Brownston House (or Brownstone House) is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on New Park Street,

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between ...

, Wiltshire, England, dating from the beginning of the 18th century. It is a Grade I listed building.

Description

Built of dark rubbed brickwork of fine quality, the house has two storeys and an attic and basement. The wide

symmetrical Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...

front has a three bay central projection. There is a stone

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

, chamfered stone quoins, and an elaborate stone cornice. The central main entrance has a tall eight-panel door in a plain frame with a stone surround. The

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

is of old tiles, and has three

dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

s, and the house has square brick chimneys with stone quoins.Brownston House
at devizesheritage.org.uk The house was designated as Grade I listed in 1972.

Occupiers

The house was built about the year 1700 for Francis Merewether of Devizes and

Easterton Easterton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, south of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlets of Easterton Sands and Eastcott. Geography Easterton lies at the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish includes gault and ...

, who was

High Sheriff of Wiltshire This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Go ...

for 1700. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

in 1701 and again from 1703 to 1705. In 1720 the house was occupied by Thomas Browne, a barrister, who made additions in Bath stone to give the house its present form. His initials are on the heads of the rainwater pipes. He was still living there in 1736. The house was in the possession of members of the Garth family from about 1740 to 1779. John Garth (1701–1764) was Member of Parliament for Devizes in 1740 and continued to serve until his death in 1764. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Garth by his marriage to Elizabeth Colleton, a granddaughter of

Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet (1608–1666) served King Charles I during the English Civil War. He rose through the Royalist ranks during the conflict, but later had his land-holdings seized when the Cavaliers were finally defeated by Parliamen ...

, one of the proprietors of

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. Garth's wife Rebecca Brompton was the granddaughter of Sir Richard Raynsford, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Their son Thomas Garth became a

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and an Equerry to

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. Their son Charles Garth was a barrister and another Member of Parliament for Devizes. Before that, he was successively Crown Agent for South Carolina,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. On his father's death Charles succeeded him as a Member of Parliament for Devizes for sixteen years, between 1764 and 1780, and Brownston House was his Devizes home from 1764 to about 1779. By 1780, Charles Garth had moved permanently to Walthamstow, near

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Wadham Locke and his wife Anne Sutton moved into Brownston House soon after their wedding early in 1779. He was an attorney and a

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

. Their son, another Wadham Locke (1779–1833), later a Member of Parliament, was born in the house in October 1779 and married the heiress Anna Maria Powell in Salisbury in 1802. Charles Trinder (born 1794), a surgeon, and surgeon to Devizes Prison (the 'County House of Corrections'), was living at Brownston House by 1839, and in 1841 was there with his Ellen. Their daughter Frances was born in the house in 1842. The Misses Bidwells' Ladies Boarding School, sometimes called a Seminary, occupied Brownston House from 1859 to 1901. From 1901 until about 1929 or later the house was occupied by the two unmarried daughters of Henry S. Hilman, a barrister of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, and Kensington, who had died in 1893. Architectural plans for 'alterations and additions' to Brownston House by the architect

Harold Brakspear Sir Harold Brakspear KCVO (10 March 1870 – 20 November 1934) was an English restoration architect and archaeologist. He restored a number of ancient and notable buildings, including Bath Abbey, Windsor Castle, Brownston House in Devizes and ...

drawn up in December 1901 are preserved in the

Wiltshire and Swindon Archives The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, serves as a focal point for heritage services relating to Wiltshire and Swindon. The centre opened in 2007 and is funded by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Counc ...

. Miss Bertha M. Hilman was still living in the house in December 1928, after the death of her sister, but she died in 1929. The house then became a nurses' hostel for the Devizes and District Hospital. When no longer required for this purpose, it fell into disrepair and was bought by Kennet District Council, which undertook a programme of restoration and repair. After that, it was used as a doctor's surgery and as offices for

Wiltshire County Council Wiltshire County Council (established in 1889) was the county council of Wiltshire in the South West of England, an elected local Government body responsible for most local government services in the county. As a result of the 2009 restructur ...

's Social Services department, until being sold by Kennet in 2000 to a company called Renelec, plumbing & heating engineers, to be used once again as offices.

References

{{coord, 51.3536, N, 1.9935, W, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:GB, display=title Houses in Wiltshire Devizes Georgian architecture in Wiltshire Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade I listed houses