Pierrepont and the second Thoresby Hall.

 THE STORY SO FAR:

 On 4th March 1745, only 58 years after it was built, the first Thoresby Hall was very badly damaged by fire, and much property lost.

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Evelyn the 2nd Duke of Kingston, who had already invested a lot of time extending the lake for his boats, decided on building a second hall on the same site as the first. During the years between the fire and the completion of a second Hall, he used Holme Pierrepont Hall as his main local residence until work was completed in 1772. He was to die there one year later.

Above: A print from a painting by John Preston Neale.

The second Thoresby Hall, designed by John Carr, was described as a Georgian country house in the Palladian style. Being more modest than the first hall it was often criticised as being too plain. It had a rustic stone basement, and two storeys of bricks. On the other side of the Lake were formal gardens in the "German" style which included the Duke's carriage way to Ollerton and Newark beyond.

Above: “Hall” marks the location of both the first and second Hall as depicted on Chapman's map of 1774 and Google satellite today. The formal line of trees leaving the bottom of the picture would have taken the Duke's carriages to Buck Gates.

When Evelyn died without heir, his nephew Charles Meadows (1737 - 1816) inherited the Pierrepont surname by Royal Licence, becoming the 1st Earl Manvers in 1806. He moved into the second Thoresby Hall in 1789, soon expressing his displeasure with its landscaping and cold damp location so close to the lake, a distance of just 100 yards,

So in 1791 Charles consulted distinguished landscape gardener Humphry Repton for advice on how to improve the grounds around Thoresby Hall. Their concerns involved the ground floor being level with the nearby Lake; the formal straight lines of the canal running 200 yards from the front entrance of the House to a corn mill 600 yards away; the location of Stone Bridge (now Green Bridge) which presented an unfavourable straight-on view of the hall; and the grassy area leading to the entrance lacking a gravel road.

Above: James Seymour's painting (1750) depicts the Duke of Kingston’s chestnut racehorse Jolly Roger led by a mounted groom. This is of particular interest as the date is five years after the first Thoresby Hall burnt down and construction on the second was in progress.

 When Charles Meadows Pierrepont died in 1816, he was succeeded by his son Charles Herbert, 2nd Earl Manvers, Lord Newark, who kept the tradition of having large boats on Thoresby Lake. This second Hall would be demolished in 1864 by Sydney William Herbert Pierrepont (1825 - 1900), the 3rd Earl Manvers.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Pierrepont and the first Thoresby Hall.

The Pierrepont family came to England as a result of the Norman Conquest. In the first part of the 17th Century, Robert Pierrepont (1584 - 1643), 1st Earl of Kingston-Upon-Hull, had two sons:

The first son, Henry (1606 – 1680), 2nd Earl of Kingston-Upon-Hull, was the instigator for the first Thoresby Hall being built c.1670 - 1683. An older mansion already existed by the lake, built c.1590, believed to be Elizabethan in character. But Henry’s first Thoresby Hall was a rectangular red brick building with stone dressings, designed by William Tallman, influenced by Italian Palaces. It had two storeys plus an attic, and 13 bays along its front. (Above: Print by J. Walker.)

 The second son of Robert 1st Earl of Kingston upon Hull, was William (1607 – 1678). He was a Parliamentarian, referred to as "William the Wise" because his opinions were much valued. His moderate attitude and respect for the King, made him an obvious choice for mediator and negotiator between Charles 1st and the Roundhead movement. It is a fact that Oliver Cromwell himself spent the night at Thoresby in 1651 on his way to the Battle of Worcester at Evesham. 

When Henry the first son died without heir, his great nephew, Robert, became 3nd Earl of Kingston upon Hull, but he also died without heir, making his brother William (1662 – 1690), 4th Earl of Kingston upon Hull. It was this 4th Earl who combined what he already possessed in Perlethorpe and Thoresby to form Thoresby Park.

Above: Leonard Knyff's painting of the first Thoresby Hall c.1705. The Stone Bridge (a.k.a. the Green Bridge) is in its original position, leading the Duke's carriage towards Ollerton and Newark beyond.

 Below: Peter Tillemans 1715 painting captures the creation of Thoresby Lake.

William the 4th Earl also died without heir, and so was succeeded by his brother Evelyn Pierrepont (1665 - 1726), the 5th Earl of Kingston upon Hull, later upgraded to 1st Duke of Kingston upon Hull in 1715. Evelyn's only son died of smallpox and so he was succeeded by his grandson, also called Evelyn, the 2nd Duke of Kingston. It is this Duke who can be seen in Tillemans painting of 1725 below.

On 4th March 1745, only 58 years after it was built, this first Thoresby Hall was badly damaged by fire, and much property lost. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Dukeries, Britain, UK.

The Dukeries is the name given in the 19th Century to an area in the north of Nottinghamshire covering approximately fifty square miles, and which contained no less than four ducal seats in close proximity: Clumber House, seat of the Dukes of Newcastle, Thoresby Hall, seat of the Dukes of Kingston, (subsequently the Earls Manvers), Welbeck Abbey, seat of the Dukes of Portland, and Worksop Manor, seat of the Dukes of Norfolk. From the mid-16th to the mid-20th century these estates were owned by some of the most prominent, influential families in England.  A fifth large country house, Rufford Abbey, was not a ducal seat but was closely associated with the above.

The reason this unusually large number of ducal families resided so close and in apparent harmony is due to a shared heritage. It started when Elizabeth Hardwick (Bess of Hardwick) married Sir William Cavendish. Being a court official during Henry 8th’s dissolution of the monasteries, William Cavendish was able to pick and choose the best areas of land and buildings for himself. It was probably Bess who persuaded William to then sell his properties in the south and purchase the Chatsworth estates in Derbyshire (her home county). Bess’ passion for building and forming estates had begun.

Their first child, Frances Cavendish, would marry Sir Henry Pierrepont, MP. Their son, Robert Pierrepont, would become the 1st Earl of Kingston-Upon-Hull, and purchase Thoresby from William Lodge, an Alderman of London. It would be Robert’s second son, William, who became the 4th Earl of Kingston and merged the lands he owned in Perlethorpe and Thoresby to form Thoresby Park.

Bess and William’s 5th child, Charles Cavendish, married Baroness Catherine Ogle. Their family home became Welbeck Abbey, eventually the ducal seat of the Duke of Portland, and their son, William Cavendish, would become 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the title associated with the ducal seat of Clumber House.

Lastly, Bess and William’s 7th child, Mary Cavendish, became the wife of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, giving birth to Alethea (a.k.a. Althea). Alethea Talbot would marry Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Norfolk, the title associated with the ducal seat of Worksop Manor.

By the time of her fourth and final marriage to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, Bess was already one of the richest and most influential women in England. Talbot was one of the premier aristocrats of the realm, and Lord of the Manor of Worksop. He had seven children by his first marriage, two of whom would marry two of Bess’s in a double ceremony: Mary Cavendish, aged 12, married Shrewsbury's eldest son Gilbert, aged 16, while Henry Cavendish, aged 18, married Shrewsbury's daughter Lady Grace Talbot, aged 8.

So it was that Elizabeth Hardwick’s (Bess of Hardwick’s) descendants inherited, purchased or gained by marriage Worksop Manor, Welbeck Abbey, Rufford Abbey, Clumber and Thoresby, lands which because of their interlinking relationships and close proximity would become known as the Dukeries.

Above: Detail from Chapman's 1774 map of Nottinghamshire showing the layout of the Dukeries estates.

Below: London and North Eastern Railway travel brochure.