Melbury House is an English country house in the parish of Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset. [1] The Grade I listed mansion is the home of the Honorable Mrs Charlotte Townshend, a major landowner in east Dorset, through her mother, Theresa Fox-Strangways (Viscountess Galway). [2]
Melbury House has been the seat of the Strangways family of Dorset since the estate was acquired in 1500 from William Browning (alias Bruning, etc.) by Sir Henry Strangways (c.1465–1504) who had married his widow. [3] [4] The mediaeval manor house of the Browning family was rebuilt after 1546 by Henry's great-grandson Sir Giles Strangways (1528–1562) [5] using ham stone from a quarry nine miles away. Though Sir Giles lived extravagantly and encumbered his considerable estate with debts at his premature death, at Melbury he built a conservative house, "a courtyard with no frills", as Mark Girouard described it, [6] "apart from the one gesture of its tower". This remarkable feature, a hexagonal tower, rises near the intersection of three ranges of buildings, filled above the level of adjoining roofbeams with banks of tall arched windows of many leaded panes that offer views in every direction over the rolling landscape of the park and the countryside beyond. Its roof has mock battlements.
It was altered and extended in 1692 by Thomas Strangways (1643–1713), under the direction of a certain "Watson", a local mason-builder who is probably to be identified with John Watson of Glashampton, Gloucestershire. [7] It was further modernized in the 19th century.
The house passed to the Fox family from the Strangways heiress Elizabeth Horner, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Horner (1688–1741), MP, of Mells Manor in Somerset, Sheriff of Somerset in 1711/12, [8] by his wife Susanna Strangways, eventual sole heiress of her brother Thomas Strangways (d.1726) and a daughter of Thomas Strangways (1643–1713), MP, of Melbury House. In accordance with the terms of his wife's inheritance from her childless brother in 1726, Thomas Horner adopted for himself and his descendants the surname and arms of Strangways. In 1735, at the age of 13, Elizabeth Horner married 31 year-old Stephen Fox (1704–1776) (later Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester), eldest surviving son of Sir Stephen Fox (1627–1716), the first Paymaster of the Forces, deemed the "richest commoner in the three kingdoms". In 1758 Stephen Fox also assumed the additional surname and arms of Strangways, in accordance with the terms of his wife's inheritance. In 1741 he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as Baron Ilchester of Ilchester in the County of Somerset and Baron Strangways of Woodford in the County of Dorset; In 1747 he was created Baron Ilchester and Stavordale of Redlynch, in the County of Somerset, and in 1756 he was even further honoured when he was made Earl of Ilchester . [9]
When Horace Walpole visited Melbury, he admired the paintings and tapestries in "apartments most richly and abundantly furnished". The pioneer of photography Henry Fox Talbot was born in the house. [10] Thomas Hardy made use of Melbury House, as "King's Hintock Court", for passing mentions in "The Duke's Reappearance" in A Changed Man and Other Tales and in A Group of Noble Dames, 1891. [11]
The house and its stable yard to the north are Grade I listed buildings. [12]
The landscaped gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [13]
Earl of Ilchester is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1756 for Stephen Fox, 1st Baron Ilchester, who had previously represented Shaftesbury in Parliament. He had already been created Baron Ilchester, of Ilchester in the County of Somerset in 1741, and Baron Ilchester and Stavordale, of Redlynch, in the County of Somerset, in 1747. These titles were also in the Peerage of Great Britain. All three peerages were created with remainder, failing heirs male of his own, to his younger brother Henry Fox, who was himself created Baron Holland in 1763. The brothers were the only sons from the second marriage of the politician Sir Stephen Fox.
Chiselborough is a village in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. It is situated on the River Parrett, 5 miles (8 km) west of Yeovil, and has a population of 275.
The office of High Sheriff of Somerset is an ancient shrievalty which has been in existence since the 11th century. Originally known as the "Sheriff of Somerset", the role was retitled on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972.
Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester PC was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
Henry Edward Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester PC, known as Henry Fox-Strangways until 1865, was a British peer and Liberal politician. He served as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms under William Ewart Gladstone between January and February 1874.
Nicholas Wadham (1531–1609) of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, Somerset, and Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon, was a posthumous co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford, with his wife Dorothy Wadham who, outliving him, saw the project through to completion in her late old age. He was Sheriff of Somerset in 1585.
Sir John Thynne was the steward to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and a member of parliament. He was the builder of Longleat House, and his descendants became Marquesses of Bath.
Redlynch is a village and former manor in the civil parish of Bruton, in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. The 18th-century church and a folly named The Towers are of architectural interest.
The Vice-Admiral of Dorset was responsible for the defence of the County of Dorset, England.
Sir John Strangways of Melbury House, Melbury Sampford, Somerset, and of Abbotsbury in Dorset, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1614 and 1666. He supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War.
George Horner of Mells Manor in Somerset, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1685 and 1689.
Sir Giles Strangways, of Melbury House, Melbury Sampford, and of Abbotsbury, both in Dorset, was an English politician.
Sir Giles Strangways, of Melbury Sampford, Dorset, was five times MP for Dorset in 1553, 1554, 1555, 1558 and 1559.
Sir John Young, of The Great House, Bristol, of London and of Melbury Sampford, Dorset, was an English politician.
Edge,, is an ancient and historic house in the parish of Branscombe, Devon, England and is today known as Edge Barton Manor. The surviving house is grade II* listed and sits on the steep, south-facing side of a wooded valley, or combe. The building was not in origin a manor house, but was one of the first stone-built houses in "Branescombe", on a villein holding called La Regge. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in England, and is constructed from the local Beer stone.
The manor of Wadham in the parish of Knowstone in north Devon and the nearby manors of Chenudestane and Chenuestan are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086:
Thomas Strangways (1643–1713) of Melbury House in Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1673 and 1713. As a militia colonel he was active in opposing the Monmouth rebellion. For his last nine years in Parliament, he was the longest sitting member of the House of Commons.
Elizabeth Fox, Countess of Ilchester (c.1723–1792), née Elizabeth Horner, was the wife of Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester.
Thomas Strangways Horner, of Mells, Somerset and Melbury, Dorset, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1713 and 1741.
