Beaufort House

For the Thames-side house in Chelsea owned by the 1st Duke of Beaufort in the seventeenth century, see Beaufort House (Chelsea).

Beaufort House is an 18th-century grade II listed house in Ham, near Richmond, Surrey.

Beaufort House, Ham Street, Ham, 2020

History

Beaufort House was built in about 1780.^[1] It was originally the dower house to Ham House.^[2]

In about 1855, a private Catholic girls school moved to Beaufort House.^[3] In 1856, St Mary's Catholic Chapel was set up in its grounds, with a separate entrance for the public, and closed in 1870, when the school moved to Notting Hill.^[1][3]

The house was listed grade II in 1983.^[4]

Notable residents

Lady Juliana Fermor Penn lived there until her death in 1801.^{[citation needed]}

Admiral Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Harburn died in 1802 at Beaufort House, which was his country estate when he was not living at 12 Crooms Hill, Greenwich.^[5]

In 1901, Dr William Simpson Craig (1822-1893), the father of the psychiatrist Sir Maurice Craig and politician Norman Craig was living there, as was Norah Palmer Holroyd, an ancestor of Michael Holroyd.^[6] From 1907 to 1920, Craig's son-in-law, Dr Macnamara (and his wife) lived there.^[6]

The house is now home to Johnny Van Haeften, a British art dealer specialising in 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings. Van Haeften now runs his business from a refurbished coach house in the grounds of Beaufort House.^[7]