George Digby, Earl of Bristol, was born in 1612, and was educated at Oxford; he soon became distinguished by his remarkable advancement in all kinds of elegant literature. In the beginning of the Long Parliament he was disaffected to the Court; shortly afterwards he appeared a declared enemy to the Parliament; and having testified his dislike of their proceedings against Lord Strafford, he was expelled the House of Commons in 1641. Upon the death of the king his lordship was exempted from pardon by the Parliament, and obliged to live in exile till the restoration of Charles II., when he recovered all he had lost; he grew very active in public affairs, spoke frequently in Parliament, and made himself conspicuous for his enmity to Lord Clarendon. Lord Bristol died in 1677, “neither loved nor regretted by any party.” The house at Chelsea he bequeathed to his Countess, Lady Ann Russell, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford, who sold it in 1682, to the Marquis of Worcester, created Duke of Beaufort, and who died in 1699.
The name of the house was now changed to Beaufort House. Mr. Evelyn, in his Diary, makes frequent mention of it:—“I went with my Lady Sunderland to Chelsey (1679), and dined with the Countess of Bristol (her mother) in the great house, formerly the Duke of Buckingham’s, a spacious and excellent place for the extent of ground and situation, in a good air. The house is large, but ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol expended much money upon it. There were divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of Bassans, very excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a Butcher in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss, and of Van Dyck, my Lord of Bristol’s picture, with the Earl of Bedford’s at length. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange trees, of which she was pleased to bestow some upon me.” Again, in 1683, Mr. Evelyn says, “I went to see what had been done by the Duke of Beaufort on his house at Chelsey; he had made great alterations, but might have made a better house with the materials and the cost he had been at.”
Henry, second Duke of Beaufort, by his will, dated in 1712, left all his estates, in trust, to be sold, and the produce appropriated according to a settlement made at his marriage. The house, however, continued to be the residence of that noble family till about the year 1720. Mary, relict of the first duke, died here in 1714, at the good old age of 85 years.
It may here be observed that Chelsea, not only in former times, but at the present period, 1869, is admitted to be generally a very healthy parish. This assertion is proved by the weekly reports given to the Vestry by Dr. Barclay, the medical officer of health, and which is confirmed by other gentlemen of the medical profession. The reports read at the meetings of the Chelsea Board of Guardians, also, shew that a great many of the inmates of the workhouse live to a very advanced age; and from peculiar facilities I possessed, many years ago, I can positively assert that the number of aged persons, who had for a long period been residents, was greater than in most of the other suburban parishes.
Sir Hans Sloane, after the mansion had stood empty for several years, purchased it in 1736, for the sum of £2,500 at a public sale, and had it pulled down in 1740. The gate, which was built by Inigo Jones for the Lord Treasurer Middlesex, he gave to the Earl of Burlington, who removed it to his gardens at Chiswick, which occasioned the following lines by Pope:—
PASSENGER.
O Gate, how com’st thou here?
GATE.
I was brought from Chelsea last year,
Batter’d with wind and weather;
Inigo Jones put me together;
Sir Hans Sloane,
Let me alone,
Burlington brought me hither.
This gate was placed in an avenue near the house at Chiswick, and consisted of a portico, supported by two columns of the Doric order on one side, and pilasters on the other. On two stone tablets were inscribed: “Builded by Inigo Jones, at Chelsea, MDCXXI.” “Given by Sir Hans Sloane, baronet, to the Earl of Burlington, MDCCXXXVII.”
Bowack thus describes Beaufort House in 1705: “This house is between two and three hundred feet in length, has a stately ancient front towards the Thames, also two spacious court yards, and behind it are very fine gardens. It is so pleasantly situated, that the late Queen Mary had a great desire to purchase it before King William built Kensington, but was prevented by some secret obstacles.”
Attached to the house was a chapel, which appears to have been attended by a few of the inhabitants. In various marriage licenses, granted in 1722, and in other years, persons were to be married in the Parish Church, in the chapel of Chelsea College, or the chapel of Beaufort House.
The above account of this celebrated mansion cannot fail to be highly interesting to the generality of readers. Mr. Faulkner has truly observed, “that few houses can boast of having been the residence of such a succession of noble and distinguished characters.”