A full group of guests arrived at Greywell Hill House on the wonderful hot summer’s afternoon of Friday 19th July. The Vice President of Hampshire Archive Trust, the Earl of Malmesbury James and his wife Sally kindly hosted the event, providing the visitors with a two-hour talk and tour of his private home. James has wonderful large portraits of his ancestors through the ages, so was able to provide their stories and their impact on historical events as the group moved through the different rooms of his home. In addition to family portraits, we had an opportunity to view an important portrait of Handel, a copy of his written music, an historical children’s playroom covered with children’s story pictures on the walls, and some wonderful toys including a roaring lion. After the talk, Sally had prepared tea/coffee and cake for everyone, and the visitors gathered in the garden to catch up with each other and make new friends.
To give some context to the historic site of Greywell Hill House the property was bought by Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, in 1787. It has passed through the female line twice to the present owner. Lord Dorchester was a British Army officer, peer and colonial administrator who commanded troops in the American Revolutionary War, served twice as Governor of the Province of Quebec and as Governor General of British North America. Sir Guy made many recommendations and implemented the Quebec Act of 1774, providing the guidance on how the province was to be administered. It could be said that his actions prevented Canada being part of America.
The title of the Earl of Malmesbury was created in 1800 for the diplomat James Harris, 1st Baron Malmesbury who served as an Ambassador to Spain, Prussia, Russia and France, and also represented Christchurch, Dorset in the House of Commons. The earldom has the courtesy title ‘Viscount FitzHarris, of Hurn Court in the County of Southampton’, the family’s former seat at Hurn, near Christchurch, Dorset (previously located within the historic boundaries of Hampshire).
We all thoroughly enjoyed the lovely afternoon, thanking James and his wife Sally for their hospitality.
Author: Barbara Gibson
Bio: Barbara is HAT’s event organiser. Barbara has spent her working life in business, initially in developing aircraft flight deck systems and later, in IT project delivery in the telecom industry. Approaching retirement, she is eager to explore other avenues and interests. She has a keen interest in her family history leading her to work with archived material that revealed exciting family history discoveries previously unknown to her, driving her to want to learn more about the past and share this knowledge with others. To support this passion, she is studying short online history Oxford University courses. Her business life has given her valuable transferable skills especially in terms of organisation, planning, building/managing stakeholder/customer relationships, and the use of IT.