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| Bertie, Earls of Lindsey |
The heir to Grimsthorpe and the peerage was their eldest son, Robert Bertie (1582-1642), 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby. Like his father, he pursued a diplomatic and military career and he was abroad for much of the latter part of James I's reign. On the death of his cousin, the 18th Earl of Oxford, in 1625, he succeeded to the earl's hereditary position as Lord Great Chamberlain, and to avoid this great office falling to a mere baron, Bertie was made 1st Earl of Lindsey in 1626. On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 he was chosen as Colonel-General of the Royalist army, but he received mortal wounds later that year at the Battle of Edgehill, which was the first major engagement between the Royalists and Parliamentarians. The 1st Earl and his wife had at least thirteen children, but the earldom and estates were inherited by his eldest son, Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey. Montagu was a leading supporter of King Charles I, going so far as to offer himself to Parliament for punishment in place of the king as events moved towards the execution of the monarch, and acting as one of the pall-bearers at the king's funeral at Windsor in 1649. His estates were sequestered but he compounded for their recovery and lived quietly in England during the Commonwealth years, although his sons were sent abroad. After the Restoration, he oversaw the arrangements for the coronation of Charles II, and was made a knight of the garter. He married twice, and had families by both his wives. His second son, the Hon. Peregrine Bertie (c.1634-1701) inherited Waldershare Park (Kent) in right of his wife, but the couple had no sons to succeed them, so the estate passed out of the Bertie family, and the house was rebuilt by Sir Henry Furnese between 1705 and 1712. Only his youngest son by his first wife established a continuing cadet branch of the family: this was the Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1640-1711), who built Uffington House (Lincs), and whose descendants later inherited the earldom of Lindsey; their story will be considered further below. The 2nd Earl's second wife was Baroness Norris in her own right, and their eldest son, James Bertie (1653-99), inherited that title and was later made 1st Earl of Abingdon. He and his descendants will form the subject of my next post.
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| Lindsey House, Chelsea, in 1850. Image: Kensington & Chelsea Libraries |
Robert Bertie, 4th Earl of Lindsey, inherited the 30,000-acre Gwydir Castle estate in north Wales in right of his first wife, which represented a significant addition to the family's property. He later played an active part in the Northern Rising in support of William of Orange's invasion in 1688 and was rewarded for his support by appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1689-97 and by being summoned to the House of Lords in his father's lifetime as Baron Willoughby. After succeeding his father as 4th Earl in 1701, he acquired Lindsey House in Lincoln's Inn Fields as a grander London home, and gradually shifted his political position, moving from the Tories to the Whigs. He was rewarded for his new allegiance by promotion in the peerage to Marquess of Lindsey in 1706 and Duke of Ancaster in 1715. The new titles were granted with a special remainder, in default of male line descendants of the 1st Duke, to the heirs male of his father and mother. Since he had four full brothers, this ought to have ensured the survival of the dukedom in the longer term, but in fact none of his brothers produced any legitimate male issue, so in the end it had no effect.
The 1st Duke had known Sir John Vanbrugh when they were both in Europe in the 1680s, and the two men remained friends. Vanbrugh was also close to the Duke's brother, the Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1663-1711). It is therefore no surprise that after Vanbrugh turned his creative talents to architecture, the Duke looked to him to carry out design work on the Grimsthorpe estate, including the building of Swinstead House as a dower house, and the design of a new north front for the castle. Work had not started on the latter project before the 1st Duke's death in 1723, but his son and successor, Peregrine Bertie (1686-1742), 2nd Duke of Ancaster, continued the project. The intention was to rebuild the whole house, and plans under Vanbrugh's name were published in Vitruvius Britannicus in 1725, but work went no further than the rebuilding of the north range. Vanbrugh's death in 1726 probably saw the project completed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, but the extent of his involvement is uncertain.
The 2nd Duke married a daughter of his neighbour, Sir John Brownlow of Belton House (Lincs), in 1711, and the couple went on to have ten children, several of whom died young. His eldest surviving son and heir was Peregrine Bertie (1714-78), 3rd Duke of Ancaster, who inherited the Grimsthorpe and Gwydir estates. The next surviving son, Lord Albemarle Bertie (1724-65) was a noted sportsman and an inveterate gambler. He inherited Lindsey House in Chelsea while still a child, but sold it in 1750. The youngest son was Lord Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), who eventually succeeded to the dukedom as 5th Duke in 1779. The 3rd Duke raised a regiment against the 1745 rebellion, and became a general in the army, but his real career was at court, where he became Master of the Horse, 1766-78. He made two financially advantageous marriages, and undertook major works to modernise the interiors of the Tudor ranges of Grimsthorpe Castle and to lay out the grounds. He also built a new house designed by Robert Adam (Ancaster House) as a rural villa at Richmond in Surrey. He was survived by a son, Robert Bertie (1756-79), 4th Duke of Ancaster, a turbulent young man who died the following year, and two daughters. With the 4th Duke's death, the dukedom, marquessate and earldom passed to his uncle, Lord Brownlow Bertie, but the ancient family barony of Willoughby de Eresby fell into abeyance between his two sisters and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain passed to them jointly. This initiated a complex subdivision of the hereditary right to the office which has seen it subdivided many times between their descendants. The abeyance of the barony was resolved in favour of the elder sister, Lady Prescilla Barbara Bertie (1761-1828) in 1780. She had then recently married Sir Peter Burrell (1755-1820), who was later created 1st Baron Gwydir, taking his title from the estate which his wife inherited from her brother. In 1809, on the death of the 5th Duke without surviving issue, they also inherited Grimsthorpe Castle, which remains the property of their descendants to this day. The later history of the family will be treated in a future post on the Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby family.
Lord Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), as the youngest son of the 2nd Duke, must have grown up with no expectation of inheriting the dukedom and estates. In 1760 he inherited a significant Lincolnshire property, based around Castle Bytham, under the will of his mother's uncle, Sir Brownlow Sherard (d. 1736), 3rd bt. This gave him a status in the county independent of his brother, and the following year he was elected as MP for Lincolnshire, a seat he retained until he inherited the dukedom and moved to the House of Lords. In 1762 he took a town house in Savile Row, which he kept until his death. In 1779 the sudden death of the 4th Duke brought him the title and the Grimsthorpe estate, and in 1780 he also inherited the Uffington House estate under the will of his kinsman, Charles Bertie (1734-80). Even though he did not inherit the Gwydir estate, he was suddenly transformed, in the space of a couple of years, from a younger son with a seat in the Commons, into a duke with a Lincolnshire property empire. What he did not have was a son to succeed to the dukedom, which became extinct on his death. He did have a daughter, Lady Mary Elizabeth Bertie (1771-97), who gave him a grandson, the Hon. Brownlow Charles Colyear (1796-1819), but he chose to bequeath the Grimsthorpe estate to his niece and her husband, Lord and Lady Gwydir. He left his personal estate (valued at some £200,000) to his grandson if he survived to the age of 25, but Colyear was murdered by brigands in Italy at the age of 23, and the Duke's wealth was instead distributed between his two surviving great-nephews.
The fifth son of the 2nd Earl of Lindsey, the Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1640-1711), was MP for Stamford from 1678 until his death, Secretary to the Treasury, 1673-79, and Treasurer and Paymaster of the Ordnance, 1681-99. Although he owed his appointments to the political influence of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Osborne (eventually 1st Duke of Leeds), the fact that he remained in post throughout the momentous political changes of the late 17th century suggests that he was generally trusted by his royal masters and their ministers. In 1673 he bought the Uffington estate in Lincolnshire and from 1681 he built there a handsome new house, which survived until it was destroyed by fire in 1904. He married in 1674 but his wife died just five years later, leaving him with one son and one daughter, and he never remarried. His son, Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730), succeeded him as MP for Stamford, 1711-27, and made a useful marriage, which brought him a portion of £20,000, but little more is known of his life. His wife is thought to have died in 1713, and left him with three surviving sons and one daughter. The eldest son was Charles Bertie (1707-54), who inherited the Uffington estate and married Bathsheba, the only child of the famous physician, Dr. Richard Mead. They had five sons and two daughters, several of whom died young. By the end of his life, Charles was evidently in financial difficulties, and he left all his personal estate to his youngest brother, the Rev. Norborne Bertie (1712-79), who was charged with paying his debts. Uffington passed to his eldest son, Charles Bertie (1734-80), who was unmarried and had no issue. Since all his siblings had predeceased him, he left Uffington to his distant kinsman, Lord Brownlow Bertie, who had recently succeeded his nephew as 5th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven. It is not clear why Charles favoured the Duke in this way over his nearer kin, but some coolness between cousins may account for it.
The second son of Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730) was Peregrine Bertie (1709-77), who became a barrister and practised from chambers in Lincolns Inn. In 1736 he married Elizabeth Payne, an orphan who was the niece and ward of John Morse (d. 1736), a partner in Child's Bank. Unfortunately the couple married - as soon as Elizabeth turned 21 - without Morse's consent, and Morse abandoned plans to leave her the fine new house he was building at Woodperry (Oxon), although she did inherit an estate at Wooburn (Bucks) in 1739. The couple seem to have divided their time between Lincoln's Inn and Wooburn, and in due course their eldest surviving son, Peregrine Bertie (1739-82), inherited the Wooburn estate. He never married, and although his will made provision for a long-term mistress, Wooburn passed on his death to his younger brother, Gen. Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818). General Bertie had a long and active military career and at this time was unmarried, so he had no need for a country house like Wooburn, which he sold in 1784. Ten years later he did enter upon matrimony, but his first wife bore him no children before she died in 1806. At the age of 62 he tried again, marrying the 28-year-old Charlotte Layard in 1808. She bore him two daughters (one of whom died young) and then finally, in 1814 and 1815, two sons. By then, he had succeeded his kinsman, the 5th Duke of Ancaster, as owner of Uffington House, and also as 9th Earl of Lindsey. He did not inherit the dukedom or the marquessate of Lindsey because the patents conferring these titles limited them to male line descendants of the 4th Earl and his full brothers, whereas the General descended from the 2nd Earl.
The 9th Earl's surviving daughter, Lady Charlotte (1812-95) was a remarkable woman for her times. She made two unconventional marriages, the first of which, to the nonconformist ironmaster, Sir Josiah John Guest (1785-1852), 1st bt., made her very wealthy. She demonstrated a capacity for business management on the largest scale running the Dowlais Iron Works after her husband's death, and still managed to raise a family, learn eight foreign and ancient languages, translate a major literary work from Welsh into English, and become a serious collector of English china, fans and playing cards. She had all the talents and energy which her two brothers lacked. The elder of them, George Augustus Bertie (1814-77), who succeeded his father as 10th Earl of Lindsey at the age of three, was not at all bright and lived a very sheltered life, taking no part in public affairs, never marrying, and seldom leaving Uffington. His brother, Montagu Peregrine Bertie (1815-99), who eventually succeeded George as 11th Earl of Lindsey, was normally intelligent and spent ten years in the army before retiring in 1842. He seems to have lived at Uffington and apparently filled the role in local society which his brother might have been expected to hold. He married in 1854 and had one son and three daughters, and in due course his son, Montagu Peregrine Albemarle Bertie (1861-1938), 12th Earl of Lindsey, succeeded him in the title and at Uffington. By then, the estate was in some financial difficulty, no doubt mainly as a result of the agricultural depression of the late 19th century.
The 12th Earl had a short career in the army, which took him to Australia as ADC to the Governor of New South Wales. While there, he married a daughter of Dr James Charles Cox, the Australian physician and marine scientist, but in 1891 he retired from the army and returned to Lincolnshire to act as agent to his father. One of the economies implemented in the next decade was to under-insure Uffington House, and this proved a tragic mistake in 1904, when fire completed gutted the main block of the house. Without sufficient insurance money to meet the cost, the family could not afford to rebuild it, and the ruins of the house stood, gradually decaying and collapsing, for more than seventy years. The Earl spent most of his time at his town house in Eaton Square, Westminster, while the stables at Uffington were adapted to form a new home in Lincolnshire. As the 12th Earl's only child was a daughter, Lady Muriel Felicia Vere Bertie (c.1893-1980), on his death in 1938 the earldom of Lindsey passed to his nearest male line relative, Montagu Henry Bertie (1887-1963), 8th Earl of Abingdon, who was a fifth cousin three times removed, but Lady Muriel inherited the Uffington estate. The later history of the earldom will be explored in my next post on the Berties, Earls of Abingdon. Lady Muriel married Capt. Henry Herbert Liddell-Grainger (1886-1935) of Ayton Castle (Berwicks.) in 1922, and they had one son. After Liddell-Grainger died in 1935, she married in 1938 Sir Charles Barclay-Harvey (1890-1969) of Dinnet (Aberdeens.) and went out to South Australia with him while he was Governor, 1939-44. She lost her second husband in 1969 and seems to have lived thereafter mainly at Uffington. On her death, the estate passed to her son, David Liddell-Grainger (1930-2007) of Ayton Castle, who pulled down the ruins of the old house at Uffington to provide stone for repairing the estate walls. He moved the surviving family pictures from Uffington to Ayton, and after leasing the house at Uffington for some years, sold it in 1993.
Eresby House, Spilsby, Lincolnshire
Eresby was the principal seat of the de Bec and Willoughby families through the Middle Ages and continued to be used after the Willoughby estates passed to the Duke of Suffolk and later the Berties in the 16th century, and Grimsthorpe became their principal seat. The house survived until it was burnt down in 1769, and the park is still a significant feature in the landscape. And yet there seems to be no surviving view of the house, and the documentary and archaeological evidence we have of its appearance is tantalising and not wholly consistent. The limited amount that is known about it can be summarised as follows. There was an early medieval manor house here which was much strengthened after 1276, when John de Bec, 1st Baron Bec, was given a licence to crenellate it, and to surround it with walls of chalk and stone. His successor, Robert de Bec, was given right of free warren on his demesne lands at Eresby and Willoughby. The house descended in the early 16th century to Katherine, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and her husband, the Duke of Suffolk. They built extensively at Grimsthorpe, and made that house their main home, but Leland notes 'I heer s[a]y [they] entendith to build sumptuoisly' at Eresby too. Excavations in 1968 revealed part of the plan of the medieval house, including a 13th century round tower with buttresses, and later buildings in 15th century brick on sandstone foundations. It is thought that the fishpond shown on 18th century maps was originally part of the moat surrounding this house.
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| Eresby House, Spilsby: estate plan of c.1750 showing the site before the fire of 1769. Image: Lincolnshire Archives. |
Montagu, the 2nd Earl of Lindsey, was living at Eresby in 1677, and in 1710 the Hon. Peregrine Bertie, younger son of the 3rd Earl, was considering rebuilding the house, but his death in 1711 meant nothing was done. The partial rebuilding of Grimsthorpe in the 18th century reinforced its status as the chief seat of the family, and Eresby seems to have been little used, although both the house and gardens were maintained. Ironically, it was maintenance that led to the house's downfall, for on 10 March 1769 carpenters working on the roof accidentally set fire to the building, which burnt down. Later that year, labourers were paid for clearing the site and recovering the lead (presumably from the roof) from the ruins, so it was probably soon decided not to rebuild. Nonetheless, the stables and kennels seem to have been kept up, as payments in the estate accounts attest. In 1791 John Byng visited the site, and sketched two surviving gatepiers. In the 19th century the two gatepiers were made into a monument to the old house in the form of a single massive gatepier with a stone urn on top, by order of Baroness Willoughby de Eresby.
Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire
The impressively extensive park incorporates the sites of the Cistercian abbey of Vaudey, founded in 1147, which stood south of the lake, and the early 13th century castle of Gilbert de Gant, of which the square King John's Tower at the south-east corner of the house is a surviving fragment. Leland tells us the old castle "was no great thing afore the new building of the secunde court...yet was al the old work of stone, and th[e g]ate house was fair and [strong], and the waulles of ech[e side of] it embattled. [There is also a] great dich about the house". By the time of his visit it had been hurriedly enlarged into a palace for the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk in order to allow them to entertain the Duke's brother-in-law, King Henry VIII, during his royal progress through Lincolnshire in 1541, and this work is probably what Leland refers to as a second court. The Duke had been granted the lands of Vaudey Abbey in 1538, and the stone of the abbey buildings was no doubt reused in the new house. The four ranges of the new building had a tower at each corner, one of which was the reused King John's Tower. Although the fabric of the house of c.1540 largely survives, it has been much altered by subsequent generations, and the interiors are now all of later dates.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: engraving of the north front by Peter van der Aa, 1707. |
Forty years later, the new front was already old-fashioned and the unmodified Tudor ranges of the house were positively antiquated. The 4th Earl, who was raised to the Dukedom of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1716, began a transformation of the parks and gardens at Grimsthorpe into a modern formal landscape. He no doubt felt the house needed a similar radical makeover, and in about 1710 he consulted his old friend Sir John Vanbrugh, whom he had known when they were both in Holland in 1688. Vanbrugh was evidently asked first to remodel the dower house for the estate (Swinstead Hall), where work was completed by 1720, and work on the castle had still not begun in 1723 when the 1st Duke died. Within a few days, however, the 2nd Duke had summoned Vanbrugh to assure him that he intended to press ahead with his father's plans, and work began once more with the north range, which was probably seen as the most important, on the basis that first impressions matter.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the north front as remodelled by Vanbrugh, 1723-30. Image: Country Life. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: unexecuted design by Vanbrugh for the south front, engraved for Vitruvius Britannicus, 1725. |
The designs for the outer faces of all four ranges were published in the third volume of Vitruvius Britannicus in 1725, and those for the east, south and west sides show an unexpected Palladian influence, including a Corinthian portico on the south front which was directly influenced by Colen Campbell's Houghton Hall in Norfolk. This has prompted the suggestion that these designs were worked up for publication by Campbell on the basis of rough sketches by Vanbrugh, but since they were printed and issued in Vanbrugh's lifetime this seems unlikely. Vanbrugh died in 1726 but work continued at Grimsthorpe until 1730, presumably under the aegis of Nicholas Hawksmoor, by which time the remodelling of the north range was complete. Externally, Vanbrugh raised the height of the corner towers, giving the elevation the massing of a four-towered medieval castle, such as Langley Castle (Co. Durham), although all the individual elements are classical. They have emphatic quoins, a heavy modillion cornice and balustrade, and swagged circular tourelles above the corners of the balustrade. The forecourt before the north front, with low walls articulated by twenty-six niches on either side, linked to two-storey pavilions which echo the design of the corner towers, was probably designed by the mason Edward Nutt under the direction of Hawksmoor. Connecting the pavilions to enclose the forecourt is a great iron screen and gates, made in 1730.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the forecourt and north elevation from the north drive. Image: Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castle Trust |
Between the towers is Vanbrugh's hall front, composed of bold, deeply moulded baroque forms which yet combine satisfyingly in a harmonious whole. The two storeys are of equal height, and are visually united by pairs of giant banded Tuscan Doric columns set one bay in from the towers on either side, which support massive chunks of entablature. On these in turn stand tall pedestals supporting sculptural groups (Hercules and Antaeus on one side and the Rape of Prosperine on the other). Between the columns are arched windows forming a continuous arcade, above which are a cornice and balustraded parapet with urns and a huge stone-carved achievement of the Ancaster arms. On the ground floor, the central window is replaced by a Doric doorcase with a triangular pediment which feels a bit limp after the high tempo of the rest. And indeed it was not Vanbrugh's original intention: a design drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum shows a more baroque doorcase, with the pilasters dying into the wall, and the same drawing shows that the present varied fenestration of the towers was substituted for the original scheme for pairs of round-headed windows. This time, the change was certainly an improvement. It seems likely that the alterations were made after Vanbrugh's death, either by Hawksmoor or whoever was overseeing the completion of the work, but there seems to be no documentary evidence.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: early design by Vanbrugh for the north front, c.1715. Image: Victoria & Albert Museum E.2124:162-1992. Some rights reserved. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the north front as executed. |
Behind the seven central bays of Vanbrugh's spreading north front lies the two storey hall ('unquestionably Vanbrugh's finest room', according to Pevsner), surrounded by two storeys of arcading that mirror the external wall treatment. On the south wall, the seven arches on the first floor frame grisaille paintings by Sir James Thornhill of English kings who had specially favoured the Berties and their Willoughby predecessors, with King George I, who created the dukedom, in the middle. The ceiling has a concave oval centre, no doubt intended for a painting that was never executed, but the frame reflects the black and cream pattern of the marble floor below. At either end of the hall are massive and imposing screens of two tiers of round-headed arches, dividing the hall from the matching stone staircases with fine wrought iron balustrades (attributed to Thomas Warren) which lie behind. The projecting wings on the north front contain the chapel (on the west), which like the hall rises through two storeys, and the state dining room (on the first floor of the east wing).
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the entrance hall is a carefully thought-out symphony in cream, grey and black. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: staircase. Image: Historic England |
The state dining room is the first of the state apartments, and has a ceiling painting of the Liberal Arts (the room was originally intended to be a drawing room, not an eating room), for which there is a cartoon attributed to Sleter in the Tate Gallery. Otherwise, the room has been much altered, with the cornice and architrave introduced in 1912 by Lenygon & Co, a Rococo chimneypiece made by Sir Henry Cheere, and the girandoles designed by William Kent brought here from the House of Lords in 1847. Almost every room in the house is built up in a similar way from elements of widely different dates, although the overall effect is of a harmonious and consistent whole, thanks to the taste and sensitivity with which additions have been made. Most of the rooms have as a foundation some elements surviving from a general redecoration of the interior for the 3rd Duke of Ancaster that was carried out in the 1750s and 1760s. Overlaid on this are changes consequent on the partial rebuilding of the east front in 1811 and of the west front in 1826 by Samuel Page and Henry Garling of London for Lord Gwydir. Following this, there was a remodelling of unknown scope by Detmar Blow, who worked here in 1911-14; changes made around 1925 to accommodate the contents of Normanton Hall, which were decanted to Grimsthorpe on its demolition in that year; and work by the London decorating firms of Lenygon and Keebles.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: plan of piano nobile; north is at the bottom. A=Great Hall; B=State Dining Room; C=King James' Room; D=State Drawing Room; E=Tapestry Room; F=Birdcage Room; G=Birdcage Dressing Room; H: Blue Damask Bedroom; I=Boudoir; J=Bedroom; K=Braganza Bedroom; L=South Gallery; M=Gothic Dressing Room; N=Gothic Bedroom; O=Tapestry Bedroom; P=West Gallery; Q=Chinese Drawing Room (upper part); R=Chapel. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: state drawing room. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: tapestry room. |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: Birdcage Room |
At the junction of the south and west fronts is the Briganza Bedroom, with plain bolection-moulded panelling and a rich plaster ceiling, apparently of the late 17th century, but with a 19th century fireplace in the French taste. Opening off the West Gallery are the Gothic Dressing Room and Gothic Bedroom, which despite their names are classical in style, and the Tapestry Bedroom. The Gothic bedroom has a fine chimneypiece of c.1734 from Normanton Park, and takes its name from a spectacular bed with a domed canopy carried on four curviving crocketed brackets. At the end of the West Gallery there is access to the first-floor gallery looking down into the chapel.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: interior of the chapel, 1984. Image: A.F. Kersting/Historic England |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: Chinese room and its bay window, 1984. Image: A.F. Kersting/Historic England |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: engraving of the park landscape from the east by Knyff and Kip, 1707. |
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| Plan of bastion garden designed by Stephen Switzer Image: Bodleian Library MS Top. gen. d.14 |
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: view of bastion garden by William Stukeley, 1736 Image: Bodleian Library MS Top. gen. d.14 |
A generation later, c.1711, Stephen Switzer remodelled the garden layout, keeping but simplifying the parterres south of the house and expanding and diversifying the planting of a rectangular wood beyond them into a polygonal bastion with walks running from the angles to a central circle and forming a terrace all round the wood, linking the bastions. He also laid out a wilderness garden called The Oaks on an open field north-west of the castle. Switzer may have introduced the Berties to William Stukeley, who added to the earlier layout a diagonal, tree-lined walk (Grime's Walk), leading to a mount with a pavilion dedicated to an imagined genius loci or founder of the settlement called Grime.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the park and lake at the time of my first visit in 1975. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved. |
A naturalisation of the landscaping began in the 1740s. Capability Brown may have been briefly employed at Grimthorpe around 1740 to create a lake from the earlier ponds, between his early career in Northumberland and the start of his work at Stowe, and he was certainly here again in 1772, when he provided designs for landscaping work in the park which appear to have been carried out. Much of the smoothing of the park landscape, and a further enlargement of the lake, was, however, the work of John Grundy, a Spalding surveyor, who was engaged from about 1747 onwards. Visitors always felt that the lake was inadequate to the scale of the park and lacked planting to soften its edges; something that was eventually done in the early 19th century.
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| Grimsthorpe Castle: the summerhouse at Swinstead. |
Descent: Crown gifted 1516 to William Willoughby (d. 1525/6), 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby; to daughter, Katherine (1519-80), 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby and from 1534 wife of Charles Brandon (c.1484-1545), 1st Viscount Lisle and 1st Duke of Suffolk, and later of Richard Bertie MP (d. 1582); to son, Peregrine Bertie (1555-1601), 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby; to son, Robert Bertie (1582-1642), 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 1st Earl of Lindsey; to son, Montague Bertie (c.1607-68), 2nd Earl of Lindsey; to son, Robert Bertie (1630-1701), 3rd Earl of Lindsey to son, Robert Bertie (1660-1723), 4th Earl of Lindsey and 1st Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to son, Robert Bertie (1686-1742), 2nd Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to son, Peregrine Bertie (1714-78), 3rd Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to Robert Bertie (1756-79), 4th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to uncle, Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), 5th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to first cousin once removed, Peter Robert Burrell (later Drummond-Burrell) (1782-1865), 2nd Baron Gwydir and 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby; to son, Alberic Drummond-Burrell (later Drummond-Willoughby) (1821-76), 23rd Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 3rd Baron Gwydir; to sister, Hon. Clementina Elizabeth Drummond-Willoughby (later Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby) (1809-88), 24th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, wife of Sir Gilbert John Heathcote (d. 1867), 5th bt. and 1st Baron Aveland; to son, Gilbert Henry Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (1830-1910), 25th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 1st Earl of Ancaster; to son, Gilbert Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (1867-1951), 2nd Earl of Ancaster; to son, Gilbert James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (1907-83), 3rd Earl of Ancaster, who vested the estate in the Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castles Trust. Grimsthorpe was for long the home of his daughter, Lady Nancy Jane Marie Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (b. 1934), 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and is now occupied by the 2nd Earl's great-grandson, Maj. Sebastian St Maur Miller (b. 1965). The house was evidently left unoccupied for some years after the death of the 4th Duke of Ancaster in 1779.
Uffington House, Lincolnshire
The Uffington estate was bought for Charles Bertie (c.1635-1711), the fifth son of the 2nd Earl of Lindsey, in 1673. In 1675 he paid a surveyor called Grant for making a plan of the old house, perhaps with a view to commissioning alterations, but he seems to have decided soon afterwards on a complete rebuilding, which began in about 1681 and was largely complete by 1688.
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| Uffington House: a naive 18th century watercolour, showing the house as first built. Image: D.I. Liddell-Grainger/Historic England. |
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| Uffington House: the building in 1893, with the mid 19th century orangery visible at the rear. Image: D.I. Liddell-Grainger/Historic England. |
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| Uffington House: painted decoration on the staircase by Antonio Verrio, photographed in 1893. Image: D.I. Liddell-Grainger/Historic England. |
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| Uffington House: entrance hall in 1893. Image: D.I. Liddell-Grainger/Historic England |
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| Uffington House: drawing room, with mid 19th century decoration, in 1893. Image: D.I. Liddell-Grainger/Historic England |
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| Uffington House: the ruins of the main block after the fire, December 1904. Image: Derek Sherborn/Historic England |
Descent: built for Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1630-1711); to son, Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730); to son, Charles Bertie (1707-54); to son, Charles Bertie (1734-80); to kinsman, Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), 5th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven; to kinsman, Gen. Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818), 9th Earl of Lindsey; to son, George Augustus Bertie (1814-77), 10th Earl of Lindsey; to brother, Montagu Peregrine Bertie (1815-99), 11th Earl of Lindsey; to son, Montagu Peregrine Albemarle Bertie (1861-1938), 12th Earl of Lindsey; to daughter, Lady Muriel Felicia Vere (1893-1980), wife of Capt. Henry Herbert Liddell-Grainger and later of Sir Charles Malcolm Barclay-Harvey (d. 1969), kt.; to son, David Ian Liddell-Grainger (1930-2007), who sold 1993.
Bertie family of Grimsthorpe Castle, Earls of Lindsey and Dukes of Ancaster & Kesteven
Bartue alias Bertie*, Thomas (d. 1555). Elder son of Robert Barty (d. 1501/2) of Bearsted (Kent), stonemason, and his wife Marion. Master mason, who worked on Warblington Castle (Hants), 1517-18, repairs to Winchester Cathedral, 1532, and Place House, Titchfield (Hants), 1538, before building Calshot Castle (Hants), 1539-40, Hasleworth Castle (Hants), 1545-46 and possibly East and West Cowes Castles (IoW), 1539-42 and Hurst Castle (Hants), 1541-44 for the king. He is probably not to be identified (as has been suggested by John Harvey and others) with Bishop John Fox's mason, to whom a significant group of statuary works have been attributed). Bailiff of Winchester Cathedral Priory's lands around the town, 1531-32, 1537-38 and 1541-42. Captain of Hurst Castle, c.1542-55. He was granted arms, 1550. He married Agnes Saye, and had issue, perhaps among others:
(1) Richard Bertie (c.1516-82) (q.v.);(2) Robert Bertie (fl. 1546);(3) Emma Bertie (fl. 1536); educated at Nunnaminster, Winchester.
He may have lived near the quarries at Godstone (Surrey) before moving to Winchester in or before 1515.
He died by 5 June 1555. His wife's date of death is unknown.
* The name is spelled in a bewildering variety of ways (Bartew, Barthew, Bartu, Barty, Bert etc.) until in the later 16th century Bertie became the standard form.
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| Richard Bertie (c.1516-82) by Hans Eworth |
(1) Susan Bertie (b. 1554), born 1554; married 1st, 1571, Reginald Grey (d. 1574), 4th Earl of Kent, son of Sir Henry Grey, but had no issue; married 2nd, 30 September 1581, Sir John Wingfield (d. 1596), kt., and had issue two sons; her second husband died leaving her heavily in debt, and she was granted a pension of £100 a year for the lifetime of herself and her son by the Queen in 1597; date of death not traced;(2) Peregrine Bertie (1555-1601), 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (q.v.).
King Henry VIII gave the reversion of the Grimsthorpe Castle estate to the 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and his wife on their marriage in 1516, but the family did not gain possession until 1537, when their daughter and heir, Katherine, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby and her first husband, the Duke of Suffolk came into possession. The Duchess retained it on her marriage to Bertie in 1553. The Duchess also inherited Eresby House at Spilsby and Willoughby House in the Barbican, London, from her father in 1526, although her title to Eresby was disputed by her uncle until 1564/5.
He died at Bourne (Lincs), 9 April 1582. His wife died 19 September 1580.
* The numbering of the Barons Willoughby de Broke varies between authorities depending on the descent of the title in the late 15th century that is accepted. In this article I follow the numbering of the Complete Peerage.
** She was the Duke of Suffolk's fourth wife and he was more than a generation older than her. He had, in fact, purchased her wardship from the Crown in 1528. The Duke's previous wife had been Princess Mary, sister of King Henry VIII and widow of King Louis XII of France. Katherine had two sons by the Duke, who died of the sweating sickness on the same day in 1551.
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| 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby |
(1) Robert Bertie (1582-1642), 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 1st Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(2) Hon. Sir Peregrine Bertie (1585-1639), baptised at St Giles Cripplegate, London, 7 March 1584/5; educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (admitted 1594) and Middle Temple (admitted 1605); joined his elder brother on his travels in France, 1599-1601 and in Italy in 1603; made a Knight of the Bath, 1610; a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Prince Henry, 1610-12; an officer in the Dutch army by 1611 (Maj., 1625; Col., 1627; retired 1629); a member of the Virginia Co. from 1612 and the Amazon Co. (an attempt to colonise Guyana) from 1619; MP for Lincolnshire, 1614; JP for Parts of Lindsey, 1621-39; in 1612 he fought a duel with Francis Norris, 2nd Baron Norris, and was seriously wounded in the shoulder; after he had recovered, the two men fought again in 1613, leading King James I to issue a proclamation against duelling; he married, by 1615, Margaret (d. 1642), daughter of Sir Nicholas Saunderson (1562-1631), 1st bt. and later 1st Viscount Castleton, of Saxby and Fillingham (Lincs), and had issue five sons (from whom descended the Berties of Low Layton (Essex)) and three daughters; died of gout and was buried at St Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn (Middx), 13 November 1639;(3) Hon. Katherine Bertie (1586-1611), baptised at St Giles, Cripplegate, 30 May 1586; married, 1609, Sir Lewis Watson (1584-1653), later 1st Baron Rockingham, of Rockingham Castle (Northants) (who m2, 3 October 1620, Eleanor (d. 1679), daughter of Sir George Manners, kt. of Haddon Hall (Derbys), and had issue one son and five daughters), son of Sir Edward Watson, kt. (c.1549-1617); died in childbirth, 15 February, and was buried at Spilsby (Lincs), 10 March 1610/11;(4) Hon. Ambrose Bertie (b. 1587), born at Eresby House and baptised at St Giles Cripplegate, London, 7 December 1587; probably died in infancy;(5) Hon. Henry Bertie (d. 1655); became a Roman Catholic, c.1607; travelled to Constantinople (Turkey) in 1616, evidently partly on diplomatic business, but was detained for some time in Rome on his return journey on the orders of the Inquisition; married, c.1613, Dorothy, daughter of Arthur Corbet of Clipsham (Rut.), and had issue three sons (from whom descend the Berties of Lound) and one daughter; died 21 November 1655 and was buried at Edenham (Lincs);(6) Hon. Vere Bertie (d. 1614); created Baron of Pilgnan near Carcassone (France); died of fever at St. Nazaire (France), 13 September 1614, and was buried at La Bastide;(7) Hon. Roger Bertie; died without issue.
His mother gave him Grimsthorpe Castle on his marriage in 1578.
He died at Berwick-upon-Tweed, 25 June 1601 and was buried at Spilsby (Lincs), where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 12 September 1601. His widow married 2nd, before 2 June 1605 (but was again sep.), Sir Eustace Hart (d. 1634), kt., of London; she died at Hackney (Middx) about 24 June 1624.
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| 1st Earl of Lindsey |
(1) Montagu Bertie (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(2) Lady Katherine Bertie (c.1609-36); married, 1629, as his first wife, Sir William Paston (1610-63), 1st bt. of Oxnead Hall (Norfk) (who m2, 27 July 1640 at St Mary Aldermary, London, Margaret Hewitt), and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 22 December 1636 and was buried at Oxnead, 4 January 1637, where she is commemorated by a monument designed by Nicholas Stone;(3) Hon. Sir Roger Bertie (c.1610-c.1635), born about 1610; educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (admitted 1623); made a Knight of the Bath, 1626; married, c.1630, Ursula (c.1612-80) (who m2, 1641x1646, Sir George Penruddock (1604-64), kt. of Broad Chalke (Wilts), and had issue one daughter), only daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Lawley of Burlton Hall, Wenlock (Shrops.), kt., and had issue one son; died before 1637;(4) Hon. Sir Peregrine Bertie (c.1612-52), of Evedon (Lincs); inherited the Evedon estate in right of his wife on their marriage; an officer in the Royalist army during the Civil War, who commanded the garrison at Lincoln, but surrendered the city (with a large supply of arms) in 1643; his estate was sequestered and he compounded for it for a fine of £708 in 1647; married, 28 July 1631 at Evedon, Anne (d. 1655), daughter of Daniel Hardeby (d. 1630) of Eveden and widow of Edward Irby (d. 1631), and had issue one son and one daughter; buried at Eveden, 13 October 1652, where he and his wife are commemorated by a later monument;(5) Hon. Francis Bertie (b. c.1614; fl. 1642); an officer in the Royalist army (Capt.), who is usually said to have died in Ireland in 1641 but who was taken prisoner at Winchester, 1642;(6) Lady Anne Bertie (c.1616-61); died unmarried and was buried in St Michael's chapel, Westminster Abbey, 22 March 1660/1;(7) Lady Sophia Bertie (c.1617-89); married Sir Richard Chaworth, kt., LLD, Vicar-General of the Province of Canterbury; died 20 December 1689 and was buried at Richmond (Surrey), where she was commemorated by a monument;(8) Lady Elizabeth Bertie (c.1618-83); married, 1655, Sir Miles Stapleton (1626-1707), 1st bt., of Carlton (Yorks), and had issue three children, who all died young; died 28 February 1683;(9) Hon. Robert Bertie (1619-1701), educated at Sidney Sussex College (admitted 1635; MA 1640); Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (ejected 1644); secretary to commissioners of customs, 1660; married 1st, 13 December 1657 at St Clement Danes, London, Alice (d. 1677), daughter of Richard Barnard and widow of Francis Osbaston (d. 1648) of Beehive, Barking (Essex) and [forename unknown] Crosby; married 2nd, Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Thomas Bennet, kt., of Babraham (Cambs); married 3rd, Mary, daughter of Robert Halsey, of Great Gaddesden (Herts) and widow of John Crosby; buried at Barking (Essex), 4 December 1701; will proved in the PCC, 13 December 1701;(10) Hon. Henry Bertie (c.1620-43), born about 1620; an officer in the Royalist army (Capt.), who was killed at the first Battle of Newbury, 20 September 1643;(11) Hon. Vere Bertie (b. c.1621), born about 1621; died at Newport (Essex), probably when young;(12) Lady Mary Bertie (fl. 1661); married 1st, her brother's chaplain, Rev. Dr John Hewitt (1614-58), later rector of St Gregory-by-St. Paul, London, who was executed in 1658 for his part in a Royalist conspiracy, and had two daughters (who died young); she married 2nd, c.1659, Sir Abraham Shipman (d. 1664), kt.; living in 1661;(13) Hon. Edward Bertie (1624-86), eighth son, born 17 October 1624; collector of customs at London in 1676; married Jane (fl. 1686), daughter of Francis Rogers of Maidencroft (Herts); died 25 December 1686 and was buried at Richmond (Surrey); will proved in the PCC, 7 January 1687.
He inherited Grimsthorpe Castle from his father in 1601 and came of age in 1603, and had a London house in Canon Row, Westminster. (There is no truth in the oft-repeated claim that he commissioned Lindsey House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Westminster from Inigo Jones, c.1640; it is now known that this was a speculative build by Sir David Cunningham).
He died of wounds received at the Battle of Edgehill, 23 October 1642, and was buried at Edenham (Lincs), where he and his son are commemorated by a double monument erected after 1686; administration of his goods was granted 2 May 1643. His widow died 30 November 1654, and was buried at Weekley (Northants), 6 January 1654/5; her will was proved 21 May 1655.
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| 2nd Earl of Lindsey |
(1.1) Lady Elizabeth Bertie (c.1628-83), born about 1628; married, 6 July 1655, as his fourth wife, Baptist Noel (1611-82), 3rd Viscount Campden, and had issue nine children; died about 20 July 1683 and was buried at Exton (Rut.), where she and her husband are commemorated by a splendid monument designed and carved by Grinling Gibbons;(1.2) Lady Bridget Bertie (1629-1704), baptised at St Peter-le-Poer, London, 6 June 1629; married, 1653, Sir Thomas Osborne (1632-1712) of Kiveton Park (Yorks WR), MP for York 1665-73, and later 1st Viscount Osborne, 1st Earl of Danby, 1st Marquess of Carmarthen and 1st Duke of Leeds, and had issue three sons and six daughters; died at Wimbledon (Surrey), 7 January 1703/4 and was buried at Kiveton (Yorks WR), where she is commemorated by a monument;(1.3) Robert Bertie (1630-1701), 3rd Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(1.4) Hon. Peregrine Bertie (c.1634-1701); travelled abroad with his brother Richard, c.1649-54; an officer in Royal Horse Guards (Cornet, 1661; Lt., 1667; Capt. 1676), but retired 1679 on inheriting the Waldershare estate in right of his wife; was later a member of the Hon. Artillery Company, 1682; Commissioner of Alienations, 1675-1701; deputy Searcher of Customs, 1676-83 and Surveyor of Customs, 1683-93; Receiver of Taxes for Kent, 1677-78; bailiff of Oxford, 1687; MP for Stamford, 1665-79, 1685-87 and Westbury, 1689-95; JP for Holland and Lindsey in Lincolnshire, 1680-1701 and for Kent, married, 2 March 1674 at Waldershare (Kent), Susan (d. 1697), daughter and co-heir of Sir Edward Monins (c.1600-63), 2nd bt., and had issue three daughters; died 3 January and was buried at Waldershare, 15 January 1700/1; will proved in the PCC, 25 January 1700/1;(1.5) Hon. Richard Bertie (c.1635-86); travelled abroad with his brother Peregrine, c.1649-54, and subsequently served in the French army as an officer in the regiments led by the Duke of York and Mareschal de Turenne; after the Restoration an officer in the English army (Capt.), who served in Ireland; died unmarried, 19 January, and was buried at Edenham, 28 January 1685/6, where he is commemorated by a monument designed by James Hardy; will proved in the PCC, 3 February 1685/6;(1.6) Hon. Vere Bertie (c.1637-80), born about 1637; educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1654; called 1659; bencher, 1673); barrister-at-law (KC 1674); serjeant-at-law, 1675; a Baron of the Exchequer, 1675 and a Justice of Common Pleas, 1678 (deprived 1679); King's Remembrancer, 1676; awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University (MA 1665); died unmarried, 23 February 1680/1 and was buried at Temple Church, London, 5 March 1680/1; will proved in the PCC, 8 March 1680/1;(1.7) Lady Catherine Bertie (c.1639-59); married Robert Dormer (c.1628-94) of Dorton House (Bucks), and had issue one son; died, probably from complications following childbirth, aged 19, and was buried at Long Crendon (Bucks), 9 June 1659;(1.8) Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1640-1711) [for whom see below, Bertie family of Uffington House];(2.1) James Bertie (1653-99), 5th Baron Norris and 1st Earl of Abingdon [for whom see my forthcoming post on Berties of Rycote House and Wytham Abbey, Earls of Abingdon];(2.2) Hon. Edward Bertie (b. c.1654), born about 1654; died young;(2.3) Lady Mary Bertie (1655-1709), born 1 September 1655; married, c.1680, as his second wife, Charles Dormer (1632-1709), 2nd Earl of Caernarvon, of Ascott House (Bucks), but had no issue; died 30 June 1709;(2.4) Hon. Henry Bertie (c.1656-1734), born about 1656; educated at University of Padua (Italy) (admitted 1674); an officer in the army (Capt., 1678-85); Tory MP for Westbury, 1678-80, 1701-15, New Woodstock, 1681, and Oxford, 1685-87, 1689-95; deputy Constable of the Tower of London, 1702-05; inherited Nutley manor, Long Crendon (Bucks) from his father; married 1st, by 1687, Philadelphia (d. 1701), daughter of Sir Edward Norris (1634-1712), kt., of Weston-on-the-Green (Oxon) and had issue three sons and two daughters; married 2nd, 1716 (licence 28 Sept.), Catherine (d. 1736), daughter of Sir Heneage Fetherston (1627-1711), 1st bt., of Stanford-le-Hope (Essex), but had no issue; died at Boulogne (France), 5 December 1734 and was buried at Chesterton (Oxon); will proved in the PCC, 19 December 1734.
He inherited Grimsthorpe Castle from his father in 1642, but his estates were sequestrated by Parliament. He later compounded for them for £2,100, which he paid off at £300 a year.
He died at Campden House, Kensington (Middx), 25 July 1666, and was buried at Edenham where he and his father are commemorated by a double monument erected by his sons; his will was proved 31 July 1666. His first wife died in July 1641 and was buried at Edenham, where she is commemorated by a monument. His second wife died 24 March 1656/7 and was buried with her mother in Westminster Abbey.
* Sackville, who had married Bridget Wray on 24 December 1645 at Wytham (Berks), was 'unfortunately slayne by a souldier of Abingdon garrison near Comnor' [Cumnor, Berks], and was buried at Wytham, 16 April 1646.
Bertie, Robert (1630-1701), 3rd Earl of Lindsey. Eldest son of Rt. Hon. Montagu Bertie KG KB (c.1608-66), 2nd Earl of Lindsey, and his first wife, Martha, daughter of Sir William Cokayne of Rushden (Northants) and widow of John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness, born 8 November 1630. He travelled abroad from 1647-52, partly for his education and partly to keep him safely away from politics at home, though in 1648 he contracted smallpox. He was known as Lord Willoughby from 1642 until he succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lindsey, 25 July 1666. JP for Lincolnshire, 1660-1701 and Essex, 1664-1701; DL for Lincolnshire, 1660-66. Tory MP for Boston (Lincs), 1661-66; Recorder of Lincoln, 1684. He was styled Lord Willoughby 1642-66, and succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lindsey and Lord Great Chamberlain, 25 July 1666. An officer in the Earl of Lincoln's Regiment (Capt., 1666); Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, 1666-1700, Warden of Waltham Forest, 1667-68, and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, 1674-85. He was sworn of the Privy Council, 12 December 1666 and served 1666-79 and 1682-1701. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1666, and in 1669 was one of a group of county gentry who were trustees for the establishment of Lincoln Races. He married 1st, about Dec 1654, at St Margaret Westminster (Middx), Mary (d. 1657), younger daughter and co-heir of John Massingberd (d. 1653) of London, Treasurer of the East India Company; 2nd, 1659 (settlement 1 June), Elizabeth (d. 1666), second daughter of Philip Wharton (d. 1694), 4th Baron Wharton; and 3rd, by 1671?, Elizabeth (d. 1719), daughter of Thomas Pope, 2nd Earl of Downe, and widow of Sir Francis Henry Lee (d. 1667), bt. of Ditchley Park (Oxon), and had issue:
(1.1) Lady Arabella Bertie (1655-1717), born 1655; married, 1684 (licence 6 August), as his second wife, Maj-Gen. Thomas Savage (c.1628-94), 3rd Earl Rivers, but had no issue; died 28 February 1716/17 and is commemorated on a family monument at Edenham (Lincs);(2.1) Robert Bertie (1660-1723), 4th Earl of Lindsey, 1st Marquess of Lindsey and 1st Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven (q.v.);(2.2) Hon. & Rt. Hon. Peregrine Bertie (1663-1711), of Eresby House; educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1679); MP for Boston (Lincs), 1685-87, 1690-98, 1701-05 and 1708-11, and for Truro, 1705-08; Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Mary, 1692-94, King William III, 1694-1702 and Queen Anne, 1702-06; sworn of the Privy Council, 1695; receiver of rents for the Duchy of Lancaster, 1696-1711 and Teller of the Exchequer, 1706-11; awarded honorary degree by University of Oxford (DCL, 1702); he was unmarried but had at least two illegitimate daughters by Mrs. Elizabeth Allen* alias Mrs. Poltney, and he is rumoured to have had other relationships and illegitimate children; died suddenly of a stroke, 10 July 1711; in his will, proved in the PCC, 13 July 1711, he mentions his friendship with John Vanbrugh and makes him a trustee for his provision for Mrs Allen;(2.3) Hon. Philip Bertie (1665-1728), said to have been born at Havering (Essex); baptised at Edenham, 12 May 1665; educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1683; BA 1685); joined the Northern Rising at the time of the Glorious Revolution and was rewarded by appointment as Gentleman Usher to Queen Mary II, 1691-94, and Auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1691-1704; Tory MP for Stamford, 1694-98; in 1699 he was successfully sued by Sir Phillips Coote (1658-1715), kt., for 'criminal conversation' with the latter's wife, Lady Elizabeth (1665-1725), daughter of William Brabazon, 3rd Earl of Meath, and was fined £300; Coote and his wife separated in 1700 and she subsequently lived with Bertie; they were married, 11 May 1715 at St Katherine Cree, London, shortly after Coote's death; owned an estate at Liverpool (Lancs) and lived at Hayfield (Lancs); died 15 April and was buried at Edenham, 20 April 1728; will proved in the PCC, 14 May 1728;(2.4) Hon. Albemarle Bertie (c.1668-1742), born about 1668; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1686; BA 1689; MA 1691) and Middle Temple (admitted 1686); Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1694; Whig MP for Lincolnshire, 1705-08, Cockermouth, 1708-10 and Boston, 1734-42; auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1704-13; lived at Swinstead House (Lincs); died unmarried, 18 January and was buried at Edenham, 26 January 1741/2; will proved in the PCC, 8 February 1741/2;(2.5) Hon. Norreys Bertie (1666-91), born about June 1666; an officer in the King's Life Guard (Guidon), who served in Flanders and then while his troop was at home volunteered to serve in the Royal Navy (2nd Lt.), but he died, unmarried, while his ship lay at Dartmouth, 27 August 1691;(3.1) Lady Elizabeth Bertie (1672-79?), born 12 March 1672; said to have died young in 1679;(3.2) Hon. Charles Bertie (1683-1727), born 1683; MP for New Woodstock, 1705-08; inherited Lindsey House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea from his father in 1701; married 1st, 29 April 1714 at Theddlethorpe (Lincs), Mary (d. 1725), daughter of Thomas Browne of Addlethorpe (Lincs) and widow of Nicholas Newcomen of Theddlethorpe, and 2nd, 13 February 1726 at Theddlethorpe, Mary (fl. 1727), daughter of Rev. Henry Marshall, rector of Orby and Salmonby (Lincs), but died without issue; died 13 August, and was buried at Theddlethorpe, 2 September 1727, where he and his first wife are commemorated by a monument designed by Andrew Carpenter; his will was proved in the PCC, 10 April 1730.
He inherited Grimsthorpe Castle from his father in 1666, and rebuilt the north front c.1680. He bought a farm in Chelsea (Middx) in 1671 and built Lindsey House on the site, which was completed in 1674. His widow lived at Lindsey House until 1705 and later, having Quarrendon and Weedon (Bucks) in dower, made her chief residence at the latter, where she maintained a generous hospitality.
He died 8 May 1701 and was buried at Edenham; his will was proved 13 February 1701/2. His first wife died in 1657. His second wife died 1 July 1666, probably following childbirth. His widow died 1 July and was buried at Edenham, 17 July 1719; her will was proved that year.
* In his will, he provided for Mrs. Allen and her children, and named the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh, as one of their guardians and also one of his executors.
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| 1st Duke of Ancaster |
(1.1) Lady Eleanora Bertie (1679-1748); lived latterly at Swinstead House (Lincs); died unmarried, 11 January 1747/8; will proved January 1747/8;(1.2) Lady Elizabeth Priscilla Bertie (1681-1746); evidently suffered from mental illness and her father asked his other children to look after her in his will; died unmarried and was buried at Edenham, 31 July 1746;(1.3) Robert Bertie (1684-1704), Lord Willoughby, born 6 February and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), 14 February 1683/4; died unmarried at Wolfenbuttel in the Duchy of Brunswick, about 4 May 1704; administration of goods granted, 3 July 1704;(1.4) Peregrine Bertie (1686-1742), 2nd Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven (q.v.);(1.5) Lady Mary Bertie; probably died in infancy or young;(2.1) Lord Vere Bertie (1706-68), born in 1706; educated at Westminster School; an officer in the 2nd Foot Guards (Ensign, 1729; retired before 1740); MP for Boston, 1741-54; a leading figure in the draining of Witham Fen; lived at Branston Hall (Lincs), which was rebuilt for him; married, 4 October 1736 at Dunston (Lincs), Anne Casey (d. 1778) of Branston (Lincs), illegitimate daughter of Sir Cecil Wray (d. 1736), 11th bt., of Branston, and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 13 September 1768 and was buried at Branston; will proved in the PCC, 6 February 1769;(2.2) Lord Montague Bertie (1713-53), born 8 September and baptised at Edenham, 30 September 1713; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1735; Capt., 1740); married 1735 Anne, daughter of William Piers MP (1686-1755), of West Bradley (Som.), and had issue two daughters; died 12 December 1753 and was buried at Chislehurst (Kent); will proved in the PCC, 27 September 1753;(2.3) Lady Louisa Carolina Bertie (1715-48), born 20 August 1715; married, 19 May 1736, with £20,000, Col. Thomas Bludworth (fl. c.1710-72) of Holt (Hants), Green Castle and Whitland (Carmarthens.), MP for Bodmin, 1741-47, Groom of the Bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1740-51 and Commissioner of Horse to Dowager Princess of Wales, 1751-72, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 26 September 1748 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral (Wilts);(2.4) Lord Thomas Bertie (1720-49), born 24 July and baptised at Edenham, 20 October 1720; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1739; Capt., 1744); died unmarried at sea, 21 July 1749 and was buried at Chislehurst; will proved in the PCC, 9 August 1749;(2.5) Lord Robert Bertie (1721-82), born 25 October and baptised at Edenham, 14 November 1721; educated at Eton; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1737; Lt., 1741; Capt., 1744; Col., 1752; Maj-General, 1758; Lt-Gen., 1760; Gen. 1777); Colonel of the 7th Foot; a Lord of the Bedchamber to King George III, 1751-82; Governor of Cork, 1762-68 and Duncannon (Co. Wexford), 1768-82; MP for Whitchurch (Hants), 1751-54 and for Boston, 1754-82; inherited the Chislehurst, Mottingham and Bromley (Kent) estates of his grandfather, Gen. Farrington, 1745; married, 5 April 1762, Hon. Mary Chetwynd (d. 1790), daughter of Montague Blundell, 1st Viscount Blundell, and widow of Robert Raymond (d. 1756), 2nd Baron Raymond, but had no issue; died 10 March 1782; will proved in the PCC, 15 March 1782.
He inherited Grimsthorpe Castle from his father in 1701 and the Gwydir Castle estate (some 30,600 acres, chiefly in Caernarvonshire) in right of his first wife. He employed Sir John Vanbrugh to build a new dower house at Swinstead c.1715 and Stephen Switzer to improve the castle gardens. He intended to employ Vanbrugh to rebuild Grimsthorpe, but work had not started before his death. From 1703 he rented (and in 1704 bought the freehold of) Lindsey House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Westminster (Middx), which takes its name from his occupation.
He died at Grimsthorpe, 26 July, and was buried at Edenham, 16 August 1723, where he is commemorated by a monument signed by Henry Scheemakers and Henry Cheere, erected in 1728; his will was proved 1 April 1724. His first wife died 20 September 1689. His widow married 2nd, 9 February 1725 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, James Douglas MP (d. 1751) of Cuffnells, Lyndhurst (Hants), Clerk of the Household to Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1736-51; she died 29 July 1745, and was buried at Chislehurst (Kent).
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| 2nd Duke of Ancaster |
(1) Robert Bertie (b. & d. 1712), born 29 May and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), 18 June 1712; died in infancy;(2) Peregrine Bertie (1714-78), 3rd Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven (q.v.);(3) George William Bertie (1715-16), born at Newburgh House, Westminster, 7 July 1715; died in infancy and was buried at Edenham, 25 March 1716;(4) Lady Albinia Bertie (c.1716-54), born about 1716; married, 8 March 1743/4 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Francis Beckford (1723-68) (who m2, c.1755, Susanna (c.1730-1803), daughter of Richard Love of Basing Park (Hants)), son of Peter Beckford, Speaker of the Jamaican House of Assembly, but had no issue; died in February 1754 and was buried at Edenham, 1 March 1754**;(5) Lady Jane Bertie (1720-93), born 1720; married, 23 March 1753 at Bath Abbey (Som.), Maj-Gen. Edward Mathew (1729-1805) of Lainston House (Hants), Governor of Grenada and equerry to King George III, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 21 August and was buried at Edenham, 28 August 1793;(6) Lord Albemarle Bertie (1724-65), born 17 September 1724; lost his right eye in an accident aged three, yet grew up to be a noted sportsman and an inveterate gambler; inherited Lindsey House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea from his great half-uncle, Hon. Charles Bertie (1683-1727) of Theddlethorpe, but sold it in 1750; lived at Swinstead House (Lincs); he was unmarried but had a long-term relationship with Mrs Mary Colebatch, by whom he four sons and seven daughters, of whom one son (later Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie (1755-1824)✝) and five daughters survived him; died suddenly, 28 May and was buried at Edenham, 3 June 1765; will proved 19 October 1765;(7) Lady Ann Bertie (1725-35), born 1725; died young, 13 August and was buried at Edenham, 16 August 1735;(8) Lady Caroline Bertie (1727-74), born 6 September and baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn (Middx), 6 November 1727; married, 31 March 1753, as his second wife, Capt. George Dewar (1707-86) of Doles House, Hurstbourne Tarrant (Hants) and St. Kitts; died 8 June and was buried at Edenham, 14 June 1774;(9) Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), 5th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven (q.v.);(10) Lady Mary Bertie (c.1730-74), born about 1730; married, 21 February 1748, as his second wife, Samuel Greatheed (c.1710-65) of Guy's Cliffe (Warks), MP for Coventry, 1747-61, and had issue two sons, of whom one died young (the survivor, Bertie Greatheed, was eventual heir to part of his uncle Brownlow's estate); died in London, 23 April, and was buried at Warwick, 3 May 1774.
He inherited Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and the Grimsthorpe Castle and Gwydir Castle estates from his father in 1723 and employed Sir John Vanbrugh and later Nicholas Hawksmoor to remodel Grimsthorpe, 1723-30. Lindsey House passed to his youngest daughter, Lady Mary Greatheed, after his death, and she sold it to the Duke of Somerset c.1748.
He died 1 January and was buried at Edenham, 13 January 1741/2, where he is commemorated by a monument by Henry Cheere; his will was proved May and November 1742. His wife died 25 August, and was buried at Edenham, 18 September 1736.
* By 1717 she was 'disordered in body and mind', and too ill to give informed consent to legal documents, but the disorder was presumably temporary, as she continued to produce further children after a short hiatus.
** The parish clerk at Edenham persisted in recording old-style dating after the introduction of the new calendar in 1752, so this entry is entered under '1753'.
✝ Sir Albemarle is incorrectly stated in some sources to have been an illegitimate son of the 3rd Duke of Ancaster.
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| 3rd Duke of Ancaster by Sir Joshua Reynolds |
(2.1) Lady Mary Catherine Bertie (1754-67), born 14 April 1754; died young in Bristol, 12 April, and was buried at Edenham (Lincs), 22 April 1767;(2.2) Peregrine Bertie (1755-58), Marquess of Lindsey, born in London, 21 May 1755; died young, 12 December 1758, and was buried at Edenham;(2.3) Robert Bertie (1756-79), 4th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven (q.v.);(2.4) A son (b. & d. 1759), born 14 September 1759 but died in infancy the same day;(2.5) Lady Priscilla Barbara Bertie (1761-1828), Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, born 14 February 1761; claimed the barony of Willoughby de Eresby, which had fallen into abeyance on the death of her brother in 1779, and had her claim accepted, 18 March 1780, while the Lord Great Chamberlainship was held jointly by her and her sister; ultimate co-heir of her grandfather, Thomas Panton; married, 23 February 1779, Sir Peter Burrell (1755-1820), kt. (later 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Gwydir) of Langley in Beckenham (Kent), and had issue, to whose descendants Grimsthorpe Castle later belonged [they will be treated in a future post on the Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby family]; died 29 December 1828; her will was proved in the PCC, 16 July 1829;(2.6) Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie (1764-1838), born 7 August 1764; ultimate co-heir of her grandfather, Thomas Panton; married, 25 April 1791, George Cholmondeley (1749-1827), 4th Earl and later 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 23 June 1838; will proved in the PCC, 23 July 1838.
He inherited the Grimsthorpe Castle and Gwydir Castle estates from his father in 1742, and remodelled the interior of the Tudor part of the house at Grimsthorpe after 1755. He also carried out landscaping improvements from the 1740s onwards. He sought to establish mines around Trefriw on the Gwydir estate in the 1750s, and engaged the German immigrant, Diederich Wessel Linden (d. 1769) as his agent to develop them. His first wife brought him a London house at 31 Grosvenor Square, but he lived later in Berkeley Square. In 1772 the king granted him land on Richmond Hill (Surrey), where he built Ancaster House to the designs of Robert Adam for use as a weekend retreat from London; it was sold after his death. His widow travelled on the Continent a good deal, and was in Italy, 1785-86 and 1792-93.
Bertie, Robert (1756-79), 4th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven. Second, but only surviving, son of Peregine Bertie (1714-78), 3rd Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven, born 17 October 1756. He came of age in 1777, and in that year served as a volunteer with British forces in America. He was styled Marquess of Lindsey from the death of his elder brother in 1758 until he succeeded his father as 4th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven and Lord Great Chamberlain, 12 August 1778. He was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, 12 February 1779. At the time of his death, he had begun raising a regiment for service in the West Indies, recruiting around Lewes (Sussex). Horace Walpole wrote of him that "though he had some excellent qualities he was of a turbulent nature, and though of a fine figure, his manners were not noble"; in plainer language "he was addicted to rioting and drunkenness". He was unmarried and without issue, but several sources, including Walpole, report that he was due to marry Lady Anna Horatia Waldegrave (d. 1801) (who later married Adm. Lord Hugh Seymour-Conway (1759-1801)), a few days after he fell ill with his fatal disease. He did, however, have an illegitimate daughter, apparently by a Rebecca Krudener:
He died 12 August and was buried at Edenham, 27 August 1778, where he and his son are commemorated by a monument by Charles Harris; his will was proved in the PCC, 22 August 1779. His first wife died 17 December 1743; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 4 April 1745. His widow died at Lausanne (Switzerland) or Naples (Italy), 7 or 19 October 1793; her will was proved in the PCC, 24 January 1794.
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| 4th Duke of Ancaster |
(X1) Susan Priscilla Bertie (c.1778-1864); informally adopted and brought up from about 1782 by her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Ancaster; she was a pretty, lively and attractive girl with a number of suitors, including the Duke of Bedford, but she fell in love with and married (with a dowry of £12,000), 17 December 1798 at the London house of her uncle Lord Gwydir, her father's old friend, Maj-Gen. Banastre Tarleton (1754-1833); after his retirement they settled at Leintwardine (Herefs); in widowhood she became more eccentric and rather miserly; she died at Cheshunt, 13 August 1864; will proved 10 September 1864.
He inherited Grimsthorpe Castle from his father in 1778. At his death it passed to his uncle with the dukedom.
He died of scarlet fever at Grimsthorpe, 8 July, and was buried at Edenham, 22 July 1779, where he is commemorated on his father's monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 23 July 1779, but a private Act of Parliament was needed in 1780 to permit the sale of parts of his estate to meet his debts and incumbrances. On his death, the dukedom, marquessate and earldom of Lindsey passed to his uncle, Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), but the barony of Willoughby d'Eresby and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain fell into abeyance between his sisters, the abeyance being terminated in favour of his sister Priscilla the following year.
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| 5th Duke of Ancaster |
(2.1) Lady Mary Elizabeth Bertie (1771-97), born 24 July and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 24 August 1771; married, 26 May 1793 at her father's house in Savile Row in the parish of St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, Thomas Charles Colyear (1772-1835), Viscount Milsington and later 4th Earl of Portmore, and had issue one son (the Hon. Brownlow Charles Colyear (1796-1819), who was a considerable beneficiary under the will of his grandfather and lived for a time at Grimsthorpe Castle but died unmarried in the lifetime of his father before coming into his inheritance at the age of 25, when he was murdered by brigands in Italy in 1819); she died at Bristol, 3 February, and was buried at Swinstead (Lincs), 10 February 1797.
In 1760 he inherited lands at Castle Bytham, Little Bytham, Careby and Creeton (all Lincs) under the will of his mother's uncle, Sir Brownlow Sherard, 3rd bt., of Lobthorpe. He took a lease of 14 Savile Row, Westminster in 1762, which he occupied until his death. In 1779 he inherited the Grimsthorpe estate from his nephew, the 4th Duke. In 1780 he inherited the Uffington estate from his kinsman, Charles Bertie (1734-80). At his death Grimsthorpe and Castle Bytham passed to his cousin Priscilla, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and her husband, the 1st Baron Gwydir. Following an action in the Court of Kings Bench, Uffington was awarded to Gen. Albemarle Bertie, who also succeeded him as 9th Earl of Lindsey. His personal possessions, valued at £200,000 were left to his grandson, Brownlow Colyear, but he died before coming into his inheritance at 25, so they passed instead to his great-nephews, Brownlow Bertie Greatheed and [forename unknown] Mathew.
He died 8 February, and was buried at Swinstead, 17 February 1809; his will was proved in the PCC, 7 March 1809. On his death (the issue male of the 1st Duke and his brothers having failed), the dukedom and marquessate became extinct, and the Earldom of Lindsey devolved on his third cousin, Gen. Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818) [for whom see below, Bertie family of Uffington House, Earls of Lindsey]. His first wife died in April 1763 and was buried at Edenham, 6 May 1763; administration of her goods was granted 21 May 1763. His second wife died in Savile Row, Westminster, 13 January 1804, and was buried at Swinstead.
Bertie family of Uffington House, Earls of Lindsey
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| Hon. Charles Bertie (c.1640-1711) |
(1) Elizabeth Bertie (1675-1738), born and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), 24 July 1675; married, 8 June 1693, Charles Mildmay (1670-1728), 18th Baron FitzWalter, but had no surviving issue; died 20 December and was buried at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 25 December 1738; will proved in the PCC, 3 January 1738/9;(2) Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730) (q.v.).
He purchased the Uffington estate in 1673 and built Uffington House from about 1681 onwards.
He died 22 March 1711 and was buried at Uffington, where he was commemorated by a monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 May 1711. His wife died 13 January 1679, and was buried at Uffington.
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| Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730) |
(1) Charles Bertie (1707-54) (q.v.);(2) Norborne Bertie (b. 1708), baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn (Middx), 31 March 1708; died young;(3) Peregrine Bertie (1709-77) (q.v.);(4) Susanna Bertie (b. 1710), baptised at Uffington, 22 January 1710; 'a young lady of great beauty and merit'; married, 20 January 1735/6 at Lincoln Cathedral, Edward Hales (b. 1708) of Lincoln, second son of Sir Edward Hales (d. 1720), 3rd bt.; death not traced;(5) Rev. Norborne Bertie (1712-79), baptised at Uffington, October 1712; educated at Westminster School and St John's College, Oxford (matriculated 1730; BA 1734; MA 1737); ordained deacon and priest, 1736; rector of West Deeping (Lincs), 1741-79 and of Tallington and Uffington (Lincs), 1744-79; also chaplain to 3rd Duke of Ancaster; died unmarried and was buried at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), 29 July 1779; will proved in PCC, 29 July 1779.
He inherited Uffington House from his father in 1711.
He died 12 April 1730; his will was proved in the PCC, 8 June 1730. His wife was dead by 1715 and is said to have died in 1713.
Bertie, Charles (1707-54). Eldest son of Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730) and his wife Mary, daughter and heir of John Norborne of Great Stukeley (Hunts), born 13 February and baptised at St Anne, Soho, Westminster (Middx), 5 March 1706/7. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1724). He was evidently in financial difficulties in his later years. He married, 29 July 1731 at Queen Street Chapel in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields (Middx), Bathsheba (1705-54), daughter of Dr. Richard Mead MD (1673-1754) of Bloomsbury (Middx) and Old Windsor (Berks), an eminent physician, and had issue:
(1) Charles Bertie (1734-80) (q.v.);(2) Richard Bertie (1735-76?), born 22 May and baptised at St George, Bloomsbury, 19 June 1735; educated at Westminster School, where he broke his leg jumping down the stairs, and at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1752); possibly the man of this name buried at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 11 December 1776;(3) James Bertie (1736-59?), born 9 July and baptised at St Anne, Soho, Westminster (Middx), 5 August 1736; educated at Westminster School; died unmarried and was possibly the man of this name whose will was proved in the PCC, 2 May 1759;(4) Rev. Montagu Bertie (1737-78), born 2 August and baptised at St Anne, Soho, 30 August 1737; educated at Westminster and St John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1755; LLB 1761); ordained deacon, 1761 and priest, 1762; vicar of Rodbourne Cheney (Wilts), 1762-78; died unmarried, 29 October 1778 and was buried at Rodbourne Cheney;(5) Vere Bertie (1739-47), born 11 November and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 11 December 1739; educated at Westminster School, where he died of smallpox; buried at Stepney (Middx), 26 February 1747;(6) Elizabeth Bertie (b. & d. 1742), baptised at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, 15 August 1742; died in infancy and was buried at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, 12 September 1742;(7) Bathsheba Bertie (d. 1749); died young, 21 September 1749 and was buried at Stepney the following day.
He inherited Uffington House from his father in 1730.
He was buried at Stepney, 1 May 1754*; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 May 1754. His wife died 13 September 1754.
* He has frequently been confused with his eldest son and said to have died in 1780, but this is incorrect. His will left all this personal estate to his brother, the Rev. Norborne Bertie, for the payment of his debts, and thanked his brother for looking after his children 'in my absence', perhaps suggesting he had been confined in a debtor's prison.
Bertie, Charles (1734-80). Eldest son of Charles Bertie (1707-54) and his wife Bathsheba, daughter of Dr. Richard Mead MD, born 28 February and baptised at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), 23 March 1733/4. Educated at Westminster and St John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1752). He married, 8 April 1758 at St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, Frances Hogg, but had no issue.
He inherited Uffington House from his father in 1754. At his death it passed, his siblings having all predeceased him without issue, to his distant kinsman, the 5th Duke of Ancaster & Kesteven. It is not known why the duke was preferred to his cousins Peregrine Bertie (1739-82) or Gen. Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818), later 9th Earl of Lindsey, who ultimately inherited it on the death of the duke in 1809.
He died at his house in Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 21 October 1780; will proved in the PCC, 2 March 1780. His wife's date of death is unknown.
Bertie, Peregrine (1709-77). Second son of Charles Bertie (c.1678-1730) and his wife Mary, daughter and heir of John Norborne of Great Stukeley (Hunts), baptised at Uffington, 9 December 1709. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1726; called). Barrister-at-law. He married, 22 December 1736, Elizabeth (c.1715-65), daughter of Edward Payne (d. 1722) of Tockenham Wick (Wilts) and niece and heiress of John Morse* of Chancery Lane, London and Wooburn House (Bucks), goldsmith and a partner in Child's Bank, and had issue:
(1) Peregrine Morse Bertie (1737-38), born 4 November and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), 25 November 1737; died in infancy, 18 November, and was buried at Rodbourne Cheney (Wilts), 28 November 1738;(2) Peregrine Bertie (1739-82), born 22 June and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 9 July 1739; educated at New College, Oxford (matriculated 1759; created MA 1763); inherited Wooburn House from his father in 1777; died unmarried, 12 October, and was buried at Wooburn, 21 October 1782; will proved in the PCC, 13 October 1782, by which he made provision for Elizabeth Hamilton alias Noel, with whom he cohabited and who was presumably his mistress;(3) Elizabeth Bertie (1741-1804), baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 12 October 1741; died unmarried, 17 November 1804, and was buried at Wooburn;(4) Sophia Bertie (1743-72), born 21 August and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 1 September 1743; died unmarried, 23 June 1772 and was buried at Wooburn;(5) Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818), 9th Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(6) Louisa Bertie (c.1747-1821); married, 7 August 1771 at St Andrew, Holborn, John Fletcher Richardson (1741-96) of Cartmel (Lancs) and had issue at least one son and one daughter; buried at Uffington, 20 March 1821;(7) Henrietta Bertie (1751-1840), baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields (Middx), September 1751; married, 24 May 1776 at St Andrew, Holborn, George Edmonds of Peterborough (Hunts), and had issue at least two sons; died 29 November and was buried at Whittlesey (Cambs), 4 December 1840.
He lived in Lincoln's Inn and inherited Wooburn House (Bucks) in right of his wife in 1739.
He died 21 June and was buried at Wooburn (Bucks), 28 June 1777. His wife died 13 March and was buried at Rodbourne Cheney, 23 March 1765.
* Morse was the builder of Woodperry House (Oxon), which was begun in 1728. He placed it in trust for Elizabeth (his partners in the bank being the trustees), but her marriage to Peregrine Bertie without Morse's consent led Morse to alter his will and the trustees retained Woodperry until they sold it in 1789.
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| Gen. Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey |
Bertie, Gen. Albemarle (1744-1818), 9th Earl of Lindsey. Third son of Peregrine Bertie (1709-77) and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Payne of Tottenham Wick (Wilts), born 17 September and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), 11 October 1744. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1762; Lt. & Capt., 1769; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1776; Col., 1781; Maj-Gen., 1793; Lt-Gen., 1798; Gen. 1803; retired 1809); Colonel of 81st Foot, 1793, 9th Foot, 1794, 77th Foot, 1804, 89th Foot, 1808; Governor of Blackness Castle (West Lothian), 1814-18 and Charlemont Fort (Co. Armagh), 1818. He became Tory MP for Stamford, 1801-09 on the Marquess of Exeter's interest, but was an inactive member who is not known to have spoken in the house. He succeded his third cousin, Brownlow Bertie (1729-1809), 5th Duke of Ancaster, as 9th Earl of Lindsey, 8 February 1809, when the latter's dukedom and marquessate became extinct; de jure he also inherited the Cullen viscountcy under a special remainder in 1810, but he never claimed or was acknowledged in the title. He features as 'Col. B.' in the diaries of his friend John Byng, who portrays him as a restless traveller 'who cannot endure a day in a place', with an insatiable 'family curiosity' in his tours of Lincolnshire, where 'from choice and ill health' he drove himself in a phaeton. He married 1st, 7 May 1794 at Fletton (Hunts), Eliza Maria (1761-1806), daughter of William Clay of Burridge Hill (Notts) and widow of Thomas Scrope (d. 1792) of Coleby (Lincs); and 2nd, 18 November 1809 at St Alphege, Greenwich (Kent), Charlotte Susanna Elizabeth (1780-1858), eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Peter Layard DD FRS (1750-1803), Dean of Bristol, and had issue:
(2.1) Lady Charlotte Bertie (b. & d. 1810), born 23 November 1810 and died in infancy the same day;(2.2) Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie (1812-95), born 19 March and baptised at Uffington, 25 May 1812; unconventional, energetic and talented; she worked as private secretary to her first husband and took over the management of the Dowlais Iron Co. after his death; she had a passion and talent for learning languages (teaching herself Welsh, Arabic, Hebrew and Persian, as well as the more conventional Latin, Greek, French and Italian) and translated the Mabinogion from Welsh into English; with her second husband, she became the first real collector of English china as well as collecting fans and playing cards; her collections were given to the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum; she married 1st, 29 July 1833 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Sir Josiah John Guest (1785-1852), 1st bt, MP for Honiton, 1825-31 and Merthyr Tydfil, 1832-52, ironfounder and nonconformist, and had issue five sons and five daughters; married 2nd, 10 April 1855 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), her children's tutor, Charles Schreiber (1826-84), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and later MP for Cheltenham (Glos), 1865-68 and Poole (Dorset), 1880-84, eldest surviving son of Lt-Col. James Alfred Screiber of Melton (Suffk); died 15 January 1895 and was buried at Canford Magna (Dorset); her will was proved 8 March 1895 (effects £24,680);(2.3) George Augustus Bertie (1814-77), 10th Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(2.4) Montagu Peregrine Bertie (1815-99), 11th Earl of Lindsey (q.v.).
He inherited Wooburn House from his elder brother in 1782, but sold it in 1784. In 1809 he inherited Uffington House from his kinsman, the 5th Duke of Ancaster, along with earldom of Lindsey.
He died 18 September 1818. His first wife died without issue by either of her marriages, 19 July 1806 and was buried at Wooburn; her will was proved in the PCC, 2 August 1806. His widow married 2nd, 14 April 1821 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), the Rev. Peter William Pegus (d. 1860) (who did not behave well towards his stepchildren), and had further issue one daughter (who married the 10th Marquess of Huntly); she died 28 November 1858; administration of her goods was granted 30 December 1858 (effects £15).
Bertie, George Augustus (1814-77), 10th Earl of Lindsey. Elder son of Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818), 9th Earl of Lindsey, and his second wife, Charlotte Susanna Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Peter Layard DD FRS, Dean of Bristol, born 4 November and baptised at Uffington, 6 December 1814. He succeeded his father as 10th Earl of Lindsey, 18 September 1818, and de jure he also inherited the Cullen viscountcy, but he never claimed or was acknowledged in that title. He is said to have been of weak intellect though 'his amiability was proverbial', and although he lived quietly at Uffington except for occasional brief visits to London, his sanity was never questioned. He undertook a short Grand Tour of Europe in 1835-36 and subsequently visited Ireland with his stepfather. In 1837, despite being badly burned when his dressing gown caught fire, he took his seat in the House of Lords, and in 1849 he was appointed a DL for Lincolnshire, but he took no part in public affairs. He remained unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Uffington House from his father in 1818 and came of age in 1835.
He died 21 March 1877, and was buried at Uffington; administration of his goods (with will annexed) was granted 10 April 1877 (effects under £25,000).
Bertie, Montagu Peregrine (1815-99), 11th Earl of Lindsey. Second son of Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818), 9th Earl of Lindsey, and his second wife, Charlotte Susanna Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Very Rev. Charles Peter Layard DD FRS, Dean of Bristol, born 25 December 1815 and baptised at Uffington, 23 January 1816 and again at St James, Paddington (Middx), 4 July 1816. Educated at Eton. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1832; Lt., 1834; Ensign & Lt. in Grenadier Guards, 1834; Lt. & Capt., 1839; retired 1842). JP for Parts of Kesteven by 1845 and DL for Lincolnshire (from 1849). A founder member of the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society, 1865. He succeeded his elder brother as 11th Earl of Lindsey, 21 March 1877, and de jure he also inherited the Cullen viscountcy, but he never claimed or was acknowledged in that title. Towards the end of his life, he was evidently in straitened circumstances, perhaps because of the effects of the agricultural depression. He married, 30 May 1854 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Felicia Elizabeth (1835-1927), daughter of the Rev. John Earle Welby of Harston (Leics), and had issue:
(1) Lady Elizabeth Bertie (1855-1902), born 9 August and baptised at Uffington, 9 September 1855; declared bankrupt, 1900, having been defrauded of £5,000 by an absconding solicitor, Llewellyn Wynne, and then having taken to stock market speculation; died unmarried, 26 April 1902 and was buried at Uffington, 1 May 1902;(2) Lady Mary Bertie (1858-1938), baptised at Uffington, 11 February 1858; married, 2 March 1898 at St Michael, Pimlico (Middx), Maj. Laurence Charles Dundas (d. 1908), Governor of Maidstone Prison, son of William John Dundas; died 27 January 1938; will proved 28 April 1938 (estate £52);(3) Montagu Peregrine Albemarle Bertie (1861-1938), 12th Earl of Lindsey (q.v.);(4) Lady Evelyn Bertie (1870-1923), baptised at Buckhorn Weston (Dorset), 8 May 1870; married, 1903, Algernon Montague Livesey (1874-1951) of Stourton Hall, Horncastle (Lincs), and had issue three sons; died 28 August 1923; administration of goods granted to her husband, 31 May 1924 (estate £1,395).
He inherited Uffington House from his elder brother in 1877. In 1883 the estate comprised 4,790 acres in Lincolnshire, valued at £9,286 a year.
He died 29 January 1899 and was buried at Uffington; his will was proved 19 January 1900 (gross estate £4,133 but net value nil). His widow died aged 92 on 16 March 1927 and was buried at Uffington; her will was proved 28 May 1927 (estate £6,820).
Bertie, Montagu Peregrine Albemarle (1861-1938), 12th Earl of Lindsey. Only son of Montagu Peregrine Bertie (1815-99), 11th Earl of Lindsey, and his wife Felicia Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Earle Welby of Harston, born 3 September and baptised at Uffington, 20 September 1861. Educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge (matriculated 1881). An officer in the Northamptonshire & Rutland militia, later the 4th battn, Northamptonshire Regiment (2nd Lt., 1881; Lt., 1881; Capt., 1889; retired 1891); ADC to Governor of New South Wales, 1885-88. After returning from Australia, he acted as land agent to his father until he inherited the Uffington estate. JP for Kesteven and DL for Lincolnshire (from 1893). He was styled Lord Bertie from 1877 until he succeeded his father as 12th Earl of Lindsey, 29 January 1899; de jure he inherited the Cullen viscountcy at the same time, but he never claimed or was acknowledged in that title.. He married, 12 February 1890, Millicent (1862-1931), eldest daughter of Dr. James Charles Cox FRS (1834-1912) of Craig Cruich, Sydney (Australia), physician and conchologist, and had issue:
(1) Lady Muriel Felicia Vere Bertie (1893-1980), born 20 January 1893; married 1st, 20 January 1922 at the Brompton Oratory (Middx), Capt. Henry Herbert Liddell (later Liddell-Grainger) (1886-1935) of Middleton Hall, Belford (Northbld) and Ayton (Berwicks) and had issue one son; married 2nd, 23 March 1938 in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft at the Palace of Westminster, as his second wife, Sir Charles Malcolm Barclay-Harvey (1890-1969), kt. of Dinnet (Aberdeens.), Governor of South Australia, 1939-44 and Grand Master Mason of Grand Lodge of Scotland, 1949-53, only child of James Charles Barclay-Harvey of Dinnet; died 11 September 1980 and was buried at Dinnet; will proved 26 November 1980 (estate £1,021,007).
He inherited Uffington House from his father in 1899, but it burned down in 1904 and was not rebuilt; he lived subsequently chiefly at his house in Eaton Square, Westminster (Middx), retaining the estate and a small house at Uffington. After the death of his daughter this house was first let as a restaurant and finally sold in 1993.
He died 2 January 1938 and was buried at Uffington; his will was proved 21 March 1938 (estate £58,155). On his death, the earldom passed to his fifth cousin, thrice removed, the 8th Earl of Abingdon, and the Cullen viscountcy became extinct. His wife died 17 August 1931 and was buried at Uffington; administration of her goods was granted 18 March 1932 (estate £2,748).
Principal sources
Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 2003, pp. 2348-52; G.E. Cokayne, The complete peerage, vol. 1, pp. 127-29, vol. 8, pp. 15-25; 'Uffington House, Stamford', Country Life, 31 December 1904, pp. 992-94; Sir N. Pevsner, J. Harris & N. Antram, The buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 2nd edn., 1989, pp. 346-51, 681; J. Lord, ‘Sir John Vanbrugh and the 1st Duke of Ancaster: newly discovered documents’, Architectural History, 1991, pp. 136-44; J. Roberts, ‘”Well temper’d clay”: constructing water features in the landscape park’, Garden History, (29:1), 2001, pp. 12-28, pl. 4; S. Shields, ‘”Mr Brown engineer”: Lancelot Brown’s early work at Grimsthorpe Castle and Stowe’, Garden History, (34:2), 2006, pp. 174-91; M. Wood, John Fowler, prince of decorators, 2007, pp. 203-07; V. Hart, Sir John Vanbrugh: storyteller in stone, 2008, pp. 194-208; A. Chivers, The Berties of Grimsthorpe Castle, 2010; R. Pacey, Lost Lincolnshire country houses, vol. 6, 2010, pp. 1-7, 12-19, 28-33; W.A. Brogden, Ichnographia Rustica: Stephen Switzer and the designed landscape, 2017, pp. 44-51; R. White, 'The summerhouse at Grimsthorpe Castle', Country Life, 27 September 2020; M. Girouard, A biographical dictionary of English architecture, 1540-1640, 2021, pp. 58-60.
Location of archives
Bertie, Barons Willoughby de Eresby, Earls of Lindsey and Dukes of Ancaster and Kesteven: deeds, estate and manorial records, building and gardening plans and accounts, household records, official records and personal papers, 12th-20th cents [Lincolnshire Archives, ANC]; Gwydir Castle estate deeds, legal, family and estate papers, 1610-1886 [National Library of Wales Gwydir (BRA) Papers]; Gwydir estate deeds and legal papers, 17th-20th cents [Gwynnedd Archives, Caernarvon XD38]. Further records remain in private possession.
Coat of arms
Argent, three battering rams fesswise in pale proper, headed and garnished azure.
Can you help?
- Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
- If anyone can offer further or more precise 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 22 February 2025. I am most grateful for the assistance of Henry Bertie, Lord Norreys, with the preparation of this account.
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