Sir John Danvers, Knt. had freehold lands in Chelsea, valued at 607. per annum in the reign of Elizabeth. Sir John was brother of Henry, Earl of Danby.' He married Magdalen, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, and relict of Sir Richard Herbert, by whom she was mother of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

This lady, after the death of her first husband, continued a widow twelve years, and was highly esteemed for her great and harmless wit, her cheerful gravity, and her obliging behaviour, which gained her an acquaintance and friendship with most of any eminent worth or learning in the University of Oxford, where she lived four years to take care of the education of her eldest son, her children being all young at the death of their father."

She died in June 1627, and was buried at Chelsea.' Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, whilst he was preaching her funeral sermon, could not refrain from tears, as Walton reports, who was present.

The old mansion, called Danvers House, was pulled down about the year 1696, when Danvers Street was built on its site.

Lysons's Environs, vol. ii. p. 123. * Walton's Life of G. Herbert.

3 See page 112.

CHAPTER X.

Bowack's Account of Chelsea, 1705.-Lord Cheyne.Sir Richard Steele.-Dr. Atterbury.-Swift.-Lord Orford's House. Wharton Park. - Don Saltero's Coffee House.-Dr. Mead.-Ranelagh.

BOWACK, writing his account of Chelsea in 1705, thus speaks of it: "

"The sweetness of its air, and pleasant situation, have of late years drawn several eminent persons to reside and build here, and filled it with many worthy families of gentry, citizens, and others; also the schools, with a great number of boarders, especially young ladies; and it has flourished so extremely for twenty or thirty years last past, that from a small straggling village, it is now become a large, beautiful, and populous town, having about three hundred houses, and above that number of families, which is near nine times its number in the year 1664. Its vicinity to London, no doubt, has been no small cause of its late prodigious growth; and indeed it is not much to be wondered, why a place should so flourish, where a man may perfectly enjoy the pleasures of country and city together, and when he pleases, in less than an hour's time, either by water, coach, or otherwise, be at the Court, Exchange, or in the midst of his business. The walk to town is very even, and very pleasant.”

Bowack, p. 13.

William Lord Cheyne, Viscount Newhaven in Scotland, at this time possessed the manor house, to which had been made some additional buildings. This mansion, a view of the north front of which we have given from an original drawing in the possession of Mr. Richardson, formed a square, enclosing a court. It was pulled down after the death of Sir Hans Sloane, and a row of houses built upon its site. Lord Cheyne also was proprietor of Blacklands House, but which was then occupied as a French Boarding School.

William Lord Cheyne, second Viscount Newhaven, was created Lord Cheyne by William III. He was twice married; first, to a Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas of Chelsea, who died 1687;' his second wife was Gertrude Pierrepoint, only daughter of Robert, eldest son of William Pierrepoint of Thoresby; she was sister of Robert, third Earl of Evelyn; and dying in 1728, left an only daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir Henry Monson, Bart., by whom she had no issue. William Lord Cheyne had been a Commissioner of the Privy Seal from 1689 to 1691, and Member of Parliament for Amersham till the Union disqualified him.*

Lindsey House was in 1705 occupied by Ursula, Countess Dowager of Plymouth, and her son, Lord Windsor. This lady was relict of Thomas, Earl of Plymouth, who died in 1687.

Her eldest son, Thomas,' sat in Parliament for the Borough of Droitwich, in the reign of James II.; and in the reign of King William, was one of the Grooms

'See page 118.
3 Collins's Peerage.

2 Bolton's Extinct Peerage, p. 56.

of the Bedchamber and Colonel of a regiment of horse. He served for some time in Flanders; and, in 1695, was created Viscount Windsor in Ireland. In the reign of Queen Anne, his lordship sat in two Parliaments as Knight of the Shire for the County of Monmouth, and in 1711 was advanced to the Peerage of England by the title of Lord Montjoy.

He married, August 28, 1703, at Chelsea,' Charlotte, daughter of Philip, Earl of Pembroke, and widow of John Lord Jefferies. His lordship died at his house in Albermarle Street, June 8, 1738.

There are several entries in the Parish Register of the baptisms of their children.

Lindsey House was afterwards in possession of Francis Lord Conway, second son of Sir Edward Seymour, and who was created Lord Conway in 1703. By his third wife, Charlotte, daughter of John Shorter, Esq., and sister to Catharine, Lady Walpole, he had Francis, the late Marquis of Hertford, who was born at Chelsea in 1718. Lord Conway died in Ireland in 1732.

sea.

William Aglionby, Esq., Envoy from Queen Anne to the Swiss Cantons, had a house, in 1705, at Chel"He has abundance of wit," says Macky, "and understands most of the modern languages well; knows how to tell a story to the best advantage, but has an affected manner of conversation; is thin, splenetic, and tawny complexioned, and turned of sixty years old." Swift adds, that he had been a papist.'

Parish Register.

Nichols's Edit. Swift, vol. v. p. 160.

2

See
page 118.

Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, resided in Chelsea from 1703 to 1707. His premises were between the Stable Yard of the Royal Hospital and Lord Carberry's house, and appear to have been the same which Sir Robert Walpole afterwards purchased from the Gough family. It is said to have been the intention of the Earl to build a house for himself on the west side of the Hospital, similar to that of the Earl of Ranelagh on the east.'

This nobleman was a younger son of Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford, and bred to the naval service of his country. He obtained the command of a ship in the reign of Charles II. through the patronage of James, Duke of York, to whom he was Groom of the Bedchamber. On the death of his nephew he resigned all his employments, went to Holland, and returned with the Prince of Orange, who honoured him with most rapid promotion. In 1691 he was made Admiral of the Fleet, and the following year gained the Battle of La Hogue. In 1697 he was created Earl of Orford. In the reign of Queen Anne he fell into disgrace, but was afterwards restored to favour; and in the reign of George I., became First Lord of the Admiralty, and one of the Lords' Justices. He died November 27, 1727, aged seventy-six. Lord Orford was possessed of good sense, and though violent in his conduct in public life, he was amiable and pleasant in private.*

Edward Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester, was a native of Westerleigh in Gloucestershire, and the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Oxford, and became Dr. King's MSS. Noble's Cont. Grang. Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 188.

2