page_title: Fawley Court
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Fawley Court / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of the architect James Wyatt 1746-1813.
context_page_description: Fawley Court is a country house, with large mixed-use grounds standing on the west bank of the River Thames at Fawley in the English county of Buckinghamshire. Its former deer park extended east into the Henley Park area of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire that abuts it to the south. Following World War II, it was run as Divine Mercy College by the Polish Congregation of Marian Fathers, with its associated library, museum and was one of the cultural centres for the Polish minority in the United Kingdom until its closure and sale in the 2009. It is listed at Grade I for its architecture.
context_section_description: Under Edward the Confessor in 1065 the Domesday Book notes Earl Tosti held this land as the manor of Fawley, connected with the village itself which sits atop the hill behind.
  After the Conquest, Fawley Manor was given by William I to his kinsman Walter Giffard, who was one of the leading compilers of the Domesday Book. His steward Herbrand de Sackville was holding it when the book was compiled in 1086, and the Sackvilles held it until it passed through the marriage of the Sackville heiress Margery, to Thomas Rokes, in 1477.
  In 1616, Fawley was sold to Sir James Whitelocke, a judge who also bought adjoining smaller Phyllis Court and larger Henley Park. On his death in 1632 Fawley passed to his son, Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, who was a parliamentarian and judge who also owned much land in Remenham. During the Civil War, Fawley was the scene of fighting between the Roundheads and Royalist troops commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Since Bulstrode Whitelocke was a Parliament supporter, Royalist soldiers were quartered in the house under Sir John Byron having ransacked it in 1642. After the Restoration of the Monarchy Bulstrode gave the damaged house to his son James Whitelocke, who, having failed to repair it, sold it to Colonel William Freeman.
  In 1684 the house was completely rebuilt for Freeman, a plantation and slave owner and merchant. The resulting house is a large square brick and stone house with two tall storeys, plus basement and attic. The symmetrical plan is ranged either side of an entrance hall entered from the west, with the identically-proportioned saloon beyond; the principal apartments and staircases are placed in equal-sized blocks on either side, projecting slightly on the west and east fronts. The stair hall in the southwest block opens from the entrance hall; it has twist-turned balusters typical of the late seventeenth century. The centres of the north and south fronts are slightly broken forward and capped with pediments. There is an Ionic entrance portico on the west front.
  During the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William III of Orange stayed in the house during his march from Torbay to London, and received a loyal declaration from peers and an address from the Corporation of London. Interior finishing was ongoing however as the plasterwork of the saloon ceiling bears the date 1690; bearing the arms of Freeman and of Baxter, William's spouse. Its confident bold relief tempted Geoffrey Beard to ascribe it to London plasterer William Parker, whose comparable work at Denham Place is documented.
  Following Freeman's death the estate passed to John Cooke his nephew, a merchant, dilettante and amateur architect, who under William's will changed his name to Freeman. He was an early member of the Society of Antiquaries, built the Gothic folly in the grounds and the Freeman family mausoleum in the village based on the design of the tomb of Caecilla Metella in Rome. He buried a time capsule of contemporary artefacts in a mound resembling a round barrow on the estate. These were rediscovered in the early 20th century when the site was excavated by archaeologists. Examples of its many day to day household items of the early 18th century are in the River and Rowing Museum in Henley.
  Between 1764 and 1766 the grounds were dramatically landscaped for Sambrooke Freeman by Capability Brown. Shortly thereafter the architect James Wyatt, not yet made famous by his Pantheon, London, worked on decorations in new rooms in the house (1770–71), where doorcases and chimneypieces in Wyatt's early neoclassical style and the decoration of the Library reflect his presence. Fawley may have been Wyatt's first country house commission. He also designed "the temple", a folly and fishing lodge, on Temple Island. One of two drawings securely attributed to Wyatt that appeared at a Christie's auction, 30 November 1983, is for the interior of the island temple, which was the earliest essay in England of an "Etruscan" style, its pale green walls painted as if hung with "antique" black and terracotta figured tablets and medallions. The 
caption: James Wyatt, anonymous aquatint
exif: {}