was the peculiar name of a very old house which formerly stood opposite
White Hart-lane. It was partly built of brick and partly of stone, with
large iron gates before it. This house belonged to a favourite of Henry
VIII., named Hynningham, whose family are buried in the church. Henry
VIII. frequently came here. In one of the rooms was an inscription, “In
this chamber King Henry VIII. hath often lyen.” The remains of this
house were in 1631 part of the out-offices of Mr. Gerard Gore, in whose
mansion Sir John Coke, Secretary of State, resided during the summer
months. The same house was later on occupied by Sir Hugh Smithson, who
on the death of his wife’s father became second Earl of Northumberland.
In April, 1889, there was in the “Quarterly Review” an interesting
article on the “Annals of the House of Percy,” from which it appears that
the Duke and Duchess of Somerset had a large family, of whom six attained
maturity. The oldest of these was Algernon, Earl of Hertford. He
married the daughter of Henry Thynne, and in 1722, on the death of his
mother, he succeeded to her honours, and was summoned to the House of
Lords as Baron Percy. He had two children, Elizabeth, born in 1716, and
George Lord Beauchamp, born in 1725. When Lady Elizabeth Seymour was
twenty-three years old she paid a visit to her cousin, Lady Lowther, at
Swillington, and here she met Sir Hugh Smithson, a Baronet of good family
and possessing a large estate in Yorkshire. The young people were
mutually attracted. Lady Elizabeth received his attentions with
pleasure, and wrote to her mother regarding his proposal of marriage that
“had it met with my pappa’s approbation, and your’s, I should very
willingly have consented to it.” Satisfactory answers having been
received to questions as to Sir Hugh’s position, Lord and Lady Hertford
gladly consented, but the proud Duke of Somerset did not consider the
alliance was good enough for his grand-daughter. However, he at last
gave a grudging assent, mainly because the suitor was in the present
possession of an ample fortune, and had a good prospect of a future
inheritance from an uncle, old Mr. Smithson, of Tottenham High Cross; but
he made it plain to Lady Elizabeth that he considered it her duty to
stand out for more advantageous terms than had satisfied her father and
mother, for he said, “You are descended by many generations from the most
antient familys in England, and it is you that doth add antient blood to
Sir Hugh Smithson’s family; he adds no such antient blood to your
family.” But the old uncle absolutely declined to be tied up by any
legal process, saying “It was true, he was no Duke, nor boasted of any
such great alliance, but in point of honourable dealing he would yield to
no man.” The Duke being at last satisfied, the marriage was solemnized
on the 18th July, 1740. The happy pair did not lose much time before
they paid a visit of state to the kind uncle who had paved the way to
happiness for them, she in a silver stuff of four pounds a yard, and Sir
Hugh in a lead colour and silver stuff embroidered with silver. For four
years life ran smoothly for them, and then suddenly, in the autumn of
1744, young Lord Beauchamp died of small-pox at Bologna, and Lady
Elizabeth Smithson became sole heiress of the honours which her father
had inherited from his mother, the last of the Percys. The Duke of
Somerset was furious at the extinction of all hope of the direct
continuance of his honours. He had always hated his daughter-in-law,
Lady Hertford, and he now included his son in that hatred, to whom, as
Horace Walpole said, “he wrote the most shocking letter imaginable,”
telling him that it is a judgment upon him for all his undutifulness, and
that he must always look upon himself as the cause of his son’s death.
The old Duke petitioned the King to confer upon him the Earldom of
Northumberland, with remainder, after his son’s death, to his grandson
Sir Charles Wyndham, and so to exclude Lady Elizabeth, the rightful
heiress. In this project he was not successful, and in due time Lady
Elizabeth’s husband became Duke of Northumberland, assuming the surname
of Percy. Their married life was a very happy one; he was devoted to
her, and she returned the devotion, calling him “my dearest angel” and
“joy of my soul.” The house in which they lived in Tottenham was taken
down and a row of houses erected, called “Northumberland Row,” the middle
one being named “Percy House.” In some of these houses is some very
curious carved work. Part of the old house and part of the garden wall
still remains next the road.
Passing Northumberland Park there are still some old houses to be seen
before arriving at Union Court, which is on the boundary of Tottenham and
Edmonton.
Having spoken of the East side of the High-road, I will now start again
from Stamford Hill on the West side.
First came a large detached house standing in its own grounds with a moat
and a drawbridge. This drawbridge was last used in the early part of
last century, when a large number of gipsies were seen approaching the
house.
Mr. Josiah Wilson, J.P., lived next; it was also a large detached house,
which lay back a long distance from the High-road, with large grounds
attached. This was, I think, the first house taken down on Stamford
Hill, and from that time dates the immense change that has taken place
all over Tottenham. Then there were a good many other large residences,
among which was the “Clock House,” occupied by Miss Deborah Dermer, and
two pretty semi-detached houses at the corner of the lane, then called
Hanger-lane, now