Sandon Hall is a 19th-century country mansion, the seat of the Earl of Harrowby, at Sandon, Staffordshire, northeast of

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

set in of parkland.

Early manorial history

Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

, Sandon was the property of

Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia Ælfgar (died ) was the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, by his famous wife Godgifu ( Lady Godiva). He succeeded to his father's title, Earl of Mercia, and responsibilities on the latter's death in 1057. He gained the additional title of Earl of E ...

, but at the Conquest it fell into the king's hands, who bestowed it upon Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. From him it passed to William de Malbanc, of Nantwich, one of his barons. Adena, the great-grand-daughter of William, gave it to Warren de Vernon, whose daughter Alditha conveyed it to Sir William Stafford, knight.

Erdeswicke

Margaret, daughter of one of the descendants of Sir William Stafford, carried the manor of Sandon by marriage to Thomas Erdeswicke in the 12th year of the reign of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

(1339). Thomas and Margaret had a son Thomas, whose four sons were Hugh, Robert, Sampson, and Henry. Hugh, Robert and Sampson all died without issue, but Henry had a son Hugh, who had issue another Hugh, and his sons were two brothers, Hugh and Sampson. Of these, Hugh Erdeswicke the elder brother died without issue: Sampson had issue Hugh, who was the father of Sampson Erdeswicke (the Staffordshire antiquary), who died in 1603. The tombs of the Erdeswickes are in Sandon parish church. In 1593 the antiquary Sampson Erdiswicke married Mary Neale, widow of Everard Digby, Esquire (died 1592) of Tilton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, mother of that recusant Everard Digby who was executed in 1606 for his part in the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against James VI and I, King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English ...

. Sampson and Mary Erdeswicke had three children: their heir was Richard Erdeswicke, M.P., who, to settle debts in the autumn of 1624, sold Sandon manor to his half-brother George Digby, Esq., of Sandon, although the purchase was not completed until 1631. Richard Erdeswicke died in Fleet debtors prison and was buried in St. Brides, Fleet Street in July 1640. His son, named Sampson, died intestate in 1654.

Hamilton

Jane, the surviving daughter and heiress of George Digby, Esq. of Sandon Hall, in 1660 married Charles Gerard, 4th Baron Gerard of Bromley (died 1667), and from them the manor house passed to their son Digby Gerard, 5th Baron Gerard (died 1684) (who married his kinswoman Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield), and so to their daughter Elizabeth Gerard, duchess of James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton. A lawsuit concerning the estate was the pretext for a fatal duel between the 4th Duke and Lord Mohun in 1712, which led to the deaths of both men. The manor thereby descended to Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke (1740–1819), grandson of the 4th Duke, for whom in 1769 the old moated manor-house was replaced by a new house built by Joseph Pickford of Derby.

Ryder

The estate was purchased in 1776 by Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby (1735-1803). The Hamiltons having torn down the interesting old home of the Erdiswickes, only to enjoy its replacement for less than a decade, the new owners found further causes for dissatisfaction, and retained the architect Samuel Wyatt to carry out large extensions and improvements. A flower-garden was created in 1781-1782 by the landscape gardener

William Emes William Emes (1729 or 1730–13 March 1803) was an English landscape gardener. Biography Details of his early life are not known but in 1756 he was appointed head gardener to Sir Nathaniel Curzon at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. He left this post ...

.K. Goodway, 'William Emes and the Flower Garden at Sandon, Staffordshire', ''Garden History'' Vol. 24 no. 1 (Summer 1996), pp. 24-29. Available free at JStor. But the innovations of Enlightenment could not escape the retribution of the offended spirit of Antiquity: the house was severely damaged by fire in 1848, and was then rebuilt in 1852 by Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby to a neo-Jacobean design by architect

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival, often referred ...

.Luciana Bellini, 'My, What Big Cupolas You Have!', '' Tatler'', March 2015, Vol 130, No. 3
pp. 163-166
(Internet Archive). In the park stands a Doric column erected in memory of

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

in 1806. The current owners are Conroy Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby and Caroline Ryder, 8th Countess of Harrowby. They have renovated a public wing and fifty acres of gardens for weddings.

References

External links