William Danby (1752 – 4 December 1833) was an English writer who rebuilt his family home of

Swinton Park The Swinton Estate is a large privately owned estate in North Yorkshire, England. It comprises some of countryside in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, extending west from the River Ure near Masham. The estate includes Swint ...

, near

Masham Masham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 1,205 at the 2011 census. Etymology In Wensleydale, on the western bank of the River Ure, the name derives from the An ...

in the

North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres). From the Restoration it was used as ...

(now in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

), in Gothick taste and recreated

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

on his estate, as the " Druids' Temple". His house is now a hotel and his Stonehenge a picnickers' spot on nearby Forestry Commission land at

Ilton Ilton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south-east of Taunton, and north of Ilminster in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 854. The parish includes the hamlets of Ilford and Cad Green wi ...

. Danby was the only son of the Reverend William Danby DD (1712-1781) of Swinton Park, and Mary, daughter of Gilbert Affleck of Dalham, Suffolk. From 1763 to 1770 he had a private tutor at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

. On 24 October 1770 he was admitted as a fellow-commoner to

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

. In 1784 he served the office of

High Sheriff of Yorkshire The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere ...

. He was twice married: first in 1775 to Caroline (d. 1821), daughter of Henry Seymour, and second on 5 January 1822 to Anne Holwell, second daughter of William Gater. Danby almost entirely rebuilt his

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

at Swinton, from designs by

John Carr John Carr may refer to: Politicians *John Carr (Indiana politician) (1793–1845), American politician from Indiana *John Carr (Australian politician, born 1819) (1819–1913), member of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1865–1884 * John H ...

and local builder-architects, with some interior design contributed by James Wyatt. It included a handsome library and a richly furnished museum of minerals. Describing a tour which he made in 1829, the poet

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

remarked, "The most interesting person whom I saw during this expedition was Mr. Danby of Swinton Park, a man of very large fortune, and now very old." Danby was an accomplished scholar and wrote some works of personal philosophy that include: ''Thoughts, Chiefly on Serious Subjects'' (1821), ''Ideas and Realities, or, Thoughts on Various Subjects'' (1827),'' Extracts from and observations on Cicero's dialogues De senectute and De amicitia, and a translation of his Somnium Scipionis, with notes'' (1829), and ''Thoughts on Various Subjects'' (1831). Danby died at Swinton Park on 4 December 1833. He left no children. He was elected as a Vice-President of the

Yorkshire Philosophical Society The Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) is a charitable learned society (charity reg. 529709) which aims to promote the public understanding of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the archaeology and history of York and Yorkshire. ...

in 1824.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danby, William 1752 births 1833 deaths 19th-century English writers Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge High Sheriffs of Yorkshire People educated at Eton College

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

People from Masham Members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society