The Beginnings: Clanricarde

The land on which Somerhill stands was originally part of the Manor of South Frith. By the mid 16th century this had reverted to the Crown, and the monarch at this time was Elizabeth I (born 7th Sept 1533, came to the throne on 17th November 1558 and died on 24th March 1603). Although Elizabeth never married she had her favourites among the men at her court. She gave this land to Frances, only daughter of her Secretary of State and Spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, who died in 1590. (Sir Francis uncovered the famous Babbington Plot in 1587, which implicated Mary, Queen of Scots.) Interestingly, the house of another favourite Sir Robert Cecil, Hatfield House, celebrates its 400th year this year too!

Frances Walsingham was married three times: first, to Sir Philip Sidney, of nearby Penshurst Place, the famous soldier, poet and courtier, who died young in 1586. After Philip’s untimely death Frances married Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex but he was eventually sent to his death by Elizabeth, executed on Tower Hill in 1601, after an unsuccessful military expedition in Ireland. Frances was left poverty stricken: “Not £40 a year is left for the maintenance of my three poor children!” All Essex’ money had gone to pay his debts, so it was probably at this time that Elizabeth granted the land of Somerhill to Frances, as both Sidney and Essex had been favourites of the Queen, as had Frances’ father, Walsingham.

Frances’ third marriage (circa 1601) was to Richard Burke, Earl Clanricarde (1572-1635). Richard was a royalist and fought for King James I. He was honoured on the battlefield and had both Irish and English Peerages. This was a unique achievement for an Irish Peer and confirmed his standing with the English Establishment.

There could well have been a small house on or near the site of the present mansion. Richard and Frances chose a site to build their new house with commanding vistas and natural dignity. Tunbridge Wells, of course, did not then exist (the Chalybeate Spring was first seen by Lord North in 1606). Tonbridge was a huge parish (the largest in Kent) stretching from the foot of the Greensand (Sevenoaks) Ridge to the Sussex border.

In 1611, early in the reign of King James I, work began on the present building using local sandstone. A first draft of a plan in the Sir John Soane Museum suggests that John Thorpe was the architect. Thorpe designed houses for a number of families in England around that time.

Although Somerhill is clearly Jacobean in style – like the huge house of the Sackvilles at nearby Knole, Sevenoaks – the design of Somerhill follows architectural rules fashionably derived from Andrea di Pietro, alias Palladio, in his famous classical renaissance villa at Vicenza, near Venice. Until this time large houses had been built with the central “hall” going across the building, but Somerhill reflects a new style to have the Hall running the length of the house. Thus, for its time, the house was one of the most innovative in the country. One of the most remarkable survivals at Somerhill is the complete set of original ornamented lead rainwater heads and rain pipes. The rainwater heads are at their most elaborate on the front of the mansion, some dating from 1611 or 1613 and many include the initials of Robert and Francis Clanrickard (RCF)

Next: Civil War and Muskerry