With the identification in 2005 of the younger Sir Henry Neville as a candidate for the authorship of the Shakespearean plays and sonnets, it is conceivable that some of those works might have been composed at Billingbear. It has been noted that the play The Merry Wives of Windsor displays a knowledge of local towns, a Windsor inn, and a local tale called Herne the Hunter.[2]
When the house was visited by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Lorenzo Magalotti in 1669, their host was Colonel John Neville.[3] A member of the duke's retinue painted a view of the house during the two-day stay,[4] which is one of various images to be found in an illustrated manuscript in the Laurentian Library, Florence. An English translation of this manuscript was published in London in 1821; Indian ink copies of the original 17th-century paintings, by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, were reproduced as scaled-down engravings for inclusion in this publication.[5]
The house stood until 1924, when it was destroyed by fire, and the shell then torn down. The surviving architectural features were used to restore the dilapidated Bulmershe Court, also in Berkshire, in 1925.[4][6] One room of Billingbear House was transported to the United States in the early 20th century and survives today at Pace College in Manhattan, near the New York City Hall. It is reputedly haunted.[7]
↑ Count L. Magalotti, Travels of Cosmo the Third, Grand Duke of Tuscany, through England during the Reign of King Charles the Second 1669, (J.Mawman, London, 1821), p.277.
The Palace of Beaulieu or Newhall is a former royal palace in Boreham, Essex, England, north-east of Chelmsford. The surviving part is a Grade I listed building. The property is currently occupied by New Hall School.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a unitary authority area with royal borough status in Berkshire, England. The borough is named after its two largest towns of Maidenhead and Windsor. The borough also includes the towns of Ascot and Eton, plus numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. It is home to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Legoland Windsor and Ascot Racecourse. It is one of only four boroughs in England entitled to be prefixed royal, and the only one of them which is not a London borough.
Royal Lodge is a Grade II listed house in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, half a mile north of Cumberland Lodge and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) south of Windsor Castle. The site of homes since the 17th century, the present structure dates from the 19th century, and was expanded in the 1930s for the then Duke of York, the future king George VI. Its central section consists of three storeys, with two-storey wings, totalling about 30 rooms, including seven bedrooms. The Royal Chapel of All Saints was built on the grounds in the 1820s.
Sir Henry Neville was an English courtier, politician and diplomat, noted for his role as ambassador to France and his unsuccessful attempts to negotiate between James I of England and the Houses of Parliament. In 2005, Neville was put forward as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Waltham St Lawrence is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire.
The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'.
Henry Neville (1620–1694) was an English politician, author and satirist, best remembered for his tale of shipwreck and dystopia, The Isle of Pines published in 1668.
Sir Henry Neville of Billingbear House, Berkshire, was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII.
Billingbear is a hamlet in the civil parish of Binfield and a former country estate in the civil parish of Waltham St Lawrence, near Bracknell, in the English county of Berkshire.
Sir Coplestone Bampfylde, 2nd Bt., DL, JP of Poltimore and North Molton and Warleigh, Tamerton Foliot, in Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1689.
Richard Neville DL served in the English Civil War as a Royalist. He came to prominence as commander at the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 when he commanded the Royalist troops.
Lorenzo Magalotti was an Italian philosopher, author, diplomat and poet.
Sir Jeffry Wyatville was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville. He is mainly remembered for making alterations and extensions to Chatsworth House and Windsor Castle.
Sir John Rolle, KB, of Stevenstone, Devon, was an English landowner, Sheriff of Devon in 1682 and MP for Barnstaple (1660) and for Devon (1661–1679). The Travel Journal of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1642-1723) states of him: "This gentleman is one of the richest in the country, having an estate of six thousand pounds sterling per annum, besides a considerable property in ready money".
John Sparke of The Friary, in the parish of St Jude, Plymouth, Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.
John Sparke of the Friary, in the parish of St Jude, Plymouth, Devon, was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1677 to 1680.
Sir Bernard Gascoigne, April/May 1614 to 10 January 1687, was an Italian mercenary from Florence in Tuscany, who served with the Royalist army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Captured at Colchester in August 1648, he was initially condemned to death but released, since Parliament wished to avoid antagonising a foreign power. After the 1660 Stuart Restoration, he held a number of minor diplomatic roles and died in London on 10 January 1687.
Elizabeth Bacon was an English aristocrat. She is presumed to have been the Lady Neville of My Ladye Nevells Booke, an important manuscript of keyboard music by William Byrd, which was compiled in 1591. She was the daughter of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Nicholas Bacon, by his first wife, Jane Ferneley. She was, successively, the wife of Sir Robert D'Oylie, the courtier Sir Henry Neville, and the judge Sir William Peryam.
Richard Griffin, 2nd Baron Braybrooke was an English politician and peer. He was known as Richard Aldworth-Neville or Richard Aldworth Griffin-Neville until 1797.
Sir Robert Basset, lord of the manor of Umberleigh and lord of the manor of Heanton Punchardon in Devon, England, was MP for Plymouth in 1593.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
