Essex - Wanstead House. A Catalogue of the ... Princely Mansion, Wanstead House, 1822

Essex - Wanstead House. A Catalogue of the Magnificent and Costly Furniture of the Princely Mansion, Wanstead House..., a valuable Collection of Fine Paintings and Sculpture..., Library of Ancient and Modern Books..., The choice fine-flavoured Old Wines..., and a Variety of other Articles, The whole forming an Assemblage of the most valuable Property ever offered to the Public: which, by order of the Trustees, will be sold by Auction, by Mr. Robins, (of Warwick House, Regent Street,) on the Premises, Wanstead House, on Monday, 10th June, 1822, and 31 following Days, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, at eleven o'clock, 3 parts in one, [London]: printed by J. Brettell, [1822], [5], 6-136; [5], 138-158; [5], 260-400 pp., red-ruled borders to each page and with columns to right margin with manuscript results for each lot, with 2 page manuscript 'Abstract of the Proceeding Sale' bound in at front listing the hammer results for each day and total (£32395-6-6), some offsetting and show-through, inscription to front blank 'Family Book. Joseph J. Green, Tunbridge Wells, 31 Oct. 1906. Bull Arcade..., Poor Miss Tylney who married the profligate and spendthrift William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley later 4th Earl of Mornington and nephew of the great Duke of Wellington, was a lineal descendant of my Wilmer ancestors through the families of Darby, Charlton, Bernard, Child etc., Miss Tylney was the newly ordained(?) heiress of the Earl's Tylney, with a rent roll of some 80,000l a year, and ten years after her marriage, her wretched husband had not only squandered his splendid fortune but was over head & ears in debt', marbled endpapers with neatly repaired hinges, modern dark brown half morocco, retaining contemporary marbled boards, 4to QTY: (1) NOTE: This volume provides a detailed and fascinating listing of the items offered for sale at the auction of the contents of Wanstead House, Essex. It is of particular interest to have the prices realised written in manuscript for each lot. The manuscript inscription to the front blank appears to indicate the volume had passed through the family of Catherine Tylney-Long (1789-1825) who married William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington (1788-1857). Catherine Tylney-Long was known in fashionable London society as "The Wiltshire Heiress", and at the time believed to have been the richest commoner in England having inherited vast estates gathered by the 7th Baronet in Essex, Hampshire and Wiltshire, with financial investments in hand worth £300,000. One of her suitors included the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV who was keen to pay off his great debts, but she married William in 1812. Their marriage was unhappy partly due to William's extravagance and unpleasant manner. William amassed vast debts, but gained an appointment as Gentleman Usher to George IV in 1822 (rendering him immune to arrest for debt) and left Britain to escape his creditors around 1823. As part of Catherine's inheritance, she inherited Wanstead House, Essex, a vast Neo-Palladian style mansion designed by the architect Colen Campbell. To secure a debt of £250,000, William mortgaged their marriage settlement trust, which owned Wanstead House and contents, to his creditors. As a result in June 1822 the trustees auctioned off the house's contents in an auction lasting 32 days to settle some of William's debts. The house failed to be rented out and in 1825 the trustees demolished the house for building materials. Catherine died at age 35 in Richmond, Surrey. William had only a life interest in Catherine's property, he unsuccessfully tried to gain custody of their eldest child William, on whom Catherine's fortune had devolved. In 1828 he married Helena Paterson Bligh (d. 1869) and for a time lived in Brussels to avoid his creditors. Towards the final years of his life, he lived on a small pension of £10 a week (provided by his cousin Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington). He died of heart disease in 1857 whilst residing in lodgings in London.