CIRCA 1770

When Macy Darling sold the bookcase in 1978, it was purported to have belonged to Viscount Sidmouth at Erleigh Court, Berkshire. Henry Addington, later 1st Viscount Sidmouth, served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 and Prime Minister from 1801 until 1804. He was elevated to peer the following year. Lord Sidmouth inherited the estate at Erleigh Court in 1836 at the death of his wife's father, Lord Stowell, but resided elsewhere - at Woodley House, Berkshire, and White Lodge in Richmond Park, the Royal hunting lodge built for George II. White Lodge is where he died in 1844. By 1932, Erleigh Court stood empty and was purchased by a property developer and demolished three years later.