Wroxton, near Banbury
Oxfordshire
England
Circa Date: 1618 core w/17th century, 1747, circa 1830 & 1858-59 alterations and additions
Status: Fully Extant
House Open to Public: No
Country House: Yes
The house from "Morris's Views of Seats," circa 1875.
Bookplate of the 8th Earl of Guilford, circa 1880-1900.
Built / Designed For: Sir William Pope
House & Family History: Wroxton Abbey is primarily an early 17th century house built on the site of an Augustinian priory. Founded in 1217 by Michael Belet in honor of St. Mary, remains of the priory are incorporated into the North Wing of the house. Wroxton is probably most famous today as the seat of Lord North, prime minister to George III (1770-82) during the American Revolution. In 2025 Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey announced that Wroxton College, which had been a part of Fairleigh Dickinson since 1965, was being spun off into an independent college. James I visited Wroxton in 1605; his son, Charles I, visited in 1643.
Collections: Most of the contents were sold by the North family in 1932. A cut-glass chandelier, circa 1815, made for Wroxton is today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. A large glass and bronze hall light today in the collection of Pebble Hill Plantation, Thomasville, Georgia, may have come from Wroxton. From the 1660s until 1914 a 1603 painting by Robert Peake the Elder entitled "Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, with Sir John Harington in the Hunting Field" (see "Images" section) was in the collection at Wroxton. The canvas has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, since 1944.
Architect: Sanderson Miller
Date: 1747John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. II, p. 189, 1853.
Country Life: CLXX, 770, 854, 1010, 1981.
Title: Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney
Author: Warner, Malcolm; Asleson, Robyn
Year Published: 2001
Publisher: New Haven: Yale Center for British Art
ISBN: 0300092229
Book Type: Softback
House Listed: Grade I
Park Listed: Grade II*
Past Seat / Home of: Sir William Pope, 1st Earl of Downe, until 1631; Thomas Pope, 2nd Earl of Downe, 1631-60; Thomas Pope, 3rd Earl of Downe, 1660-68; Thomas Pope, 4th Earl of Downe, 1668. Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, until 1685; Francis North, 2nd Baron Guilford, 1685-1729; Francis North, 3rd Baron Guilford and 1st Earl of Guilford, 1729-90.
Current Ownership Type: School
Primary Current Ownership Use: School
Ownership Details: Today Wroxton College
House Open to Public: No
Phone: 01295-730-551
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://wroxtonabbey.org/
Historic Houses Member: No