CHELSEA MANOR
Before 1066 the manor of Chelsea, worth £9, was held
with estates in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire by
Wlwen, a woman, though described in Domesday Book
as the man (homo) of King Edward the Confessor. She
had the right to dispose of the manor to whom she
pleased, and by 1086 had been succeeded in Chelsea, as
elsewhere, by Edward of Salisbury, sheriff of Wiltshire. The estate, which was assessed at 2 hides, was still valued
at £9 in 1086. (fn. 1)
Within 30 years Chelsea had passed to Westminster
Abbey. There is no charter recording the grant, probably
because of confusion by Norman scribes between
Chelsea (Chealhythe) and Chalkhill (Cealchylle) near
Edgware, corrected in the 15th century. (fn. 2) Between 1115
and 1117 Abbot Gilbert Crispin granted Chelsea to
William of Buckland to hold for life for £4 a year, the
manor reverting to the abbey after his death. (fn. 1) The
12th-century Middlesex Hidage also listed Chelsea as
two hides belonging to the abbey. (fn. 2)
Gervase of Blois, abbot c.1138-c.1157, illegitimate
son of King Stephen, granted the manor of Chelsea to his
mother Dameta to hold for £4 a year, but instead of the
manor reverting to the abbey at her death, the grant was
made to her and her heirs to hold in fee and heredity, an
alienation for which Gervase was later criticized. As an
entry fine Dameta paid £2 and a pall worth £5. (fn. 3)
Although the pope, in a bull addressed to Gervase in
1157, confirmed the abbey's possessions including
Chelsea, (fn. 4) the abbey apparently never recovered full
possession apart from a temporary escheat in the 1450s; (fn. 5)
its title henceforth was to the £4 annual rent, (fn. 6) and to a
common fine or cert of 3s. at the view of frankpledge. (fn. 7)
William 'de Sefuntaine' witnessed a charter as lord of
Chelsea in 1244, (fn. 8) but the de Septem Fontibus or
Setfountain family may have held Chelsea manor from
the beginning of that century or even earlier. Ralph de
Setfountain was a witness to Abbot Gervase's charters
before 1157, (fn. 9) and in 1197 he or another Ralph bought a
virgate in Chelsea. (fn. 10) Ralph (d. 1211) was succeeded by
his son William, (fn. 11) who in 1214 acknowledged a tenant
who held in villeinage from him in Chelsea. (fn. 12) By c.1254
William had been succeeded by his son Ralph. (fn. 13)
In 1274 Ralph was coroner of Middlesex and
described as of Chelsea, (fn. 14) but in 1281 he granted the
manor of Chelsea to Laurence de Septem Fontibus,
presumably a relative, for the duration of Ralph's life at
£7 a year. (fn. 15) Ralph, still alive in 1286, was succeeded in
Essex by his son Thomas, who died c.1297 leaving his
sisters, Cecily and Isabel, as heirs. There was a formal
partition of the family estates in 1315 in which the
manor of Chelsea was allotted to Cecily, wife of Richard
de Heyle, (fn. 16) but she was already apparently in possession
of the manor, since as a widow she had granted the
manor to her son Richard and received it back for life
from him in 1314. (fn. 17) In the 1316 assessment the vill of
Chelsea was said to be held by 'the heirs of Bartholomew
de Septem Fontibus', not otherwise known. (fn. 18) Richard de
Heyle was lord of Chelsea in 1339, (fn. 19) and in 1349 settled
the manor on himself for life, with successive remainders to his children, Nicholas, Margaret, and Elizabeth,
and then to John Bray of Chiswick and his wife Joan, and
then to William and Robert, sons of William atte Water
of Ware (Herts.). (fn. 20) It seems probable that all Richard de
Heyle's children died during his lifetime: in 1367 in
return for a corrody he leased the manor of Chelsea
together with its feudal rights to Westminster abbey for
his lifetime for £20 a year, a discharge of his £4 annual
rent, and an undertaking not to farm out the manor. (fn. 21)
After Heyle's death, probably in 1370, the manor
reverted to his heirs, (fn. 22) and was held by William son of
William atte Water of Ware in 1370; by 1383 it had
descended to William's daughter Helen and her
husband John Shoreditch the younger of Hackney. In
that year Shoreditch leased out most of the dwelling
house in Chelsea which had been William atte Water's,
probably meaning the manor house. (fn. 23) Shoreditch,
described as lord of the manor in 1394, (fn. 24) died in 1407
leaving instructions for burial in Chelsea church in his
chapel on the north side of the chancel, where his wife
Helen was buried. (fn. 25) He was succeeded by his son John,
who in 1412 was said to hold the manor of Chelsea
worth £10. (fn. 26)
John's title to the manor was challenged c.1445 by
William Heyle, descended from another branch of the
family, (fn. 27) but Shoreditch must have successfully
defended his title since he subsequently enfeoffed
Thomas Burgoyne and others, probably on the marriage
of his son Robert to Margaret Tanfield. (fn. 28) John died in
1452, and though his widow Maud held his other property, Chelsea apparently escheated to Westminster
Abbey as chief lord of the fee, since it was administered
for the abbey from 1453 to 1455 by a farmer and
rent-collector, William Young. (fn. 29) John Shoreditch's son
Robert brought a suit in Chancery for the Chelsea and
Hackney estates in 1452-3, (fn. 30) which was presumably
settled in his favour by 1455, and he was described as
'late of Chelsea' in 1478 at the marriage of his son
George. (fn. 1) In 1485 Robert, his wife Margaret, and his son
George sold Chelsea manor for £300 to Sir Reginald
Bray, royal official and administrator under Henry VII,
acknowledging the abbot of Westminster as chief lord of
the fee. (fn. 2)
Sir Reginald by will proved 1503 instructed his
feoffees to allow his wife Katharine to receive the profits
from Chelsea for life, and after her death to make an
estate in the manor to the sons of his younger brother
John, provided they married his wards, Agnes and Elizabeth Lovell, his wife's nieces. (fn. 3) Katharine received £46
17s. 4d. in rent from the manor in 1505-6, (fn. 4) but had died
by February 1508. (fn. 5) The provisions of Sir Reginald's will
were not carried out, possibly because the elder of John
Bray's sons, Edmund, had not fulfilled the marriage
conditions. There was also a prolonged dispute over Sir
Reginald's estates between Edmund Bray, claiming as his
eldest surviving male relative, and Margery, wife of Sir
William Sandys, who was the daughter of Sir Reginald's
older half-brother, also called John: (fn. 6) her claim was based
on an earlier will of 1497. The dispute was settled in
1510 by a partition of all Sir Reginald's estates between
the claimants, under which Chelsea was allotted to
Margery and Sir William Sandys and their issue, with a
remainder to Bray. (fn. 7)
Sandys, a royal official and courtier created Baron
Sandys in 1523, (fn. 8) conveyed the manor of Chelsea to
Henry VIII in May 1536 as part of an exchange, and the
king acquired Westminster Abbey's rent-charge and
overlordship with property in Westminster as part of
another exchange that year, giving the Crown absolute
title to Chelsea manor. (fn. 9) Chelsea was granted to Queen
Catherine Parr for life in 1544 as part of her jointure. (fn. 10)
After Henry's death she married her former suitor, Sir
Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral and Baron
Seymour of Sudeley, but died after childbirth in 1548;
Seymour was executed for treason in 1549 and Chelsea
reverted to the Crown. (fn. 11)
Edward VI granted Chelsea manor, valued at £30 3s.
1½d. a year, to John Dudley, earl of Warwick and later
duke of Northumberland, in 1551 as part of an exchange
to hold in chief for 1/40th knight's fee. (fn. 12) Northumberland surrendered the manor to the king early in 1552, (fn. 13)
though he apparently continued to be resident in
Chelsea, (fn. 14) and in 1553 he with his wife Jane were again
granted Chelsea for service of a knight's fee and rent of
£3 16s. 10¼d. (fn. 15) Shortly afterwards the property was
confiscated by the Crown on Northumberland's
attainder and execution, but in 1554 his widow successfully petitioned for a grant of Chelsea to her for life, (fn. 16) and
she died at the manor house in 1555. (fn. 17) Between grants
the manor was managed by bailiffs and keepers of the
manor house appointed by the Crown. (fn. 18)
From 1560 to 1638 the Crown leased out the manor
for lives or terms of years. In 1560 Queen Elizabeth
granted the manor for life to Anne Seymour, duchess of
Somerset and widow of Protector Somerset, for £13 6s.
8d. a year and payment of the bailiffs and steward's
wages. (fn. 19) In 1570 Anne and her second husband, Francis
Newdigate, were successfully prosecuted for failing to
pay any rent for 10 years. (fn. 20) Anne died in 1587, (fn. 21) and in
1588 a grant was made on identical terms to her nephew,
John Stanhope (d. 1621), gentleman of the Privy
Chamber, who already subleased demesne land under
the duchess. (fn. 22) He presumably surrendered his grant, as
in 1591 a similar grant for life was made to Lady Catherine Howard (d. 1603), (fn. 23) first wife of Charles Howard,
Lord Howard of Effingham and later earl of
Nottingham, and in 1604 to his second wife Margaret
(d. 1639). (fn. 24) The lease to Margaret was repeated in
1606, (fn. 25) and in 1609 James I granted a reversion of the
lease for 40 years after Margaret's death to her son
James, at a rent of £45 15s. 7d. a year, which reverted to
the countess when James died in 1610. (fn. 26) After the earl of
Nottingham's death in 1624, Margaret married Sir
William Monson, later Viscount Monson of
Castlemaine, (fn. 27) and in 1628 the Monsons conveyed the
40-year reversionary lease in Chelsea Place to Sir John
Monson and Robert Goodwyn, probably as mortgagees. (fn. 28)
In 1638 James Hamilton, marquess, and from 1643
duke, of Hamilton, bought the life lease from Monson
and his wife and the 40-year reversion, (fn. 29) and Charles I
granted the manor to him to hold in socage for a fee farm
of £10 a year. (fn. 1) The fee farm rent was still payable to the
Crown in the reign of Charles II, (fn. 2) when it was sold by the
Crown, probably to Sir John Bennet (d. 1695), 1st Lord
Ossulston, whose son Charles (d. 1722), 1st earl of
Tankerville, held the right to the £10 in the early 18th
century. (fn. 3) William Lord Cheyne settled the Feathers Inn
and a small adjoining house on Robert Butler and
William Clarkson in 1709, in trust to pay the £10 annually, (fn. 4) but in 1725 Charles Bennet, 2ndearl of Tankerville,
sold the fee farm to Sir Hans Sloane, (fn. 5) who merged it into
the freehold.
Figure 47:
A depiction of the north (rear) side of the Tudor manor house, showing the 17th-century addition (right)
Although Hamilton could only pay £2,000 of the
£8,000 required by Monson for the leases, he embarked
on extensive building at Chelsea and by 1641 had accumulated debts of £22,800. (fn. 6) As part of the financial transactions he conveyed the main house, Chelsea Place, in
1638 to his brother-in-law, Sir John Hamilton, (fn. 7) and in
1640 his trustee mortgaged the 40-year term of the rest
to Monson's trustee. (fn. 8) The duke fought for the king in the
civil war, was imprisoned from 1644 to 1646, and was
executed for treason in 1649. He left his estates by will to
his brother William, who succeeded him as second duke
but died of wounds received at the battle of Worcester in
1651.
All the Hamilton estates were confiscated under the
Act for the sale of estates forfeited for treason. (fn. 9) The
duke's property in Chelsea, said to be worth £500 a year,
was sequestered in 1649 on the grounds of his delinquency, (fn. 10) and in 1651 Chelsea Place was leased for seven
years by the Commissioners for Compounding to
William Heveningham and John Goodwin. (fn. 11) Meanwhile
Monson, whose first wife Margaret had died in 1639,
had married Frances Alston in 1646, (fn. 12) and as part of the
marriage settlement his trustee conveyed the 40-year
term to Frances's brothers, Sir Thomas, John, and
Edward Alston in trust for Monson and his wife. (fn. 13)
Monson had difficulty is getting the rents paid to him by
1646, and this was still a problem in 1651, (fn. 14) when he was
in possession of the manor for payment of his mortgage
debt and was said to be receiving c. £400 a year from the
manor. (fn. 15) In 1652, when Monson and the Alstons were
negotiating with the commissioners for the purchase of
Chelsea manor (excluding Chelsea Place), they found
that at least five undertenants had purchased their farms,
which prevented the commissioners making a contract
with Monson. (fn. 16) Monson succeeded in getting at least
some of the sales reversed on the grounds of his rights in
the manor, (fn. 17) but his efforts to buy the manor were eventually defeated because of the prior grant in 1638 to Sir
John Hamilton, Lord Belhaven from 1647, (fn. 18) to pay
Hamilton's debts. Belhaven assigned all his interest in
the manor to Andrew Cole, the duke's agent, in trust to
sell to pay off the creditors, beginning with Monson's
mortgage. (fn. 19) Cole and Robert Austin, one of the principal
creditors, contracted to purchase the forfeited manor,
with the exception of Chelsea Place and some farmland, (fn. 20) supported in 1654 by a petition from the other
creditors to the parliamentary trustees. (fn. 21) The trustees
had simultaneously been negotiating to sell to Monson,
but he was unable to raise the sum required until 1655. (fn. 1)
In April 1654 all claims on Chelsea manor were examined and the parliamentary trustees conveyed the manor
and Chelsea Place to a group of Hamilton's creditors. (fn. 2)
William Heveningham and John Goodwin, lessees since
1651 of Chelsea Place, protested at being ejected from
the house, having spent more than £1,000 making it
habitable after the depredations by billeted soldiers; the
creditors agreed to pay them £800 but their ejection was
confirmed. (fn. 3) Monson's final attempt to purchase the
manor in 1655 came too late, (fn. 4) but the mortgage debt
owed to him was eventually repaid.
From 1655 rents were paid to Andrew Cole for the
creditors and Chelsea Place itself was leased in two separate parts, to Charles Cheyne and Sir Henry Herbert. (fn. 5)
Negotiations began in 1657 for the sale of both the
manor and Chelsea Place to Charles Cheyne, (fn. 6) a
Buckinghamshire gentleman who had acquired considerable wealth through his marriage in 1654 to Jane
daughter of William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle. (fn. 7)
Cheyne seems to have begun paying for the house in
1657 (£1,900), paying in instalments until the final
payment for whole estate in 1661; the total cost was
£13,626. (fn. 8) By that time Monson's mortgage (in the name
of the Alston brothers) was finally paid off, (fn. 9) and a
conveyance of the manor and Chelsea Place was made to
Cheyne by Hamilton's heirs. (fn. 10)
Charles Cheyne (d. 1698), Viscount Newhaven from
1681, (fn. 11) by will proved 1699 bequeathed to his second
wife Isabella, countess of Radnor, for life all his arable
lands in Eastfield with any buildings thereon, and any
houses in Chelsea 'town' not mentioned in the 1675
marriage settlement of Charles's son William and his
first wife, Elizabeth Thomas (d. 1677). (fn. 12) He left
Blacklands, apparently not included in the 1675 settlement, and all other lands to William, requesting that he
allow Isabella to have one of his mansion houses in
Chelsea or Buckinghamshire. (fn. 13) Isabella continued to live
in Chelsea, but in Radnor House, Paradise Row.
William, Viscount Newhaven, does not appear to have
lived at Chelsea after his father's death: his interest in
Chelsea was financial, raising several mortgages on the
estate and granting building leases. (fn. 14) In 1712-13
Newhaven sold the manor, the advowson of Chelsea
church, and the manor house and demesne to Dr Hans
Sloane, created baronet in 1716; (fn. 15) Isabella, countess of
Radnor, and the trustees under the settlement of 1675
also conveyed all their interests to Sloane, (fn. 16) who apparently paid £17,800. (fn. 17)
Sloane continued Cheyne's interest in building on the
estate, but in 1742 he retired to the manor house, which
housed his collections. On his death in 1753 he left the
manor jointly to his daughters, Sarah widow of Sir
George Stanley of Paultons (Hants.), and Elizabeth wife
of Charles Cadogan, 2nd Lord Cadogan. (fn. 18) Sarah's undivided moiety of the manor was inherited by her son
Hans Stanley, who died unmarried in 1780: under his
will and a subsequent settlement the Stanley moiety of
Chelsea manor passed to his sisters, Anne (d. 1804), wife
of Wellbore Ellis, Lord Mendip, and Sarah (d. 1821),
wife of Christopher D'Oyley, for their lives and then to
their issue, (fn. 19) but both died childless, and in 1821 the
estate was reunited in the Cadogan family. (fn. 20) Elizabeth
Cadogan (d. 1768) and her husband Charles (d. 1776)
were succeeded by their son, Charles Sloane (d. 1807),
Earl Cadogan from 1800, and his son Charles Henry
Sloane (d. 1833). The latter was insane for more than 25
years, during which time the Cadogan estates were
administered by trustees called committees. He was
succeeded by his half-brother George (d. 1864), and the
estate thenceforth passed in the direct male line with the
earldom to Henry Charles (d. 1873), George Henry (d.
1915), Gerald Oakley (d. 1933), William Gerald Charles
(d. 1997), and Charles Gerald John. (fn. 21)
By the late 19th century the estate was settled and the
earl held as a tenant for life; (fn. 22) the Cadogan Estate Office
was established to run the estate in 1890. (fn. 23) Heavy death
duties led to a substantial mortgage to preserve the
Chelsea estate in 1934, (fn. 24) and to avoid further death
duties Cadogan Estates Ltd was created c. 1961 to hold
most of the estate, a small portion being left in the
personal ownership of Earl Cadogan and his son,
Viscount Chelsea. (fn. 25)
THE DEMESNE
The original manorial demesne probably comprised
about 200-250 acres in the Middle Ages. It was at least
173 acres in 1454, (fn. 1) and the more accurate and detailed
assessments in the 16th century suggest it was as much as
242 acres. (fn. 2) By 1519 some 5 acres had been used for site
of the new Tudor manor house. (fn. 3) In addition Henry VIII
added two freeholdings of the manor to the demesne by
exchange: Thomas Keyle's tenement and close, later
called the Pye or Magpie, in 1538, (fn. 4) and Robert White's 2
tenements, 40 a. arable, and 7 lots of meadow in Chelsea
with the manor of Notting Barns (Kens.) in 1542. (fn. 5) In
1557 the medieval manor house with 4 acres adjoining
was granted away. (fn. 6) Over 228 a. and 10 houses were
described in 1639, (fn. 7) and 233 a. in 1664. (fn. 8) From the late
17th century there was steady building of new houses on
parcels of the demesne, which were let on building
leases. In 1713 the demesne conveyed to Sir Hans Sloane
included 11 houses, an unknown number of tenements,
and 166 a., (fn. 9) but by that date more demesne had been
granted away: 27 a. to King James's College in 1610;
c. 2½ a. with Winchester House in 1664; sales to the
Royal Hospital of 21 a. in 1682, 6 a. (Sweed Court) in
1686, 13 a. (Burton's Court) in 1687; 3½ a. to Gough
House c. 1706; and 3½ a. to the Apothecaries' Company
for their physic garden in 1722. (fn. 10)
MANORIAL ESTATE FROM THE 18TH CENTURY
A steady stream of additions were made to the manorial
estate as sizeable blocks of land came up for sale. Sir
Hans Sloane bought the Beaufort House estate of c.7 a.
in 1737. (fn. 11) In 1794 Charles, Lord Cadogan, purchased
8½ a. comprising the farmhouse with barn, garden, and
meadow at Sandy End from the trustees of Edward
Burnaby Greene's estate; (fn. 12) and in 1821 trustees for Lord
Cadogan purchased the Winchester House estate of
2½ a. (fn. 13) Garden ground on the west side of Milman's
Street, formerly part of the Gorges House estate, and
Ashburnham Cottage with 4 a. had been purchased by
1847. (fn. 14)
Sir Hans Sloane and his successors also made gifts of
parts of the estate for parish and church purposes, (fn. 15) and
from the 19th century some of the building
development on the estate involved selling parcels of
freehold, such as 5½ a. in Lower Sloane Street to William
Willett, and c. 4 a. north of Hans Place in 1889. (fn. 16) Larger
sales were made of areas which the Cadogan Estate did
not wish to develop itself, such as 44½ a. in the
south-western corner of the parish including the
Cremorne and Ashburnham estates in 1866, (fn. 17) and 20 a.
near Draycott Avenue in 1902. (fn. 18) In the later 20th century
sales increased, partly because of the right to buy the
freehold given to leaseholders, but more recently as part
of Cadogan Estate's deliberate policy of selling residential property to concentrate on commercial holdings. By
c. 1998 the estate covered approximately 90 a. (fn. 19)
Figure 48:
Winchester House c. 1800, originally the 17th-century addition to the Tudor manor house
MEDIEVAL MANOR HOUSE
The medieval manor house and its gardens and
outbuildings lay to the east of Church Lane, encircling
the north and east sides of the parish church. It was
probably the house let for 5 years by John Shoreditch to
John Bacun, clerk, in 1383, when Shoreditch reserved
the solar and chimney of the new chamber to himself but
Bacun was to have the chamber under the solar; the
lessee could also buy hay, litter, doves and other things
from the manor, and could use the little grange for his
hay if he did so. (fn. 20) The house with its gardens and a 4-acre
close was leased out in 1519 by the lord, William
Sandys, (fn. 21) and in 1557 the Crown granted away the site of
the medieval manor house with gardens, a dovecote, and
4-acre close, to John Caryll to hold in free socage of the
manor of East Greenwich. (fn. 22) Its later history is recorded
below under the Lawrence estate. (fn. 23)
TUDOR MANOR HOUSE (CHELSEA PLACE)
The new manor house, usually called Chelsea Place, was
built about a fifth of a mile to the east of the medieval
house, fronting the riverside. Since the early 17th century
it has been claimed that Chelsea Place was built by Henry
VIII, but there is no contemporary evidence for this, nor
did the king show any particular interest in Chelsea. (fn. 24)
Chelsea Place was probably built either by the Sir Reginald
Bray or William Sandys, and presumably by 1519 when
Sandys let the old manor house. Some improvements
and repairs are recorded: in 1536 or 1537 framed timber
was carried from Whitehall to Chelsea for the king's and
queen's new closets there, and there are various accounts
for repairs in the 1540s. (fn. 1) In November 1538 suitable
plants such as bay and rosemary were sent from the
Charterhouse to the king's gardener for his garden at
Chelsea. (fn. 2) The house had gardens on the north side and,
by the mid 16th century, a walled 'great garden' on the
east side. Only one of the garden accounts that survive
for Chelsea is dated: in 1545-6 Queen Catherine Parr's
gardener, John Colman, was paid 8d. a day and two
women weeders 4d. a day, and he was also paid for seeds
to be sown. (fn. 3) Another refers to the making of the privy
garden, and payments for five women weeders for 32
days and someone to mow the alleys; (fn. 4) a Westminster
gardener sent two banks of rosemary and six borders of
lavender; (fn. 5) and in one year 29 gardeners and 6 women
weeders were employed, and 29 cherry, 5 filbert, 5
damson, and 2 peach trees were ordered, as well as 200
damask roses, 11,000 sets of whitethorn and 64,000 of
privet for hedges. (fn. 6)
Queen Catherine Parr spent much time at Chelsea
Place after Henry VIII's death and her marriage to Sir
Thomas Seymour, until her own death in 1548. (fn. 7) John
Dudley, duke of Northumberland, lived in Chelsea occasionally while he held the manor from 1551 to 1553, (fn. 8)
and his widow Jane lived there from 1554 until her death
at Chelsea Place in 1555. (fn. 9) Anne of Cleves died at the
house in 1557. (fn. 10) James, marquess of Hamilton, began
extensive building when he acquired the manor in 1638,
repairing the Tudor house but also building a slightly
larger west extension. (fn. 11) The resulting mansion, considered fitting for a man known for being 'very sumptuous
and magnificent in his way of living', was only occupied
by the Hamiltons until the early 1640s. (fn. 12) The property
was later used for billeting soldiers until it was let in
1651. (fn. 13)
From 1655 the Tudor and Stuart parts of Chelsea
Place formed separate dwellings divided between
Charles Cheyne and Sir Henry Herbert; (fn. 14) the latter probably occupied the newer part, which was sold in 1664 to
the bishop of Winchester and became known as
Winchester House. (fn. 15)
Charles Cheyne bought the manor and continued to
live in the Tudor Chelsea Place; he was the occupier in
1674. (fn. 16) Later in the century Henry Winstanley designed
some 'ingenious water-works' in the gardens which John
Evelyn viewed in 1696. Though Sir Hans Sloane had an
interest in plant-collecting and supported the Physic
Garden, he did not maintain the manor house's gardens,
surrendering the great garden to the building of Cheyne
Walk, and laying out a strip of garden, probably that
lying along the north side of the former great garden,
which was described disparagingly by Edmund Howard,
who worked in it. (fn. 17) Sloane retired to Chelsea Place in
1742, and the house became a library and museum for
his collections, described in 1748 as a square of over 100
ft on each side enclosing a courtyard with a gallery the
length of one side. At his death in 1753 Sloane directed
his trustees to preserve the house as a repository for his
collections, which he offered to the nation. However,
Montague House in Bloomsbury was purchased instead
and the collection was moved there in 1759 to form the
nucleus of the later British Museum. (fn. 18) Chelsea Place was
demolished and the site covered by the houses and
gardens of nos 19-26 Cheyne Walk between 1759 and
1765. (fn. 19)
Winchester House
An Act had been passed in 1663 to enable the bishop of
Winchester to dispose of the old Winchester palace in
Southwark, which had been destroyed during the Civil
War, and to purchase another suitable house in or near
London. In 1664 he bought from Cheyne the
17th-century part of Chelsea Place: the new house,
which became known as Winchester House, thereafter
belonged to the bishopric of Winchester and was
exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop of London
and considered as in the Winchester diocese. (fn. 20) During
the next 20 years the bishops spent considerable sums on
alterations, mostly in wainscotting and building a
chapel. (fn. 21) Winchester House was described in the early
18th century as 'a noble seat' with 'a good front and
noble staircase', (fn. 1) and c.1781 as 'a most incomparable
mansion', (fn. 2) but change of taste meant that by the 19th
century it was no longer appreciated. (fn. 3) The house was
dilapidated by 1821 when Bishop Tomline applied for
an Act enabling him to sell it. (fn. 4) The house and its grounds
of 2½ a. was bought by trustees for Earl Cadogan in 1823
and added to the manorial estate; in 1825 the house was
demolished and Oakley Street was later built through the
site. (fn. 5) In 1962 the Cadogan Estate sold 1 a. of the site to
Wates Ltd, (fn. 6) and the freehold of the whole site had been
sold by 1998. (fn. 7)
Manor House: The Buildings
Since the Tudor house was demolished as late as the
1750s, it is surprising that there are no known authentic
images of that house. The drawing first published by
Faulkner, the basis of all subsequent known pictures,
was said to come from an 'old roll' and is rather
dubious. (fn. 8) It seems to show only the rear or north side,
and the 17th-century extension to the west. The Tudor
front appears from this to have been two-storeyed, with
a battlemented parapet and bold chimneystacks as
regular punctuation to five unequal bays. A plan of
Chelsea village drawn in 1706 to show the water supply
gives more information, showing a courtyard-plan
house with external stacks on the north and south fronts.
At that date there was an entrance court on the river
front. (fn. 9) Though the houses later built on the site in
Cheyne Walk were 200 ft wide and were thought to
cover the house site exactly, (fn. 10) the 1706 plan shows a
house between 100 and 150 feet wide with space on the
east for access to the gardens.
The marquess of Hamilton's new range adjoined the
west side of the manor house. Early 19th-century drawings show an externally plain house of brick with Artisan
mannerist details. It appears to have been of nine (south)
by ten bays (west) entered from the south, and retaining
many of its mullioned and transomed cross windows.
Part of the house seems to have been three storeyed, and
part two, plus garrets with dormers. Hamilton seems
also to have remodelled the Tudor house, giving it new
windows. (fn. 11)
The enlarged manor house was described in 1653 as
consisting of 3 cellars on the first level, 20 rooms with a
large staircase on the first storey, and 24 rooms on the
next floor with garrets over part of them, and summer
rooms with a bedroom; in 1674, when it was two houses,
the Tudor part was assessed at 23 hearths and the new
part at 33. (fn. 12) In 1653 there was a garden and orchard on
the north side of the house, and a courtyard on the south
side. The premises also included a stable and
coachhouse, three little gardens, a parcel of ground
enclosed with a brick wall formerly called the Great
Orchard which had been ploughed up, and part of
Coney close and the conduit head in 'Chelsey field' (part
of the glebe). The house with its gardens and courts was
estimated to contain 5 a. 20 p. (fn. 13)
When the ownership of the two parts of the house was
divided, Winchester House received a share of the front
courtyard, with stables and coachhouse on the west, and
gardens on the north and west. (fn. 14) At its sale in 1823
Winchester House, still a courtyard house, had its principal entrance on the south. On the ground floor was a
great hall and chapel, connected by a grand staircase to
three grand drawing rooms with stucco ceilings and
coloured Italian marble chimney-pieces on the first
floor. There were two libraries in the north wing and in
the east a great gallery containing many fine antiquities,
including murals from Herculaneum which the bishop
had collected in 1791. (fn. 15) By 1791 too, sashes had been
fitted into the upper windows on its south front. (fn. 16)