequently one
wing of the old Manor House was left intact for its association with
Thomas Gray, the poet, and Sir Edward Coke.
The new Mansion was begun in l789 but many alterations and additions
were made before its completion by James Wyatt in l8l3. Penn also
commissioned a new landscape to replace the existing ‘Capability’ Brown
layout of 1750 which had been designed for the Manor House. Humphry
Repton was selected and he created a new plan in 1792.
Repton and Wyatt were only part of the “Committee of Taste” John created
which included Joseph Farrington (Painter), Nathanial Richmond
(Landscape Artist) and William Mason (Landscaper). With the help of these
men he constantly reassessed the success of the house and the landscape.
His judgements were based on his obsession with seeing forms in their
scenic context and this led to the landscape, house and monuments all
being adjusted according to the view they presented.
John was a remarkable man in many ways. He was High Sheriff of
Buckinghamshire in 1798, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and from 1802
MP for Helston, in Cornwall. He was also an author of some repute.
One of his books, an ‘Historical Account of Stoke Park’ was published in
l8l3. Penn, although unmarried himself, also felt perfectly competent to
tackle the problems of those who were, and in l8l7 founded a “matrimonial
society”, which had as its object the improvement of domestic life for
the married.
In l834 John died at Stoke Park and was succeeded by his brother, Granville
Penn. Granville died at Stoke Park in l844. The Penn fortune died with him
and his difficulties were illustrated by his doctor who put his cause of death
down to “trouble”. His son Granville John Penn could not afford to live at
Stoke Park and so he moved to Stoke Court and let the estate for four years
before selling it to Henry Labouchere in 1848.
James Wyatt (1746 - 1813), son of a Midlands builder, was
architect to George III and the most celebrated English
architect of his day. His maxim was that it was the artist’s
role to create and not to simply copy, even when dealing
with the order of the ancients and he demonstrated this at
Stoke Park.
Although the commission was large John Penn had used the
virtually unknown Robert Nasmith (a pupil of Adam) for the
original rectangular house in 1789. It was covered in within
a year but due to bad design it cost £10,000 more than it
should have. Wyatt liked a problem and presented himself as
a man who could handle practical difficulties. He was
commissioned and although the exterior limits of the main
block were fixed by Nasmith’s work Wyatt had a free hand
and the house soon became unrecognisable to those who
had seen the first structure. The sequence of its growth is
illustrated here.
His patron’s obsession with the views it presented and
offered led to a mansion that was more dramatic than great,
in palatial style rather than domestic tradition. The South
Colonnade (built in 1801) was based on the Greek Doric
type of architecture. This order was continued to the East
and West Front by 1813.
By 1798 discussions started about the monuments to be
erected and Wyatt had to create a full scale model of one of
them, the Gray’s Monument, before an instruction to
proceed was given by John Penn.
Humphry Repton (1752 - 1818) was the last of the three
outstanding designers who dominated the English
Landscape Movement from about 1720 to 1820. Of the
designs by Repton’s predecessors, William Kent and Lancelot
‘Capability’ Brown, few plans and drawings survive; but Repton
used his skill as an artist to prepare his now famous ‘Red Books’.
Humphry Repton was born in 1752 at Bury St. Edmund's and moved
to Norwich during his childhood. His father set him up in a textile
business, but he was not temperamentally suited to it and in 1778
he left.
After trying various careers and moving to Essex he finally settled to
the profession of landscape gardener in about 1789. ‘Capability’
Brown had died in 1783 and Repton regarded himself, and was
regarded by others, as his successor. Much of his early work was in
Norfolk, and his second commission was at Holkham in1789 for the
Coke family, who had owned Stoke Park from 1598 to 1644.
When he was consulted he explained and illustrated his proposals
in beautifully finished little volumes bound in leather and these
became known as the ‘Red Books’. Altogether about 400 of them
were produced. The one for Stoke Park survives (although it is not
at the Mansion) and it shows that his initial designs in 1792 were
constantly reworked during that decade. The only features of
‘Capability’ Brown’s 1750 design to survive the Repton changes
were the two lakes and the cascade that can still be seen today.
1813 print of the view from the Gray’s monument to the Mansion, the St. Giles Church, the Coke Monument and the Manor House.
View of the South Front of Wyatt’s Mansion at Stoke Park by Edward Dayes c1795.
The Penn FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1760 to 1848
James WyattDesigner of the Mansion
Humphry ReptonRe-designer of the Landscape
John Penn.
Henry Labouchere (1798 - 1869), President of the
Board of Trade, Whig M.P. and later Lord Taunton
(l859) purchased the Stoke Park estate in l848. A
famous radical and supporter of the Reform Acts he was a
great rival of Gladstone, the Prime Minister of the time. He
once said “I don’t object to Gladstone always having the ace
of trumps up his sleeve, but merely to his belief that the
Almighty put it there”.
Further alterations were made to the Mansion and the
gardens during Taunton’s time to provide better rooms to
display his remarkable collection of art.
The west garden was enlarged and new paths were created in
1848 to better display Taunton’s collection of sculpture. The
balustrade around the house with its urns was also built by
Taunton in 1850.
Lord Taunton and his wife Mary were great collectors of neo-
classical sculpture and reliefs. Many of these works of art are
now in museums around the world following Lord Taunton’s
heirloom sale of l920.
Of his great collection none of the sculpture has remained at
Stoke Park although some reliefs have been retained in the
great hall. These were created by the Danish artist Bertell
Thorwaldsen (1770 - 1844). It was also during Taunton’s
occupancy of Stoke Park that Landseer, Queen Victoria’s
favourite artist, used to visit and paint pictures of the estate’s
famous deer herd.
Taunton sold the estate to the successful businessman
Edward Coleman in 1863.
Edwin Landseer (1802 - 1873)
was born in East London, the
son of John Landseer, the
engraver. He was an infant prodigy,
with nine of the drawings he created
at the age of 5, in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.
At the age of 12 he exhibited his first
animal studies at the Royal Academy.
A year later he entered the Royal
Academy School. Landseer was made
an Associate of the Royal Academy in
l826, became a Royal Academician in
l83l and was knighted in l850. He
was greatly admired by Queen
Victoria who acquired a large
collection of his paintings.
He was a master of painting dogs and
deer and once dissected a lion in
order to master its anatomy, as is
apparent from the magnificent lions
he sculpted in l858 for the foot of
Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square,
London.
Sir Edwin often visited Stoke Park
during Lord Taunton’s (Henry
Labouchere) and later Edward
Coleman's ownership and it was at
this time that part of the ground
floor of the house was beautifully
furnished as a studio. Sir Edwin
painted many pictures of the herd of
deer in the park including the
famous “Monarch of the Glen” and
“Running Deer”.
Sir EdwinLandseer
Visitor to Stoke Park
“The Monarch of the Glen” by Sir Edwin Landseer.
Lord TauntonOwner of Stoke Park from 1848 to 1863
Lord Taunton. Sir Edwin Landseer.
Following the death of Lord Purbeck (Sir John
Villiers), Stoke Park was sold to John Gayer in 1656
for £8,564. He died the following year and left the
estate to his brother Robert.
Robert was created one of the Knights Companions
of the Order of the Bath at the coronation of King
Charles in 1661. He married twice, had six sons and
a daughter with his second wife Mary Rich.
Sir Robert died in 1702 and was succeeded by his
eldest son, also called Robert, who sold the estate to
Edmund Halsey in 1724 for £12,000.
The Gayer FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1656 to 1724
William III.
Sir Richard Temple. Humphry Repton.
William III and Mary II
Visitors to Stoke Park
in 1701
William of Orange (1650 - 1702) was the
champion of the Protestant cause in
Europe. He was invited by Parliament to
replace his deeply unpopular Catholic
father in law, James II. In 1688 he
landed in Devon at the head of a large
army to start the “Glorious Revolution”.
James fled without a fight but despite a
warm welcome in London William
refused to take the throne by right of
conquest.
The importance of the “Glorious
Revolution” was that the monarchy
became constitutional and
Parliamentary; the struggles between
Crown and Parliament were over with
the idea that the King was divinely
ordained and set apart at an end.
William was not universally popular,
however, and Jacobite plots to restore
James continued throughout his reign.
Indeed his visit to Stoke Park was only a
little better than Charles I’s who had
been held at the Manor House for two
weeks in 1647 before being sent to
London to be tried and executed.
William was visiting Stoke Poges and
wished to see the Manor House. But Sir
Robert Gayer, the then owner, in spite
of his wife’s expostulations, refused to
let him in. Sir Robert had been made a
Knight of the Bath at the coronation of
Charles II and was a supporter of the
then exiled Stuarts.
Sir Robert is reputed to have said of
King William:
“He has got possession of another
man’s house already, and he shall never
enter mine”
Just what the King said on this occasion
is, perhaps happily, not recorded,
though we are told that he was forced to
go away without setting foot inside the
house.
William died a year later in a hunting
accident, when his horse put a foot in a
mole hole and threw him. This gave rise
to the Jacobite toast “to the little
gentlemen in black velvet.”
The Second Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers (1608 - 1656), was the brother of John Villiers, Viscount
Purbeck, to whom Stoke Park devolved following the death of his mother-in-law, Lady Coke in 1644.
The Duke owned some of the largest estates in England and it was he who had the original Buckingham Palace
built in London. In his “History of England”, T.B. Macaulay wrote “Buckingham was a sated man of pleasure
who had turned to ambition as a pastime”.
Sir John distinguished himself in the reigns of King James I and Charles I and although he survived the
upheavals of the Civil War his estates were forfeit and Charles I was held prisoner in the Manor House in 1647.
In l653 George, his brother, was even being mentioned as a possible bridegroom for Cromwell’s own teenage
daughter, Mary. It was seen as a gesture of reconciliation with the Royalists and would have allowed Villiers to
reclaim his estates but George would have none of it.
Although Sir John’s estates were restored to him years later his brother’s refusal of marriage rebounded on him.
Cromwell’s soldiers separated him from his bride, Mary Fairfax, daughter of the protector’s old comrade and
sometime commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and threw him into the Tower of London. Mary and her
mother visited Cromwell’s wife and daughter several times to plead for the newly-weds to be reunited but the
Cromwells were ill inclined to help those who had once scorned them.
Sir John (who changed his name from Villiers to Danvers) died in 1656 and the Manor was purchased by John
Gayer.
Stoke Park has been owned by Kings and it has also entertained them but the Stuart
King Charles I (1600 - 1649) was entertained in the worst of circumstances. In
January 1647, six months after Charles surrendered himself to the Scots, they
handed him over to the English parliament commissioners in return for £400,000 army
back pay. He was taken to London via York, staying at Stoke Park as a prisoner on the way.
Charles was a weak child but he grew up to be courageous and high minded. He told
Archbishop Laud in l623 that he could never be a lawyer because “I cannot defend the
bad, nor yield in a good cause”. Unfortunately he also had poor judgement, strong
prejudices and the tactlessness common to his family. Early in his reign, which began in
l625, Charles encountered difficulties with Parliament. He summoned and dissolved it
three times until 1629 when he governed by personal decree.
Without Parliament there was no money. He overcame this by selling monopolies and
unpopular measures such as the “ship money” demanded initially from ports and then
inland towns. However, he eventually had to yield to the inevitable and Parliament was
summoned again in l640.
In l642 Charles tried to arrest M.Ps in the Houses of Parliament. This incident marked the
end of any hope of compromise and later that year Charles’ standard was raised at
Nottingham. It has been estimated that the parts of the country controlled by Parliament
contained two thirds of the country’s population and three quarters of its wealth and
with the annihilation of the Royalist troops at the battle of Naseby by Oliver Cromwell’s
new model army in l645, the King’s defeat was inevitable.
Whitelock reports in August, l647 “Army quartered at Colnbrook and the King at Stoke”.
During the summer of l647 several places in Buckinghamshire received hurried visits by
the King while Cromwell was waiting for a response to his compromise settlement “the
Heads of Proposals”. In July he was at Windsor and Caversham, he then went to
Maidenhead to meet his children and was then traced through to Wooburn and Latimer
and lastly to Stoke where he remained a prisoner in the Manor House until the l4th
August, when he was removed to Hampton Court and was received as a prisoner in the
custody of his own subjects. After his escape in 1648, and the subsequent crushing of
new Royalist resistance, he was taken to London to be tried and was executed at the
Palace of Westminster in 1649. He was arraigned before a tribunal consisting of l35
judges, but he refused to plead. Sentence was passed, by sixty eight votes to sixty seven
and so by one vote Charles lost his head.
There is a Coat of Arms on one of the walls of a room in the existing wing of the Manor
House which is reputed to have been painted by Charles I during his imprisonment at
Stoke.
Sir John VilliersOwner of Stoke Park from 1644 to 1656
Charles IHeld prisoner at Stoke Park in 1647
Sir John Villiers.
This portrait of King Charles I’s children was owned by John Penn
(owner of Stoke Park from 1775 to 1834) and was on display in the Mansion until 1848.
The painting was re-purchased in 1997 and is once again on display in the Mansion.
King Charles I.
“
Sir Edward and Lady CokeOwners of Stoke Park from 1603 to 1644
In l800 John Penn erected a monument to honour Sir Edward. It is column of Roman Doric design.
The statue was created by the Italian sculptor Rossi. This photograph was taken in 1906.
Sir Edward Coke.
An Englishman’s home is his castle” is Sir Edward Coke’s (1551 - 1634)
most famous remark. Stoke Park was his castle. Coke
was a remarkable man, an eminent lawyer and
adroit politician who became the speaker of the House
of Commons, and later the first Lord Chief Justice of
England in 1613. After being suspended from that
post in 1616 he was made Sheriff of
Buckinghamshire.
In l598 Sir Edward leased the Stoke Park
estate from the Crown. In l60l Sir Edward
entertained Queen Elizabeth I at Stoke
presenting her with “jewels and other
gifts to the amount of twelve hundred
pounds”. It is documented in the list of
the Queen’s presentations that she gave
one of Coke’s children a piece of gold
plate on the occasion of their christening.
Upon Elizabeth’s death in l603 Sir Edward
purchased the estate freehold from the
Crown.
In l603 Coke prosecuted Sir Walter
Raleigh proving that he had “an English
face but a Spanish heart”. As a
consequence Raleigh spent l3 years in
the Tower of London.
In l605 Coke was knighted by King
James I and later in the year prosecuted
the gun powder plotters, a group of radical
Catholics, trying to kill the King and blow up
parliament, who had been caught with 20
barrels of gun powder under the Houses of
Parliament. Guy Fawkes and the three other plotters
were hung, drawn and quartered.
In February l609 Coke clashed with King James I over
the King’s belief that he had the divine right to interfere with the courts. Coke’s
argument was that the King should respect the common law. It
was Coke’s championing of the common law over the
King’s “divine” rights that earned him the title “Father of
Parliament”. Coke continued his struggle for
parliament over the King until his death in l634, even
being committed to the Tower of London for a brief
period in 1621.
Sir Edward married Lady Hatton whose
husband was the nephew of Sir Christopher
Hatton who had preceded him as tenant of
Stoke Park. Theirs was a turbulent
marriage. Although remarried to Sir
Edward she retained the surname of her
former husband. The story goes that she
only married him because she was with
child. On one occasion on a false report of
his death she set off to take possession of the
estate but on meeting his physician at
Colinbrook heard the mortifying news of his
recovery.
At one time Sir Edward locked up his wife
and daughter Frances until the latter
agreed to marry Sir John Villiers, whose
brother was the King’s favourite George
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Frances
succumbed and Sir John, later to become
Viscount Purbeck, came into possession of
Stoke Manor on the death of Lady Coke in l644.
Sir Edward died in 1634 leaving an estate of eleven
thousand pounds per annum. Sir John Villiers, his son
in law, once said of him that his sons “would spend his
estate faster than he got it”, to which Coke replied “they
cannot take more delight in the spending of it that I did
in the getting of it”.
Sir Edward’s coat of arms can be seen on the Coke monument and on the gates on either side of the Mansion.
After winning the Wars of the Roses Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, had
restored Stoke Park to the Hastings family as a reward for their loyalty to the
House of Lancaster. However the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon was forced to sell the
estate in 1581 to clear his debts. The Crown purchased it and the estate was let out to
two of Elizabeth’s favourites. First to Sir Christopher Hatton from 1581 to 1591 and then
to Sir Edward Coke from 1598.
Queen Elizabeth (1533 - 1603) was adept at selecting capable advisors and her two
tenants can be counted among their number. Others included Hawkins, Howard,
Walsingham, the Cecils, Leicester, Essex, Burleigh and the Gilberts.
With the help of these capable men she survived the many plots surrounding Mary
Queen of Scots. She also countered the threat from the French and the Spanish
culminating in the defeat of the Armada in l588.
England was in a sad state when she ascended to the throne in l558 at the age of only
23. The treasury was empty, Calais had been lost, the French king had one foot in
Edinburgh and the country was torn by religious differences.
However, Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor monarchs, was a remarkable woman; an
intelligent pragmatist and an outstanding stateswoman. She stabilised a divided England
and set it on course to become a leading world power leaving the country secure and
largely free from religious troubles.
It is noted in the Queen’s presentations for the year l600 that she presented a piece of
gold plate to one of Coke’s children on the occasion of her christening. During the mid-
l600’s the room in the Manor House in which Queen Elizabeth I slept contained her
portrait but this, together with pieces of furniture, was sold.
Elizabeth only visited Stoke Park once, in l601, when Sir Edward Coke indulged her love
of jewels and beautiful clothes by reputedly giving her one thousand two hundred
pounds worth of gems.
Sir Christopher Hatton (1540 - 1591) occupied Stoke Manor as a tenant of the
Crown Estates.
Sir Christopher, who with his “bushy beard and shoestrings green” was, the poet Gray
tells us, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and had far more effect on her maidenly
composure than any threat of Pope or Spaniard. He first gained favour with Elizabeth I
by his skill in dancing of which he was apparently desperately fond!
He became, amongst other positions, Vice-Chamberlain, Captain of the Guard and one
of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy-Council. Lastly he became Lord High Chancellor of England.
It was he who was sent to gain the consent of Mary Queen of Scots to submit, as a
subject, to trial. He was also a Knight of the Garter, the second from Stoke to figure in
the Queen of Scots episode.
Being also a great friend of the learned he was elected Chancellor of Oxford University.
He fell from the Queens favour, however, and died unmarried at the age of 5l in the year
l59l, and was buried in the upper part of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Elizabeth IOwner of Stoke Park from 1581 to 1603
Sir Christopher HattonTenant of Stoke Park from 1581 to 1591
Queen Elizabeth I.
Sir Christopher Hatton.
Edward Coleman (1834 - 1885) bought the estate in l863 from Lord
Taunton. He had been a broker on the Stock Exchange and owned a
coalmining business but retired around the same time that he
acquired Stoke Park, for which he paid £95,000.
Edward took a great interest in local politics and was a staunch
supporter of the Conservative Party. He was a magistrate for the County
of Buckinghamshire; his qualification dating from l870. He also
became High Sheriff of the County in l879.
He knew Disraeli well and it was the Prime Minister who
supported Coleman’s application for membership of the
Carlton Club. Edward was one of the guests who attended the
banquet given by the Houses of Commons and Lords for the
Earl of Beaconsfield (Disraeli) and the Marquis of Salisbury on their
return from the Congress in Berlin in l878, bringing “peace with
honour”.
At Stoke Park, Edward lived in princely style and spent a large income
with a lavish hand. He carried out extensive improvements to the
Mansion, installed miles of iron fencing and planted more than a
thousand young trees in the grounds. He also improved the farm
on the estate introducing the most modern equipment of the
day; bought more fallow deer and restocked the park with
red deer in 1865. It is reported that these improvements cost more
than £200,000.
In the Mansion house he accrued a vast collection of furniture, art, sculpture and
tapestries. Many of his pictures were painted by Edwin Landseer, a friend of
Coleman’s who had visited the estate for many years where a studio was
provided for him in the house.
Whilst resident at Stoke Park Edward had his own stall in St. Giles church
which he paid for to be lit by gas, a modern innovation of the day.
The local hunt met at Stoke Park and Edward and his wife, Gertrude
(pictured here), entertained lavishly inviting many distinguished
guests, including the Prince of Wales.
Edward owned the adjoining estate of Duffield where his parents
lived until their death. They are both buried in St. Giles church. He
also owned a house in Grosvenor Square.
Unfortunately, due to enormous losses on the Stock Exchange and a
depression in the coal trade, he went into bankruptcy and was forced
to sell Stoke Park. Disraeli lived at Hughenden Manor just outside
High Wycombe and when he heard Edward was seeking a buyer for
the estate he wrote “I learn with sincere sorrow that you are about to
cease to be a Buckinghamshire squire”.
In failing health, due to the anxiety over recent business and financial
worries, he then moved to the Isle of Wight where he died in 1885. Edward
and Gertrudc were not buried in the family tomb at St. Giles church.
Mrs. Coleman.
The Mansion from the North lake as it looked during Edward Coleman’s ownership. Note the flag flying from the top of the Observatory.
Edward John ColemanOwner of Stoke Park from 1863 to 1883
Edmund Halsey, M.P. for the London Borough of Southwark, bought the Manor from the Gayer
family in l724 for £l2,000. The Stoke Park Estate came into Lord Cobham’s possession (Sir Richard
Temple) on his marriage to Anne Halsey (Edmund’s daughter) in l729.
Sir Richard (1675 - 1749) was a member of the Temple-Grenville family whose was the most striking
example of the rise and fall of a dynasty in English history. From gentleman farmers they became Dukes
in only eight generations, only to fall in the ninth and be extinguished in the male line in the tenth.
Sir Richard was at the apex of the family fortunes. A General under the Duke of Marlborough and a Whig
politician, George I rewarded him with a Peerage in l7l4. Baron Cobham, after more successful
campaigns became Viscount Cobham in l7l8. With the help of Anne’s fortune he became the richest man
in England at the time of his death, having turned his principal estate, Stowe, just outside Buckingham
in North Bucks, into what has often been described as the greatest work of art in Europe. The political
power base he built was so formidable that four of his relatives went on to become Prime Minister
within fifty years.
After Sir Richard’s death in 1749, Lady Cobham returned to Stoke Park, her former home, until her
death. It was Anne who introduced Lancelot “Capability” Brown to Stoke Park when he left Stowe in
l750. John Penn in his history of l8l3 wrote “a plan for modernising Stoke was drawn by another genius,
the celebrated Brown”.
It was during Lady Cobham’s time at Stoke Park that she read Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”
which was shown to her by Gray’s friend, Horace Walpole. Having read the “Elegy” Lady Cobham
expressed a wish to meet Gray whose mother and aunt lived nearby at West End Cottage and this was
the start of Gray’s association with Stoke Park. Lady Cobham died in 1760 and her executors sold the
estate to the Penn family.
Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771) is one of England’s greatest
poets. He was born in l7l6 to Philip and Dorothy Gray.
Thomas was the fifth child of twelve and the only one
to survive infancy and his parents. He attended Eton College
in l727 and Cambridge University in 1734. In l739 he started
on the Grand Tour with his friend Horace Walpole, son of
the Whig Prime Minister.
In l74l Gray’s father died and his mother moved to live with
her sister, Mrs Rogers, at West End Farm (now Stoke Court)
in Stoke Poges. It was the village churchyard which inspired
him to write his “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”. It was
here that the “rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep, their
humble and obscure lives over; far from the madding
crowd’s ignoble strife. Their sober wishes never learn’d to
stray”. “Rather than scorning such folk, those who account
themselves great should recall that the paths of glory lead
but to the grave”. The “Elegy” was started in November l742,
but was not completed until June l750.
A copy of the “Elegy” was sent to Lady Cobham who lived in
the Manor House. She was impressed and expressed a wish
to meet Gray and this visit resulted in Gray’s writing “The
Long Story” describing the Manor House and its previous
owners. Between l747 and l757 numerous publications
were produced by Gray and at the end of l757 the office of
Poet Laureate was offered to Gray but he refused.
In l768 Gray was awarded a Professorship of Modern History
at Cambridge by the Duke of Grafton although he wrote to
Horace Walpole stating that “I shall be but a shrimp of an
author”. Gray died in l77l at the age of 54. His body was
taken to London and then to Stoke Poges churchyard and on
the 8th August, was interred in the same vault as his mother
and aunt. A memorial to Gray was erected in Poet’s Corner
in Westminster Abbey, London.
The landscaping genius of Lancelot “Capability” Brown
(1715 - 1783) is still renowned some 200 years after
his death. He was born in the small village of
Kirkharle in Northumberland. His father died when Lancelot
was four-years old leaving his mother with six children to
support.
At the age of sixteen he left school and started work
at Kirkharle Hall for Sir William Loraine. During
Lancelot’s seven years at Kirkharle Hall he learnt all
the basic practicalities of estate improvement from Sir
William.
Lancelot moved south from Northumberland in l739, it was
thought the climate would suit him better as he suffered
from asthma. Hence his concentration of landscaped estates
in the south such as Stowe, Stoke Park and Sutton House.
During the time that he was commissioned to landscape
Stowe he was recommended to many influential people
locally by its owner Sir Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham.
In l750, following the death of Viscount Cobham,
Viscountess Cobham returned to her family estate at Stoke
Park and commissioned Lancelot to landscape the grounds
of her new home.
The central part of Brown’s new landscape was two
serpentine lakes created from five quadrangle shaped ponds
with a cascade connecting the two. These are the main
features to have survived, the later landscape was designed
by Humphry Repton in the 1790’s.
By l764 Lancelot Brown’s reputation as Britain’s leading
landscape architect was confirmed when he was appointed
Master Gardener at Hampton Court and Gardener at St.
James’.
Thomas GrayRegular visitor to Stoke Park
Lancelot BrownDesigner of the landscape
Edmund Halsey & Lady TempleOwners of Stoke Park from 1724 to 1760
Thomas Gray.
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.
Sir Richard Temple (Lord Cobham) (in the bath chair) entertaining friends at Stowe.
Stoke Park was bought by Wilberforce Bryant (1837 -
1906) in l887 after it had been on the market for 4
years. He was the last owner to use the estate as a
private residence. Bryant spent thousands of pounds on
improvements to the house and the gardens. He created
many of the west garden features including the Sunken
Garden and planted many of the trees and shrubs that
can be seen today.
He was Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1902 and was also
the “Bryant” of the Bryant and May Match Company
which had a factory in nearby High Wycombe.
Wilberforce was the grandson of James Bryant, a starch
and polish-maker fromTiverton, Devon. His father,
William, set up in business with Francis May, a tea dealer
in l843 and they became provision merchants. It was in
l850 that the Company became agents to import matches
from Sweden under an agreement with a gentleman
named Carl Lundstrom. In time it was not possible to
import sufficient supplies of matches to satisfy demand
and therefore in 1861 Bryant and May opened their own
factory at Bow in London. Both Bryant and May were
Quakers.
Wilberforce, being the eldest of four sons, became the
Senior Partner at the age of 37, on the death of his father
in July l874. He increased the output of the factory by
installing new machinery and advertising. Having gained
export markets to America and Australia the company
expanded and took over numerous, smaller match-
making companies and eventually exported to many
other countries.
Wilberforce died in l906 at the age of 69, 32 years after
taking up the Directorship of the Fairfield Works at Bow.
After failing to sell the estate at auction, Mrs Bryant leased
the majority of the ground floor, the basement and the
grounds to the new Stoke Park Club in 1908 and
continued to live in the rest of the mansion as her private
residence.
The Sunken Garden created by Mr. Bryant in the 1880’s. Photographed in c1900.
Mr & Mrs Wilberforce BryantOwners of Stoke Park from 1887 to 1908
Wilberforce in the Winter Garden (now the Orangery).
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