The date of completion of the house may therefore be ascribed with probability to the year 1634.
Gage used the house as his own residence, and while “lyeinge sicke in the said messuage of the sickness whereof he died” made his will on 14th August, 1638, bequeathing the premises,[[460]] together with other property, to William Darrell and William Bierly to sell for the payment of his debts. On 25th February, 1639–40, it was purchased by Humphrey Weld for £2,600.[[461]]
The portion of Stradling’s property which lay to the south of the second partition wall, and which extended to the southern limits of Aldwych Close, Stradling seems to have sold to Dr. Gifford for 500 years for £400 without right of redemption.[[462]] In 1649 Andrew Gifford sold the property for £650 to Weld, who assigned it to his mother, Dame Frances Weld, in trust. Three years later she re-assigned it to him.
Humphrey Weld thus became possessed of the whole of Aldwych Close lying to the east of Wild Street, and to the south of the gardens of the Great Queen Street houses, and he now began to develop the property by building. A reference to Hollar’s Plan of 1658 (Plate 3) shows that by that year the whole of the east side of Wild Street, south of Weld House, and all the north side of Sardinia Street had been covered with houses.[[463]] Weld himself stated about 1670, that he had by that time laid out £15,600 in building.[[461]]
The street which had at least since 1629,[[464]] and probably since 1618,[[465]] led from Great Queen Street to Kemble Street, then Princes Street, seems for some time to have been without a name. It is referred to in early deeds as “the back side of Drury Lane,” “a way leading from Princes Street to Queen Street on the back side of Drury Lane,” etc. In the Subsidy Rolls up to 1646 inclusive, it is merged in “Cockpit Side.” The earliest instance of the name Weld Street or Wild Street[[466]] so far discovered is in a deed of 24th April, 1658,[[467]] which refers to “the street now called Wild Street, but heretofore called a way or passage of 40 foote breadth leading from Queenes Street to Princes Streete.”
How far Weld House was identical with the mansion built by Stradling and Strode is uncertain. Blott, after mentioning the latter, says: “Adjoining it, on the south side, were the grounds and premises of Weld House, Drury Lane, occupied by Lady Frances Weld, widow. In 1657, Weld House and Stradling House underwent a complete transformation, the two houses were united together and became one building, having, besides extensive additions made to it, a chapel[[468]] built in the garden; the front arranged to face Aldwyche Close instead of Drury Lane, and an approach made to it called Weld Street. This extraordinary enlargement was not to make the building a residence suitable to the dignity of the Welds, but rather for State purposes, such as the accommodation of princes and ambassadors in London.”[[469]]
Blott gives no authority for his statements, one of which, relating to the formation of Weld Street, is demonstrably wrong. The statement that the “extraordinary enlargement” was carried out with a view to the reception of princes and ambassadors in the building is probably only an inference from the indisputable fact that ambassadors did afterwards reside in a portion of the house.[[470]] Nevertheless the view of the house given in Hollar’s Plan of 1658 (Plate 3) certainly does suggest the amalgamation of two distinct houses, and the Subsidy Roll for 1646 shows that at that date two large residences existed side by side,[[471]] although of course these may have been only portions of one very large house.
As early as 1664 the house (or houses) seems to have been split up among a number of occupants. The entries in the Hearth Tax Rolls for 1664–1674 in respect of this portion of the street (amending the wrong order of the first roll) are as follows. The numbers in brackets represent the number of hearths taxed.
| 1665. | 1666. | |
|---|---|---|
| Sam Nelson (6) | Samuel Nelson (6) | |
| Lord Baltimore (15) | Cecill, Lord Baltimore (15) | |
| Lady Spencer (16) | Lord Marquess of Winchester in 2 houses (30)[[472]] | |
| A. | Gilbt. Crouch, Esq. (7) | Widow Tattershall (6) |
| B. | John Wolstenholm (14) | John Wolstenholme, Esq. (14) |
| C. | Humph. Wild, Esq. (14) | E (20) |
| The Portugall Embassador’s House. | ||
| D. | Humph. Wild, Esq. (16) | Humfrey Weild, Esq. (16) |
| E. | Countess of Exeter (9) | E (10) |
| F. | Mary Sanders (9) | Mrs. Mary Sanders (9) |
| G. | John Worsley (3) | John Worsley, Marcht of Intercost (6) |
| 1673. | 1675. | |
| Samuel Nelson (6) | Samuel Nelson (6) | |
| Lord Baltimore (15) | The Lady Baltimore (15) | |
| Marquess of Winchester (3) | Marquess of Winchester (30) | |
| A. | Thomas Hawker[[473]] (7) | Thomas Hawker (7) |
| B. | Mary James (13) | E (13) |
| C. | The French Embassadour (20) | Spanish Ambassador (20) |
| D. | Humphrey Wild, Esq. (16) | Humphrey Wild, Esq. (16) |
| E. | Thomas Weedon, Esq. (5) | Madd. James (5) |
| F. | Mary Saunders (9) | Mary Saunders (9) |
| Mary Watson (1) | Mrs. Watson (1) | |
| G. | John Worseley (6) | John Worsley (6) |
Of these neither (A)[[473]] nor (G)[[474]] formed part of Weld House, and (B) is doubtful. (C) and (F) however, certainly did, the former being the ambassadorial residence (see below) and the latter being mentioned in a deed of 1673, quoted by Parton[[475]], as “the wing of the said great house, late in Mary Saunders’s possession.” The house was therefore at this time in at least four distinct occupations.[[476]]