TATTON PARK - Key Persons
Samuel Egerton is seen here in a portrait by the artist Bartolomeo Nazari, painted in 1732. Second son of the family, from 1730 to 1735 Samuel was working as an apprentice to the art-dealer and connoisseur Joseph Smith in Venice.
The experience of a cosmopolitan lifestyle must have had a lasting effect on this young man, immersed as he was in the culture and life of the city.
Master of Tatton from 1738, Samuel became the beneficiary of a vast legacy from his uncle, Samuel Hill in 1758. From then on the Tatton estate and the fortunes of this junior branch of the Egerton family began to flourish.
Samuel married Beatrix Copley in 1750, though sadly the marriage ended with Beatrix's death in 1755. From their marriage they had one daughter, also Beatrix who died during childbirth in 1780.
In 1754 Samuel was elected as an MP. Perhaps the most visible legacy of his ownership of Tatton Park is the decoration of the Dining Room. Attributed to Thomas Farnolls Pritchard of Shrewsbury, the Rococo plasterwork in this room was added in the 1760's.
Maurice, 4th and last Baron Egerton of Tatton, was an innovator and a man of great inventive and technical skill. A pioneer aviator, photographer and filmmaker, he was an early motorist and prodigious traveller.
Maurice Egerton spent a considerable portion of his time on his Kenyan estate, which is where he died in 1958.