Stanhopes of Bretby: Family was plagued by twin curses

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Gardens to rival Versailles, an armed siege, an eminent prime minister, a future Queen of England and the curse of Tutunkhamun all feature as Richard Stone continues his account of the lords of Bretby with the Stanhopes.

The early-17th century formal gardens at Bretby were compared to Versailles

Bretby Hall built by the 5th Earl of Chesterfield in the 1780s

Plaque of the former Bretby (Bradby) School, now a private house

THE Stanhope Arms Hotel, two Chesterfield Arms pubs, Stanhope Street, Winshill, and Stanhope Road, Swadlincote – there is no shortage of reminders of the Stanhope family in South Derbyshire.

But who were they and how did they end up at Bretby?

When Sir Thomas Stanhope, of Shelford, a Trentside village in Nottinghamshire, bought the Bretby estate in 1585 from the Marquess of Berkeley, it was an investment to secure his family’s future.

Bretby Castle, almost 400 years old, was in a ruinous state. It was leased to Thomas Duport until 1610 and rented out to sitting tenants John and Mary Mee.

It was Thomas’ grandson, Sir Philip Stanhope, who took possession of Bretby in 1610.

He immediately commissioned a new house, designed, it is said, by a young Inigo Jones.

He chose a site half a mile south-west of the old castle whose ancient battlements were levelled and plundered for stone.

The result was a mansion, second only to Chatsworth in magnificence, surrounded by a deer park, lakes and French-style formal gardens based on those at the Palace of Versailles, complete with fountains, groves and labyrinths.

The future King Charles I was invited to stay.

Sir Philip’s flamboyant lifestyle upset many of his peers. His Shelford neighbour, Sir John Holles, complained he was “a perpetual dishonour to the King and all the nobility”.

There were brushes with the law, including two indictments for what I will coyly refer to as “illegal sexual practices”. He was cleared on both counts and continued to serve as a magistrate.

In 1628, he was created Earl of Chesterfield.

Philip gave no indication in his early years of strong political views or moral principles. With civil unrest brewing in 1639, he excused himself from a summons to meet King Charles at York pleading an “extremity of weakness” from which he “doubted he would recover”.

But, when Civil War broke out three years later, he proved himself a steadfast Royalist. Bretby was fortified in the name of the King and a garrison raised.

In December 1642, Bretby was besieged. Outnumbered, Philip abandoned his wife, Anne, and set off for Lichfield. According to the gloss put on what happened next by the Parliamentarian commander, the officers in charge asked the Countess to buy off the soldiers to stop them ransacking the house.

When she refused, they offered to lend her the money, an offer she turned down, and Bretby Hall was looted.

A few weeks later, the Earl surrendered and spent the rest of the conflict under house arrest in London. His fine mansion at Bretby and his estates were sequestered.

Countess Anne was forced to live on an allowance of £5 per week. By the time the war ended, three of the Earl’s sons had died in the Royalist cause. When the old Earl died, still in prison, in 1656, it was left to his grandson, Philip, to reclaim Bretby.

Philip was travelling abroad after prudently quitting an academy in Paris following a duel. Back in England, he refused an offer of marriage to one of Oliver Cromwell’s daughters and a military commission.

Instead, he embarked on a series of high-profile affairs and was soon in trouble again for duelling.

In 1659, Philip spent time in the Tower of London for his part in a Royalist conspiracy. On his release, he killed a man in a dispute over the price of a horse and fled abroad.

But the political climate was changing. At the Dutch court, Philip met Charles Stuart and obtained a pardon.

Within months, Charles was on his way to be crowned King of England, with Philip at his side.

At last, Stanhope loyalty to the crown was rewarded. Bretby was returned and Philip was appointed Lord Chamberlain to Queen Catherine.

Philip married the beautiful Lady Elizabeth Butler and sent her to live at Bretby to escape the amorous attentions of the King’s brother, James, Duke of Hamilton.

It was rumoured that Hamilton pursued her to Derbyshire. A servant sent by Lady Elizabeth met the Duke and promised to lead him to a secret rendezvous. Instead, the Duke was led in circles around the Bretby estate until he was totally disoriented, cold, tired, wet and dirty.

When Elizabeth died in 1665, Philip retired from court and devoted himself to life at Bretby, putting his energies into restoring the house and gardens.

Four years later, he married Elizabeth Dormer, daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon. When she died after a miscarriage in 1677, Philip planted a Cedar of Lebanon seedling, one of the first in this country. As the majestic tree grew, so did a legend that when a branch fell it foretold the death of a member of the family.

The 3rd Earl succeeded in 1713 and enjoyed the life of a country gentleman. After touring Europe and becoming a Tory MP at 21, his son and heir, Philip Dormer Stanhope, found Bretby less than exciting, describing his home in a letter as “the seat of horror and despair”.

Philip Dormer inherited Bretby in 1726. As the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, he made a name for himself in the House of Lords as a witty speaker and was entrusted with several important and sensitive diplomatic missions.

Given his aversion to the country life, it was not surprising that he chose to live in London, reviving the dwindling Stanhope bank balance by marriage to the wealthy 40-year-old Duchess of Kendal, Petronilla von der Schulenberg, the illegitimate daughter of King George I.

Neglected by the 4th Earl, the grand mansion at Bretby fell into decay. When house and title passed to his cousin, Philip, in 1773, the house was beyond saving.

A new hall was begun, designed by Jeffrey Wyatville. The old formal gardens, no longer fashionable, were ripped out and replaced by parkland reflecting a more natural landscape. Under the 5th Earl, the estate revived and a village school was started.

The 6th Earl completed the house and added a racecourse in the park.

Modern Bretby village grew up around the estate.

Bretby Hall played host to high society. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the future Queen Mary were both regular guests. The 6th Earl’s daughter, Eveleyn, married the Earl of Carnarvon at Westminster Abbey.

After the death of the 6th Earl, Disraeli proposed to the Countess but was rejected. A memorial plaque in St Wystan’s Church, rebuilt by Anne in 1878, records: “In memory of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. The foremost man of his age. Eminent in letters, in council, in debate. A statesman far-seeing and sagacious, a patriot zealous for his country’s honour.

“A devoted servant of the Queen, by whom he was trusted, honoured and mourned. This tablet is erected by Anne Elizabeth, Countess of Chesterfield, a record of a much prized friendship and a lasting regret.”

When Anne died in 1885, the house passed to her grandson, George, 5th Earl of Carnarvon.

Archaeologist Howard Carter visited Bretby on many occasions as he and Carnarvon planned an expedition to investigate the treasures of ancient Egypt.

To help finance the venture, Bretby was sold to J D Wragg, of Swadlincote, the herd of 200 deer were killed and part of the 450-acre park turned over to agriculture.

Six years later, Carter and Carnarvon set the archaeological world alight with the discovery of Tutunkhamun’s tomb.

When Carnarvon died shortly after, amid talk of the mummy’s curse, people visited Bretby to see if the Cedar of Lebanon had shed a bough.

Derbyshire County Council bought Bretby Hall and converted it into an orthopaedic hospital in 1926.

The once noble Cedar of Lebanon, almost certainly the oldest surviving tree of its kind in the country, barely alive and propped up by chains, was reduced to a stump in 1954 and blown down completely in a gale shortly afterwards.

Now the hospital, too, has closed. Bretby Hall has been converted into luxury apartments looking out over parkland, flanked by modern properties. The former village school is now a private house, the Segrave’s mediVeval castle a faint, shadowy footprint on Castle Field, and Bretby village a haven of tranquillity.

No casual visitor would guess the fascinating history of this picturesque place.

Richard Stone’s latest book, The River Trent, is available from local bookshops, priced £14.99.

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