The history of Nunnington Hall

Sir Richard Graham

The most prominent member of the family was probably Sir Richard Graham (1648–95) who later became the 1^st Viscount Preston. He served as ambassador to the French Court at Versailles, and returned to Britain with a set of three verdure (foliage) tapestries as well as four tapestries after cartoons by Peter Paul Rubens (only three of which now survive). These are on display in the Drawing Room and on the Main Stairs at Nunnington.

As a supporter and confidant of James II, Preston found himself in difficulty in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution when William and Mary became joint Protestant monarchs.  He was captured on the River Thames whilst attempting to take documents and plans to France where James II was exiled. He was imprisoned at Newgate in 1691 and sentenced to death for high treason. He eventually informed on his accomplices to avoid the death sentence. When his sentence was quashed, he returned to a quiet retirement at Nunnington, stripped of his lands and titles.

The Rutsons and wealth from slavery

The Grahams sold Nunnington in 1839. The new owner was William Rutson (1791–1867) who had recently also bought Newby Wiske near Northallerton. Rutson and his family lived mostly at Newby Wiske, using Nunnington instead as a retreat and a hunting base.

The Rutson family had been merchants in Liverpool and traded in goods from Africa, the Caribbean and America, many produced through the labour of enslaved people. William’s grandfather, another William (1738–93), was known to have traded in enslaved Africans, both on his own account and with his partner Daniel Backhouse. The business was wound up in 1815, and it is with this family fortune that William Rutson the younger purchased Nunnington.

 

Margaret Albert Rutson (Mrs Ronald D’Arcy Fife)

William Rutson had six children, many of whom lived for a time at the Hall. The youngest of these children, Albert, was the only one of them to have children of his own. Albert’s daughter, Margaret Albert Rutson (1890–1952), was born after her father died from a bout of pneumonia in 1890. She was largely brought up by her mother, Mary Emma (née Buxton) (1857–1942), who was a granddaughter of the well-known supporter of emancipation, Thomas Fowell Buxton.

Margaret never thought that she would inherit the estates of her father’s family, but the death in 1920 of her uncle Henry Rutson, heir to the Rutson estates, left her the only surviving member of the family. Both Nunnington and Newby Wiske were in a poor state of repair. Margaret and her husband, Ronald D’Arcy Fife (1868–1946), sold Newby Wiske and spent the money renovating Nunnington.

They worked with the Yorkshire Arts and Crafts architect, Walter Brierley, to carefully add to the original house. The house that we see today is little changed from the one they moved into in 1922. The Fife’s spent time making a garden that suited their family life. Margaret loved flowers and her Cutting and Iris Gardens ensured that there were always flowers in the garden and for use in the house.  When Margaret died in 1952, Nunnington Hall and its garden were left to the National Trust.

Nunnington and the National Trust

Susan Fife Clive, Margaret and Ronald’s daughter, and her family lived in Nunnington Hall as tenants until 1978. When they decided to leave, more rooms were opened to the public.

The gardens have been managed organically since 2002. In 2025, a project to remodel the historic 1920s Iris Garden was completed, responding to the needs of wildlife and effects of climate change.

 

Further reading

Nunnington's historic connections to slavery.

Profile and legacy of William Rutson.

Callow, John, Graham, Richard, first Viscount Preston (1648-1695), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004.

James, S. E., Parr, William, marquess of Northampton, (1513-1571), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 Sept. 2008.