History of Ham House

The British Civil Wars

The Murrays’ fortunate position was challenged by the British Civil Wars, which broke out in 1642 between King Charles and Parliament. This conflict centred around disputes over the relative authority and power of the Crown and Parliament. As a close friend of the King, William supported the royalist cause. He joined the King at the exiled court in Oxford in 1643, and left Ham House in the care of his wife Catherine and their daughters.

King Charles I was eventually captured and later tried for high treason. He was executed outside the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall in January 1649. Charles’s son came to an agreement with the Scots and was crowned Charles II of Scotland. However, his attempts to take back the throne of England failed, and he fled to the continent. William remained in exile, and Catherine and Elizabeth fought to protect Ham from sequestration (confiscation) by Parliament.

Intrigue and espionage

Catherine died in 1649 with William still in exile. Their eldest daughter and heir, Elizabeth, continued to protect Ham with the support of her husband, Sir Lionel Tollemache (1624–69).

In 1653, the Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell was installed as ‘Lord Protector’ of the new Commonwealth. Elizabeth maintained good relations with Cromwell during his rule and managed to keep control of Ham during the Interregnum (1649–60). At the same time, Elizabeth secretly supported efforts to return the Stuarts to the English throne. She carried coded letters to and from the continent, and shared recipes for invisible ink with her co-conspirators.

Her efforts must have been substantial and effective. After the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, he awarded Elizabeth a lavish annual pension of £800 a year (around £162,000 today) for life. He also confirmed her as Countess of Dysart in her own right. She inherited the title from her father, William, who had died in Scotland in 1655. Charles II also awarded her and Lionel 75 acres of land around Ham and Petersham.

With Charles II on the throne and Royalists once again in a position of favour, Ham House re-emerged as a place of power, entertaining and extravagance.

A powerful partnership

Sir Lionel Tollemache died in 1669 and in 1672, Elizabeth married for the second time. Her new husband John Maitland (1616–82) was the Earl of Lauderdale, a key member of Charles II’s inner circle and Secretary of State for Scotland. Sharing a love of politics and decadence, Elizabeth and John were the power couple of the Restoration period. Charles II made them Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale after their marriage.

The Duke of Lauderdale’s influence stretched beyond the British Isles. In 1663, Lauderdale was named as a ‘grantee’ on the charter founding the Royal English Merchant Adventurers Company Trading to Africa (later the Royal African Company). From 1675 he was one of the first Lords of Trades and Plantations, who advised the King’s Privy Council on management of the growing number of English colonies.

Britain’s expanding empire and participation in the transatlantic slave trade is visible in some collection items at Ham. These include a portrait from around 1651 of Elizabeth with a Black servant by court artist Sir Peter Lely, and two torchères (ornamental stands) in the form of young Black men in positions of servitude.

Restoration Ham House

Ham was situated on the River Thames between Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle upriver, and Richmond Palace and Whitehall Palace downriver. As such it was the perfect place for politicking and navigating court life. To match their high status, the Lauderdales transformed Ham House into one of the grandest houses in England.

The house was extended to the south in the early 1670s, doubling the size of the building. They installed a suite of rooms for Catherine of Braganza, Charles II’s queen. Elizabeth also installed of one of the earliest internal bathrooms in the country, and a Still House where she created treatments for the household.

The couple commissioned art and furniture in the latest styles, including numerous portraits by Sir Peter Lely, and floral marquetry by cabinet maker Gerrit Jensen. They also acquired Chinese and Japanese lacquered items from traders in London, likely brought to Britain through trading companies like the East India Company.

The Duke and Duchess developed Ham’s formal gardens, including a private garden for Elizabeth, a showpiece walled kitchen garden, and one of the earliest orangeries in the country.

The 18th and 19th centuries at Ham

Elizabeth died in 1698, and her descendants by her marriage to Lionel Tollemache lived at Ham for the next 250 years. Her great grandson Lionel, the 4th Earl (1708–70), took particular care of Ham. He commissioned important repairs to the house and was a keen patron who added to the collection of fine furniture and art.

Later owners, including the 5th Earl, Lionel (1734–99), the 6th Earl, Wilbraham (1739–1821), and the 7th Countess, Louisa (1745–1840), patronised contemporary artists like Sir Joshua Reynolds and John Constable. Portraits by these artists still hang in the Great Hall.

The 20th Century at Ham

The 9th Earl, Lionel (1859–1935), invested successfully in the stock market and brought Ham House into the 20th century. He commissioned the installation of electricity and plumbing, including an early jet bath in the Duchess’s Bathroom.

In 1948, Sir Lyonel Tollemache, 4th Baronet (1854–1952), gifted Ham House to the National Trust.

Ham House came to the National Trust without an endowment and so the house and garden were initially made over in a long lease to the government, administered by the Ministry of Works. The house contents were purchased by the government and entrusted to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), who ran and cared for the house and collection between 1948 and the early 1990s.

The V&A restored several rooms to a more 17th-century appearance, using historic inventories as reference. Further restoration was completed by the National Trust when it regained administration of Ham in the 1990s, including work to the Great Stairs and the Green Closet. Work continues today to care for and bring to life Ham’s rare 17th-century interiors, collection and stories.

Further reading

• Christopher Rowell (Ed), Ham House: 400 years of Collecting and Patronage. University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the National Trust (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013).

• Evelyn Pritchard, Ham House and its Owners through Four Centuries 1610-2006 (Richmond Local History Society, 2007).

• Emile du Bruijn, Borrowed Landscapes: China and Japan in the Historic Houses and Gardens of Britain and Ireland (National Trust, 2023).

• Peter Thornton and Maurice Tomlin, ‘The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House’, The Journal of the Furniture History Society, Vol. XVI, January 1980.

• Doreen Cripps, Elizabeth of the Sealed Knot: Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart (Kineton, Roundwood Press, 1975).

• https://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol3/pp18-19