Drayton House is a Grade I listed country house of many periods south-west of the village of Lowick, Northamptonshire, England.
Described as Northamptonshire's most impressive medieval mansion by Nikolaus Pevsner, "one of the best-kept secrets of the English country house world" by architectural historian Gervase Jackson-Stops, and (affectionately) "a most venerable heap of ugliness, with many curious bits" by Horace Walpole, the house is generally held to have been begun in 1328. There have been changes to the house in each century since, including works recorded by John Webb, Isaac Rowe, William Talman, Jean Tijou, Alt URL Tilleman Bobart, Henry Wise, Gerard Lanscroon, John Van Nost, William Rhodes, Alexander Roos, George Devey and John Alfred Gotch. It sits in a park of about 200 acres known as Drayton Park.
It has passed only by inheritance since it was last sold in 1361, although this was itself an arrangement within extended family Alt URL who had been there for nearly 300 years already. It is currently owned by the Stopford Sackville family and has been open by prior written appointment.
History
The de Veres, later de Draytons
Aubrey de Vere I participated in the Norman conquest of England and after Geoffrey de Montbray, Bishop of Coutances, forfeited it, he may have been awarded the manor of Drayton near Northampton, Alt URL or it may have been awarded to his son, Aubrey de Vere II. Aubrey II was made Great Chamberlain by Henry I in 1133 and died in a riot in London in 1141. Whilst Aubrey III, his eldest son, eventually rose to become Earl of Oxford in 1156, Drayton passed to his younger son, Robert.
Robert married twice, second to Maud de Furnell, mother of Henry, to whom Drayton passed on his death. In the early thirteenth century, after inheriting Drayton after his father's death in 1193–4, his son, Sir Walter de Vere, perhaps dropped the "de Vere" family name, and assumed the surname "Drayton", taken from the village, Alt URLMagnolia Plantation and Gardens By Derek Fell. Gibbs Smith. 2009 although this may also have been Walter's son, Henry. On Sir Walter's death in 1210–11, the house passed to Henry, later Sir Henry, and upon Sir Henry's death in 1253, to Sir Henry's thirty-year-old son, Baldwin, who died in 1278. Baldwin passed the estate to his son John, who is held by some sources to have built the present "crypt" and died in 1291.
Although still a minor 8 years after his father's death in 1299, Sir Simon de Drayton would go on to success, being member of parliament for Northamptonshire several times between 1320 and 1347, and likely began construction of the house present today in 1328, when he received a licence to crenellate. On his widow's death in 1359, it passed briefly to his son, John, before John quickly passed it to his son, Baldwin. However, it was soon purchased by Sir Henry Green in 1361 or 1362. This purchase was a somewhat obscure arrangement in which Sir Henry's second son, also Henry, would have the estate instead of John's son, who was Sir Henry's nephew through his wife, Katherine.
The Greens The first Sir Henry Green, of Boughton, was Chief Justice between 1361 and 1365. On his death in 1370, Drayton passed to his younger son, who was described in a later family genealogy as "the delight and hopes of his old father". The second Henry was a favourite of Richard II, consequently being executed in 1399 for his support for Richard by Henry Bolingbroke, later King of England.
Nonetheless, soon after his father's beheading, Ralph Green was returned to his father's estates, including Drayton. It eventually passed to Ralph's nephew, another Henry Green, who was High Sheriff through the Wars of the Roses, reportedly acting impartially and thus saving his landholdings—at that time "one of the most considerable Estates ... in the possession of any Gentlemen in the Kingdom of England". Alt URL Upon his death in 1467, he passed the house, via his only child Constance, to John Stafford, a son of the Duke of Buckingham.
The Staffords
John Stafford became Earl of Wiltshire in 1470, a reward for fighting for the Yorkist cause. For these allegiances, he was prevented from attending parliament later that year, as Henry VI, from the House of Lancaster, had returned to the throne. Despite his father's loyalties, John's son Edward is often called a Lancastrian, by consequence of his support for Henry VII, fighting for him at the Battle of Blackheath and entertaining him at the house in 1498. Returning ill from Blackheath, Edward was without heirs, and it would seem he was initially keen for his wife, Margaret, daughter of the Lord Lisle, to have Drayton for life. However, Margaret was not happy with this will, wanting the manor of Warminster. It would seem that Edward thenceforth wished the Earl of Shrewsbury, a cousin, to have Drayton, not wanting his other cousins, women and descendants of the original Sir Walter de Drayton, to inherit. Alt URL
However, Sir John Mordaunt (d. 1506), the serjeant-at-law present at Wiltshire's death, had obtained the wardship of the female cousins, and wished for the eldest, Elizabeth, to marry his son, John (d. 1562). Thus, John (d. 1506) seems to have ensured that Wiltshire's will was in his son's favour. Alt URL Nonetheless, from Edward's death in 1499, there was a 16-year-long period during which the heir to the house was disputed, before being resolved to in John Mordaunt's (d. 1562) favour.
The Mordaunts
The Mordaunts were originally from Turvey, Bedfordshire. Upon Elizabeth Mordaunt (née Vere) inheriting in 1515, John Mordaunt (d. 1506) had already died, and his son John (d. 1562) already had an heir, himself also called John. It has been suggested that Henry VIII was involved in ending the dispute favourably for John (d. 1562), given their amicable early relationship. Indeed, John (d.1562) rose to the Privy Council, was created Lord Mordaunt in 1532, and had managed to cheaply purchase the marriage of Ella Fitzlewis, who had a large fortune, from the King for his son. However, this good relationship was not to last, as he grew increasingly unhappy with the dissolution of the monasteries, and so withdrew from court life to the house. His enemies reportedly encouraged King Henry to force him into an agreement much akin to, and as unfavourable as, the deal into which Thomas Cranmer had been forced over Knole. Henry died before they could realise their goal, and John lived through the turbulent times of Mary I and Edward VI, dying in 1561, in the reign of Elizabeth I.
His son, John (d. 1571), therefore inherited the house and the title, becoming 2nd Baron Mordaunt. However, he only enjoyed the house for 9 years, before passing it to his son, Lewis (1538–1601). Lewis, whilst not a member of the court, lived in opulence and greatly altered and enlarged Drayton. Alt URL
The disparity between his lifestyle and financial situation required Lewis to sell both the FitzLewis estates of his mother and the Latimer estates of his great-grandmother. Alt URL Lewis was also one of the judges present at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay, although sympathetic to Catholicism.
Lewis married Elizabeth, granddaughter of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy and had a son, Henry (1568–1610), who inherited the house on his death in 1601. From 3 August 1605, Henry entertained James VI and I and Anne of Denmark at Drayton for three days with musicians and singers.Andrew Ashbee, Records of English Court Music, 1603–1625, vol. 4 (1991), p. 197: John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 523. According to the queen's secretary, William Fowler, the guests included the Earls of Worcester, Devonshire, Northampton, Sussex, and Salisbury, and the Duke of Lennox.HMC Lord De L'Isle & Dudley, vol. 3 (London, 1936), p. 188. However, later there were rumours that there had been a plot to kill King James at Drayton during this visit during a masque entertainment. Two Gunpowder Plot conspirators Ambrose Rookwood and Thomas Winter had been at Drayton on the day before King James arrived.Godfrey Anstruther, Vaux of Harrowden: A Recusant family (Newport, 1953), p. 289Michael Hodgetts & Paul Hodgetts, Secret Hiding Places: Priest Holes: An Incredible True Story of Faith and Ingenuity (Pear Branch Press, 2024), p. 172.
Henry Mordaunt (1568–1610) is known to have concealed priests at Drayton, with the house retaining one priest hole, and was heavily suspected of involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605. Robert Keyes sometimes quoted as the keeper of his Turvey house, and other times as the husband of the governess of Henry's children was a key conspirator and hid at Drayton after the plot's demise. For his involvement, Henry Mordaunt was fined £666 13s 4d and imprisoned in the Tower, with some sources even reporting that he died there in 1608. Either way, he died before his successor and son, John (1599–1643), was of maturity.
John was taken from Catholic relations and raised by George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1611. Well regarded, he was called "the Star of the University" whilst at Oxford, and thus he caught James I's eye, so meaning he was relieved from the remaining £10,000 fine placed on his father. However, soon the King met George Villiers, and all chance at being royal favourite was lost. He remained on good terms with Charles, then Prince of Wales, playing a key role in his investiture as Prince of Wales. Therefore, he secured a good marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Howard of Effingham, and was created Earl of Peterborough in 1628. Initially, along with his two sons, he was a Royalist in the Civil War. In a turn of events, however, his wife, a "great Republican", persuaded him to be a Roundhead Alt URL and he became a General of Ordnance in the Parliamentary army.
John's son and successor, Henry (1623–1697), was only 17 when he inherited. This situation was exploited by his mother, who ensured that much of John's estate was left to her as jointure, in a settlement drawn up on his deathbed. This left Henry with "but a very small Estate to live upon when he became Earle ," believing he had inherited only the Turvey estate. John executed a deed beforehand which meant that Henry inherited all his estate, but this deed was concealed from Henry by his mother. It was not until 1669, when the original deed was found, that Henry was able to discover this and so take his mother to court, regaining ownership of his estates.
Henry quickly returned to being a Royalist in the Civil War, and did not quickly give up this cause. Initially exhausting his wife's, a daughter of the Earl of Thomond, dowry in fines, he was later forced to compound for his estates in 1646. Regardless, he was involved in the Second English Civil War with the Earl of Holland, of whom a full-length portrait by Mytens still hangs in the Dining Room. However, after being compounded a second time in 1649, he retreated to Drayton, his mother—despite her sympathetic allegiances—retiring to Reigate after harassment in 1650 by Parliamentarians, allowing him to negotiate to take on the lease.
This was not the case for his brother, John (1627–1675), who continued in his convictions and was saved by a single vote from execution for his role in the 1658 conspiracy. Alt URL This resulted in John's (1627–1675) elevation to the peerage as Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon and Baron Mordaunt of Reigate in 1659. Despite Henry's (1623–1697) position as elder son, on his mother's death in 1671, he did not gain her Reigate estates as he had expected to, the estate passing instead to his brother (whose peerage was "of Reigate"). Alt URL In addition, John seems to have been involved in their mother's concealing of their father's deeds from Henry.