Josiah Child - Purchase of Wanstead Manor

Purchase of Wanstead Manor

Child purchased Wanstead House in Essex in 1673 from the executors of Sir Robert Brooke and spent much money on laying out the grounds. The diarist John Evelyn made the following characteristically waspish entry for 16 March 1683

"I went to see Sir Josiah Child's prodigious cost in planting of walnut trees about his seat and making fishponds many miles in circuit in Epping Forest in a barren spot as commonly these overgrown and suddenly monied men for the most part seat themselves. He from an ordinary merchant's apprentice & management of the East India Company's common stock being arrived to an estate ('tis said) of £200,000 and lately married his daughter to the eldest son of the Duke of Beaufort, late Marquis of Worcester, with £30,000 (some versions £50,000) portion at present, & various expectations. This merchant most sordidly avaricious etc."

According to Daniel Defoe Child "added innumerable rows of trees, avenues and vistas to the house, all leading up to the place where the old house stood, as to a centre".

Child was created Baronet Child of Wanstead in the County of Essex, in 1678. In 1685 he was elected MP for Ludlow. He served as High Sheriff of Essex in 1689.