The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

KEDLESTON HALL.

KEDLESTON, the seat of Lord Scarsdale, is justly considered to be one of the most pure and chaste in design of any of the classical mansions of our English aristocracy. It may, therefore, both on that account and from the beauty of its situation, the interest attaching to the family of its noble owner, and the many associations which surround it, well be called a “Stately Home,” and thus claim to be included in our present volume. At the time of its erection, in 1761, it was pronounced to be one of the most perfect specimens of architectural taste in the kingdom, and it has, consequently, been visited by many persons of note: these have, one and all been lavish in their praises of its proportions and parts, of the interior details and finishing, of the pictures and articles of virtu which it contains, and of its grand old park, studded with the finest of oaks and other forest trees.

Bray, who wrote in 1777, says of the present building—then, it must be remembered, only newly erected—“Kedleston may properly be called the glory of Derbyshire, eclipsing Chatsworth, the ancient boast of the county; the front is magnificent and beautiful, the apartments elegant, at the same time useful, a circumstance not always to be met with in a great house.” This, of course, was before the great additions and alterations were made to and at Chatsworth, and therefore must not be taken to refer to that palatial residence as it now stands. Since Bray’s time, every writer who has spoken of Kedleston speaks in the same strain of praise of its symmetry and design.

Before describing the hall, or speaking of its history, we will, as usual, give a brief genealogical account of the family of its noble owner. The Curzons are said to be descended from Geraline de Curson, or Curzon, who came over with the Conqueror, and was of Breton origin. This Geraline de Curzon was lord of the manor of Locking, in Berkshire, and held, by the grant of the King, many other manors and lands in that county and in Oxfordshire. He was a great benefactor to the abbey of Abingdon. He had three sons, Stephen, Richard, and Geraline, by the first of whom he was succeeded. This Stephen de Curzon, besides the estates in Oxon and Berks to which he had succeeded, had the manor of Fauld, in Staffordshire, granted to him by William de Ferrars, Earl of Derby. He had an only daughter, married to Nicholas Burton, of Fauld, and was succeeded by his brother, Richard de Curzon, who, in the reign of Henry I., held four knight’s fees in Kedleston, Croxhall, Twyford, and Edinghall, in the county of Derby. He was succeeded by his son Robert, who married Alice de Somervile, and was, in turn, succeeded by his eldest son, Richard, who married Petronel, daughter of Richard de Camville, Lord of Creek, or Creeth, by whom he had a son, Robert de Curzon, of Croxhall, “whose line terminated in an heir female, Mary, daughter and sole heiress of Sir George Curzon, who was married to Edward Sackville, Duke of Dorset. Of this family was Cardinal de Curzon, so famous about the time of King John.” Thomas Curzon, grandson of Robert, was succeeded by another Thomas, whose son, Engelard Curzon (temp. Henry III.), left issue a son, Richard, who (25 Edward I.) held a fourth part of a knight’s fee at Kedleston. His son, Ralph, was father of Richard de Curzon, who (4 Edward III.) held three parts of a knight’s fee at Kedleston, and was succeeded by his son, Sir Roger de Curzon, of Kedleston, Knt., who was living temp. Richard I. His son, Sir John Curzon, who was one of the King’s Council, married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert Twyford, and was succeeded by his son John, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir Nicholas de Montgomery, by whom he had issue three sons—viz. Richard, who succeeded him; Walter, who married Isabel, daughter of Robert Saunders, Esq., of Harrington, in the county of Northampton, from which marriage descended the Curzons of Water-Perry; and Henry, who was the great-grandfather of Sir Robert Curzon, created a baron of the German empire by Maximilian in 1500, and a baron of England by Henry VIII., but died without issue. The line of Curzon of Water-Perry, just now alluded to, passed successively from Walter Curzon through his son and grandson, Richard and Vincent, to Sir Francis Curzon, Knt., who married Anne, daughter of Judge Southcote; his son, Sir John Curzon, who married Mary, daughter of Robert, Lord Dormer; Sir Thomas Curzon, Bart. (son of the last), who married Elizabeth Burrow, and was created a baronet in 1661; his son, Sir John Curzon, Bart., who was succeeded by his son, Sir Francis Curzon, Bart., who died without surviving issue. The baronetcy thus became extinct, the family estates of Water-Perry devolving eventually upon Francis, Lord Teynham, who, in consequence, assumed the surname of Curzon in addition to that of Roper.

Richard Curzon, the eldest son and successor of John Curzon and his wife, Margaret Montgomery (just named), was, in the 11th year of Henry VI., Captain of Sandgate Castle, Kent, and was succeeded by his son, John Curzon, of Kedleston. This gentleman, generally known as “John with the white head,” was high sheriff of the counties of Nottingham and Derby in the 15th year of Henry VI., and, four years later, escheator for the same. He married Joan, daughter of Sir John Bagot, by whom he had issue one son, Richard, and four daughters, one of whom married John Ireton, of Ireton, in Derbyshire, and was great-great-grandmother of General Henry Ireton, the celebrated Parliamentarian officer.

Richard Curzon married Alice Willoughby, of Wollaton, of the family of Lord Middleton, and, dying in 1496, left issue by her, two sons—John and Henry—and a daughter, Elizabeth, who was prioress of King’s Mead, Derby. This John de Curzon was high sheriff on three different occasions, and died in the 4th year of Henry VIII. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Eyre, of Hassop, and was succeeded by his only son and heir, Richard, who married Helen, daughter of German Pole, of Radbourne, by whom he had issue four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, John, dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother Francis (aged twenty-five, 2 Edward VI.), who married Eleanor, co-heiress of Thomas Vernon, of Stokesley, through whom a claim to the barony of Powis was brought into the family. By this lady he had issue four sons (from one of whom the Curzons of Minley were descended) and two daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, John Curzon, who took to wife Millicent, daughter of Sir Ralph Sacheverell, and widow of Sir Thomas Gell, of Hopton. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir John Curzon, created a baronet by Charles I. Sir John, who represented the county of Derby in Parliament, 15 and 16 of Charles I., married Patience, daughter of Sir Thomas Crewe, and sister of John, Lord Crewe, of Steene, by whom he had issue four sons—John, Francis, and Thomas, who all died without issue, and Nathaniel, who succeeded him—and three daughters—Patience, who died unmarried; Eleanor, who married Sir John Archer, one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas; and Jane, who married John Stanhope, son of Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, brother of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield.

The Hall and Bridge from the Park.