Place Name
Named after James Brydges, (January 6, 1673 – August 9, 1744) 1st Duke of Chandos, who built Canons Park on land that had formed part of his marriage settlement to his first wife Mary Lake (1668 – September 15, 1712). The couple had two children. When she died he remarried the following year but he outlived her too and married for a third time. Chandos and his first two wives are buried at the Chandos Mausoleum at the Church of St Lawrence, Whitchurch Lane, Little Stanmore. Between 1713 and 1724 he employed and dismissed a number of architects to build his mansion sparing no cost, the final bill was estimated to be some £200,000 (around £31m today). The Duke also planted a row of trees in the early 1700s which lead from his house on the estate to Belmont. In 1737 he was apppointed ranger of Enfield chase 1737 and two years later became one of the founding governors of the Foundling Hospital. When he died he was succeeded by his son, Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos, who found the estate so encumbered by debt, as a result of his father’s investments during the South Sea Bubble, that he ordered a demolition sale of Cannons, which was held in 1747. This architectural “fire sale” saw furnishings and structural elements dispersed across many of the great English country houses.
