The Estate Agent
Little is known about the background of Richard Andrews,
who was variously described as the agent, steward or
'receiver of the rents' for the Grosvenors' London estates
when building began in Mayfair in 1720. He was then
living 'next door to the blew Boar' in Great Russell Street,
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, (ref. 48) and had first been employed
as steward by Dame Mary Grosvenor in 1700, when he
was some thirty-five years old. (ref. 49) In 1706 he was dismissed
for alleged malpractice but was reinstated again in 1716
largely as the result of entreaties by Anne Grosvenor, Sir
Richard's sister. (ref. 50) By 1730 his salary was £80 per annum
and he also had an assistant, his second son Robert, at
£50 per annum. (ref. 51) Robert Andrews was a member of the
Inner Temple, being admitted in January 1725 when he
was about twenty years old, (ref. 52) and he practised as a
solicitor. He not only acted as London agent for the
Grosvenors but also conducted the family's legal business
in the capital. (ref. 53) No doubt partly because of his professional
position Robert Andrews took a more considerable role
in the management of the estate than his father, even
before the latter's death in 1734 or 1735. He lived in a
house in Grosvenor Street (No. 10, now demolished)
from 1730, (ref. 54) and was also involved in parish affairs. He
acted as attorney for the Vestry of St. George's, Hanover
Square, between 1736 and 1744 and was a Vestryman
from 1741. (ref. 55) In 1763, the year of his death, he was still
acting as London agent for the first Baron (later first
Earl) Grosvenor.
A brief hiatus occurred, however, in the long stewardship of the Andrews family on the death of Sir Richard
Grosvenor, the fourth baronet, in July 1732, when, as
indicated earlier, his successor Sir Thomas Grosvenor
wished to put his own man in charge. His agent was
Robert Barbor, a contemporary of Robert Andrews at
the Inner Temple, but the Andrewses refused to give
Barbor the books and papers necessary to run the estate.
Sir Thomas brought an action in the Court of Exchequer
to force them to hand over the documents, but he died in
Naples in February 1733, probably before the case had
come to a decision. The Andrewses always had the
confidence of Robert Grosvenor, now sixth baronet,
and Barbor dropped out of the picture. He submitted
a bill for services rendered to the late Sir Thomas, but
he was probably little involved in the affairs of the
estate. (ref. 56)
Both Richard and Robert Andrews were more directly
involved in the development of the estate than their
positions as agent would seem to warrant. Both took areas
of the estate under building agreements and leases and
proceeded to develop them as independent speculators by
granting sub-leases to builders. (ref. 57) Robert Andrews, in
particular, secured some handsome profits in improved
ground rents: (fn. a) for instance he obtained over £130 per
annum from one large plot which he held under a direct
Grosvenor lease, and £120 from another. (ref. 58) He was also
concerned with others in the building of the Grosvenor
Chapel in South Audley Street, eventually becoming its
sole proprietor. (ref. 59) Both he and his father lent money to
builders on mortgage, (ref. 60) but it is not always possible to
distinguish those occasions in which they were advancing
their own capital from those in which they were acting
for the Grosvenors. The possible conflict between the
Andrewses' role as agents (and trustees) negotiating with
other developers and builders, especially after 1730 when
there was no estate surveyor, and their activities as
speculators profiting from the development themselves, did not seem to concern either themselves or the
Grosvenors (with the possible exception of Sir Thomas
Grosvenor, who, among other charges in the case brought
against them in the Exchequer, alleged that they owed
money in ground rents). (ref. 8)
Certainly Robert Andrews was a successful, and, by
whatever means, a relatively wealthy man at the time of
his death in 1763. His salary from the Grosvenor family
was then £150 per annum, (ref. 61) but, besides his solicitor's
business, he also held a post in the Excise Office and was
the lessee of some revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall
called the Post Groats, worth £400 per annum. Besides
his residence in Grosvenor Street he also had a house
in Acton, and his estate and effects were valued at
£18,000. (ref. 62)
One of Robert Andrews' executors was his son-in-law
and successor as the Grosvenors' London agent, Thomas
Walley Partington, also a solicitor. Andrews' will established very complicated trusts, and the difficulty in carrying these out led to a case in Chancery in 1789, Andrews v.
Partington, (ref. 63) in which certain legal principles were laid
down on how long the number of persons eligible to
claim a share in a settlement (in this case the number of
Robert Andrews' grandchildren) could remain uncertain.
The problem arose because Andrews' son, the Reverend
Robert Andrews, had twelve surviving children at that
time and claimed that he might have still more. The
decision in Andrews v. Partington that a numerically open
class of beneficiaries normally closes when the first
member becomes entitled to claim his share (in this
instance when the first grandchild reached the age of
twenty-one) constituted an important legal precedent. (ref. 64)
Thomas Walley Partington, who was born in 1730,
came from a prominent Chester family. (ref. 65) His father,
Edward Partington, was an attorney who acted for the
Grosvenors in that city. (ref. 66) Thomas Walley was admitted
as a student to the Inner Temple in 1746 (ref. 67) and in 1750
he was working as a clerk to Elisha Biscoe, a solicitor whose
clients included a number of builders on the Grosvenor
estate. (ref. 68) By 1753 he was associated with Andrews (ref. 69) and
in the following year he married the latter's daughter,
Elizabeth. (ref. 70) From 1757 he occupied a house in Brook
Street and shortly afterwards also took over an adjoining
house (the joint plot, later numbered 55, being on the
site of Claridge's Hotel). (ref. 71) At the time of his death in
1791 he also had houses in Shepherd Street (probably
the modern Dering Street near Hanover Square) and at
Offham in Sussex. He does not appear to have been as
directly involved in the development of the estate as his
predecessors, but like Robert Andrews he had achieved
relative prosperity when he died. According to the terms
of his will his personal estate alone was worth at least
£20,000. (ref. 72)
By 1779 Partington had formed a partnership with
Edward Boodle, (ref. 73) who had at one time probably been his
assistant (an Edward Boodle witnessed a Grosvenor
estate deed in 1767). (ref. 74) After Partington's death Boodle
became the London solicitor for the Grosvenors and
occupied the premises in Brook Street which had been
Partington's (they are entered in the ratebooks in 1789–91
as Partington and Boodle's). (ref. 71) The firm of Partington and
Boodle, which became Boodle Hatfield and Company at
the end of the nineteenth century, continued to occupy
premises on the estate, in Brook Street until 1836 and
then at No. 53 Davies Street, where its present offices
are situated. (ref. 75) Thus a remarkable degree of continuity
can be traced from Richard Andrews, who was appointed
receiver of the rents for Dame Mary Grosvenor's estates
in Middlesex in 1700, to Messrs. Boodle Hatfield and
Company, who are solicitors to the Grosvenor Estate at
the present day.