At Turnham Green the forerunner of HEATHFIELD HOUSE was held in 1695 by Susan, widow of Sir John Lort, bt. (d. 1673). The estate, copyhold of Sutton Court, passed in 1710 to her grandson John Campbell, 73 who in 1718 conveyed it to Henry Harrison, who in 1741 conveyed it to Mary, widow of his tenant Thomas Whetham. Mary, Whetham conveyed it in 1747 to James Petty, Viscount Dunkerron, who died there in 1750 and was succeeded by his infant cousin Francis FitzMaurice, earl of Kerry. 74 It was conveyed by Lord Kerry in 1762 to Matthew Hutton, by Matthew's brother James in 1765 to John Perceval, earl of Egmont (d. 1770), and by Egmont's trustee Sir Brownlow Cust, bt., in 1773 to Catherine, dowager duchess of Devonshire (d. 1777). The duchess's youngest son Lord John Cavendish sold it in 1789 to George Augustus Eliott, Lord Heathfield (d. 1790), 75 the defender of Gibraltar and a nephew of Col. William Eliott of Grove House. 76 The house was conveyed in 1792 by Francis Augustus, Lord Heathfield, to Alexander Mayersback, a London physician, and passed in 1796 to Mrs. Sarah Wildman and in 1825 to the Revd. Samuel Curteis and then to Robert How. How's trustees were admitted in 1833 and sold the unoccupied house in 1836 to John Rich and John Bertrand, who were licensed to demolish it. 77
Heathfield House stood at the south-west corner of Turnham Green, where its site was later occupied in turn by Christ Church Vicarage and the fire station. 78 Part of the garden wall, which stretched along Sutton Lane, survived in 1897. 79 The botanist William Aiton laid out the grounds for Lord Heathfield, 80 whose house was an Italianate building: the main block of five bays contained two storeys, basement, and attics, with round-headed windows on the first floor and a pedimented porch, and was flanked by singlestoreyed wings. 81 After its demolition the fine wrought iron entrance gates were bought by the Duke of Devonshire for Chiswick House. 82
| 73 | Guildhall MS. 14236/1, ff. 13, 109, 140; G.E.C.Baronetage, iii. 51. |
| 74 | Guildhall MSS. 14236/1, f. 149; 3, ff. 266-7, 326-7,402; Complete Peerage, xi. 670. Tradition has associated the ho. with the Jacobite Simon Fraser, Ld. Lovat, apparently on no stronger grounds than that Ld. Dunkerron acquired it at the time of Lovat's execution. |
| 75 | Guildhall MSS. 14236/4, ff. 47-9, 78, 111-14; 5, ff. 122-3, 156-7, 246-8; 6, ff. 80-2. |
| 76 | D.N.B.; Draper, Chiswick, 145. |
| 77 | Guildhall MSS. 14236/6, ff. 179, 249; 9, ff. 274-7; 10, ff. 240-3; 11, ff. 64-9. |
| 78 | Guildhall Libr., map case 305 (map of 1818); below. |
| 79 | Phillimore and Whitear, Chiswick, 269. |
| 80 | Lysons, Environs, ii. 198. |
| 81 | Plate facing p. 33. |
| 82 | Gilbert, Chiswick Old and New, 48; Pevsner, Lond. and Westm. 572. |
Source: Victoria County History - A History of the County of Middlesex
Volume VII Pages: 74-78
Published: 1982