History of Shugborough Estate

George Anson

George Anson (1697–1762) has been hailed as the father of the British navy, both for his adventurous travels and naval reforms. He joined the navy at the age of 14 in 1712 and became a Captain at the age of 25. By 1724 he commanded a frigate stationed at Charleston, South Carolina. On behalf of the British, he patrolled against those who tried to disrupt imperial trade and protected colonists against Spanish raids. Evidence suggests he owned enslaved people to work in his household during his time in South Carolina.

In 1737 George took command of the Centurion, a 60-gun ship. In 1740, in what was effectively piracy, he sailed with a squadron of six ships to plunder the Pacific coast of South America and disrupt the Spanish colonial trade routes. Following this, between 1740–44, he became the second Englishman after Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the globe.

The first stage of the voyage around Cape Horn resulted in the loss of two ships. Over 600 men died from disease and starvation. At the same time, Anson captured several Spanish ships and their cargoes. On 20 June 1743 he captured the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga, a galleon heavily laden with Peruvian silver sailing between Acapulco and the Philippines. The total ‘prize’ was 1,313,843 pieces of eight and 35,682 ounces of virgin silver, valued at £400,000. This is equivalent to around £35 million today, of which George was entitled to a staggering £13,125,000.

Recent research suggests that during George’s circumnavigation, he captured up 200 enslaved men, mostly from Spanish trade ships. These men provided labour that may have been instrumental to the survival of the Centurion, whose original crew were blighted by the dreadful conditions on board.

When George died childless in 1762, Thomas inherited his brother’s fortune. He soon embarked on his second phase of landscape improvements, commissioning some of the earliest Greek Revival buildings in the country by architect James ‘Athenian’ Stuart.

Thomas Anson II

In 1789, Thomas Anson II (1767–1818) inherited Shugborough. This was the beginning of further significant changes to the estate, prompted by Thomas’s marriage in 1794 to Anne Coke (1779–1843) and also by his becoming Viscount Anson in 1806.

Following The Great Flood of the River Sow in 1795, Thomas redeveloped the park. Between 1799–1805 he employed landscaper John Webb to repair the flood damage and create a more ‘naturalistic’ parkland. In 1804, Webb dug a new channel for the River Sow, creating an island on which you can now see the Arboretum. He also established three new carriage drives, creating elegant approaches with extensive views.

Thomas also improved his agricultural estate, adopting similar methods to his father-in-law, Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham Hall, the pioneering agricultural improver. Anson employed Nathaniel Kent, one of the first, and highly influential, agricultural advisers. He adopted new techniques of production and animal husbandry, far exceeding all others in the county, in terms of both quality and scale.

He employed engineer and architect Samuel Wyatt to extend the house. Wyatt enlarged the side wings of the house and added a vast portico of eight Ionic columns to the main entrance. Wyatt had a fascination with new materials associated with emerging industrial technology. He faced the exterior walls with slate, rendered to look like stone, and installed new window bars made from copper alloy.

Wyatt’s work made the house more comfortable, separating the private apartments from the state rooms. The transformation of the entrance hall was particularly ingenious, creating an oval space from a square room. The Red Drawing Room, created in 1794, is Wyatt’s largest and grandest surviving interior.

The 19th century

In the early 19th century, Park Farm, designed by Wyatt around 1805, operated on a grand scale with over 2,000 acres in cultivation. It was also home to Southdown sheep and Longhorn cattle, which still graze the parkland today.

In the state-of-the-art walled garden, Head Gardener William McMurtrie (1785–1857) used innovative steam technology for growing ‘exotic’ pineapples. He also grew cacti, aloes, camellias, azaleas and other plants which originated from across the globe, and which were often obtained through colonial routes. Shugborough’s garden became a centre for budding horticulturalists to gain skills and knowledge.

In 1818, Thomas William Anson, 2nd Viscount Anson, 1st Earl of Lichfield (1795–1854) inherited Shugborough. In 1819 he married Louisa Catherine Phillips (1800–79). Her father was Nathaniel Phillips (1733–1813) who owned four plantations and 706 enslaved people in Jamaica. Phillips left his daughter money in his will. However, Thomas’s gambling and financial difficulties led to a sale of the house’s contents in 1842, including the majority of Thomas Anson’s Grand Tour collections.

It was the 3rd Earl, Thomas Francis Anson (1856–1918) who, devoted to Shugborough, paid off mortgages, rescued objects and collected items relating to Admiral Anson, including a fragment of the Centurion’s lion figurehead.

The 20th Century and the National Trust

In the 20th century, Shugborough was the home of Patrick, 5th Earl of Lichfield (1929–2005). Cousin to Elizabeth II and a leading professional photographer, he welcomed the jet-setting, rich and famous as guests, including Mick Jagger, Britt Ekland and Princess Margaret.

In 1960, on the death of Thomas William Anson, 4th Earl of Lichfield (1883–1960), Shugborough was offered to the National Trust in payment of death duties. Staffordshire County Council agreed to accept a lease of the property and established a County Museum in the stables. This arrangement ended in 2016 when the Council handed management of Shugborough back to the National Trust.

Since then, the National Trust has carried out major conservation work to several of the parkland monuments. It is also re-locating the car park and re-instating an historic entrance drive.

Further reading

• Michael Cousins, ‘Shugborough: “A Perfect Paradise”’, Garden History Vol. 43, No 1, (2015), 33-73

• Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech, Profile & Legacies Summary,1733 - 1813 Centre for the Studies of the Legacies of British Savery, UCL Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery

• Glyn Williams, ‘The Prize of all the Oceans: The dramatic true story of Commodore Anson’s voyage round the world and how he seized the Spanish treasure galleon’,  Viking, 1999