Chapter III: Part 3

The earliest description of the property which has been found is dated 30th May 1661,[190] where, evidently repeating the account given in the lease of 1636 (when it was let for 51 years as from 27th December, 1657) it is referred to as “all those severall messuages or tenements ... with their appurtenances, scituate, lying and being on the north side of ... Queene Street ... now or late in the several tenures of [here 13 names are given]; abutting upon a messuage or tenement now or late in the tenure ... of John Sparkes, his assigne or assignes, on the east, and on a messuage or tenement, now or late in the tenure of one Henry Seagood, his assigne or assignes, on the west part, and the said Queene Street on the south ...; all which said messuages ... conteyne in length from east to west 180 feet ... and in breadth from north to south 60 feet.” It is clear from the entries in the ratebooks that the original houses on the sites of Nos. 27 and 28 were pulled down between 1723 and 1734, a period which agrees perfectly with the evidence of the dates on the cisterns mentioned below.

The present houses have three floors in addition to a basement and an attic storey. The fronts are treated in brickwork. No. 27 contains an ornamental cast lead cistern (Plate 15) dated 1733, and in No. 26 is a cistern of somewhat similar design, bearing the initials B.B. and the date 1725. On the latter house is a cast lead rain-water head illustrated on Plate 15.

The only external features of interest are the two doorcases, side by side, which are of deal with Roman Doric pilasters, block entablatures and pediments. The doorways are recessed, and have elliptical arches, enclosing fanlights, as shown by the measured drawing (Plate 14).

The staircase of No. 27 has the original carved brackets. That of No. 28 is modern.

DEAL STAIR BRACKET TO OUTER STRING TO N^o. 27 G^T. QUEEN ST.
]

CONDITION OF REPAIR.

No. 26 has been demolished. Nos. 27 and 28 are in good repair.

THE COUNCIL’S COLLECTION CONTAINS:—

[191]Entrance doorcases to Nos. 27 and 28 (measured drawing).

Entrance doorcases to Nos. 27 and 28 (photograph).

[191]Ornamental cast lead cistern, No. 27 (measured drawing).

[191]Ornamental cast lead cistern, No. 26 (measured drawing).

[191]Carved deal stair bracket (measured drawing).

[191]Cast lead rain-water head, No. 26 (with others) (measured
drawing).

XXXVII.—NOS. 55 AND 56, GREAT QUEEN STREET.

GROUND LANDLORDS.

The United Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of England.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND DATE OF STRUCTURE.

The largest of the three sections into which Aldwych Close was divided, when roads were formed thereon, was that lying to the south of Great Queen Street, and east of Wild Street. In 1618[192] Henry Holford leased to John Ittery the southern portion of this section, and on 13th August, 1629, Richard Holford sold the remainder to Sir William Cawley and George Strode in trust for Sir Edward Stradling and Sir Kenelm Digby.[193] A wall was erected parallel to Great Queen Street, and distant from it 197 feet, dividing Stradling’s part from Digby’s. The later history of Stradling’s portion, lying to the south of the dividing wall, is dealt with later.[194] Here we are concerned with that in the ownership of Sir Kenelm Digby, forming the site of the houses and gardens on the south side of Great Queen Street as far as Aldwych Close extended. The ground in question (including that purchased by Sir Edward Stradling) is described on 13th August, 1629, as “late in the tenure of Richard Brett and John Parker,”[195] and a petition of the inhabitants of the district, dated[196] 1st September, 1629, states that Parker and Brett had “divers times attempted to build on a little close called Old Witch, which has always lain open, free to all persons to walk therein, and sweet and wholesome for the King and his servants to pass towards Theobalds.” It is further alleged that Parker and Brett had been imprisoned for these attempts, “but now they have pulled down the bridges and stiles, and carried great store of bricks thither, and give forth threatening speeches that they will go forward.” The petitioners asked that the proposed buildings might be stopped, and expressed their willingness to take a lease of the close and plant trees.

Parker and Brett seem in this latest instance to have been merely acting for Sir Kenelm Digby, for the report[197] of the Commissioners for Buildings, made only nine days later, definitely mentions the latter as the person desirous of building. The Commissioners expressed themselves as adverse to Digby’s proposal, which for a time dropped.

On 27th March, 1630, both Digby and Stradling petitioned for a licence for each “to build a house with stables and coach houses in Old Witch Close.” The Attorney-General was instructed to draw the licence, but although Stradling in due course built his mansion[198], there is no evidence that Digby ever availed himself of the permission.

The ground seems to have been used as a garden[199] until 1635. On 13th April in that year Digby sold it to William Newton for building purposes. No licence to Newton to build can be traced, but on 7th May, 1636, one was granted to Sir Robert Dalyell,[200] who probably assigned it to Newton. From that document[201] it appears that the intention was to build “14 faire dwelling houses or tenementes to conteyne in front one with another neere 40 (fortie) feete a peice fitt for the habitacon of able men.” Permission to build that number of houses “to front only towardes Queene’s Streete” was granted, as well as “twelve coach howses and stables in some remote part of the said ground,” all to be built of brick or stone, “according to the true intent and meaning of our Proclamations in that behalfe published.”

_Signature of William Newton._
]

Newton seems to have taken care that the houses erected on that part of Great Queen Street which was on the site of Purse Field should conform generally to the style of those built in accordance with the above-mentioned licence on the site of Aldwych Close[202]. The houses as a whole occupied 13 ground plots, having a total frontage of about 628 feet, and a depth of 200 feet. Their general character was the same throughout; the main cornices and front roofs were continuous, but the pilasters were so arranged as to indicate the separate buildings without the usual expedient of placing a pilaster partly on one plot and partly on another.[203] On the middle house was placed a statue of Charles I.’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. It has already been noticed[204] that Newton a few years later adorned the central house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields with a crowned female bust, and there can be no doubt that this was also in honour of the Queen.

Various statements have been made as to the designer of the houses on the south side of Great Queen Street. Horace Walpole, in his _Anecdotes of Painting_[205] writes as follows: “Vertue says that Mr. Mills, one of the four surveyors appointed after the fire of London, built the large houses in Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, but this must be a mistake, as we have seen in the preceding volume that Gerbier, a contemporary, and rival, ascribed them to Webb.” It is known[206] that Peter Mills built the original houses on the site of Nos. 66 to 68, Great Queen Street, but there is no evidence that he had any hand in the erection of other houses on the south side of the street.

The reference concerning Gerbier [1591?–1667], to which Walpole alludes as occurring in his previous volume, seems to be the following: “He [Gerbier] ridicules the heads of lions, which are creeping through the pilasters on the houses in Great Queen Street built by Webb, the scholar of Inigo Jones.” If this ascription could be found in any of Gerbier’s works it would be very valuable evidence, but it has not been discovered, and the passage relating to the pilasters contains no mention of Webb.[207]

Bagford [1650–1716], writing somewhat later, says:[208] “He [Inigo Jones] built Queen Street, also designed at first for a square, and as reported at y^e charge of y^e Jesuits; in y^e middle whereof was left a niche for y^e statue of Henrietta Maria, and this was y^e first uniform street and y^e houses are stately and magnificent.... These buildings were y^e designes of y^e Ld. Arundell, who was y^e first that introduced brick building into England (I mean for private houses).”

That some architect was commissioned by Newton to design the façade, and possibly the principal internal features, is most probable; but the above evidence is unfortunately not sufficient to enable him to be identified.

Hollar’s careful engraving (Plate 3) shows the long straight roof of the road frontage, but the rear elevations show that the roofs were varied for individual houses and were treated with gables. Whoever was the designer of the façade to Great Queen Street, he was probably employed by Newton as architect for the houses built on the west side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields three years afterwards. These show a distinct advance in design, being treated as a single symmetrical composition, with a central feature composed of three houses of increased height, the side wings being of equal lengths.[209]

The beautiful drawings by J. W. Archer[210] reproduced on Plate 16 exemplify the similarity of the two designs to a very marked degree, the only important difference in detail being that in Great Queen Street the Corinthian order was employed, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields the Ionic.

A description of the exterior of the only remaining fragment of the Great Queen Street houses, Nos. 55 and 56, will suffice for the whole. The front is constructed mostly of brick, the ground storey having originally formed a simple base for the Corinthian order of pilasters. These embrace the height of the first and second stories, the bases and capitals being of stone, the ornament of the latter boldly carved, and the volutes and abacus spreading to an unusual extent. (Plates 18 and 19.)

The pilasters were ornamented, if, as seems probable, it is to these houses that Gerbier referred when, writing about 25 years after their erection, he criticised certain “incongruities” perpetrated by those pretending knowledge in ornaments “by placing between windows pilasters through whose bodies lions are represented to creep; as those in Queen Street without any necessity, or ground for the placing lions so ill.”[211] These lions were probably of stucco, and affixed to the pilasters in a position similar to that of the ornaments of the Tudor rose and fleur de lis on the houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and those at the eastern end of the north side of Great Queen Street.[212] Walpole,[213] writing in 1763, continued the ridicule of these offending ornaments, but by 1783 they must have been removed, for the engraving by Bottomley of the Freemasons’ Tavern (Plate 22) does not show them, nor can they now be traced on the brickwork of the pilasters.

Between the first and second floor windows is introduced a slightly projecting ornamental device in brickwork, of somewhat Jacobean character, which on the façade of the houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was represented by a band, formerly seen at No. 2, Portsmouth Street. The same feature is also shown in the Wilton House picture of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.[214]

Above the capitals the entablature has been much restored, and its former beauty correspondingly diminished. The architrave appears to have been of wood, with three fascias (Plate 19), and crowning this is the bed mould of the cornice, which has large wooden modillions, shaped and enriched with acanthus leaves.

The modillions support a cyma and fascia with panelled soffit, the cyma forming the front of a leaden gutter.

Surmounting the cornice was the high pitched roof, shown by Hollar, with hipped dormer windows, of one and two lights alternating. Though none of them retain the whole of their original construction, the two on the right of the illustration may possibly be in their original form.

The present Nos. 55 and 56 represent one half of what must have been the largest of the houses.[215] This was the mansion of which one of the earliest occupiers was the Earl of St. Albans (Marquess of Clanricarde).

The house may be identified in two ways. (1) The frontages of the house of the Earl of St. Albans, and of the three houses to the east, are stated to be 88[216], 44, 44 and 88 feet respectively, and the last mentioned house is said to be bounded on the east by a gateway, which, from the description, was obviously Middle Yard. The western boundary of the four houses in question may thus be shown to correspond with the western side of New Yard, _i.e._, the western boundary of No. 55. (2) On 23rd January and 8th February, 1639–40, Newton sold certain plots of ground, containing frontages of 41 and 45½ feet, having a depth of 190 feet, and after 120 feet diminishing in width from 83 to 60 feet. These plots are stated to be bounded on the east by the dwelling house and garden of the Earl of St. Albans. From the shape of the property disclosed by the above figures, and the actual frontages given, there can be no doubt that the houses afterwards erected thereon occupied the sites of the present Nos. 51 to 54.[217] The house of the Earl of St. Albans was therefore No. 55 and upwards.

The house was already in existence in January, 1637–8,[218] and as the licence for building had only been obtained in May, 1636, the erection of the house may, with practical certainty, be assigned to the year 1637.

In the 1638 deed it is described as “all that one new erected double messuage or tenement with appurtenances, scituate in Queenes Streete ... contayninge in front towardes Queenes Streete aforesaid 88 feet ... and sydinge eastwards upon the house in the tenure of the Lord Leiger Embassador of Spayne, together with a gardyn plott lyinge on the back side of the said messuage and adjoyninge thereunto.”

The original mansion therefore occupied the site of the present Nos. 55 and 56, and adjoining property in New Yard, together with that of the western block of the present Freemasons’ Buildings.

The first division of the house took place in, or shortly after, 1684. In that year Lord Belasyse purchased the property, and at the date of his will, five years later, the house had for some time been in double occupation.

The division had, however, not been carried out in a very thorough fashion. In 1718 it was stated that “there are severall roomes, chambers and other apartments ... which interfere or mix within each other very inconvenient for separate familyes to inhabit therein severally and apart from each other.” In that year, therefore, an arrangement[219] was made whereby “the kitchen under a roome heretofore called ... Mr. Stonor’s dressing-roome,[220] the larder backwardes next the garden under part of a room ... called Mr. Stonor’s bedchamber ... which were then both used and enjoyed with the house in possession of ... Henry Browne ... were to be added to the inheritance of the house of the said Thos. Stonor in exchange” for “the cellar under the foreparlour next Queen Street, and the uppermost room or garrett over the said parlour, the lesser cellar adjoyning to that last before mentioned cellar and the room backwards next the garden up two pair of stairs over the back parlour, and upper with drawing roome,” structurally part of Browne’s house, but occupied as part of Stonor’s.

Other alterations took place in 1732–3, when the western half was divided, and probably portions of the present party wall, to the east of No. 56, date from this and the earlier period.

During the last century many further alterations and partial rebuildings were carried out. Shortly before 1816, the extensive grounds in the rear were utilised for buildings, for in a deed[221] of that year reference is made to “all those stables, coach houses and workshops and premises erected ... in New Yard ... and which before the erecting of the said ... stables, coach houses, shops and other premises, was a garden ground.”

Subsequently the external west wall was rebuilt, and the south-western premises, extending over the entrance to the yard (see Plate 17) were erected.

The eastern half of the original mansion seems to have been demolished between 1840 and 1846, for J. Nash, in a sketch made in the former year, gives the complete elevation, whereas Archer in 1846 (Plate 16) shows a commonplace building on the site of the eastern half.

Nos. 55–58, GREAT QUEEN STREET IN 1840.
]

Having regard to the many alterations which the premises have undergone, it is not surprising that very little of the first building is left. Of the original walls remaining, that to the street is the most important. Several of the chimney breasts, and parts of the walls to which they are attached, are also original work, but it is extremely doubtful if any of the external walls at the rear is coeval with the erection of the house. This will account for the fact that Evelyn’s “long gallery”[222] no longer exists.

The notable feature of No. 55 internally is the staircase. Although the treads and risers are modern, the deal balustrading between the ground and first floors may date from the erection of the house in 1637, or from its re-occupation by the Digby family after the Restoration, _i.e._, before 1664 (see p. 52). The staircase extends from the ground to the first floor. It is constructed of straight strings, moulded and carved; the centre moulding has a band of laurel leaves and berries alternating with oak leaves, acorns and oak apples, while the upper member is enriched with acanthus. The three newels are square. The one at the ground floor level rests on the 19th-century floor, and has a simple capping of mouldings similar to those on the handrail. The newel at the half landing is of similar design to that below and receives the strings of both flights. The newel at the first floor level has a modern capping, but carries the original pendant below, the enrichment taking the form of the open flower of a waterlily. The balusters are turned as ornamental pillars, their capitals being floriated together with the vase-like swellings included in their bases. Two of the base members are also carved. The handrail of the lower flight is notched and fitted to the string of the upper, the mouldings continue along the string downwards to the newel, and a triangular panel fills the spandril space beneath instead of diminishing balusters.

The simple character of the elliptical archway at the end of the passage leading from the street to the staircase may be noted.

On the second floor of No. 56, is a deal balustrade (Plate 21), which doubtless formed part of the original staircase landing, but has now been adapted to protect an opening in the floor. The detail is very similar to that of the staircase formerly at No. 52, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,[223] which was erected shortly after this date.

The panelling of the room at the end of the ground floor passage is apparently contemporary with the erection of the house.

The present front room on the second floor was at first two separate apartments. Near the end of the 17th or early in the 18th century, a wide opening was formed in the partition, the original door and doorway, and part of the surrounding wall being, however, left. Probably at the same time, the little lobby and powder closet were formed. The latter has a small opening in its southern wall.

The small staircase in front of the opening leading to the attics appears to have been erected about 1732–3, as also the portion of the staircases leading from the second to the first floors, and a short length of balustrading (Plate 21) at the first floor level.

The front room on the ground floor was dismantled early in the 19th century and nothing of interest is left.

CONDITION OF REPAIR.

The premises are in good repair.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

The indenture[224] relating to the sale of the freehold by Newton
on 26th October, 1639, to Sir Henry Compton, Sir Lewis Dive and
Thos. Brewer, refers to the house as “late in the tenure of the
Rt. Hon. Thomas, Lord Arundell, Baron of Warder, now deceased.”

Thomas Arundell, first Baron Arundell of Wardour, was born in
1560. He greatly distinguished himself in the wars against the
Turks in Hungary, and for his valour, was, in 1590, created Count
of the Holy Roman Empire. He was raised to the English peerage by
James I. in 1605, and died in 1639.

In the sale mentioned above, Compton, Dive and Brewer were acting
on behalf of the Marquess of Clanricarde, and the latter is
referred to as actually in occupation of the house in January,
1639–40.[225]

_De Burgh._
]

Ulick De Burgh, Marquess of Clanricarde, Earl of St. Albans, was
born “in Clanricarde House, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn
Fields, London”[226] in 1604. The exact position of this house is
not known, but it must have been on the north side of the street,
as the south was not built on for many years afterwards. From his
father he inherited, together with the viscounty of Galway, vast
estates and an enormous influence in the south of Ireland. He sat
in the Short Parliament, and accompanied the King in his
expedition against the Scots in 1640. His occupation of the house
on the _south_ side was brief, for in September, 1641, he disposed
of the property to the Earl of Bristol.[227] In the summer of the
latter year[228] he had taken up his residence in Ireland. During
the troublous times that followed the outbreak of the Irish
rebellion in that year, Clanricarde played a prominent part.
Although many of his relatives joined the Irish Confederation, he
alone among the Irish Roman Catholic nobility remained loyal to
the king, kept Galway, of which he was governor, neutral, and made
“his houses and towns a refuge, nay even a hospital, for the
distressed English.”[229] When the Viceroy, Ormonde, quitted
Ireland in 1650, Clanricarde was appointed his deputy, but his
efforts against the parliamentary forces were rendered fruitless
by the distrust with which he was regarded by many of the Irish
royalists. In 1652 he received Charles’s permission to make the
best terms possible with the parliamentarians, and articles were
accordingly concluded, by virtue of which he was able in the same
year to withdraw from Ireland. Though expressly excepted by
statute from pardon for life and estate, he was enabled, by
permits renewed from time to time, to retire for the remainder of
his life to his seat at Summerhill, Kent, where he died in 1657.
Though he was the object of bitter denunciation by the native
Irish faction, he has earned the commendation of Hallam as being
“perhaps the most unsullied character in the annals of
Ireland.”[230]

John Digby, first Earl of Bristol, who followed Clanricarde in the
occupation of the house in Great Queen Street, was the son of Sir
George Digby, of Coleshill, Warwickshire, and was born in 1580. He
gained the favour of James I. and was knighted in 1607. Four years
later he was sent as ambassador to Madrid, and from that time
until 1624 was frequently employed on diplomatic missions of
first-rate importance. In 1618 he was raised to the peerage, and
in 1622 was created Earl of Bristol. In the following year, while
engaged at Madrid in connection with a project for the marriage of
the Infanta Maria and Prince Charles, he managed to offend
bitterly both the latter and Buckingham, who had come to Spain on
a surprise visit. In 1624 he came home and found himself in
disgrace. For the first few years of Charles’s reign, he continued
to be an object of the king’s resentment and spent several months
in the Tower. After 1628 he took no part in politics until the war
against the Scots in 1639. He was the leader of the Great Council
held at York in 1640. Though he came forward in the Long
Parliament as a reformer of the government, yet when it became
necessary to take up a definite side in the civil strife he threw
in his lot with the king. He was with him at Oxford for some time
after the battle of Edgehill, removing thence to Sherborne, and
subsequently, in 1644, to Exeter. On the capitulation of that city
to Fairfax in 1646, he was given a pass to go beyond the seas. He
died in Paris in 1653, and by his will[231] bequeathed to his
second son, John, his house in Queen Street. This house had formed
his residence at the most from September, 1641, to some time
before the battle of Edgehill in October, 1642. By the parliament
he was regarded with peculiar abhorrence, due partly, no doubt, to
the acts of his uncontrollable son, and in August, 1644, an
ordinance was passed providing _inter alia_ that “the house of
John, Earl of Bristol ... in Queen Street ... with the gardens,
stables, edifices and buildings thereunto belonging, with their
appurtenances, heretofore the mansion house of the said Earl of
Bristoll,” should be granted to Lady Brooke for her life, and
after her decease to her youngest son, Fulke Greville.

_Digby._
]

There is, however, no evidence that Lady Brooke[232] ever lived
there, and the next record that has been found as to the
occupation of Bristol House is contained in a deed[233] of 1654,
by which Antony Wither purchased from the “Trustees for the Sale
of Estates forfeited for Treason, all that messuage or
tenement ... situate in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields ...
in a streete there called Queene Streete ... late in the tenure or
occupation of Thomas, Lord Fayrfax, and now or late in the
tenure ... of Sir William Paston, Knt., ... which said
premises ... are mentioned to have bin late parcell of the
possessions of John, Earle of Bristoll ... whose estate hath bin
and is thereby declared and adjudged to be justly forfeited by him
for his treason against the Parliament and people of England.”

Thomas Fairfax, third Baron Fairfax, was the son of Ferdinando,
second Lord Fairfax, and was born at Denton, in Yorkshire, on 17th
January, 1612. He served in the Low Countries under Sir Horace
Vere, whose daughter he afterwards married. He held a command
during the first Scotch war, and was knighted by the king in
January, 1640. On the outbreak of the Civil War he took up arms on
behalf of the Parliament and gained great distinction. In 1645,
consequent upon the compulsory retirement of officers who were
members of either house (his father among others), he was
appointed to the chief command of the parliamentary forces. He
arrived in London on 18th February, accompanied by his uncle, Sir
William Constable,[234] and two or three officers, and took up his
quarters at “the house in Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, which had
been hired for the new general during his stay in London.”[235]
During his absence in the field his house in Queen Street was
occupied by his father, with whom he kept up a constant
correspondence.[236] In June, 1645, Fairfax amply vindicated the
Parliament’s choice by his annihilation of the royal army at
Naseby, and on 12th November, 1646, having brought the first
portion of the Civil War to a successful close, he returned to
London to receive the thanks of Parliament and of the City.
Accompanied by dense crowds, “he was conducted to his house in
Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, amidst deafening cheers and the
ringing of bells; and was received at the door by his wife and his
father, the old lord, with his new bride.”[237] Two days later
both houses of Parliament paid a congratulatory visit to Fairfax
in his house in Queen Street. His father died in March, 1648. In
the second portion of the Civil War, which began later on in the
same year, Fairfax was at first principally occupied with the
siege of Colchester, and his execution of Lucas and Lisle on the
surrender of that town in July, 1648, though bitterly denounced,
seems not to have been without justification. In the events which
led up to the death of Charles in 1649 he seems to have been an
unwilling instrument of the army. In 1650 he resigned the
commandership-in-chief, to which he had again been elected, rather
than take part in the attack on Scotland, and during the whole of
the remaining period, until the death of Cromwell, he lived in
retirement at Nun Appleton, in Yorkshire. He took a leading part
in bringing about the Restoration, but after that was successfully
accomplished he again retired to Nun Appleton, where he spent the
rest of his days in religious exercises. He died on 16th October,
1665.

_Fairfax._
]

As the house in Great Queen Street had been provided by Parliament
for use as his official residence, his occupation of it probably
ceased on his resignation in June, 1650.

Of Sir William Paston’s residence we have but little record. There
is, however, a letter from him, headed “Queen Street,” and
presumably written from this house, dated 30th January,
1650–51.[238] The deed mentioned above leaves it uncertain whether
he was, in June, 1654, still in occupation of the house.[239] He
had been high sheriff of Norfolk in 1636, was created a baronet in
June, 1642, and died in February, 1663. He was the father of the
first Earl of Yarmouth.

At the Restoration the house again came into the hands of the
Digby family. In a deed of 6th January, 1663–4,[240] it is
referred to as “now in the tenure of George, Earl of Bristol, or
his assignes,” and in the Hearth Tax Rolls for 1665 and 1666, the
Earl of Bristol is shown as in occupation of the house. This was
George, the second Earl, who was born at Madrid, in October, 1612.
When only twelve years old he appeared at the bar of the House of
Commons on behalf of his father, who had been committed to the
Tower, and his graceful person, gallant bearing, and eloquent
speech made a great impression. He enjoyed a distinguished career
at Oxford, and afterwards displayed some literary ability in the
_Letters between the Lord George Digby and Sir Kenelm Digby, Knt.,
concerning Religion_, written in 1638–9. He entered Parliament in
1640, where, although at first hostile to the Court, he afterwards
became one of its strongest adherents. He was responsible for the
proposal for the prosecution of the five members, and even
suggested that they should be followed into the City and taken by
force. In February, 1642, he was impeached of high treason and
fled to Holland, but soon returned. In September, 1643, he was
appointed one of the secretaries of state, and as one of the
king’s chief advisers did incalculable harm to the royal cause. In
October, 1645, he was made lieutenant-general of the royal forces
north of the Trent, and was defeated at Sherburn. The next few
years he spent chiefly in Ireland, whence, on its surrender to the
Parliament, he escaped to the Continent, gaining and losing favour
in France, joining Prince Charles at Bruges and accompanying him
to Spain. In 1657 he became a Roman Catholic. On the Restoration
he returned to England. Being debarred from office on account of
his religion, his energy found vent in an unreasoning hostility to
Clarendon, in which he went so far that he provoked the keenest
resentment on the part of the king, and had to remain in
concealment for nearly two years. He died at Beaufort House,
Chelsea,[241] in March, 1677, leaving behind him a reputation for
brilliant but misdirected ability.

His residence in Great Queen Street seems to have terminated
before 1671,[242] for under date of 26th May in that year, Evelyn
records: “The Earl of Bristol’s house in Queen Street was taken
for the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and furnished with
rich hangings of the King’s. It consisted of seven rooms on a
floor, with a long gallery, gardens, etc.... We then took our
places at the Board in the Council Chamber, a very large roome
furnished with atlasses, maps, charts, globes, etc.”[243] Evelyn
had only recently (see Diary for 28th February) been appointed on
the Council of Foreign Plantations,[244] and the above entry
refers to the first occasion on which he attended as a member, and
gives no clue as to the date on which the house had been taken for
the use of either of the Commissions.[245] On 12th February,
1671–2, Evelyn records the determination of the Council to meet in
future at Whitehall.[246]

The Hearth Tax Rolls for 1673 and 1675 show the Earl of Devonshire
as then in occupation of the house. He would, indeed, seem to have
acquired most of the interests in the premises by or before July,
1667,[247] and it is quite possible that his residence extended on
both sides of the short occupation by the Boards of Trade and
Plantations.

_Cavendish._
]

William Cavendish, third Earl of Devonshire, was born in 1617. He
derived his education in part from his father’s old tutor, Thomas
Hobbes, the philosopher, in whose company he travelled abroad from
1634 to 1637. At the beginning of the Civil War he embraced the
royalist cause, and on being impeached by Parliament, refused to
submit, and left the country. In 1645 he returned to England, and
on payment of a large fine received a pardon for his former
delinquency. During the remainder of the Commonwealth period he
lived in retirement at Latimers, in Buckinghamshire, and even
after the Restoration he resided mainly in the country. He was one
of the original fellows of the Royal Society, and in 1669 was
appointed a commissioner of trade.[248] He died in 1684 at
Roehampton.

In June, 1674, the Earl of Devonshire had sold the remainder of
the original 99 years’ lease of the house to the Earl of
Sunderland,[249] who in the Jury Presentment Roll for 1683 is
shown in occupation of the house. He parted with his interests in
the property in April, 1684, and his occupation may therefore with
reasonable certainty be assigned to the period 1674–84.[250]

_Spencer._
]

Robert Spencer, second Earl of Sunderland, the only son of Henry
Spencer, the first Earl, and “Sacharissa,” was born in 1640, and
succeeded to the earldom only three years later. In 1665 he
married Lady Anne Digby, younger daughter of the second Earl of
Bristol. In preparation for his future political career, he now
began paying court to the royal favourites, and in 1671 invited
Mdlle. de Keroualle (afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth) “to his
town house in Queen Street, and lost enormous sums to her at
basset.”[251] This can hardly have been Bristol House, for the
facts seem quite inconsistent with Sunderland’s residence there so
early as 1671. More probably it was his mother’s house at the
eastern end of Great Queen Street. From 1671 to 1678 he was
employed on several diplomatic errands abroad. In 1679 he became
secretary of state for the northern department, but in 1681
incurred the king’s displeasure, and consequently lost both his
secretaryship and his seat on the Privy Council. Afterwards he
regained his place by the influence of the Duchess of Portsmouth,
and on the accession of James II. in 1685 he speedily ingratiated
himself with the new king, who made him Lord President of the
Council. While assiduously cultivating James’s favour, he was also
receiving a substantial secret pension from Louis XIV. for the
promotion of French interests, and through his wife’s lover, Henry
Sidney, was furnishing William of Orange with particulars of the
most secret transactions of the English Court. By degrees his
position became more and more difficult and, although in 1687 he
had embraced the Roman Catholic faith, not all his duplicity could
prevent the growing dissatisfaction with which James regarded what
he considered as his lukewarm service, and in 1688 he was
dismissed and fled to Holland. Though excepted from the Act of
Indemnity, he was in 1691 permitted to return to England. He
declared himself again a Protestant, and his advice soon became
indispensable to William. His influence gradually grew until in
1697 all the hatred and jealousy with which he was regarded came
to a head, and he resigned in a panic. The rest of his life he
passed in seclusion at Althorp, and he died in 1702. “With the
possible exception of Northumberland in Edward VI.’s reign, it is
doubtful whether English history has to show a more crafty and
unprincipled intriguer.”[252]

In the course of 1684 all interests in the house in Great Queen
Street were acquired[253] by John, Lord Belasyse,[254] and the
premises were now divided into two, afterwards respectively Nos.
55–56, and Nos. 57–58. The later history of the latter will come
naturally under the head of the Freemasons’ Hall, a part of which
now occupies the site.

As regards Nos. 55–56, we learn that prior to 1689[255] this
portion of the original mansion had been occupied by the Duke of
Norfolk.

Henry Howard, seventh Duke of Norfolk, was born in January, 1655,
and succeeded to the title in January, 1684. He was noted for his
staunch Protestantism. He joined in the invitation to the Prince
of Orange, and on the latter’s landing brought over the eastern
counties to his interest. He died at Norfolk House, St. James’s
Square, in 1701. His residence at Nos. 55–56, Great Queen Street
must have fallen in the period 1684–1689.

Subsequently the house was occupied by Thomas Stonor, who had
married the Hon. Isabella Belasyse, to whom her father, Lord
Belasyse, had bequeathed this portion of the original house.
Stonor is shown in occupation in 1698, 1700 and 1703. In 1718 the
house was sold[256] to Sir Godfrey Kneller, then already in
occupation of the premises.

Sir Godfrey Kneller (originally Gottfried Kniller) was born at
Lübeck in 1646, son of a portrait painter. He was at first
intended for the military profession, but his love for painting
proved so strong that his father sent him to Amsterdam to study
under Ferdinand Bol. In 1672 he went to Italy, and soon acquired a
considerable reputation. Afterwards he visited Hamburg, and in
1675 came to England, where his work attracted the notice of the
Duke of Monmouth, by whose influence he was in 1678 introduced to
Charles II. He at once leaped into popularity, and after the death
of Sir Peter Lely in 1680 reigned supreme in the domain of
portrait painting. He acquired great wealth, and, though he lost
heavily in the South Sea Bubble, he left a large fortune. His
residence at Nos. 55–56, Great Queen Street seems to have
commenced about 1703,[257] and here he lived until his death in
1723. By his will[258] he left to his wife, amongst other
property, “all that my messuage or house, outhouses, stableyards
and garden thereunto belonging in Great Queen Street ... in which
I now dwell,” as well as the next door house (Nos. 57–58), which
he had also purchased. He also mentions the “six pictures of mine
and my wife’s relations painted by myself, and now in my great
dining room in my said dwelling house in Great Queen Street, and
also the three pictures put up for ornament over the doors in the
said room.”

The well-known interchange of wit between Kneller and Dr.
Radcliffe is by several authors[259] said to have taken place in
Great Queen Street. Radcliffe, it appears, was Kneller’s next door
neighbour, and there being great intimacy between them, Kneller
allowed the former to have a door into his garden where he had a
fine collection of flowers. On Radcliffe’s servants picking the
flowers, Kneller sent word to the doctor that he would shut up the
door. The latter replied that he might do anything with it but
_paint_ it; whereupon Kneller rejoined that he could take anything
from the doctor but his _physic_. There is, however, no evidence
that Radcliffe ever lived in Great Queen Street. He settled in Bow
Street, Covent Garden in 1684[260]; he was still in Covent Garden
in 1706 according to the _Catalogue_ of the College of Physicians;
and the issues of the _Catalogue_ for 1707 onwards show him at
Southampton Square. He died in 1714. Wheatley and Cunningham[261]
appear to be right in assigning the incident to the time when
Kneller was living in the Piazza, Covent Garden.

No records concerning the occupation of the house are available
between 1723 and 1730. It would seem, however, that prior to the
latter year, the Earl of Bellamont had been resident there,[262]
for the entry in that year consists of the name “Lord Bellment,”
erased, and followed by the name of Robert Holdmay. In 1732 the
house is shown as empty, and on its re-occupation in the following
year it was further divided, as at present, into the two houses
Nos. 55 and 56. The names of the residents, as given on the
ratebooks, from that time until 1800 are as follows:—

_No. 55._ _No. 56._

1733–42. Barth. Dandridge. 1733–37. Coston Aston.

1746–48. [263]Lady Dinely 1740–44. Madame Bowne.
Goodyer.

1751–58. Chas. Hoare. 1744. [263]Chas. Leivez.

1758–61. Lord Halton. 1745. —— Pritchard.

1761–65. Chas. Hoare. 1746–50. Chas. Leivez.

1766. Widow Hoare. 1750–61. Ben Wilson.

1767–70. [264]Godfrey Kneller. 1761–68. Jno. Palmer.

1770–82. Coach Office. 1768–69. W. Brereton.

1782–90. Jas. McGee. 1770–74. Ed. Taylor.

1790–99. Jas. Wilson. 1775–78. Wm. Mattingnon.

1799– [264]J. Kneller. 1779. Miss Lavell.

1780–82. —— Bowen.

1782–86. John Hoole.

1786–88. Jas. Boswell.

1788–89. Ed. Jones.

1791– W. Chippendale.

Bartholomew Dandridge obtained a considerable practice in the
reign of George II. as a painter of portraits; he also painted
small conversation-pieces.[265]

Benjamin Wilson was born at Leeds in 1721. His father, Major
Wilson, a wealthy clothier, lost his money while Benjamin was
still a youth, and the latter came to London to earn a living. If
his statements are true, the frugality which he exercised must
have been extraordinary. At all events, he managed to save, and
obtaining after a time a position with some little leisure, he
resumed the artistic studies which he had been compelled to
renounce. By degrees his perseverance and ability made him known,
and from 1748 to 1750 he was in Ireland executing commissions for
portraits. On his return he settled at No. 56, Great Queen Street.
While here his reputation steadily increased, and 1761 he moved to
Nos. 57–58, a larger house.[266] In 1771 he again removed, this
time to Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. In 1767 he was appointed
painter to the Board of Ordnance. Wilson was also a student of
chemistry, and had a reputation for his knowledge of electricity,
receiving in 1760 the gold medal of the Royal Society for his
electrical experiments. He died at his house in Great Russell
Street[267] in 1788.

John Hoole, translator, was born in Moorfields in 1727, the son of
a watchmaker and inventive mechanician. He obtained a position in
the accomptant’s office of the East India Company, and rose to be
successively auditor of Indian accompts and principal auditor. He
resigned about the end of 1785. His residence in Great Queen
Street seems to have commenced in 1782, and it lasted to April,
1786, when he retired to the parsonage at Abinger, Surrey. He died
at Dorking in 1803. His chief works are the translations of Tasso
and Ariosto. He also wrote the life of John Scott of Amwell,
which, as it was published in 1785, was probably composed in the
house in Great Queen Street, and three plays.

James Boswell, biographer, son of Alexander Boswell, Lord
Auchinleck, was born in Edinburgh in 1740. In 1760 he first
visited London, and in 1762, with much difficulty, prevailed upon
his father to let him return there. On 7th May, 1763, he was
introduced by Davies the actor to Dr. Johnson. From August, 1763,
to February, 1766, he was on the Continent studying law at
Utrecht, travelling in Italy, and consorting with Paoli in
Corsica, and returned with his head full of the latter. The result
was the publication in 1768 of _An Account of Corsica; the Journal
of a Tour to that Island_. He now commenced work in earnest as an
advocate at the Scottish bar, and for some years visited London
but seldom. In November, 1769, he married his cousin, Margaret
Montgomery. In 1773 he accompanied Johnson on the journey which is
described in the _Journal of a Tour in the Hebrides_; the
indiscretions of the narrative produced a rapid sale when it was
printed some years afterwards. In June 1784, he met Johnson for
the last time. In 1786 he was called to the English Bar, and moved
to London. In a letter, dated May, 1786, to Mickle, the translator
of the Lusiad, he writes[268] that he has the house of his friend
Hoole (who, as has been seen above, left No. 56, Great Queen
Street in April, 1786), and a later letter,[269] dated 9th
February, 1788, to Bishop Percy, is headed “London, Great Queen
Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.” In 1789 he removed to Queen Anne
Street West, and subsequently to No. 122 (formerly 47), Great
Portland Street, where he died in May, 1795. His fame rests upon
his biography of Dr. Johnson, one of the greatest books ever
written. There can be no doubt that a portion of the book was
composed in No. 56, Great Queen Street. In 1905 the London County
Council affixed to the house a tablet of blue encaustic ware,
commemorative of Boswell’s residence.[270]

In Wheatley and Cunningham’s _London, Past and Present_[271] it is
stated that after the occupation of Hoole (whose residence is
wrongly identified with that of Worlidge, see p. 77) the house
“was rented by Chippendale, the cabinet-maker, whose furniture has
during the last few years been so eagerly sought after and
imitated.” Inasmuch, however, as Chippendale died in 1779, and
Hoole’s residence did not terminate until 1786, this is
impossible. The statement probably originated in the fact that a
person of the same name is shown in the ratebooks as an occupant
of this house (see above). But it is William Chippendale, not
Thomas; the period of his occupation is from 1791 onwards; and he
was not a furniture maker, but an attorney.[272]

IN THE COUNCIL’S COLLECTION ARE:—

[273] Ground, first and second floor plans (measured drawing).

Attic floor plan (measured drawing).

Elevation of houses in Great Queen Street by Sir J. Soane,
preserved in the Soane Museum (photograph).

[721] Sketch, by J. Nash in 1840 (print).

[721] “House called Queen Anne’s Wardrobe,” drawn by J. W. Archer,
1846 (photograph).

[721] “House of the Sardinia Ambassador,” drawn by J. W. Archer,
1858 (photograph).

Elevation measured by J. Cooke (print).

[721] The exterior, May, 1906 (photograph).

The exterior, June, 1906 (photograph).

Staircase in No. 55—

[721]Ground to first floor (photograph).

First floor level (photograph).

[721] Archway from passageway to staircase in No. 55.

[721] Staircases in Nos. 55 and 56, details (measured drawing).

XXXVIII.—FREEMASONS’ HALL.

GROUND LANDLORDS.

The United Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of England.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND DATE OF STRUCTURE.

The present Freemasons’ Hall and buildings connected therewith occupy the sites of two original houses and parts of two others. These were reckoning from west to east: (i.) the eastern half of Bristol House; (ii.) Rivers House; (iii.) the house on which the statue of the Queen was placed; (iv.) the western half of Conway House.

The origin of (i.) has already been described.[274] It was, in its turn, divided into two in 1812 or 1813,[275] and seems to have been demolished between 1840 and 1846.

(ii.) The house to the east of Bristol House is easily identifiable with that which is described in a deed[276] dated 31st July, 1641, as abutting on the west “upon another mesuage of the same building now in the occupacion of the Earle of St. Albans [_i.e._, Clanricarde].” The premises had a frontage of 44 feet upon Queen Street, and the ground extended southward 200 feet or “neere thereabout” to the garden of Humfrey Weld. The eastern boundary was “a new messuage where the statue of the Queenes Majestie is placed.” It is mentioned that the Countess Rivers then had tenure of the house, which had previously been in the occupation of “the ledger Embassador of the King of Spaine.” As the house is mentioned as being in existence and in fact occupied by the Spanish Ambassador on 22nd January, 1637–8,[277] its erection may be assigned with certainty to the year 1637.

The original house was pulled down in 1739, and on the site two houses were built fronting Great Queen Street, and a number of others on the ground behind.[278] In the centre of the Great Queen Street frontage was an archway leading to the premises in the rear, and known as Queen’s Court.[279] Whether this simply reproduced a feature of the old mansion (there were similar archways on the west side of Bristol House and the east side of Conway House), or whether it was consequent on the necessity for communication between the street and the new houses behind, is uncertain.

(iii.) It has been seen above that the next house eastwards was “a new messuage where the statue of the Queenes Majestie is placed.” This, therefore, is the house referred to in an indenture[280] of 20 May, 1674, as “fronting upon the streete called Queene Street, wherein is made a nichy or place for a statue to be placed in.” The property is said to contain 44 feet frontage, to extend southwards 200 feet, and to have belonged originally to Anthony Wither. It may thus be identified with the messuage and garden in St. Giles-in-the-Fields referred to as having been sold in 1637 by William Newton to Anthony Wyther,[281] so that in this case also 1637 was the date of erection. The statue of the Queen, which was gilt, was pulled down in 1651,[282] which accounts for the fact that the deed of 1674 could only record the existence of a niche, with no statue. At some time between 1702 and 1709 the premises were divided, not lengthwise but breadthwise, a passage being formed to lead from the street to that house which was in the rear. In 1774 the houses were purchased by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.

(iv.) The fourth house is mentioned in a deed[283] of 20th December, 1641, as “all that capitall messuage or tenement with one yard, one court and one garden plott, stable, coachhouses and outhouses, as they are now erected, built and inclosed with brick wall to the same belonging or therewithal now used or enjoyed, scituate and being in Queene Street ... now being in the tenure or occupation of Edward, Lord Viscount Conway and Killultagh which ... conteyneth in front towards Queene Street 88 feet ... and the said messuage, yard, court and garden plott doe extend from the said streete backward towards the south unto the garden of Humfrey Weld, Esq., 199 feet or thereabouts, scituate lying and being between the messuage, yard and garden plote of Anthony Wither, Esq., now in the tenure ... of the Lord Awbyney on the west, and the messuage of Peter Mills, bricklayer, now in the tenure of the Countess of Essex. And also all those greate gates and gateway[284] over which some part of Peter Mills messuage is erected, leading out of Queene Street into the courtyard and garden, with liberty of way by a dore made or to be made out of the south-east corner of the said garden in by and through a way and passage of 8 feet in breadth intended to be made by William Newton over the sewer ... and to lead into ... Princes Street.”

In 1696 the house was in a dangerous condition, and an Act of Parliament was obtained authorising its repair and letting on lease for 51 years[285]. The house was still in existence in May, 1743[286]. By November of the same year, however, it had been demolished, and on its site four houses, each 22 feet wide, had been erected, or were then in course of erection on the Great Queen Street frontage.

Having thus dealt with the history of the earlier buildings on the site, it remains to describe the various processes by which the existing premises came to be erected. We will therefore return to the purchase, in 1774, by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of the house on which the statue of Queen Henrietta Maria had formerly stood.