Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/641

 KINGSTON HUNDRED

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��mentioned in 1 6th and 17th-century documents, in which case the present palace was most likely that which was known as the Dairy House. These two buildings are often mentioned together, first in the 1 6th century, when there were belonging to them two gardens or orchards, a barn, and a stable that had been a chapel. 34 The capital messuage was probably the one held by Henry Courtenay," Earl of Devon, afterwards Marquess of Exeter, 37 and then by his son Edward, 38 who apparently conveyed it to Sir Miles Partridge, a follower of the Duke of Somerset." Partridge was involved with Somerset in the charge of conspiring against Northumberland, and was exe- cuted in February I55I-2. 40 In the same year the capital messuage and the house adjacent called the Dairy House passed into the possession of Sir Henry Gate." Some six years later Elizabeth granted them to Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leices- ter," who apparently sold them to Thomas Gardiner, a goldsmith of London, who inhabited the house." Gardiner, who was one of four numerators of the receipt of the Exchequer, became heavily indebted to the Crown," and in 1575 he released the property to the queen," who then granted it to Thomas Hand- ford and Kenard Delaber, the sureties for Thomas Gardiner." At the begin- ning of the following century the houses were amongst the possessions of Sir Hugh Port- man," and passed at his death in 1604 to his brother and heir, John Portman." Sir Henry Portman, son of John, died seised of them in 1621-2," and was succeeded by his brother John, who, dying three years later under age, was succeeded by the third brother Hugh, then aged nineteen. 40 Hugh died in 1630 ; a funeral sermon on him is extant. His will was proved in 1632." It was probably a few years after this that the capital messuage and the Dairy House became separate estates, the capital messuage being acquired by Richard Bennet, who was dwelling there in 1645, at which date he was presented to Parliament as a delinquent." He was acquitted, however, and discharged from seques- tration in November 1647." In the following year he bought various lands in Kew from Robert Kerr, Earl of Ancram, who had purchased them from Sir William Portman in 1633."

Richard Bennet's daughter, Dorothy, inherited the Kew estate which she brought in marriage to Henry, Lord Capell of Tewkesbury. 64 In 1683 John Evelyn came to visit his friend Sir Henry Capell

��at Kew. At that time ths house had been repaired ; an artificial fountain played in a niche in the hall,

���PORTMAN.

df Hi azure.

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���CAPILL. Gules a lion between three croitlets ftchy or.

���BENNET. Gulei t bexant between three Jemi-lions argent.

��which was roofed with a kind of cupola. Neverthe- less Evelyn describes the room as melancholy, and suggests that it would be improved if painted freica. Capell had also contrived a cupola in the garden between two elms. This was made of poles 'which being covered by plashing the trees to them is very pretty.' M Lord Capell died without children in 1696 and his wife survived him twenty-five years, dying at Kew in 1721. Her husband's great-miece Lady Elizabeth Capell was her heir. She had married in 1717 Samuel Molyneux, the astronomer, Secretary to George II, then Prince of Wales, M.P. and Privy Councillor, who arranged a private observr.tory in the house at Kew, from which he and James Bradley made the observations that led to the discovery by the latter of the aberration of light. The sundial in the garden marks the site of the palace, and commemo- rates the observations made there."

Mr. Molyneux predeceased his wife by a couple of years in 1728. Shortly after her death Kew House was leased to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He also appears to have found the observatory a siurce of much interest, and during the winter of 17378 Dr. Desagulier read lectures on astromony every day to the household. His observatory was then de- scribed as a large room at the top of the house, where he had all his mathematical and mechanical instruments at one end and a Planetarian at the other. 58 After the death of the Prince of Wales, the dowager Princess Augusta continued to spend much of her time here, bringing up her children in great seclusion. The palace, which was also called Kew House, had been flamboyantly decorated by William Kent, who was much in fashion at that period. 1 * The drawing-room and ante-chamber of the common apartment on the ground floor were hungwith tapestry ; the cabinet was ornamented with ' panels of Japan," designed by Kent, who was also responsible for a blue and gilt wainscot in the gallery. The state rooms were on the first floor, and here the gallery was

��"Add. MS. 4705, fol. 114; Pat. <

Eliz. pt. iv, no. 17.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, ix, 479 ; xiii

(2), 801.

8 ' G.E.C. Peerage.

88 Terrier of land in Surrey. Add. MS. 4705 ; Pat. I Eliz. pt. iv, no. 17.

89 Diet. Nat. Sing. ; Pat. I Eliz. pt. iv, no. 17.

< Ibid.

Add. MSS. 4705, fol. 1 14.

n Pat. i Eliz. pt. iv, no. 17.

48 Ibid. 17 Eliz. pt. vi, no. 31.

44 Ibid.

44 Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 17 4 18 Eliz.

��" Pat. 17 Eliz. pt. vi, no. 31. 4 ? Of Orchard Portman in Somerset, not 'a Dutch merchant' as Bradley says.

48 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), cclxxxiii, 86.

49 Ibid, ccccvi, 67. " Ibid.

61 G.E.C. Baronetage.

" Cat. Com. for Comf. i, ion.

" Ibid.

64 Egerton Chart. 306.

55 G.E.C. Peerage.

M Evelyn, Diary (ed. Bray), 45 1. When Evelyn visited Capell on 18 Aug. 1678, he described the house at ' an old timber house.' It it difficult not to believe that

483

��the ' repairs ' must have meant consider- able rebuilding. The hall, with the fountain and cupola, was not part of a timber house. The house when Frederick, Prince of Wales, lived there was apparently of brick and stone.

' Diet. Nat. Biog.

M Hist. MSS. Com.Ref. xv, App. vi, 190.

59 It was probably rebuilt by him for the Prince of Wales. Sir William Cham- bers in Plans, Elevations, &c., at Ke t w t 1763, gives north and south elevations of the palace at Kew, designed and executed by the late Mr. Kent. They are ogljr enough to carry conviction.

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