Holland Park Living
Creation of the Holland Estate
In 1599 Sir Walter Cope, an influential courtier, bought Abbots Kensington manor from Queen Elizabeth I. He was collecting North Kensington manors. In 1591 he had bought West Town and in 1599 he also bought Notting Barnes, which later became Notting Hill. Cope built himself a grand home, known as “Cope’s Castle”
Cope’s daughter, Isabel, married Sir Henry Rich, the First Earl of Holland. The estate passed into the Rich family and “Cope’s Castle” became “Holland House”. When the Third Earl died, his wife married Joseph Addison the famous writer and founder of the Spectator who died in Holland House in 1719.
When Edward Henry Rich, the Fourth Earl of Holland died in 1721, his aunt Elizabeth Edwardes (née Rich) inherited the estate. She had married Francis Edwardes from Pembrokeshire. From her it passed to their eldest son Edward Edwardes. Edward died and left it to his brother William in entail. (this meant that the future succession of the estate through several generations was prescribed in Edward's will and William did not own it outright).
William Edwardes granted a 99 year lease of Holland House and its surrounding grounds in 1746 to Henry Fox, a politician. In 1767 Fox persuaded Edwardes to sell the freehold of the property to him. Fox was so keen on his house, that when he was elevated to the peerage he 'borrowed' the name Baron Holland. He had no connection with the earlier Earls of Holland. In fact that wasn't all he borrowed. He financed the purchase with profits he'd made by speculating with the public funds he was holding as Paymaster General. Over the years Baron Holland took leases of much of the rest of the Edwardes’ land in North Kensington.
The First Baron Holland and his son the Second Baron died in quick succession, and his brother, the Third Baron inherited the estate at the age of one in 1774 He had an affair with his future wife while she was still married to someone else, and she was divorced for adultery as a result. That meant when they married she was not allowed to attend the royal circle. She was a lively lady and made Holland House a magnet for society - or at least those members who were out of sympathy with the court. They were certainly not establishment figures; they were so taken with Napoleon that they sent him plum jam and a refrigerator to make his life more pleasant in Elba.
