History - The House And Its Owners
Charles and Frances 1758 - 1807
With the marriage of Charles, the future ninth and last Lord Irwin, to the great heiress Frances Shepheard in
1758, the family's fortunes took dramatic turn for the better. She was the natural daughter of a financial
adventurer who bequeathed her his fortune. On arrival at Temple Newsam she immediately re-decorated her main
bedroom with a Gothic style 'pillar and arch' wallpaper. Her prodigious expenditure included the purchase of
whole new services of silver and china. Capability Brown was brought in to re-landscape the park, and James
Wyatt to build a new staircase. But their great passion was for paintings and they greatly improved the
collections with works by Titian, Rubens, Claude and many others.
The lack of a male heir meant that the Irwin title became extinct when Charles died in 1778; the previous
generation having provided exclusively sons now Charles and Frances had five daughters. During Frances's long
widowhood she developed an enthusiasm for building by demolishing most of the south wing and rebuilding it in
much the same style but with comfortable new bedrooms, dressing rooms and reception rooms, partly furnished by
Thomas Chippendale the younger. Having consulted the architects Robert Adam and John Carr she eventually chose
the Leeds builder William Johnson.
Regency Glamour 1807 - 1841
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