Titsey Place

Titsey Place and Gardens
Titsey Place, front view of main house
Type	Charitable trust
Location	Near Oxted in Surrey, England
Coordinates	51°16′38″N 0°00′57″E / 51.2773°N 0.0159°E / 51.2773; 0.0159Coordinates: 51°16′38″N 0°00′57″E / 51.2773°N 0.0159°E / 51.2773; 0.0159
Area	3,000 acres (1,200 ha)
Created	1979 (1979)
Operated by	The Titsey Foundation
Website	www.titsey.org

Titsey Place is an English country house near Oxted in Surrey, England. It was successively the seat of the Gresham and Leveson-Gower families and is now preserved by a charitable trust for the nation.

The house has its origins in a 16th-century house, which was built by Sir John Gresham on the site of a predecessor. The mostly Tudor house was demolished and rebuilt in the 18th century, before being refronted in 1826. Finally a tower was added in 1856.

In the Middle Ages, Titsey was owned by the Uvedale family. It was then an important house in the area, and its Uvedale owners were High Sheriffs of Surrey several times between 1393 and 1464, and also several times High Sheriffs of Hampshire between 1388 and 1493.

The Gresham family reached the peak of their power and wealth in the sixteenth century, and Sir John Gresham, a rich City of London merchant, acquired Titsey from the heirs of John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, to whom it had been granted by Henry VIII. Gresham built a new house there near to the parish church, on the site of an older house. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1547.

The house and estate passed through several generations of the Gresham family, who were created Baronets by Charles II at the time of his Restoration (1660). Sir John Gresham's heir was William Gresham, whose son was Sir Thomas Gresham (died 1630). His son and heir was Sir Edward Gresham. The successive baronets were Sir Marmaduke Gresham, 1st Baronet (1627-1696), Sir Edward Gresham, 2nd Baronet (1649-1709), Sir Charles Gresham, 3rd Baronet (1660-1718), Sir Marmaduke Gresham, 4th Baronet (1700-1742), Sir Charles Gresham, 5th Baronet (died 1750), and Sir John Gresham, 6th and last Baronet (1735-1801). Through the marriage of the heiress of the last Gresham, the house passed to the Leveson Gowers, a branch of the family of the Dukes of Sutherland.