History

The History of
Welford Park

On the site of the present house and church stood a monastery in the care of the monks of Abingdon until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 on the order of King Henry VIII. The King kept Welford as his own deer hunting lodge until he granted it to one of his courtiers, Sir Thomas Parry in 1546. Sir Thomas later became Treasurer of the household of Queen Elizabeth I. His son, also called Sir Thomas Parry, was the next owner of Welford. He was a Member of Parliament, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Master of the Court of Wards and the ambassador to France. His heir sold Welford in 1618 to Sir Francis Jones Kt, Lord Mayor of London in 1620-1 and this is the one and only time that the Manor of Welford has changed hands for money.

Thomas could hardly have finished his work before his wife Eleanor and her mother Mary both died in 1702. Four years later John Archer also died and the house passed to the husband of his niece, Eleanor Wrottesley, who had married William Eyre from an old established family of Derbyshire. The condition of this inheritance was that William Eyre had to change his name to Archer. William was proud to belong to the Eyre family and stipulated that at the earliest opportunity in a future generation a second son would resume his family name of Eyre. In the event this was not to happen for several generations, and then a lack of sons in further generations meant that the family name was resumed only for one generation.

The Houblons were a Huguenot family who fled to London in 1560 from Lille, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, in order to escape the religious persecution then being imposed by the Spanish Governor. They quickly established themselves in London as merchants, traders and financiers. Several members of the family were friends of the diarist Samuel Pepys and one, Sir John Houblon became the first Governor of the Bank of England when it was founded in 1694. He is depicted on the back of the old English £50 note. In 1731 the Houblons left the city of London when they purchased the large house of Hallingbury Place.

In the following generation there was again only one male heir and this was Charles’ son George. He inherited Welford first but in 1891 on the death of his childless uncle he inherited Hallingbury too. On this date he moved from Welford to Hallingbury and took the name Archer Houblon. Again Welford was let to tenants, and during the First World War the house became a convalescent home under the care of Lady Wantage who was George’s aunt by marriage.