Plympton House, Plymouth, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The site of Plympton House was assembled over a period of years in the late 17th century by Sir George Treby (1643-1700), a lawyer who was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1689. Existing buildings on the site were cleared, and in the last years of the 17th century Sir George began to build a new house. Following his death in 1700, his son, also George (1684-1741), continued the work, and the House was completed in about 1720. In the mid 18th century Nicholas Pococke noted Plympton as 'a good house and gardens' (Pearce Chope 1967). It was inherited by George II's eldest son, and then passed to his younger brother, Colonel George Hele Treby, who died a bachelor and intestate. Plympton subsequently passed to Mrs Ourry, a daughter of the second George Treby, and was later inherited by her son Paul, who assumed the name of Treby in 1785. On his death in 1830 the House was sold to Mr Copleston Lopes Radcliffe, whose son in turn sold it, in 1835, to Dr Charles Aldridge, for use as a private lunatic asylum. In 1850 William White described Plympton as 'a handsome mansion with tasteful grounds'. The property was acquired by the Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century, and remains in institutional use today (1999).