The house William Blathwayt created embodied his professional standing. As the leading colonial administrator of his age, his north American colleagues willingly sourced luxury walnut and cedar timber to construct stairs and panelling. As Secretary at War to William III, his travels and connections in Europe enabled purchase of Carrara marble tiles and luxurious silk fabrics, some of which were Indian textiles imported through the Dutch East India Company.
The decoration of the house was substantially shaped by William Blathwayt’s purchase of his uncle Thomas Povey’s art and book collections. Povey raised Blathwayt as his own son and set him off on a career in government and colonial administration. Through Povey (c.1613-c.1705) important paintings by Samuel van Hoogstraten and Bartolome Murillo arrived at Dyrham.
Grand Tourists
William Blathwayt raised his sons befitting their gentlemanly status. Between 1705 and 1708 William (1688-1742) and John (1690-1754) travelled across Europe on a Grand Tour. The survival of letters gives a rich account of their activities and character. William was slow to learn and struggled socially and on inheriting Dyrham he spent his life simply managing the estate. Younger brother John was bright and a musical prodigy, notably playing with celebrated composers in Rome. In later life he served in the army and founded an opera company with George Frederic Handel.
Dyrham’s decline
William III Blathwayt (1719-87) inherited Dyrham as a young man and went on to marry three times. He experienced financial problems and in 1765 auctioned paintings to raise funds. It seems many were purchased by his younger brother and subsequently returned to the house. The gardens also suffered, writer Samuel Rudder remarking in 1779 those ‘which were made at great expense, are much neglected and going to decay’.
The fourth William Blathwayt (1751-1806) started repairing the house and with designer Charles Harcourt-Masters, the remains of the eastern gardens ‘Reconciled to modern Taste’ as an open parkland setting (c.1800). Dyrham was inherited by William’s nephew William Crane (1795-1839) who took the name Blathwayt, though on his death Dyrham reverted to William’s widow Frances (1751-1844) who had remarried Admiral James Douglas. They built considerable debts and left the house in a poor state of repair.
Dyrham’s revival
Lieutenant Colonel George Blathwayt (1797-1871) was the son of William IV Blathwayt’s younger half-brother. Though born near Dyrham he lived mostly in Ireland and joined the Light Dragoons aged 17, fighting at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). On inheriting Dyrham in 1844 he had only dined in the house twice before but was determined to reverse its recent decline. Colonel Blathwayt was not left the contents and took out a £50,000 loan to buy back the furniture and pictures and to repair and modernise the house. Extensive works included new roofs, central heating and kitchens, remodelled servants’ quarters, and glazing the Greenhouse roof.
Sales and losses
Colonel Blathwayt’s two eldest sons both inherited Dyrham. Captain George (1824-99) died without children and so Dyrham passed to his brother Rev. Wynter Thomas (1825-1909) who was Rector of Dyrham but moved into the house with his second wife Mary Sarah Oates (1833-1925), though his eldest son managed the estate. Robert Wynter Blathwayt (1850-1936) was compelled to sell collections to fund Dyrham’s maintenance. A celebrated view by Meindert Hobbema (1665) was sold in 1901, bought by Henry Clay Frick in New York, and the funds used for repairs and installing electricity. The state bed was sold in 1911, bought by Lord Leverhulme, as was the Blathwayt Atlas (1678-83), now in the John Carter Brown Library, with further book sales in 1919.
Robert Wynter had no direct heirs, but had relatives living locally, including Lieutenant Colonel Linley Wynter Blathwayt (1839-1919) of Eagle House, Batheaston, who with daughter Mary (1879-1961) created a refuge for suffragettes. Another cousin Henry Wynter Blathwayt (1877-1917) had been killed in action at Cambrai during the First World War and his sons were nominated to inherit Dyrham.
Lady decorator
In 1938 the Blathwayt’s leased Dyrham to Lady Anne Islington (1869-1958) whose late husband had been MP for nearby Chippenham and Governor-General of New Zealand. In 1939 she invited the Pro Patria Day Nursery to evacuate to the house, and from 1941 the Anglo-American Nursery. A member of a group of amateur ‘lady decorators’ she made substantial changes to the house, including painting panelling in off-white colours and installing pale wallpapers alongside introducing new bathrooms.