Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times

by George Bryan

Alston House, Cheyne Walk.

Shrewsbury, or Alston House, a capital mansion, built about the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., was situated in Cheyne Walk, to the west of the present “Pier Hotel.” This house was considered for a long time to have been the residence of Sir Thomas More; but Dr. King has proved, from the most authentic documents, that it never had any just pretensions to that honour.

It was an irregular brick building, forming three sides of a quadrangle. The principal room was one hundred and twenty feet in length, and was originally wainscotted with carved oak. One of the rooms was painted in imitation of marble, and appeared to have been originally an oratory. Certain curious portraits on panel, which had ornamented the large rooms, were destroyed some few years since; this is to be regretted, as, in all probability, they represented its former owners, or, at least, some persons of note.

Leading from the premises, towards the King’s Road, there is a subterranean passage, which has been explored for a short distance. It is said, traditionally, to have communicated with a cave or dungeon, situated at a considerable distance from the house; but for what purpose made, no one now in its vicinity confidently presumes to guess.

The following information concerning this subterranean passage, is obtained from a letter of Miss Gulston to Miss Tate, who was the proprietor of the estate:—

“I have found an old man, now living at Chelsea, who worked at the paper manufactory when a lad, and who has established the facts. I have always been laughed at when I have mentioned the story. I have gotten two drawings of the room and passage.

“The entrance to this passage was from the room used by the paper stainers as a drying place. It had no fire-place in it; the dimensions were nearly as follows: 25 feet high, 50 long, 36 wide; the ceiling was strong with beams, to sustain the upper floors, but without any plastered ceiling. You descended into it by a wide winding staircase, through a circular-top door, strongly fortified with rivets and four large hinges: this door was so contrived, that it opened far enough back to hide the approach to the hole, and could there be fastened so as to have the appearance of belonging to the large room, and the circular steps leading to it caused the more deception.

“The side walls are all brick. This man never could proceed with his light more than a distance of thirty yards, when the light invariably went out. The passage is free from any incumbrance of earth, or from any part of the side walls having given way; as far as could be ascertained, its direction was towards the river.

“It is regularly paved with two flag stones, leaving a border of six inches of earth; width 3 feet, length 5½ feet.

“This passage was discovered, owing to the proprietor having been robbed of a quantity of paper for years. The man now alive volunteered to detect the thief; the paper was found on the staircase descending to the passage.

“E. Gulston.”

Alston House was for many years the residence of the Shrewsbury family.

George, Earl of Shrewsbury, succeeded his father in the title, June 28th, the 13th Edward IV., while a minor. In the reign of Henry VIII. he was in high favour with that monarch, was steward of the household, and a privy counsellor, and accompanied the King at his interview with Francis I. at Guisnes.

In 28 Henry VIII., on the rebellion in the North, called “the pilgrimage of grace,” occasioned by the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, he was constituted the King’s Lieutenant, to march thither with a powerful army, he himself having raised a number of men at his own expense, when the Earl, and the Duke of Norfolk, succeeded in bringing the rebels to submission, and obtained for them the King’s pardon. This nobleman resided occasionally at Chelsea; and here his sixth son, by his first wife, was born. The Earl died 1538; he is characterised by Polydore Virgil, “as a person noble, prudent, and moderate through the whole course of his life.”

Francis, his son and heir, is mentioned among the freeholders in the court rolls of the Manor of Chelsea, 35 Henry VIII. This nobleman also enjoyed the favour of his sovereign during three succeeding reigns. In 1545 he was appointed the King’s Lieutenant in the North; and in the following year was installed one of the Knights Companions of the most noble order of the Garter. In 2 Edward VI. he had the command of a large army that was sent into Scotland, and in 1st of Queen Mary was made President of the Council of the North. He died September 21, 1560.

George, Earl of Shrewsbury, son of the preceding, was installed a Knight of the Garter, May 17, 1562. In 1568 the custody of the Queen of Scots was committed to his charge. In 1573, he presided as Lord High Steward at the trial of the Duke of Norfolk; and on the death of his Grace, which happened soon after, he was constituted Earl Marshal of England. He died 1590, and was buried at Sheffield, in the county of York. “An inquisition, taken at Derby, 3rd April, 33 Elizabeth, on the death of George, Earl of Shrewsbury; after reciting lands, &c., in many counties, adds Middlesex, one capital messuage, &c., in Chelsea. The value is lumped in many manors, into a gross sum of £800 a year.” The inscription on his monument, among other things, sets forth, “That, as he excelled in mind, so was he skilled in the affairs of war.” On the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots, in England, she was again put under his care, and so continued till 1584. His behaviour to her was ever generous and honourable, sparing no cost for her entertainment. Words cannot fully express the care and concern he had for her, nor can envy itself say otherwise than he was a faithful and prudent person; in a word, his integrity in his high office was not to be suspected, although evil disposed persons secretly and vaguely gave out that he had used too much familiarity with his royal prisoner. Thus, noble by descent, he was more noble and illustrious in his actions; famous at home and abroad; loyal to his prince and true to his country; and he resigned his soul in “a good old age.” The Earl married to his second wife, Elizabeth, widow of Sir William St. Loo, Captain of the Guards to Queen Elizabeth, who survived him, and to whom he probably bequeathed his house at Chelsea, as it appears to have descended to her son William, first Earl of Devonshire. In “Lodge’s Illustrations of English History,” is a letter of this nobleman, dated from Chelsea, in 1585.

Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury. This lady, who was much celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments, and still more for her extraordinary fortune in the world, was daughter of John Hardwick, Esq., of the county of Derby. At the age of fourteen she was married to Robert Barley, Esq., who, in about two years, left her a very rich widow. The next husband was Sir William Cavendish, ancestor of the Duke of Devonshire. Her third was Sir William St. Loo. In this third widowhood she had not survived her charms of wit and beauty, by which she captivated the then greatest subject of the land, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom she brought to terms of considerable honour and advantage to herself and children; for he not only yielded to a very large jointure, but to a union of families, by marrying Mary, her youngest daughter, to Gilbert, his son and afterwards his heir, and giving the Lady Grace, his youngest daughter, to Henry, her eldest son. In 1590 she was a fourth time left, and continued a widow till her death. Her’s was a change of conditions that, perhaps, never fell to any one woman before or since: to be four times a creditable and happy wife, and to rise by every husband to greater wealth and higher honours; and, after all, to live seventeen years a widow in absolute power and plenty. She built three of the most elegant seats that were ever raised by one person in the same county—Chatsworth, Hardwick, and Oldcoates; all transmitted entire to the first Duke of Devonshire. The Countess died in 1607, aged 87. She bequeathed all her estates to her son William, Earl of Devonshire; and we find this nobleman to have been in possession of this mansion at Chelsea soon after her death.

William, Earl of Devonshire, received his education with the sons of the Earl of Shrewsbury, his father in-law; and, being distinguished for eminent abilities, was advanced to the dignity of Baron Cavendish, by James I. in the third year of his reign; at which time of his creation his Majesty stood under a cloth of state in the hall at Greenwich, accompanied by the princes and the greatest part of the nobility, both of England and Scotland. In 1618 he was created Earl of Devonshire. He died at Hardwick in 1625. The Earl married, to his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Boughton, Esq., of the county of Warwick, and widow of Sir Richard Wortley. This lady survived him, and continued to reside at Chelsea till her death, which happened in 1643, as appears by the parish book, in which are also entries of the burials of some of her domestics.

After the death of the Countess of Devonshire, this ancient house became the property of Sir Joseph Alston, who was created a baronet by Charles II. in 1682. Mrs. Mary Alston, the wife of this gentleman, died here in 1671, and her funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Littleton, who published it shortly after, in quarto. Sir Joseph was in possession of this house in 1664; it afterwards came into the possession of Mr. Tate, and was occupied as a stained paper manufactory.

In 1813 it was pulled down, and the materials sold by a builder, who had obtained possession; and now not a stone remains to show where it once stood.

The family of Tate were originally of Chelsea, and had at one time large property here, which they parted with by degrees. They attained property also in Leicestershire, through a marriage with the daughter of Lord Zouch.

Bishop of Winchester’s Palace.

The Bishop of Winchester’s Palace, which was pulled down some years since, adjoined the gardens of Alston House, on the east, and on the site of which is now Oakley Street, and a terrace of well-built houses, fronting the river. The houses erected in Oakley Street are throughout of a superior class, and as the road is of considerable width, with a good pavement, it now forms the most respectable and important direct thoroughfare from the King’s Road to the centre of Cheyne Walk. The contemplated embankment and Albert Bridge will be noticed at the conclusion of this work, so as to get correct information.

The ancient palace of the Bishops of Winchester, in Southwark, having been dilapidated and laid waste, an Act of Parliament was passed in the year 1663 empowering George Morley, Bishop of Winchester, to lease out the houses in Southwark, and for other purposes. In the ensuing year the Bishop, in pursuance of this Act of Parliament, purchased a new brick house at Chelsea, then lately built by James Duke of Hamilton, and adjoining to the Manor House, Cheyne Walk, on the east, and Alston House, on the west, for £4250, to be the future residence of the bishops of this see, and to be called Winchester House. By the Act it was held to be within the diocese of Winchester.

The Bishopric of Winchester is of good antiquity, and has never changed the see since its foundation. The Bishops are Chancellors of the see of Canterbury, and Prelates of the most noble Order of St. George, called the Garter, which office was vested in them by King Edward III. at the establishment of that noble Order, and has continued with them ever since. Anciently, they were reputed Earls of Southampton, and are so styled in the Statutes of the Garter, made by Henry VIII.