Henry Hoare

Henry Hoare II (1705–1785), known as Henry the Magnificent, was an English banker and garden owner-designer.

For other people named Henry Hoare, see Henry Hoare (disambiguation).

Henry Hoare portrayed by his friend the painter William Hoare about 1750–1760

Family

Henry's grandfather, Richard Hoare, was a goldsmith-banker and Lord Mayor of London. His father, Henry Hoare I, bought the ancestral estate of the Stourtons and built a Palladian villa designed by Colen Campbell.[1] When his father died, Henry Hoare II was 20 years old. He was educated at Westminster School.[2]

Career

Henry dominated the Hoare family through his wealth and personal charisma.[2] He was a partner for nearly 60 years in Hoare's Bank. His nickname, "Henry The Magnificent", derived in part from his influence as a great patron of the Arts, but more particularly because he laid out the gardens at Stourhead in Wiltshire, an estate bought by his father.[3] In the thirty years after his mother died in 1741, he worked on the gardens at Stourhead, planning and planting what became a "masterpiece" of European garden design. In the 'school' of Poussin, it was said to be "more beautiful than any landscape put on canvas".[1] The gardens were admired as a showplace[4] and Capability Brown, the renowned landscape gardener, was well known to Henry.[5] In 1734 he was elected Member of Parliament for Salisbury.[6]

He died in 1785 leaving Stourhead to the son of his daughter Ann (1734–1759), Richard Colt Hoare.[7] His younger daughter, Susanna, became Countess of Ailesbury.[8]

References
  1. Hyams, Edwards (1971). A History of Gardens and Gardening. New York, Washington: Praeger Publishers. p. 240.
  2. Hutchings, V. p 49
  3. Hutchings, V. p 51
  4. Hutchings, V. p 55
  5. Hutchings, V. p 70
  6. Hutchings, V. p 50
  7. Hutchings, V. p 85
  8. Barak LONGMATE (the Elder.) (1788). The Pocket Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland; Containing the Descent and Present State of Every Noble Family, Etc. With the Extinct, Forfeited, and Dormant Titles, Etc;. J. F.&C. Rivington. p. 2.

Further reading
  • Hoare, Henry Peregrine Rennie, Hoare's Bank: A Record 1672-1955, 1932, new edition 1955
  • Hutchings, Victoria, Messrs Hoare, Bankers: A History of the Hoare Banking Dynasty, 2005
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Anthony Duncombe
Thomas Lewis		 Member of Parliament for Salisbury
1734–1741
With: Peter Bathurst		 Succeeded by
Sir Jacob Bouverie
Sir Edward Seymour


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