Secret Loughborough Harrogate connection

A question over on Facebook reminded me about something I wrote that appeared in a shorted form in 'Secret Loughborough', so I thought I'd share the fuller text here.

Over the years, the title of Baron Loughborough of Loughborough has existed and become extinct and then been re-created. Between 1761 and 1780, the Scottish politician and lawyer, Alexander Wedderburn, sat in the House of Commons. In 1780 he was raised to the peerage and created Baron Loughborough.

The designation of the title was changed in 1795 from Loughborough, Leicestershire, to Loughborough, Surrey, making the Leicestershire title extinct. From 1793 until 1801 Wedderburn was the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, being created First Earl of Rosslyn in April 1801, after being replaced in the position of Lord Chancellor by John Scott, the Lord Eldon. 

In 1786 Wedderburn bought land facing The Stray, in Harrogate, this being a picturesque 200-acre area of open grassland which linked the springs and wells that contributed to the town becoming a spa town. The expanse of the Stray is now protected by an Act of Parliament – The Stray Act 1985 – which safeguards and preserves the area.

It was on this land that Wedderburn built Wedderburn House, possibly incorporating part of an earlier house that had been on the site. Harrogate is well-known for being a spa town, and Wedderburn is also credited with erecting the first pump room there in 1786. This pump room was associated with the St John’s Well, a chalybeate spring (that is, a source of spring water containing much iron and salt) which was originally discovered by Dr Stanhope in the early seventeenth century.

Alexander Wedderburn died in 1805, without issue, and the title of Baron Loughborough, Surrey, has been passed down through his nephew: Peter St Clair-Erskine, 7th Earl of Rosslyn uses the name Peter Loughborough, the latter coming from his subsidiary title of Lord Loughborough. Loughborough’s son, Jamie William St Clair-Erskine has the title of Lord Loughborough. 

Both Wedderburn House, and the second St John’s Well covering are honoured with a Harrogate brown heritage plaque, two of over eighty in the town! Others include the Odeon Cinema, the Granby Hotel and Grove House.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Burleigh Hall. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/09/secret-loughborough-harrogate-connection.html [Accessed 1 September 2019]

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Lynne