Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester (12 March 1718 – 12 January 1798) was a country landowner and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1741 to 1762 when he was raised to the peerage as

Baron Milton Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

. He was particularly associated with the reshaping of

Milton Abbey Milton Abbey school is an independent school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils , in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonw ...

and the creation of the village of

Milton Abbas Milton Abbas is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, lying around southwest of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 755. This planned community was built after the old Town was demolished in the 1 ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, south-west

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Early life

Damer was the eldest son of Joseph Damer MP of Winterbourne Came, and his wife Mary Churchill, daughter of John Churchill of Henbury, Dorset. He was from a wealthy family and his great-uncle was a money-lender in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was baptised at the Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester and educated at

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

in 1734–5. He married Lady Caroline Sackville, daughter of the 1st Duke of Dorset on 27 July 1742.

Political career

Damer was returned as

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 of ...

(MP) for Weymouth in the 1741 general election at the age of 22. He was then returned for Bramber in the 1747 general election and Dorchester in the 1754 general election. Damer was created

of Shrone Hill,

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

, Ireland on 3 July 1753 and Baron Milton of Milton Abbey on 10 May 1762. Milton Abbey School 2015

Building

In 1751, Damer commissioned

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

John Vardy John Vardy (February 1718 – 17 May 1765) was an English architect attached to the Royal Office of Works from 1736. He was a close follower of the neo-Palladian architect William Kent. John Vardy was born to a simple working family in Durham. Hi ...

to build him a

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

residence on

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from ...

. He also purchased Milton Abbey and embarked on an ambitious project to reshape the surrounding valley. He replaced some existing buildings at the Abbey with a mansion house (designed initially by Vardy, then by Sir William Chambers, and completed by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

) for his own use.

Landscape gardener Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

Capability Brown was commissioned to remodel the surrounding grounds. Milton Abbas 2015 (a)

As a wealthy landowner Damer also set about the systematic removal of the neighbouring small town of Middleton and its residents. By 1780, most of the residents had been relocated to a new purpose-designed and built model village,

, approximately half a mile south-east of the Abbey; the town's school was moved to

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this ...

, away. The original town was razed to the ground and landscaped, most of the site disappearing beneath a new ornamental lake.

Later life and legacy

Damer's wife Lady Caroline died on 24 March 1775 at the age of 57, and he commissioned the Italian

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Agostino Carlini Augostino Carlini or Agostino Carlini (c. 1718 – 15 August 1790) was an Italian sculptor and painter, who was born in Genoa but settled in England. He was also one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life He features in ...

to create a magnificent tomb to her memory in the Abbey Church. In politics he had been associated with his brother-in-law,

Lord George Sackville George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, PC (26 January 1716 – 26 August 1785), styled The Honourable George Sackville until 1720, Lord George Sackville from 1720 to 1770 and Lord George Germain from 1770 to 1782, was a British soldier and p ...

, and from 1768 to 1775 with Rockingham, but upon his wife's death he spent a period in seclusion. In 1778 he returned to political life and took up a violent animosity against the Americans in their

war of independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List o ...

. Damer was created first

Earl of Dorchester Earl of Dorchester, in the County of Dorset, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1792 for Joseph Damer, 1st Baron Milton. He was a politician but is best remembered for the reshaping of Milton Abbey and the creat ...

and

Viscount Milton The titles of Baron Milton and Viscount Milton have both been created several times. Sydney family The first creation was for Henry Sydney, who was created Viscount Sydney of Sheppey and Baron Milton (i.e. Milton in Kent) in the Peerage of E ...

on 18 May 1792. His income was variously estimated at between £15,000 and £30,000 a year.

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

in 1774 described him as "the most arrogant and proud of men", and Wraxall wrote of him: "At his seat of Milton Abbey in Dorsetshire, where he maintained a gloomy and sequestered splendour, analogous to his character and habits, he had made immense landed purchases, which, exhausting his pecuniary means, extensive as they were, reduced him to a species of temporary distress." Damer died in 1798. He and his wife Caroline had three sons. The eldest,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

, born in 1744, married the sculptor Anne Seymour Conway in 1767. She separated from him after seven years. Deep in debt, John Damer shot himself in 1776.Alison Yarrington, "Damer, Anne Seymour (1749–1828)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
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/ref> The second son,

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

, born 1746, was also an MP and succeeded his father as Earl of Dorchester, but died unmarried in 1808, whereupon the title became extinct and the estate passed to his sister, Caroline. Damer's Park Lane mansion became known as The Dorchester. It was replaced by an Italianate building during the mid-19th century, but the name lives on as it is now the site of the Dorchester Hotel.

Notes

External links

Joseph Damer and the town of Milton
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorchester, Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Damer, Joseph Earls in the Peerage of Great Britain 1718 births 1798 deaths Damer, Joseph Milton, Joseph Damer, 1st Baron Milton, Joseph Damer, 1st Baron English landowners Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Peers of Ireland created by George II Peers of Great Britain created by George III Dawson-Damer family