Jane Benson (1679-1741)

Jane was the wife of Henry Hoare I, who purchased the Stourhead Estate in 1717.

Jane bore 11 children for Henry, but was widowed in March 1725. Their eldest son, Henry Hoare II inherited the estate and created the famous garden.

Jane died in June 1741 at the age of 62.

Ann Masham (1708-1727)

Ann Masham came from an aristocratic family. Her mother was the Keeper of the Privy Purse, so when Henry Hoare II married Ann in 1726, he promoted the Hoare family to the upper class, gaining both status and wealth.

Less than a year later, Ann died after giving birth to a girl at just 19 years of age. The baby was named in her mother’s memory.

Susanna Colt (1709-1743)

Susanna Colt was an heiress, who became the second wife of Henry Hoare II. In July 1728, 15 months after the death of Henry’s first wife, he and Susanna (aged 20) were wed.

All of their five children died young, and just 15 years after their marriage, Susanna also died at the age of 35.

Hestor Lyttelton (1763-1785)

Henry Hoare II was not at all pleased with his grandson’s choice of wife, but in August 1783, Richard Colt Hoare, aged 24, was married to Hester Lyttleton, aged just 19, in Barnes, London.

Hester gave birth to their first child, Henry, in September 1784, then another boy, Richard, the following year. However, she and the baby died within a couple of months.

Maria Palmer Acland (1766-1845)

On Richard Colt Hoare’s death, Stourhead was left to his half brother, Henry Hugh Hoare and his wife Maria Acland.

The couple married in August 1784, and although their first child died in infancy, Maria went on to bear another 14 children.

Their marriage lasted 57 years, until Henry died in 1841. After his death, Maria moved to London, where she died, aged 79 in January 1845. Stourhead was passed down to their son Hugh Richard Hoare.

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Anne Tyrwhitt Drake (1792-1847)

Hugh Richard Hoare married Anne Drake in April 1819. Anne was a girl from a wealthy land-owning family and one of many children. Their marriage, however, bore no children.

At the age of 54, Hugh Richard succeeded his father as Baronet and owner of Stourhead. Anne died just two years later in 1847, aged 55.

Augusta Clayton East (1819-1903)

© NTPL / John Hammond

Augusta was the wife of Henry Ainslie Hoare. They were married 49 years and had two children, but much of the couple’s married life was spent apart while Henry travelled abroad.

Stourhead was where Augusta experienced the happiest times of a relatively unhappy life. With her husband largely absent, she devoted herself to her daughter Augusta, and her four grandchildren. Accounts of rides round the garden and picnics at Alfred's Tower give a cheering picture of her devotion to them.

Henry returned to England to his wife after falling desperately ill in France; he had always come home to be nursed by her when unwell. He died soon after in July 1894. Augusta died in 1903, aged 84.

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Alda Weston (1861-1947)

Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare and Alda Weston were married in 1887. They had one son but he died during the First World War – a tragedy from which Alda never recovered.

The couple moved to Stourhead in February 1895, where Alda became known for her devotion to her husband, son and the estate.

She was a woman of decided tastes and opinions which she did not hesitate to express. She did not enjoy Society, or the company of women, quoting 'I never knew a tolerable woman to be fond of her own sex'.

She also asserted her strong personality on Stourhead's interior, rearranging pieces of furniture without regard to the place for which they were originally intended. Her philosophy was rooms were furnished for 'living'.

During the war years, Alda often visited wounded soldiers at Mere Hospital, and invited them to recuperate at Stourhead, earning her the nickname of ‘Stourhead Mother’.

In 1947, both Henry and Alda died within six hours of each other; they had been married 60 years.