Richmond House, Twickenham

Former mansion in Twickenham, England

Richmond House was a large mansion in Twickenham, Surrey, England.

History

The house was built in about 1640 for Edward Birkhead, who was Serjeant at Arms of the British House of Commons.^[1] The house was acquired by Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford in 1682: he built up an important art collection which is now at Weston Park in Staffordshire.^[1] It then passed to one of his sons, Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington, in 1708 and to Anthony Browne, 6th Viscount Montagu in 1736.^[2] From 1744 to 1766 it was owned and occupied by Anthony Keck.^[3]

The house was then bought by Mary, Dowager Countess of Shelburne (mother of the William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, who served as Prime Minister) in 1766.^[1] It then passed to Martha Bruce, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine (mother of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who installed the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum) in 1810.^[1] It then was acquired by Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Baronet in 1813 and by Mrs Anne Seymour Damer (a sculptor and close friend of Horace Walpole), in 1816.^[2]

The house was finally purchased by Field Marshal Sir Edward Blakeney in 1850 and, after passing down his family, was demolished in 1924.^[2]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Richmond House". Memories of Twickenham Riverside. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Richmond House". Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
^ "Anthony Keck Racehorse breeder 1708 – 1767". The Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 16 February 2018.