Richmond Lodge
Richmond Lodge was a historic property located near the River Thames in Richmond, London, in what was then part of the Old Deer Park. It was in the lands of the historic Richmond Palace, but was sometimes referred to as being part of Richmond Park, although that is on the other side of the town of Richmond. It was located close to the King's Observatory. It should not be confused with Pembroke Lodge or the White Lodge, both in Richmond Park, or a variety of other similarly-named properties.
It was owned from 1704 by the Irish aristocrat the Duke of Ormonde who completely rebuilt the house. It was known at the time as Ormonde Lodge.[1] Ormonde was a leading Tory politician and soldier who was appointed Captain-General in 1711 to replace the Duke of Marlborough in command in the War of the Spanish Succession. Following the Hanoverian Succession in 1714 he was dismissed by the new regime. In 1715, facing impeachment by Parliament, Ormonde fled to Paris, where he joined the Jacobite pretender to the throne James. He was attainted and all his properties including the Lodge were seized by the government.
In 1718 the estate was purchased by George, Prince of Wales. Following a dispute with his father George I, part of the wider Whig Split, the Prince and his wife Caroline of Ansbach were forced to leave St James's Palace. During the winter months they established a separate court at Leicester House, Westminster, but their summers were spent at Richmond. John Swift, a Tory writer, visited the couple there in 1726 and 1727 but was saddened by memories of happier early times spent there with his friend Ormonde.[2]
George III later merged it into the Kew Gardens estate, and it was demolished in the 1770s.
References
Bibliography
- Black, Jeremey. George III: America's Last King. Yale University Press, 2008.
- Dennison, Matthew. The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach. HarperCollins, 2017.
- Desmond, Ray. Kew: The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Random House, 1998.
- Hammond, Eugene. Jonathan Swift: Our Dean. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.