(534) Belasyse or Bellasis of Newburgh Priory and Brancepeth Castle, Earls Fauconberg and Barons Belasyse of Worlaby - part 1

Belasyse family

Belasyse, Viscounts and Earls Fauconberg

This post is divided into two parts: this section includes the introduction to the family and the descriptions of the houses they built or owned; while part 2 contains the biographical and genealogical details of the owners.

According to family tradition, this family descends from one Belasius alias John de Belasis, a commander in the invading army of William the Conqueror, who is said to have distinguished himself by suppressing the adherents of Edgar the Æthling, led by Earl Morcar and Hereward the Wake, in the Isle of Ely in 1071. He is said to have been granted the lands of Earl Morcar between the Tees and the Tyne when the latter was executed in 1086, and to have built a stronghold called Belasis Hall at Billingham (Co. Durham). Whatever the truth of these origin stories, there can be little doubt that the family were landowners in County Durham from an early period. Another story relates that in the 14th century John Belasis wanted to join a Crusade, and funded his participation by exchanging his patrimony for a less fertile and less valuable estate at Henknoll near Auckland (Co. Durham). That this proved to a be a poor deal is suggested by the local rhyme 

"Bellasys, Bellasys, daft was thy sowell/When exchanged Belasys for Henknowell" 

and by the diminished status of the family in the 14th and 15th centuries. The family name has been standardised to 'Belasyse' in this article, but is found in the records spelled in a myriad different ways, of which the most common variants are probably Bellasyse and Bellasis. 

A marked upturn in the fortunes of the family in the 16th century was due to the activities of two brothers, Richard Belasyse (c.1489-1540) and the Rev. Anthony Belasyse (d. 1552), who were agents of Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell respectively. Both men were lawyers by training and Anthony was also an ordained priest, and both men survived the downfall of their masters. They were active participants in the dissolution of the monasteries, and their chief prize was the acquisition of the site and lands of Newburgh Priory in the 1540s. Anthony was unmarried, and the chief heir to both men was Richard's son, Sir William Belasyse (c.1523-1604), who was probably responsible for converting Newburgh Priory into a house and demolishing those parts of the monastery, such as the church, which were no longer needed; he also expanded the Newburgh estate, making it one of the largest and most valuable in the North Riding. Richard's younger son, the miserly Richard Belasyse (d. 1600) inherited his father's lease of an estate of the Bishops of Durham at Morton in Little Lumley (Co. Durham) and added to this other properties in the same county, including an estate at Owton which he purchased in 1588. He died unmarried and left these properties to the younger sons - of whom more below - of his brother, Sir William Belasyse (d. 1604).

Sir William's eldest surviving son was Sir Henry Belasyse (1555-1624), who was knighted by James I on his progress from Scotland to London to receive the English crown in 1603, and who purchased a baronetcy a few months after that dignity was first created in 1611. He had an active public career as a justice of the peace, MP, and long-serving member of the Council of the North, and was responsible for important additions to the house at Newburgh which determined its appearance for more than a century. When he died, he was succeeded by his only son, Sir Thomas Belasyse (1577-1653), 2nd bt., who pursued a similar public career and was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Fauconberg in 1627. The family had long been noted for their sympathy with Roman Catholics, but in later life Lord Fauconberg became a Catholic himself. In the 1630s he was an opponent of King Charles I's personal rule and in particular of the king's many devices for raising revenue without the sanction of Parliament, but with the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the king and in due course was rewarded by his elevation to a viscountcy in 1643. At the age of sixty-seven he was present at the Battle of Marston Moor, where the Royalists were heavily defeated, but he then fled abroad, and it was left to his son and heir apparent, the Hon. Henry Belasyse (1604-47), who had supported the Royalist cause but not been an active combatant, to negotiate the return of the sequestrated family estates. Henry had also inherited, in right of his wife, Smithills Hall in Lancashire, and at his death this passed to his second son, Sir Rowland Belasyse (1632-99), kt. Henry Belasyse's younger brother, John Belasyse (1615-89), became a prominent Royalist commander and was rewarded with a peerage as 1st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby in 1644. Worlaby was an estate in north Lincolnshire which he apparently purchased, but which seems not, at this time, to have supported a seat. Instead, Lord Belasyse and his family lived chiefly in London, where he built several houses, and at Whitton (Middx). His son and heir apparent died of wounds received in a duel in his lifetime, and the peerage became extinct on the death of his grandson in 1691.

When the 1st Viscount Fauconberg died in 1653 the title and the Newburgh estate passed to his grandson, Thomas Belasyse (1628-1700), 2nd Viscount Fauconberg, who was raised as a Protestant. Everyone seems to have regarded him as a promising young man. Amongst those who were impressed was Oliver Cromwell, whose third daughter Mary became his second wife in 1657. It quickly became apparent, however, that Thomas favoured a restoration of the monarchy, and when this took place in 1660, Thomas became Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding, and was later employed as an Ambassador, Privy Councillor, and Captain of the Band of Gentleman Pensioners. Although he entertained James II (while Duke of York) at Newburgh, he fell out of favour when James came to the throne, and lost the Lord Lieutenancy in 1687. His Protestant and Whig credentials restored him to favour under William and Mary, and he resumed the Lord Lieutenancy and was made Earl Fauconberg in 1689. In 1659 he inherited an estate in Nottinghamshire, and although he did not make extensive changes there or at Newburgh Priory, he was a very active builder and gardener, leasing Sutton Court, Chiswick (Middx), which he greatly improved, and acquiring a London town house, which he also improved.

The 1st Earl died without issue in 1700 and the earldom died with him, but the viscountcy passed to his nephew, Thomas Belasyse (1663-1718), 3rd Viscount Fauconberg, who had already inherited Smithills Hall and property at Sutton (Cheshire) from his father, Sir Rowland Belasyse. This double inheritance ought to have been sufficient to support a lavish lifestyle, but the 3rd Viscount was a Catholic and thus subject to the penal laws, and he and his wife were also extravagant and quarrelsome. Within a few years they were bankrupt and had to flee to Brussels to escape his creditors. They became estranged from their eldest son, Thomas Belasyse (1698-1774), 4th Viscount Fauconberg, and the dowager viscountess in particular was so bitter that she went so far as send the English authorities a forged treasonable letter, supposedly written by her son, though fortunately her plot was discovered before it could cause any serious mischief. The 4th Viscount was of completely different character to his parents: sober, responsible and a loving family man; in 1737 he conformed to the Church of England, while continuing to maintain Catholic chapels for his wife, children and tenants. He sold the Smithills estate in 1721 and probably also Holme Hall, and concentrated on restoring the fortunes of the Newburgh estate. By the mid 1720s he was able to begin a major programme of building and landscaping to turn his essentially Tudor and Jacobean home into a Georgian mansion. Work proceeded slowly until the mid 1740s, and was renewed after a fire in 1757 which badly damaged the centre of the house. He seems to have been at least latterly his own architect, contracting directly with his craftsmen, such as the stuccodore, Giuseppe Cortese. Only fairly minor changes have been made to the house since his time, although much has been lost through neglect, fire, and the ravages of dry rot.

The Fauconberg earldom was recreated for the 4th Viscount in 1756, and when he died in 1774 his titles and estate passed to his only surviving son, Henry Belasyse (1743-1802), 2nd Earl Fauconberg, who had been raised as a Protestant to avoid the consequences of the penal laws. He was thus eligible for public office, and spent six years as a very active MP before inheriting the peerage, while later on he was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King George III and Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding. He married twice but produced no sons to inherit his title and estates, and on his death the earldom again became extinct, while the viscountcy passed to a second cousin who was a merchant in Italy, Rowland Belasyse (1745-1810), 6th Viscount Fauconberg. The 6th Viscount was succeeded by his brother, Fr. Charles Belasyse, a Roman Catholic priest, and became extinct on the latter's death in 1815. The Newburgh estate did not pass with the title but descended to the 2nd Earl's eldest daughter, Lady Charlotte Wynn (later Wynn-Belasyse) (1767-1825), and on her death without issue to her nephew, Sir George Wombwell (1792-1855), 3rd bt. It remains the property of his descendants today: an account of the Wombwells will be given in a future post.

On the death in 1600 of Richard Belasyse, the younger son of Richard Belasyse (c.1489-1540), his estates in County Durham were left to his nephews, the younger sons of Sir William Belasyse (c.1523-1604). These were Bryan Belasyse (1559-1608), who received Morton House; Charles Belasyse (1560-1601); and James Belasyse (1562-1640). This branch of the family were all Protestants, and remained so down the generations. Charles was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge and can have played very little part in the management of the family estates; when he died his share passed to his younger brother James, who settled at Owton. Bryan Belasyse was succeeded at Morton House by his son, Sir William Belasyse (1612-41), kt., who was High Sheriff of Co. Durham from 1625-40 (the shrievalty of this county not being an annual appointment as elsewhere). He added to the Morton House lands a property at Brandon (Co. Durham), which he inherited from his mother's family, and either he or his son, Sir Richard Belasyse (1612-52), kt. inherited the family's other estates in County Durham on the death of James Belasyse without issue in 1640. Sir Richard may have added to the estate the manor of Potto at Whorlton (Yorkshire NR), but by the time of his death - and perhaps due to Civil War losses and penalties - he had significant debts. His eldest son, William Belasyse (d. 1681), inherited his County Durham properties, while his second son, Sir Henry Belasyse (1647-1717), kt., inherited Potto. Their long minorities may have provided some relief from their father's debts. Sir Henry became a career soldier in the 1670s, serving mainly in the service of the Dutch until William of Orange came to the English throne in 1689. He rose to the rank of Major-General, but although he had the reputation of being a good soldier at least one contemporary regarded him as 'avaricious', and this seems to borne out by efforts to secure forfeited estates in Ireland in the 1690s and his actions in Spain a decade later, for which he was cashiered from the army in 1703 (although his dishonourable discharge did not prevent him holding official positions later or being buried in Westminster Abbey!). By the time he left the army, the profits of his career had enabled him to purchase Brancepeth Castle (Co. Durham), a habitable medieval and 16th century fortress, and to buy the family's debt-ridden County Durham estates from his nephew in 1693. He was succeeded at Brancepeth by his son William Belasyse (1697-1769), who was responsible for landscaping the grounds of the castle, and then by William's daughter, Bridget Belasyse (1735-74). According to the nursery rhyme, Bobby Shafto's gone to sea, she was the jilted sweetheart of Robert Shafto, and died of a broken heart after he vamoosed to London, but the reality seems to be more prosaic, as her death was due to tuberculosis, that scourge of the 18th and 19th centuries. She left very generous bequests to her companion, Diana Chudleigh, and for charitable purposes at Brancepeth, but the castle and estates were left to her distant kinsman, the 2nd Earl Fauconberg, who sold them soon afterwards.

Newburgh Priory, Coxwold, Yorkshire (North Riding)

The house takes its name from a priory of Augustinian canons founded at Hood Grange in 1145 and moved here about five years later. Unlike some of the other monastic sites in the vicinity which have left impressive ruins, almost nothing of the monastic fabric survives except for the huge chimneybreast in the kitchen court and  possibly some of the fabric of the south front.

Newburgh Priory: chimneystack in the kitchen court

 

The church has entirely disappeared and even its foundations have not been located, although it seems possible that the courtyard on the north side of the house shown in 17th century views roughly corresponds to the monastic cloister and that the church stood to the north of this. The priory was dissolved in 1539 and the site was granted in 1540 to the Rev. Anthony Bellasis, chaplain to King Henry VIII and one of the most active Commissioners for the dissolution of the monasteries in Yorkshire. His nephew and heir, Sir William Belasyse (c.1523-1604), kt. further enlarged the estate, and was probably responsible for converting part of the monastic buildings into a house and demolishing the rest. The part of the house dating from this time, and probably incorporating monastic fabric, is the south side of the central range west of the porch, although it was later raised from two storeys to three. It still has irregular stonework and (probably re-set) mullioned windows with arched heads which could be pre-Reformation in origin.

Newburgh Priory: the oldest part of the south front, photographed c.1900. Image: University of London/Victoria County History

Sir William's long tenure at Newburgh was followed by the shorter reign of his son, Sir Henry Belasyse, who was made one of the first baronets in 1611. A few years later he made additions to the house, giving it the appearance which it retained in two late 17th century birds-eye views of the house, a sketch by Samuel Buck of c.1719, and a survey plan of 1722. As far as one can tell now, everything east of the porches on the north and south fronts, as well as the porches themselves, was built then, including the east wing, which contained a long gallery. On the north side the new block held a great hall and parlour, while on the south side there were two big bow windows, reminiscent of those at Kirby Hall (Northants), which must have provided reception rooms flooded with light.

Newburgh Priory: south front in the late 17th century.

Newburgh Priory: north front in the late 17th century.

Newburgh Priory: chimneypiece in the former great hall supplied by Nicholas Stone, 1615.

The works seem to have been in progress in 1615, when the sculptor Nicholas Stone supplied a chimneypiece to Sir Henry Belasyse, which is no doubt to be identified with the very handsome one in the former Great Hall. When Sir Henry died in 1624, an inventory of his possessions was drawn up which enumerated 28 rooms, not including the Great Hall, chapel and staircase. The late 17th century paintings show that on the north side of the house there was a walled entrance court with a gatehouse placed on axis with the porch. On the south side there was a formal garden, with a pallisaded inner garden with parterres aligned on the porch and the bow windows, and a walled outer garden with formal beds set in lawns. Separated from the house and gardens by fields there was a deer park placed on the poorer moorland soils of the hills to the south. This was centred on a hill known later as The Mount, which was later - probably in the late 17th century - formally planted with an oval formed of three lines of trees, from which radiated four avenues.

Newburgh Priory: sketch by Samuel Buck, c.1719

Newburgh Priory: survey plan of 1722.
 (North Yorkshire Record Office ZDV/VI/4)

Although there are records of some £4,000 being spent on the house in the late 17th century, it seems to have changed very little externally. Nor was anything done in the time of Thomas Belasyse, 3rd Viscount Fauconberg (1663-1718), who was wildly extravagant and was obliged to flee to the Continent to escape his creditors. However, his son Thomas (1699-1774), the 4th Viscount, for whom the Earldom was recreated in 1756, soon put the estate back on its feet again. By the 1720s he was ready to begin improvement works, and for at least twenty years he worked at transforming the largely Jacobean house into a Georgian one and at creating an appropriate landscape setting. The early stages of his remodelling can be followed from a series of surveys carried out in 1722, 1727, 1736 and 1744, supplemented by a volume of payments to workmen, and later on by family letters as well. Work seems to have been completed by the mid 1740s, but a major fire in 1757 caused renewed building activity which continued until at least 1767. There are no payments to architects in the accounts, and from the fact that a portrait of the 4th Viscount painted by Andrea Soldi in 1764 shows him holding the plan of the 'big dining room', it seems likely that he was his own architect for at least the post-fire refit. The earlier work is in a quite different manner, however, and it seems probable that in the 1720s and 1730s he at least had professional advice. 

Newburgh Priory: the stable block of 1725 and the west front of c.1730-36, photographed in 1979. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

The first element of the remodelling seems to have been the building of the stables to a robust baroque design with rusticated surrounds to the windows. The building was complete by 1725, and it seems unlikely that Lord Fauconberg would have been competent to design this on his own at this time. A very plausible conjecture is that he had assistance from either or both James Gibbs or William Wakefield (1672-1730), a Yorkshire gentleman who worked semi-professionally as an architect, and who would have been known to Lord Fauconberg, as they were both JPs for the North Riding. One of the places where Wakefield is known to have worked was Gilling Castle, where there is a pulvinated gateway closely resembling one at Newburgh. Two craftsmen (the carver Daniel Harvey and plumber George Crawford) who worked at Newburgh are also known to have worked at Atherton Hall (Lancs), designed by Wakefield in 1723, so there are multiple connections to link the two men together.

After the stable building, Lord Fauconberg turned his attention to the house. At the west end, where there had been a jumble of buildings in the 17th century, he created a proper kitchen court with some handsome private apartments on the first floor, and a symmetrical west front on which a new entrance to the estate was aligned. This is quite a sophisticated piece of planning, and if the architecture is simpler than that of the stables, it is executed with more confidence and authority. It had evidently been completed by 1736, when it is shown on the survey of that date. 

Newburgh Priory: the east wing, from a watercolour by J.S. Cotman, 1803.

At the same time the gallery range at the east end of the house was remodelled, with a new regular east wall comprising a basement, tall piano nobile, and low attic: a rainwater head dates its completion to 1732. Although this whole wing is now a gutted shell, it once contained a long gallery in which older panelling was reused between a new dado and cornice, and where there was an extremely fine Ionic chimneypiece with an elaborate central panel of a garlanded urn flanked by a frieze with rich cornucopia. Work took place on other parts of the house too, with dated rainwater heads of 1735 on the porch and 1745 on the east wall of the bow-fronted block. Charles Mitley was paid for carving in 1736 and then on four occasions in 1744-46. The Italian stuccodore, Giuseppe Cortese, first appears in the accounts in July 1739, and received further payments between 1743 and 1745, but in total only £117. He was presumably responsible for the baroque plasterwork decoration of the present drawing room (formerly used as a library and billiard room) at the south-west corner of the house. It has a ceiling in three sections, with a central coved part flanked by two oval domes. Some of the wall decoration may have been lost, but over the fireplace there is still a figure of Aphrodite set in a delightful frame.

Newburgh Priory: the drawing room in the south-west corner of the house in 1905, when it was used as a library. Image: Country Life.

Alongside the work on the house, the grounds of the house were also radically altered by the 4th Viscount. Work on the grounds probably actually began earlier than that on the house, for the 1722 survey referred to above shows a walk already cut through the wood to the east of the house. The survey of 1744 shows the radically altered landscape of which this first change was to become part. A tree nursery was established on the estate in 1725, although trees were also bought from commercial nurseries later, and significant sums were spent on planting throughout the 1730s, 1740s and 1750s - seldom less than £500 a year and more than £700 a year in the 1740s. Although the accounts do not survive from the 1760s, there are references in letters to continuing improvements, so work probably continued until the 1st Earl's death. The walled courtyard to the north of the house and the formal garden to the south were both swept away, opening up a view over a small lake to the north, while to the south was a new open lawn running uphill to a point at the top of the hill. The lawn was bounded on either side by trees planted in a stepped configuration which created a false perspective and made the lawn seem longer than it actually was.

To the east and south-east of the house was a formally-planted woodland, intersected with rides and walks and known as the Pleasure Ground. The outer edge of this wood was bounded by a bastioned walk with views across the landscape beyond. The Pleasure Ground was joined to the newly-planted 14 acre Hailbourn Wood to the south by a narrow belt of trees along a ridge containing an informal and irregular walk, from which further views could be obtained. A further belt of trees connected Hailbourn Wood to the main avenue south of the house, which was also flanked by a belt of trees, thus allowing a circular woodland walk around the estate. The 1744 plan shows this landscape complemented by numerous garden buildings, with an obelisk and a Temple of Diana terminating the two main vistas from the stables and the house, and a Temple of Venus and a Gothick Tower on the two bastions on the edge of the Pleasure Ground, and an Octagon Temple in trees beside the main avenue. There seems to be no evidence that any of these structures were ever built, although the landscaping and planting was carried out almost exactly as shown, and indeed a good deal of it survives today. As with the works on the house, there is no evidence in the accounts or elsewhere that a landscape architect was employed to plan or direct the new layout, and the way in which the design responds to the contours and vistas of the local topography suggests the 4th Viscount probably designed much of it himself. He must, however, have been influenced by the work of Vanbrugh and Switzer at nearby Castle Howard, where there are similar military-style bastions, and perhaps also by Bramham Hall.

Newburgh Priory: the house from the south-east, c.1870, showing the bow-windowed south range built after the fire of 1757.
Image: Historic England BB81/7481.

On 2 August 1757 a fire broke out at Newburgh which damaged seven rooms in the centre of the house and led to the death of a servant. The area of the house affected was evidently the part of the central range east of the porches, including the rooms behind the Jacobean bay windows, which were subsequently entirely rebuilt as a slightly incongruous mid-Georgian two-storey villa, with a new central entrance between two semi-circular bows. Rebuilding must have started very quickly, for by May 1759 the shell of the new block was said to look 'very noble and grand', and wanted only a few more days work. Almost certainly Lord Fauconberg was his own architect this time, for his portrait by Andrea Soldi, painted in 1764, shows him holding a plan of the dining room; he may, however, have had some advice from Thomas Atkinson of York, whom he consulted in 1764 about putting up the chimneypiece in the dining room, which had been supplied by Thomas Moore of London, or from Sir William Chambers, who worked on his London town house. The idea of the buffet at the inner end of the dining room is derived from a house in Beverley (Yorks ER) built for Lord Hotham, the designs for which appeared in Vitruvius Britannicus. 

Newburgh Priory: screen in the dining room in 1979. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Newburgh Priory: drawing room in 1905. Image: Country Life.

Newburgh Priory: dining room ceiling in 1979.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

For plasterwork in the new rooms, Lord Fauconberg returned to Cortese, who had worked at Newburgh twenty years earlier, but his other commitments meant a delay in finishing the new rooms, which were decorated in 1764-67. The two rooms behind the new bow windows were the dining room (now the large drawing room) and the drawing room (now the small drawing room), both of which have delicate and lively low-relief plaster ceilings by Cortese. The east wall of the drawing room has an unusual screen of three coffered arches supported in Ionic columns; this has sometimes been attributed to Chambers, although it seems to have been built before his only recorded visit to Newburgh in 1774.

Although the new south range went up so quickly, it seems possible that other elements of the renovation proceeded more slowly. The kitchen wing on the west side of the entrance court was completed only in 1767. It has three huge Gothick windows, unlike any other contribution to the house, which were undoubtedly practical in admitting an unusual amount of light. The refitting of the former great hall, with the Nicholas Stone chimneypiece, as 'the big dining room' was probably not completed until the time of the Wynn-Belasyses. Peter Atkinson of York submitted a design in 1802 for making this room into a library, and the present decorative scheme probably post-dates that.

Newburgh Priory: aerial view of the house in recent years, showing the derelict shell of the east wing. 

On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Capt. Wombwell let Newburgh to a school for 21 years. After a fire once more damaged the centre part of the house, the school left before the end of its lease, and he unexpectedly recovered possession. Sir Martyn Beckett was asked to produce a plan that would make it possible for the family to move back into part of the house, but nothing was done for some years. After long negotiations, a Historic Buildings Council grant for repairs was made in 1964 and work was carried out in 1965-69, despite rising costs. Rampant dry rot had sealed the fate of the east wing containing the gallery and rooms off it, which was unroofed and stripped out, but left as an empty shell, but the majority of the rest was restored, with a private apartment for the use of the family and the main rooms open to the public, as they have been ever since. There are, however, still some rooms on the upper floor awaiting restoration.

Descent: Crown sold 1540 to Rev. Anthony Belasyse (d. 1552); to nephew, Sir William Belasyse (c.1523-1604), kt.; to son, Sir Henry Belasyse (1555-1624), kt. and 1st bt.; to son, Sir Thomas Belasyse (1577-1653), 2nd bt., 1st Baron and 1st Viscount Fauconberg; to grandson, Thomas Belasyse (1628-1700), 2nd Viscount and 1st Earl Fauconberg; to nephew, Thomas Belasyse (1663-1718), 3rd Viscount Fauconberg; to son, Thomas Belasyse (1699-1774), 4th Viscount and 1st Earl Fauconberg; to son, Henry Belasyse (1743-1802), 2nd Earl Fauconberg; to daughter, Lady Charlotte (1767-1825), wife of Thomas Edward Wynn (from 1803 Wynn-Belasyse); to nephew, Sir George Wombwell (1792-1855), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir George Orby Wombwell (1832-1913), 4th bt.; to widow, Lady Julia Wombwell (d. 1921) for life and then to Capt. Victor Malcolm Graham Menzies (later Wombwell) (1893-1986); to kinsman, Sir George Frederick Philip Wombwell (b. 1949), 7th bt., who handed it over to his son, Stephen Wombwell (b. 1977).

Morton House, Little Lumley, Co. Durham

Although Morton is first mentioned in the 'Boldon Book' of c.1180, and is marked on Saxton's map of County Durham in 1576, almost nothing is known about the predecessors of the present building. The house is said to have been first built by Peter de Morton in about 1340, but it was probably rebuilt or at least altered by the Belasyse family, who held it from the bishops of Durham from 1525 to 1678. It was largely rebuilt by their successor, Thomas Smith (d. 1720) in 1707-09, and is now a large house with an ashlar south front and a fine bolection-moulded doorcase supporting a scrolled segmental pediment with an achievement of the Smith arms and the date 1709. 

Morton House, Little Lumley: a mid 19th century engraving of the house of 1709, showing it before the fire of 1879.

The house was originally of three storeys, but in 1879 most of the house was gutted by fire, with the loss of almost all the contents except for some of the plate and jewellery. Fortunately, the house was insured, but when it was rebuilt after the fire, it was made a storey lower than before. The interiors are now all post-fire reconstruction. 

Morton House, Little Lumley: the house in 2016,

In the later 18th century (perhaps from 1763) the house was acquired by the Lambton family, but after 1844 it was let to tenants. In 1920 the house passed to the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd., and became the home of their managing director, Austin Kirkup, who seems to have lived at Morton until his death in 1961. From the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, however, the house belonged to the National Coal Board, which sold it in 1962 to the Berriman family, who retained it until 1988. It was then acquired by a succession of commercial organisations before being sold most recently in 2016.

Sutton Court, Chiswick, Middlesex

This house was held on lease from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral, who already held an estate of five hides at Sutton before the Norman Conquest. Although a mansion house on the property is first mentioned in 1589, there was almost certainly a large house here long before that, for Henry VI dated letters from Sutton in 1441 and 1443, when he was probably lodging there. In 1589 Sutton Court had a gatehouse, malthouse, stable and farm buildings including a dovecote, which were then in decay but had been repaired a year later, when the house stood among 3 acres of gardens. By 1649 the house had a large hall and garrets over the upper floor and stood in 9 acres of gardens, and in 1664 it was assessed on 30 hearths. Ten years later, when the house was advertised to let, it was 'fit to receive tomorrow a family of 40 or 50' and the gardens had expanded again, to 12 acres. The incoming tenant was Lord Fauconberg, who spent £9,900 on improvements to the house and on laying out a formal garden in the French taste, possibly with advice from the king's gardener, Henry Wise; in 1691 its charms included a maze and a bowling green. 

Sutton Court, Chiswick: detail of John Rocque's map of the environs of London, 1746, showing Sutton Court (top centre) and its grounds,
as well as part of the adjacent grounds of Chiswick House.

By the early 18th century the house is shown on maps as having a T-shaped footprint, and John Macky, who visited in about 1712, mentioned 'a very neat Library, with Busto's above the bookcases' as well a collection of pictures (both family portraits and Italian old masters). He was much taken with the gardens: "Sutton-Court is une bijoux; it hath three Parterres, from the three Fronts of the House each finely adorned with statues. The Gardens are irregular; but that I think adds to their beauty; for every Walk affords Variety; the Hedges, Grottos, Statues, Mounts and Canals are so many surprising Beauties." In the 1720s, the lease was sold to Lord Burlington, who expanded the grounds of Chiswick House by incorporating some of the lands of Sutton Court. 

Sutton Court: engraving of the house in 1844 showing it after the late 18th century remodelling.

The house was surplus to his requirements and was let to undertenants, one of whom, Thomas King, had extensively remodelled the house by 1795, removing one wing so that it became L-shaped. It was then a two-storey building with a nine-bay front, central pediment and balustraded parapet. 

Sutton Court, Chiswick: the house in the late 19th century. Image: Historic England.

In the mid 19th century the house was used as a boarding school run by Frederick Tappenden, and although it later returned to private occupation it was demolished between 1896 and 1904 and replaced by houses in Sutton Court Road and a block of flats on the north side of Fauconberg Road known as Sutton Court.

Smithills Hall, Bolton, Lancashire

An account of the house was given in this earlier post.

Brancepeth Castle, Co. Durham

Brancepeth Castle: aerial view of the castle today, from the north-east.

The castle is still fundamentally the polygonal curtain-walled fortress first mentioned in 1216, and largely rebuilt by Ralph Neville (d. 1425), 1st Earl of Westmorland, in the late 14th century, almost certainly with John Lewyn as Master Mason. Unlike many other medieval castles, which fell into disuse and disrepair in the 17th and 18th centuries, Brancepeth remained in gentry use as the home (from 1636) of the Cole and (from 1701) the Belasyse families, and was surrounded by formal, and later, landscaped gardens in the 18th century. 

Brancepeth Castle: view of the castle by S. & N. Buck, 1728, showing the formal gardens which then surrounded the house.

On the death of William Belasyse (1697-1769) the castle passed to his daughter Bridget (1735-74), who died unmarried. Her will made generous provision for her female companion, Diana Chudleigh, and large charitable bequests, but the castle was left to her distant kinsman, Henry Belasyse (1743-1802), 2nd Earl Fauconberg, who quickly sold it to John Tempest. Tempest's heir, Henry Vane-Tempest, sold it 1796 to William Russell (1734-1817), an immensely rich coal owner and banker from Sunderland.

Brancepeth Castle: the house masses picturesquely, particularly seen across the Stockley Beck from the south-west. Image: Historic England.

The building period which is most evident now is the early 19th century, when John Paterson modernised and greatly extended the building in castle style for William Russell's son Matthew (1765-1822), an MP and coal magnate, who is said to have spent £120,000 on the work. The resulting transformation was greatly admired at the time, but although the exterior is highly picturesque in its massing and as viewed from a distance, closer to it remains hard-edged and a little bleak. Further minor work was done by Anthony Salvin in 1829 and the 1870s in a rather more conventionally Gothic style, but his work was not sufficiently extensive to change the overall impression left by Paterson.

Brancepeth Castle: the new gatehouse built by John Paterson.
Image: Historic England.

Brancepeth Castle: drawing of the original entrance,
dated 1824 but probably some years earlier. Image: RIBA

The castle has an irregular curtain of very high walls and is entered through a gatehouse on the north-east that is on the same site as the much simpler original entrance, but which is entirely of the 19th century. Leland, writing in the 1530s, recorded that the castle then had '2 courtes of high building' with 'a little mote that hemmith a great piece of the first court', apparently implying the existence of an inner and outer bailey within the curtain wall, divided by a wall and moat. The inner bailey was reached through a gateway tower bearing a lion shield, emblem of Ralph Neville's mother, a Percy. This inner wall and tower were removed between 1570 and the late 18th century, leaving a single large open space within the curtain walls. 

Brancepeth Castle: plan in 1796, with new labels added

The walls themselves are studded with large towers of similar form and appearance. On the south-east side are two towers, the Westmorland and Constable Towers, while to the south-west are the Neville and Bulmer towers, with a linking building between them, which formed the main residential accommodation. A further tower was built north of the Bulmer Tower by the 4th Earl of Westmorland (d. 1549), and probably contained additional chambers or lodgings, but it was removed by Paterson during the early 19th century alterations.

In the early 19th century Paterson built north and east from the Neville and Bulmer towers to provide a series of large reception rooms, fronted by an entrance hall and porte-cochère placed diagonally across the corner of the courtyard. A entire new tower (the Russell Tower) broke the line of the curtain wall between the Contable and Neville Towers, and a new range extended all along the south side of the castle to connect the main body of the house with the Westmorland and Constable Towers. In designing the new elevations, Paterson made use of neo-Norman and Early English design elements, but inside he created neo-classically shaped (circular, oval, octagonal and half-octagonal) rooms within the irregular walls. His interiors mix classical, Gothick and neo-Norman decoration (the latter largely drawing on inspiration from the 18th century neo-Norman north porch of Durham Cathedral). They include some grand spaces, but there is insufficient variation in the motifs from one room to another to avoid a certain monotony. 

Brancepeth Castle: view across the bailey to the porte-cochère and entrance hall added by Paterson.
Image: Billy Wilson. Some rights reserved.

Like almost all early 19th century interiors, the original impact relied on the cumulative effect of decoration, furnishings and pictures, and surviving images of the castle interior before the Second World War give a much richer impression than can be recaptured today.

Brancepeth Castle: entrance hall, and archway to staircase in the early 20th century, from an old postcard.

The long rectangular entrance hall is decorated with a Gothick vault with pendants, executed in plaster, and has a chimneypiece which combines Norman-style capitals, a late Gothic arch and a classical cornice. Opposite the entrance, a large archway with chevron decoration leads into the half-octagonal staircase hall, which contains a large imperial stair, rising into a fully-octagonal toplit upper hall. In the three medieval blocks behind the staircase, Paterson was respectful of the original fabric, and preserved the medieval vaults of the ground-floor rooms. 

Brancepeth Castle: saloon in the early 20th century, from an old postcard.

Brancepeth Castle: drawing room in the early 20th century, from an old postcard

On the first floor, the principal rooms in these towers have quadripartite rib vaults, and the drawing room in the Neville Tower has an exuberant neo-Norman fireplace with chevron decoration. The Saloon occupies the first floor of the link block, and the Baron's Hall the equivalent space in the Bulmer Tower: the latter was remodelled by Salvin in 1829. The state rooms continue in the new range north of the Bulmer Tower with the Dining Room and the octagonal Smoking Room, and east of the Neville Tower, with the octagonal State Bedroom in the Russell Tower. On the ground floor, a wide plaster-vaulted passage, the Armour Gallery, links the Entrance Hall to the Library in the Constable Tower, the Billiard Room, and then the Chapel, which was apparently remodelled by Salvin when he returned to the castle at the end of his career, in 1864-75, and which exhibits a much purer Gothic style than Paterson's work. It has a wooden vaulted roof and a gallery at the western end.

Brancepeth Castle: armour gallery in the early 20th century, from an old postcard.

Brancepeth Castle: chapel today.

The estate descended to William Russell MP (1798-1850), and on his death without issue passed to his sister, Emma Maria (d. 1870), the wife of Gustavus Frederick John James Hamilton (later Hamilton-Russell) (1797-1872), 7th Viscount Boyne. His grandson, Gustavus William Hamilton-Russell (1864-1942), 9th Viscount Boyne, let the house as a military hospital in WW1 and from 1939 as HQ of the Durham Light Infantry. The castle was abandoned in 1960s and was semi-derelict when sold in 1978 to Mrs. Margaret Dobson (1928-2014), who conducted a long-term restoration, making the house her home, a centre for several local businesses, and opening it to the public for tours and events.

A deer park is recorded at Brancepeth in the 14th century, and by the 16th century the house stood between East and West Parks. Walled gardens were laid out around the castle in the late 17th century, with a gazebo and garden buildings to the south-east. Parterres were created to the south in the early 18th century. After about 1740 the houses around the castle were cleared away to create a new parkland setting, laid out with woods and clumps, and the villagers were rehoused in a terrace of cottages with sash windows and pantiled roofs. A Gothick gateway was built to the north of the castle in the late 18th century, but an ambitious landscaping scheme of 1783 by Adam Micklethwaite, which would have dammed the beck to create a serpentine lake, was largely unexecuted. The earlier gardens were largely swept away in the early 19th century when the surroundings of the castle were re-landscaped, with open grassland and woods framing a view to the parish church. On the north and west sides of the castle a broad terrace was formed, with a crenellated retaining wall and bastions overlooking the steep valley of the Stockley Beck. Four gate lodges were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries and a single-storey stable block, now converted into a clubhouse.

Descent: Crown granted to Robert Ker, Earl of Somerset, but reverted to Crown on his attainder; sold 1633 to three purchasers who sold 1636 to Ralph Cole of Newcastle.. to grandson, Ralph Cole MP; sold 1701 to Sir Henry Belasyse (1647-1717), kt.; to son, William Belasyse (d. 1769); to daughter, Bridget Belasyse (1735-74); to kinsman, Henry Belasyse (1743-1802), 2nd Earl Fauconberg, who sold to John Tempest; to Henry Vane-Tempest, who sold 1796 to William Russell (1734-1817) of Sunderland; to son, Matthew Russell MP (1765-1822); to son, William Russell MP (1798-1850); to sister, Emma Maria (d. 1870), wife of Gustavus Frederick John James Hamilton (later Hamilton-Russell) (1797-1872), 7th Viscount Boyne; to son, Gustavus Russell Hamilton-Russell (1830-1907), 8th Viscount Boyne; to son, Gustavus William Hamilton-Russell (1864-1942), 9th Viscount Boyne, who let the house as a military hospital in WW1 and from 1939 as HQ of the Durham Light Infantry; abandoned in 1960s; sold 1978 to Mrs. Margaret Dobson (1928-2014).

Principal sources

Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Yorkshire - North Riding, 1966, pp. 263-65; J. Cornforth, 'Newburgh Priory, Yorkshire', Country Life, 28 February-14 March 1974; G. Ridsdall Smith, In well beware: the story of Newburgh Priory and the Belasyse family, 1978; VCH Middlesex, vol. 7, 1982, pp. 71-74; G. Worsley, 'Planting for pleasure and profit', Country Life, 10 November 1988; M. Roberts, Sir N. Pevsner & E. Williamson, The buildings of England: County Durham, 3rd edn., 2021, p. 395;

https://brentfordandchiswicklhs.org.uk/sutton-court-the-earl-of-burlinlton-and-chiswick-house-grounds-by-james-wisdom/;

https://sites.google.com/site/allthingsbournmoor/morton-house?pli=1;

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/belasyse-sir-henry-1648-1717;

Location of archives

Belasyse family, Barons, Viscounts and Earls Fauconberg: deeds, family and estate papers, 12th-20th cents. [North Yorkshire County Record Office, ZDV]; estate survey, 18th cent. [Yorkshire Archaeological Society, MS601]; estate accounts, 1577-1801 [Columbia University Libraries]

Can you help?

• Does anyone know of a visual record of the house at Sutton Court, Chiswick prior to the late 18th century remodelling?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 12 February 2023.