Petworth House, West Sussex, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The manor of Petworth came into the Percy family in 1150 through a gift from Henry I's queen to her brother, on his marriage to Lady Agnes de Percy. The earldom of Northumberland was granted to the family in 1377, the ninth Earl probably being the creator of the elaborate Elizabethan gardens laid out around the house and on the site of the present pleasure grounds in the late 16th century. In 1682, the grand-daughter of the tenth Earl married Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset who, in 1688, began rebuilding Petworth House and who engaged George London to create formal gardens on its north side. The seventh Duke succeeded in 1748 and was granted the earldoms of Northumberland and Egremont but leaving no sons on his death, the titles and estates were divided, Petworth and the earldom of Egremont passing to his sister Catherine's son, Charles Wyndham, for whom Lancelot Brown (1716-83) drew up designs and carried out extensive works in the park and gardens between 1751 and 1763. His son, the third Earl, was a patron of progressive agriculture and the arts and a friend of J M W Turner who painted Petworth and its landscape. On his death, while the earldom passed to a nephew (and became extinct), the House and estate passed to his eldest son George Wyndham, who was created Baron Leconfield in 1859 and whose son employed Anthony Salvin in 1869 to make alterations to the House and grounds. In 1947, the third Lord Leconfield conveyed Petworth to the National Trust. His nephew, John Wyndham, was created Lord Egremont in 1963 and his son, the present Lord Egremont, retains close family ties with the estate. A small area of the registered site (near the House) remains (1998) in private ownership.