Richmond House, Twickenham

The house was built in about 1640 for Edward Birkhead, who was Serjeant at Arms of the British House of Commons.[1] The house was acquired by Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford in 1682: he built up an important art collection which is now at Weston Park in Staffordshire.[1] It then passed to one of his sons, Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington, in 1708 and to Anthony Browne, 6th Viscount Montagu in 1736.[2] From 1744 to 1766 it was owned and occupied by Anthony Keck.[3]

The house was then bought by Mary, Dowager Countess of Shelburne (mother of the William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, who served as Prime Minister) in 1766.[1] It then passed to Martha Bruce, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine (mother of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who installed the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum) in 1810.[1] It then was acquired by Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Baronet in 1813 and by Mrs Anne Seymour Damer (a sculptor and close friend of Horace Walpole), in 1816.[2]

The house was finally purchased by Field Marshal Sir Edward Blakeney in 1850 and, after passing down his family, was demolished in 1924.[2]