Shugborough Hall, the Ansons and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire

Situated in rural Staffordshire, Shugborough Hall is one of the most popular heritage sites in the Midlands. The estate was the seat of the Anson family from the 1620s until 2005, and it is now in the care of the National Trust. Originally built in the 1690s, the house and gardens were transformed during the 1740s, following Commodore George Anson’s famous ‘voyage round the world’ (1740-1744). Commodore Anson led a squadron of six ships into the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with government orders to inflict havoc on Spain’s South American colonies. The squadron successfully captured a Spanish trading galleon that was heavily laden with South American silver, making it one of the most valuable prizes in British naval history. The Commodore and his older brother, Thomas Anson (1695-1773), subsequently used this prize money to renovate Shugborough, turning it from a modest brick house into a Neo-Classical mansion, complete with Grecian and Chinese garden monuments. The history of Shugborough Hall is inextricably linked with George Anson’s circumnavigation voyage, but this was only one episode in the family’s multifaceted relationship with imperialism. This thesis investigates the Ansons’ economic, political and cultural links to the British Empire in the eighteenth-century, in order to recontextualise the development of the Shugborough estate. In so doing, it speaks to a burgeoning historiography on the “global country house”, and the imperial legacies of Britain’s built environment. A thorough analysis of family papers, institutional records and material objects has revealed a nexus of connections that spanned North America, West Africa, India and China. Particularly significant is the discovery that the Ansons were involved in transatlantic slavery, and that the family owned land in South Carolina for almost half a century. The research presented here has also uncovered a number of hitherto-forgotten family members whose stories have been overlooked in earlier histories of the house. These include Thomas and George’s three young nephews, the heirs to the Shugborough estate, who all pursued careers with either the East India Company or the Royal Navy. These formerly “hidden” histories provide us with vital new context for Shugborough’s Chinoiserie collection. As the family seat, Shugborough Hall was a fluid and dynamic space through which the Ansons articulated their global identity. The estate became a space in which family members could bring their different experiences, ideas and perspectives into dialogue with one another. In this way, Shugborough was embedded in a maritime Empire that reached far beyond rural Staffordshire.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Whitehead, Alice

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Thompson, Andrew C
• Kay, Sarah

• British Empire
• Slavery
• Royal Navy
• Material Culture

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/9b1ced14-2d74-4991-b621-219feea3074a/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.113640

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/376379