 A number of guests duly introduced by fellows beg leave to attend your meeting. Is it your pleasure that I welcome moon in your name. Thank you minutes. Good evening everyone York society and those of you online. This is the Society of Antiquaries of London ordinary meeting Thursday the 16th of November 2023 Wellington house and online. Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith Vice President was in the chair. The minutes of the ordinary meeting of Thursday the 9th of November 2023 were read and signed. The following communication was then laid before the society Grecian D'Orix returned to the central Mediterranean by Dr David and Boswell FSA. Thanks for return for this communication. Vice President announced that the next meeting would be the Thursday 23 November 2023 then during the meeting reception followed. Is it your pleasure that I sign these minutes as a true and complete record. Thank you. We now come to the main business of this evening's meeting, which is to hear a paper Boynton Hall simply told by our fellow Dr Adrian Green. Adrian has been working on the history of Boynton Hall with Richard Marriott and Tim Shadler Hall, both fellows of the society, Richard died in 2021 and Tim died in 2023. Tim was a reader in public archaeology at UCL. Richard Marriott was chair amongst all things of the Vale of Pickering Research Trust, which coordinated the mesolithic research excavations at Star Car. Adrian is currently associate professor of history at Durham University. He studied history at Oxford and archaeology at Durham, the PhD in history and archaeology on houses and households in County Durham and Newcastle upon time 1570 to 1730. Adrian has published widely on architectural history, in particular, a study of the architectural patronage of John Cousen, leading Churchman of 17th century England. He has been which was shortlisted for the Society of Architectural Historians, Alice David Hitchcock. Adrian's been involved with British record Saati half tax series and has co-edited additions to half tax return for County Durham, Norfolk and Norwich currently in press and Northumberland and Newcastle forthcoming. So he's an excellent person to be talking to us this evening on Boynton Hall simply told Adrian over to you. Great. Thank you, Martin. This lecture is the second lecture to the Society of Antiquaries. The first which was called the Social and Archaeological History of Yorkshire Country House is still on YouTube. And that lecture was given by Richard Marriott, Tim Shedler Hall and myself. And there are two publications coming out of this project. One is Social and Archaeological History of Yorkshire Country House. And the other is a more straightforward illustrated version called Boynton Hall simply told. Hence the complimentary lectures. Now, it's not moving on. I'm about to show a slide from Country Life from 1954 because Boynton Hall. Was sold in 1950, having been in the same family since 1549. And it's a remarkable feature of Boynton that it was passed from father to son across 11 generations. And it's one of the features of the house, and perhaps even the spirit of the place that it's had this very strong family continuity. In the 1950s, Boynton was actually saved by a local Bridlington architect who divided the house into flats. Nevertheless, the 1954 Country House article is somewhat downbeat really about Boynton's fortunes, and Boynton had been sold as part of the post war pessimism about the future of the English Country House. Now, Boynton since 1981 has been owned by Richard and Sally Marriott, and Richard is a direct nephew of the individual who sold the house in 1950. And Richard and Sally have restored the house into the main dwelling and restored the gardens, parkland, and so forth. So it's a tremendous achievement over the last 40 years. In terms of the development of the site, the house, which sits there in the centre of the slide, is directly south of Boynton Village. And there's a stream, the gypsy race, running through the woods and you can perhaps see to the right through the meadows. And the house has been there since the 15th century, it's anchored on a medieval hall, and the house and indeed the landscape have all developed out of that medieval anchor point. We've done various archaeological investigations. This slide shows areas of geophysics in the parkland on the lawns near the house in the centre and an area of paddock between the house and the village. The reason for showing this slide is to say that there's no evidence for a house on this site before the 15th century. There has been a tradition that the Little Boynton referred to in Doomsday Book as a second satellite settlement has always been assumed to be in this area. There's no archaeological evidence for that. That satellite settlement I think must have either been to the east or the west of the main village. And there are documentary references in the Middle Ages to a local lord of the manor by the name of Boynton having a local manor house. But there's no evidence for that. There's no medieval pottery, let alone firm evidence for a building before the 15th century. So we must conclude that that manor house was in the village, possibly at the northern end of the village. But that is speculation. Okay, this is the house. Nicholas Posner described it as an interesting house with a complex history. I sometimes think it's a complex house with an interesting history. The centre of the building is the core of the house, the medieval hall. The services are to the right with a cross-wing and the high end, the parlor end or the solar block is to the left with a cross-wing. It's heavily disguised by later alterations. This is the extant fabric from the 15th century house. So the core of the hall, evidence for a screens passage. I don't think quite three doorways, those three doorways are more likely to be from the mid 16th century. The solar block with squints one into the hall and a window surviving to the exterior. All of that we believe was created for the Newport family. And in fact it was a Boynton heiress, Elizabeth Boynton inherited the estate in 1419. And she married a Thomas Newport who died in 1442. And the Newports are recorded by Dugdale as their brasses being as memorials in Boynton Parish Church. Those memorials didn't survive the 18th century rebuilding of the church when it really becomes a family mausoleum at the Chancellor's end for the Strickland family. So this is the extant 16th century fabric. We've still got the central hall, cross passage and substantial service crosswing. Also an external stone stair with recessed handrail and three service doors implying central door out to a kitchen. And if you notice the sort of jagged space by the door into the screens passage at the top. That is actually a doorway into a minstrel's gallery off a stair and the parlor. So this is clearer in this side showing the various features labeled. This house was at a lower level at a meter lower than the present building. And so there is a concealed door from the 16th century phase which is now revealed behind panelling on the staircase. When there was building work being done restoration work in the 1980s, Peter Brears recorded the features that were visible when the plaster was taken off in the hall. And that's where those three doorways come from from Peter's recording. And Peter also found evidence for an ornamented bay window off the high end of the hall and that would have been a double height glazed window, lighting a full two storage great hall. All of which is work done probably shortly after William Strickland arrives in 1549. So bear in mind that house is a meter lower than this building. So the hall is there in the center would have been a cross passage with a door on the right. And then there's a second phase in the Elizabethan period where the brick diapering on the parlor end is actually an Elizabethan edition. So the parlor end must have had a smart black and red brick finish added in Elizabeth's rain. And we're confident about the dating because of thermoluminescence dating that Ian Bailiff at Durham did on the brick. So, if you notice the brickwork on the left hand side is much smarter than the brickwork on the right hand side. The house was rebuilt by the following generation in the 1610s and the diapering on the right has really been done to match a continuation of the Elizabethan brickwork. So it is all quite intricate and involved and indeed complicated. But the key point is that we have evidence for rebuilding 1550 added to 1570s and then raised and rebuilt as a H plan by the following generation after the first Williams death in 1598. And Walter the son inserts a ceiling across the great hall. He adds the stone turrets that we can still see one of which provided a bay window on the left. And the on the right providing a door originally at the screens passage side. And the floor over so there would have been a great chamber over the hall, and then there are closets in the base above the bay window and the porch entrance. And that means there are closets off the best bedrooms on the south front. The left hand side would have been the best guest chamber. The right hand side would have been Walter and Francis is Strickland's own bed chamber I believe, not least because that was closest to the kitchen's servants could come and go more easily. And then there are the other rooms to enter into the great chamber from their side guests having come up through the hall in the staircase. And also interestingly there's a window overlooking the stable courtyard from that bed chamber which I think is there because of Walter and Francis using that room. This is that house in plan of 1610 raised considerably from the earlier house probably because of flooding from the gypsy race. There was an extensive kitchen wing that ran out parallel to the stables, which are themselves late 16th century courtyard. And what in one of the documents in the 17th century is called the hither garden the near garden, which would have been the sort of pleasure garden with lots of fruit trees. On the north side of the house in the Jacobean house, there was certainly a room parallel to the hall. We've been able to establish the position of the wall using radar from York University. And that north facing room was probably a study for Walter Strickland, who was noted as an antiquarian. This is the house in 1720 as sketched by Samuel Buck, and it shows that H plan house with its gables. And by 1720, the walled courtyard in front of the house has gate pairs and giant pilasters have been added on the central front, and there's now a central entrance into the hall rather than the cross passage side entrance. And that stable range which in origin is Elizabethan, and you can just see the kitchen that extends behind. All of that, as we see it there was really created by the generation who were present from 1686 to 1724. This is the same sketch redrawn by Francis Johnson, which shows the features a bit more clearly. There's also an estate plan from 1725. Just when that generation died 1724 and pass it on to the next William Strickland. Now, the church, which this plan is upside down for our purposes, the church is there at the top. The hatched block in the center is actually the house. And it shows the kitchen wing to the right. It shows the stable wing in front of it. And then on the bank, where there's now an 18th century dove cop and Lady Strickland's dairy from the 18th century. There's actually a barn building at that point. And I think that's the building referred to in a letter of 1749 as the oldest building on the place, which was certainly collapsing and seems to have been partially timber framed. If you switch your attention to the bottom left, there's the great barn facing what was the gatehouse or Jackabee and Banqueting House. And then if you move up from there, there's actually the driveway or carriageway with a Ford across the stream, going up to the road that came from Bridlington across in front of St Andrews Church. Now this plan is fascinating because it shows the formal gardens that have been laid out by the generation who are in place between 1686 and 1724. It shows a formal canal has been created out of the natural gypsy race stream. That's reversed in the 18th century to create a more natural looking curving stream. There's an orchard that's been planted to the north of the canal, and there's a lawn walk between the house and the church. There's fantastic evidence actually for the formal gardens around the house that was swept away in the 18th century. This is the building for the following generation guy who inherits in 1725. He remodels the house to a design provided by Lord Burlington, and he creates a Palladian villa really out of what had been a Jacobian house. And he also turns the stable block into a kitchen wing, though that is again refitted in 1770. So the service wing as labeled there is definitely as it was in 1770, but he must have turned the stables into a service wing at that point because there's a pediment to that date. And indeed, the service wing that had existed off the right of the main house has been demolished at that point. This is Chiswick Villa in London, which most people don't pay attention to this. Ignore the interesting building in the middle. It's the Jacobian house on the right. And indeed, it's stable wing with a central pediment further to the right. And Burlington, who had completed Chiswick Villa by 1729, alters the Jacobian house at Chiswick. He takes off one of the gables on the left. And he adds a series of features in the center of Portico, Venetian window, Diocletian window. And that's sitting close up on the right. And the drawing on the left is in Burlington's own hand, and that drawing survives in the Strickland estate papers, and is the design for the south Portico at Boynton. And to say that drawing is now among the Strickland estate papers that are deposited in the record office at Beverly. So the Stricklands were involved, clearly with Lord Burlington, but also with William Kent. The Stricklands were among the patrons of William Kent, who was born and grew up in Bridlington. So William Strickland's fourth baronet inherits in 1724. He dies quite young in 1735. It was his father who was one of the patrons of William Kent. Lord Burlington provides the design for the exterior around 1725. Work is actually done in Hildenly limestone, which comes from the Strickland's own estate, some of the finest limestone in England near Molton. There are such windows, there are records to show that the such windows were actually manufactured in London and were made at the same time for Boynton, but also for a new house on Groveson Square. And it's the same commission, the same invoice, and they were obviously shipped to Bridlington for installation in early 1727. So William Kent provides chimney pieces. There are two chimney pieces in both each of the parlours. And those are illustrated in Isaac Ware. And then later, the top story, and you can probably see the change in the brickwork above the string course for the top story. This is actually John Carr of York 1770, and it's correcting a mistake and Boynton is only ever referred to in architectural history for this mistake. And it's a quote that's always taken from Thomas Robinson, who was a Yorkshire gentleman architect involved with Castle Howard and so forth. In 1868, Thomas Robinson wrote that when the house was completed in the 1720s, so William went down, pleasing himself that he improved the bad taste of his county and should be the object of the envy of his neighbors. When alas, he found the old fashioned roof and many other material alterations from the plan. But that's not that roof. That's undoubtedly Carr's roof. For that generation dies young in 1735. He's still in government office. Interestingly, when he dies, his body is brought up to Boynton so that he can die and be buried in the church at Boynton. And it's clear that there was also landscape gardening going on. And these are sketches from William Kent of his garden designs, not by any means for Boynton, but we do have archaeological evidence for a plinth, which would obviously need an earn to go on top of it, but also massive amounts of ground that trench which is there in the lawn shows how as what the 18th century phase involves this massive amount of ground make up from the earlier Jacobean and Tudor gardens. And then Jacobean bangles in the corner beyond that on the hillside there's evidence for subtle landscaping. The next generation is this man Sir George Strickland, who is the son of the politician. And this painting which has often been said to be a grand tour painting. It's not it's really painting when he was a young man painted in London, it's actually in Jacobean costume. And then there's the wedding portrait as it were from the early marriage to Elizabeth the Tisha win by Arthur Davis 1751. So George comes of age in 1750. And it's possible that the sheet of water in the background is related potentially to his father's garden works. There's certainly evidence, Tim shadow hall was always convinced for drawing in additional water from the spring line along the edge of the world. George is fascinating character. He was friends with Thomas Gray in London in Cambridge at university. He was a member of the Society of Dilatante in London, and there are various ways in which he's linked to Horace wall pole. Leticia win and Sir George Strickland. Leticia is Lady Strickland. They remake the north side of the house. So they remake what had been the library extending it out into this bay, which is the ground floor. There's then their bedroom above that with his and hers dressing rooms to either side, and then a nursery on the top floor, and they needed a nursery. It was said that Sir George spent all his time planting trees and children in Yorkshire. And car of York remakes the front of the kitchen wing on the left. This is the main south and west front. The portico has actually moved in the 19th century I'll explain that later on for the 18th century house we should imagine the west front without the porch and the porch should be in the middle of the south front. The porch should Marriott had it restored. Some years ago as a replica, the additional porch as it were the moves porch remains. So car created those new fronts on the north side, and he then very cleverly created a sort of impression of a pleidian wing on the right hand side. The service wing, which originated in the Elizabethan stables has this very small join curved join to the main house, and then a little addition on the right, where the bay window is to give the impression of a sweeping wing, which makes the house look much more satisfyingly. The bay window incidentally was added in the late 1940s. So this is the 1770 reincarnation of point and as designed by John car car himself had been closely involved with Burlington and Kent so he's respectful of their work. It's very much the creation of this pleidian side wing, and you can see in plan how slight that addition is particularly that little housekeepers sitting room added on to the very end to make it look as though that's great wing. So Georgia Lady Strickland on the north sides create the library with the projecting bay window bed chamber and nursery, and then they install a servant corridor and service stair and the privy at the top of that service stair still survives. I always point out to students that the family used the service stair. It's a bit of a myth that those stairs are always for servants. The family would readily have gone up and down that service stair, not least to use the privy. The other new room is the sculpture gallery that's created in the space of the original hall. And that was the setting for furniture, some of it specially commissioned using marbles brought from Rome, and a whole set of marble sculpture that was brought and bought from Rome. And that's all very well detailed in surviving letters between the agents in Rome and Sir George Strickland when he comes back to Yorkshire. It's interesting that the Grand Tour was undertaken in the 1770s by Sir George and Lady Strickland with their daughters as teenagers. So it wasn't a sort of young Bucks Grand Tour, it was him characteristically traveling as a family man, and all three daughters were very accomplished artistically. Lady Strickland created a dairy at Boynton, which is the building at the top. And Sir George built the woolen manufacturing on the right. So there are sort of his and hers park buildings. There was a carriage drive that led up to Carnaby Temple on the hill. And it may perhaps be originally based on a design by William Kent. It was furnished internally by Elizabeth their elder daughter, and the design still survive at Boynton Hall in her hand for the wall treatments. And it was to be a neoclassical interior with wall paintings as it were, and furniture designed for the room. And then there's a temple, which today sadly is an occupied, has views out over Bridlington Bay over the sea. And to reach Carnaby Temple, there's a carriage drive that passes under the world gate under the public road, and there's a folly with a sort of mock Gothic ruin, including part of the church actually is the window there. And that's as drawn in an iPad drawing by David Hockney. Sir George and Laetitia and their daughters went on the grand tour to Italy. They returned via Holland. And something very interesting happened when they were in Holland, because they met a man called Jack Steadman. And this is the white figure in the image. Steadman had just returned from Suriname where he'd been involved in suppressing a revolt by enslaved African people brought to South America. And Strickland encouraged him to write this narrative of Suriname, and Steadman wanted to dedicate the publication to Strickland, though the printer persuaded him to dedicate it to the Prince of Wales. And interestingly, an African man who surely would have been one of the people formerly enslaved in Suriname who had ended up in Holland with Steadman. One of these African individuals is brought to Yorkshire by the Strickland family, Peter Horsfeld, and his marriage in York is recorded in a parish register. His bride was the daughter of the Vicar of Weaverstorp on the world, and they lived as a mixed race couple in York in the early 1800s. And I think that shows the sympathy of that particular generation, age of sensibility. And in fact, Sir George, when his son was first born in 1753, there's a record by his friend James Borwick that he was met by Sir George holding the young William in his arms. This is 1753, James Borwick wrote a letter following his visit to Boynton. I own I was surprised beyond expression when you brought master Strickland out in your own arms. I see you formed with a true taste for domestic happiness, without which grandeur is only a splendid covering for uneasiness, perhaps for sorrow. So Strickland is very much of the age of sensibility. He was very much against the army opposed his son, taking up a profession of murderers. And there's this interesting in relationship to an individual who previously been enslaved. Now I want to turn to the myths. The first William, who purchased Boynton in 1549, he gained a coat of arms in 1550. And he was riding high at that time as a Puritan or as we would think or evangelical Protestant in King Edward's radical Protestant reign. And he chose the turkey for his crest. It's a very religious motto by the will of God. I suspect he chose the turkey because it had no biblical or classical symbolism, whether it had any particular meanings, we don't know. Later generations have said that Strickland brought the turkey to England as a young boy or man, and that he'd sailed to the new world with cabot, which given that he died in 1798 is not credible. And in fact, it's the William Strickland, who we just saw as it were in the arms of his father, who goes to America in the 1790s, who was actually the originator of myth. And it's recorded by all people Thomas Jefferson, when Strickland pays a house call on Jefferson in May 1795, Jefferson actually writes a record of his conversation with Strickland. So, according to Jefferson, William Strickland disquire informs me that about three years ago he found in the Herald's office in London papers vouching the following facts that Sebastian Cobot, having grown old and become poor, petitioned the crown for some recompense in consideration of his voyages and discoveries in America and was allowed a pension. Now, if there's any truth to this, it's possible Strickland was involved in some way in Cobot's campaign for an English pension, which was quite an episode in its own right and Strickland was certainly involved in government circles and sort of clapped council of the north and that sort of thing in Edward's reign so it's not impossible, he has some connection to the Cobot claim for a pension. But that's no basis for saying that Strickland, an ancestor of his have been one of Cobot's captains in those voyages and petitioned also for reward. So, this is first year of Edward VI supposedly the context for Strickland claiming his crest as having brought the turkey to England. This turkey has taken root, almost in a national consciousness, Eddie Grundy in the archers has been known to pluck turkeys and refer to William Strickland and the little Christmas catalogue a few years ago had William Strickland in the association to frozen turkeys. Oh, sorry, just to finish this painting is one of the ways in which the myth got told. So this is said to be a posthumous portrait of William, the portrait dated by the costume will be 1610s. It may well simply be a portrait of Walter, assuming it is a Strickland. And I'm going to place it to Boynton because there's Bridlington Bay in the background with flamborough head, and the portrait was certainly in the house, at least from the 18th century. The little label on the bottom left is a 19th century label describing it's as William Strickland the navigator who had sailed to the new world with the Cobot. The portrait itself was a powerful means by which that story got told and became a myth. The Civil War generation is very interesting. So William, who didn't go to America was a Puritan, his son Walter was a Puritan, and his grandsons these two gentlemen were also Puritans. And they were actively involved in the Civil War on Parliament side. The gentleman on the left is the first Baronette, so William Strickland. If you notice he's got a wounded arm in a sling, he's in Puritan dress. And the figure on the right is his brother Walter, known as Wild Walter, supposedly riding over a church roof as a young man, but also referred to by Queen Henrietta Maria as that rascal Strickland, who was preventing her from raising money and arms in the Netherlands. So during the Civil War Walter Strickland is actually Parliament's ambassador to the Netherlands. And he's trying to stop the Queen from raising money, soldiers and arms for the King's cause. He turns as the ambassador for the English Republic, and it's involved in trying to negotiate a treaty between England and the Netherlands that the two republics would join together that they fell out over trade. So the second myth is the Queen's room myth. The silver spoons here are from the early 1660s from the restoration after the monarchy has been restored, and they sum up very nicely. You can see it says live to die, die to live, the way in which the Strickland's as Puritans really risked everything for their convictions, though they also navigated the restoration without losing their lands, and in fact gained lands during the course of the 1650s. Now there's an episode from March 1643 when Queen Henrietta Maria lands at Bridlington from Holland with arms, money, and to provide soldiers for the King's cause. This is very well written up by David Neve in his history of Bridlington, who records the way in which the Queen and her ladies were forced to shelter in a ditch, which is actually the outlet of the gypsy race into Bridlington Bay. And she's recorded as paying a visit to Burton Agnes Hall. In the 19th century a myth is created again told around a portrait this portrait, which was believed to be the Queen but is in fact now understood to be Jane Carey. And the myth is that the Queen had stayed at Boynton that she'd sought refuge at Boynton. It muddles up the actual record of the Queen's troops coming to Boynton, seizing silver plate, title deeds, all of which is said to be of the value of £3,000, which shows you quite how wealthy the Strickland's were at that point. So both those portraits have led to these two enduring myths, the Queen's room and the Turkey. The Queen's room would be much better called the General's room. Because this man, General Goddard de Ginkl, did sleep at Boynton, and he was involved in the Glorious Revolution coming over with William of Orange. He goes on to be involved with the Battle of the Boine in Ireland, a far from Glorious Revolution in that context, but he's recorded as being at Boynton in 1689. And he's recorded being there by a man called Christopher Persehe, who's a count book diary survives. And Persehe is a cousin of the Strickland's and is really their wingman in Yorkshire looking out for their political interests and indeed maintaining the house and planting fruit trees and all sorts. Persehe is in fact the grandson of Walter Strickland and would have been a nephew to the first Baronette. So the Strickland's are interesting because as a family they go from Puritan to Whig. And in both contexts, as politically active gentry, they are interested in reform, interested really in changing England in all sorts of ways. The Whig generation, however, lived a grand life. And this is Sir William and Elizabeth Parms when they were young. And this is them with Sir William rather more well fed in middle age. And they actually didn't spend terribly much time at Boynton and we can tell that because of Persehe's diary. They actually spent a great deal of time at this house in Moulton York House and at Conest Hall, which was a Strickland family house until it was sold to Castle Howard in the 1720s, and then demolished. The York House Moulton's interesting in origin, it too is a 15th century hall house with crosswings. It's remodeled between 1686 and 1724. The gate on the street is a carriage gate you'd step out of your carriage through that pedestrian gate into the house. And the motto, because Miss Parms was from the years of Moulton through her mother. And then on the garden side overlooking the river. They constructed this giant portico arch with closets off the bedrooms and the parlors downstairs. This is part of a whole phenomena of the gentry taking townhouses in the later 17th century. And they do so because they're MP, but they also do so because of the racing flat racing at Moulton. This thought would have given access to flat racing at Hamilton on the moors. And I think print print is pouring out of the presses in the later 17th century in new ways music, new sheets, poems plays being in town is a way of getting your hands on print, rather than spending time in the country. So they're not at Boynton very often. This is their son Sir William, the politician involved with Walpole he actually sends Hildenley limestone for Walpole's Hosenhall. He's the most politically prominent member of the family, the last to have a great political career. He ends up as treasurer to the Queen, as well as secretary at war. He has a house on Groveson Square, and indeed a house in the home counties at Thorpe, which is Thorpe Park, the amusement park. I have tried seeing if there are any 18th century features from the roller coasters, but alas, nothing seems to have survived. But Thorpe is interesting because it's positioned actually between London and Windsor, which would have meant that Strickland could easily have accessed the Queen as well as London. So his son was Sir George of the Grand Tour, and then the following generation is this man Sir William, known earlier in life as Billy, the sixth Baronette, and his wife Henrietta Chomley, and their son was Sir George Strickland Chomley. So to finish, this is Sir George Strickland Chomley, stood with Jane Levens in the grounds of Boynton in the Victorian era. He had a horse stud at Boynton. He was very wealthy because he inherited Chomley estates from his mother and consul estates through his first wife. His first wife was experiencing mental health problems, very moving letters actually between George Strickland Chomley and his friend about the agonies of his early married life. And indeed his father-in-law was very hard on him, but I think we should be sympathetic to him. In his early life, Jane Levens, his first wife refused a divorce, so he lived with her, mainly on Piccadilly in London, occasionally at Boynton, and they had children together out of wedlock. Incidentally, Boynton isn't much altered at all in the Victorian period. It's really become a kind of treasure house, symbolizing the sort of history of the family, the glory years of the 18th century. And it's not altered for this man either, Sir Charles Strickland, who's the son of Sir George Strickland Chomley. Charles Strickland was a plantsman. He created gardens in the former limestone quarries at Hildenley, but he only had a life interest in Boynton, which was actually held in trust for his son, Walter William. So Sir George Strickland Chomley leaves an incredibly complicated will. He leaves Hildenley as the personal property of Sir Charles, and that house is in fact sold on Sir Charles's death in 1909. He leaves Winteringham, which is a second house near Malton that's been part of the Strickland estate since the first William in the 1540s, that's left to his second wife Jane, their illegitimate son. And then Boynton itself is held over in trust for his grandson, Walter William. And it's clear that Sir George Strickland Chomley was fond of Walter William, though this was a very eccentric character. So Walter William inherits but renounces his Yorkshire baronetcy. He refuses to live the life of a Yorkshire country gentleman. He lives mainly abroad in India, in Czechoslovakia, in Mexico, California, he dies in fact on Java in 1938. He was a great supporter of radical causes. He was passionately opposed to the British in India. He was also the author of science fiction works, including Vishnu or the planet of the Seven of Old Unity, which is about seven versions of sex and gender to gender fluidity is here a century ago. And on his death in 1938, Boynton is to pass to the younger sons of Lucy Strickland, who married James Powell Marriott, and that's all set out in Sir George Strickland Chomley's will. So in the final failure of the Strickland male line, baronetcy actually passes over to a cousin, and the baronetcy continues to this day, but Boynton Hall is inherited by the male offspring of Lucy Strickland, Sir George Strickland Chomley's daughter who'd married James Powell Marriott. So that's how we come to the Marriott just included this sketch of the Boynton gardener, just to remind ourselves that country houses are created by the people who work there, as well as the owners who come and go. So to wrap up Boynton was inherited by the Reverend James Strickland in 1945. He changes his name from Marriott to Strickland on inheriting Boynton. He moves with his wife Lucy, Laurie Louise in the late 1940s, and they attempt to make a go of it. Louise personally was unhappy at Boynton. The estate is actually viable from a financial point of view, but they nevertheless decide to sell. And that is in the context in the post war years of a great deal of pessimism around the future of the English country house. As I said at the outset, the house was saved by Bill Cook, Bridlington architect who divided the house in such a way that the main features were preserved, and the building could easily have been demolished at that stage. Richard Marriott bought back Boynton Hall in 1981 and with Sally has restored the house gardens and park, and it was Francis Johnson architect who was responsible for the designs for the restoration of the house. Some of the books, portraits, furniture and grand tour sculpture have returned. And there's this remarkable family continuity at Boynton that is passed from father to son across 11 generations from the 16th to 20th century. And I think it's fair to say for Richard Marriott, it was very much his spiritual home. One research project as Martin Millet said at the outset was undertaken by Tim Shadler Hall and myself, but none of this, none of the restoration work, nor indeed the historical research would have been possible without the support of Sally Marriott. Thank you. Thank you so much, Adrian. That's a wonderful account of both continuity and change and a wonderful way of mixing and including the architect with the family history so thank you so much. We've got time for a few questions. I wonder whether I could just ask one to start with, which is, you've given us a very clear account of Boynton. How does that reflect or contrast with the broader Yorkshire houses of this type? Is it typical or is it atypical? Well, there are various relationships. So the Jacobian house is actually closely related to Burton Agnes Hall. It's built shortly after Burton Agnes and there are relationships between those two buildings. The early 18th century phase is certainly tied up with what's thought of as the Burlington Circle and the whole Burlington project in Yorkshire to kind of revive a Roman classical heritage. The age of sensibility generation, I think, oh and also there's that neglected landscape garden. The age of sensibility generation, there's various Gothic touches added around the park and that will relate to this connection now to Horace Walpole actually. So in that sense, it relates to some of the nationally prominent architects like Smithson in the Jacobian period, Lord Burlington, Horace Walpole, even William Kent very clearly. So it has a kind of national resonance. It's also clearly a very Yorkshire place. In terms of typical, what we've actually tried to do in this study is to look at how the actual site unfolds like an archaeological site. So I've been more interested in how it evolves in a way rather than whether it's typical or not. Can I open the floor to other questions or comments? There's a mic coming round to you. People online can't. No, the full quote is that the builder supposedly responded to say he put up what everybody else had in the neighborhood, which isn't very helpful. Whether it was still gabled in some way, we don't know. Thank you. I enjoyed that talk very much. I might be able to discuss some light. Maybe it's about proportion. Maybe Carl looked at the lower level of the roof and said it's actually disproportionate because of its Palladian it's all classical it's all about proportion and it looks like car has actually raised it slightly and car did go on to kind of maintain a lot of Burlington's buildings. But that's just a guess. My question really is about networks of relationships. A couple of specific questions. The Strickland's, are they in any way related to the Westmillan Strickland's? And then let Tisha win. Is she a win from Nostal? And if so, does that explain that trying to add that, that extra wing on the side because Nostal, I think it's the Villabal Marana or whatever. The Palladian model is just, is that, is that where she's from? Yes. So the Westmillan connection is very interesting. William Strickland, the first William, his wife Elizabeth is a Westmillan Strickland. What's interesting about those two who are the Reformation generation. So they're married by 1540 or so. Both of them lost their fathers while they were still children or teenagers. And they both had guardians and the guardians are probably responsible for the marriage match. And it perhaps helps explain why they became Protestant. Her family remained Catholic, to put it mildly. And her brother Walter rebuilds Caesar on a massive scale in the 1550s in Mary's reign. His widow, amazingly, her second marriage is to a man with a surname, Boynton, who is an offshoot of the original local Lord of the Manor of Boynton. But besides a castle, which is now a national trust, there is a bedroom called the Boynton Room. But it actually commemorates the Boynton husband of Elizabeth Strickland of Boynton Hall's sister-in-law. So there's networks for you. And the wind connection, that's absolutely right. And bear in mind all these people by the 18th century are actually spending more time together in London than they ever would have done in Yorkshire. Nostal itself is something of a building site in the early part of their marriage. And the Tisha's son Billy dies. He's got into debt through overspending. And to pay off that debt, some of the books, some of the grand tour marbles and the coin collection, all of those are passed over to Nostal and are still in the collections of the National Trust. And that was a way of paying off his debts by selling them to a cousin. Thank you very much. I enjoyed that talk very much. Can I just follow up on what you were saying about the Protestantism of the Strickland's? I mean, I know I've come across William Strickland as a speaker in Parliament. I mean, a very plain spoken, he was known as Strickland the Stinger, wasn't he? Because he didn't want to cross him in Parliament. And my question, it might be an ignorant question, but is that Protestantism in any way reflected in the architecture or the contents of the House, either in that generation or subsequent generations? Yes. So the H plan, the Jacobean H plan, which has the closets of the bed chambers, but also a very low ceiling tall. And I think that low ceiling tall would have been the context for daily prayers for the household. I think there's a religious dimension to that. But also the way in which that hall is involved in taking people up to the great chamber over the hall. So I think you can see it in the Jacobean house. What you can see in the Elizabethan house isn't quite religion so much as government office. So Strickland had a lot of responsibilities in Yorkshire. And there's massive provision at the service end and they're stabling. There's hardly any bedrooms. So I think the house is set up to receive a lot of people on business, but not to have them overnight. Thank you so much, Adrian. I'm going to have to close things now. And thanking Adrian for his very stimulating contribution. We could clearly develop a lot of these ideas very much further. So thank you so much indeed. Can we record our thanks? I give notice that the next meeting of the society will be on Thursday the 30th November, Burlington house when we will hear a paper, the creation of the modern English page and book by Professor Richard Wendorf fellow meeting stands adjourned.