Barham House

Lady Mary's son, Edward Wortley-Montagu (1713-1776), was M.P. for Huntingdon, but is best remembered for his travels and adventures: involved in a disreputable gaming quarrel in Paris, he was arrested for cheating a Jew at cards and then robbing him when he refused to pay that saw him thrown into the Châtelet prison for 11-days. He was a gifted orator and fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldaic, and Persian, but his family thought him quite mad. His mother cut him off without a penny and his father's annuity of £1,000 a year was not enough to retain Barham and he fled to Italy to escape his creditors.

After Edward's death in 1776, Barham was sold to Edward Scales who built a wall between the house and the newly laid out thoroughfare that is today's Allum Lane. It was most likely either Scales or its next owner (from 1803), Archdale Wilson Tayler (1761-1814) who gave it its Georgian appearance as seen in the photograph. Tayler's early years were passed in idle leisure as a country gentleman fond of sport, but, "while living on his own estates was ruined by a dishonest agent and subsequently entered the army". He died in 1814 leaving a widow and 17-children when Barham was sold to Richard Baker (1762–1824).

Bakers & Burtons

Baker was an "opulent" retired Bond Street merchant with a reprobate son by an earlier marriage and three daughters who were his co-heiresses. His first daughter to marry was Martha in 1820. Her husband, Joseph Netterville Burton, was a dashing Anglo-Irish officer of whom the old squire of Barham was rightfully suspicious. After the Napoleonic Wars, Burton had retired from the army, living a rakish life on the cheap as Mayor of Genoa during the time of Queen Caroline's exile. Having run out of money by 1819, he returned to England, rejoined the army, and determined to find himself a wealthy bride.

Burton hit the jackpot by marrying the plain but rich Martha Baker who came with a dowry of £30,000. But, untrusting of his son-in-law, Baker refused to hand over the lump sum and released only small amounts at a time to stop him from gambling the lot away. Nonetheless, when Baker's first grandson was born to the Burtons in 1821, the boy was duly named 'Richard' and old Mr Baker determined to make him his heir.

According to legend, the boy's not overly bright mother had felt sorry for her adored, troublesome half-brother and persuaded her father not to place Barham - then worth a cool £80,000 - into her son's name. Baker at first agreed, but later changed his mind and set off in his carriage to his solicitors to re-instate his grandson when he collapsed at the other end, dead of an heart attack. Sure enough, the brother (who started life as a barrister) went to Paris and squandered the lot in just two years, dying a soap-boiler!

Squire Baker's grandson would grow up to become the celebrated explorer and linguist - and general Victorian bad-boy - Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton. His earliest memory was of being brought downstairs at Barham House after dinner wearing a white frock and blue sash with bows, eating white currants while seated on his grandfather's knee.

Twilight Years

From 1858, the new owner of Barham House was Henry Robinson (1813-1885), a wool merchant from Warwickshire who is credited with transforming Boreham Wood from a sleepy hamlet into a bustling village, building a parade of shops along Theobald Street. He sold Barham House in 1874 when it was converted into a boarding school which closed its doors in 1898. From then it was a private home again until it was demolished for development in 1931. Much of what was left of the estate is today's Barham Avenue.