Sir John Danvers, who possessed this property as early as the reign of Elizabeth, was the younger brother of Sir H. Danvers, created Earl of Danby in 1625, and by reason of his noble birth was made Gentleman Usher to King Charles the First. In this promotion, having more pride than wit, he lived above his income, and finding himself plunged deeply in debt, and discarded by his family and his Sovereign for associating with the seditious, and propagating their principles about the Court, he, with hopes of gain, and of protection from his creditors, joined the rebels, always embraced the religion of the prevailing party, and at last submitted to that base office, to assist with his presence in the mock court of justice, and, with his hand and seal to the warrant annexed, to take away the life of that king whose bread he had eaten; being induced thereto (as a writer of that period states) chiefly through an expectation of ousting his brother, and seizing upon his estate for his own use, by the same authority and power as so unjustly cut off his Majesty’s head. He died a natural death in 1659, before the restoration.
Sir John married Magdalen, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, and relict of Sir Richard Herbert, by whom she was mother of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
After the death of her first husband this lady continued a widow twelve years, and was highly esteemed for her great and harmless wit, cheerful gravity, and obliging behaviour, which gained her an acquaintance and friendship with most people of eminent worth or learning in the University of Oxford, where she lived four years, to take care of the education of her eldest son, her children being all young at the death of their father. She died in 1627, and was buried at Chelsea. The Dean of St. Paul’s, whilst preaching her funeral sermon, could not refrain from tears, as Walton reports, who was present.
Danvers House passed from the Danvers family to the Hon. T. Wharton, who, by Queen Anne, in 1714, was created Marquis of Wharton. The house was pulled down about 1716. The garden and grounds extended to the King’s Road; considerable remains of this house were discovered on the site of Paultons Square in 1822, consisting of the foundations of walls, the remains of the great bath, and various fragments of stone pillars and capitals, the whole covering a great space of land, but being considered by the proprietor, Mr. Shepherd, nurseryman, too extensive to take up, they were again covered with earth. It was Sir John Danvers who first introduced into this country the Italian method of horticulture, of which his garden was a most beautiful specimen. Against the wall of the house at the south end of Danvers Street, is placed a stone thus inscribed:—“This is Danvers Street, begun in ye year 1696 by Benjamin Stafford.” In 1742 this was a public house, the sign of the Bell, which was suspended across the street. The house at the south-west corner was also, it is said, formerly a public house, known by the sign of the Angel.