History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family
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The 1500s
Sir William Cavendish and Bess of Hardwick
The first house at Chatsworth was built by 'Bess of Hardwick' (c. 1527-1608) and her second husband Sir William Cavendish (1505-57). They bought the manor of Chatsworth in 1549, and building began in 1552 and continued for many years. The Hunting Tower, which still stands on the hill behind Chatsworth, dates from the 1580s. Bess had four husbands but she only had children by Sir William. Their second son, William, became his Mother's heir and bought Chatsworth from his older brother, Henry William was made Baron Cavendish in 1605 and created Earl of Devonshire in 1618.
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The first Chatsworth House in 1552, built by 'Bess of Hardwick' |
Sir William Cavendish came from Cavendish in Suffolk. He prospered in the service of Henry VIII as one of the King's commissioners for the dissolution of the monasteries. When he married the redoubtable Bess, who was a native of Derbyshire, she persuaded him to sell the former monastery lands he owned elsewhere and move to her home county. In spite of the physical limitations of the site, which was prone to flooding and difficult of access across the moors to the east, they built a large house on the site of the square block of the present building. There is a painting of the house from this time, so we know what it looked like outside, but there is nothing to tell us what the interior was like, although an inventory of 1601 survives, attached to Bess's will.
After Sir William died in 1557 Bess married Sir William St. Loe (d. 1565) and lastly, in 1567, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury (c. 1528-90). Queen Elizabeth I appointed Shrewsbury custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, who was a prisoner at Chatsworth at various times between 1569 and 1584. Her lodgings were on the east side of the house and the rooms there, though changed beyond recognition, are still called the Queen of Scots Apartments. Bess died in 1608. She also built Hardwick Hall, near Chesterfield, her surviving masterpiece. It belonged to the Cavendish family until 1957 when it was taken by the government in lieu of death duty and given by them to the National Trust.
The 1600s
4th Earl and 1st Duke
Few alterations were made at Chatsworth until near the end of the 17th century. In 1686 the 4th Earl (1640-1707; created 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694 for his part in bringing William of Orange to the English throne) took down the South Front, and built new family rooms and a magnificent suite of State Apartments, intended for the reception of a Royal Visit from William and Mary. He intended to alter only this part of the house but he found building so delightful that once he started he could not stop. The East Front followed, including the Painted Hall and a long gallery, now the Library, and he spent three years erecting new outbuildings. George London and Henry Wise designed a formal garden on the grand scale. A Frenchman, Grillet, built the Cascade, and Thomas Archer (1668-1743) designed the house from which it springs.
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An aerial view of Chatsworth House and the formal gardens |
Leendert Knyff was commissioned to make a drawing to record the changes but hardly was this done when the desire to build again proved irresistible. The Duke rebuilt the West Front (1699-1702) and then the remaining North Front. The Canal Pond was dug where once there was a hill (1702). William Talman (1650-1720) was the architect for the South and East Fronts. The West was perhaps designed by the Duke himself, working closely with his masons, and the North, with its bow front, by Thomas Archer. The new Chatsworth was finished just before the Duke died in 1707.
The 1700s
2nd Duke
The 2nd Duke (1673-1729) made no changes to the house and garden he had watched being created in his youth. He made his mark in a different field, as a collector of paintings, drawings and prints. He also made important collections of coins and carved Greek and Roman gems. The 2nd Duke was the grandfather of Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), the distinguished and eccentric scientist, who determined the composition of water, recognised hydrogen as an element and was 'the first man to weigh the world'. Cavendish's library of 12,000 books on science and many other subjects is at Chatsworth.
3rd Duke
The 3rd Duke (1698-1755) served for seven years as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and was Member of Parliament from 1721 till his father's death sent him to the House of Lords in 1729. Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, was a friend of his and his father, and the Van Dyck portrait of Arthur Goodwin, which hangs in the Great Dining Room, came from Walpole's collection. When Devonshire House in Piccadilly was burnt down in 1733, the 3rd Duke commissioned William Kent to rebuild it. Kent designed furniture for it, much of which is now at Chatsworth.
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A view of Chatsworth from the west 1770, by William Marlow (1740-1813) |
4th Duke
The 4th Duke (1720-64) was a prominent Whig politician like his father, serving as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and from November 1756 to May 1757 as Prime Minister of England. He made great changes to the park and garden. He decided that the house should be approached from the west, so he pulled down the old stables and offices which interfered with the view on this side, and razed the cottages of Edensor village which were visible from the house. The architect James Paine (c. 1716-89) was commissioned to build new stables up the slope to the north-east (completed 1763). The course of the river was altered and Paine designed a new bridge upstream of the house (1762). Land to the west of the river, and what remained of Edensor village was enclosed to become the park as it is today. Lancelot (Capability) Brown (1716-83) was engaged to destroy most of the 1st Duke's formal garden and to give the park the natural, romantic look which he had helped bring into fashion.
The 4th Duke married Lady Charlotte Boyle, only surviving daughter and heiress of the 3rd Earl of Burlington, the architect and connoisseur. This marriage brought new estates to the Cavendish family, including Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Londesborough Hall and Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, Burlington House and Chiswick House in London. The inheritance included all Lord Burlington's architectural books and drawings as well as many paintings and everything else his houses contained.
5th Duke
The 5th Duke (1748-1811) married Lady Georgiana Spencer, famous for her charm and beloved by all who knew her. She and her great friend Lady Elizabeth Foster were painted several times by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Lady Elizabeth became the mistress of the Duke, and had two children by him, but curiously enough this did not interfere with her friendship with Georgiana. The ménage à trois continued for some years and has been the subject of many books.
The 5th Duke and Georgiana lived mostly in London but when they did come to Chatsworth they filled it with friends and relations, writers and politicians. The house was open for people to see round and on one day a month dinner was provided for whoever came. John Carr of York (1723-1807) was commissioned by the Duke to redesign the decoration and furnishings of the private drawing rooms of the first floor at Chatsworth and build the Crescent in Buxton.
There were three children of the marriage. The eldest, Georgiana, married the 6th Earl of Carlisle and became the mother of Lady Blanche Howard who married her cousin William, who eventually became the 7th Duke of Devonshire.
The 1800s
6th Duke
The 6th, the 'Bachelor' Duke (1790-1858), was Duchess Georgiana's only son and succeeded his father at the age of 21. Extravagant and charming, he was a prince of hosts. He never married but loved entertaining his friends and spent 47 years improving his many houses and collecting objects of every kind with which to embellish them. He bought two complete libraries, many paintings and sculptures and a great deal more besides. He engaged the architect Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1766-1840) to build the long North Wing at Chatsworth. Later, Lismore Castle in County Waterford was rebuilt too. Such expenditure taxed even his resources and he was forced to sell property in Yorkshire, including most of the town of Wetherby and his estate at Londesborough.
He became intensely interested in gardening after he met Joseph Paxton (1803-65), a young gardener working in the Horticultural Society's gardens at Chiswick which adjoined the Duke's land there. He appointed Paxton to be head gardener at Chatsworth in 1826 and together they changed the garden into the one you see today. Expeditions were sent to the Americas and the Far East to collect plants, giant rockeries, recently restored, were introduced and the 'Conservative Wall' glasshouse was built. Paxton designed and constructed the Emperor Fountain, the jet in the Canal Pond which can reach over 280 feet on a calm day. It was an engineering feat which entailed draining the moor into an eight acre man-made reservoir on the high ground above the house (1844). The whole of this ambitious scheme was completed in six months.
However, the most famous of Paxton's achievements was the building of the Great Conservatory, constructed in wood, iron and glass and covering three-quarters of an acre. It was the forerunner of the Crystal Palace, which he built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. Sadly, the Great Conservatory became derelict during the First World War and was demolished soon after. The maze grows in its place.
7th Duke
The 6th Duke died in 1858. He was succeeded by William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Burlington of the second creation (1808-91), the grandson of the 6th Duke's uncle Lord George Cavendish. The 7th Duke married Lady Blanche Howard, granddaughter of Duchess Georgiana. Blanche died aged 29 in 1840 and was mourned by her husband and her uncle for the rest of their lives. He was a scholar, Second Wrangler and Smith's Prizewinner in mathematics, Chancellor of London University at the age of 28, and later Chancellor of Cambridge University and founder of the Cavendish Laboratory there. Chatsworth was a very quiet place during the thirty years of the 7th Duke's tenure, as its owner decreed strict economies after the extravagance of his predecessor. He is best remembered today as the developer of Eastbourne in Sussex and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.
8th Duke
His son the 8th Duke (1833-1908) was a statesman who served in Parliament for over fifty years. He was a towering figure in the Liberal Party and as Marquess of Hartington he played a leading role in the cabinets of Gladstone and later Liberal governments. Three times he was asked by Queen Victoria to become Prime Minister, but each time he refused. In 1886 he split the Liberal Party over his opposition to Home Rule for Ireland. He married Louise, widow of the Duke of Manchester, in 1892. They had no children.
They entertained lavishly at Chatsworth, usually during the autumn and winter. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra were regular visitors. In 1908 the Duke died and was succeeded by his nephew Victor Cavendish.
9th Duke
The 9th Duke (1868-1938) and his wife Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice, daughter of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (Viceroy of India 1888-1894), had seven children. He was a Member of Parliament from 1891 and like most of his predecessors loved politics and continued to attend the House of Lords after the death of his uncle. He held office as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and from 1916 to 1921 was Governor-General of Canada.
When the Duke and Duchess moved to Chatsworth in 1908 a lot of work had to be done to the house, including the complete renewal of the drainage system. Evelyn Duchess interested herself in the collections and became very knowledgeable about the contents of the various houses, while her husband was an attentive landlord and enjoyed his farming and sporting activities. The 9th Duke was the first to have to pay death duties, which amounted to over half a million pounds. Added to the even greater running debt left by the failure of the 7th Duke's business ventures, this forced some major sales. All the Caxton books in the Library and the John Kemble collection of plays, including many rare first editions of Shakespeare, were sold in 1912 to the Huntington Library in California, and Devonshire House and its three acres in Piccadilly were sold in 1920.
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The 10th Duke invited the girls of Penrhos College to move in during the war |
10th Duke
When Edward Cavendish (1895-1950) succeeded his father as 10th Duke in 1938 he and his wife, Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury, planned to make many alterations and improvements at Chatsworth. But a year later, war broke out and the girls and staff of Penrhos College arrived. The house was not re-opened to the public until 1949.
The 10th Duke's elder son William, Marquess of Hartington (b. 1917), married Kathleen Kennedy, sister of the late President Kennedy, in May 1944. Four months later he was killed in action in Belgium while serving with his regiment, the Coldstream Guards. Kathleen died in an aeroplane accident in 1948. They had no children, so the Duke's second son Andrew Cavendish became his father's heir and succeeded to the title in 1950.
11th Duke
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, KG, PC, MC. 11th Duke of Devonshire (1920-2004) married the Hon. Deborah Mitford, daughter of Lord Redesdale, in 1941. He served in the Coldstream Guards during the war, and was Mayor of Buxton 1952-54. Later he was a minister in the Conservative government 1960-64.
The Duke and Duchess had three children, Emma (b. 1943), Peregrine (b. 1944) and Sophia (b. 1957). Lady Emma married the Hon. Toby Tennant in 1963 and they have three children. Lady Sophia has two children and is married to Will Topley. Peregrine married Amanda Heywood-Lonsdale (b. 1944) in 1967 and they have three children, William, Marquess of Hartington (b.1969), Celina (b. 1971) and Jasmine (b. 1973).
The 10th Duke's death at the age of 55 was sudden and unexpected, and death duties at the maximum rate of 80% had to be paid. Nine of the most important works of art and many rare books, as well as Hardwick Hall and its supporting farms and woods, were surrendered to the Treasury in lieu of cash. Thousands of acres of land and other assets were sold. The negotiations took seventeen years to complete and the final payment was made in 1967. The ownership of all the remaining Derbyshire estates then passed to the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement.
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Chatsworth House today from the west front |
The 11th Duke and his family lived at Edensor House in the park from 1947. In 1957 the decision was taken to move back to Chatsworth. Some internal modernisation was done, including a new central heating system and changes of use for some of the rooms. A new kitchen was fitted up nearer the private dining room and six flats made for members of staff and their families. In November 1959 the work was completed and the family moved in. The family occupy rooms on the ground and first floors, for which the Duke pays rent. While the house, garden and park were the property of the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement the present Duke insisted that no application for public funds towards upkeep should be made.
On 31st March 1981, after three years of negotiations with the government, the running of Chatsworth was taken over by the Chatsworth House Trust. This is a charitable foundation set up by the 11th Duke to help ensure for the public benefit the preservation of the house, its essential contents, the garden and the park.
By November 2000, the 11th Duke had held the title for 50 years. On the Duke's death in May 2004, he was succeeded by his son.
12th Duke
Peregrine Cavendish (b. 1944) succeeded his father in May 2004.
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