Rawdon House is a former residence in the High Street of

Hoddesdon Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River. Hoddesdon ...

, Hertfordshire, England. It was built as a house in 1622 by

Marmaduke Rawdon Sir Marmaduke Roydon (also Rawdon and Rawden, with Royden a contemporary spelling) (1583 – 28 April 1646) was an English merchant-adventurer and colonial planter, known also as a Royalist army officer. Life The son of Ralph Roydon or Rawdon o ...

, and extended in 1879. The Jacobean and Victorian wings of the building are Grade II* listed. In 1898 it became St Monica's Priory, a convent of Augustinian canonesses, a use that lasted to 1969, since when it has been converted for use as offices. Guilielma Maria Penn, wife of

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

, died in Hoddesdon in 1694, and tradition has it that she was staying then at Rawdon House.Jenkins, Freame, and Penn, p. 348.

History

The east wing of the present building was originally built as Hoddesdon House for Marmaduke Rawdon. He was a prominent wine merchant, Master of the London

Clothworkers Company The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1528, formed by the amalgamation of its two predecessor companies, the Fullers (incorporated 1480) and the Shearmen (incorporated 1508). It succeeded to the position of t ...

, Member of Parliament and friend of King James I, who visited his house from time to time. Although fighting in the Civil War on the Royalist side, the Rawdon family were nevertheless able to hold on to the property throughout the Commonwealth, after which it passed by marriage in 1734 to Richard Plomer. It was subsequently let to a series of tenants, including John Dymoke, the

King's Champion The Honourable The King's (or Queen's) Champion is an honorary and hereditory office in the Royal Household of the British sovereign. The champion's original role at the coronation of a British monarch was to challenge anyone who contested the n ...

. In 1840 the house was bought by the Quaker John Warner, an educational reformer, who rented it to

Sarah Stickney Ellis Sarah Stickney Ellis, born Sarah Stickney (1799 – 16 June 1872), also known as Sarah Ellis, was an English author. She was a Quaker turned Congregational church, Congregationalist. Her numerous books are mostly about women's roles in society. ...

to establish the Rawdon House School for young ladies there, which moved away in 1865. The next owner, Henry Ricardo, commissioned architects

Ernest George Sir Ernest George (13 June 1839 – 8 December 1922) was a British architect, landscape and architectural watercolourist, and etcher. Life and work Born in London, Ernest George began his architectural training in 1856, under Samuel Hewit ...

and

Harold Peto Harold Ainsworth Peto FRIBA (11 July 1854 – 16 April 1933) was a British architect, landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France. Among his best-known gardens are Iford Manor, Wiltshire; Buscot P ...

to design a north wing to the house, at right angles to the original block, which was completed in 1879. In 1898 the house became St Monica's Priory, run by nuns of the

Order of St Augustine The Order of Saint Augustine, ( la, Ordo Fratrum Sancti Augustini) abbreviated OSA, is a religious mendicant order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who were fo ...

. At this point 'the best C17 fittings were taken out' including 'fireplaces now at

Rothamsted Manor Rothamsted Manor is a former manor and current manor house, situated in Harpenden Rural in the English county of Hertfordshire. A Grade I listed building, dating in part from the 17th century, it is now an events venue, while the surrounding es ...

'.Nikolaus Pevsner (revised Bridget Cherry), The Buildings of England. Hertfordshire, Yale University Press, 2002, p. 207. After the priory relocated itself nearby in 1969, the empty building was eventually converted into offices.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

states that this occurred in 1974-5 when it was converted by Rialto Builders.

References

Notes

Hoddesdon Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire 1622 establishments in England {{UK-listed-building-stub