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Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Dutton, Ralph

25 August 1898 – 20 April 1985

He was a rare example of someone born to wealth and position who wrote about his ancestors (rather than asking others to do so) with a frankness and objectivity that is rare in family histories of the great and good. For the last three years of his life he held the title 8th Baron Sherborne, passed down the line from his great-grandfather, John Dutton, 2nd Baron.

In 1944 he served as High Sheriff of Hampshire. His education followed a conventional path: from West Downs Preparatory School, Winchester, to Eton and Oxford, where he mixed with some undergraduates who would later make a mark, including the future prime minister Anthony Eden and Lord David Cecil. Whilst there he formed the Uffizi Society, an obscure group presumably interested in the history of art. 

For some while he worked at the College of Arms and Lloyd’s of London. Starting with The English Country House in 1935, he wrote twelve books throughout his life on various subjects: on France, on the gardens, houses and social life of the upper classes and finally in 1968 he penned a local classic, A Hampshire Manor: Hinton Ampner. This is an elegant and amusing account of the lives over 400 years of his ancestors – the Stewkley, Stawell and Dutton families – in relation to the small village and estate of Hinton Ampner, though for much of the time they enjoyed estates elsewhere and, of course, life in the capital. He makes no great claims, but just tells it as it is. Nothing of much importance happened there (except being a grandstand for the Battle of Cheriton on 29 March 1644), the house and manor were small fry in comparison with the estates and mansions of others, and with rare exceptions his ancestors do not appear in the history books. They lived on rents, managed agricultural depressions and other events and from time to time rebuilt their houses.

The grand house at Hinton Ampner, which he left to the National Trust, derives from a Tudor House that in 1793 gave way to a new house on a slightly different site that in turn was remodelled in the Victorian idiom in 1867. Rejecting plans from established architects, his grandfather employed a local builder. Dutton makes no secret of the fact that he hated the house and had a very low opinion of the tastes of his forebears.  Therefore in 1935, when he inherited, he set out to give it a complete makeover to reclaim the Georgian house and gardens. A Hampshire Manor records the troubles of doing so, especially during a war, and is itself a useful source for the period. Eventually he obtained the house he desired, but in 1960 whilst out for a walk around the estate it caught fire and was almost totally destroyed. He lost almost everything, including a fabulous library. Undeterred, he rebuilt it. A Hampshire Manor is a memoir that gives an insider-outsider view of the life of a well-heeled aesthete in the last century.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Dutton,_8th_Baron_Sherborne

HRO, 63M48/F2/8.

Portrait

Ralph Dutton

Contribution to county’s history

A frank view of the lives of the great and good by an insider.

Relevant published works

  • Dutton, R (1968)  A Hampshire Manor: Hinton Ampner, London (2 ed., National Trust Classics, 1988)

Critical Comments

Like most memoirs, there are no sources and in fine detail it may not be exact.

Other Comments

There is a huge archive from and about him and his family in the HRO (63M48 et al.). Hinton Ampner is managed by the National Trust and open to the public.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock 4 February 2022

Keywords

Hinton Ampner

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

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