My wife's ancestors - Fitzwilliam - Contents

Decker

Sir Matthew Decker, Bart.
Portrait by Theodorus Netscher, early 1700s.
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Sir Matthew Decker, 1st (and only) Baronet,
of Richmond, Surrey.
See wikipedia.
He was a wealthy Dutch merchant.
He was a director of the South Sea Company and the Royal African Company, both heavily involved in the slave trade.
He mar Henrietta Watkins.
He lived in a grand house in Richmond Green, Richmond.
He had an art collection. Many of the Dutch paintings in the Fitzwilliam Museum probably come from his collection.
He died 1749.
Sir Matthew and Henrietta had issue:

Catherine Decker.
She mar 3 May 1744 to Richard Fitzwilliam, 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam and had issue.

Lady Henrietta Decker, wife of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart.
Portrait c.1715.
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Fitzwilliam House, Richmond Green

The Decker (later Fitzwilliam) house, on the NW side of Richmond Green, Richmond, Surrey.
This house was built by Sir Charles Hedges (died 1714).
It was later owned by Sir Matthew Decker, Baronet. He died 1749.
His son-in-law the 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam inherited the house.
The 6th Viscount moved back to Ireland in apparently 1756. He died in Ireland in 1776.
His son the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam lived at Richmond Green.
He built up a collection of art and other treasures, that became the founding collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The 7th Viscount died 1816.
Fitzwilliam House was demolished in 1840.
The 10 impressive semi-detached houses of "Pembroke Villas" stand on the site of Fitzwilliam House and its grounds.

Sir Matthew Decker's grand house and gardens, to the NW side of Richmond Green, on 1746 map.
See full size. From here.

"Lord Fitzwilliam's House at Richmond, fronting the garden", 1806, by William Ashford.
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

"The rear of Lord Fitzwilliam's house at Richmond green", 1806, by William Ashford.
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Richmond Green on OS map. Surveyed: 1867 to 1868. Published: 1871.
Pembroke Villas has replaced Fitzwilliam House.
See modern map.

Pembroke Villas, Richmond Green (site of Fitzwilliam House and grounds).
See larger and full size.
From here.

A building called "Fitzwilliam House" on Little Green, to the NE side of the main Richmond Green.
Harold Wilson (later Prime Minister) lived here in the 1940s.
It is now apartments.
Photo 2011 by Maxwell Hamilton. Creative Commons.
See street view.