St. James's Square

St. James's-Sq., St. James's, is to the north of Pall Mall, between Regent-street, and St. James's-street. In the centre is a circular basin of water, from the middle of which rises a statue in bronze of William III. It is surrounded by the town mansions of many of the most distinguished families in England. On the east side are those of the Duke of Norfolk, wherein George III. was born, of the Bishop of London, Earl Hardwick, and the Countess de Grey. On the north side those of the Marquess of Bristol, the Duke of Athol, and the Earls Rosslyn and Blessington. On the west the Duke of Bedford, the Marquess of Clanricarde, the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry, the Earl of Darlington, the Bishop of Winchester, and the Earl of Bessborough.

St. James's Square, St. James's,—the third on the R. twenty-nine doors from the Haymarket, along Pall-Mall, it is also nearly S. from St. James's church, from which there is a way to it, entrance by 200, Piccadilly.

James's (St.) Square, planned by the Earl of St. Albans about 1663, and at first called the Piazza, September 24, 1664, "Warrant for a grant to Baptist May and Abraham Cowley on nomination of the Earl of St Albans of several parcels of ground in Pall Mall described, on rental of £80, for building thereon a square of 13 or 14 great and good houses."² In 1676 the following persons were rated to the poor of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields for houses in St James's Square:—

South-East Corner.—Marquis of Blandford; Lady Newburgh; Countess of Warwick; Earl of Oxford.
North Side.—Earl of Clarendon; Sir Cyrill Wich; Laurence Hyde; Sir Ffoulk Lucy.
West Side.—Lord Purbeck; Lord Halifax; Sir Allen Apsley; Madam Churchill; Madam Davis.

The Marquis of Blandford (Blanquefort) was Lewis de Duras, afterwards Earl of Feversham; Lawrence Hyde, afterwards Earl of Rochester, was the second son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon; Sir Allen Apsley was falconer to Charles II., and the maternal grandfather of the first Earl Bathurst, who lived for many years in St. James's Square; it was in Sir Allen's house that the Duke of York, afterwards James II., slept the first night on his hurried and unexpected return from Brussels; Madam Churchill was Arabella Churchill, mistress of the Duke of York, and mother of the Duke of Berwick; and Madam Davis was Moll Davis, the dancer, and mistress of the King. In the following year (1677) the names are thus diversified, and in Lory [Lawrence] Hyde's case sadly disfigured:—

East Corner.—Marquis of Blandford; Countess of Warwick; Earl of Oxford.
North Side.—Sir John Benet; Mr. Shaw; Earl of Clarendon; Mr. Bearbone; John Aunger; French Ambassador; John Hervey, Esq.; Earl of St. Albans; Sir Cyrill Wich; Glory Hide; Sir Hitch Lucy; Lord Purbeck; Lord Halifax; Earl of Essex; Sir Allen Apsley; Madam Churchill; Madam Davis.

The French Ambassador was Antoine Courtin, the predecessor of Barillon. The house of John Hervey, Esq., No. 6, on the east side, has remained in the family ever since; here lived the famous John Lord Hervey, and subsequently Frederick, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Down, in 1783.

That mitred Proteus the Count-Bishop ... last year let his house in St. James's Square for the usurious rent of £700 a year, without acquainting the Countess, who is a very respectable woman.—Walpole to Mann, vol. viii p. 440.

It is now the house of his descendant, Frederick Hervey, Marquis of Bristol. The Earl of Dorset and Middlesex (the wit) had a house on the west side of St James's Square in 1678; and Sir Joseph Williamson (Secretary of State) a house in 1680 next door to Moll Davis—Arabella Churchill's old quarters. Moll Davis was living in the square in 1681. Evelyn was at the Earl of Essex's house "in the square of St James," April 18, 1680.

April 30, 1695.—The Parliament relations give an account of the complaint made by Colonel Beaumont against Sir William Forester. They had a further rencontre this noon, meeting accidentally and falling into a heat about the particular words used in the House, which one affirmed and the other denied; they went into St. James's Square to decide it, when Sir William was worsted, being disarmed.—Mr. Vernon to Lord Lexington: Lexington Papers, p. 84.

A duel at mid-day in St. James's Square is sufficiently startling, but eighty years later we read of a mounted highwayman plying his calling there.

February 16, 1773.—A most audacious fellow robbed Sir Francis Holburne and his sisters in their coach in St James's Square, coming from the Opera. He was on horseback, and held a pistol close to the breast of one of the Miss Holburnes for a considerable time. She had left her purse at home, which he would not believe. He has since robbed a coach in Park Lane.—Mrs, Harris to her Son {the Earl of Malmesbury).

Eminent Inhabitants.—Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans (d. 1683), in a house, now Norfolk House. Here George III. was born. In 1742 a new house was built in front of the old house (which still exists), from a design by Matthew Brettingham, and finished in 1756. The portico was added in 1842 by Robert Abraham.

November 14, 1756.—The Duke of Norfolk's fine house in St. James's Square is now finished, and opened to the grand monde of London: I am asked for next Tuesday.—Mrs. Delany, vol. iii. p. 409.

The great Duke of Ormond, and his grandson, the second duke, in a house on the north side—sold, in 1719, for the sum of £7500, among the estates forfeited by the duke on his attainder. The house was valued at £300 a year. "Ormond Yard" still remains, now a mews behind the house. The Duchess of Ormond died here in 1684.¹ Aubrey de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, who has given his name to the Oxford Blues. Catherine Sedley, mistress of James II., afterwards Countess of Dorchester.² Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney, the handsome Sidney of De Grammont's Memoirs, in Romney House, the corner of York Street, rebuilt since Romney's time. Here William III. frequently visited him. He died here in 1704, and was buried in the chancel of the church of St James, Westminster.

There was one of the Trees growing in St James's Square over against the Right Honourable the Earl of Romney's house, cut down, and carryed away on Saturday night last; whosoever shall give notice to his Lordship's Porter, of the Person or Persons that did the same, so as he or they may be apprehended, shall have two guineas reward.—The Postman, August 28 to 31, 1703.

William Bentinck, Earl of Portland, the friend of William III. He died, 1709, at Bulstrode, but his corpse was carried to his house in this square, and thence conveyed with great funeral pomp to Westminster Abbey. The second Earl of Radnor of the Robartes family (d. 1723).

Vanson's patron was the Earl of Radnor, who, at his house in St James's Square had near eighteen or twenty of his works, over doors and chimneys, etc.; there was one large piece, loaded with fruit, flowers, and dead game, by him, and his own portrait in it, painted by Laguerre, with a hawk on his fist. The staircase of that house was painted by Laguerre, and the apartments were ornamented by the principal artists then living, as Edema, Wyck, Roestraten, Danckers, old Griffier, young Vandevelde, and Sybricht. The collection was sold in 1724.—Walpole's Anecdotes of Paintings by Wornum, vol. ii. p. 88.

The Earl of Pembroke, in 1714.³

To Pembroke statues, dirty gods, and coins.—Pope.

The Duke of Cleveland, son of Charles II., by the Duchess of Cleveland, died here in 1730, in the house (No. 17) occupied by the present Duke of Cleveland. Lord Chesterfield. He wrote to the Countess of Suffolk, August 17, 1733, "By which time [Michaelmas] all my country excursions will, I hope, be over, and I quietly in my easy chair, by a good fire in St. James's Square." But before Michaelmas he was married, and about that time removed into Grosvenor Square.

The Earl of Scarborough (d. 1740) has purchased the Countess Dowager of Pembroke's house in St. James's Square, with a design to pull it down, and build a new structure on the ground.—London Daily Post, April 20, 1738.

Sir Robert Walpole. [See Downing Street] Duke of Northumberland, in 1708.⁴ Earl Bathurst, the friend of Pope. Admiral Boscawen (d. 1761), in No. 2. The iron street-posts in front of No. 2, now Viscount Falmouth's, were cannon taken by Admiral Boscawen in the action under Anson, off Cape Finisterre. Sir George Lee, the "Doctor Lee" of Dodington and Walpole, the intended Prime Minister of Frederick Prince of Wales, "died suddenly in his chair, at his house in St.James's Square," December 18, 1758. William Pitt [the great Lord Chatham] was living here in 1759, when his position, as Macaulay says, was "the most enviable ever occupied by any public man in English history." In 1761, after he had accepted the peerage and pension for his wife, Rigby wrote:—

Your Grace will perceive in to-day's Public Advertiser that his coach-horses are to be sold: his house in St James's Square is also to be let: he will have no house in town, and live altogether at Hayes.—Rigby to Duke of Bedford, October 12, 1761.

Alexander Davidson, Lord Nelson's friend and agent, had his residence on the south side of St. James's Square, with his office at the other end of the house in Pall Mall. It was one of Nelson's most frequent places of resort. Lord Chancellor Thurlow in No. 15 in 1800. Sir Philip Francis in No. 14 (now 16), where he died, December 22, 1818; Lady Francis lent the house to Queen Caroline, who lived here during the first proceedings on her trial. The house was close to Lord Castlereagh's, and occasioned him much annoyance. The two houses (Nos. 16 and 17) are now the East India United Service Club. John, Duke of Roxburghe, in No. 11. Here the Roxburghe Library was sold, the sale taking forty-two days. Other occupants of No. 11 have included William Windham, Lord Chief-Justice Ellenborough, and the Duke of Athole (the last King of Man). Lord Ellenborough died in it, December 13, 1818. By his will he directed the house to be sold. It had cost him £18,000. It is now the Windham Club House, and No. 13. Lord Castlereagh lived in the large house at the north corner of King Street. The windows were repeatedly smashed by election mobs. On March 3, 1820, a serious attack was made on the house. After breaking the windows the rioters battered the door with large pavement stones. Lord Castlereagh in consequence brought an action against Burdett and Place as two inhabitants of the Hundred of Ossulston, in which St. James's Square is situated, and recovered £62, the amount claimed. Lord Castlereagh's death took place at his country house at North Cray, August 12, 1822, but his corpse was brought to this house previous to its interment in Westminster Abbey.

Observe.—Norfolk House (No. 31). The Duke of Cleveland's (No. 19); here is the fine full-length portrait of the Duchess of Cleveland, by Lely, of which the head has been engraved so beautifully by Faithorne. No. 32, the town house of the Bishops of London. No. 21, Winchester House, so called as being the town house of the Bishops of Winchester, was purchased by the Government under the provisions of the St Albans Bishopric Act, the purchase-money being applied to the endowment of the new See. The house was valued in 1875 at £60,000, but sold to Government in August 1876 for £45,000. No. 15, Lichfield House, built by James (Athenian) Stuart, and so called from Anson, Earl of Lichfield: here the "Lichfield House Compact" was formed with 0'Connell by the Whigs, in 1835. It is now the Clerical, Medical, and General Assurance Office. The house on the north side, and east corner of York Street, was the residence, and afterwards the repository of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter (d. 1795). No. 33, the residence of the Earl of Derby. No. 14, the London Library. The houses have lately been renumbered. In the centre of the square is an equestrian statue of William III. The pedestal was erected in 1732, but the statue, by the younger Bacon, was not placed on it till 1808. In the riots of 1780 the keys of Newgate, carried away in triumph by the mob, were thrown into the basin in the centre of this square, where they were found many years afterwards. This was once, and in some respects is still the most fashionable square in London: witness the homely rhymes which Dr. Johnson loved to repeat:—

When the Duke of Leeds shall married be
To a fine young lady of high quality,
How happy will that gentlewoman be
In his Grace of Leeds's good company!
She shall have all that's fine and fair,
And the best of silk and satin shall wear;
And ride in a coach to take the air,
And have a house in St James's Square.

"This last stanza," said Johnson, "nearly comprises all the advantages that wealth can give." The Duke's house was No. 3, on the east side; it is now the Copyhold, Inclosure, and Tithe Commission Office.

He [Johnson] told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that one night in particular (circ. 1739) when Savage and he walked round St. James's Square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation; but in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and resolved they would stand by their country.—Boswell, p. 49.

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² Cal. State Pap., 1664–1665, p. 15.

¹ Fasti, p. 208. Macky calls it "a noble Palace, now purchased and finely adorned by the Duke of Chandos."—Journey through England, vol. i. p. 183.
² Ellis's Correspondence, vol i. pp. 35, 38, 92.
³ Thoresby's Diary, vol. ii. p. 212.
⁴ Hatton, p. 628.