After the victory at Hastings in 1066 William Fitz-Ansculf was

given use of the estate by King William I. In the Domesday

Book of 1086 he is listed as holding the Manor (one of

his many estates) as tenant “in capita” (direct from the

Crown). Prior to this it was owned by Siret, the vassal

(servant) of the Saxon King Harold.

Ansculf ’s descendents called themselves de Stoke and

later they purchased the estate from the Crown. In c1120

Hugh de Stoke is registered as owner of the estate and

following Richard de Stokes death in 1262 Humbert de

Poges (Pugeys) became guardian of his daughter, Amicia.

Humbert’s son, Sir Robert, a knight of the county for

Edward I, married Amicia in 1291. Their marriage also gave

the village its current name, Stoke Poges. The Manor had

been called “Stoke Ditton” until 1322 and appears as such in

the Domesday Book.

It was their granddaughter, Gille (the last de Poges) who

married the Treasurer to King Edward III, Sir John de Molines,

in 1331.

Robert, Lord Hungerford (commonly called Lord Moleyns)

inherited Stoke Park by reason of marriage to the fifteen

year old Alianore, daughter of William, Lord Moleyns.

Like his father in law he was a man of action and fought for

the last Lancastrian King, Henry VI during the final

campaigns of the Hundred Years War. In 1453 he was

captured by the French at Castillon but was released seven

years later after £3,000 was paid in ransom. On his return

to England he fought in the Wars of the Roses with the

Lancastrians who were defeated at Towton Fields in 1461.

He was beheaded in 1464 when the Yorkists, led by Edward

IV, defeated Henry VI at Hexham. Robert’s body is buried in

the north aisle of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury.

Robert’s son, Thomas, was also beheaded in the Tower of

London in 1469, on the orders of Edward IV. His daughter

Mary married Sir Edward Hastings.

Edward IV took his retribution and the Stoke Park Estate which

had continued by descent since 1086 was fortified to the Crown

to become parcel of the honour of Windsor.

The Hungerford FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1441 to 1485

The Stoke & Poges FamiliesOwners of Stoke Park from 1066 to 1331

Henry, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon K.G.

The Hastings FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1485 to 1581

The Hastings, like the Hungerfords, supported the House of Lancaster and they shared the same

fate when Sir Edward Hastings’ father was murdered in 1484 by the command of the Yorkist King

Richard III; all his lands were forfeit to the Crown. However, King Henry VII, after overthrowing

Richard at Bosworth in 1485, restored to Edward all his family’s lands and also the lands of Sir Thomas

Hungerford, Knt., his wife Mary’s father. Those lands included Stoke Park.

Sir Edward and Mary had one son, George, who inherited Stoke Park in 1506, and one daughter, Anne.

George was a faithful servant of Henry VIII. He took part in the expedition to France made by the King

in 1513 at which time Terouenne and Tournai were restored to the English Crown. George advanced

to the Title of 1st Earl of Huntingdon in 1529 and was one of the Peers who subscribed the letter to

Pope Clement VII, intimating to him, that if he did not comply with King Henry in the business of the

divorce between the King and Catherine of Spain, he must expect that they would shake off his

supremacy. George was also one of the 26 peers whose judgement condemned Anne Boleyn to the

block in 1536. George married Anne, daughter of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, and they had five

children, Francis (who succeeded him to his honours), Edward, Thomas, Henry and William. On his

death in 1543 he was buried in the chancel of St. Giles Church.

Francis Hastings 2nd Earl of Huntingdon became General and Commander in Chief of the King’s Army

in 1549. After retiring from the Army he spent a considerable time improving the Stoke Park estate. He

rebuilt the Stoke Park Manor House in l555. He also built a chapel adjoining St. Giles Church, where

his mother and father lay buried with images of them in stone. He placed a vault in the Chapel for his

brother, William, and when he died in 1560 he was buried there with a plate of copper representing his

image, in harness, with the garter and a memorial in writing to him in his arms. Francis left the estate

to his son Henry.

Henry Hastings, the 3rd Earl, fell upon hard times and had to sell the property in l58l to the Crown. He

was the last person to inherit Stoke Park in a line of descent that had continued for 515 years when his

ancestors had forced the Saxon Prince Siret from his land in 1066.

The de Molines FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1331 to 1441

In 1331 Stoke Park was inherited by the wealthy nobleman Sir John de Molines through his wife Gille

de Molines. In the same year he obtained a royal licence to fortify the Manor House, and enclose

three woods. He also rebuilt St. Giles church creating a boundary around the estate.

Sir John combined the imposing duties of Marshal of the King’s Falcons, Supervisor of the Queens

Castles and Treasurer to the eighteen year old King Edward III (1312 - 1377) who had ascended the

throne in 1327. As treasurer Sir John had financed the King’s attempt to claim the French throne which

resulted in the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1338. This claim was not formally withdrawn

until 1802.

Stunning victories at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) led by the King’s eldest son, Edward (1330 -

1376), known to history as the “Black Prince”, gave way to uneasy peace in 1360. The peace had been

partly forced by the outbreak of the plague in 1348 which lasted for two years and killed half of the

population of England.

After failing to raise the required money (£100,000) from Antwerp moneylenders for the King’s seige of

Tournai in 1340, Sir John was charged with failing the King in his extremity and was thrown into the

Tower of London. His lands and goods were seized until his release in 1345. He was arrested again in

1355 and imprisoned at Nottingham Castle where he later died. In 1359 John’s son, William, obtained

his father’s lands under a settlement upon him for life, from the King.

Sir John’s great grandson, William, was raised to the peerage. Lord William’s son, also called William,

was killed in 1429 fighting for Edward III’s Lancastrian great-grandson Henry V in the Hundred Years

War (which was partly instigated by his ancestor Sir John) defending a bridge during the siege of

Orleans. He was the last of the male de Molines and so the estate passed to William’s son-in-law Robert,

Lord Hungerford.

Both Sir John and Lord William’s tombs are at St. Giles Church, Stoke Poges.

Stoke ParkThe estate’s owners from c1040 to 1581

The Manor House at Stoke Park, built by the 2nd Earl of Huntingdon in 1555. St. Giles’ Church is also shown.

One third of the Manor can still be seen today. The Church also survives but without its spire which was destroyed in the 1920’s.

John Penn (1760 - 1834), a poet, a scholar and prolific patron of

architecture was responsible for most of what can be seen at Stoke Park

today including the Mansion, the monuments to Sir Edward Coke

(1800), Thomas Gray (1799) and the Repton bridge (1798).

Thomas Penn, the son of the founder of Pennsylvania (William Penn), had

purchased the estate in 1760 and virtually governed his lands in America

from Stoke Park for the next 15 years. John inherited the estate in l775.

Having spent a considerable time away from Stoke in Geneva and America,

John returned to Stoke Park in l789 with £130,000 from the new

Commonwealth in compensation for the family’s twenty-one million acres

in Pennsylvania (less than 10% of what he claimed it was worth). A pension

of £4,000 a year was also granted by the British Parliament to compensate

for the inadequacy of the initial payment.

John decided that the old Manor House, built in 1555, was too dilapidated

for repairs to be made and decided instead to build a new house in a

prime spot on rising ground in the centre of the parkland, with good views

of the surrounding countryside including Windsor Castle. He loved Stoke

Park for its strong historical and literary associations, consequently one

wing of the old Manor House was left intact for its association with

Thomas Gray, the poet, and Sir Edward Coke.

The new Mansion was begun in l789 but many alterations and additions

were made before its completion by James Wyatt in l8l3. Penn also

commissioned a new landscape to replace the existing ‘Capability’ Brown

layout of 1750 which had been designed for the Manor House. Humphry

Repton was selected and he created a new plan in 1792.

Repton and Wyatt were only part of the “Committee of Taste” John created

which included Joseph Farrington (Painter), Nathanial Richmond

(Landscape Artist) and William Mason (Landscaper). With the help of these

men he constantly reassessed the success of the house and the landscape.

His judgements were based on his obsession with seeing forms in their

scenic context and this led to the landscape, house and monuments all

being adjusted according to the view they presented.

John was a remarkable man in many ways. He was High Sheriff of

Buckinghamshire in 1798, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and from 1802

MP for Helston, in Cornwall. He was also an author of some repute.

One of his books, an ‘Historical Account of Stoke Park’ was published in

l8l3. Penn, although unmarried himself, also felt perfectly competent to

tackle the problems of those who were, and in l8l7 founded a “matrimonial

society”, which had as its object the improvement of domestic life for

the married.

In l834 John died at Stoke Park and was succeeded by his brother, Granville

Penn. Granville died at Stoke Park in l844. The Penn fortune died with him

and his difficulties were illustrated by his doctor who put his cause of death

down to “trouble”. His son Granville John Penn could not afford to live at

Stoke Park and so he moved to Stoke Court and let the estate for four years

before selling it to Henry Labouchere in 1848.

James Wyatt (1746 - 1813), son of a Midlands builder, was

architect to George III and the most celebrated English

architect of his day. His maxim was that it was the artist’s

role to create and not to simply copy, even when dealing

with the order of the ancients and he demonstrated this at

Stoke Park.

Although the commission was large John Penn had used the

virtually unknown Robert Nasmith (a pupil of Adam) for the

original rectangular house in 1789. It was covered in within

a year but due to bad design it cost £10,000 more than it

should have. Wyatt liked a problem and presented himself as

a man who could handle practical difficulties. He was

commissioned and although the exterior limits of the main

block were fixed by Nasmith’s work Wyatt had a free hand

and the house soon became unrecognisable to those who

had seen the first structure. The sequence of its growth is

illustrated here.

His patron’s obsession with the views it presented and

offered led to a mansion that was more dramatic than great,

in palatial style rather than domestic tradition. The South

Colonnade (built in 1801) was based on the Greek Doric

type of architecture. This order was continued to the East

and West Front by 1813.

By 1798 discussions started about the monuments to be

erected and Wyatt had to create a full scale model of one of

them, the Gray’s Monument, before an instruction to

proceed was given by John Penn.

Humphry Repton (1752 - 1818) was the last of the three

outstanding designers who dominated the English

Landscape Movement from about 1720 to 1820. Of the

designs by Repton’s predecessors, William Kent and Lancelot

‘Capability’ Brown, few plans and drawings survive; but Repton

used his skill as an artist to prepare his now famous ‘Red Books’.

Humphry Repton was born in 1752 at Bury St. Edmund's and moved

to Norwich during his childhood. His father set him up in a textile

business, but he was not temperamentally suited to it and in 1778

he left.

After trying various careers and moving to Essex he finally settled to

the profession of landscape gardener in about 1789. ‘Capability’

Brown had died in 1783 and Repton regarded himself, and was

regarded by others, as his successor. Much of his early work was in

Norfolk, and his second commission was at Holkham in1789 for the

Coke family, who had owned Stoke Park from 1598 to 1644.

When he was consulted he explained and illustrated his proposals

in beautifully finished little volumes bound in leather and these

became known as the ‘Red Books’. Altogether about 400 of them

were produced. The one for Stoke Park survives (although it is not

at the Mansion) and it shows that his initial designs in 1792 were

constantly reworked during that decade. The only features of

‘Capability’ Brown’s 1750 design to survive the Repton changes

were the two lakes and the cascade that can still be seen today.

1813 print of the view from the Gray’s monument to the Mansion, the St. Giles Church, the Coke Monument and the Manor House.

View of the South Front of Wyatt’s Mansion at Stoke Park by Edward Dayes c1795.

The Penn FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1760 to 1848

James WyattDesigner of the Mansion

Humphry ReptonRe-designer of the Landscape

John Penn.

Henry Labouchere (1798 - 1869), President of the

Board of Trade, Whig M.P. and later Lord Taunton

(l859) purchased the Stoke Park estate in l848. A

famous radical and supporter of the Reform Acts he was a

great rival of Gladstone, the Prime Minister of the time. He

once said “I don’t object to Gladstone always having the ace

of trumps up his sleeve, but merely to his belief that the

Almighty put it there”.

Further alterations were made to the Mansion and the

gardens during Taunton’s time to provide better rooms to

display his remarkable collection of art.

The west garden was enlarged and new paths were created in

1848 to better display Taunton’s collection of sculpture. The

balustrade around the house with its urns was also built by

Taunton in 1850.

Lord Taunton and his wife Mary were great collectors of neo-

classical sculpture and reliefs. Many of these works of art are

now in museums around the world following Lord Taunton’s

heirloom sale of l920.

Of his great collection none of the sculpture has remained at

Stoke Park although some reliefs have been retained in the

great hall. These were created by the Danish artist Bertell

Thorwaldsen (1770 - 1844). It was also during Taunton’s

occupancy of Stoke Park that Landseer, Queen Victoria’s

favourite artist, used to visit and paint pictures of the estate’s

famous deer herd.

Taunton sold the estate to the successful businessman

Edward Coleman in 1863.

Edwin Landseer (1802 - 1873)

was born in East London, the

son of John Landseer, the

engraver. He was an infant prodigy,

with nine of the drawings he created

at the age of 5, in the Victoria and

Albert Museum.

At the age of 12 he exhibited his first

animal studies at the Royal Academy.

A year later he entered the Royal

Academy School. Landseer was made

an Associate of the Royal Academy in

l826, became a Royal Academician in

l83l and was knighted in l850. He

was greatly admired by Queen

Victoria who acquired a large

collection of his paintings.

He was a master of painting dogs and

deer and once dissected a lion in

order to master its anatomy, as is

apparent from the magnificent lions

he sculpted in l858 for the foot of

Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square,

London.

Sir Edwin often visited Stoke Park

during Lord Taunton’s (Henry

Labouchere) and later Edward

Coleman's ownership and it was at

this time that part of the ground

floor of the house was beautifully

furnished as a studio. Sir Edwin

painted many pictures of the herd of

deer in the park including the

famous “Monarch of the Glen” and

“Running Deer”.

Sir EdwinLandseer

Visitor to Stoke Park

“The Monarch of the Glen” by Sir Edwin Landseer.

Lord TauntonOwner of Stoke Park from 1848 to 1863

Lord Taunton. Sir Edwin Landseer.

Following the death of Lord Purbeck (Sir John

Villiers), Stoke Park was sold to John Gayer in 1656

for £8,564. He died the following year and left the

estate to his brother Robert.

Robert was created one of the Knights Companions

of the Order of the Bath at the coronation of King

Charles in 1661. He married twice, had six sons and

a daughter with his second wife Mary Rich.

Sir Robert died in 1702 and was succeeded by his

eldest son, also called Robert, who sold the estate to

Edmund Halsey in 1724 for £12,000.

The Gayer FamilyOwners of Stoke Park from 1656 to 1724

William III.

Sir Richard Temple. Humphry Repton.

William III and Mary II

Visitors to Stoke Park

in 1701

William of Orange (1650 - 1702) was the

champion of the Protestant cause in

Europe. He was invited by Parliament to

replace his deeply unpopular Catholic

father in law, James II. In 1688 he

landed in Devon at the head of a large

army to start the “Glorious Revolution”.

James fled without a fight but despite a

warm welcome in London William

refused to take the throne by right of

conquest.

The importance of the “Glorious

Revolution” was that the monarchy

became constitutional and

Parliamentary; the struggles between

Crown and Parliament were over with

the idea that the King was divinely

ordained and set apart at an end.

William was not universally popular,

however, and Jacobite plots to restore

James continued throughout his reign.

Indeed his visit to Stoke Park was only a

little better than Charles I’s who had

been held at the Manor House for two

weeks in 1647 before being sent to

London to be tried and executed.

William was visiting Stoke Poges and

wished to see the Manor House. But Sir

Robert Gayer, the then owner, in spite

of his wife’s expostulations, refused to

let him in. Sir Robert had been made a

Knight of the Bath at the coronation of

Charles II and was a supporter of the

then exiled Stuarts.

Sir Robert is reputed to have said of

King William:

“He has got possession of another

man’s house already, and he shall never

enter mine”

Just what the King said on this occasion

is, perhaps happily, not recorded,

though we are told that he was forced to

go away without setting foot inside the

house.

William died a year later in a hunting

accident, when his horse put a foot in a

mole hole and threw him. This gave rise

to the Jacobite toast “to the little

gentlemen in black velvet.”

The Second Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers (1608 - 1656), was the brother of John Villiers, Viscount

Purbeck, to whom Stoke Park devolved following the death of his mother-in-law, Lady Coke in 1644.

The Duke owned some of the largest estates in England and it was he who had the original Buckingham Palace

built in London. In his “History of England”, T.B. Macaulay wrote “Buckingham was a sated man of pleasure

who had turned to ambition as a pastime”.

Sir John distinguished himself in the reigns of King James I and Charles I and although he survived the

upheavals of the Civil War his estates were forfeit and Charles I was held prisoner in the Manor House in 1647.

In l653 George, his brother, was even being mentioned as a possible bridegroom for Cromwell’s own teenage

daughter, Mary. It was seen as a gesture of reconciliation with the Royalists and would have allowed Villiers to

reclaim his estates but George would have none of it.

Although Sir John’s estates were restored to him years later his brother’s refusal of marriage rebounded on him.

Cromwell’s soldiers separated him from his bride, Mary Fairfax, daughter of the protector’s old comrade and

sometime commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and threw him into the Tower of London. Mary and her

mother visited Cromwell’s wife and daughter several times to plead for the newly-weds to be reunited but the

Cromwells were ill inclined to help those who had once scorned them.

Sir John (who changed his name from Villiers to Danvers) died in 1656 and the Manor was purchased by John

Gayer.

Stoke Park has been owned by Kings and it has also entertained them but the Stuart

King Charles I (1600 - 1649) was entertained in the worst of circumstances. In

January 1647, six months after Charles surrendered himself to the Scots, they

handed him over to the English parliament commissioners in return for £400,000 army

back pay. He was taken to London via York, staying at Stoke Park as a prisoner on the way.

Charles was a weak child but he grew up to be courageous and high minded. He told

Archbishop Laud in l623 that he could never be a lawyer because “I cannot defend the

bad, nor yield in a good cause”. Unfortunately he also had poor judgement, strong

prejudices and the tactlessness common to his family. Early in his reign, which began in

l625, Charles encountered difficulties with Parliament. He summoned and dissolved it

three times until 1629 when he governed by personal decree.

Without Parliament there was no money. He overcame this by selling monopolies and

unpopular measures such as the “ship money” demanded initially from ports and then

inland towns. However, he eventually had to yield to the inevitable and Parliament was

summoned again in l640.

In l642 Charles tried to arrest M.Ps in the Houses of Parliament. This incident marked the

end of any hope of compromise and later that year Charles’ standard was raised at

Nottingham. It has been estimated that the parts of the country controlled by Parliament

contained two thirds of the country’s population and three quarters of its wealth and

with the annihilation of the Royalist troops at the battle of Naseby by Oliver Cromwell’s

new model army in l645, the King’s defeat was inevitable.

Whitelock reports in August, l647 “Army quartered at Colnbrook and the King at Stoke”.

During the summer of l647 several places in Buckinghamshire received hurried visits by

the King while Cromwell was waiting for a response to his compromise settlement “the

Heads of Proposals”. In July he was at Windsor and Caversham, he then went to

Maidenhead to meet his children and was then traced through to Wooburn and Latimer

and lastly to Stoke where he remained a prisoner in the Manor House until the l4th

August, when he was removed to Hampton Court and was received as a prisoner in the

custody of his own subjects. After his escape in 1648, and the subsequent crushing of

new Royalist resistance, he was taken to London to be tried and was executed at the

Palace of Westminster in 1649. He was arraigned before a tribunal consisting of l35

judges, but he refused to plead. Sentence was passed, by sixty eight votes to sixty seven

and so by one vote Charles lost his head.

There is a Coat of Arms on one of the walls of a room in the existing wing of the Manor

House which is reputed to have been painted by Charles I during his imprisonment at

Stoke.

Sir John VilliersOwner of Stoke Park from 1644 to 1656

Charles IHeld prisoner at Stoke Park in 1647

Sir John Villiers.

This portrait of King Charles I’s children was owned by John Penn

(owner of Stoke Park from 1775 to 1834) and was on display in the Mansion until 1848.

The painting was re-purchased in 1997 and is once again on display in the Mansion.

King Charles I.

“

Sir Edward and Lady CokeOwners of Stoke Park from 1603 to 1644

In l800 John Penn erected a monument to honour Sir Edward. It is column of Roman Doric design.

The statue was created by the Italian sculptor Rossi. This photograph was taken in 1906.

Sir Edward Coke.

An Englishman’s home is his castle” is Sir Edward Coke’s (1551 - 1634)

most famous remark. Stoke Park was his castle. Coke

was a remarkable man, an eminent lawyer and

adroit politician who became the speaker of the House

of Commons, and later the first Lord Chief Justice of

England in 1613. After being suspended from that

post in 1616 he was made Sheriff of

Buckinghamshire.

In l598 Sir Edward leased the Stoke Park

estate from the Crown. In l60l Sir Edward

entertained Queen Elizabeth I at Stoke

presenting her with “jewels and other

gifts to the amount of twelve hundred

pounds”. It is documented in the list of

the Queen’s presentations that she gave

one of Coke’s children a piece of gold

plate on the occasion of their christening.

Upon Elizabeth’s death in l603 Sir Edward

purchased the estate freehold from the

Crown.

In l603 Coke prosecuted Sir Walter

Raleigh proving that he had “an English

face but a Spanish heart”. As a

consequence Raleigh spent l3 years in

the Tower of London.

In l605 Coke was knighted by King

James I and later in the year prosecuted

the gun powder plotters, a group of radical

Catholics, trying to kill the King and blow up

parliament, who had been caught with 20

barrels of gun powder under the Houses of

Parliament. Guy Fawkes and the three other plotters

were hung, drawn and quartered.

In February l609 Coke clashed with King James I over

the King’s belief that he had the divine right to interfere with the courts. Coke’s

argument was that the King should respect the common law. It

was Coke’s championing of the common law over the

King’s “divine” rights that earned him the title “Father of

Parliament”. Coke continued his struggle for

parliament over the King until his death in l634, even

being committed to the Tower of London for a brief

period in 1621.

Sir Edward married Lady Hatton whose

husband was the nephew of Sir Christopher

Hatton who had preceded him as tenant of

Stoke Park. Theirs was a turbulent

marriage. Although remarried to Sir

Edward she retained the surname of her

former husband. The story goes that she

only married him because she was with

child. On one occasion on a false report of

his death she set off to take possession of the

estate but on meeting his physician at

Colinbrook heard the mortifying news of his

recovery.

At one time Sir Edward locked up his wife

and daughter Frances until the latter

agreed to marry Sir John Villiers, whose

brother was the King’s favourite George

Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Frances

succumbed and Sir John, later to become

Viscount Purbeck, came into possession of

Stoke Manor on the death of Lady Coke in l644.

Sir Edward died in 1634 leaving an estate of eleven

thousand pounds per annum. Sir John Villiers, his son

in law, once said of him that his sons “would spend his

estate faster than he got it”, to which Coke replied “they

cannot take more delight in the spending of it that I did

in the getting of it”.

Sir Edward’s coat of arms can be seen on the Coke monument and on the gates on either side of the Mansion.

After winning the Wars of the Roses Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, had

restored Stoke Park to the Hastings family as a reward for their loyalty to the

House of Lancaster. However the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon was forced to sell the

estate in 1581 to clear his debts. The Crown purchased it and the estate was let out to

two of Elizabeth’s favourites. First to Sir Christopher Hatton from 1581 to 1591 and then

to Sir Edward Coke from 1598.

Queen Elizabeth (1533 - 1603) was adept at selecting capable advisors and her two

tenants can be counted among their number. Others included Hawkins, Howard,

Walsingham, the Cecils, Leicester, Essex, Burleigh and the Gilberts.

With the help of these capable men she survived the many plots surrounding Mary

Queen of Scots. She also countered the threat from the French and the Spanish

culminating in the defeat of the Armada in l588.

England was in a sad state when she ascended to the throne in l558 at the age of only

23. The treasury was empty, Calais had been lost, the French king had one foot in

Edinburgh and the country was torn by religious differences.

However, Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor monarchs, was a remarkable woman; an

intelligent pragmatist and an outstanding stateswoman. She stabilised a divided England

and set it on course to become a leading world power leaving the country secure and

largely free from religious troubles.

It is noted in the Queen’s presentations for the year l600 that she presented a piece of

gold plate to one of Coke’s children on the occasion of her christening. During the mid-

l600’s the room in the Manor House in which Queen Elizabeth I slept contained her

portrait but this, together with pieces of furniture, was sold.

Elizabeth only visited Stoke Park once, in l601, when Sir Edward Coke indulged her love

of jewels and beautiful clothes by reputedly giving her one thousand two hundred

pounds worth of gems.

Sir Christopher Hatton (1540 - 1591) occupied Stoke Manor as a tenant of the

Crown Estates.

Sir Christopher, who with his “bushy beard and shoestrings green” was, the poet Gray

tells us, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and had far more effect on her maidenly

composure than any threat of Pope or Spaniard. He first gained favour with Elizabeth I

by his skill in dancing of which he was apparently desperately fond!

He became, amongst other positions, Vice-Chamberlain, Captain of the Guard and one

of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy-Council. Lastly he became Lord High Chancellor of England.

It was he who was sent to gain the consent of Mary Queen of Scots to submit, as a

subject, to trial. He was also a Knight of the Garter, the second from Stoke to figure in

the Queen of Scots episode.

Being also a great friend of the learned he was elected Chancellor of Oxford University.

He fell from the Queens favour, however, and died unmarried at the age of 5l in the year

l59l, and was buried in the upper part of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Elizabeth IOwner of Stoke Park from 1581 to 1603

Sir Christopher HattonTenant of Stoke Park from 1581 to 1591

Queen Elizabeth I.

Sir Christopher Hatton.

Edward Coleman (1834 - 1885) bought the estate in l863 from Lord

Taunton. He had been a broker on the Stock Exchange and owned a

coalmining business but retired around the same time that he

acquired Stoke Park, for which he paid £95,000.

Edward took a great interest in local politics and was a staunch

supporter of the Conservative Party. He was a magistrate for the County

of Buckinghamshire; his qualification dating from l870. He also

became High Sheriff of the County in l879.

He knew Disraeli well and it was the Prime Minister who

supported Coleman’s application for membership of the

Carlton Club. Edward was one of the guests who attended the

banquet given by the Houses of Commons and Lords for the

Earl of Beaconsfield (Disraeli) and the Marquis of Salisbury on their

return from the Congress in Berlin in l878, bringing “peace with

honour”.

At Stoke Park, Edward lived in princely style and spent a large income

with a lavish hand. He carried out extensive improvements to the

Mansion, installed miles of iron fencing and planted more than a

thousand young trees in the grounds. He also improved the farm

on the estate introducing the most modern equipment of the

day; bought more fallow deer and restocked the park with

red deer in 1865. It is reported that these improvements cost more

than £200,000.

In the Mansion house he accrued a vast collection of furniture, art, sculpture and

tapestries. Many of his pictures were painted by Edwin Landseer, a friend of

Coleman’s who had visited the estate for many years where a studio was

provided for him in the house.

Whilst resident at Stoke Park Edward had his own stall in St. Giles church

which he paid for to be lit by gas, a modern innovation of the day.

The local hunt met at Stoke Park and Edward and his wife, Gertrude

(pictured here), entertained lavishly inviting many distinguished

guests, including the Prince of Wales.

Edward owned the adjoining estate of Duffield where his parents

lived until their death. They are both buried in St. Giles church. He

also owned a house in Grosvenor Square.

Unfortunately, due to enormous losses on the Stock Exchange and a

depression in the coal trade, he went into bankruptcy and was forced

to sell Stoke Park. Disraeli lived at Hughenden Manor just outside

High Wycombe and when he heard Edward was seeking a buyer for

the estate he wrote “I learn with sincere sorrow that you are about to

cease to be a Buckinghamshire squire”.

In failing health, due to the anxiety over recent business and financial

worries, he then moved to the Isle of Wight where he died in 1885. Edward

and Gertrudc were not buried in the family tomb at St. Giles church.

Mrs. Coleman.

The Mansion from the North lake as it looked during Edward Coleman’s ownership. Note the flag flying from the top of the Observatory.

Edward John ColemanOwner of Stoke Park from 1863 to 1883

Edmund Halsey, M.P. for the London Borough of Southwark, bought the Manor from the Gayer

family in l724 for £l2,000. The Stoke Park Estate came into Lord Cobham’s possession (Sir Richard

Temple) on his marriage to Anne Halsey (Edmund’s daughter) in l729.

Sir Richard (1675 - 1749) was a member of the Temple-Grenville family whose was the most striking

example of the rise and fall of a dynasty in English history. From gentleman farmers they became Dukes

in only eight generations, only to fall in the ninth and be extinguished in the male line in the tenth.

Sir Richard was at the apex of the family fortunes. A General under the Duke of Marlborough and a Whig

politician, George I rewarded him with a Peerage in l7l4. Baron Cobham, after more successful

campaigns became Viscount Cobham in l7l8. With the help of Anne’s fortune he became the richest man

in England at the time of his death, having turned his principal estate, Stowe, just outside Buckingham

in North Bucks, into what has often been described as the greatest work of art in Europe. The political

power base he built was so formidable that four of his relatives went on to become Prime Minister

within fifty years.

After Sir Richard’s death in 1749, Lady Cobham returned to Stoke Park, her former home, until her

death. It was Anne who introduced Lancelot “Capability” Brown to Stoke Park when he left Stowe in

l750. John Penn in his history of l8l3 wrote “a plan for modernising Stoke was drawn by another genius,

the celebrated Brown”.

It was during Lady Cobham’s time at Stoke Park that she read Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”

which was shown to her by Gray’s friend, Horace Walpole. Having read the “Elegy” Lady Cobham

expressed a wish to meet Gray whose mother and aunt lived nearby at West End Cottage and this was

the start of Gray’s association with Stoke Park. Lady Cobham died in 1760 and her executors sold the

estate to the Penn family.

Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771) is one of England’s greatest

poets. He was born in l7l6 to Philip and Dorothy Gray.

Thomas was the fifth child of twelve and the only one

to survive infancy and his parents. He attended Eton College

in l727 and Cambridge University in 1734. In l739 he started

on the Grand Tour with his friend Horace Walpole, son of

the Whig Prime Minister.

In l74l Gray’s father died and his mother moved to live with

her sister, Mrs Rogers, at West End Farm (now Stoke Court)

in Stoke Poges. It was the village churchyard which inspired

him to write his “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”. It was

here that the “rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep, their

humble and obscure lives over; far from the madding

crowd’s ignoble strife. Their sober wishes never learn’d to

stray”. “Rather than scorning such folk, those who account

themselves great should recall that the paths of glory lead

but to the grave”. The “Elegy” was started in November l742,

but was not completed until June l750.

A copy of the “Elegy” was sent to Lady Cobham who lived in

the Manor House. She was impressed and expressed a wish

to meet Gray and this visit resulted in Gray’s writing “The

Long Story” describing the Manor House and its previous

owners. Between l747 and l757 numerous publications

were produced by Gray and at the end of l757 the office of

Poet Laureate was offered to Gray but he refused.

In l768 Gray was awarded a Professorship of Modern History

at Cambridge by the Duke of Grafton although he wrote to

Horace Walpole stating that “I shall be but a shrimp of an

author”. Gray died in l77l at the age of 54. His body was

taken to London and then to Stoke Poges churchyard and on

the 8th August, was interred in the same vault as his mother

and aunt. A memorial to Gray was erected in Poet’s Corner

in Westminster Abbey, London.

The landscaping genius of Lancelot “Capability” Brown

(1715 - 1783) is still renowned some 200 years after

his death. He was born in the small village of

Kirkharle in Northumberland. His father died when Lancelot

was four-years old leaving his mother with six children to

support.

At the age of sixteen he left school and started work

at Kirkharle Hall for Sir William Loraine. During

Lancelot’s seven years at Kirkharle Hall he learnt all

the basic practicalities of estate improvement from Sir

William.

Lancelot moved south from Northumberland in l739, it was

thought the climate would suit him better as he suffered

from asthma. Hence his concentration of landscaped estates

in the south such as Stowe, Stoke Park and Sutton House.

During the time that he was commissioned to landscape

Stowe he was recommended to many influential people

locally by its owner Sir Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham.

In l750, following the death of Viscount Cobham,

Viscountess Cobham returned to her family estate at Stoke

Park and commissioned Lancelot to landscape the grounds

of her new home.

The central part of Brown’s new landscape was two

serpentine lakes created from five quadrangle shaped ponds

with a cascade connecting the two. These are the main

features to have survived, the later landscape was designed

by Humphry Repton in the 1790’s.

By l764 Lancelot Brown’s reputation as Britain’s leading

landscape architect was confirmed when he was appointed

Master Gardener at Hampton Court and Gardener at St.

James’.

Thomas GrayRegular visitor to Stoke Park

Lancelot BrownDesigner of the landscape

Edmund Halsey & Lady TempleOwners of Stoke Park from 1724 to 1760

Thomas Gray.

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

Sir Richard Temple (Lord Cobham) (in the bath chair) entertaining friends at Stowe.

Stoke Park was bought by Wilberforce Bryant (1837 -

1906) in l887 after it had been on the market for 4

years. He was the last owner to use the estate as a

private residence. Bryant spent thousands of pounds on

improvements to the house and the gardens. He created

many of the west garden features including the Sunken

Garden and planted many of the trees and shrubs that

can be seen today.

He was Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1902 and was also

the “Bryant” of the Bryant and May Match Company

which had a factory in nearby High Wycombe.

Wilberforce was the grandson of James Bryant, a starch

and polish-maker fromTiverton, Devon. His father,

William, set up in business with Francis May, a tea dealer

in l843 and they became provision merchants. It was in

l850 that the Company became agents to import matches

from Sweden under an agreement with a gentleman

named Carl Lundstrom. In time it was not possible to

import sufficient supplies of matches to satisfy demand

and therefore in 1861 Bryant and May opened their own

factory at Bow in London. Both Bryant and May were

Quakers.

Wilberforce, being the eldest of four sons, became the

Senior Partner at the age of 37, on the death of his father

in July l874. He increased the output of the factory by

installing new machinery and advertising. Having gained

export markets to America and Australia the company

expanded and took over numerous, smaller match-

making companies and eventually exported to many

other countries.

Wilberforce died in l906 at the age of 69, 32 years after

taking up the Directorship of the Fairfield Works at Bow.

After failing to sell the estate at auction, Mrs Bryant leased

the majority of the ground floor, the basement and the

grounds to the new Stoke Park Club in 1908 and

continued to live in the rest of the mansion as her private

residence.

The Sunken Garden created by Mr. Bryant in the 1880’s. Photographed in c1900.

Mr & Mrs Wilberforce BryantOwners of Stoke Park from 1887 to 1908

Wilberforce in the Winter Garden (now the Orangery).