Ham House: A rare survival of 17th-century luxury and taste

Ham House, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, was completed in 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan courtier and Knight Marshal to James I. The house was later leased and bought by William Murray, a close friend and supporter of Charles I. The English Civil War saw the house and much of the estate sequestrated, but Murray's wife Catherine regained them on payment of a fine.

During the Protectorate, his daughter Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart, successfully navigated the prevailing anti-royalist sentiment and retained control of the estate on her father's death in 1655. The house achieved its greatest period of prominence following Elizabeth's second marriage to John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, in 1672. The house was almost doubled in size and equipped with private apartments for the Duke and Duchess, as well as princely accommodation suites for visitors.

The Lauderdales accumulated notable collections of paintings, tapestries and furniture, and the house was decorated with a lavishness which transcended even what was fitting to their exalted rank. In 1640, William Murray was granted a lease on the nearby Manor of Canbury, but in 1641 he signed over the house to Katherine and his four daughters. Post the Restoration, Elizabeth retained the titles to the Manors of Ham and Petersham. Today, the house is a Grade I listed building and received museum accreditation from Arts Council England in 2015.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons