Duke of Portland

London residences

William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland was granted a lease of a house within the grounds of the Palace of Whitehall in 1696. By the time William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland inherited the dukedom in 1762, the house had fallen into a poor state of repair; in 1766, the 3rd Duke married Lady Dorothy Cavendish, and preferred to reside at her family’s London home, Devonshire House. In 1825 his son, William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, purchased Harcourt House, Cavendish Square, in Marylebone. The house was later inherited by his eldest surviving son, John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, who died there in 1879. By August 1880, the 5th Duke’s executors were attempting to sell the lease of Harcourt House; contemporary advertisements noted that the lease then had an unexpired term of 43 years, at an annual rent of £1,500.