Sambrooke Freeman

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(aka Sambrook Freeman, c.1721–1782) was a member of the prominent Freeman family of

Fawley Court Fawley Court is a country house, with large mixed-use grounds standing on the west bank of the River Thames at Fawley in the English county of Buckinghamshire. Its former deer park extended east into the Henley Park area of Henley-on-Thames, Ox ...

near

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and ...

, England.Sambrooke Freeman of Fawley Court. In Roger Kendal, Jane Bowen, and Laura Wortley, ''Genius & Gentility: Henley in the Age of Enlightenment'', River & Rowing Museum, 2002, page 14. . He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

, for

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

from 1754–61 and

Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and withi ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of ...

from 1768–74. Sambrooke Freeman was the son of John (Cooke) Freeman, a successful businessman. His first name derived from the Sambrooke family. Due to the Freeman family's rising fortune, Sambrooke Freeman was educated at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

, graduating in 1739, followed by an expensive

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

on two trips over nearly four years from 1744. He married Sarah Winsford daughter of Thomas Geers Winford of Glasshampton, Worcestershire in December 1757. Freeman lived at

, a large house close to the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

north of Henley-on-Thames and just in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

. He inherited the house on the death of his father in 1752.

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

was commissioned to work on the grounds of the estate surrounding the house between 1764 and 1766. Freeman also had the house remodelled by the architect

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

during the early 1770s is a Neoclassical style. Wyatt also designed the "temple" (a fishing lodge) on Temple Island on the river close to Fawley Court in 1771 for Freeman, with Etruscan-style murals inside. Edward Cooper sold

Phyllis Court Phyllis Court is a private members club in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, situated by the River Thames. The Club was founded in 1906 and is located in a Georgian-style building set within its own grounds, close to the town centre. It ...

to Sambrooke Freeman in 1768.Emily J. Climenson (editor),
Passages from the Diaries of Mrs. Philip Lybbe Powys
', Kessinger Publishing, 2008. . He also bought the manors of Henley and

Remenham Remenham is a village and civil parish on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames opposite Henley-on-Thames in southern England. It is particularly well known for the steep approach, known as Remenham Hill or White Hill (due to the chalky nature ...

in the same year. Freeman worked on a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoi ...

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were or ...

project for

Prior Park Prior Park is a Neo-Palladian house that was designed by John Wood, the Elder, and built in the 1730s and 1740s for Ralph Allen on a hill overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The house was bu ...

south of the city of Bath that was never realized. Sambrooke Freeman was twice an MP, for

and

. He joined the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

in 1756, two years after its formation, and encouraged the involvement of

Humphrey Gainsborough Humphrey Gainsborough (1718 – 23 August 1776) was an English non-conformist minister, engineer, and inventor. Read to the Newcomen Society at the Science Museum, London, 12 October 2005. Humphrey Gainsborough was pastor to the Independent ...

the inventor and Thomas Powys. Freeman tried to change the position (to the end of New Street, Henley) and style of the new stone Henley Bridge so it could form a pleasing view from his house, but was unsuccessful.Henley Communications II: Roads and Bridges — Early Roads
''

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

'', Oxfordshire. Online texts in progress, Henley.

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, November 2006. On his death in 1782, Fawley Court passed to his nephew,

Strickland Freeman Strickland may refer to: Name * Strickland (surname) Places Australia * Strickland, Tasmania, a locality Canada * Fauquier-Strickland, Ontario * Mount Strickland, Yukon Papua New Guinea * Strickland River, Western Province United Kingdom Pl ...

. After his death, his wife lived in Henley Park, a

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the " dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

in the deer park of the Fawley Court Estate. She died on 2 October 1806.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Sambrooke 1721 births 1782 deaths Alumni of University College, Oxford British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1768–1774 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Politicians from Buckinghamshire People from Henley-on-Thames